Louisiana

Black Water Extremes

Remember this post from last year? Well, the opposite is happening this year:

Seems like Old Man River is showing us, in his most extreme communications, that he is hurting and will pass that hurt along to the rest of the country.

Last year, he found himself at 107′ and flooding all along his route.

This year, due to the drought, he is at 13-20′ below normal, making it very difficult for commerce. Needed coal, food, and important other commodities are being lightened, so that the barges don’t drag bottom and clog up what’s left of the river.

What would happen if if dried up enough, that these things did stop?

What if the ocean started making its way up river? Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana is experiencing this and are making plans to counter the contamination of their drinking water.

Oh, Black Water, Keep On Rollin’

h/t TheEconomicCollapseBlog

Seven Mile Long Oil Slick In Gulf of Mexico

At 10:51 AM EDT June 8 2011 I tweeted:

Mystery #Oil Slick, Breton Sound, #GOM http://1.usa.gov/meA33J

The link within my tweet is to IncidentNews, which is a .gov website that provides publicly available information related to oil and hazardous material spills, both current and historical.

This is what ‘IncidentNews reported on June 8:

Mystery Slick, Breton Sound (NRC 978985)
Breton Sound, GOM 2011-Jun-08

At 1014 hours local time on 8 June 2011, USCG Sector New Orleans notified the NOAA Scientific Support Coordinator of a reported mystery slick WSW of Breton Island. The size of slick is reported as “several miles” in length. The initial information is sketchy, and the USCG has launched a helicopter and small boat to investigate as well as coordinating with the USFWS Breton Wildlife Refuge Manager. No responsible party is yet known. NOAA was requested to provide an Initial Trajectory Analysis and Resources at Risk analysis. In 2005, this same refuge was impacted by a small spill resulting in the death of more than 600 pelican. USFWS reports that there are nearly 7000 pelican on North Breton Island currently and this is nesting season.

Incident Details
Spill, potential spill, or other: Oil Spill
Cause of incident: Mystery Spill
Products of concern: Unknown

Latitude (approximate): 29° 26.08′ North
Longitude (approximate): 89° 16.42′ West

"The size of slick is reported as “several miles” in length."

From an AP article in the NYTimes June 8 Louisiana: Coast Guard Investigates Origin of Oil Slick in Gulf of Mexico. We see they report the Oil Slick as being a "seven-mile slick" and thought to be from BP’s oil spill last year, yet the origin has not been determined.

I have looked around and as of now [June 13] have not found anything other than the above, the same by various media outlets. Nothing new.

Are they keeping this hush hush ?

Is the capped BP Deepwater Horizon Macondo well spewing oil again ?

Is this oil once deposited on the Gulf of Mexico’s floor through the use of dispersants [Corexit] now surfacing ?

Is this a new leak from a well, or a ruptured seabed ?

Will we ever know ?

Now we know….

Update June 14: Found this today – Bird’s Eye View: Have You Seen This?

You may recall reports last week that a fisherman discovered a several miles long slick and that efforts were underway to find whether it was BP oil resurfacing from last year’s blowout. By week’s end, our friends at the National Wildlife Federation had already determined that the oil near Venice was not from the BP disaster. They were able to retrieve a sample from the fisherman and have it tested at a lab at LSU, which concluded it was not oil from BP’s Macondo well.

The link above has a link to the National Wildlife Federation report, and a slide show of the new oil leak from a different well in the Gulf Of Mexico. While this oil spill is no ‘BP Deepwater Horizon Macondo’, it is still an oil spill that is being ignored. Ignored because this is an everyday occurrence in the Gulf of Mexico.

If you like what you see here at The Revolt, please subscribe via Email subscription or by the RSS Feed button found on the upper right hand corner of this page and/or hit the Share Button at the bottom of the post to share via various means.

All posts are opinions meant to foster comment, reporting, teaching & study under the “fair use doctrine” in Sec. 107 of U.S. Code Title 17. No statement of fact is made or should be implied. Ads appearing on this blog are solely the product of the advertiser and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BuehlahMan’s Revolt or WordPress.com

Follow @BuelahMan

How Was Your Florida Spring Break?

Courtesy of Redskynews

I have a few young family members that just had Spring Break. I called them personally and asked them to not go to Florida (or anywhere on the Gulf Coast). I explained to them that I believe that swimming, eating the seafood (maybe some people don’t mind their fish with lesions on it), or even frollicking in the sand could be hazardous to their health.

As far as I know, only one relative went (after telling me on the phone that she wasn’t going). I have yet to speak with her about it (and probably won’t). Young people have priorities very different than an old guy like me, I understand that. But had one of my uncles ever personally called me and asked me to not do something, I would have evaluated sources and information shared with me and made my own decision. I hope she did this.

Would she have seen the news that shrimpers keep pulling up nets full of oil (found in the Courthouse News Service link above):

At a scoping meeting last week in Biloxi, Miss., Vietnamese shrimpers said they have pulled up nets full of oil from the seafloor and have had to decide whether to report the oil to the Coast Guard, which would mean dumping their day’s catch, or pretend they don’t see the oil.

John Lliff, a supervisor with NOAA’s Damage Assessment Remediation and Restoration Program, said no one knows how much of the seafloor is covered in oil. …

Shrimpers in Biloxi also said that in places where shrimp have been plentiful, there are no shrimp now. …

If she had been investigating my claims, she may have found one such article that caught my attention where I was informed that Mississippi’s Attorney General, Jim Hood, attended various Town Hall meetings in South Mississippi to find that the biggest complaint was not the slow financial payouts by BP’s hired hand, Feinberg, (I covered him here) but more related to how many people are getting sick:

[Waveland resident Laurie] Lambert said, “I mean there’s people getting sick everywhere and nobody realized how bad it is.”

“It makes me sick to see little kids swimming out there in that water. There’s dead fish everywhere. I mean, that alone is nasty. That’s just a cause right there for health problems,” said Lambert.

While others were a bit more poignant describing their ailments:

“When they started burning the dispersants out there, my lungs caught on fire. I have emphysema and COPD,” Martin Rehbein said.

He is now beginning to see skin problems. He wants Hood to know he’s convinced it’s caused from the spill.

“These things just started coming out and this has gotten a lot worse,” said Rehbein.

I wonder if she saw any of the 136 dead bottlenose dolphins that seem to be washing up all over the coast during her visit? From MSNBC:

As of Monday night, scientists counted 136 bottlenose dolphin carcasses found since mid-January along the shores of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, almost half of them newly born or stillborn infants.

And [Blair Mase, NOAA's stranding coordinator for the Southeast] noted that “we’re still in the response phase” since carcasses are washing up daily, including at least two on Tuesday in Louisiana.

Or the new rash of sea turtles dying in droves?

“In the past couple of weeks, we’ve seen an increase” in turtle deaths in the northern Gulf, Connie Barclay, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told msnbc.com.

Since March 15, she noted, 39 deaths were confirmed in Mississippi, 4 in Alabama and 3 in Louisiana.

I will admit that when I read at Digital Journal (via Activist Post) that the Obama Administration decided to restrict finding on these dead dolphins referenced above, it causes me to consider that we have just another lie and cover-up in the making. But what else is new with the Fascist State?

And like everything else I bitch about here, surely any thinking person will admit the huge possibility that things are far worse in this situation than officials will ever admit to. Just consider that for every dead animal that washes ashore, there is likely many more that don’t make it to be seen:

The death toll from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill goes far beyond the animal corpses washing ashore, says a report that warns that whale and dolphin deaths may be 50 times higher than believed.

The report, by an international team of marine mammal specialists, estimates that for every corpse that washes ashore another 50 may never be found.

I was discussing a different topic at my friend, DublinMick’s blog, when I noticed this comment post that caught my attention:

FLORIDA MEGASTORM: WORST YET TO COME, 3/31/11 10 a.m.

400 lightning strikes in 20 minutes, widespread flooding, power outages near Brooksville and points east. This is from the first hours of this storm, although it was turbulent overnight.

Majority of storm still out in Gulf, aimed at coast just north of Clearwater. Storm moving 45 mph. They keep extending the tornado watches. Wind 100 mph in places.

Lots of reported tornado sightings. Everything canceled, people running for cover. Weather guy on channel 8 is explaining it as just another cold front. Lots of high rises on the beach near St. Pete are in big trouble in about 15 minutes.

Dutchsinse called this two days ago on YouTube.

Report from St. Pete: “My dogs have been freaking out since Sunday night.”

National Weather Service: “Main threat straight line winds.” Hmm, that would put the multiple tornadoes second. Lightning and hail #3.

Speaking of some way to stir this mess up even more and then dump it further inland. One of the early fears about this poison dump was “what if” a big storm hit? It appears we may see what happens. My prayers and hopes for the safety of those citizens go out.

Now, I don’t think that my young niece has any immediate health effect to deal with, but from what I have read it doesn’t necessarily happen immediately. I also understand that most that have had ill effects are full time residents, by and large.

If you like what you see here at The Revolt, please subscribe via Email subscription or by the RSS Feed button found on the upper right hand corner of this page and/or hit the Share Button at the bottom of the post to share via various means.

All posts are opinions meant to foster comment, reporting, teaching & study under the “fair use doctrine” in Sec. 107 of U.S. Code Title 17. No statement of fact is made or should be implied. Ads appearing on this blog are solely the product of the advertiser and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BuehlahMan’s Revolt or WordPress.com

What’s For Dinner?

The TV may tell you that it is over (or simply ignore the issue, as instructed from on high), but there is not a chance in hell I am going to eat ANYTHING from the Gulf of Mexico for a very long time. I will NOT eat ANY shrimp, unless I can be convinced that it originates from elsewhere and is safe. This means that those trips to the Chinese and Mexican restaurants are over (not that I do it very often, anyway).

Why? Because the government and media lie with abandon. As I first questioned long ago, why aren’t people having independent tests done? When they do they find a totally different result than the “official” testers do (isn’t that amazing how that works). Seriously, a “smell test”? There are far more accurate and scientific means of ensuring the food is safe. I can only think of one reason why they would NOT conduct those tests and rely on the ineffectual tests: hiding something.

So, when a local DOES collect a sample and have it independently tested, what do they find?

When Mac learned that the Gulf shrimp testing performed to date had not included an analysis of whole shrimp with intact shells or digestive tract, she decided to mobilize. She obtained two pounds of locally caught shrimp from Venice, a small town located in the heart of Southern Louisiana. The samples were promptly transported on ice to a laboratory in Mobile Alabama, where Chemist Dr. Robert Namen tested the digestive tracts of the shrimp for components of crude oil. What they found was an alarming 193 parts per million of “Oil & Grease.”

h/t IntelHub

I have a friend that I graduated high school with that is in the medical field and lives down in New Orleans. I have been quite concerned about her and her family and have asked her about the situation down there and if she and her family are well. The response I got was so very cryptic as to give me pause: she said that she would have to speak with me in person to explain. This person has never been quiet about anything in her life, as far as I know (very outspoken and knowledgable), so when she made that comment I knew to NOT quiz her about it. Something very strange is being conducted, to a point that I made the assumption she is afraid to say anything. I could be wrong.

But, there are those that will speak up (and from the looks of it, she needs to, if exposure to contaminant in the Gulf caused this):

Lisa Nelson of Orange Beach, AL is one of a growing number of people sickened and dying as a result of the BP disaster. Local physicians have no idea how to diagnose or treat patients who have bee exposed to highly toxic crude/dispersant combination. Local, State, and federal agencies continue to cover-up nad offer zero assistance.

From a cursory glance, it looks like the woman went thru a horrible car wreck or something. The bruises and the swelling… I mean, this woman is a doll and look what happened to her. And she isn’t the only one. There are many more people sick from this and very few Doctors will even discuss any potential for chemical poisoning. It’s a flu or virus or something else.

But what if they could prove that the sea life is dying, too? I mean surely the huge fish kills mean something, don’t they? What about the coral reefs that support much of that life?

Coral, Marine-Life Devastation Near BP Oil Spill Indicates Much Worse Long-Term Damage Than Feds Had Admitted

“What we have at this point is the smoking gun,” said Charles Fisher, a biologist with Penn State University who led the expedition aboard the Ronald Brown, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel.
“There is an abundance of circumstantial data that suggests that what happened is related to the recent oil spill,” Fisher said.

It is almost as if every single communication that the government issues and asks for feedback is fraught with problems. Many can’t even reply via email or online forms to attend events scheduled to allow citizens to participate. They also have a revolving door of officials who first ok’d the usage of the banned Corexit (banned in the UK and most of Europe) and now are in charge of the citizen communications. From Activist Post:

The November 3rd EPA press release claims their Restoration Task Force wants to hear from the public, but when coastal residents attempt to RSVP they are informed that the registration deadline was November 1st (two days prior to when the EPA let concerned citizens know about the event).

Lisa Jackson, the EPA administrator that approved countless exemptions for the use of the COREXIT is hosting a public meeting Monday in Pensacola, Florida that will help the public deal with the effects of dispersed oil. Here’s is what the release said, “President Obama issued an executive order in October to create the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force, continuing the administration’s ongoing commitment to the gulf region. The task force works to integrate federal restoration efforts with those of local stakeholders and state and tribal governments, and to facilitate accountability and support throughout the restoration process.  Document

Most residents on the coast maintain that BP‘s 100 million dollar PR campaign has all but silenced the free press while independent test results tell a much different story than our federal agencies would have us believe. “I find it ironic that the same person (Lisa Jackson) that approved the use of the chemical that poisoned the Gulf is now in charge of recovery… Now the company responsible for this mess is telling our government agencies what is safe for it‘s citizens?”, said Cherri Foytlin, the wife of an out of work oil worker, “I attended the Clean Gulf Conference sponsored by most of the major players in the Industry. Marty Cramer of Conoco Phillips announced, ‘The use of dispersants and burning of oil is no longer considered an alternative solution – it is the solution.’ What is a public hearing without the voice of the people? Some of the people in that meeting should already be in jail.”

I don’t know what is going on, but it seems clear that a cover-up is ongoing. When I see people who live there saying they won’t eat the stuff, I sure as hell won’t.

Bon Appetit.

All posts are opinions meant to foster comment, reporting, teaching & study under the “fair use doctrine” in Sec. 107 of U.S. Code Title 17. No statement of fact is made or should be implied. Ads appearing on this blog are solely the product of the advertiser and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BuehlahMan’s Revolt or WordPress.com

It’s Not Your Fault… They Dumbed You Down

If you don’t believe that unidentified powers are purposefully making you dumb and acquiescent, you may not be capable of thinking thru this exercise. If your first reaction is, “Poppycock! They aren’t capable of doing this”, then you need to rethink everything you have been taught to this point.

The Dumbing Down of America seems evident to me. People, in general, are incapable of critical thought. Incapable of playing Devil’s Advocate and arguing/debating issues from various sides. Incapable of connecting the dots in logical analysis to come to a sound conclusion or frame of mind.

Every bit of evidence appears to suggest that either we are “evolving” into creatures incapable of these thought patterns, or are purposefully being made stupid via various means such as food, vaccines, environmental conditions, medicines and by adding poisonsmedicines to your water (and who knows what other means, such as repetitive brainwashing techniques via education and a controlled mass media). I have written about the poison in your water that we eagerly drink up believing these killers that it is GOOD for us. What a bunch of gullible fools we are.

But what if you found out that this is all purposefully planned to occur? That they MEANT for and carried out this thing on purpose? What if there actually is an Agenda 21? A plan for “sustainable development”?

Hard to swallow, isn’t it? That there is a plan, implemented by Executive Order, that could bring about the exact conditions you saw in the movie 1984. Large buildings, set next to rail lines, housing masses of workers who will be controlled in every aspect of their lives (if you have never seen 1984, you MUST, although reading the book is far more entertaining and scary to me).

Please read the ongoing series (Part II here) at Human Rights Examiner. But off that page you will find a video (shown below) that is of a local Louisiana Parrish oil spill meeting, where the locals get a chance to tell the BP guy exactly how it is.

I have asked ya’ll before. Who are you going to believe? These people that are living the nightmare or these people who will say anything, tell any lie without conscience, just to keep dollars flowing (or worse, and hard to want to believe, they are being fucking killed out right).

I’ll tell you this much, there isn’t any amount of money to get me to put a piece of Gulf shrimp in my mouth right now, even as they open the fishing back up to commercial and sport folk. They are coming right out and saying there isn’t a problem when they don’t even test for the Corexit. You are a damned fool if you eat that shit. And the power mongering monsters are counting on you to do just that.

What would have to happen before we all finally figure this out?

All posts are opinions meant to foster comment, reporting, teaching & study under the “fair use doctrine” in Sec. 107 of U.S. Code Title 17. No statement of fact is made or should be implied. Ads appearing on this blog are solely the product of the advertiser and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BuehlahMan’s Redstate Revolt or WordPress.com

35 and Rising

NOAA has expanded the closed fishing area in the Gulf to 35%. Notice that this includes most of America’s most prime fish production area (and some of the most accessible). Also notice how the expansion is moving towards the western coast of Florida. Given time, these areas will be closed, as well.

No matter if they actually do close this gusher off (at this point, the pressure tests are inconclusive), there has already been enough contamination to ruin almost all of it. And, yes, we keep hearing from the government-controlled lap-dog media that it isn’t leaking any more (except when they mess up and allow an expert to actually sneak in the same questions I keep asking people who tell me it is capped off):

Matt Simmons has been labeled Dr Doom of the Gulf disaster. But he has credentials that are hard to ignore, so, is it possible that the well head was already blown out and is leaking from many different places under the sea floor? Is all of this “capping” smoke and mirrors, as I suspect? It may just be my suspicion of all things government, but there are some things that still don’t add up to me (like why they appear to be dragging their feet at every opportunity… how this seems to be a major setup and someone like Exxon will end up owning BP, but not the disaster… etc). Maybe I am an uneducated Dr Doom Lite.

It’s not like NOAA doesn’t hide and coverup shit:

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is hoarding vast amounts of raw data that independent marine researchers say could help both the public and scientists better understand the extent of the damage being caused by the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

In most cases, NOAA insists on putting the data through a ponderous, many-weeks-long vetting process before making it public.

In other cases, NOAA actually intended to keep the data secret indefinitely. But officials told the Huffington Post on Tuesday that they have now decided to release it — though when remains unclear.

BP, incidentally, gets to see all this data right away.

Cool. The murderer gets access all the evidence while all us victims get shit. Sounds about right.

And just in case you folks over on the eastern side of Florida think you have it made (or those of you in Europe, for that matter), there is another, more recent (and likely accurate) 360 day animation of how this spill will be taken around thru the filtering Florida Keys (meaning it will kill everything there, as well) then takes it up the eastern sea board and into the Atlantic Ocean.

These animations show the spread of the oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon rig over one year. They were created from a series of computer simulations by a team of researchers at the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaii at Manoa: Fabian Schloesser from the Department of Oceanography, Axel Timmermann and Oliver Elison Timm from the International Pacific Research Center Hawaii.

For the simulations, 5 million buoyant particles were released continuously from April 20 to September 17, 2010, at the location of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. The release occurred in ocean flow data from simulations conducted with the high-resolution Ocean General Circulation Model for the Earth Simulator (OFES). The paths of the particles were calculated over 360 days from the beginning of the spill. The simulations were conducted with surface ocean circulation data of 5 typical years rather than the actual flow fields. The dispersal of the particles does not capture such effects as oil coagulation, formation of tar balls, chemical dispersion and microbial degradation. Computed surface concentrations relative to the actual spill may therefore be overestimated. The simulation, thus, is not a detailed, specific prediction, but rather a scenario that could help guide research and mitigation efforts.

The animations show the calculated surface particle concentrations for grid boxes about 10-km-by-10-km in size into April 2011. For an estimated flow of oil from the Deepwater Horizon well of 50,000 barrels per day over a 150 day period, a concentration of e.g. 10 particles per a grid box corresponds roughly to an oil volume of 2 m3 per ~100 km2 area. The animations show the initial spreading of oil into the Gulf of Mexico followed by its entry from the Loop Current into the narrow Florida Current and then the Gulf Stream. Transported by the Gulf Stream, the erratic paths of the particles in the Atlantic are due to strong current instabilities associated with ocean eddies and recirculations. This leads to a high degree of particle dispersal and dilution in the open Atlantic away from the coast.

These computer simulations suggest that the coastlines near the Carolinas, Georgia and Northern Florida could see the effects of the oil spill as early as October 2010. The main branch of the subtropical gyre is likely to transport the oil film towards Europe, although strongly diluted. Furthermore, the animations show that as the northeasterly winds intensify near Florida around October and November, the oil in the Atlantic moves closer to the eastern shores of the US, whereas it retreats from the western shores of Florida. These changes are due to a balance between wind forcing of ocean currents and the Coriolis effect.

The animations furthermore suggest that the narrow, deep Straits of Florida force the Florida Current into a narrow channel, creating a tight bottleneck for the spreading of oil into the Atlantic. After one year, about 20% of the particles initially released at the Deepwater Horizon location had been transported through the Straits of Florida into the open Atlantic according to an averaging over the 5 different years of typical ocean surface current data. The animations suggest that a filtering system in the narrowest spot of the Florida Current could mitigate the spreading of the oil film into the North Atlantic.

For more information, please see http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/soest_web/soest.gulf2010_longterm.htm

Man, please don’t get me wrong… I hope this thing is closed off. I hope that I am just a jaded bastard who has his trust misapplied and that is completely wrong about what I think is going on. I swear I hope I am wrong about my gut reaction.

It would be nice if someone could point me to some real good news about this (keeping my fingers crossed about this cap solution).

At least they have their fall guys selected.

The worst oil spill in U.S. history was triggered by firefighting boats that flooded the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig with water, causing it to sink into the Gulf of Mexico and damage BP Plc’s well, a lawsuit claims.

My little sister recently came back from Pensacola and confirmed almost everything I warned her about before she went. So, who are we going to believe? The government’s mouthpiece, those that we know personally and/or those that actually live there and are documenting the cover-ups:

h/t The Intel Hub

All posts are opinions meant to foster comment, reporting, teaching & study under the “fair use doctrine” in Sec. 107 of U.S. Code Title 17. No statement of fact is made or should be implied. Ads appearing on this blog are solely the product of the advertiser and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BuehlahMan’s Redstate Revolt or WordPress.com

Listen To The Animals

My buddy, Chicken Bill, and I were fishing recently when we saw some birds I didn’t recognize. Some sort of Tern. Bill explained that he had never heard of these being so far north, which prompted my question of whether or not animals were giving us signs that they are being forced to move away from their natural habitats for places further north.

Could this be just like the stories of dogs and other animals “knowing” when an earthquake or Tsunami is impending and they run for high ground? Some cultures watch these signs and take off for high ground with them, they are so accurate.

Truthout featured an article by Dahr Jamail and Erika Blumenfeld entitled Toxic Dispersants Near Gulf Harm Humans and Wildlife.

Please read the entire article and focus on what the animals are doing:

FlipShare – Private Video Sharing, posted with vodpod

I’m horrified by the video. Tears well in my eyes. Gene takes one look at my face and says, “It’s not natural for crabs to come out of the water like this. They never want to come out of the water if they can help it. They are trying to escape.”

Tracy chimes in. “We are seeing this all over the Gulf now – dolphins, fish, running from the dispersant and oil because they can’t breath. Marine life knows to run out of the way, but we don’t.”

Gene tells us, “This is ripping my heart to pieces. I’m living in high anxiety.” Vicky says that BP and the government are playing down the disaster, when in reality, “anything out there should not be eaten” while pointing out to the water.

Disturbingly, the day after Gene filmed the crabs fleeing the water, residents living near Lake Pontchartrain reported finding thousands of dead fish and crabs in the canals near their homes.

We drive over to Gene and Vicky’s after they inform us of dead crabs and fish floating in sheen-covered water by their boat. Outside their mobile home, from which they are about to be evicted, Gene walks us over to where his boat sits in a nearby bayou.

Dead crabs float in a sheen of oil. It is a toxic soup of stench and death that fouls the air and burns my nose. As I stand looking on in horror, with more tears welling up in my eyes, Gene says, “I’m 52 years old and I’ve never seen crabs crawl out of the water at night. I also saw shrimp swimming in little circles on the surface.”

Vicky, standing nearby, says, “I think this is just the beginning. This is just the small stuff. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Over time bigger and bigger stuff will be washing up here.”

h/t Dandelion Salad

The oil is bad enough, but the Corexit is what will make it the biggest killer:

All posts are opinions meant to foster comment, reporting, teaching & study under the “fair use doctrine” in Sec. 107 of U.S. Code Title 17. No statement of fact is made or should be implied. Ads appearing on this blog are solely the product of the advertiser and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BuehlahMan’s Redstate Revolt or WordPress.com

BuelahWorld Panama City Beach, 1974

My family took regular vacations to Florida. We would always end up at PC Beach, hit the strip, dip for crabs from the shallow water along West Beach Drive, trap for crabs from the pier at  St Andrew’s Marina, eat at Capt Anderson’s, go deep sea fishing and in the summer of 1974 we camped at a KOA campground in an RV. I will never forget it because it was the first time I ever got high by myself (and only the 5th or 6th time I ever got high).

They say the stuff burns your brain cells, but I remember that day like it was yesterday.

There was this latter day hippie dude who was living in an old bus, camped and sold leather goods. He was an extremely interesting guy who had little to do but talk to a young guy like me. The subject led to weed (me asking him about it) and he told me what he thought. It mellowed him out and made his days bearable. At the time, I wasn’t sure what he meant, but have learned with age.

Anyway, I convinced him to sell me a little bit (enough for a joint) and got him to roll it for me. He wouldn’t smoke it with me, but asked me to drop by later and tell him about it.

I snuck off and found a out of the way place and partook. After about 1/2 was gone, I began to feel good. So, I put it out, stuck it in my pocket, and walked over to the game room to play some pinball.

I will never forget the rush and swoon I felt as my head began to rush hard as I tried to follow the little silver ball. Next thing I know, I am flat on my back, looking up at the ceiling, and this hippie walks into view with a great big smile on his face. He said, “Do you feel mellow?”

I nodded… and laid there, smiling and content with the world.

Yeah, I know that the beaches are clean there and many other places in Florida that are, as of yet, unaffected. I know that people are desperate to get tourists to come lay their money down (at least one last time). I know the POTUS is asking people and that the Mississippi governor is telling everyone that there is no oil. But what else can they do? What choice do they have when they know this is the last chance to make a buck. I think they know that this is going to be the end of life as we know it.

We are hearing any reports of oil being found in Louisiana, parts of Mississippi and Alabama (and now Florida). However, as I have been pointing out, the level of nasty crap (carcinogens, and other VOC’s) in the air is beginning to be a major cause for concern:

My nephew called me (he is a boat hand on a barge) and told me he wanted to go down and help clean up (make some money, he hates his job). I told him that he needs to stay the hell away from the coast. Why? Because the workers are getting sick. History shows this. If you read that link, you will notice Niki Ott knows what she is talking about. And as much as I hate to link to Olbermann, he did interview her and she explains that like history repeating, BP is covering up the crimes:

I tend to listen to people who have lived thru something similar and have an answer that logically differs with the normal MSM spin.

I have no doubt that this is a Trillion Dollar Corporate Crime. But, since the corporations have taken over our government, this may be one of those  Trillion Dollar “Fascist” Crimes. And who will keep BP from paying all the costs?

O

I wonder if its because O is a racist?

What a maroon.

Speaking of maroons, that 1/2 a joint I stuck in my shirt was also the first one my parents ever found (I was grounded on that vacation).

Swift Fox and The Total Destruction of Grande Isle, LA

So do we need the full measure of the US government working on this? Some Reason that we don’t. That even when our loudest-mouthed “small government” reTHUGlicans are calling for Obama to do more, to use all of the resources available, and more, for him to personally man the equipment and shovel all the oil-drinched sand, these “Libertarians” somehow find some way to defend the man. President Obama is far too busy as a Commander in Chief over two wars, Iran’s nukes and N Korea’s sinking of our bestest ally in Asia, S Korea, it would seem.

(I saw immediately that Mr Chapman, the person who penned that article, is clueless or worse, some sort of hack posing as a Libertarian.)

I am not saying that Obama should camp out at the Gulf. I am saying that this entire fiasco is being milked (used), if not created by these jackals. That before the “kicking ass” President made another “kiss-ass” promise that will never be kept (name one that has), they intentionally drug their feet. Why? Some might say ineptness, laziness, lackadaisical, cavalier, attitude. I say calculated, cunning, determined usage (creation???) of a disaster in order to further implement New World International Order (see page 1):

Our national security strategy is, therefore, focused on renewing American leadership so that we can more effectively advance our interests in the 21st century. We will do so by building upon the sources of our strength at home, while shaping an international order that can meet the challenges of our time.

At least we are going to do it in a softer, gentler way (see page 5):

In keeping with the focus on the foundation of our strength and influence, we are promoting universal values abroad by living them at home, and will not seek to impose these values through force.

No. Of course we won’t.

Dr Doug and I were discussing something we both read yesterday, but haven’t verified it yet. In this SoCal Martial Law Alert MeetUp post, the author claims that they have inside information suggesting that an evacuation of the Gulf Coast region (called Swift Fox), up to 200 miles inland, is being planned. I can’t verify this, but I have been suggesting that this could be an impending scenario.

It is now feared that there are far more leaks underground and that it may be impossible to stop the flow (even with the new relief wells). They don’t want us to see anything, apparently, because there is no a No-Fly Zone over the area (thanks, Ed).

What if something else is being planned (or expected) that will require people to move away from the area? What if Dr. James P. Wickstrom, D. Litt. is correct in this fantastical “Summary of Expectations” (I don’t know this dude, but thinking along the lines of worse-case scenarios and reasons to evacuate the Gulf other than the noxious gases or the potential of using a nuke to close… which could likely create the same following scenario):

SUMMARY OF WHAT IS HAPPENING
The estimated super high pressure release of oil from under the earth’s crust is between 80,000 to 100,000 barrels per day. The flow of oil and toxic gases is bringing up with it… rocks and sand which causes the flow to create a sandblasting effect on the remaining well head device currently somewhat restricting the flow, as well as the drilled hole itself.

As the well head becomes worn it enlarges the passageway allowing an ever-increasing flow. Even if some device could be placed onto the existing wellhead, it would not be able to shut off the flow, because what remains of the existing wellhead would not be able to contain the pressure.

The well head piping is originally about 2 inches thick. It is now likely to be less than 1 inch thick, and thinning by each passing moment. The oil has now reached the Gulf Stream and is entering the Oceanic current which is at least four times stronger than the current in the Gulf, which will carry it throughout the world within 18 months..

The oil along with the gasses, including benzene and many other toxins, is deleting the oxygen in the water. This is killing all life in the ocean. Along with the oil along the shores, there will be many dead fish, etc. that will have to be gathered and disposed of.

SUMMARY OF EXPECTATIONS
At some point the drilled hole in the earth will enlarge itself beneath the wellhead to weaken the area the wellhead rests upon. The intense pressure will then push the wellhead off the hole allowing a direct unrestricted flow of oil, etc.. The hole will continue to increase in size allowing more and more oil to rise into the Gulf. After several billion barrels of oil have been released, the pressure within the massive cavity five miles beneath the ocean floor will begin to normalize.

This will allow the water, under the intense pressure at 1 mile deep, to be forced into the hole and the cavity where the oil was. The temperature at that depth is near 400 degrees, possibly more. The water will be vaporized and turned into steam, creating an enormous amount of force, lifting the Gulf floor. It is difficult to know how much water will go down to the core and therefore, its not possible to fully calculate the rise of the floor.

The tsunami wave this will create will be anywhere from 20 to 80 feet high, possibly more. Then the floor will fall into the now vacant chamber. This is how nature will seal the hole. Depending on the height of the tsunami, the ocean debris, oil, and existing structures that will be washed away on shore and inland, will leave the area from 50 to 200 miles inland devoid of life. Even if the debris is cleaned up, the contaminants that will be in the ground and water supply will prohibit re-population of these areas for an unknown number of years. [End of scientists information release]

OK. I admit that these are some of the worst-case scenarios (from sources I am unfamiliar with). But, what if there were some ulterior purpose, some plan to implement a better control of the public, what better way than to use the contrived circumstances, seemingly made worse with every attempt to make it better, to take this control? If FEMA camps are built everywhere as suggested by many conspiracy thinkers, wouldn’t this be a great way to use the facilities and control millions of people? What if they knew that something else was pending, something that is devastating in its own right (like a total failure of the world economies)?

And think about it… if millions of people are forced away, can you imagine the military control required for us rabble-rousers? You wonder why there are all these white UN vehicles in the US? Because American military can’t be trusted to fully implement such control with a heavy hand.

Oh, and they DID know.

They Are Purposefully Killing Our Gulf

Several commenters are as concerned as I about the situation in the Gulf. But by and large, America isn’t truly aware of the total devastation. Billy Nungesser explains it well (h/t BrassCheckTV and new commenter, joanaroo):

Permanent Destruction of Louisiana Marshland

Nungresser is telling it like it is. There are 24 miles of Plaquemines Parish that are not just oil covered, but that are DEAD. No birds, no wildlife. Not a single sound.

IT HAS ALREADY KILLED WHAT IT IS TOUCHING.

Most of it has been criminally hidden from view, and are being covered up. My guess is that they know that most of America will not get angered unless they see oil covered birds and fauna. So they use these dispersants to keep it submerged, out of sight (out of the American mind). You see, Big Oil learned a significant lesson in the Valdez spill (which pales in comparison to this volcano). They learned that safety isn’t required, just don’t let the public see the problem. Hide it and they know that the stupid assed American public, hooked on American Idol and cheap, Vietnamese Shrimp, don’t really give a fuck (unless they see birds and seals with oil all over them). Then we might buy a few extra bottles of Dawn and send down there (patting ourselves on the back for our excellent love and care of Mother earth).

As I shared in comments this morning, we haven’t even seen the beginning yet. If you think that the worst we will get from this is just 24 dead miles of Louisiana Parish and swamplands, you are sorely mistaken. This shit is STILL pouring out. They have no real solution and are holding the locals back from doin things on their own for self-protection. All this does is give more time for the horror to grow worse.

We also have some complicit media clowns that are truly as ignorant as they appear in such clips as this:

h/t Global Research and Brian Merchant

In that particular article, Brian finishes by explaining what I am trying to say here:

5. It’s More Convenient to Conceal the Devastation

One oft-voiced worry among conservation groups and other press that I heard as I trekked from marina to marina, city to city around the Gulf, was that there would only be interest in ensuring that justice was brought to those impacted by the spill as long as the cameras were rolling. And without any distinctly shocking material to film, those cameras would be rolling away sooner rather than later.

Which is why it’s important that the Coast Guard explain a concrete policy for press access and that BP encourage the fishermen who’ve been out in the field to speak up about their encounters with the oil. If they have nothing to hide, then why clamp down, right? It’s a spooky thought, but if there are images of gruesomely oil-slicked beaches and blackened birds, the public has a right to see it. Even if this does sound distressingly like a call for sensationalism — it’s in part because that very sensationalism will help bolster conservation efforts and strengthen sound policy initiatives.

And of course, I believe that the use of chemical dispersants is far too dangerous a gamble, and not only because it helps prevent people from grasping the severity of the spill, but because of the unknown long-term threats they pose to marine habitats. This stuff could yet emerge as the dominant narrative of the Gulf spill in hindsight, damaging food chains for generations, or worse.

The point of all of this is: don’t believe just your eyes — listen to reports coming in from legitimate conservation scientists and investigative journalists. Much of the press down there are out on the boats every day, desperately trying to get the best sense of what’s going on — and being thwarted by weather, BP, the dispersants, and sometimes evidently the Coast Guard. For 10 days, I was trying my best, too — and I can tell you, it’s looking like we may never see the worst of this spill with our own eyes.

They are intentionally dragging their feet (both BP and the US Government). Within days, we should have taken over all containment, shut-off, contamination prevention and clean-up activities. But what does our Big Money owned government do? Continue to allow the very damned culprits to handle the fiasco and earth killing devastation that THEY created.

That is just about exactly what we should expect from people that WANT this to continue.

I guess I am jaded, with absolutely no trust or appreciation for a single person or entity within our government. The whole damned thing is corrupted.

So, what should we look for now? Over the next month or two, we will begin to see this humongous underwater cloud of cancer causing bullshit to spread throughout the Gulf. Take its trip down thru the Florida Keys, a little vacation in Cuba, The Bahamas and Jamaica (one of my favorite places to visit in the world). And then, as the currents take it up the eastern seaboard, we may begin to see Americans get outraged.

So, basically, my prediction is that Americans, by and large will slowly brew in their anger and finally erupt in about two months, when they realize that this ecological disaster is the world’s worst (next to Super-volcano eruptions and meteor hits). Definitely the world’s worst human made disaster, by far.

It seems to me that they are purposefully doing it and allowing it to grow.

Prove me wrong.

Please.

Elevated Levels of Benzene, Hydrogen Sulfide, Methylene Chloride in Gulf Air

And so the cancer sicknesses can begin to take their toll on humans (from Facing South):

Today the Louisiana Environmental Action Network released its analysis of air monitoring test results by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA’s air testing data comes from Venice, a coastal community 75 miles south of New Orleans in Louisiana’s Plaquemines Parish.

The findings show that levels of airborne chemicals have far exceeded state standards and what’s considered safe for human exposure.

For instance, hydrogen sulfide has been detected at concentrations more than 100 times greater than the level known to cause physical reactions in people. Among the health effects of hydrogen sulfide exposure are eye and respiratory irritation as well as nausea, dizziness, confusion and headache.

The concentration threshold for people to experience physical symptoms from hydrogen sulfide is about 5 to 10 parts per billion. But as recently as last Thursday, the EPA measured levels at 1,000 ppb. The highest levels of airborne hydrogen sulfide measured so far were on May 3, at 1,192 ppb.

Testing data also shows levels of volatile organic chemicals that far exceed Louisiana’s own ambient air standards. VOCs cause acute physical health symptoms including eye, skin and respiratory irritation as well as headaches, dizziness, weakness, nausea and confusion.

Louisiana’s ambient air standard for the VOC benzene, for example, is 3.76 ppb, while its standard for methylene chloride is 61.25 ppb. Long-term exposure to airborne benzene has been linked to cancer, while the EPA considers methylene chloride a probable carcinogen.

Air testing results show VOC concentrations far above these state standards. On May 6, for example, the EPA measured VOCs at levels of 483 ppb. The highest levels detected to date were on April 30, at 3,084 ppb, following by May 2, at 3,416 ppb.

Have you still got that idiotic idea of a Florida vacation in mind? We put that out of our mind before this, but now, even if someone GAVE me the money and everything was free, I wouldn’t drive to spend a minute there.

Our world in the SE USA (and likely beyond) is doomed yet the response is almost exactly the same as we are getting with the banking fiasco ripoff. Just more obfuscation, finger pointing and little else of substance to change the reality (or even acknowledge it fully). Washington’s Blog makes the connection:

As ABC News notes, the White House allowed BP to suppress video of the oil spill for 3 weeks; and a top oil spill expert says that BP’s use of booms around the spill site now won’t really do anything … and is just an exercise in public relations so that it looks like it’s doing something.

BP is also using dispersants to hide the extent of the oil spill. Specifically, as many commentators note, the dispersants cause much of the oil to sink, so that it appears that the spill isn’t that big. But the dispersants are not only highly toxic, but will also probably make the damage from the oil itself even worse.

Moreover, just as the cover-up about the severity of the financial crisis has allowed Larry Summers, Tim Geithner, Ben Bernanke and most of Congress to kill real financial reform, BP and the government’s drastic underplaying of the size of the spill has allowed BP to skate by without taking emergency actions, such as bringing in booms on an emergency basis, or to undertake more pro-active and creative responses.

And just as nothing has changed going forward with regard to the economy since the 2008 meltdown, nothing has changed with regard to offshore drilling.

For example, since the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig exploded on April 20th, the Obama administration has granted oil and gas companies at least 27 exemptions from doing in-depth environmental studies of oil exploration and production in the Gulf of Mexico. And a whistleblower who survived the Gulf oil explosion claims in a lawsuit filed today that BP’s operations at another oil platform risk another catastrophic accident that could “dwarf” the Gulf oil spill, partly because BP never even reviewed critical engineering designs for the operation.

Indeed, the industry and government spokespeople have used the exact same word as each crisis – financial and environmental – unfolded. They said the problem was “contained”.

In both cases, we the people are left holding the bag because the giant companies and their campaign-contribution-buddies in DC are trying to sweep the severity of the problem under the rug, to manage the crisis as p.r. campaigns to protect those who let it happen … instead of actually taking steps necessary to solve the problems, and to make sure they won’t happen again.

I wonder if this seems futile to you (especially considering that MOST of the oil is purposefully being dispersed under water).

BTW: As I previously noted, the Gulf Currents have already grabbed the oil and is spreading it to the rest of the Sunshine State. Ed at Not Another Conspiracy tells us that tarballs have reached The Florida Keys.

Goodbye reef.

Now answer this. Will someone get pissed when it hits the eastern seaboard or should we wait until it hits Europe?

Just wondering….

The Coming Gulf Crud

I pointed out early on how horrific this Gulf oil vomiting is. How it could turn the Gulf (and possibly every ocean black). How it could kill all living beings in her waters and if the reservoir is as big as they claim, might kill off every living being in ALL oceans (thereby killing every other terrestrial being, as well). What I am saying is that if this isn’t stopped, it could be the very end of the planet. I don’t think this is overboard, in any degree.

As I have said already a few times, this is far worse than what they have been telling us and even MSM is beginning to pick up this story. NPR had a fascinating story the other day and Common Dreams picked up on it.

Steven Wereley, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University, analyzed videotape of the seafloor gusher using a technique called particle image velocimetry.

A computer program simply tracks particles and calculates how fast they are moving. Wereley put the BP video of the gusher into his computer. He made a few simple calculations and came up with an astonishing value for the rate of the oil spill: 70,000 barrels a day — much higher than the official estimate of 5,000 barrels a day.

The method is accurate to a degree of plus or minus 20 percent.

Given that uncertainty, the amount of material spewing from the pipe could range from 56,000 barrels to 84,000 barrels a day. It is important to note that it’s not all oil. The short video BP released starts out with a shot of methane, but at the end it seems to be mostly oil.

“There’s potentially some fluctuation back and forth between methane and oil,” Wereley said.

But assuming that the lion’s share of the material coming out of the pipe is oil, Wereley’s calculations show that the official estimates are too low.

“We’re talking more than a factor-of-10 difference between what I calculate and the number that’s being thrown around,” he said.

At least two other calculations support him.

Timothy Crone, an associate research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, used another well-accepted method to calculate fluid flows. Crone arrived at a similar figure, but he said he’d like better video from BP before drawing a firm conclusion.

Eugene Chiang, a professor of astrophysics at the University of California, Berkeley, also got a similar answer, using just pencil and paper.

Without even having a sense of scale from the BP video, he correctly deduced that the diameter of the pipe was about 20 inches. And though his calculation is less precise than Wereley’s, it is in the same ballpark.

“I would peg it at around 20,000 to 100,000 barrels per day,” he said.

Chiang called the current estimate of 5,000 barrels a day “almost certainly incorrect.”

Chiang is being pretty nice about that. For, as always, the lying liars are bald-facely NOT telling us the truth. Of course their official estimate is untrue. To explain that they have ruined our planet irreversibly, would never do. BP disagrees with the figures, altho they were the fastest to suggest that no one could accurately estimate the flow of oil, even tho there is technology readily available to do such an estimate.

No matter what the lying assholes say, tho, what is happening in the Gulf is far worse than the Exxon Valdez spill (which was about 250,000 gallons of oil). This hole is shitting that every day. Magnitudes worse in volume.

Guess what? Even the MSM is hinting that we were lied to about this:

This new, much larger number suggests that capturing — and cleaning up — this oil may be a much bigger challenge than anyone has let on.

And you want to know what else? It could do this for years or even decades before emptying its gut:

Matthew Simmons, retired chair of the energy-industry investment bank Simmons & Company, said that BP and the US military’s engineers are more or less clueless about cutting off the flow.

“We don’t have any idea how to stop this,” Simmons said. The former banker mocked a proposal to try and plug the leak with trash, saying it was a “joke.”

Simmons noted that the pressure at 5,000 feet undersea — where the well site is located — is so high, that containment efforts are likely often to fail. At 5,000 feet underwater, blocking elements have to be able to hold even with pressures off 40,000 pounds per square inch.

Incoming American Association of Petroleum Geologists chief David Resink says the oil reservoir that is feeding the spill is colossal.

“You’re talking about a reservoir that could have tens of millions of barrels in it,” Resink said. At the current spill rate, it “would take years to deplete,” he added.

There is history with spills and as in the case of the Valdez, there was a cost associated with harm to humans. There is nasty stuff in that putrid slime (an estimated 50,000 gallons of benzene were released from the Alaska disaster. To those in clean up, it cost the their health (and lives):

Oh, and by the way, It’s Here!

There are no words….

The “New” Dead Sea

Coming to a shore near you…

Priorities, Tennesseans: Cut The Kids First… THEN The Poor Adults

Don’t you just love that new, expensive Afghan “Final Push” strategy? And that we are still in Iraq shitting money down that hole while Big Oil reaps the benefits? And that we are building 7 bases in Columbia? That our budget equals about ONE HALF of the WORLD’S military spending? And that we pour money into other countries and their military in amounts unfathomable, especially in our economic circumstances?

Yet, we have “representatives” at every level of government that are implementing cuts to the citizenry’s needs and will not even mention the details of the questions outlined above. We already heard about California paying tax refunds in IOU’s and cutting back on their health care coverage of children. But now it is hitting everywhere, especially close to home.

Tennessee congress has cut off new applicants to CoverKids:

Tennessee suspends enrollment in children’s low-income health care plan

By Tom Eley
3 December 2009

This week, a particularly graphic example of this came from Tennessee, where it has been announced that the state’s health insurance plan for children from low-income families, CoverKids, will no longer accept new applicants. The Tennessee legislature has not appropriated enough money for the program to meet rising demand, even though state spending is matched 3-to-1 by the federal government through the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP. State officials have so far refused to tap into the CoverKids program’s own “rainy day fund,” saying this would be fiscally irresponsible.

In addition, Tennessee will also no longer accept applicants for its health coverage for low-income adults, CoverTN, which is jointly funded by employers, employees, and the state.

In the twelve months ending in October, 110,000 Tennesseans lost their health coverage, mostly as a result of layoffs. Over 10 percent of the workforce is unemployed. And Tennessee’s decision to refuse further low-income applicants also coincides with the ending of a short-term COBRA aid program, by which the federal government contributed about two thirds of the cost of insurance plans so laid off workers could maintain their employer-based plans.

CoverKids complements the state’s Medicaid program, TennCare, which helps to provide coverage primarily for the extremely poor and disabled.

“This is a scary place for babies if CoverKids is gone,” Sandra Neely of Spring Hill told the Tennessean. Neely used TennCare to help her three-year-old granddaughter save an injured tooth. With CoverKids no longer accepting applicants, the family may be without insurance if they earn more money.

“Without CoverKids, there will be no insurance out there for children who are on the borderline of poverty, for the people in the middle who work but don’t have or can’t afford insurance,” Neely said.

“In the midst of an economic crisis putting so many middle-class families on the brink, our state’s policy decisions push them over,” Michele Johnson of the Tennessee Justice Center said to the Tennessean. “The citizens of this state will be paying for these cuts in fiscal and human terms for decades.”

Tennessee faces a $1.5 billion deficit in its $29 billion budget. In freezing out new CHIP applicants it follows California, which rejected new applications between June and September.

These cuts expose once again the reactionary character of President Obama’s proposed health care overhaul, which will call on the states to provide expanded Medicaid coverage without providing further federal funding. As unemployment increases and the COBRA coverage extension ends, the solvency of the states’ Medicaid, CHIP, and other low-income health coverage plans is in increasing doubt…

And it isn’t just Tennessee, my fine southern friends:

…

• The Georgia legislature may convene in early January to enact an additional $400 million in cuts, its Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Jack Hill said on December 1. The state has already cut $3 billion from its budget in the past year, with Governor Sonny Perdue recently putting in place $900 million in cuts that included three-day furloughs of teachers and state workers. More furloughs and layoffs are anticipated to meet the new deficit.

• The Missouri Department of Transportation said Tuesday it will lay off 100 workers and transfer the savings toward its contribution to workers’ retirement plans, which has an unfunded liability of $1.6 billion.

• On Tuesday North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue told reporters that the state’s Medicaid program is already $150 million over budget for the first quarter of the current fiscal year, largely due to unemployment.

• Kentucky will attempt to save $20 million this year by cutting educational funding for preschool programs and curriculum for gifted students.

• A cost-cutting commission in Louisiana said this week that government agencies should seek to reduce the state workforce by 15,000 over three years through layoffs and attrition.

• Mississippi took in $25 million less than it had projected for November, Governor Haley Barbour’s office announced on Tuesday. It is $136.6 million short of projections for the first five months of its fiscal year. A new round of cuts is expected within days.

So, my dear redneck brethren, how can you justify in your mind spending all this money on people EVERYWHERE else in the world and we cut off the most helpless and needy among us?

Gotta “balance the budget”, but not reign in a dime of foreign military payouts that amount to well over 1/2 of the US’s budget and 1/2 of the military spending of the world?

Priorities, anyone?

Click to enlarge