Model shows high chance of oil hitting South Florida

A new computer model shows oil from the massive Gulf of Mexico spill has as high as an 80 percent chance of reaching the Florida Keys and Miami.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released the forecast Friday. It shows a 61 to 80 percent chance of sheen, tar balls or other oil remnants coming within 20 miles of Florida's eastern coast, from the Keys north to the Fort Lauderdale area, by on Aug. 18.

Outside those areas and the Florida Panhandle, which has already seen beaches littered with tar balls, other areas show a low probability of oil. The state's western coast has a 20 percent chance or lower of seeing oil, and parts of southwest Florida have less than a 1 percent chance.

NOAA’s Oil Spill Response

Has Oil from the Deepwater Horizon/BP Oil Spill Reached South Florida Yet?

There have been no confirmed observations of oil from the Deepwater Horizon near South Florida. Monitoring presently consists of daily overflights by trained observers to check for oil near the Loop Current, and vessels searching for tar balls approaching the Florida Keys. If a significant amount of surface oil were to enter the Loop Current and begin to move toward the Florida Straits, responders would be able to see it, predict its movement, notify states and coastal communities, and help guide preparedness, response and cleanup efforts.

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Storm Still Fouling BP Oil Spill Response In Gulf Of Mexico

HOUSTON (Dow Jones)--Rough seas and winds continue to disrupt spill responders' efforts to contain the oil gushing from BP PLC's (BP, BP.LN) well in the Gulf of Mexico two days after Hurricane Alex made landfall hundreds of miles away from the spill site, the U.S. Coast Guard said Friday.

The storm, which ranked as a Category One, or the weakest possible hurricane, has delayed by about six days the hookup of a third containment vessel. If all goes well the Helix Producer, which is already at the well site, should be on line July 7 and should be able to produce about 20,0000 to 25,0000 barrels of oil a day, Retired Admiral Thad Allen, the federal response commander, said during a news conference.

The delay means that between 120,000 to 150,000 barrels of oil could go uncollected because of a storm that hit the northern tip of Mexico about 110 miles south of Brownsville, Texas.

The storm's rough seas and winds are also the likely the cause in the reduction in the capacity of the another containment ship, the Q4000. The ship can normally flare off 10,000 barrels of oil a day but has been achieving about 25% less than its average rates during the storm.

On Thursday, BP recovered a total of 25,150 barrels of oil. About 16,915 of those barrels were collected by the Discoverer Enterprise, the main containment vessel. The Q4000 flared off about 8,235 barrels of oil. About 57 million cubic feet of natural gas was flared as well. Government and independent scientists estimate that about 35,000 to 60,000 barrels of oil a day are flowing from the well. The gusher started in late April when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank, killing 11 people.

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Oil found in Gulf crabs raises new food chain fears

Mcclatchy

University scientists have spotted the first indications oil is entering the Gulf seafood chain — in crab larvae — and one expert warns the effect on fisheries could last “years, probably not a matter of months” and affect many species.

Scientists with the University of Southern Mississippi and Tulane University in New Orleans have found droplets of oil in the larvae of blue crabs and fiddler crabs sampled from Louisiana to Pensacola, Fla. The news comes as blobs of oil and tar continue to wash ashore in Mississippi in patches, with crews in chartreuse vests out cleaning beaches all along the coast on Thursday, and as state and federal fisheries from Louisiana to Florida are closed by the BP oil disaster.

"I think we will see this enter the food chain in a lot of ways — for plankton feeders, like menhaden, they are going to just actively take it in," said Harriet Perry, director of the Center for Fisheries Research and Development at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory. "Fish are going to feed on (crab larvae). We have also just started seeing it on the fins of small, larval fish — their fins were encased in oil. That limits their mobility, so that makes them easy prey for other species. The oil's going to get into the food chain in a lot of ways."

Perry said researchers have not yet linked the hydrocarbons found in the crab larvae to the BP disaster, but she has little doubt it's the source. She said she has never seen such contamination in her 42 years of studying blue crab.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/07/01/96909/oil-found-in-gulf-crabs-raising.html#ixzz0sXcWZ1Yp

Warning To Gulf Volunteers: Almost Every Cleanup Worker From The 1989 Exxon Valdez Disaster Is Now Dead

Are you sure that you want to help clean up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico?  In a previous article we documented a number of the health dangers from this oil spill that many scientists are warning us of, and now it has been reported on CNN that the vast majority of those who worked to clean up the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska are now dead.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Almost all of them are dead.

In fact, the expert that CNN had on said that the life expectancy for those who worked to clean up the Exxon Valdez oil spill is only about 51 years.  Considering the fact that the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is now many times worse than the Exxon Valdez disaster, are you sure you want to volunteer to be on a cleanup crew down there?  After all, the American Dream is not to make big bucks for a few months helping BP clean up their mess and then drop dead 20 or 30 years early.

This news clip from CNN is absolutely stunning.  If this is even close to true, then why would anyone want to be involved in helping to clean up this oil?....

The truth is that what we have out in the Gulf of Mexico is a "toxic soup" of oil, methane, benzene, hydrogen sulfide, other toxic gases and very poisonous chemical dispersants such as Corexit 9500.

Breathing all of this stuff is not good for your health, but the reality is that the true health toll of this oil spill is not going to be known for decades.

However, the early reports are not encouraging....   

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/warning-to-gulf-cleanup-workers-almost-every-crew-member-from-the-1989-exxon-valdez-disaster-is-now-dead-2010-6#ixzz0sXbl7On3

Issa’s report on the Gulf cleanup

The full PDF is available here.  The report asserts that federal officials have exaggerated the cleanup effort, falsely represented the placement of cleanup assets, and misrepresented what they knew and when on the official White House timeline of events. It also asserts what many on the Left have long maintained, that the White House has been excessively deferential to BP since the spill began, and it’s not clear down there who is in charge.

“The White House blog details a number of assets deployed in the region to combat the spill. This includes vessels, boom, and dispersant. The number of assets claimed, however, does not appear to match what is actually in the field. Parish officials maintain that the thousands of vessels cited in the blog are non-existent. One senior official refers to them as “phantom assets.” When asked to elaborate, he explained that when he asks the federal government to provide the location of the assets, it either refuses or cannot do so. Daily helicopter search grids performed by the Parish sheriff’s department confirm to him that very few of the assets claimed are deployed.

This is corroborated by Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser, who shared a similar story with investigators. BP and Coast Guard provided Mr. Nungesser with a map of the Gulf allegedly pinpointing the exact locations of 140 skimmers cleaning up oil. Sensing that the chart may have been somewhat inaccurate, Mr. Nungesser requested a flyover of the assets for verification. After three cancelled trips, officials admitted to Mr. Nungesser that only 31 of the 140 skimmers were ever deployed. The rest were sitting at the docks. According to Mr. Nungesser, the chart appeared to have been fabricated.

I’m still going through this, but if you’re wondering why Louisiana residents frown on the federal government’s action in this crisis even more than they do on the response to Hurricane Katrina, this will give you a pretty good idea.

40 Million Swine Flu Vaccines Written Off As Trash, USA

Editor's Note: H1N1 antigen prepared for the pandemic vaccine might not be destroyed. It can be converted to the seasonal flu products in an effort to save money according to FT.COM!

Approximately 40 million doses of swine flu vaccine, worth around US$260 million are to be burned. Jerry Weir, Vaccines Research and Review, FDA (Food and Drug Administration, USA) commented that by historical standards "It's a lot".

One quarter of USA's stocks of swine flu vaccine expired yesterday and will be burned, authorities inform. This is about four times as much as the leftover from seasonal flu vaccines, and is probably a record.

There is a good chance that over 43% of USA swine flu vaccine stocks will have gone to waste as future expiry dates loom.

Authorities say the purchase of such a huge stock of vaccines, in the face of a new virus was justified. When swine flu broke out many wondered whether it might develop into a new, deadly pandemic. Fortunately, swine flu turned out to kill considerably fewer people than normal seasonal flu.

In an interview with Associated Press, Bill Hall, US Dept of Health and Human Services (HSS) spokesperson said "Although there were many doses of vaccine that went unused, it was much more appropriate to have been prepared for the worst case scenario than to have had too few doses".

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Iraq deaths in British custody could see military face legal challenges

The Guardian

The Ministry of Defence is facing a further series of court battles that may shed more damaging light on the conduct of British troops in Iraq, after it emerged that many more civilians died in army custody than previously thought.

At least eight Iraqi civilians are now acknowledged to have died while being held by the British military after the 2003 invasion, including Baha Mousa, the hotel receptionist who was beaten to death while in army custody in Basra. Inquiries by lawyers representing a number of families of abused Iraqi civilians suggest the death toll may have been higher still.

In seven cases raised by the Guardian, the MoD is refusing to explain why the individuals were detained, or say where, how or why they died. Officials have refused even to disclose whether or not the deaths were investigated.

Next week, lawyers representing 102 Iraqi civilians will seek a judicial review of the MoD's refusal to hold a public inquiry into all cases of abuse of Iraqi civilians after the March 2003 invasion. The 102 individuals allege that they were victims of thousands of offences. It would be the third such inquiry.

The seven Iraqis whose unexplained deaths have been the subject of the Guardian's questions are:

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Joint lawsuit planned for G20 arrestees

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association says it is considering a joint lawsuit against the Toronto police and other police forces responsible for the G20 mass arrests.

“The CCLA is planning to help people who are seeking compensation to (initiate) a lawsuit in the Superior Court of Ontario,” said Nathalie Des Rosiers, general counsel for the CCLA. “We have a couple of plaintiffs.”

More than 1,000 arrests were made relating to the G20 summit and multiple reports have emerged alleging peaceful demonstrators or even bystanders were caught up in the mass arrests — most notably, at the Esplanade’s Novotel Hotel on Saturday, where demonstrators tried to stage a sit-in, or at Queen St. and Spadina Ave., where a large crowd was boxed in and detained for several hours in the rain.

All arrests this weekend were made under the criminal code and not the Public Works Protection Act, according to the province.

Des Rosiers said the CCLA has been overwhelmed with phone calls and has already collected 75 complaints from people claiming they were wrongfully imprisoned, detained, harassed or assaulted by the police.

Among them is Adam Suska, a 32-year-old supply teacher. After watching a Queen’s Park demonstration on Sunday, Suska was walking towards Bloor St. and Spadina Ave. when police officers stopped him and asked about his black t-shirt.

Following Saturday’s trail of destruction caused by protesters using Black Bloc tactics, there were multiple reports of summit police targeting people dressed in black.

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1.3 million unemployed won't get benefits restored

WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than 1.3 million laid-off workers won't get their unemployment benefits reinstated before Congress goes on a weeklong vacation for Independence Day.

An additional 200,000 people who have been without a job for at least six months stand to lose their benefits each week, unless Congress acts.

For the third time in as many weeks, Republicans in the Senate successfully filibustered a bill Wednesday night that would have continued unemployment checks to people who have been laid off for long stretches. The House is slated to vote on a similar measure Thursday, though the Senate's action renders the vote a futile gesture as Congress prepares to depart Washington for its holiday recess.

A little more than 1.3 million people have already lost benefits since the last extension ran out at the end of May.

"It is beyond disappointing that Republicans continue to stand almost lockstep against assistance for out-of-work Americans," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

The measure, however, stands a better chance of passing after a replacement is seated for Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., who died Monday. The measure fell two votes short of the 60 needed to advance Wednesday night, but only because Reid, a supporter of the bill, voted "nay" to take a procedural step that would allow for a revote.

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Dollar should be replaced as international standard, U.N. report says

The dollar is an unreliable international currency and should be replaced by a more stable system, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs said in a report released Tuesday.

The use of the dollar for international trade came under increasing scrutiny when the U.S. economy fell into recession. "The dollar has proved not to be a stable store of value, which is a requisite for a stable reserve currency," the report said.

Many countries, in Asia in particular, have been building up massive dollar reserves. As a result, those countries' currencies have become undervalued, decreasing their ability to import goods from abroad.

The World Economic and Social Survey 2010 is supporting a proposal long advocated by the International Monetary Fund to create a standardized international system for liquidity transfer.

Under this proposed system, countries would no longer have to buy up foreign currencies, as China has long done with the U.S. dollar. Rather, they would accumulate the right to claim foreign currencies, or special drawing rights, or SDRs, rather than the currencies themselves.

The special drawing rights would be backed by a basket of currencies, which would make them less susceptible to volatility in any one currency. And because the value of a special drawing right is defined by the IMF, changes in the value of any one currency could be adjusted for.

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VA hospital may have infected 1,800 veterans with HIV

(CNN) - A Missouri VA hospital is under fire because it may have exposed more than 1,800 veterans to life-threatening diseases such as hepatitis and HIV.

 

John Cochran VA Medical Center in St. Louis has recently mailed letters to 1,812 veterans telling them they could contract hepatitis B, hepatitis C and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) after visiting the medical center for dental work, said Rep. Russ Carnahan.

 

Carnahan said Tuesday he is calling for a investigation into the issue and has sent a letter to President Obama about it.

 

"This is absolutely unacceptable," said Carnahan, a Democrat from Missouri. "No veteran who has served and risked their life for this great nation should have to worry about their personal safety when receiving much needed healthcare services from a Veterans Administration hospital."

The issue stems from a failure to clean dental instruments properly, the hospital told CNN affiliate KSDK.

Dr. Gina Michael, the association chief of staff at the hospital, told the affiliate that some dental technicians broke protocol by handwashing tools before putting them in cleaning machines.

The instruments were supposed to only be put in the cleaning machines, Michael said.

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New Study Documents Media's Servitude To Government

A newly released study from students at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government provides the latest evidence of how thoroughly devoted the American establishment media is to amplifying and serving (rather than checking) government officials.  This new study examines how waterboarding has been discussed by America's four largest newspapers over the past 100 years, and finds that the technique, almost invariably, was unequivocally referred to as "torture" -- until the U.S. Government began openly using it and insisting that it was not torture, at which time these newspapers obediently ceased describing it that way:

Similarly, American newspapers are highly inclined to refer to waterboarding as "torture" when practiced by other nations, but will suddenly refuse to use the term when it's the U.S. employing that technique:

As always, the American establishment media is simply following in the path of the U.S. Government (which is why it's the "establishment media"): the U.S. itself long condemned waterboarding as "torture" and even prosecuted it as such, only to suddenly turn around and declare it not to be so once it began using the tactic.

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BP Contractors Cover Up Oil With Sand!

ABC 3 WEARTV

PENSACOLA - Today, we've been hit with a number of calls and e-mails from people concerned about the oil they're finding beneath the surface of the sand on local beaches.

As we told you last week, Coastal Geologists, say it's a natural phenomenon for the outgoing tides to cover up the tar balls.

With more on what BP plans to do to clean up this sub-surface tar....

Take a look around....BP workers have left the scene.
There's plenty of oil still out here that they've left behind.

LIVE LIVE LIVE

To the casual beach-goer it may not be noticeable. Let me show you.

Dan:
Lift up your foot like this."

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Alex sends oil onto Gulf roads, beaches

High tides and rough seas generated by Hurricane Alex pushed more oil from the massive spill onto Gulf coast beaches and even roads Wednesday as most cleanup efforts were sidelined by the far-away storm's ripple effects.

The hurricane was churning coastal waters across the oil-affected region on the Gulf of Mexico. Waves as high as 6 feet and winds over 25 mph were forecast through Thursday just offshore from the Mississippi Delta in Louisiana to northwestern Florida.

In Louisiana, the storm pushed an oil patch toward Grand Isle and uninhabited Elmer's Island, dumping tar balls as big as apples on the beach.

"The sad thing is that it's been about three weeks since we had any big oil come in here," marine science technician Michael Malone said. "With this weather, we lost all the progress we made."

BP said suspended operations included skimming, controlled burns of oil on the ocean surface and flights spraying dispersant chemicals. The oil-capture and relief well drilling operations were ongoing.

Although Alex will not make a direct hit on oil platforms in the Gulf, the storm is potent enough that several companies have evacuated rigs. About a quarter of oil production and 9.4 percent of natural gas output in the Gulf of Mexico have been shut, U.S. officials said.

The loss of skimmers, combined with gusts driving water into the coast, left beaches especially vulnerable.

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Finding out the truth in time

by Fidel Castro

WHEN I was writing one of my previous reflections, as a disaster for humanity was rapidly approaching, my greatest concern was to fulfill the elemental duty of informing our people.

Today I feel calmer than 26 days ago. As things continue happening in the short term, I can reiterate and enrich information to national and international public opinion.

Obama promised to attend the quarter-final game on July 2 if his country won in the second round. He must know, more than anybody, that those quarter finals could not take place if extremely grave events should happen beforehand, or at least he should know that.

Last Friday, June 25, an international news agency of known attention to detail in the information that it provides, published statements from "…the naval commander of the elite corps of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, General Ali Fadavi…" warning that "… if the United States and its allies inspect Iranian ships in international waters ‘they will receive a response in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.’"

The information was taken from the national Mehr news agency of Iran.

That agency, according to the cable, communicated: "Fadawi added that ‘the Navy of the Revolutionary Guard currently has hundreds of vessels fitted with missile launchers.’"

The information, written almost at the same time as the one published in Granma, or perhaps before, seemed at certain points a carbon copy of the paragraphs of the Reflection written on Thursday, June 24 and published in that newspaper on Friday 25th.

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Documentary: The Tillman Story

The Tillman Story comes to theaters on August 20th. The attacks on 9-11-01 prompted Pat to enlist. Too bad he didn't know, at the time, that it was an inside job!

Swine flu jabs to be repackaged as seasonal flu jabs, reports FT

Swine flu pandemic vaccines are to be given to people as seasonal flu jabs in Europe and the USA from autumn, according to a report in the Financial Times.

The FT’s Andrew Jack says that the gigantic surplus stocks of inadequately tested swine flu jabs with adjuvants are to be incorporated into the upcoming seasonal flu jab.

Governments are sitting on millions of jabs after they were rejected by tens of millions of people in Europe and the USA over safety concerns.

"If the drug companies see disappointing sales ahead, they have one compensation: modest cost savings through the use of surplus bulk stocks of H1N1 antigen prepared for the pandemic vaccine they can divert into their seasonal flu products,” Jack writes on June 28th.

In a report on the swine flu vaccination campaign for the Council of Europe, UK MP Paul Flynn last week concluded that billions of pounds of tay payer’s money was wasted around the world on buying vaccines and drugs to fight a swine flu “pandemic that never was”.

“They [WHO] frightened the whole world with the possibility that a major plague was on the way,” said Flynn.

“The result of that was that the world spent billions and billions of pounds on vaccines and anti-virals that will never be used. It is huge waste of money.”

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Tourists Stranded Amid Violent Greek Protest

Violence flared as thousands of protesters took to the streets of Athens in the latest general strike - causing more misery for tourists.

Police fired tear gas as a minority of protesters threw sticks, bottles and stones at officers and set rubbish bins on fire.

Running clashes left seven policemen injured and 13 demonstrators were detained with six subsequently arrested.

Rioters armed with wooden clubs made repeated attacks on police and smashed bus stops and phone booths as well as breaking windows shops and banks.

Riot police chased demonstrators into a main subway station, and one photo journalist reported seeing police detain a young man in a subway car, spraying him with pepper spray.

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Protesters clash with Greek police

Dozens of masked youths clashed with police at a union protest Tuesday in Athens during the country's fifth general strike this year against the cash-strapped government's planned pension and labor reforms.

Riot police fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse troublemakers who threw chunks of marble smashed off metro station entrances and set rubbish bins on fire. Running clashes continued along a major avenue - lined with shuttered shops and banks - as rioters armed with wooden clubs made repeated sallies against police. 

Seven policemen were injured in the clashes, and 13 demonstrators were detained, six of whom were arrested, police said. Riot police chased demonstrators into a main subway station, and an AP photographer saw police detain one young man in a subway car, spraying him with pepper spray. 

Demonstrators smashed bus stops and phone booths, and broke windows at three shops and two bank branches. The demonstration ended after a few hours, and rioters melted away toward the central Exarcheia district - a traditional anarchist hangout. 

However, Tuesday's clashes were far more muted than the riots that erupted during a previous general strike on May 5, when three people died after becoming trapped in a bank torched by rioters.

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The Revolution Will Not Be Televised