by Diane V. McLoughlin
May 30, 2010: The Deepwater Horizon oil well platform, situated some forty miles off the Southern U.S. coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico, exploded on April 20, 2010. The oil well pipe, we were told, broke a mile-deep in the Gulf of Mexico, two days later.
There are four principle players: BP (British Petroleum), Halliburton, Transocean and the MMS - U.S. Minerals Management Service - the government department principally tasked with overseeing safe operation of oil drilling endeavors. The proper functioning and the reputation of the MMS has suffered due to issues of corruption and mismanagement.[1i]
The highest estimate on the flow-rate of oil coming out of the broken twenty-one inch diameter pipe came from Steven Wereley, a Purdue University associate professor of mechanical engineering. Wereley estimated, from viewing the initial (thirty whole seconds!) of underwater video released from BP, that up to 70,000 barrels' worth of oil could be spewing out of the broken mouth of the pipe into the Gulf, per day - fourteen times BP's estimate of 5,000 barrels. (Props to those news peeps, I got that info from watching CNN's superlative oil spill coverage.) *August 6, 2010 update: BP releases total estimate that 4.9 million barrels of oil were spilled into the Gulf.
At 42 gallons to the barrel, that is almost three million gallons of crude pouring into the Gulf per day. Today being Sunday, May 30th, the thirty-eighth day, that would add up to one-hundred million gallons of oil (I rounded down by one-hundred and fourteen thousand gallons.) 100,000,000 - that's a lot of zeros.
The government's high-end estimate is much lower - up to four times BP's original estimate - in the ball-park of thirty-two million gallons of oil, to date.
The ongoing Deepwater Horizon oil spill may end up vieing for first-place on the list of worst oil spills in history.
The 1991 Gulf War oil spill is/was the one to beat, at an estimated eleven-million barrels, or over four-hundred million gallons, apparently dumped by Iraqi forces into the Persian Gulf as some sort of military move, according to Wikipedia (which makes little sense to me, so I question that explanation, but whatever.) [1a]
From the same Wikipedia page, on the long-term environmental impact to the Middle East's Persian Gulf:
'The salt marshes which occur at almost 50% of the coastline show the heaviest impact compared to the other ecosystem types after 10 years. Completely recovered are the rocky shores and mangroves. Sand beaches are on the best way to complete recovery. The main reason for the delayed recovery of the salt marshes is the absence of physical energy (wave action) and the mostly anaerobic milieu of the oiled substrates. The latter is mostly caused by cyanobacteria which forms impermeable mats. In other cases tar crusts are responsible. The availability of oxygen is the most important criteria for oil degradation. Where oil degrades it was obvious that...intertidal fauna such as crabs re-colonise the destroyed habitats long before the halophytes. The most important paths of regeneration are the tidal channels and the adjacent areas. Full recovery of the salt marshes will certainly need some more decades.' - Dr. Hans Jorge Barth, 2001 research report. [1a]
The top-kill and junk-shot efforts to shut Deepwater down have failed. The next move by BP will be to try to put a type of cap on it, which reportedly would take approximately from a week to a month to get in place. At time of writing I must admit that I am not clear on this spread between days versus weeks. [1c]
If that fails, and any other ideas do not solve this crisis, then the next option to stop this oil spill is something called a relief well, which BP has also started but nevertheless is not expected to be complete until, earliest, mid-August. If that is what happens, take the numbers above on estimated oil spilled and multiply by four.
Even mid-August may be optimistic. Like finding a needle in a haystack, they have to drill down and sideways. The drilling begins a mile beneath the surface of the Gulf. No human can work at that depth, even in a submersible. The environment at those depths is weird - extreme underwater pressures; extreme cold; perpetual darkness; presumably there is also at least some ocean current.
The aim of the drilling is to meet the broken pipe with new pipe - pipe that is only twenty-one inches wide, with oil and gas forcing through it at immense pressure from deep within the earth, if they fail to cap it. In the middle of hurricane season.
Meteorologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (better known as NOAA, pronounced 'Noah') are forecasting 'an active to extremely active' hurricane season; up to twenty-three named storms, up to seven of which could be Category 3 or greater hurricanes. Hurricane season begins June 1st and doesn't officially end until November 30th.[1b]
To paraphrase a line from an old torch song, we've got it bad - and that ain't good.
Scanning the night's news channels, Canada's CBC reports 25% of the Gulf's fisheries are now closed. 23,000 fishermen are out of work.
Britain's BBC reports that BP's market capitalization has dropped in value by 27%.
U.S.'s CNN reports nine workers hired to do oil clean-up have been sickened enough to go to hospital. BP's CEO Tony Haywood suggests it is food poisoning. CNN checks with a food poisoning expert with the workers' symptoms - doesn't sound like food poisoning to them.
Out-of-work fishermen hired to work their boats in oil clean-up efforts complain that no protective masks are provided. A BP spokesperson says they test the air quality, there is no need for masks but if the fishermen want to supply masks themselves 'as long as they know how to use them properly' - according to CNN - they can wear them. The fishermen's response? When they asked to use masks they were told that if they brought masks to use, they'd be fired.
Masks are mentioned in the data safety sheet noted below, page 4. If you can decipher that gobbledegook it's official - you're a genius. [2]
Retired Lt. General Russell Honore, remembered fondly for his work as commander of Joint Task Force Katrina, tells CNN that the nation must declare 'all-out war!', on the oil. Get local officials in charge, they are most familiar with local needs - get BP out of the way.
In contrast, Wednesday, June 2nd, President Obama is hosting a whoop-dee-doo for ex-Beatle 'Sir' Paul McCartney.
Really. You can't make this stuff up.
Anyway, I believe we all want answers. Can we bomb the gusher? What else could we try? Quickly.
We want action. Deploy all hands, boats, super-tankers, interested parties and other countries to suction as much of the spilled oil in the Gulf as we can. This oil could spread to Mexico, the Caribbean, Canada, Europe and beyond. This is a growing, potentially international problem. Yes, we must take responsibility for it. But we must ask for and allow others to help here before oil drifts over there.
Efforts must be made to watch for and stop as much oil as possible in the Yucatan Channel and the Straits of Florida - the two means of progress out of the Gulf of Mexico.
Get the meanest, smartest, most independent, stubborn governmental son-of-a-bitch (or daughter-of-) up the noses of BP's soon-to-be-former command center. It's a government command center - right?
I nominate Lt. General Honore. Striding purposefully in, I know one of the first things our commander will do is rip down the spy pics of CNN reporter Anderson Cooper, Parish President Billy Nungesser, etc...pictures taken from a helicopter circling overhead as they floated in on a boat to inspect for themselves - and to show viewers at home - the condition of the oil-soaked Louisiana wetlands.
Oil dispersant COREXIT 9500: A quick analytical review is urgently needed on the effect of millions of gallons of chemically diluted oil mixed with a million gallons of soap-like stuff on the ocean environment - keeping in mind that you cannot skim, siphon, absorb, or suction oil that you chemically disperse.[2] [3]
Soap is bad for fish eggs and it must be bad for the slime of fish protective coatings. I would be surprised if it wasn't harmful to the bottom rung of the food chain that every living creature in the ocean depends on for sustenance - tiny lifeforms called phyto and zoo plankton.
Interestingly, compare Nalco's reassuring statement [3]:
'Based on modeling using US EPA software (as part of the EPI Suite v4.0, 2009), none of the COREXIT product components pose a risk of bioaccumulating [sic]';
With this, from Nalco's Safety Data Sheet [2]:
'BIOACCUMULATION POTENTIAL
Component substances have a potential to bioconcentrate.'
So there you go. Clear as drilling mud.
On a ridiculously stupid-sounding bright note, an active hurricane season might churn the water in the salt marshes, getting oxygen in there; increased oxygen in the water would help bacteria break down oil, as noted, previously, above.
(Is it just me or is it all made that much worse, more exhausting, by our destroyed trust in anybody telling us the truth - on anything?)
On the coastal economy: If I have gleened this correctly, the coastal economy is roughly divided in half - the oil industry contributing roughly 50% to the Gulf's economy - the other 50% coming from the bounty of the natural environment along with tourism dollars.
It is a tough call. But it seems to me that Gulf communities would want to discuss how they prefer to see the future unfold, in light of this disaster. Ocean oil will run out. Yet while it lasts it has the capacity to destroy the other 50% of the economy, the sustainable part of the economy, as long as oil companies continue to get the green light to drill for it.
As for efforts to plug the gusher, the question continues to be raised whether or not there is any theoretical prospect of nuking this oil well to block it. The Russians have apparently used nukes in the past to shut down oil well fires - not quite the same thing, true. A risk-benefit analysis on attempting to use explosive - conventional or nuclear - would seem a reasonable suggestion; share the pros and cons with the public so that we know that it has been at least considered. Get somebody out front with charts and graphs - tell us what's going on.
As for President Obama, there is a deeply disturbing disconnect between the dire urgency of the oil spill versus Obama's tepid actions. Unless Paul McCartney has the ability to part the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, it's safe to say Obama could postpone such visits without any great offense taken. Frankly, borrowing from the NYT's Bob Herbert, I wouldn't give a rat's whiskers if there was.
I believe it's true that a moment of crisis can also be a moment of opportunity - to reevaluate, reflect and reassess our charted course - and change it if logic, common sense, values, morality and survival demand.
The world is the only home we have, yet we have rendered it a precariously fragile place. It cries out for a renewed spirit of international cooperation, infused with a bedrock commitment to human rights.
Opportunity? Meet biggest environmental catastrophe in U.S. history. Turn the page. All hands on deck.
----------------------------------------------
[1i] 'MMS's troubled past'; Juliet Eilperin and Madonna Lebling; May 28, 2010; Washington Post ;
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/28/AR2010052804599_2.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2010052805077
[1a] Wikipedia Gulf War oil spill ;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War_oil_spill
[1b] NOAA Expects Busy Atlantic Hurricane Season; May 27, 2010
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20100527_hurricaneoutlook.html
[1c] 'BP Abandons 'Top Kill' Plan That Failed to Cap Leak'; David Wethe; May 29, 2010; Bloomberg.com ;
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?sid=a7rBedn27BmA&pid=20601087
[2] Material Data Safety Sheet COREXIT 9500 - PDF ;
http://lmrk.org/corexit_9500_uscueg.539287.pdf
[3] 'Nalco releases additional technical information about COREXIT' ;
http://www.nalco.com/news-and-events/4279.htm
May 31, 2010
May 29, 2010
BP and Obama Cover-ups and Corporate Spies
by Diane V. McLoughlin, main website mcloughlinpost.com
My comment No. 100 to Bob Herbert's excellent, 'An Unnatural Disaster'; NYT; May 29, 2010:
Media, politicos and local representatives tried to send a message on-air prior to his visit Friday that they hoped that Obama would take an independent tour of the increasingly oil-soaked and dieing Louisiana wetlands instead of leaving it to BP to portray a false picture of diligent clean-up.
Instead, embarrassing to the point of excruciating, Obama stayed on the photo-op beach. Hundreds of clean-up workers were trucked in for the the day who, apparently, had strict orders not to answer questions about who they were or where they came from.
Obama only referred to beaches in his beach speech, never mentioning the vital environmental and economic importance of the millions of acres of wetlands and the role they play in sustaining the entire Gulf of Mexico. That he didn't, hints at precisely how much time he has devoted to understanding the area and the full implications of the oil's malevolent threat.
When CNN's Anderson Cooper, Parish President Billy Nungesser and others went into the marshlands with television cameras so that we could see for ourselves how bad it is, Nungesser told Cooper that the helicopters circling overhead was probably BP spying on them. Cooper kinda laughed it off. But mea culpa, Cooper discovered pics of them taken from those helicopters tacked to a wall at BP's command center. Ha ha.
The evening before, to illustrate just how alarmed and focused on this national emergency he appears to be, the President attended a reception celebrating Jewish American Heritage Month when it is now forty days and counting in what is the biggest environmental catastrophe in U.S. history.
From the very earliest days I and others have wondered why the gusher couldn't be bombed to collapse the ground down to shut this oil off. Russia has apparently used nukes a few times to do just that. I would like to know why conventional explosives, working in harmony with the extreme pressures existent a mile below the water's surface wouldn't do the trick.
Because from here to mid-August or later if the top-kill/junk-shot efforts fail - that is the projected time it will take to stop the oil spill, we are told. Largest environmental disaster in America's history - times four. We cannot afford to wait additional months while BP tries to drill a sideways well to connect to and redirect the oil.
Two more things: Along with reforming the rules on political donations, the government must end the revolving employment doors between government and private industry. The government is literally stuffed to bursting top to bottom with industry moles seeing to it that they are not burdened with rules to ensure safety, environmental protection or any other public interest concern.
My comment No. 100 to Bob Herbert's excellent, 'An Unnatural Disaster'; NYT; May 29, 2010:
Media, politicos and local representatives tried to send a message on-air prior to his visit Friday that they hoped that Obama would take an independent tour of the increasingly oil-soaked and dieing Louisiana wetlands instead of leaving it to BP to portray a false picture of diligent clean-up.
Instead, embarrassing to the point of excruciating, Obama stayed on the photo-op beach. Hundreds of clean-up workers were trucked in for the the day who, apparently, had strict orders not to answer questions about who they were or where they came from.
Obama only referred to beaches in his beach speech, never mentioning the vital environmental and economic importance of the millions of acres of wetlands and the role they play in sustaining the entire Gulf of Mexico. That he didn't, hints at precisely how much time he has devoted to understanding the area and the full implications of the oil's malevolent threat.
When CNN's Anderson Cooper, Parish President Billy Nungesser and others went into the marshlands with television cameras so that we could see for ourselves how bad it is, Nungesser told Cooper that the helicopters circling overhead was probably BP spying on them. Cooper kinda laughed it off. But mea culpa, Cooper discovered pics of them taken from those helicopters tacked to a wall at BP's command center. Ha ha.
The evening before, to illustrate just how alarmed and focused on this national emergency he appears to be, the President attended a reception celebrating Jewish American Heritage Month when it is now forty days and counting in what is the biggest environmental catastrophe in U.S. history.
From the very earliest days I and others have wondered why the gusher couldn't be bombed to collapse the ground down to shut this oil off. Russia has apparently used nukes a few times to do just that. I would like to know why conventional explosives, working in harmony with the extreme pressures existent a mile below the water's surface wouldn't do the trick.
Because from here to mid-August or later if the top-kill/junk-shot efforts fail - that is the projected time it will take to stop the oil spill, we are told. Largest environmental disaster in America's history - times four. We cannot afford to wait additional months while BP tries to drill a sideways well to connect to and redirect the oil.
Two more things: Along with reforming the rules on political donations, the government must end the revolving employment doors between government and private industry. The government is literally stuffed to bursting top to bottom with industry moles seeing to it that they are not burdened with rules to ensure safety, environmental protection or any other public interest concern.
May 28, 2010
BP Halliburton Transocean - You Suck
by Diane V. McLoughlin
May 27, 2010: RULES: Tighten the rules for proposed new wells, along with wells with preexisting permits yet to be drilled.
SCIENTIFIC REVIEW: All of them, wells to be drilled that already had permits before this mess - and wells already in place - need to be reviewed for safety, best-industry practices and next-generation features.
RISK-BENEFIT REVIEW: A complete overhaul of risk-benefit analysis must be independently undertaken. By now it should be crystal-clear that far greater respect needs to be factored in on risk. If the costs of a fail would be too great, as is so obviously the case with deep-ocean oil drilling? No green light.
VALUE REVIEW: Some things can't be fixed. Some things, by any practical measure, stay broken. That is not acknowledged in current business-industry-government models.
ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Compensation? The unmitigated gall to propose that there is a price on the priceless - could only come from the same sterile place where one sees no difference between a barren fish farm and a living sea.
NATIONAL EMERGENCY CLEAN-UP: The oil already spilled into the Gulf is a national emergency. All those fishermen sitting idle because the fishing grounds have been shut down could be hired in the clean-up effort in some way, surely to God. Don't force them to have to sit on their hands while their world is destroyed as millions of gallons of oil gradually drift in - if it isn't stopped before it gets there. This should be part and parcel of BP's costs. They should equip them and pay them.
BE PREPARED: The incompetent, cynical way that this disaster has been handled is an outrage. There was no plan. Each effort to shut down this gusher took a week or more when each should have been able to be swiftly attempted one after the other - if BP had done its homework.
YOU SUCK: Saudi Arabia apparently had a gusher in their waters. They had supertankers suction the oil out of the water - by how much? I heard by 85%. Why was this not done? Why isn't this being done?
CHEMICAL DEPENDENCY: Was dumping almost a million gallons of chemicals in the Gulf waters better for BP's bottom line than doing it right?
Where are the skimmers, the absorbent booms, the boats equipped to suction the oil out of the Louisiana marshlands?
I am as hopping mad as James Carville. Spit nickels and they'd embed in concrete mad. My hat's off to him. There would be no way I could get in front of cameras to describe what he has seen and heard without invective turning the air blue - in the Gulf's fish spawning grounds, the bird nesting places for millions of the worlds' birds, he heard NOTHING! - nothing but the silence of the dead.
Tea Partiers think that government is the problem. Government isn't the problem. Bad governance, government corrupted by moneyed interests - that's the problem; pushing and pushing and pushing our luck as if we had the power of God over tumbling dice. We don't. Things go wrong. If we don't get that fact straight once and for all, we are doomed.
-----------------------------------------------
comment #333, on, 'BP Resumes Work to Plug Oil Leak After Facing Setback'; Clifford Krauss and John M. Broder; May 27, 2010; NYT
May 27, 2010: RULES: Tighten the rules for proposed new wells, along with wells with preexisting permits yet to be drilled.
SCIENTIFIC REVIEW: All of them, wells to be drilled that already had permits before this mess - and wells already in place - need to be reviewed for safety, best-industry practices and next-generation features.
RISK-BENEFIT REVIEW: A complete overhaul of risk-benefit analysis must be independently undertaken. By now it should be crystal-clear that far greater respect needs to be factored in on risk. If the costs of a fail would be too great, as is so obviously the case with deep-ocean oil drilling? No green light.
VALUE REVIEW: Some things can't be fixed. Some things, by any practical measure, stay broken. That is not acknowledged in current business-industry-government models.
ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Compensation? The unmitigated gall to propose that there is a price on the priceless - could only come from the same sterile place where one sees no difference between a barren fish farm and a living sea.
NATIONAL EMERGENCY CLEAN-UP: The oil already spilled into the Gulf is a national emergency. All those fishermen sitting idle because the fishing grounds have been shut down could be hired in the clean-up effort in some way, surely to God. Don't force them to have to sit on their hands while their world is destroyed as millions of gallons of oil gradually drift in - if it isn't stopped before it gets there. This should be part and parcel of BP's costs. They should equip them and pay them.
BE PREPARED: The incompetent, cynical way that this disaster has been handled is an outrage. There was no plan. Each effort to shut down this gusher took a week or more when each should have been able to be swiftly attempted one after the other - if BP had done its homework.
YOU SUCK: Saudi Arabia apparently had a gusher in their waters. They had supertankers suction the oil out of the water - by how much? I heard by 85%. Why was this not done? Why isn't this being done?
CHEMICAL DEPENDENCY: Was dumping almost a million gallons of chemicals in the Gulf waters better for BP's bottom line than doing it right?
Where are the skimmers, the absorbent booms, the boats equipped to suction the oil out of the Louisiana marshlands?
I am as hopping mad as James Carville. Spit nickels and they'd embed in concrete mad. My hat's off to him. There would be no way I could get in front of cameras to describe what he has seen and heard without invective turning the air blue - in the Gulf's fish spawning grounds, the bird nesting places for millions of the worlds' birds, he heard NOTHING! - nothing but the silence of the dead.
Tea Partiers think that government is the problem. Government isn't the problem. Bad governance, government corrupted by moneyed interests - that's the problem; pushing and pushing and pushing our luck as if we had the power of God over tumbling dice. We don't. Things go wrong. If we don't get that fact straight once and for all, we are doomed.
-----------------------------------------------
comment #333, on, 'BP Resumes Work to Plug Oil Leak After Facing Setback'; Clifford Krauss and John M. Broder; May 27, 2010; NYT
May 27, 2010
BP - Obama's watershed moment
by Diane V. McLoughlin; May 26, 2010
FTA: 'The laconic president is once more giving too much deference and trust to rapacious corporate scoundrels and failing to swiftly grasp and articulate the alarm of Americans.'
The above is a perfect description of the overall behavior of the Obama administration.
Deference; trust; friendships - these words are not in the handbook of ethical good governance - be it in private industry, the media or public service. Rather, they are words in that other handbook, the one which describes the ways in which we are led down the garden path to corruption and betrayal.
The President is scheduled to go to Louisiana on Friday. I predict it will be his watershed moment. Where 9/11 was seized to turn the country in the wrong direction, Obama must use the Gulf oil disaster to restore the country and make it whole again. He must get mad, take charge and clean house - save the Gulf, restore the government (and the Constitution.)
Obama must grasp hold of the country's problem and marshal the right people and resources to fix them; leaders such as Billy Nungesser, President of Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana - people who have the right stuff.
The one thing that must not happen is to assume we have the luxury of time.
------------------------------------------------
Commenting on, 'Of Top Hats, Top Kills and Bottom Feeders'; Maureen Dowd; May 26, 2010; NYT
FTA: 'The laconic president is once more giving too much deference and trust to rapacious corporate scoundrels and failing to swiftly grasp and articulate the alarm of Americans.'
The above is a perfect description of the overall behavior of the Obama administration.
Deference; trust; friendships - these words are not in the handbook of ethical good governance - be it in private industry, the media or public service. Rather, they are words in that other handbook, the one which describes the ways in which we are led down the garden path to corruption and betrayal.
The President is scheduled to go to Louisiana on Friday. I predict it will be his watershed moment. Where 9/11 was seized to turn the country in the wrong direction, Obama must use the Gulf oil disaster to restore the country and make it whole again. He must get mad, take charge and clean house - save the Gulf, restore the government (and the Constitution.)
Obama must grasp hold of the country's problem and marshal the right people and resources to fix them; leaders such as Billy Nungesser, President of Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana - people who have the right stuff.
The one thing that must not happen is to assume we have the luxury of time.
------------------------------------------------
Commenting on, 'Of Top Hats, Top Kills and Bottom Feeders'; Maureen Dowd; May 26, 2010; NYT
No-state Netanyahu
by Diane V. McLoughlin
Netanyahu was already scheduled to schmooze in Canada. Thus, this USA Today fluff about Netanyahu being invited by Rahm Emanuel to visit the White House, last minute as it were, appears to be a photo-op sop for something already long in the works. It should be clearly understood that Netanyahu is not a man of peace. He is a tribalist chieftain of an apartheid state. It is not necessarily so that the opinions of the father are always adopted whole-cloth by the son, but Emanuel's father is on record inferring that Arabs are lower lifeforms than himself - a representative sample of the attitude of Israel's extremist ruling faction, a faction that in recent days has been categorized by one human rights organization as being the most racist in the entire history of the State of Israel.
Through the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians by Israel, who have been squeezed into razor-wire enclosed ghettos surrounded by IDF armed guards, Israel herelf has seen to it that a two-state solution is a virtual impossibility. The violent, racist settlers, one might note, have the vote, while the oppressed Palestinians in their own lands in the West Bank do not. The situation is unsustainable. A one-state solution with equal rights for both Jews and Palestinians is the only viable solution left open. This intrinsically peaceful and democratic proposal is virulently attacked by those who support the racist status quo; those who propose a peaceful one-state solution are smeared with the tired charge of antisemitism - a spurious accusation made by those who would deflect calm political analysis of Israel's criminal behavior - at all costs.
-----------------------------------------------
Commenting on, 'Emanuel invites Netanyahu to the White House - The Oval: tracking the Obama Presidency'; Kathy Kiely; May 26, 2010, USA Today
Netanyahu was already scheduled to schmooze in Canada. Thus, this USA Today fluff about Netanyahu being invited by Rahm Emanuel to visit the White House, last minute as it were, appears to be a photo-op sop for something already long in the works. It should be clearly understood that Netanyahu is not a man of peace. He is a tribalist chieftain of an apartheid state. It is not necessarily so that the opinions of the father are always adopted whole-cloth by the son, but Emanuel's father is on record inferring that Arabs are lower lifeforms than himself - a representative sample of the attitude of Israel's extremist ruling faction, a faction that in recent days has been categorized by one human rights organization as being the most racist in the entire history of the State of Israel.
Through the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians by Israel, who have been squeezed into razor-wire enclosed ghettos surrounded by IDF armed guards, Israel herelf has seen to it that a two-state solution is a virtual impossibility. The violent, racist settlers, one might note, have the vote, while the oppressed Palestinians in their own lands in the West Bank do not. The situation is unsustainable. A one-state solution with equal rights for both Jews and Palestinians is the only viable solution left open. This intrinsically peaceful and democratic proposal is virulently attacked by those who support the racist status quo; those who propose a peaceful one-state solution are smeared with the tired charge of antisemitism - a spurious accusation made by those who would deflect calm political analysis of Israel's criminal behavior - at all costs.
-----------------------------------------------
Commenting on, 'Emanuel invites Netanyahu to the White House - The Oval: tracking the Obama Presidency'; Kathy Kiely; May 26, 2010, USA Today
May 13, 2010
Elena Kagan and the Supreme Court: : Information Clearing House - ICH
Elena Kagan and the Supreme Court:
A Barnyard Smell in Chicago, Harvard and Washington
By James Petras
May 13, 2010: President Obama has nominated Elena Kagan for Justice of the United States Supreme Court on the basis of an academic publication record, which might give her a fighting chance for tenure at a first rate correspondence law school in the Texas Panhandle.
A review of her published scholarship after almost two decades in and out of academia turns up four law review articles, two brief pieces and several book reviews and in memoriam. There is nothing even remotely resembling a major legal text or research publication.
Her lack-luster academic publication record is only surpassed by her total lack of any practical experience as a judge: zero years in adjudication, unless one accepts the line of her exuberant advocates, who point to Kagan’s superb ability in adjudicating among the squabbling faculty at Harvard Law School when she served as Dean. No doubt Kagan had been very busy as the greatest fundraising Law School Dean in Harvard’s history ($400 million), which may account for the fact that she never found time to write a single academic article during her nine year tenure (2001-2009).
The criteria for her appointment to the Supreme Court have little to do with academic performance as it is understood today in all major universities. Nor does her total inexperience as a judicial advocate compensate for academic mediocrity.
The evidence points to a purely political appointment based, in part, on social networks and certainly not on her lack of affinity for the agenda of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. Kagan’s approval of indefinite detention of suspects squares with the extremist restrictions on constitutional freedoms first articulated during the Bush Administration and subsequently upheld by President Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder. It is no coincidence that Kagan appointed a notorious Bush torture advocate, the genial Jack Goldsmith, to the Harvard Law faculty.
Elena Kagan’s appointment certainly was not based on “diversity”. She will be the third Jew on the Supreme Court and, together with the six Roman Catholics, will decide the most critical cases with far-reaching and profound impact on citizens’ rights and protections. For the first time in US history the nation’s largest demographic group, the Protestants (of any hue or gender), will have no representative on the Court, thereby excluding the descendents, like retiring Justice Stevens, of the brilliant, strongly secular judicial heritage that formulated the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights and its amendments.
Kagan’s nomination to the US Supreme Court is not exceptional if we consider many of Bush and now Obama’s choices of advisers and officials in top policymaking posts. Many of these officials combined their diplomas from Ivy League universities with their absolutely disastrous performances in public office, which no amount of mass media puff pieces could obscure. These Ivy League mediocrities include the foreign policy advocates for the destructive and unending wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan and the leading economic advisers and officials responsible for the current financial debacles. The names are familiar enough: Wolfowitz, Feith, Abrams, Levey, Greenspan, Axelrod, Emmanuel, Indyk, Ross, Summers, Rubin, et al: Prestigious credentials with mediocre, or worse, performances. What is the basis of their rise? What explains their ascent to the most influential positions in the US power structure?
One hypothesis is nepotism . . . of a certain kind. Elena Kagan got tenure at the august halls of the University of Chicago in 1995 on the basis of one substantive article and one brief piece, neither outstanding. With this underwhelming record of legal scholarship, she became visiting professorship at the Harvard Law School, published only two more articles (one in Harvard Law Review) and received tenure. Prima facie evidence strongly suggests that Kagan’s ties to the staunchly Zionist faculty at both Chicago and Harvard Law Schools (and not her intellectual prowess) account for her meteoric promotions to tenure, deanship and now the US Supreme Court, over the heads of hundreds of other highly qualified candidates with far superior academic publication records and broader practical judicial experience.
The public utterances and political writings of innumerable Harvard, Princeton, Chicago, Yale, John Hopkins professors, whether it be on the speculative economy, Israel’s Middle East wars, preventative detention, broad presidential powers and constitutional freedoms are marked by a singular mediocrity, mendacity and an excess of hot air reeking of the barnyard.
If you do not qualify on the basis of excellent scholarship or broad-based practical experience, your ethnic tribesman will wax ecstatic over you as a “wonder colleague”, a “superb teacher”, a “brilliant consensus builder” and a “world champion fund raiser”. In other words, if you have the right ethnic connections and political ambitions, they can adjust the criteria for tenure at the University of Chicago, the deanship at Harvard Law School and a lifetime appointment to the US Supreme Court.
Elena Kagan joins a long list of key Obama appointees who have long-standing ties to the pro-Israel power configuration. Like Barack Obama, Elena Kagan started her legal apprenticeship with the Chicago Judge Abner Mitva, an ardent Zionist, who hailed the newly elected President Obama as “America’s first Jewish President”, probably his soundest judgment.
The issue of the composition of the US Supreme Court is increasingly crucial for all Americans, who are horrified by Israel’s devastation of Gaza, its threats to launch a nuclear attack on Iran and its Fifth Column’s efforts to drag us into a third war in ten years. With the Presidents of the Major American Jewish Organizations pressing the compliant US Congress to declare “anti-Zionism” as a form of “anti-Semitism” and “opposition to Israel’s policies” as amounting to “support for terrorism”, thus criminalizing Americans critical of Israel, another active pro-Zionist advocate on the Court will provide a legal cover for the advance of Zionist-dictated authoritarianism over the American people.
Yes, Kagan would be another woman on the Supreme Court. Yes, she would probably adjudicate conflicts among the judges and strengthen Obama’s police powers. And yes, she would likely favor your indefinite detention if you support the right of Palestinians to struggle (“terrorism”) against the Israeli occupation . . . especially if you defend America against Israel’s Fifth Column.
But remember when you apply for Ivy League law school appointment or a top judicial post and your CV lacks the requisite publications or work experience, just ask Judge Abner Mikva or Larry Summers or Rahm Emmanuel for a recommendation. With such support you will shoot ahead of the competition. . . because you have the right ethnic connections.
Elena Kagan and the Supreme Court: : Information Clearing House - ICH
A Barnyard Smell in Chicago, Harvard and Washington
By James Petras
May 13, 2010: President Obama has nominated Elena Kagan for Justice of the United States Supreme Court on the basis of an academic publication record, which might give her a fighting chance for tenure at a first rate correspondence law school in the Texas Panhandle.
A review of her published scholarship after almost two decades in and out of academia turns up four law review articles, two brief pieces and several book reviews and in memoriam. There is nothing even remotely resembling a major legal text or research publication.
Her lack-luster academic publication record is only surpassed by her total lack of any practical experience as a judge: zero years in adjudication, unless one accepts the line of her exuberant advocates, who point to Kagan’s superb ability in adjudicating among the squabbling faculty at Harvard Law School when she served as Dean. No doubt Kagan had been very busy as the greatest fundraising Law School Dean in Harvard’s history ($400 million), which may account for the fact that she never found time to write a single academic article during her nine year tenure (2001-2009).
The criteria for her appointment to the Supreme Court have little to do with academic performance as it is understood today in all major universities. Nor does her total inexperience as a judicial advocate compensate for academic mediocrity.
The evidence points to a purely political appointment based, in part, on social networks and certainly not on her lack of affinity for the agenda of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. Kagan’s approval of indefinite detention of suspects squares with the extremist restrictions on constitutional freedoms first articulated during the Bush Administration and subsequently upheld by President Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder. It is no coincidence that Kagan appointed a notorious Bush torture advocate, the genial Jack Goldsmith, to the Harvard Law faculty.
Elena Kagan’s appointment certainly was not based on “diversity”. She will be the third Jew on the Supreme Court and, together with the six Roman Catholics, will decide the most critical cases with far-reaching and profound impact on citizens’ rights and protections. For the first time in US history the nation’s largest demographic group, the Protestants (of any hue or gender), will have no representative on the Court, thereby excluding the descendents, like retiring Justice Stevens, of the brilliant, strongly secular judicial heritage that formulated the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights and its amendments.
Kagan’s nomination to the US Supreme Court is not exceptional if we consider many of Bush and now Obama’s choices of advisers and officials in top policymaking posts. Many of these officials combined their diplomas from Ivy League universities with their absolutely disastrous performances in public office, which no amount of mass media puff pieces could obscure. These Ivy League mediocrities include the foreign policy advocates for the destructive and unending wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan and the leading economic advisers and officials responsible for the current financial debacles. The names are familiar enough: Wolfowitz, Feith, Abrams, Levey, Greenspan, Axelrod, Emmanuel, Indyk, Ross, Summers, Rubin, et al: Prestigious credentials with mediocre, or worse, performances. What is the basis of their rise? What explains their ascent to the most influential positions in the US power structure?
One hypothesis is nepotism . . . of a certain kind. Elena Kagan got tenure at the august halls of the University of Chicago in 1995 on the basis of one substantive article and one brief piece, neither outstanding. With this underwhelming record of legal scholarship, she became visiting professorship at the Harvard Law School, published only two more articles (one in Harvard Law Review) and received tenure. Prima facie evidence strongly suggests that Kagan’s ties to the staunchly Zionist faculty at both Chicago and Harvard Law Schools (and not her intellectual prowess) account for her meteoric promotions to tenure, deanship and now the US Supreme Court, over the heads of hundreds of other highly qualified candidates with far superior academic publication records and broader practical judicial experience.
The public utterances and political writings of innumerable Harvard, Princeton, Chicago, Yale, John Hopkins professors, whether it be on the speculative economy, Israel’s Middle East wars, preventative detention, broad presidential powers and constitutional freedoms are marked by a singular mediocrity, mendacity and an excess of hot air reeking of the barnyard.
If you do not qualify on the basis of excellent scholarship or broad-based practical experience, your ethnic tribesman will wax ecstatic over you as a “wonder colleague”, a “superb teacher”, a “brilliant consensus builder” and a “world champion fund raiser”. In other words, if you have the right ethnic connections and political ambitions, they can adjust the criteria for tenure at the University of Chicago, the deanship at Harvard Law School and a lifetime appointment to the US Supreme Court.
Elena Kagan joins a long list of key Obama appointees who have long-standing ties to the pro-Israel power configuration. Like Barack Obama, Elena Kagan started her legal apprenticeship with the Chicago Judge Abner Mitva, an ardent Zionist, who hailed the newly elected President Obama as “America’s first Jewish President”, probably his soundest judgment.
The issue of the composition of the US Supreme Court is increasingly crucial for all Americans, who are horrified by Israel’s devastation of Gaza, its threats to launch a nuclear attack on Iran and its Fifth Column’s efforts to drag us into a third war in ten years. With the Presidents of the Major American Jewish Organizations pressing the compliant US Congress to declare “anti-Zionism” as a form of “anti-Semitism” and “opposition to Israel’s policies” as amounting to “support for terrorism”, thus criminalizing Americans critical of Israel, another active pro-Zionist advocate on the Court will provide a legal cover for the advance of Zionist-dictated authoritarianism over the American people.
Yes, Kagan would be another woman on the Supreme Court. Yes, she would probably adjudicate conflicts among the judges and strengthen Obama’s police powers. And yes, she would likely favor your indefinite detention if you support the right of Palestinians to struggle (“terrorism”) against the Israeli occupation . . . especially if you defend America against Israel’s Fifth Column.
But remember when you apply for Ivy League law school appointment or a top judicial post and your CV lacks the requisite publications or work experience, just ask Judge Abner Mikva or Larry Summers or Rahm Emmanuel for a recommendation. With such support you will shoot ahead of the competition. . . because you have the right ethnic connections.
James Petras has a long history of commitment to social justice, working in particular with the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement for 11 years. In 1973-76 he was a member of the Bertrand Russell Tribunal on Repression in Latin America. He writes a monthly column for the Mexican newspaper, La Jornada, and previously, for the Spanish daily, El Mundo. He received his B.A. from Boston University and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.
Elena Kagan and the Supreme Court: : Information Clearing House - ICH
May 12, 2010
May 05, 2010
In Canada On Israel - Defending Oppression - Criminalizing Dissent
May 5, 2010 (revised and updated May 8, 2010)
From: Diane V. McLoughlin, writer, peace activist
Website: mcloughlinpost.com
Twitter: McLoughlinPost
YouTube: dianevmc
E-mail: contact at mcloughlinpost.com
The Canadian Parliamentary Coalition Combating Antisemitism (CPCCA) has taken it upon itself to study and make recommendations to Parliament on ways to combat antisemitism; they have included in their mandate something referred to as 'the new antisemitism'.
According to the CPCCA website, 'Nazi' and 'apartheid' are offensive words used to describe Israel's supporters and the State of Israel, respectfully. The site alludes that individuals and certain states call for the destruction of the State of Israel, 'which is claimed to have no right to exist', and that individuals and states also call for the destruction of 'its inhabitants'. Altogether, the above is antisemitic. [1 a]
This is a lot to digest. Calling for the destruction of anyone is bad. But the CPCCA is making sweeping generalized claims without naming names, citing sources or with proof backed by facts.
To some it is antisemitic, as well as 'an existential threat' to the State of Israel to suggest that Israel should be one bi-national state with equal rights for all its citizens.
To some it is antisemitic to suggest that Jews and Palestinians, in both Israel proper and within the occupied territories, should have the right to citizenship, political representation, equal rights and the vote.
I believe that it is crucial to understand and note this facet of the discussion. Because to some, to call for democratic reform is actually viewed as a call for Israel's 'destruction'.
Others might be tempted to call tis a new form of fascism - but- they would probably be denounced as antisemites, which is an effective weapon used to shut critics up.
Twenty percent of Israel's population within Israel proper are not Jewish - they are Palestinian-Israelis. Many to the right on Israel's political spectrum want minorities to swear a loyalty oath to Israel as a Jewish state - not as a state for all its citizens. In the original wording of the Knesset-proposed bill, any Arab-Israeli who refused to uphold the exclusively Jewish character of Israel would be subject to imprisonment. [1 b]
On the demographics, if we count in occupied Gaza, East Jerusalem and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, otherwise known as the West Bank, Jews comprise around six million and Palestinians four million. A little further out again, there are the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon who want to go home. Under international law they continue to have every right to do so. In real terms, the guns of the Israeli Offense Forces keep them out, penned in deplorable conditions in displacement camps - for decades.
Outlawing criticism of the State of Israel closes one door and opens another. It will become legal to harass intellectuals, academics, civic and religious leaders as well as peace activists - to silence them.
State-sanctioned legal chill backed by the raw power of the state is a form of violence.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association maintains that we must respect freedom of expression. Censorship is not the solution to sensitivities around criticism of Israel. [1 c]
The feelings of Jewish students on campus is a prime motivator of the workings of the CPCCA; their site explains that the 'problem is especially prevalent on campuses where Jewish students are ridiculed and intimidated for any deemed support for the 'Nazi'; and 'apartheid'; State of Israel, which is claimed to have no right to exist.' [1 c i]
But as Archbishop Desmond Tutu points out, their discomfort in exposure to ideas counter to their own surely pales in comparison to how the beaten, occupied and oppressed Palestinians feel. (More on the Archbishops' thoughts further in the discussion, below.)
Those who argue that Israel is an apartheid state, or that Israel should be one bi-national state with equal rights for all its citizens, seem to be a target of the CPCCA agenda. That would include me. But if it becomes illegal hate speech to propose what may be the best hope for peace then the liklihood of peace is diminished. And it must be said that some people do not want peace - they want what Palestinians have - Palestinian land.
The word 'apartheid' comes in for special attention with the CPCCA. The suggestion is that its use in and of itself to describe the State of Israel is antisemitic.
But as Palestinian civic leader, nonviolent peace activist and 2010 Nobel Peace Prize nominee Dr. Mustafa Barghouti proffers, you see the separation wall, far longer than the Berlin Wall; the roads reserved for illegal Jewish squatters (referred to euphemistically as 'settlers') cutting through Palestinian land, and the severe punishment for any Palestinian caught walking or driving on them; the hundreds of armed checkpoints controlling every aspect of daily Palestinian life; the military harassment; the home demolitions; the expulsions; the political prisoners; the barbed wire; the beatings; the kidnapping and terrorizing of Palestinian children; deliberate destruction of Palestinian farms and orchards; attacks on mosques and schools; the arbitrary requirement for the carrying of unattainable military-issued identification papers; the political assassinations - you don't like the word apartheid? Fine. No problem. Give me another word to describe it. (From notes taken attending Dr. Barghouti's speech given at University of Ottawa, Marion Hall, May 7, 2010.)
Making the expression of the above illegal is a threat to civil liberties. It is a threat to the promotion of conditions necessary for peace. I believe that these truths are self-evident - that all men and women are created equal. It is impossible to square the circle of maintaining the purity of the racial makeup of a country while maintaining the fiction that any country that attempts to do so will protect its minorities' rights. The far-right in Israel view it as normal to assume a 'population transfer' of Palestinian Israelis out of Israel, if a two-state solution should ever come about.
So getting back to the business of the CPCCA, the repercussions of outlawing criticism of Israel's racist behavior could have untold and far-reaching negative consequences for promoting peace, anywhere, because
the shield we erect to prevent criticism of one state will be shields other states will clamor for, as well.
Ironically, political leaders in Israel have been speaking far more openly about the one-state two-state debate, than here in Canada. The topic of apartheid itself is broached.
Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin (Likud):
"I would rather [have] Palestinians as citizens of this country over dividing the land up"; [1 d]
Next - racist, but to the point:
"If the day comes when the two-state solution collapses, and we face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights (also for the Palestinians in the territories), then, as soon as that happens, the State of Israel is finished" - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert [2]
Another prime minister, now currently Israel's defense minister, Ehud Barak:
"If, and as long as between the Jordan and the sea, there is only one political entity, named Israel, it will end up being either non-Jewish or non-democratic... If the Palestinians vote in elections, it is a binational state, and if they don't, it is an apartheid state." [3]
Members invited to sit on the CPCCA committee to deliberate on these matters are now no doubt fully aware that the CPCCA meets against a global backdrop wherein the world is beginning to turn its full attention to the reality that Palestinians are oppressed under an odious, cruel and racist apartheid regime. There is little if any difference to this awakening of civil society with regard to Israel today and Apartheid South Africa of before.
For an account of the current state of affairs for Palestinians I recommend the Settler Violence Report from the Alternative Information Center - to wit, settlers are armed and backed by the full force of the fourth largest army in the world. Palestinians on the other hand, are denied the basic human right to self-defense. In sum no Palestinian, no place, anywhere is safe from harm free to live in security and peace. [4]
In recent days, compounding by orders of magnitude Palestinian insecurity, is the upgrade to Israel's law governing the military occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. In essence, if you don't have the proper military-issued documents, the IDF is empowered to deport you within 72 hours - making you pay the equivalent of $2,000 in cash for your own expulsion - or alternatively throw you in jail for seven years. [5]
Problem: The military has, in reality, issued almost no papers. The combined Palestinian population for the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem (but excluding Gaza and also Israel proper) is 1.73 million. Alarmed human rights groups assert that tens of thousands of Palestinians are at risk of forced expulsion. [5 a]
The military rules regarding military-issued papers are pure bureaucratic evil; rules made up as the occupation chooses, when it chooses, and for whom it chooses. [6]
I invite CPCCA members to consider that if criticism of a state is criminalized, Canada risks pariah status having positioned itself on the side of oppression. Canada, in my view, will be at very real risk of being seen as a hollow shell of a former democratic state.
Just as in the United States, one could argue that Canada's military is at increased risk overseas (although for me the best way to eliminate that risk entirely is to bring our troops home) - as long as the Israel-Palestine problem grinds on.
In written testimony to the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, Tuesday, March 16, 2010, General David Petraeus, commander of the U.S. military's Central Command, shared this view:
“The enduring hostilities between Israel and some of its neighbors present distinct challenges to our ability to advance our interests,” he said in the written testimony. “Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of US partnerships with governments and peoples in the [Middle East] and weakens the legitimacy of moderate regimes in the Arab world.” [7]
A tectonic shift in awareness is happening. Across the U.S. and Canada, student associations on campuses from coast to coast are finding ways to support the cause of freedom for the Palestinians. The method of choice is to join the BDS movement: boycott, divest and sanctions. (This dovetails with the Palestinian embrace of nonviolent resistance. Paradoxically, as the power of nonviolent resistance is realized and takes hold, violence against Palestinians appears to be increasing.)
A few weeks ago, the University of California Berkeley Students Association, after months of painstaking research into the university's investment portfolio, crafted a motion to recommend that the university divest from two American companies - General Electric, and United Technologies.
From the motion:
When the evening arrived when the motion was to be put to the floor the venue had to be changed several times to hold the growing crowd. Hundreds showed. Nobel peace prize winners wrote their support, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The Archbishop's letter concludes:
'To those who wrongly accuse you of unfairness or harm done to them by this call for divestment, I suggest, with humility, that the harm suffered from being confronted with opinions that challenge one’s own pales in comparison to the harm done by living a life under occupation and daily denial of basic rights and dignity. It is not with rancor that we criticize the Israeli government, but with hope, a hope that a better future can be made for both Israelis and Palestinians, a future in which both the violence of the occupier and the resulting violent resistance of the occupied come to an end, and where one people need not rule over another, engendering suffering, humiliation, and retaliation. True peace must be anchored in justice and an unwavering commitment to universal rights for all humans, regardless of ethnicity, religion, gender, national origin or any other identity attribute. You, students, are helping to pave that path to a just peace. I heartily endorse your divestment vote and encourage you to stand firm on the side of what is right.' [8 a]
The debate raged into morning: students, rabbis, politicians, civic leaders [8 b] and people of all faiths and backgrounds. The vote passed 16 - 4. It was subsequently vetoed by one vote - by the student's association president, Will Smelko, who wasn't even there that night.
A few weeks later, again, the vote was brought around to overturn the veto and permit the original results of the first vote to hold. Again, overflow crowd of hundreds; room changed; hours of debate into morning.
I followed inspiring tweets on Twitter from students such as isaacnoah.
This year, the Berkeley initiative inexplicably failed. You could have heard a pin drop when it did. Somehow, an overwhelming vote in favor by 13 - 5 was not enough - again, failing by one vote.
But the future is clear. Tonight: University of California San Diego (follow on Twitter at #ucsddivest .)
Here is a glimpse of the humanity shining through:
'Many will say this resolution is biased — and we could not agree more. This resolution is biased for human rights, justice and equality. It is biased against bombs and military occupation. Many will also try to argue that this resolution is singling Israel out, and is therefore anti-Israel. However, this bill does not condemn one oppressive apartheid regime more than any other. If Spain were occupying Palestine, then this resolution would note that Spanish occupation and seek to divest from it...do not fall victim to the fiction that the current military policies of the state of Israel represent the Jewish identity. There are an increasing number of Jewish and Israeli voices calling for an end to the occupation, including organizations such as B’Tselem, Jewish Voice for Peace, Meretz-Yachad, Gush Shalom and many others. These organizations see the occupation as both morally wrong and harmful to Israeli society. These broad coalitions include Holocaust survivors, rabbis and many other people of conscience who object to the terrible indignity that is forced upon the Palestinian people by right-wing extremists in their name.
'In fact, occupation is a right-wing political platform in Israel. Many Jewish citizens oppose it. So, if someone tells you that he is “for Israel” but only represents this side of the controversy, he’s not telling you the full story.
'Let this resolution become the piece of legislation that defines our generation...'. [9]
- Update: The divestment from General Electric and United Technologies motion by The Association of Students University of California San Diego was shelved.
For an idea of the polarity of views involved, a pro-Israel campus group, Tritons for Israel (TFI), does not even have agreement on whether or not, ' “occupancy” is an accurate word to describe Israel’s actions in the Palestinian territories.' [10]
So to the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition Combating Antisemitism, please do not turn Canada into a McCarthyite regime. This is what you are being asked to do. Voting to criminalize criticism of the Apartheid regime of Israel is something straight out of Orwell's '1984': War is peace; occupation is freedom; discrimination is equality; oppression is democracy, and the notion that all men are created equal is antisemitic.
It is impossible to become any more Alice Through the Looking Glass than this. The highest democratic ideals will be rendered thought crimes. Web sites and independent publications such as mine will be forcefully shut down without notice. Ideas will be examined and cross-examined probing for these peaceful and just beliefs. People will be fired and blackballed and financially ruined. In the ensuing witch hunt, suspected antisemites, under this new draconian definition, will be forced to account for themselves in kangaroo courts where they will be guilty until proven innocent. Careers, families and lives will be destroyed.
The nightmare described above happened, of all places, in the United States of America. There were two distinct periods in the twentieth century, each known as the Red Scare. In the second case, anyone suspected of having communist sympathies, and, of course, anyone with an enemy holding a personal grudge could find themselves targeted.
If it can happen there, societal insanity can happen anywhere. It is up to each generation to uphold and protect civil liberties from being whittled, weakened or co-opted.
These are the fundamental choices you are being asked to make. Choose wrong and Canada will cease to be the True North, strong and free.
Most sincerely yours,
Diane V. McLoughlin
Respectfully requesting the Office of the Secretariat disseminate copies to the members of the committee, with heart-felt thanks.
References:
[1a] CPCCA Frequently Asked Questions; http://www.cpcca.ca/faqs.htm
[1b] 'Israel debates loyalty law'; Al Jazeera English; June 1, 2009;
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/05/200952716164623556.html
[1c] 'CCLA urges effective and democratic measures to combat antisemitism'; September 2nd, 2009; http://ccla.org/?p=2528
[1 c i] ibid; http://www.cpcca.ca/faqs.htm
[1d] 'Knesset speaker hints at one-state'; Al Jazeera English; May 2, 2010
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/2010429194642122928.html
[2] 'Olmert to Haaretz: Two-state solution or Israel is done for'; Haaretz; Nov. 29, 2007; http://www.haaretz.com/news/olmert-to-haaretz-two-state-solution-or-israel-is-done-for-1.234201
[3] 'Ehud Barak breaks the apartheid barrier'; The Economist; Feb. 15, 2010; http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2010/02/israel_demography_democracy_or_apartheid
[4] Alternative Information Center March - April 2010 Report:
http://www.alternativenews.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2582:settler-violence-report-march-april-2010&catid=164:settler-violence-reports&Itemid=907 )
[5] Israel Defense Force's Order 1650 (English translation) PDF:
http://www.jmcc.org/documents/Order_regarding_prevention_of_infiltration_amendment.pdf
[5a] 'OPT: Week in Review - Israeli Law Threatens Mass Deportation'; Relief Web; Apr. 17, 2010; http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/AZHU-84LTAZ?OpenDocument
[6] 'New law could deport thousands of West Bank Palestinians'; Dan Izenberg; Apr. 12, 2010; Jerusalem Post
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=172917
[7] 'Arab-Israeli conflict hurts US'; Leila Krieger; Jerusalem Post; March 18, 2010; http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=171255
[7a] ASUC Elected Officials Blog; Blog Archive; SB 118: Amended - Passed; Mar. 18, 2010; http://blogs.asuc.org/2010/03/18/announcements/sb-118-amended-passed/
[8 a] 'Archbishop Desmond Tutu to UC Berkeley: Divesting is the Right Thing To Do'; Palestine Center; April 11, 2010; http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/display/ContentDetails/i/10147/pid/895
[8 b] Hedy Epstein, Holocaust survivor, speaks at Berkeley students association divestment vote meeting. YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h95mitkbg9M&feature=player_embedded
[9] 'Taskforce Guest commentary in UCSD Guardian - Historic Opportunity at Hand'; Anfal Awwad, Benjamin Balthaser, Oliver Birchill, Amal Dalmar and Aaron Dimsdale; UCSD Divest For Peace; May 3, 2010; http://www.ucsddivestforpeace.org/
[10] 'Talks Fail to Bring About Compromise - UCSD Guardian'; by Angela Chen; May 6, 2010; http://www.ucsddivestforpeace.org/2010/05/talks-fail-to-bring-about-compromise-ucsd-guardian/
From: Diane V. McLoughlin, writer, peace activist
Website: mcloughlinpost.com
Twitter: McLoughlinPost
YouTube: dianevmc
E-mail: contact at mcloughlinpost.com
The Canadian Parliamentary Coalition Combating Antisemitism (CPCCA) has taken it upon itself to study and make recommendations to Parliament on ways to combat antisemitism; they have included in their mandate something referred to as 'the new antisemitism'.
According to the CPCCA website, 'Nazi' and 'apartheid' are offensive words used to describe Israel's supporters and the State of Israel, respectfully. The site alludes that individuals and certain states call for the destruction of the State of Israel, 'which is claimed to have no right to exist', and that individuals and states also call for the destruction of 'its inhabitants'. Altogether, the above is antisemitic. [1 a]
This is a lot to digest. Calling for the destruction of anyone is bad. But the CPCCA is making sweeping generalized claims without naming names, citing sources or with proof backed by facts.
To some it is antisemitic, as well as 'an existential threat' to the State of Israel to suggest that Israel should be one bi-national state with equal rights for all its citizens.
To some it is antisemitic to suggest that Jews and Palestinians, in both Israel proper and within the occupied territories, should have the right to citizenship, political representation, equal rights and the vote.
I believe that it is crucial to understand and note this facet of the discussion. Because to some, to call for democratic reform is actually viewed as a call for Israel's 'destruction'.
Others might be tempted to call tis a new form of fascism - but- they would probably be denounced as antisemites, which is an effective weapon used to shut critics up.
Twenty percent of Israel's population within Israel proper are not Jewish - they are Palestinian-Israelis. Many to the right on Israel's political spectrum want minorities to swear a loyalty oath to Israel as a Jewish state - not as a state for all its citizens. In the original wording of the Knesset-proposed bill, any Arab-Israeli who refused to uphold the exclusively Jewish character of Israel would be subject to imprisonment. [1 b]
On the demographics, if we count in occupied Gaza, East Jerusalem and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, otherwise known as the West Bank, Jews comprise around six million and Palestinians four million. A little further out again, there are the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon who want to go home. Under international law they continue to have every right to do so. In real terms, the guns of the Israeli Offense Forces keep them out, penned in deplorable conditions in displacement camps - for decades.
Outlawing criticism of the State of Israel closes one door and opens another. It will become legal to harass intellectuals, academics, civic and religious leaders as well as peace activists - to silence them.
State-sanctioned legal chill backed by the raw power of the state is a form of violence.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association maintains that we must respect freedom of expression. Censorship is not the solution to sensitivities around criticism of Israel. [1 c]
The feelings of Jewish students on campus is a prime motivator of the workings of the CPCCA; their site explains that the 'problem is especially prevalent on campuses where Jewish students are ridiculed and intimidated for any deemed support for the 'Nazi'; and 'apartheid'; State of Israel, which is claimed to have no right to exist.' [1 c i]
But as Archbishop Desmond Tutu points out, their discomfort in exposure to ideas counter to their own surely pales in comparison to how the beaten, occupied and oppressed Palestinians feel. (More on the Archbishops' thoughts further in the discussion, below.)
Those who argue that Israel is an apartheid state, or that Israel should be one bi-national state with equal rights for all its citizens, seem to be a target of the CPCCA agenda. That would include me. But if it becomes illegal hate speech to propose what may be the best hope for peace then the liklihood of peace is diminished. And it must be said that some people do not want peace - they want what Palestinians have - Palestinian land.
The word 'apartheid' comes in for special attention with the CPCCA. The suggestion is that its use in and of itself to describe the State of Israel is antisemitic.
But as Palestinian civic leader, nonviolent peace activist and 2010 Nobel Peace Prize nominee Dr. Mustafa Barghouti proffers, you see the separation wall, far longer than the Berlin Wall; the roads reserved for illegal Jewish squatters (referred to euphemistically as 'settlers') cutting through Palestinian land, and the severe punishment for any Palestinian caught walking or driving on them; the hundreds of armed checkpoints controlling every aspect of daily Palestinian life; the military harassment; the home demolitions; the expulsions; the political prisoners; the barbed wire; the beatings; the kidnapping and terrorizing of Palestinian children; deliberate destruction of Palestinian farms and orchards; attacks on mosques and schools; the arbitrary requirement for the carrying of unattainable military-issued identification papers; the political assassinations - you don't like the word apartheid? Fine. No problem. Give me another word to describe it. (From notes taken attending Dr. Barghouti's speech given at University of Ottawa, Marion Hall, May 7, 2010.)
Making the expression of the above illegal is a threat to civil liberties. It is a threat to the promotion of conditions necessary for peace. I believe that these truths are self-evident - that all men and women are created equal. It is impossible to square the circle of maintaining the purity of the racial makeup of a country while maintaining the fiction that any country that attempts to do so will protect its minorities' rights. The far-right in Israel view it as normal to assume a 'population transfer' of Palestinian Israelis out of Israel, if a two-state solution should ever come about.
So getting back to the business of the CPCCA, the repercussions of outlawing criticism of Israel's racist behavior could have untold and far-reaching negative consequences for promoting peace, anywhere, because
the shield we erect to prevent criticism of one state will be shields other states will clamor for, as well.
Ironically, political leaders in Israel have been speaking far more openly about the one-state two-state debate, than here in Canada. The topic of apartheid itself is broached.
Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin (Likud):
"I would rather [have] Palestinians as citizens of this country over dividing the land up"; [1 d]
Next - racist, but to the point:
"If the day comes when the two-state solution collapses, and we face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights (also for the Palestinians in the territories), then, as soon as that happens, the State of Israel is finished" - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert [2]
Another prime minister, now currently Israel's defense minister, Ehud Barak:
"If, and as long as between the Jordan and the sea, there is only one political entity, named Israel, it will end up being either non-Jewish or non-democratic... If the Palestinians vote in elections, it is a binational state, and if they don't, it is an apartheid state." [3]
Members invited to sit on the CPCCA committee to deliberate on these matters are now no doubt fully aware that the CPCCA meets against a global backdrop wherein the world is beginning to turn its full attention to the reality that Palestinians are oppressed under an odious, cruel and racist apartheid regime. There is little if any difference to this awakening of civil society with regard to Israel today and Apartheid South Africa of before.
For an account of the current state of affairs for Palestinians I recommend the Settler Violence Report from the Alternative Information Center - to wit, settlers are armed and backed by the full force of the fourth largest army in the world. Palestinians on the other hand, are denied the basic human right to self-defense. In sum no Palestinian, no place, anywhere is safe from harm free to live in security and peace. [4]
In recent days, compounding by orders of magnitude Palestinian insecurity, is the upgrade to Israel's law governing the military occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. In essence, if you don't have the proper military-issued documents, the IDF is empowered to deport you within 72 hours - making you pay the equivalent of $2,000 in cash for your own expulsion - or alternatively throw you in jail for seven years. [5]
Problem: The military has, in reality, issued almost no papers. The combined Palestinian population for the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem (but excluding Gaza and also Israel proper) is 1.73 million. Alarmed human rights groups assert that tens of thousands of Palestinians are at risk of forced expulsion. [5 a]
The military rules regarding military-issued papers are pure bureaucratic evil; rules made up as the occupation chooses, when it chooses, and for whom it chooses. [6]
I invite CPCCA members to consider that if criticism of a state is criminalized, Canada risks pariah status having positioned itself on the side of oppression. Canada, in my view, will be at very real risk of being seen as a hollow shell of a former democratic state.
Just as in the United States, one could argue that Canada's military is at increased risk overseas (although for me the best way to eliminate that risk entirely is to bring our troops home) - as long as the Israel-Palestine problem grinds on.
In written testimony to the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, Tuesday, March 16, 2010, General David Petraeus, commander of the U.S. military's Central Command, shared this view:
“The enduring hostilities between Israel and some of its neighbors present distinct challenges to our ability to advance our interests,” he said in the written testimony. “Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of US partnerships with governments and peoples in the [Middle East] and weakens the legitimacy of moderate regimes in the Arab world.” [7]
A tectonic shift in awareness is happening. Across the U.S. and Canada, student associations on campuses from coast to coast are finding ways to support the cause of freedom for the Palestinians. The method of choice is to join the BDS movement: boycott, divest and sanctions. (This dovetails with the Palestinian embrace of nonviolent resistance. Paradoxically, as the power of nonviolent resistance is realized and takes hold, violence against Palestinians appears to be increasing.)
A few weeks ago, the University of California Berkeley Students Association, after months of painstaking research into the university's investment portfolio, crafted a motion to recommend that the university divest from two American companies - General Electric, and United Technologies.
From the motion:
- WHEREAS, General Electric holds engineering support and testing service contracts with the Israeli military and supplies the Israeli government with the propulsion system for its Apache Assault Helicopter fleet, which, as documented by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, has been used in attacks on Palestinian and Lebanese civilians, including the January 4, 2009 killings of Palestinian medical aide workers11; and
When the evening arrived when the motion was to be put to the floor the venue had to be changed several times to hold the growing crowd. Hundreds showed. Nobel peace prize winners wrote their support, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The Archbishop's letter concludes:
'To those who wrongly accuse you of unfairness or harm done to them by this call for divestment, I suggest, with humility, that the harm suffered from being confronted with opinions that challenge one’s own pales in comparison to the harm done by living a life under occupation and daily denial of basic rights and dignity. It is not with rancor that we criticize the Israeli government, but with hope, a hope that a better future can be made for both Israelis and Palestinians, a future in which both the violence of the occupier and the resulting violent resistance of the occupied come to an end, and where one people need not rule over another, engendering suffering, humiliation, and retaliation. True peace must be anchored in justice and an unwavering commitment to universal rights for all humans, regardless of ethnicity, religion, gender, national origin or any other identity attribute. You, students, are helping to pave that path to a just peace. I heartily endorse your divestment vote and encourage you to stand firm on the side of what is right.' [8 a]
The debate raged into morning: students, rabbis, politicians, civic leaders [8 b] and people of all faiths and backgrounds. The vote passed 16 - 4. It was subsequently vetoed by one vote - by the student's association president, Will Smelko, who wasn't even there that night.
A few weeks later, again, the vote was brought around to overturn the veto and permit the original results of the first vote to hold. Again, overflow crowd of hundreds; room changed; hours of debate into morning.
I followed inspiring tweets on Twitter from students such as isaacnoah.
This year, the Berkeley initiative inexplicably failed. You could have heard a pin drop when it did. Somehow, an overwhelming vote in favor by 13 - 5 was not enough - again, failing by one vote.
But the future is clear. Tonight: University of California San Diego (follow on Twitter at #ucsddivest .)
Here is a glimpse of the humanity shining through:
'Many will say this resolution is biased — and we could not agree more. This resolution is biased for human rights, justice and equality. It is biased against bombs and military occupation. Many will also try to argue that this resolution is singling Israel out, and is therefore anti-Israel. However, this bill does not condemn one oppressive apartheid regime more than any other. If Spain were occupying Palestine, then this resolution would note that Spanish occupation and seek to divest from it...do not fall victim to the fiction that the current military policies of the state of Israel represent the Jewish identity. There are an increasing number of Jewish and Israeli voices calling for an end to the occupation, including organizations such as B’Tselem, Jewish Voice for Peace, Meretz-Yachad, Gush Shalom and many others. These organizations see the occupation as both morally wrong and harmful to Israeli society. These broad coalitions include Holocaust survivors, rabbis and many other people of conscience who object to the terrible indignity that is forced upon the Palestinian people by right-wing extremists in their name.
'In fact, occupation is a right-wing political platform in Israel. Many Jewish citizens oppose it. So, if someone tells you that he is “for Israel” but only represents this side of the controversy, he’s not telling you the full story.
'Let this resolution become the piece of legislation that defines our generation...'. [9]
- Update: The divestment from General Electric and United Technologies motion by The Association of Students University of California San Diego was shelved.
For an idea of the polarity of views involved, a pro-Israel campus group, Tritons for Israel (TFI), does not even have agreement on whether or not, ' “occupancy” is an accurate word to describe Israel’s actions in the Palestinian territories.' [10]
So to the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition Combating Antisemitism, please do not turn Canada into a McCarthyite regime. This is what you are being asked to do. Voting to criminalize criticism of the Apartheid regime of Israel is something straight out of Orwell's '1984': War is peace; occupation is freedom; discrimination is equality; oppression is democracy, and the notion that all men are created equal is antisemitic.
It is impossible to become any more Alice Through the Looking Glass than this. The highest democratic ideals will be rendered thought crimes. Web sites and independent publications such as mine will be forcefully shut down without notice. Ideas will be examined and cross-examined probing for these peaceful and just beliefs. People will be fired and blackballed and financially ruined. In the ensuing witch hunt, suspected antisemites, under this new draconian definition, will be forced to account for themselves in kangaroo courts where they will be guilty until proven innocent. Careers, families and lives will be destroyed.
The nightmare described above happened, of all places, in the United States of America. There were two distinct periods in the twentieth century, each known as the Red Scare. In the second case, anyone suspected of having communist sympathies, and, of course, anyone with an enemy holding a personal grudge could find themselves targeted.
If it can happen there, societal insanity can happen anywhere. It is up to each generation to uphold and protect civil liberties from being whittled, weakened or co-opted.
These are the fundamental choices you are being asked to make. Choose wrong and Canada will cease to be the True North, strong and free.
Most sincerely yours,
Diane V. McLoughlin
Respectfully requesting the Office of the Secretariat disseminate copies to the members of the committee, with heart-felt thanks.
References:
[1a] CPCCA Frequently Asked Questions; http://www.cpcca.ca/faqs.htm
[1b] 'Israel debates loyalty law'; Al Jazeera English; June 1, 2009;
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/05/200952716164623556.html
[1c] 'CCLA urges effective and democratic measures to combat antisemitism'; September 2nd, 2009; http://ccla.org/?p=2528
[1 c i] ibid; http://www.cpcca.ca/faqs.htm
[1d] 'Knesset speaker hints at one-state'; Al Jazeera English; May 2, 2010
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/2010429194642122928.html
[2] 'Olmert to Haaretz: Two-state solution or Israel is done for'; Haaretz; Nov. 29, 2007; http://www.haaretz.com/news/olmert-to-haaretz-two-state-solution-or-israel-is-done-for-1.234201
[3] 'Ehud Barak breaks the apartheid barrier'; The Economist; Feb. 15, 2010; http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2010/02/israel_demography_democracy_or_apartheid
[4] Alternative Information Center March - April 2010 Report:
http://www.alternativenews.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2582:settler-violence-report-march-april-2010&catid=164:settler-violence-reports&Itemid=907 )
[5] Israel Defense Force's Order 1650 (English translation) PDF:
http://www.jmcc.org/documents/Order_regarding_prevention_of_infiltration_amendment.pdf
[5a] 'OPT: Week in Review - Israeli Law Threatens Mass Deportation'; Relief Web; Apr. 17, 2010; http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/AZHU-84LTAZ?OpenDocument
[6] 'New law could deport thousands of West Bank Palestinians'; Dan Izenberg; Apr. 12, 2010; Jerusalem Post
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=172917
[7] 'Arab-Israeli conflict hurts US'; Leila Krieger; Jerusalem Post; March 18, 2010; http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=171255
[7a] ASUC Elected Officials Blog; Blog Archive; SB 118: Amended - Passed; Mar. 18, 2010; http://blogs.asuc.org/2010/03/18/announcements/sb-118-amended-passed/
[8 a] 'Archbishop Desmond Tutu to UC Berkeley: Divesting is the Right Thing To Do'; Palestine Center; April 11, 2010; http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/display/ContentDetails/i/10147/pid/895
[8 b] Hedy Epstein, Holocaust survivor, speaks at Berkeley students association divestment vote meeting. YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h95mitkbg9M&feature=player_embedded
[9] 'Taskforce Guest commentary in UCSD Guardian - Historic Opportunity at Hand'; Anfal Awwad, Benjamin Balthaser, Oliver Birchill, Amal Dalmar and Aaron Dimsdale; UCSD Divest For Peace; May 3, 2010; http://www.ucsddivestforpeace.org/
[10] 'Talks Fail to Bring About Compromise - UCSD Guardian'; by Angela Chen; May 6, 2010; http://www.ucsddivestforpeace.org/2010/05/talks-fail-to-bring-about-compromise-ucsd-guardian/
May 04, 2010
May 03, 2010
Question - Could we bomb it shut - the oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico
by Diane V. McLoughlin
May 3, 2010: The Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is epic. Since April 20th, hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil have been gushing out of the drilled hole in the ocean floor a mile down after an explosion and fire destroyed the rig.
If we could get a conventional bomb or two into the ground close enough to the well, and deep enough into the ground, I wonder if they might be able to seal it off.
The oil is gushing out of a narrow drilled hole - one very deep, thin well. From the ocean floor the drilled well is 5.5 miles deep. [1]
This compromised oil well is currently gushing anywhere from 210,000 - 420,000 gallons of oil per day. The situation could change at any time and skyrocket to millions of gallons of oil per day if compromised equipment gives way. [2]
BP's current solutions could take as long as three months to implement - one is to drill into the side of the hole and plug it. I personally take the three months with a grain of salt.
Another factor to consider is that the Atlantic hurricane season is roughly from June 1st to November 30th. Bad weather may become another impediment.
We cannot wait three months or even longer to stop this oil. There is so much oil that could end up being released that it could not only destroy the natural environment along the entire southern coast, but it could also end up fouling the Eastern seaboard of the U.S. and Canada before migrating to Europe and beyond. This has the potential to have absolutely catastrophic consequences to entire ecological and environmental systems. Economies will fry. Human health will suffer.
This is very, very bad.
We should never have permitted this type of risky deep-ocean drilling in the first place. We need to solve this problem, like, yesterday. The oil has been gushing for 13 days and counting as of today's date.
[1] 'Deepwater Horizon debacle pushes alt energy'; Paul Noel; Pure Energy Systems; May 1, 2010; http://pesn.com/2010/05/01/9501642_Deepwater_Horizon_debacle/
[2] 'Leaked report - Government fears Deepwater Horizon well could become unchecked gusher'; Ben Raines; Al.com; Apr. 30, 2010;
http://blog.al.com/live/2010/04/deepwater_horizon_secret_memo.html
May 3, 2010: The Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is epic. Since April 20th, hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil have been gushing out of the drilled hole in the ocean floor a mile down after an explosion and fire destroyed the rig.
If we could get a conventional bomb or two into the ground close enough to the well, and deep enough into the ground, I wonder if they might be able to seal it off.
The oil is gushing out of a narrow drilled hole - one very deep, thin well. From the ocean floor the drilled well is 5.5 miles deep. [1]
This compromised oil well is currently gushing anywhere from 210,000 - 420,000 gallons of oil per day. The situation could change at any time and skyrocket to millions of gallons of oil per day if compromised equipment gives way. [2]
BP's current solutions could take as long as three months to implement - one is to drill into the side of the hole and plug it. I personally take the three months with a grain of salt.
Another factor to consider is that the Atlantic hurricane season is roughly from June 1st to November 30th. Bad weather may become another impediment.
We cannot wait three months or even longer to stop this oil. There is so much oil that could end up being released that it could not only destroy the natural environment along the entire southern coast, but it could also end up fouling the Eastern seaboard of the U.S. and Canada before migrating to Europe and beyond. This has the potential to have absolutely catastrophic consequences to entire ecological and environmental systems. Economies will fry. Human health will suffer.
This is very, very bad.
We should never have permitted this type of risky deep-ocean drilling in the first place. We need to solve this problem, like, yesterday. The oil has been gushing for 13 days and counting as of today's date.
[1] 'Deepwater Horizon debacle pushes alt energy'; Paul Noel; Pure Energy Systems; May 1, 2010; http://pesn.com/2010/05/01/9501642_Deepwater_Horizon_debacle/
[2] 'Leaked report - Government fears Deepwater Horizon well could become unchecked gusher'; Ben Raines; Al.com; Apr. 30, 2010;
http://blog.al.com/live/2010/04/deepwater_horizon_secret_memo.html
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