down by the mississippi for the oil spill just talked to shrimpers who say they have been waiting for a disaster like this to happen
Generation upon generation of fishermen – its all they know – live down here in #louisiana they say now staring at wipeout from the oil spill
boatload of mexicans in an oyster boat near oil spill in louisiana: we will lose 10,000 dollars a week in business and our livelihoods
Dying wildlife, ruined wetlands, jump in unemployment. What more do we need? The twitters, above, came from a reporter for the Guardian, collected here.
The Times' "Lede" blog shows the oil spill reaching the Louisiana coast this evening.
Elsewhere, there are reports that this is being pumped up into "Obama's Katrina." Certainly, this quote from "The Lede" has that flavor.
I was in the Marine Corps, and I know that if we need to we can strike heavily anywhere in the world in 24 hours. Why aren’t we using that kind of enthusiasm and drive to protect our coastland? I don’t think half the people in Washington have a clue of what’s at stake. This is a fragile ecosystem that has had to survive so much already. [...] These are federal waters. It’s not a natural disaster, whatever I hear people say on television. It’s so frustrating. The Federal government has known about this for 10 days. It should have said, “We’re going to act now,” and not wait for BP to take action.
Of course, it wasn't a major disaster until midweek revelations, and already the president has top people on site along with military coming in. Earlier in the week we saw a continuing effort to cut off the flow of oil and -- it has to be said -- BP a little unwilling to admit to the severity. And then there were people from US Fish and Wildlife dropping in chemical dispersants since last week.
So no. This is not the Dub and Dick show. No inept Brownies have flown in with promises and incompetence. Instead, Obama sent in the brass and is suspending oil leases. He doesn't appear to be doing a flyover or posing for a photo op.
Limbaugh blames the whole thing on "environmental wackos" -- only he (or Media Matters) spells it "whackos."
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