The Information Super-Frog

BP Oil spill update: BP and Oil Cap Success?

After a procedure which increased the rate of flow by an unspecified percentage, another procedure has decreased the rate of flow by an unspecified percentage. Um, Yay?

In short, the disaster continues to rapidly and constantly get worse, but possibly at a slightly less rapid rate than the hypothetical maximum.

Media reports BP allegedly suppressing pictures of dead dolphins & turtles

Guardian:BP to go ahead with $10bn shareholder payout

Oysters and jobs disappearing

"New Orleans - Workers at P&J Oyster Company in the French Quarter are wrapping up what could be their last full day of work.

"It's a seafood restaurant owner's worst nightmare: after more than 130 years of serving up a local delicacy, P&J Oyster Company may be forced to close up shop because oyster fishing grounds have been closed."

Senator Vitter doubles down on offshore drilling and pushes for a liability cap for BP.

Other Louisiana politicians of both parties have gotten their rears in gear in response to the disaster. Meanwhile, David Vitter remains the same soiled diaper as always.

Oil slick closing in on Pensacola Beach

Some local news links

WDSU: Engineer Testifies Of 'Hurricane Highway'" Testimony confirms the obvious; "MRGO" Canal funnels ocean storm surge into the heart of the metro area.

LA Coast Post: Vitter's Hurricane Hijinx Senator Vitter: Still a Weasel.

Village Voice: Hopeful Dispatches From the 40th Jazz & Heritage Festival

Gambit Weekly: Ray Nagin: the Blur Clancy DuBois riled into rant mode.

A couple of good ones from yesterday's Times-Picayune editorials:

James Gill: Creationists are Vitter's latest hookup

John Maginnis about "K-Ville": State will pay to have its name trashed.

The second episode of "K-Ville" was worse than the first. Even the accents got worse. The scene with the local cop eating OATMEAL with hot sauce created a universal "WTF?!?" reaction locally -- word since is supposedly that was some sort of bet or inside joke among the cast and crew that got used in the show. Heck of a job, editors!

In other news, pentomino is visiting town. mshollie and I plan to visit the World War II museum with him later.

For the 4th day in a row, the Senator David Vitter prostitute scandal is on the front page above the fold of today's Times-Picayune. Alas, none of the headlines has read "Vitter Resigns" yet.

Additional revelations have appeared each day, confirming Vitter's involvement with prostitutes both in the D.C. area and Louisiana going back to the '90s, including stories which came out as allegations before elections years ago and which Vitter denied. Once the first story became significant news, reporters apparently started doing a bit of investigating on some of the older stories.

I haven't seen some of the more sorid details confirmed in the mainstream media yet, though Vitter's diaper fetish, a few days ago dismissed as a rumor on the blog-0-sphere, was referenced by Jay Leno on the Tonight Show last night.

Some of the local Republican Right have been defending Vitter. I'm all for the proposition that what adults do with their genitalia is nobody else's business, but that's exactly contrary to what Vitter and his supporters have been pushing for years. I think it would be on the whole better if prostitution were legalized and regulated, but the fact is that in pretty much all of the USA other than some counties in Nevada, it's illegal. Vitter pledged to uphold the law, but Vitter is a criminal.

Vitter's been absent on the Senate floor, and is said to be in an undisclosed location (hiding in the Cheneybunker?). One internet rumor I'm not putting any stock in at this point is that he's in the hospital after his wife really did follow through with her threat to his Senatorial Staff. Though of course Vitter's real problem is between his ears, not his legs.

Speaking of COX (Haw!) I'm supposed to get cable hooked up today. I thought I was done with ATT years ago, but they bought out my local phone company, so I'll shell out some more money and get high speed internet and transfer my phone to Cox Cable. While I'm at it, I'm finally stepping boldly into the 1980s and getting a cable tv hookup as part of the package. Broadcast tv already had more television than I cared to watch, but now Ms. Hollie and I will be able to watch "Countdown" or "The Daily Show" together rather than on YouTube.

In other news, City Council member Shelley Midura has called on District Attorney Eddie Jordan to resign. Give 'em hell, Shelley.

Louisiana's representatives in Washington have been busy nutria lately.

Dollar Bill Jefferson's adventures have made national news. He says he has "an honorable explanation" for how 90 k in marked bills intended to bribe the VP of Nigeria wound up in his freezer, but his lawyers have advised him to keep the story under wraps for the time being. I so hope we get to hear the honorable explanation; I bet it's a ripping good yarn. In the mean time, his fellow Dems are throwing him off Ways & Means; it seems that the "I havn't even been indicted yet, much less convicted" excuse doesn't necessarily fly on their side of the aisle. Not with an election coming up, anyhow.

Meanwhile David Vitter knows where his priorities are, proclaiming "I don't believe there's any issue that's more important than this one." He was talking about... outlawing Gay Marriage. (Which is already illegal in Louisiana. But with thousands homeless, cities in ruins, and 1/5 of the state in danger of washing out to sea, our first priority must be to make gay marriage even illegaler!) I didn't think he could top last August when he introduced a bill to encourage harvesting what's left of Louisiana's barrier wetlands to be turned into mulch while Katrina was barreling towards us in the Gulf. It just goes to show it doesn't pay to underestimate Critter Vitter.

On the national scene:

"The war in Iraq has become so unpopular that it could cost Republicans control of Congress, statehouses and governor races around the country, national pollster John Zogby said Friday. He said 70% of voters believe the U.S. is headed in the wrong direction, adding, “I have never seen a number like that since I’ve been polling.” [...] But he cautioned: “The Democrats have no program on any issue, they have nothing to say that matters to anyone in the United States today.” " (via Detroit Free Press)

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Toons

It's good to see that the Suspect Device cartoons run by Gambit Weekly are on line again.

Jefferson's Fridge

Vitter's strategy

And one from a couple months ago that I would have linked to at the time if I'd been able to find it on line:
6 months from Katrina in the illustrations of John Tenniel

Congresscritter Vitter's handing out pork to his cronies may scuttle plans to save Louisiana's rapidly disappearing coastline.

Porked-up water act throws good money after bad
by Froma Harrop, Providence Journal

Louisiana is famous for — how shall we put it? — its colorful politics. And so Sen. David Vitter got an easy laugh from Washington with the quip, "In Louisiana, we're half under water and half under indictment." At a hearing on the Water Resources Development Act, the Louisiana Republican added, "In this bill, we're beginning to address at least one of those issues."

Only one? American taxpayers are not so sure. The Senate bill raises to $1.2 billion their share of a project to preserve land in coastal Louisiana. This would be the first installment of a grand plan to restore the Mississippi Delta. Experts put the total cost at a minimum of $15 billion.

But then Vitter slipped in a last-minute provision that would endanger hundreds of thousands of forested wetland acres in Louisiana alone. It would ease the way for timber companies to cut down majestic cypress trees — part of the very ecosystem taxpayers are being asked to save — and turn them into cheap garden mulch.

The Mississippi Delta happens to be one of America's great natural wonders, right up there with the Grand Canyon, the Everglades and Chesapeake Bay. It represents 40 percent of the coastal wetlands in the contiguous United States.

But the question arises: Why spend billions fixing a resource that Louisiana politicians are busy wrecking? If inserting the Vitter provision into the water-project bill doesn't amount to an indictable offense, it certainly puts American taxpayers in a bad mood.

( more, arrgh )