On this memorial day, we stop to consider that huge, horrific number. That number is what the two wars have cost American's. Raw Story calls it sad, to me it's more than that. From the RS writeup:

The cost of the United States' wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have cost taxpayers more than one trillion dollars, a Massachusetts nonprofit said Sunday, marking a grim milestone on the eve of the Memorial Day holiday.

According to the group, the threshold was crossed Sunday at 10:06 am ET, based on Congressional appropriations for the wars. To date, the group notes, $747.3 billion has been appropriated for the U.S. war in Iraq and $299 billion for the war in Afghanistan.

The group, National Priorities Project, conveyed the size of US war spending by highlighting other things that could have been bought with the money. For example, for the price of America's two wars, the US could give $5,500 in Pell grants to all of America's 19 million college students for the next nine years. One trillion would also pay the entire healthcare bill for 294 million people, or 440 million children, the group says.

A billing pending in Congress will add another $37 billion to this year's spending.

In a press release posted Friday, the group gave a list of other considerations that could have been purchased for $1 trillion. Among them:

     What Can You Get For $1 Trillion?

    * Federal Funding For Higher Education -- $1 trillion would give the maximum Pell Grant award ($5,500) to all 19 million U.S. college and university students for the next 9 years.

    * 294,734,961 people with health care for one year, or

    * 21,598,789 public safety officers for one year, or

    * 17,149,392 music and arts teachers for one year, or

    * 7,779,092 affordable housing units, or

    * 440,762,472 children with health care for one year, or

    * 137,233,969 head start places for children for one year, or

    * 16,427,497 elementary school teachers for one year, or

    * 1,035,282,468 homes with renewable electricity for one year

It physically makes me ill...sick to my stomach, to think what we could of done with all that fucking money. 

And these...cough, costs.. are just the tip of the iceberg. The cost in human lives and those lives that have been shattered forever just boggle the mind.

This is what nightmares are made of folks... Enjoy your memorial day, if you can. Or watch the video I created a few years back about the human cost of the Iraq and now..the Afghanistan Wars.

These fuckers couldn't touch their asses with both hands, I swear to Buddha. Why are there score's of professors and other technical types blasting BP for their so-called methods whilst very few actually touting their pathetic attempts?

Now the fuckers are saying it's all gonna keep pouring out of their hole in the ocean floor until August.

Oh, and Carol Browner...Obama's shill says and I quote: "American people need to know that it is possible we will have oil leaking from this well until August when the relief wells will be finished," (emphasis mine)

A leak is a slow, irritating thing you friggin jackass. This shit is pouring out to the tune of millions of gallons a day.

Next, the health risks associated with working in and around BP's disgusting chemicals. From WaPo:

"There's no way you can be working in that toxic soup without getting exposures," Hugh Kaufman, a senior policy analyst at the EPA's office of solid waste and emergency response, said during an interview Thursday. He likened the response to previous toxic waste disasters and the World Trade Center cleanup, which left workers with long-term respiratory problems despite repeated official claims that workers did not need respirators because the working conditions were safe. "It's unbelievable what's going on. It's like deja vu all over again," he said.




The situation is being complicated by weather conditions, which include severe heat and humidity. That can cause symptoms similar to those triggered by some of the chemicals workers may be exposed to.



Assessing the health risks is also difficult because of several unknowns, including a lack of information about the makeup of chemicals being used to disperse the oil and how those substances might affect the toxicity of the oil, several experts said.



The most worrisome chemicals are volatile organic compounds, such as benzene, which can cause cancer at high levels and in long exposures. But those and other substances in the oil can cause acute symptoms including severe skin irritation, headaches, dizziness, nausea and burning eyes, as well as breathing problems and neurological complications including memory problems, confusion and disorientation.



Most acute symptoms from the chemical exposure disappear after the exposure ends, but long-term complications can occur. Some fishermen involved in cleaning up the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska suffered long-lasting neurological problems.

Ain't that some shit? I'm telling ya...it's fucking criminal sportsfans.

A NYT writer has his opinion up today regarding the Palin endorsements and how they have fared lately. From Timothy Egan:

Vaughn Ward, the Republican congressional candidate from Idaho, has the dubious character trifecta of the Palin brand: bone-headed, defiant and willfully ignorant. When told that Puerto Rico was not a country, he said, “I don’t care what you call it.”

On Tuesday, this Palin protégé was routed in a huge upset, despite a big early lead in the polls, a 6-to-1 fundraising edge and that Friday fly-in by the former half-term governor, who has Idaho roots.

A week ago, Palin backed a candidate for Senate in Washington state, Clint Didier, a former professional football player who also owns a farm and has railed against excessive government spending.

But at the same time Palin was calling Didier “a commonsense constitutional conservative [who] will help put our country on the right track,” it was revealed that he took at least $140,000 in federal farm subsidies. If having his hand out seems inconsistent with his bumper-sticker politics, it follows a familiar pattern of the Palin brand. In Idaho, Ward, the Palin candidate, also blasted government intervention in the private sector, even though his wife, the family breadwinner, earns her living through a mess kept alive by Federal bailouts — Fannie Mae.

*snip*

As for the Palin brand, it seems to represent no consistent philosophy, no guiding principles, no remedial vetting. It stands for one thing — Palin — and in that sense, she does have a legacy, though it can only be measured in dollars. 

That dear friends, is a mighty nice bitchslap of the Loser from Wasilla. It just made my day. It would be great if people finally started realizing that Palin is nothing more than a gold-digging dipshit who looks out for herself and no one else. Her lack of command of the English language, demonstrated by her ridiculously skewed logic speaks for itself.

I wrote about the BP Texas City refinery disaster way back when the lawsuits were humming along and BP was trying to make them and the US government go away. Fifteen employees lost their lives in that explosion most likely because BP housed them in flimsy-assed trailers instead of a building that would be able to withstand such a blast. The Daily Beast  has uncovered a BP document that puts a $ value on the lives of their employees. It ain't pretty sportsfans. From the DB writeup:

The two-page document, prepared by BP’s risk managers in October 2002 as part of a larger risk preparedness presentation, and titled “Cost benefit analysis of three little pigs,” is harrowing:

“Frequency—the big bad wolf blows with a frequency of once per lifetime.”

“Consequence—if the wolf blows down the house then the piggy is gobbled.”

“Maximum justifiable spend (MJS)—a piggy considers it’s worth $1000 to save its bacon.”

“Which type of house,” the report asks, “should the piggy build?”

It then answers its own question: a hand-written note, “optimal,” is marked next to an option that offers solid protection, but not the “blast resistant” trailer, typically all-welded steel structures, that cost 10 times as much.

At Texas City, all of the fatalities and many of the serious injuries occurred in or around the nine contractor trailers near the isom unit, which contained large quantities of flammable hydrocarbons and had a history of releases, fires, and other safety incidents. A number of trailers as far away as two football fields were heavily damaged.

Coon says that during the discovery process, he found another email from the BP Risk Management department that showed BP put a value on each worker when making its Three Little Pigs calculation: $10 million per life. One of Coon’s associates, Eric Newell, told me that the email came from Robert Mancini, a chemical engineer in risk management, during a period when BP was buying rival Amoco and was used to compare the two companies’ policies. This email, and the related Three Little Pigs memo, which has never before been publicly viewed, attracted almost no press attention.

Between the Texas City explosion and the Deepwater Rig explosion, BP has snuffed out a total of 26 lives.....whilst saving money...or to put it bluntly..being cheap-ass mutha fuckas and playing the odds. 

In a 9-0 ruling, that surely will piss off the owners, SCOTUS reverses a lower court decision regarding the NFL's powerful anti-trust position.  From DeadSpin:

American Needle doesn't actually score a victory here, at least, not yet. The case merely returns to district court, where it will be reconsidered under what's called the "Rule of Reason." A doctrine dating back to Standard Oil, it states that monopolies aren't inherently illegal, only if they "unreasonably" restrain trade. That's still up for debate with the NFL's licensing deals, and the Supreme Court gave no indication on that one way or another.


The NFLPA wins big. They had been terrified of a league with unchecked power to act unilaterally in labor issues, especially with an expiring CBA. Not that the player's union is particularly powerful as is, but at least the league won't be able to dictate salaries, free agency conditions and age restrictions without getting into the CBA first. If the NFL had won this case, those would all have been very real possibilities.

The NFL doesn't so much lose as they fail to win. The league had been hoping for that antitrust exemption, which would have been a hammer to bring down in myriad smaller cases against the league. It would have given them sweeping powers enjoyed by no other business other than Major League Baseball. Now, those other cases proceed on their own merits.

Other sports leagues are not happy right now. Both the NBA and NHL filed amicus briefs in support of the NFL, hoping the precedent would give them more powers. With the NHL recently having to bail out a handful of teams, and a labor stoppage looming for the NBA, it could have been big. NASCAR, MLS, and most chillingly, the NCAA also publicly supported the NFL.

Baseball, on the other hand, still enjoys the country's only antitrust exemption, dating back to a 1922 ruling that's considered curious today. There's no indication the High Court would revisit that ruling, but should it be challenged there's certainly a precedent for it now. A limited one, however; American Needle v. NFL appears to apply specifically to merchandising.

My personal opinion is that none of the major sports groups in America deserves an anti-trust exemption. The rightwing nutters should support my opinion as well because they supposidly worship free trade. Protecting large groups by giving them anti-trust exemptions goes against everything the nutters believe in.

Sista Sarah is now going after Rachel for doing her job, calling her prejudiced against Rand Paul. Watch the video below....if you can stomach it.

They give as little info as possible to the government and the public. From ProPublica:

BP hasn’t yet been able to stop the flow of oil, but it’s been more successful at controlling the information coming out about the Gulf disaster.
McClatchy reported on Tuesday that BP has been withholding the results of [1] “tests on the extent of workers’ exposure to evaporating oil or from the burning crude over the Gulf.” The data is important to determining whether current conditions are safe for workers in the Gulf, researchers told McClatchy. BP said it’s sharing the data with “legitimate interested parties,” but would not release it publicly:

“Why would one do it? Any parties with a legitimate interest can have access to it,” BP spokesman Toby Odone told McClatchy [2].

That’s not the only instance in which the company has restricted the media’s access to information. CBS News reported that one of its news teams was filming on an oil-tarred public beach when Coast Guard officials and BP contractors came by and threatened them with arrest [3]. The incident was caught on tape.

What a crock eh? Check out the rest of ProPublica's writeup here. It's bound to piss you the fuck off.

I send that thought to my yuppie sista from hell. That cunt is on my last nerve. She has spent a total of five-fucking-minutes with my father in the last three weeks.

Who does this dumb bitch think she is fooling? It certainly isn't me.

I live with the old fart. And lemme tell ya, he gets more together with each friggin day. He drives me up a fucking wall with his bitchin and needling.

And the man deserves some dignity. ok?

Plus, my animals miss me, and so does the Ball n Chain....

I was quite curious to see what he had to say. He was positive, which is something I rarely am.

When I last gave an update regarding my father, we had just gotten home from five days of tests at the local hospital. Nothing was found to be conclusive as to why he became so befuddled and couldn't find his way home.

The old bastard is slowly coming around to his old self...which means he is critical, bitchy, a clean freak and a huge pain in my ass.

The entire family and his doctor are still telling him he needs to go into Assisted Living, to which he replys: No f'n way.

I am in the middle of this familial civil war...I am the only one that sees him constantly and sees the improvement in him. The rest just seem to want what works best for them.

It's gonna get ugly...bet on it.

Last nights election results were interesting but not ground-shaking. Specter got his pink slip from the Democratic voters in PA. From the Daily Beast, we get Margaret Carlson's thoughts on why Specter lost:

In the end, Specter turned out to be a double incumbent in a year when it is better to be an incumbent of no party at all. Sestak held his fire until the end. By the weekend, Specter was begging for White House help and he got none, despite Obama being next door in Youngstown, Ohio and Biden in his backyard speaking at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. By late afternoon Tuesday, NBC reported that the White House let it be known that "Arlen came to us, we didn't go to him."

It was mutually assured seduction and it failed. Specter did not go quietly into that good night, conceding in the shortest of speeches with no kind words for Sestak. He could have gone out gracefully but so few do—because losing is a little like dying for some. A few years back, Specter underwent extreme rounds of chemotherapy that left him gaunt and hairless. Senator John Sununu shaved his head in solidarity. But he never missed a vote. Most of the time Specter was a reliable Bush partisan, voting for his tax cuts and his war, which Pennsylvanians remembered Tuesday night. But he also fought Bush to get stem-cell research passed. As he did, he put an hourglass on the committee dais considering the legislation to remind each of us that our days were ticking by. And so have his.

Adios Arlen, don't let the door hit ya where the good lawd split ya dude. :) Of course Sestak still has to face the Rethug Toomey which probably won't be a walk in the park.

I really have been wondering about the shit BP has been using to break up the oil slick in the Gulf. ProPublica tells us they are using dispersants outlawed in other countries:

The two types of dispersants BP is spraying in the Gulf are banned for use [1] on oil spills in the U.K. As EPA-approved products [2], BP has been using them in greater quantities than dispersants have ever been used [3] in the history of US oil spills.
BP is using two products from a line of dispersants called Corexit [4], which EPA data [2] appears to show is more toxic and less effective [5] on South Louisiana crude than other available dispersants, according to Greenwire.

We learned about the U.K. ban from a mention on the New York Times’ website. (The reference was cut from later versions of the article, so we can’t link to the Times, but we found the piece [6] elsewhere.) The Times flagged a letter [7] Rep. Edward Markey, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, sent to the EPA yesterday. The letter pointed out that both the Corexit products currently being used in the Gulf were removed from a list of approved treatments for oil spills in the UK more than a decade ago. (Here’s the letter [7].)

As we’ve reported, Corexit was also used after Exxon Valdez [8] and was “later linked with health impacts in people including respiratory, nervous system, liver, kidney and blood disorders.” One of the two Corexit products also contains a compound associated with “headaches, vomiting and reproductive problems at high doses [9].”

Given that the dispersants are EPA-approved, the choice on which ones to use was left to BP, which had stockpiled large amounts of Corexit and is now ordering more. 

That sure made me feel warm and fucking fuzzy....how about you?

Via Crooks&Liars, Stewarts take on the oil spill fuckery:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
There Will Be Blame
www.thedailyshow.com

A Federal Judge has ordered the release of a Russian gent being held at Gitmo for eight years. From Jurist:

A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Thursday ordered the release of Russian Guantanamo Bay  detainee Ravil Mingazov. Judge Henry Kennedy Jr ordered the government to "take all necessary and appropriate diplomatic steps to facilitate Mingazov's release forthwith." Government lawyers are currently reviewing the 44-page ruling, which has not yet been declassified. Mingazov, a former ballet dancer, was captured in Pakistan in 2002 and turned over to US authorities. The Pentagon claimed he was captured in a raid on a suspected terrorist safe house and that he had attended a terror training camp, but Mingazov denied the claims. Mingazov is seeking release to a country other than Russia, after Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported in 2007 that seven former Guantanamo detainees suffered abuse and torture at the hands of Russian law enforcement agencies following their release from US custody in 2004.

Thursday's ruling brings to 35 the number of Guantanamo detainees who have prevailed in habeas corpus proceedings in federal court. The government has prevailed in only 13 cases. In March, the DC court denied the habeas petition of Yemeni Guantanamo Bay detainee Makhtar Yahia Naji al Warafi on its merits, allowing the US government to prolong the detention indefinitely. Earlier that month, a federal judge ordered the release of Mauritanian Guantanamo Bay detainee Mohamedou Ould Slahi, who had been accused of planning the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Slahi has been in US custody for over seven years and brought a habeas petition, claiming that he had been tortured in prison and had made confessions under duress. In late February, a DC judge ruled that the government can continue to hold indefinitely two Yemeni Guantanamo Bay detainees, even though Fahmi Salem Al-Assani and Suleiman Awadh Bin Agil Al-Nahdi had been cleared for release by the Bush administration two years ago.

It's a damn shame that it takes a judge to do the right thing...Wtf ever happened to doing whats right morally? So far 35 prisoners have been prevailed and that is a good thing ain't it?

Ok, so they couldn't find out what made my Dad forget where the fuck he lived or how to get there.

They released him, into my care, yesterday afternoon. Round 4:30 pm to be a tad precise. I tell you the time because it's important...

Every night he was in the hospital, five of them, he got batshit crazy and wanted to cold-cock anyone and everyone that was preventing him from walking out of the hospital, in his hospital nightgown and usually sans underwear.

It's called Sundowners Syndrome. Take my word for it...it ain't pretty and it's scary as shit for loved ones and nursing staff that have to deal with it. You can not reason with them, you can not control them and they can and will hurt others if it's not dealt with...usually by tying them to their beds when drugs fail to subdue them.

So...to say I was scared to death to take my father to his home at that hour, with just me myself and I to deal with him is an understatement m'dear friends. I was frantic, asking his doctor what to do if he went off on me.

Doc said...call 911, tell them to take him back to the hospital and pray they got there before he hurt me or himself. But Doc really believed he wouldn't go into that mode and I had no choice but to trust his judgment.

I am happy to report Pops maintained all evening and remained lucid, aware and thankfully as close to normal as he could get. He was tired but so damn happy to be in his condo with his beautiful grey cat and me. For the first time in almost a week he blissfully slept through the night.

I slept or tried to sleep, on the couch in the living room...to make sure he didn't get up and try to go for a stroll in his skivvies at 2 or 3am.

When he got up this morning, he was happy and relaxed and wanted to do his laundry at 6am. I said 'go for it Daddy' so he marched back and forth to the laundry room for about 90 minutes whilst I sat and pondered the huge changes that were coming to his life...and mine.

I can only care for him, here at his home in San Diego, for a month. My life in Bakersfield can be put on hold for that long. His doctor told him in no uncertain terms that he can no longer live alone because he isn't eating regularly, taking his meds daily and drinking too much booze for a man of his age (80) with medical problems like RA, high blood pressure and a host of other issues that affect the elderly. His drivers license has been suspended at this point and the chances of him getting it back are...well, slim and none.

The task at hand is to make him realize the reality of his situation and the options he has, which are limited to getting a live-in caretaker (which he can't afford) or moving into an Assisted Living home for the elderly. 

Needless to say, he flat out refuses to consider the second option. I do not blame him. But I also know that is the best of the two options. I wish with all my heart I could bring him to live with me and the Ball n' Chain but our relationship has always been adversarial and our home is not somewhere he would be happy. Dad is conservative and I am a leftwing nutjob. I already have someone to care for...my husband who is 10 years older than I and dealing with his diabetes and other ailments. I have 3 blown discs that limit me to top it all off.....the excuses are endless.

I feel ashamed that I can not care for my father and his dementia. I am frustrated and angry that this falls on my shoulders. I have four other younger siblings who have a myriad of reasons why they can not take him. I understand their positions, believe me.

It's weighing on me and I see no light at the end of this tunnel. Thanks for listening.

Painting: Alzheimers the Journey Painting by Yulonda Rios

Hello there m'dear reader...I am in San Diego for an unknown length of time.

My 80 year old father is hospitalized and unable to care for himself any longer. So, it falls on my shoulders to figure out wtf to do about him and his life...what is left of it.

I do plan on blogging but I am just too busy with doctors and other people, not to mention trying to keep my cantankerous father inside his hospital room and keeping him from punching out the nurses.

Dementia is a possibility, but the doctors think there is another reason he is delusional and unable to care for himself. To put it in language everyone will understand:

Your body should have five quarts of blood. The Old Fucker was four quarts low, so his body made the decision to supply all his organs, except for his brain.

I do not have internet access at his house, where I am staying since he owns a cat that he loves more than anything. But, I do have access to the intertubes here at the hospital, so during the long-ass hours I am here daily...I will be able to do my usual bitching about all things political.

Say a prayer for the Old Fucker if you do any praying...if not..well...that's quite alright too.

Until tomorrow...Dusty. ;)

If anyone lives in San Diego, I would love to see you. Let me know and I will figure out a way we can grab a few moments to say hello. It would be a welcome  change for me...believe me.

I really had hoped these fuckwits would just keep their pieholes shut...but alas..that was not to be the case. What is their biggest whine?

That law enforcement mirandized the suspect, an American citizen.

John McCain was right there, with the rightwing nutters, bitching about it. The pompous windbag really went off. From VF:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said reading Shahzad his Miranda rights would be a ‘mistake,’” according to CBS News. Quoth McCain, “Don't give this guy his Miranda rights until we find out what it's all about.” 

 It isn't an option, mirandizing a suspect, its part of our laws and of course part of the due process every American is given. Pander much to the nutters McCain?

Next up we have that massive moron Peter King. That jackass really should keep his trap shut as he shows his ignorance every single fucking time he says anything. From HuffPo:

"I hope that [Attorney General Eric] Holder did discuss this with the intelligence community. If they believe they got enough from him, how much more should they get? Did they Mirandize him? I know he's an American citizen but still," King said.

Christ, Petey..one more time...its not fucking optional you douche nozzle.  What part of 'due process' do you not understand moron?

Now, we get to Eric Cantor, scumbag extraordinaire.  In a speech to the nutters at the Heritage Foundation, Eric went batshit crazy, bitching about the Obama administration's handling of national security, the Underwear Bomber and the Times Sq bomber. It's obvious Cantor was pandering to the wingnut base, so why link to his bullshit? Thanks for politicizing national security you friggin, pathetic idiot.

A sane voice in the whole mess is retired General Paul Eaton. He was a guest last night on Countdown. Part of the transcript is here on the National Security Network site, of which Gen Eaton is a member. A shot from General Eaton at the fuckwitted Republicans:

OLBERMANN: If you are the FBI agent and the police officers who spent 53 hours straight on the manhunt that was successful and as Mike Sheehan pointed out, you throw in the time of the flight that they had as a pad to Dubai, they didn`t catch him at the last second before he left the country or would have gotten out of the grasp of this country. They got him about a day before and got him after about two days and a few hours` work. What would it feel like to have done this job and have lawmakers back at home of any stripe criticizing you in the job that you just did?

EATON: Well, not good is the answer. Since January of 2009, we have seen a relentless attack on our FBI, on our armed services, on our policemen by the Republican Party. Any opportunity that they can find to see a seam to get in there and lay in an attack they have pursued. And, frankly, as a retired soldier and as a guy who supports my police, who supports my FBI, I want them to cut it out.

Cut it out? M'dear Gen. Eaton....these fuckers have no intention of cutting it out. It' all "the party of no" has...attacking and politicizing everything the Obama administration does. The best line I have heard about the Rethugs and their zest to torture and disregard due process was borrowed by Eaton and belongs to Navy Jag admiral named John Hudson:

And he said, you know, the use of torture and these techniques is -- that`s the tool of the stupid, the lazy and the pseudo tough.

Bravo sir...bravo! Thank you Gen. Eaton and John Hudson. Bless you gents! Eaton's interview below:

From Alternet, we get the biggest, most fuckwitted, most outrageous comments from the fuckwads on the right:

7. Rush Limbaugh: Environmentalists probably blew up the oil rig

6. Rep. Taylor Compares Oil Slick to Chocolate Milk

5. Sarah Palin Promotes Offshore Drilling As Massive Oil Leak Continues

4. Bill Kristol Says Offshore Drilling Should be Brought Closer to Land

3. T. Boone Pickens: "All of that will get cleaned up and we'll be back"

2. Tony Hayward, CEO of BP: "What the hell did we do to deserve this?"

1. Rush Limbaugh: "The ocean will take care of this on its own if it was left alone and left out there. It's natural. It's as natural as the ocean water is."

There really is no need to extrapolate on these asinine remarks. They speak for themselves.

These scum sucking carpetbaggers are offering Alabaman's $5 grand if they will sign away their right to sue over the damages that their fuck-up has and will cause along the Alabama coastline. From TPM:

BP has been offering $5000 payments to residents of coastal Alabama areas, in exchange for essentially giving up their right to sue the oil giant over its deadly Gulf Coast spill, according to the state's attorney general.


AG Troy King last night urged BP to stop the effort, and told Alabamians to be wary. "People need to proceed with caution and understand the ramifications before signing something like that," King said, according to the Alabama press.

A spokesman for BP told a reporter that the waiver clause had now been removed from the contracts, and that the company won't enforce it in contracts that were previously signed. But King, a Republican, isn't satisfied. He said last night he's still concerned that the process could strip people of their right to sue.

Sid Jackson, a Mobile-based lawyer representing a shrimper who last week filed suit against BP, claiming that the spill had already taken a financial toll on his business, told TPMmuckraker that he believed BP would be wise to back down. "I think they kind of drop-kicked that [waiver] clause into the fine print," Jackson said. But, "I think it would backfire" if BP tried to enforce it.

Don't you just love it? The economic and environmental disaster has just begun along the Gulf of Mexico coastline, and BP's biggest concern is circumventing the legal system in order to cover their putrid asses.

Have you ever seen a bird or dolphin dying who is covered in oil? I have as I was a resident of Santa Barbara when the oil spill hit land in 1969. I was a highschool student. I saw all kinds of marine mammals in various stages of dying. Those visions haunted me for decades. The SB oil horror was the beginning of the enviromental movement...it was that horrific.

A little history lesson on oil and marine life:

The oil was so thick upon the water that waves reaching shore reportedly made no sound. The tides brought dead seals and dolphins, whose clogged blowholes caused their lungs to hemorrhage. Countless fish and marine invertebrates perished. Diving birds were soaked with oil while shore birds fled. A massive volunteer effort attempted to rescue oil-soaked birds from beaches and bring them to emergency treatment centers. Even so, less than 30 percent of the birds that were treated survived.

This is what the residents of the Gulf coast have to look forward to. Dead animals and a ruined eco-system.

I will never forget what I saw...and neither will the residents of the gulf coast now. From a post I did on the Santa Barbara oil spill:

I was a highschooler when the Santa Barbara oil spill happened..and I lived in Santa Barbara county. You haven't lived until you have walked on a beach that has oil ten inches thick all fucking over it. You haven't seen nothing until you see birds that are covered in the shit and dying a slow painful death. You haven't experienced shit until you see hundreds of dead fish, seals and dolphins covering the beach.

It is going to happen all over again. I am thankful that I do not live anywhere near the gulf coast. But the nightmares have started all over again for me.

He is funny...gotta hand him that!