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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOil soaked Mayflower, Arkansas needs your help
Exxon and our store bought state legislators are doing their best to stifle news coming from this oil spill. Statements from Exxon seem inconsistent with what residents are seeing. A Facebook page has been created to help citizens spread their stories. Please help spread the word until the media has no choice but to give this in-depth coverage. (https://www.facebook.com/MayflowerArkansasOilSpill)
"Hwy 89 ~ they were draining and filtering the cove water into the lake this evening ~ I don't believe they are telling us everything ~ we did not smell it in Paradise Landing until today and it has gotten stronger as the day has moved on ~ where is the Arkansas Game & Fish ~ who is questioning the Top dogs and their decisions? ~ I am a concerned citizen"
MotherPetrie
(3,145 posts)NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)Why, just in the Gulf of Mexico alone, more than 43,000 miles, some if over 65 years old.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)Plus, there was much talk during the BP disaster that the actual floor of the Gulf had been leaking oil thru fratures caused by drilling.
Now whenever there is a sign of oil on the water or the beach, they have to test it to tell us which of the many spurces in the Golf it is from.
Shrimp, anyone?
warrior1
(12,325 posts)never be over for those folks. Once this ground has been polluted with oil, without digging out all of the ground it's tainted there is no solution, except never doing it the first place.
redqueen
(115,103 posts)jehop61
(1,735 posts)Isn't Arkansas one of those thoroughly "red"states? Now they want the nation to help with their problem oil spill. Or should they just sit back and wail for the oil company to take care of it? Oh the hypocracy!
Cannikin
(8,359 posts)And yes, your Red State Dems do need support.
Legislature is very red, i.e. their abortion laws. The spill definitely needs clean up for the good of all citizens. I just find it ironic that suddenly big govt. is now a good thing when they need it.
Cannikin
(8,359 posts)I asked for DU's help getting the word about the spill out. There has been no mention of big government. Quite the contrary, our ALEC funded legislators are busy trying to get us to look the other way. This has opened the eyes of many who trusted these hacks and ignored the Dem's warnings before they were elected. We flipped GOP for the first time since Reconstruction in this election. I think Arkansas is starting to remember why.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)since Reconstruction and ALEC written bills are being rammed through. Repug Governor, too. Yet the DEM Convention was in Charlotte and NC went Blue for Obama in '08 but not '12. Nothing was done here after the 2008 Election with that useless Tim Kaine.
Anyway definitely feel for you there. Our State is now supporting Fracking so we will be next disaster in the waiting.
It's dreadful what's going on.
AAO
(3,300 posts)Cause voter fraud is such a HUGH!^& problem in the US.
LiberalArkie
(15,719 posts)Rapert and some others would have been elected. None of this right would stuff would have had a chance of passage. With out the DNC help we will probably have a Repub governor next election.
On thinking, I would have preferred it to happen in Bentonville
truedelphi
(32,324 posts)As someone who sat in California and watched Top of Her Party Dem Di Feinstein arrange the election candidates such that the state governership was guaranteed a win by Ahnold ("R" on TWO occasions, I really and truly understand...
Response to LiberalArkie (Reply #16)
Art_from_Ark This message was self-deleted by its author.
B2G
(9,766 posts)Disgusting.
BlueToTheBone
(3,747 posts)thoroughly red states last election. Until about 2000 or so, this was a diamond in the south. Pristine water, beautiful forests, abundant wildlife, democratic hosue and semate. Then the Kochs came to town and joined the Waltons and Tysons and Cargill and we are screwn beyond belief. Last election the state officially turn red for the first time since the reconstruction.
I called Tim Griffin's office and suggested he roll around some of that tar sand and I'd bring feathers for the event.
But it is terrible.
cordelia
(2,174 posts)TexasBushwhacker
(20,204 posts)maybe it will keep Obama from approving the Keystone XL pipeline. At the very least, he should delay his decision until we know how extensive the damage is, the cost of the cleanup and the long term effects.
RILib
(862 posts)DhhD
(4,695 posts)on the Texas and Louisiana coast. It was already inevitable that oils and natural gas would be readied to export. Drill Baby Drill has lead to an over supply of fossil fuels as gasoline price is over inflated now. Natural gas is very low in price but they keep drilling! Fascist enjoying screwing America.
JaneyVee
(19,877 posts)ReRe
(10,597 posts)Disgusting seems to be the word of the day. Thank you for these photos. They really bring it home, don't they? Stops you right in your proverbial tracks.
SunSeeker
(51,574 posts)Squinch
(50,955 posts)SunSeeker
(51,574 posts)malaise
(269,063 posts)any media in the US.
This is a disaster - they have forced so many people out of their own homes.
Time to stop these greedy scumbags and their enablers.
redqueen
(115,103 posts)Didn't see anything on BBC News this morning but there's a chance I might have missed it.
malaise
(269,063 posts)Shankapotomus
(4,840 posts)a giant "Drill, Baby, Drill" sign smack dab in the middle of that mess and take a picture.
bluedigger
(17,086 posts)nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)it is getting out
http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/12887
malaise
(269,063 posts)The corporate media are shameless
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)malaise
(269,063 posts)Have no fear - this is not receiving widespread coverage deliberately
xxqqqzme
(14,887 posts)n/t
They_Live
(3,236 posts)I don't notice seeing them in these photos.
rwsanders
(2,606 posts)O'Brien's is probably in the command center, and you will see various hazmat clean up companies on site. You will see Exxon reps in the command center also, mainly handling media.
DhhD
(4,695 posts)has to have on file with the Minerals Management office (or something like that) with in the Department of the Interior. Surly the AR Senators could see that an online link is available.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)so thanks for getting more of the word out on Facebook and wherever else you can.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)Berlum
(7,044 posts)These guys really don't want anyone to know the truth. Right out of the Republican playbook.
riverbendviewgal
(4,253 posts)This is a real disaster and those who make money from the the pipelines and tarsands are the comanies who own them, and the politicians who are bought by them.
This is sad day for Arkansas.
Gin
(7,212 posts)All the news say it was stopped before it got into the. Lake.
God...what an awful mess.
Iliyah
(25,111 posts)on voting ID? The rate its going even the GOPers will begin to lose their base, and then what?
AAO
(3,300 posts)democrank
(11,096 posts)glowing
(12,233 posts)"Likes" by the end of the day and by the end of the week.... This is the worst news for those shilling the XL pipeline and just proves that this dirty sand tar crude oil cannot be contained and can and will cause huge issues into our future (the current pipelines, fracking issues, and oil platforms in oceans are not safe and are not the way we should be investing in our future.
A larger % of this country believes we ought to be investing in wind and solar power options. And that the way our power is delivered needs to be shores up. We have $2 trillion dollars worth of infrastructure projects that need to be addressed just to bring outdated necessities up to modern code. We could sorely use another $2-4 trillion on creating modern transport, modernizing govt infrastructure and schools and airports and high speed rail transit and the list goes on and on. Everyone is of the opinion that the govt should be hiring workers to do the jobs of making a better America. It may not be sexy to build a bridge, rather than bomb one in a foriegn country utilizing the latest drone, but it's the raw grit stuff that needs to be handled and done!
And for all those asshat republicans who keep saying cut taxes and cut the bloat of the govt, are the first one's who want a govt job with the bennies package. They are just tired of seeing themselves pay taxes on things that they can't substantially feel (like their kids' school needing a new roof or the football program cut, the pot holes on their street getting bigger each year, the cost of health care increasing or being cut from their workplace if they have a workplace, college becoming unaffordable and not a guarantee for a good paying job for all the loans they and their kids have to borrow on). And then they get their heads all wound up by fake groups like the Astro-turfing tea party groups who have taken their real anger and pushed it onto liberals, Obama, Pelosi/ Reid, and those who are struggling even worse that qualify for food stamps and Medicaid for their children.
It's time we stop belittling one another all over Facebook and Op-Eds, get off our duffs, throw away our "D"/ "R"/ "Ind"/ "Libertarian" parties and join forces together with what we have in common and to elect people that are not wealthy, tied to the system, plutocrats so that we have a fair and just American People Party.
Unless they are just crazy, loony toons, most people are united by more ideals than what divides us. We often disagree on the means to paying for the outcome, however, the want and the needs are very similar from neighbor to neighbor, from community to community, from red state to blue state. Most of the people have been run over, ignored, spit upon, and grievously wronged by those in the upper 1%. The fact that these 1%'rs have bought their politicians, judges, infused into buerocratic positions (like Monsanto corporate people being hired into the FDA and agriculture or Big Pharma persons writing Laws to help protect them), and the worst is when they become the politician theirselves supposedly representing the people.
Instead of fighting one another, we need to band together and make our country work for the greatest good of its people, instead of continuing to allow them to divide us by color, by religion, by party, by cultural differences, by whom we love... Perhaps, as liberals (since we seem to have the capacity for allowing reason, facts, and justice to rule our brains and also seem to have the ability to empathize and greater compassion to love humanity world wide), we should be the one's to begin the work of healing our divides, forgiving idiocy, hatreds, and fears, to come together... To find our common bonds and links... To show that we can try to find a common humanity link. Much of our work has to begin with knowledge and facts and listening. We may know what some dumb quack is pedaling with lies and bullying with their attacks on line and in communities, but unless they have a genetic marker that makes them a sociopath or psychopath, we should be able to find something in common with one another on something.
Even ourselves, we tend to devolve right here at our home. We attack one another. Make statements to one another that are harsh and full of venom. We are all coming from different perspectives, families, life backgrounds, socioeconomic differences, even different geographies.
As of recent, the devolution of the men/ women divide was truly disgusting (rounded out by the discussion of the young Tunisian woman who chose to use her naked chest as a protest posteboard). We should have enough respect for one another to first listen and if differ on opinions do so in a respective, constructive manner. Some felt that the expression and daring image of the Femen activist in Tunisia was brave and creative in her choice of protest. Others felt it was rather disgusting that headlines read "Tits for Protest" or something along those lines.
So the conversations went from discussing what is happening with Tunisia since their "Arab Spring" and the removal of a long term dictator. The movement of a people to become free of their tyranny and extract the shackles that were binding them as a people was the match being struck to light the candle. It was inspiring to the world and to us as Americans (at least to the 99% and across many divides). It was also their passion and protest and inspiration that helped to ignite our own Occupy Movement here and to scare the bejeebus out of the 1%.
But with all uprisings and the struggle to create a home that is fitting of the original uprise is complicated and the unrest, confusion, and fear of the "new" is something that people in power or who want power will try to exploit for their own devices. The extrmists within the Muslim faith seem to have a knack for using the unrest, uncertainties, and the fear to spark the hate and divide among the people. When people are unsure of their future or their lives, it is easy to allow the lies and the fear of God (or Allah) to take over and manipulate the raw situation on the ground. And with all good Patriarchal Religions, controlling women and their minds and bodies is one of their favorite methods of dividing people and claiming this to be the "Divine Word from on High". Also, they seem to also have a cash infusion, power, and means to take care of people because the newly forming govt doesn't have the same fortitude that the religious institutions do in helping to feed and cloth people.
This young woman, for better or worse(?), chose to use her body as a message board to highlight to the world and to the Tunisian people that the extreme religious zealots are taking their freedom as women. (For me, I saw living art, an inspiration of fortitude and freedom to express in a provocative manner that drew the world's eye back to the "Arab Spring" and the continued struggle of creating a country that is good and equal and just for all it's people. It's as if looking at the http://americancivilwar.com/women/Womens_Suffrage/Inez_Milholland.html picture. The "Joan of Ark" for the American Suffrage Movement. Having the argument go from art, history, cause and effect for the picture and for the women in Tunsia and on a larger scale with the Msulim faith and even grander scale, a worldwide message about women, freedom, expressin, and equality. Did intended protest phot have the effect that the young woman intended? What does it mean in our modern world for a woman to feel the need to strip down, expose herself for her message to be heard by men and women? At DU, here at our home, it quickly became name calling, putting men and women down... And I stopped looking at anything related to the topic.
For ALL of us, we know that this country of our "free, brave, and equal" that women are still objectified, sexualized, battered, beaten, and undervalued in everything from pay to certain image expectations. On the other hand, women can and do look at men as sexualized objects. Women have been known to sit in a gaggle and ogle and objectify men in a manner that is purely taking in only visual assessment of a man's or men's bodies. (I'm speaking in more of a "straight" perspective because i am, howver this "sexualization" of a persons body with regards to what that body looks like can be had with same sex interests). And to be fair, being attracted to one another visually is our human nature - otherwise, we wouldn't have a slew of popular actors who are attractive and pleasant to look at.
I know this is a long bird walk from the original idea of my post, and I congratulate anyone who has taken the time to read a very long response about the idea of coming together and trying to find the common bond between us and when we disagree to do so in a manner that is respective and receptive to one another's views. If we come with an open mind and listen to one another better we may hear each other better, learn from one another, and broaden our perspective, empathy, and care for humanity, in general. It doesn't help to call all men "sexist" because they find the protest picture provacative or women who find the picture to be bold and inspiring and artful to be upholding the patriarchal standing order of the world is they way to bring people to the table to discuss the protest, the issues, and the society in which this woman is living and feeling ever more stifled by the radical, extremists coming/ rising into positions of power and prominence over their rights and autonomy. On the other hand, telling a woman or man who thinks that women should be able to have a valid voice and roll in the world without feeling she would need to expose herself to that world to gain attention is somehow making them a hyper-sensitive "Femi-Nazi" (I'm borrowing this word from our own very extremists in this country - not that anyone had the temerity to actually write those words om this board to perhaps find themselves ordering their pizza toppings).
My opinion (and I know they are like assholes and everyone has one), is that this is living history. This young woman in a country that is in a transition, feels like her ability to be free and have equal opportunities is becoming squashed and overrun by the extremist, religious people with their own intentions to control and manipulate people for their own power. The question that I think should be taken away from the protest picture is: Why does a woman have to bare and expose herself in order to gain attention to the issue of her freedom to live and be a human with hope, a future, equality, access to education and information, and simple autonomy to be herself as she is herself without anyone's permission to be her own person? This is the theme I walked away with. The issue now is how do we create that world for all women and men? Name calling and brow beating and putting both genders down is not an answer to the question of how does anyone have their voice and self recognized in a respectful manner that allows us to live in more peaceful free world... Especially with 7 billion of us living in the world today.
Thanks for anyone who followed any of my rambling thoughts... Let's try to find solutions to our issues together, rather than rip ourselves apart. We all came together because there are shared issues that we have in common. There are lessons we can all learn from the members who have so much value... From our older DU'rs who have lived thru the history that our younger DU'rs only can read about in history books to the younger DU'rs and their thoughts and ideas and hope for a better future are inspiring.. They also have the capacity, from all the work done in the past, to be more accepting of differences across gender lines, color lines, religious backgrounds, and whom people love... On the other hand, they are quick to devolve into Internet bully/ sarcasm and they have only really seen Reagan trickle down BS and don't understand really how a good gift can look or feel and for the most part, they probably can't really remember what it was like to not be engaged in wars, traveling thru an airport without a bunch of bs "security" measures or have the option of taking time to travel the country or world due to immense economic burdens from college debts or crappy paying wage jobs that leave little money or time to explore. For the most part, they are wary of strangers and the ever increasing instability of a world where the 1% has it all and everyone else is fighting over the crumbs.
juajen
(8,515 posts)I need to make some changes in how I judge other people. I always seem to think that the more educated you are, the more you understand what is happening in this world. While sometimes the case, the obstacle for understanding often is, simply put, age and experience. Educated people need to watch their superior attitudes, as it turns people off. No one likes to feel put down, or less "special" than others. OTOH, nothing is as off putting as having to listen to an ignoramus bloviate endlessly on a subject that he/she only knows from Fox News or Rush Limbaugh.
glowing
(12,233 posts)when it comes to their obsession of ruining any conversation on the Internet or in person. They do not have the numbers, and yes, can become dangerous. I find the best way to handle them is to say something kind or thank them for their opinion, but I disagree with their reason or logic. And unless they want to look at the facts in an objective, non-angry manner, perhaps then we could have a conversation and agree on a few items. But when they refuse and their anger is blinding them, it's often futile. They sure wouldn't like if everyone came at them in a reasonable, quiet, respectable manner because they post and say things that will shock and push buttons on purpose. And I suspect many of the posts on the Internet are done with a paid hand. They pop up too often and bring politics into discussions where no one else is even thinking of politics. It's that Astro-turf crap that the 1% use to divide and make people think there are more "Rush-like" types than there really are.
As usual, those of us who would like to see a positive change in the world will just have to drag them kicking and screaming down the road of progress...
silvershadow
(10,336 posts)to get it to them). Hopefully an MSNBC insider can get somebody to show us. If not Rachel, then maybe Ed would do something since he's kind of free-lancing now?
spanone
(135,846 posts)and who the fuck are they?
octoberlib
(14,971 posts)Blue_Roses
(12,894 posts)we lived not far from Mayflower a few years ago when my husband worked for a dairy company. I wonder how far this has spread. I will do what I can to get the word out too. The area is (was) rich with awesome wildlife in that area...it just breaks my heart for the families ...
Damn.
Blue_Roses
(12,894 posts)Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Saving life from oil
By SCARLET SIMS
University of Central Arkansas students who are passionate about wildlife decided to save animals soaked in thick oil Tuesday.
They care about wildlife, said Vickie McDonald, associate professor of biology. Its having respect for life.
About 25 students and some community volunteers headed to areas near Lake Conway on Tuesday afternoon to sight birds and animals and report what they found to agencies with permits to handle wildlife. Some birds are federally protected, and officials asked volunteers not to approach wildlife for their safety and the safety of the wildlife, according to an ExxonMobil Corp. news release Tuesday.
The search to save wildlife comes after the Mayflower oil spill dumped thousands of barrels of oil and forced homeowners to evacuate. The oil has killed wildlife.
more ...
http://m.thecabin.net/news/local/2013-04-02/saving-life-oil
Blue_Roses
(12,894 posts)Tuesday, April 2, 2013
AG opens investigation of oil spill
By ANGELA SPENCER
Log Cabin Staff Writer
While one company has been asked to submit to a state investigation into the oil spill in Mayflower, another local company has been called to help with the cleanup.
M&M Environmental Oil Field Services is a company based out of Conway devoted to clean up the footprint of oil fields. The local company was called in Friday at 7:30 p.m. to help respond to the oil leak in Mayflower, and they have been working around the clock to help clean up the mess.
This is a very unique and isolated situation, said owner Sam McFadin. Its going to take time. Its going to be a lengthy process.
--snip--
At the same time, Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel on Tuesday asked ExxonMobil to preserve records pending a state investigation into the spill that, while small, has generated broader questions about the safety of cross-country pipelines.
more ...
http://m.thecabin.net/news/local/2013-04-02/ag-opens-investigation-oil-spill-0