Somewhere far below the debt ceiling, the end of the shuttle program, the Casey Anthony trial, the FIFA Women’s World Cup and Rupert Murdoch’s British imbroglio is the long-forgotten Gulf Oil Spill, now almost 15 months behind us — the anniversary of the actual capping of the Macondo well was this past Friday — and so far off the mainstream media’s radar it nary merits a mention.
But fans of comedian Stephen Colbert haven’t forgotten, and a recent post by one of them in the story suggestion section of the ColbertNation.com website has been far and away the most read and commented on of recent posts, generating more than 3,600 views and 80 comments. (A typical story suggestion gets a couple of comments and roughly 25 views.)
The post by Colbert fan Fritzi Presley is titled “MAN!! WE’VE GOTTA GET THE WORD OUT...THE GULF’S STILL BROKEN...” It unleashed a barrage of comments about the lingering health impact for Gulf Coast residents, a topic that, according to a Google news search, is rarely reported these days. Stories on where the oil went, lessons learned from the spill, ongoing litigation against BP and other topics related to the spill do, however, make the news cycle.
An article by Bloomberg posted Friday, “BP Oil Still Ashore One Year After End of Gulf Spill,” reports that as of July 9 — the most recent tally by field inspectors — 491 miles of shoreline from Louisiana to Florida are contaminated with oil from the April 20, 2010 disaster. Even using BP’s more conservative estimate for the amount of oil leaked in the spill — 4 million barrels, which is about 20 percent less than the federal estimate of 4.9 million barrels — only an estimated 850,000 barrels were captured, skimmed or burned off the water. That leaves an additional 3.15 million barrels of oil, by BP’s self-interested estimate, lurking somewhere out there in the Gulf.
Read the Bloomberg here.
JUNE 19 Former Saint Steve Gleason, who is paralyzed by ALS, released a statement Tuesday in response to the Atlanta radio station's skit making fun of him and the disease, this Picayune post reports. What did he say? He said he'd accepted the apology of the DJs who did it, notes that at least the incident has got people talking about ALS, and asks anyone who is burning to take action about it to do so -- by helping him fight ALS.
JUNE 19 Blogger Ian McGibboney takes a look at the Gleason incident in this post. He makes a good argument about the difference between having free speech and being free from consequences for your speech (which none of us is). He also admits that many of us got upset before we listened to the skit -- but lets us know that the reality is far worse than we can imagine. It was the incredibly bad judgment, even more than the actual speech, that probably got those DJs fired, he opines.
JUNE 19 Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake writes about Sen. Guillory's switch to the GOP in this post. He writes what most political watchers in Louisiana know: Guillory was a Republican before he decided to run for the senate seat in a mostly-D St. Landry district, and has switched back now that he plans to run for Lt. Gov. in a mostly-R state. But how come Blake missed Guillory's appearance on a TLC pageant show? Now that is a video we'd like to see. (Again).
JUNE 19 Here's another Washington Post blog post about a Louisiana politician, and it's just plain scathing. Ezra Klein says Jindal's Politico post was "insulting" to the intelligence of voters, and adds that Jindal is personifying the "stupid" he's railed against, by being an "elite" who convinces GOP activists of "things that aren't true." Me-ow.
JUNE 19 Here's Gov. Jindal's post in Politico, in which he asks the GOP to get over losing to Obama (again) and stop "the bedwetting." (Uh, what?) He gives his Republican buddies what is probably a nerd's idea of a coach's motivational talk, which starts with a list of accomplishments that they can't seem to exploit and ending with an absurd description of liberals that sounds like a character treatment for a Fox "News" movie scripted by Gordon Liddy. Sure, he's preaching to the choir, but even the choir's not this gullible.
JUNE 19 Lamar Parmentel read Gov. Jindal's post on Politico, but thinks it was so dumb it probably was published in the wrong paper. This post by Lamar on the Daily Kingfish opines that possibly Jindal's post was destined for the Onion -- because the governor couldn't possibly be serious here. If you listen closely, you can hear the staff of the Kingfish giggling.
JUNE 19 Blogger Robert Mann posts from Turkey, a country he has visited several times in the past few years. Mann gives an interesting overview of the current political and societal climate of the country, which -- if you're living under a rock and don't know -- is experiencing protests and turmoil these days. Mann promises to post as much as he can during his trip, which should be fascinating reading.
JUNE 19 Blogger CB Forgotston says the legislature is keeping the vicious cycle going with its funding of new buildings for the community college/technical college system. Universities across the state need maintenance and improvement on existing buildings, and the solution is to build new buildings at other schools? By the time the bonds are paid off, those buildings will be falling down, too, CB says.
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