Four birds. In a 100 mile oil slick, stretching from New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico,
at this time, four birds were captured for cleaning: a cattle egret, two ducks, a juvenile laughing gull, and one turtle. Oh, a snake was caught covered with oil, but it was tossed out by cleanup workers.

I attended a cleaning of three of the birds in Venice, Louisiana, about two hours outside of New Orleans towards the Gulf of Mexico. They use Dawn detergent, because it cuts grease. The Exxon- Valdez spill taught us that Dawn is effective.

The sunken and broken barge that sits in the Mississippi River,  just below the Crescent City Connection(CCC) that links New Orleans with its westbank, "burped" 60 barrels of fuel oil early this morning, oil that has once again, polluted the river, drinking water, and threatened wildlife.

To complicate matters further, oil has been discovered in mud dredged at the mouth of the river.

The New York Times is finally reporting the oil slick that stretches from New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico, for 100 miles, affecting our water supply here and sensitive wetlands.

With just 500 people working on cleanup, according the WWL TV,  for a slick that stretches 100 miles, I'm concerned that the immediate effects on wildlife are already being downplayed.

The fuel spill in the Mississippi River now stretches 100 miles, almost to the Gulf of Mexico, and a sickly oil smell hangs over the city. According to a WWL TV news report, an SPCA group from Houston has set up a wildlife recovery effort. I don't want to pass judgement yet, but it is somewhat shocking to me, given the size of the spill and its potential impact on fragile wetlands, that there isn't more help coming to help wildlife, and to help with cleanup.

Given Times Picayune Reporter Katy Reckdahl's propensity to usually fair and balanced writing, something sorely lacking in post-Katrina Times Picayune, I was suprised at the slightly disingenuous tone of her recent article on the closure of the homeless encampment at the intersection of Canal St. and Claiborne. Perhaps though, Katy didn't see the recent City Business article that documented how the NOPD is staging entrapments of homeless folks in the downtown area. This was obviously used as a tactic to intimidate and frighten the  homeless from the area.

Pay attention folks. Our dreams for a Just America can have us projecting illusions onto what actually falls far below our principles, or using assumptions and wishful thinking in place of the rhetoric that is before us. As our interpretation of reality is subject to the beliefs we hold, we can tend to look at events with rose colored glasses, interpreting them in the best possible light, rather than recognizing the warnings that something or someone falls below our ideals or far short of our principles. And if they fall short of our principles, it is our job as citizens to call them out.

On July 1st, in a speech given in Zanesville, Ohio, Obama promised the expansion of the Bush created Faith Based Initiative. In my view, this is yet another full tilt rightward, and promises to congeal the private enterprise's highjacking of social services, to the detriment of those served.

"I am disappointed," said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, "that any presidential candidate would want to continue a failed policy of the Bush administration. The president's faith-based initiative has undermined civil rights and civil liberties and become deeply mired in partisan politics. It ought to be shut down, not continued."

Chris Hedges, former Middle East Bureau Chief for the New York Times, delivers a scathing viewpoint on modern journalists and the politicians served by them. Don't read it if you wish to maintain illusions about the Washington D.C. politicians and their jounalist supporters.

If Congress chooses not to address the issue of impeachment, then I, as a U.S. citizen, hold them accountable as well for war crimes, and crimes against our constitution.

Everyday there is bad news on the environment, and now our favorite fruit is part of the equation.

Below the headlines about rocketing food prices and rocking governments, there lays a largely unnoticed fact: bananas are dying. The foodstuff, more heavily consumed even than rice or potatoes, has its own form of cancer. It is a fungus called Panama Disease, and it turns bananas brick-red and inedible.

There is no cure. They all die as it spreads, and it spreads quickly. Soon — in five, 10 or 30 years — the yellow creamy fruit as we know it will not exist. The story of how the banana rose and fell can be seen a strange parable about the corporations that increasingly dominate the world - and where they are leading us.

While you debate superdelagates and primary outcomes, the House of Representatives is preparing to vote for war funding into the next administration. Is this what we want?

An article I found today. My one point of disagreement is that it is not necessarily important to "change" the two parties to make them more responsive to the people. I think we can render their influence neglible by our own caring action.

When the people take responsibility for their world, the parties will seem like child's play.

Comments?

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The failure of  the Times Picayune to seriously address the ongoing criminal investigation of  HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson provides cover for what may well be the illegal awarding of so-called redevelopment contracts tied to the demolition of  public housing in New Orleans. We will protest the lack of coverage at 4pm, Thursday, February 28, at the Times Picayune Building, 3800 Howard Ave., New Orleans, La.  

Doing a little research, I came across this web site that reveals that Rudd has committed to continue what is called the Military Intervention into the Northern Territory, and concurrently, the suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act will continue, although Rudd has signaled he is open to change.

In the midst of all the cheerleading for the democrats, Rolling Stone magazine is a lone voice, exposing manipulations that have helped to silence the anti-war movement in the Democratic party.

I'm coming out of the closet. Yes, I am fundamentally, a socialist. And I'm still defining what that means for myself politically. It does mean that I wasn't afraid to defend the public housing in New Orleans, as our "leaders" have proposed, and are currently, demolishing viable housing in our city at a time when there is a crisis lack of affordable housing in our city.

I was drawn to the Edwards campaign precisely because he at least acknowledged class differences, whereas Obama seems to have based his campaign on blurring those distinctions.

Here in New Orleans, the politics of class was never more evident than post Katrina efforts to rebuild our city.

And I'm not talking about class as in "classy". I'm talking about the upper, middle and not very often mentioned, lower class in this country.

In New Orleans, there has been a concerted effort to rebuild, and exclude, the lower class, the working poor, and those teetering on the edge of poverty, in our city.

City, state and federal leaders have been blunt in what they hope will be a "new" New Orleans.

John Edwards, in defiance of the "agenda", has visited twice to the lower ninth ward here, hammer in hand, to pound some nails, and make a point.