Claims that the effects of the Gulf disaster are premature.  BP never removed the oil.  They just hid it, and its coming out just in time for Halloween, all trick and no treat.  As the US prepares to resume deep water drilling, the time has come to fire Ken Salazar and replace him with someone sufficiently concerned about our environment to make sure that does not happen until after the report, postponed to March, is out and its findings are used to implement measures sufficient to prevent a recurrence.

Just three days after the U.S. Coast Guard admiral in charge of the BP oil spill cleanup declared little recoverable surface oil remained in the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana fishers Friday found miles-long strings of weathered oil floating toward fragile marshes on the Mississippi River delta.

The discovery, which comes as millions of birds begin moving toward the region in the fall migration, gave ammunition to groups that have insisted the government has overstated clean-up progress, and could force reclosure of key fishing areas only recently reopened.

The oil was sighted in West Bay, which covers approximately 35 square miles of open water between Southwest Pass, the main shipping channel of the river, and Tiger Pass near Venice. Boat captains working the BP clean-up effort said they have been reporting large areas of surface oil off the delta for more than a week but have seen little response from BP or the Coast Guard, which is in charge of the clean-up. The captains said most of their sightings have occurred during stretches of calm weather, similar to what the area has experienced most of this week.

On Friday reports included accounts of strips of the heavily weathered orange oil that became a signature image of the spill during the summer. One captain said some strips were as much as 400 feet wide and a mile long.

The captains did not want to be named for fear of losing their clean-up jobs with BP… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NOLA>

Frankly, as tepid as the Democrats have been in dealing with this issue, electing GOBP candidates will guarantee another GOP Gusher in the Gulf.

Disenfranchising minority voters is a standard page in the Republican playbook.  For example, Republicans conspired to keep African Americans from voting in Florida in 2000 by having their names removed from voter rolls, because their names were similar to those of people with convictions.  Thousands were deprived of their right to vote.  Republican poll watchers are trained to intimidate minority voters.  This year, Republicans know they cannot win a significant portion of the Latino vote, because of their racist approach to immigration reform.  So a front group has been running ads telling Latino voters to stay home to punish Democrats for failing to pass comprehensive immigration reform.  That attempt seems to have backfired.

Those ads by a right-wing front group called "Latinos for Reform" — urging Latinos not to vote for Democrats in the coming election because they haven’t delivered on comprehensive immigration reform — may not be turning out to be such a hot idea:

But the fever-pitch backlash to this advertisement suggests the message could bring about just the opposite effect, by energizing a Hispanic voting bloc that may have been lethargic with a new and compelling reason to get out and vote — by and large, for Democrats.

From the 2004 to 2008 elections, Hispanics grew in force from 8 percent of the electorate to 12 to 15 percent, depending on the exit poll — roughly equal to President Barack Obama’s margin of victory. Obama carried 76 percent of the Nevada Hispanic vote in 2008.

Electorate growth rates among Hispanics have slowed since. But what hasn’t is their overwhelming enthusiasm for Democrats.

“Hispanics are much more likely to view congressional Democrats favorably than other groups,” said John Tuman, chairman of UNLV’s political science department who also teaches in the Latin American studies department. According to a recent study by UNLV and the Brookings Mountain West think tank, “it’s only among Hispanics in any Mountain West state that you see Democrats having an overall net favorability ranking,” Tuman said.

Yeah, campaigns that smack of overt minority voter-suppression efforts — particularly since the self-serving hypocrisy of these ads ("Punish Democrats because they haven’t been effective in overcoming our longstanding efforts to kill immigration reform") is so transparent — tend not to go over so well with minority voters… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Crooks and Liars>

I have to add that the contents of the ads were lies.  Republicans have opposed immigration reform, because they want undocumented workers to exploit. 

The Homophobia and disrespet for women from Ken Buck is well known.  What you may not know is that this Republican extremist running for the Senate seat from Colorado also has a history of supporting street crime to allow one of his cronies to profit.

Ken Buck, Colorado’s Republican Senate candidate, was once an assistant federal prosecutor.

There was an Aurora gun dealer who sold guns illegally and had 37 counts thrown at him. This was a violation of federal law, nothing to sneeze at.

Ken Buck didn’t pursue the prosecution.

Ken Buck shared information with the defense team. That’s right, he tipped them off. How’s that for law enforcement? Then he resigned. Was he forced to?

Ken Buck was reprimanded… by a Republican U.S. Attorney. A partisan witch hunt? Not so much.

The illegal gun dealer benefited from Ken Buck’s unethical, sleazy behavior. He was convicted of a misdemeanor.

The gun dealer donated to Ken Buck’s campaign.

Maybe this is why Bob Barr, of the NRA, GOP House and Federal Prosecuting in the late 80s thinks there are serious ethical questions that need to be answered by Mr. Buck. Nothing like a little NRA on NRA violence two weeks before an election to make the day interesting.

Oh and guess where this GOP Contributor Greg Golyansky’s guns ended up?

With such all-stars as the Los Angeles based "Pocket Crips" gang and Randy "Rambo" Canister, who in 2005 was sentenced to life for a triple murder in Aurora. Lest you think these were just coincidences, as reported by David Ohlinger in the Denver Post in 1999 (no link cause from the Dark Ages of Internet) "…fully 40% of multiple gun purchases traceable to criminal arrests in the state of Colorado were made by Golyansky’s pawn shop…buyers traveled from all around the state — and nation — to Golyansky’s little shop."… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Crooks and Liars>

Here’s an ad about it:

In one way, Buck is atypical.  As a Rule the crime Republicans assist is big crime not street crime.  When Banksters break the law, Republicans are right there to help them.  Buck demonstrates that if it will help a crony make a few bucks, Republican politicians seem quite willing to let innocent people be murdered.

Vote!

In my volunteer work with prisoners and former prisoners, one of the greatest challenges I sometimes face is teaching them the empathy required to respect boundaries.  More evidence has surfaced to demonstrate that Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas has no respect for boundaries, not only in his treatment of Anita Hill, but also in other relationships, and in his conduct as a Supreme Court Justice.  This trait extends to other Republicans as well.

When Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during his explosive 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearing, Thomas vehemently denied the allegations and his handlers cited his steady relationship with another woman in an effort to deflect Hill’s allegations.

Lillian McEwen was that woman…

…To McEwen, Hill’s allegations that Thomas had pressed her for dates and made lurid sexual references rang familiar.

"He was always actively watching the women he worked with to see if they could be potential partners," McEwen said matter-of-factly. "It was a hobby of his."…

…Given that history, she said Hill’s long-ago description of Thomas’s behavior resonated with her.

"He was obsessed with porn," she said of Thomas, who is now 63. "He would talk about what he had seen in magazines and films, if there was something worth noting."… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Washington Post>

This is a from a three page article well worth the read.

I only wish McEwen had come forward at the time.  She could have saved this nation from one of its worst Justices ever.  If Thomas has no respect for personal boundaries, is it any wonder that he abused the boundaries of his office by attending, with Scalia, a closed-door strategy meeting for major Republican fundraisers before the Citizens United decision?

The Republican Party seems to attract politicians with no respect for boundaries:  Larry Craig, John Ensign, David Vitter, just to name a few.  Here’s another extreme example.

A woman illegally strip-searched by a Wareham Police officer in the 1991 incident involving the officer’s supervisor, former Sgt. Jeff Perry, has released a statement harshly criticizing the now-candidate for Congress, saying Perry “should not be in a position of power.

In the statement first released to the Boston Globe, the woman, Lisa Allen, described her take on the incident:

Perry knew what (convicted former officer Scott) Flanagan did, he had to hear me screaming and crying. Instead of helping me, Jeff Perry denied anything happened.

Allen was 14 at the time… [emphasis original]

Inserted from <WBUR>

That Perry could stand by while an officer he supearvised committed this act shows that he had no respect for boundaries.

I’m a big believer in second chances, but the second chance must be earned.  To do so, people must take responsibility for their actions, make whatever amends are possible, and do whatever it takes to change.  Until all those steps are complete and time-tested, they are not fit to serve, because they will not respect the boundaries of their offices.