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[nightfirewolf]

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[nightfirewolf]

By Roland S. Martin, CNN Political Analyst:

'Voters want leaders, not politicians.'

(CNN) -- Excuse me for not shedding a tear for the recent electoral losses of Sen. Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania and Rep. Parker Griffith of Alabama.

Instead of sticking to their principles, both decided to play crass politics by switching parties in order to get re-elected. Well, we see how well that worked out for them.

Specter, a longtime moderate Republican, was down big time in the polls against a Republican opponent and took a major gamble last year by deciding to run as a Democrat. Yet that didn't do him much good, as he lost to congressman Joe Sestak in the Democratic primary. Because he has been in office for so long -- 30 years in the U.S. Senate -- he also got swept up in the anti-incumbent fervor we're seeing nationwide.

But anyone with any sense would tell you that Specter was no Democrat. He was merely a Republican trying to find an easier route to keep his political seat.

Then there is Griffith, who rode Democratic enthusiasm to win a seat in Congress two years ago. But after watching the first year of President Obama's term, he decided to start calling him and Speaker Nancy Pelosi socialists and saying he was ashamed to be a Democrat.

Thinking this was the right time to switch parties and be hailed as a victor by the right wing, Griffith got crushed at the polls, losing to the Tea Party favorite Mo Brooks by 24 points.

Griffith didn't realize that if voters in a Republican primary are voting, they don't want Republican-lite; they can get the real thing.

Their losses underscore the real issue we have today: far too many gutless wonders who occupy political office and are deathly afraid to do what they are elected to do, which is lead.

There are significant issues in this nation right now. But all that happens, with the rare exception of things like the health care bill, is we get watered-down results because politicians don't want to (a) offend their major political donors with real legislation that helps people and (b) make the tough calls on policies that might prove to be unpopular at home but are necessary to advance the country.

For instance, everyone is up in arms about the Arizona immigration law. But in the absence of immigration reform on the federal level, it only makes sense that states would begin to grasp at straws to deal with the issue. Was the initial law a case of racial profiling coming into the mix? Of course! But it still speaks to a need for members of Congress to man up and woman up and make the hard choices.

The problem is that immigration reform is really lose-lose politically. Democrats want to act now, thinking they will lock up the Hispanic vote for the next generation, but are afraid to throw away part of the white vote. Republicans don't want to tick off white voters but also know that angering Hispanics won't help them much in the future. That's all politics. But in the end, we still have a massive immigration problem that no one is moving to fix.

Congress won't touch it in an election year for fear of making a tough vote that would affect their re-election chances. Will it happen in 2011? Maybe. But then the excuse will be the 2012 election. What about 2013? We'll then hear the cry about the 2014 midterm election. See, this can go and on.

Have we seen true leadership with financial reform and "too big to fail"? Nope. Obama decries it, Pelosi rips it, Republicans trash it, but when it came time to do something about it, they all punted. And now analysts at Moody's, the credit ratings agency, say that "too big to fail" is still in place, even if the current bill is signed into law.

For years we have heard politicians from both parties talk about the need for Social Security reform. But it's called the third rail of politics: "You don't touch it."

So Congress passes the buck each year, because no one in either party wants to be a true leader and take on the issue. We need to get it done. It is clear that we are in store for a heap of trouble down the road, but with folks today protecting their political jobs, nothing gets done.

There are, no doubt, some good men and women in Washington, D.C. They get sent there hoping to do the right thing but get sucked into the "do no harm" aspect of governing. The lobbyists descend on them like locusts; their party leaders tell them to back off when it comes to real change; we, the voters, end up getting screwed in the process.

Call me an idealist, but I would rather lose with my dignity than win in shame.

It is abundantly clear that this country needs fewer politicians and more leaders. The only way we are going to see true change is if voters start voting for true leaders at the polls and, if they are in the U.S. House and fail to lead, replace them in two years. If a U.S. senator joins the followers and not the leaders, get rid of him or her in six years.

This nation is crying out for men and women of conscience and principle to stand up, make a clarion call to lead and then do it. But as long as we're willing to accept impotent politicians, the next generation will still be howling about fixing the messes we see right now.

(Originally posted by Melody FireWolf)

[nightfirewolf]

By Anna Driver and Michael Peltier Anna Driver And Michael Peltier – Sat Jun 5, 5:53 pm ET

June 6, 2010

VENICE, La/PENSACOLA BEACH, Fla (Reuters) – The latest effort to siphon oil and gas gushing from a ruptured deep-sea wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico is working well so far, U.S. officials said on Saturday, as President Barack Obama defended his handling of the environmental crisis.

British energy giant BP Plc said it collected 6,077 barrels (255,000 gallons/966,000 liters) of oil per day from the well on Friday, and that "improvement in oil collection is expected over the next several days."

After soiling wetland wildlife refuges in Louisiana and barrier islands in Mississippi and Alabama, the black tide of pollution has reached some of the famous white beaches of Florida.

The toll of dead and injured birds and marine animals, including sea turtles and dolphins, is also climbing.

But 47 days into the crisis and after several unsuccessful attempts at containment by BP, a partial solution finally appears at hand.

The containment cap that BP clamped over the leak earlier this week was siphoning oil to a waiting drill-ship at a faster rate than initially estimated, U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said at a briefing in Theodore, Alabama.

Bob Fryar, senior vice president with BP, later told a meeting of local mayors in Alabama that the latest undersea containment effort had gone "extremely well" so far.

[nightfirewolf]

By Terry Frieden, CNN Justice Producer:

'Holder vows to Arab Americans to prosecute hate crimes'

Washington (CNN) -- Attorney General Eric Holder on Friday vowed to prosecute hate crimes aimed at Arabs, Muslims and Sikhs in the United States, as he marked the anniversary of President Barack Obama's speech in Egypt on American and Muslim relations in Egypt, urging peaceful and civil connections.

Holder said the Justice Department has opened several investigations aimed at hate-fueled crimes. He mentioned only one -- and drew applause-- as he noted the FBI is involved in the investigation of last month's pipe bomb attack on a Jacksonville, Florida, mosque.

"This case is a top concern for the FBI," Holder said.

About 60 Muslim worshippers were inside the building when the bomb exploded, but nobody was injured.

Holder said he has heard from Arab Americans and Muslim Americans who are uneasy about their relationship with the federal government.

"They tell me that too often it feels like us versus them," Holder said.

"The era of us versus them that some of you have experienced must end. At long last it is ending," he said.

Holder did not mention terrorism in his address to the annual gathering of the American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee. He made only one oblique reference to a plot aimed at U.S. citizens.

"Let us not forget, it was a Muslim-American man who first alerted the New York police to a smoking car in Times Square. And his vigilance likely helped to save lives," Holder said to applause.

The attorney general also said he is continuing to monitor an internal Justice Department review designed, if necessary, to tighten President Bush's 2003 policy which prohibits racial profiling.

"I want to be clear about something. Racial profiling is wrong. It can leave a lasting scar on communities and individuals. And, it is quite simply bad policing," Holder declared.

In his June 4, 2009 address at Egypt's Cairo University, Obama delivered a long-awaited and wide-ranging speech on American and Muslim relations, offering a hand of friendship to Islam and addressing an array of quandaries and conflicts dividing the two cultures.

Obama quoted from the Quran as he expounded on Islam's glories and rights, the legitimate rights of Israel and the Palestinians, Iranian nuclear aspirations, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, women's rights, economic development, and religious rights and democracy in the Muslim world.

The address, billed as a fence-mending mission between the United States and Islam, urged those present and the people across the globe viewing the speech on television to enter a new, productive and peaceful chapter in their relationship.

"I know there are many -- Muslim and non-Muslim -- who question whether we can forge this new beginning," Obama said, emphasizing that "it is easier to start wars than to end them. It is easier to blame others than to look inward, to see what is different about someone than to find the things we share."

Obama reiterated a statement that "America is not -- and never will be -- at war with Islam."

"We will, however, relentlessly confront violent extremists who pose a grave threat to our security -- because we reject the same thing that people of all faiths reject: the killing of innocent men, women and children. And it is my first duty as president to protect the American people."

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Comment!

(Originally posted by Melody FireWolf)

[nightfirewolf]

Birds Frozen in Oil

Normally, I'd post the article, but this one contains pictures, so please click to read it. The pictures, I will warn, are rather disturbing.

[nightfirewolf]

By MATTHEW BROWN and RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI, Associated Press Writers Matthew Brown And Ramit Plushnick-masti, Associated Press Writers – 1 hr 59 mins ago
NEW ORLEANS – It is an overlooked danger in the oil spill crisis: The crude gushing from the well contains vast amounts of natural gas that could pose a serious threat to the Gulf of Mexico's fragile ecosystem.

The oil emanating from the seafloor contains about 40 percent methane, compared with about 5 percent found in typical oil deposits, said John Kessler, a Texas A&M University oceanographer who is studying the impact of methane from the spill.

That means huge quantities of methane have entered the Gulf, scientists say, potentially suffocating marine life and creating "dead zones" where oxygen is so depleted that nothing lives.

"This is the most vigorous methane eruption in modern human history," Kessler said.

Methane is a colorless, odorless and flammable substance that is a major component in the natural gas used to heat people's homes. Petroleum engineers typically burn off excess gas attached to crude before the oil is shipped off to the refinery. That's exactly what BP has done as it has captured more than 7.5 million gallons of crude from the breached well.

A BP spokesman said the company was burning about 30 million cubic feet of natural gas daily from the source of the leak, adding up to about 450 million cubic feet since the containment effort started 15 days ago. That's enough gas to heat about 450,000 homes for four days.

But that figure does not account for gas that eluded containment efforts and wound up in the water, leaving behind huge amounts of methane. Scientists are still trying to measure how much has escaped into the water and how it may damage the Gulf and it creatures.

The dangerous gas has played an important role throughout the disaster and response. A bubble of methane is believed to have burst up from the seafloor and ignited the rig explosion. Methane crystals also clogged a four-story containment box that engineers earlier tried to place on top of the breached well.

Now it is being looked at as an environmental concern.

The small microbes that live in the sea have been feeding on the oil and natural gas in the water and are consuming larger quantities of oxygen, which they need to digest food. As they draw more oxygen from the water, it creates two problems. When oxygen levels drop low enough, the breakdown of oil grinds to a halt; and as it is depleted in the water, most life can't be sustained.






The National Science Foundation funded research on methane in the Gulf amid concerns about the depths of the oil plume and questions what role natural gas was playing in keeping the oil below the surface, said David Garrison, a program director in the federal agency who specializes in biological oceanography.

"This has the potential to harm the ecosystem in ways that we don't know," Garrison said. "It's a complex problem."

BP CEO Tony Hayward on Thursday told Congress members that he was "so devastated with this accident," "deeply sorry" and "so distraught."

But he also testified that he was out of the loop on decisions at the well and disclaimed knowledge of any of the myriad problems on and under the Deepwater Horizon rig before the deadly explosion. BP was leasing the rig the Deepwater Horizon that exploded April 20, killing 11 workers and triggering the environmental disaster.

"BP blew it," said Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., chairman of the House investigations panel that held the hearing. "You cut corners to save money and time."

In early June, a research team led by Samantha Joye of the Institute of Undersea Research and Technology at the University of Georgia investigated a 15-mile-long plume drifting southwest from the leak site. They said they found methane concentrations up to 10,000 times higher than normal, and oxygen levels depleted by 40 percent or more.

The scientists found that some parts of the plume had oxygen concentrations just shy of the level that tips ocean waters into the category of "dead zone" — a region uninhabitable to fish, crabs, shrimp and other marine creatures.

Kessler has encountered similar findings. Since he began his on-site research on Saturday, he said he has already found oxygen depletions of between 2 percent and 30 percent in waters 1,000 feet deep.

Shallow waters are normally more susceptible to oxygen depletion. Because it is being found in such deep waters, both Kessler and Joye do not know what is causing the depletion and what the impact could be in the long- or short-term.

In an e-mail, Joye called her findings "the most bizarre looking oxygen profiles I have ever seen anywhere."

Representatives of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration acknowledged that so much methane in the water could draw down oxygen levels and slow the breakdown of oil in the Gulf, but cautioned that research was still under way to understand the ramifications.

"We haven't seen any long-term changes or trends at this point," said Robert Haddad, chief of the agency's assessment and restoration division.

Haddad said early efforts to monitor the spill had focused largely on the more toxic components of oil. However, as new data comes in, he said NOAA and other federal agencies will get a more accurate read on methane concentrations and the effects.

"The question is what's going on in the deeper, colder parts of the ocean," he said. "Are the (methane) concentrations going to overcome the amount of available oxygen? We want to make sure we're not overloading the system."

BP spokesman Mark Proegler disputed Joye's suggestion that the Gulf's deep waters contain large amounts of methane, noting that water samples taken by BP and federal agencies have shown minimal underwater oil outside the spill's vicinity.

"The gas that escapes, what we don't flare, goes up to the surface and is gone," he said.

Steven DiMarco, an oceanographer at Texas A&M University who has studied a long-known "dead zone" in the Gulf, said one example of marine life that could be affected by low oxygen levels in deeper waters would be giant squid — the food of choice for the endangered sperm whale population. Squid live primarily in deep water, and would be disrupted by lower oxygen levels, DiMarco said.

Meanwhile, the Coast Guard signaled a shift in strategy Friday to fight the oil, saying it was ramping up efforts to capture the crude closer to shore.

Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said an estimated 2,000 private boats in the so-called "vessels of opportunity" program will be more closely linked through a tighter command and control structure to direct them to locations less than 50 miles offshore to skim the oil. Allen, the point man for the federal response to the spill, previously had said surface containment efforts would be concentrated much farther offshore.