Monkeyfister

Labels: BP's Gulf Of Mexico Environmental Catastrophe, Matthew Simmons

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted Wednesday to create a congressional bipartisan commission to investigate the spill, with Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and others saying a separate panel is needed because the White House commission has four environmental advocates -- three members and the executive staff director -- but no oil industry representation.

"Maybe the commission that the Congress sets up, in a more balanced fashion, with both very strong environmental views and very strong industry views, could actually come up with something that really might work for the dilemma and the challenge that this nation faces, which briefly is this: We use 20 million barrels of oil a day," Landrieu said. "That was true the day before the Deepwater Horizon blew up. It is true today. And we need to get that oil from somewhere."

If Robert Byrd had been alive and on the Senate floor last night, the Democrats would have broken the Republican filibuster of the unemployment insurance extension bill. But Ben Nelson (D-NE) stepped forward to kill the bill and put any extension off until July.

Labels: Bad Democrats, There is No Political Solution

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. – The American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Michigan in partnership with the law firm of Daniel W. Grow, PLLC, filed a lawsuit today against Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. and the manager of its Battle Creek store for wrongfully firing an employee for using medicinal marijuana in accordance with state law to treat the painful symptoms of an inoperable brain tumor and cancer.

The lawsuit charges that Joseph Casias, 30, the Battle Creek Wal-Mart’s 2008 Associate of the Year, was fired from his job at the store after testing positive for marijuana, despite being legally registered to use the drug under Michigan’s medical marijuana law. In accordance with state law, Casias never ingested marijuana while at work and never worked while under the influence of marijuana.

“Medical marijuana has had a life-changing positive effect for Joseph, but Wal-Mart made him pay a stiff and unfair price for his medicine,” said Scott Michelman, staff attorney with the ACLU. “No patient should be forced to choose between adequate pain relief and gainful employment, and no employer should be allowed to intrude upon private medical choices made by employees in consultation with their doctors.”

Casias, married with two young children, has suffered for more than a decade from sinus cancer and a brain tumor in the back of his head and neck that was the size of a softball when it was first diagnosed. Casias’ condition has forced him to endure extensive treatment and chemotherapy, interferes with his ability to speak and is a source of severe and constant pain. Nonetheless, he had been successfully employed for more than five years by Wal-Mart in Battle Creek, where he began as an entry-level grocery stocker in 2004 and worked his way up to inventory control manager.

“For some people, working at Wal-Mart is just a job, but for me, it was a way of life,” said Joseph. “I came to Wal-Mart for a better opportunity for my family and I worked hard and proved myself. I just want the opportunity to continue my work.”

In 2008, Michigan voters enacted the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act, which provides protection for the medical use of the drug under state law. The pain medication Casias’ oncologist had previously prescribed for him provided only minimal relief and as a side effect caused Casias to suffer from severe nausea. After the law was enacted, Joseph’s oncologist recommended that he try marijuana as permitted by state law, and so Casias obtained the appropriate registry card from the Michigan Department of Community Health. The results were immediate and profound: his pain decreased dramatically, the new medicine did not induce nausea and Casias was able to gain back some of the weight he had lost during treatment.

“Joseph is exactly the kind of person whom Michigan voters had in mind when they passed the state’s medical marijuana law,” said Daniel W. Grow, a St. Joseph, Mich.-based attorney. “Medical marijuana is legal in this state because voters recognized its ability to alleviate the pain, nausea and other symptoms associated with debilitating medical conditions, and no corporation doing business in Michigan should be permitted to flout state law.”

Michigan’s medical marijuana law protects patients registered with the state of Michigan from “arrest, prosecution, or penalty in any manner” for the use of medicinal marijuana as prescribed by a doctor and also protects employees from being disciplined for their use of medical marijuana in accordance with the law. The law does not require employers to accommodate the ingestion of marijuana in the workplace and does not protect employees who work under the influence of the drug.

The outcome of today’s lawsuit, filed in Calhoun County Circuit Court, could have ramifications beyond Michigan.

“Today, 14 states and the District of Columbia provide protections for patients who use marijuana as recommended by a doctor,” said Kary L. Moss, Executive Director of the ACLU of Michigan. “This case will be closely watched by patients across the country who rely on this medicine for pain relief and on their state laws for protection against unscrupulous employers.”

Casias is represented by Daniel W. Grow, Scott Michelman of the national ACLU and Kary L. Moss, Michael J. Steinberg and Dan Korobkin of the ACLU of Michigan.

A copy of the today’s complaint is available online at: http://www.aclumich.org/sites/default/files/file/casias%20complaint%206%2024%2010.pdf

Labels: Medical Marijuana, Michigan Music, WalMart

If French intellectual Jean Baudrillard were still alive to deconstruct the unfurling Gulf oil disaster, I’m sure he’d marvel at the hyperreality of it all. Me, lacking the vocabulary, I’m going to call it reality TV.

True to the genre a dysfunctional cast – Tony Hayward, Barack Obama and Martin Feldman – must coexist in an unlikely situation, promoting themselves while being constantly upstaged by video footage from robots 5,000 feet (1,500 m) below sea level. Watch as they try to cope with reality, each other, and their investment portfolios! Squirm as they star in their own tragedy! Gasp as Hayward, left, reassures you that there’s nothing toxic about the dispersal chemicals!

Want drama? The Gulf of Mexico is becoming toxic, poisoned by both the crude oil surging out of BP’s ruptured well and the million-plus gallons of chemical dispersant, Corexit 9500, being dumped on the slick. Oil is making landfall along the area – if whipped up by a hurricane, it would likely be sprayed over communities along that seaboard – and, it is claimed, a mixture of oil and Corexit seems to be raining throughout the region causing widespread crop damage. People helping clear the oil are coming down with a range of symptoms that suggest poisoning, just as they did after the Exxon Valdex cleanup.

How about some tension? The oil is still gushing out, and the poison is still being sprayed. The blowout preventer is widely believed to be on the verge of collapse, and relief wells might be facing an impossible task, depending on what is left of BP’s wellbore – we don’t know much about this, because no-one will tell us. But then, that’s reality TV for you.

But viewers, I’m jumping ahead of myself – let’s go back to the start of this sorry mess.

Labels: BP Fail, BP's Gulf Of Mexico Environmental Catastrophe

Labels: Wall Street Casino

Labels: Gardening, Peak Oil

The plan to add a third vessel and containment system to the oil collection effort at the site of a leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico has been delayed by a week because of concerns about high waves from Tropical Storm Alex, BP Vice President Kent Wells said Monday.

Matthew Hinton, The Times-PicayuneAn estimated 35,000 to 60,000 barrels of oil are leaking from the well each day. A third ship-containment system has been delayed until July because oif the fear of big waves associated with Tropical Storm Alex.

The vessel, called the Helix Producer, has the capacity to collect as much as 25,000 barrels of oil per day, double the amount of oil currently being corralled before it spills into the sea.

"We could see a six- to seven-day delay in bringing this next phase of our subsea containment on line," Wells said. "We should expect that while we were on track for June to bring on the Helix Producer, it'll be roughly a week after that, somewhere around the 6th or 7th of July."

The current path of Tropical Storm Alex does not take it across the portion of the Gulf of Mexico where oil is spewing from the broken Macondo well. That means evacuations of workers are not necessary, but Wells said the storm will increase the height of waves in the Gulf by several feet, from 3 to 4 feet to 10 to 12 feet, making it impossible to put the new system in place.

The Helix producer was scheduled to begin operating this week, increasing oil collection capacity to as much as 53,000 barrels each day. An estimated 35,000 to 60,000 barrels each day are leaking from the well.

The vessel will connect via a floating riser pipe and flexible hose to the choke line of the blowout preventer, the five-story-tall piece of equipment that should have stopped the Deepwater Horizon rig from exploding April 20, killing 11 people and setting the stage for the worst oil spill in the nation's history. BP operated the rig, which it leased from Transocean.

The collection system will join two other efforts that together are currently collecting about 24,000 barrels of oil each day. Those systems should not be affected by the storm, Wells said.

The ultimate solution for stopping the gusher is still a relief well. Two are being drilled in the Gulf of Mexico, one as a backup. The primary well, which was started nearly two months ago, had been drilled to about 16,770 feet below the water's surface by Monday morning. The well was about 900 feet above the point where it will intersect with the Macondo well, Wells said. But horizontally, the well is now just 20 feet away from the blown-out well, after beginning about half a mile away, Wells said.

When the relief well reaches its target, engineers will drill through the busted well and pump mud into it until the flow of oil is stopped. The mud will be followed by cement to seal the well permanently. A second well is being drilled as a backup in case the first fails.

"Things have progressed very well at this point," Wells said. "We're very much at the precision point. This is the point in time where we need to be very good at what we're doing and we are."

Wells said he expects the procedure to be completed in early August.

Labels: BP Fail, BP's Gulf Of Mexico Environmental Catastrophe

Labels: Bot Love, BP Braintrust, BP's Gulf Of Mexico Environmental Catastrophe

A granular oil sheen, today. Rainbow of sheen is obvious. Clean spots where I ran my finger through are obvious. Water seems cloudier.

Good lighting on this one.

Rainbows and clean spots.

GACK!!!

Labels: Airborne BP Oil Experiment

I tried to teach it some manners. Had to resort to the S&M.

The original six fruits are starting to ripen. Perfect salad tomatoes.

That is a lot of tomatoes.

As the plant grows, it adds more fruit to new fruiting brackets. This one will make 12 tomatoes. It would have had 14, but I knocked two off taking the picture.

This bracket started with eight tomatoes, and then sent out two more brackets of eight, for a total of 24 on one main bracket. This is the MARVEL in Monkeyfister's Marvel Tomatoes. This Indeterminate plant just keeps giving more.

And its profligacy genes. This is one Roma plant's production. 16 of them will make a lot of sauces. My Roma seeds are at least five generations old, now. Apparently, strong stock! If you like Roma Tomatoes, let me know, I will save some for you.

Labels: Monkeyfister's Marvel Tomato, Update