Politics v. Policy – The Wrong Side Wins With Berkowitz’s “Visionary Plan”
Until last week, we believed that both Democratic candidates for governor were good choices. We believed that both put the interests of Alaskans first, supported Democratic achievements, and could be effective leaders working across the aisle to pass legislation and to support policy and existing legislation that benefited the people of Alaska. Many of our readers support Hollis French. Many of our readers support Ethan Berkowitz. But very few had substantial angst about the other. But last week something happened that rocked the boat, and by ‘rocked the boat’ we mean pitched the boat to the point where a lot…
Tempers Flare Between Feds and BP Over Oil Seep and “Undetermined Anomalies” at Well Head
Things are now getting very dicey between BP and the government. They have found a methane leak, and BP is saying they don’t want to comply with federal demands. Push has come to shove. NEW ORLEANS — A federal official says scientists are concerned about a seep and possible methane near BP’s busted oil well in the Gulf of Mexico Both could be signs there are leaks in the well that’s been capped off for three days. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Sunday because an announcement about the next steps had not been made…
Oyster Roundup!
~Thick and fast they came at last, and more, and more, and more! Time? Late. Time Magazine is a tad late to the party on this one. At Techpresident, Nancy Scola dives into the numbers from Palin’s political action committee, Sarah PAC. Among the expenses? $22,000 to the firm Aries Petra Consulting, including $10,000 in June for “Grassroots/Communication Consulting” and $6,000 a month in April in May for “Consulting Internet, Message.” “Aries Petra is helmed by Rebecca Mansour, described by Politico’s Ken Vogel as ‘a Los Angeles screenwriter and political neophyte whose creation of the popular cheerleading blog Conservatives4Palin endeared…
Capped?
Just coming in is news that the gusher in the Gulf of Mexico has been capped, and that no more oil is flowing. This from the New York Times: “I am very excited that there’s no oil in the Gulf of Mexico,” Kent Wells, a senior vice president for BP said in a teleconference on Thursday, “but we just started the test and I don’t want to create a false sense of excitement.” Umm. I don’t know who’s going to break it to the unfortunately named Kent Wells, but there are still, in fact, hundreds of millions of gallons of…
Open Thread – Hands Across the Sand
In Florida on Saturday, February 13, 2010, only weeks before the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico began, a statewide gathering against offshore oil drilling occurred in Florida. Thousands of Floridians representing 60 towns and cities and over 90 beaches joined hands to protest the efforts by the Florida Legislature and the US Congress to lift the ban on oil drilling off the shores of Florida. Florida’s Hands Across The Sand event was the largest gathering in the history of Florida united against oil drilling. Thousands joined hands from Jacksonville to Miami Beach and Key West to Pensacola Beach, each…
Voices from the Flats – Sarah Palin’s Oil Regulation Lies
By Geoffrey Dunn Sarah Palin has been busted for so many lies in the past year and a half, it’s become nearly impossible to keep track of them all. Whenever she opens her mouth, she simply cannot stop herself from engaging in duplicities, exaggerations and half-truths that not-so-coincidentally always distort the political record in her favor. It’s a pathology. She did it again this week during a somewhat contentious interview with Bill O’Reilly in which she chastised her Fox News host out the gate: “I kind of have a big beef with you too though, Bill, if you don’t acknowledge…
Documents, Employees Reveal BP’s Alaska Oilfield Plagued By Major Safety Issues
Jason Leopold has written an amazing piece on BP and how they handle safety in Alaska. Here is the article in full, which is cross-posted from Truthout. By Jason Leopold Nearly 5,000 miles from the oil-spill catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, BP and its culture of cost-cutting are contributing to another environmental mess. According to internal BP documents obtained by Truthout, and after interviewing more than a dozen employees over the past month, the Prudhoe Bay oil field, in a remote corner of North America on Alaska’s north shore, is in danger. After two serious oil spills and other mishaps,…
BP Spills Coffee
Another one of those “laugh so you don’t go crazy” moments. [h/t Mudflatter Andy]