Assess YoSelf!

From the US EPA website:

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• Yellowstone River Spill

Yellowstone River Spill

At approximately 11:00 PM Friday, July 1, 2011, a break occurred in a 12-inch pipeline under the Yellowstone River 20 miles upstream from Billings, Montana. The ruptured pipeline is owned by ExxonMobil Pipeline Company. According to the company, an estimated 1,000 barrels of oil entered the river before the pipeline was closed. EPA is leading the response in close coordination with the state of Montana and other federal agencies. EPA’s primary concern is protecting people’s health and the environment and will remain on-site to ensure cleanup and restoration efforts do just that. EPA continues to hold ExxonMobil, the responsible party, accountable for assessment and cleanup.  

(emphasis mine)

Oil makes us crazy...

Ok -- so BP fails to use proper precautions and safety features and the well blows.  There is no working automatic shut-off mechanism. Then they pour on a shitload of toxic dispersal agents.  Then they attempt various methods of stopping the flow, none of which work and some of which make it worse (though they do have rather cute names).  Now they want to nuke the damn thing.  What could possibly go wrong?

Weak....

Obama Panel to Study Oil Spill. Now don't you feel better?

Am I the only one who thinks that all BP has done so far is sink a pipe, enabling them to siphon off just enough oil that they can keep making money?  Despite their show of boxes and top hats, these greedy fuckers clearly have no idea how to deal with the deadly torrent of oil unleashed in their sick addiction to money.  I wonder if they even care. BP should not be in charge of this operation.  Unfortunately, I don’t trust our government to do better - it was their lack of attention, at best, and criminal pandering to the money base at worst that allowed this to happen.

Sometimes I don’t think this country can do anything at all.  Between kickbacks and politics it is never anymore about what it IS – but how it can be used.  If you think I am too cynical, go visit  the site in New York where the towers used to be.  How much money has been spent so far to accomplish zero?

And now there is a push to re-think nuclear power plants.  With whom in charge?

I hate to waste golf balls....

How about we plug that hole with corporate executives and politicians?

Salazar -- another crappy Obama appointee. Guess he decided to keep the change.

From Wikepedia:

On May 23, 2005, Salazar was among the Gang of 14 moderate senators to forge a compromise on the Democrats' use of the filibuster against judicial appointments, thus blocking the Republican leadership's attempt to implement the so-called "nuclear option". Under the agreement, the Democrats would retain the power to filibuster a Bush judicial nominee only in an "extraordinary circumstance", and the three most conservative Bushappellate court nominees (Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen and William Pryor) would receive a vote by the full Senate. Salazar has skirmished with Focus on the Family, a Colorado-based conservative Christian group of national stature, over his stance on judicial nominees.

In 2005, Salazar voted against increasing fuel-efficiency standards (CAFE) for cars and trucks, a vote that the League of Conservation Voters notes is anti-environment. In the same year, Salazar voted against an amendment to repeal tax breaks for ExxonMobil and other major petroleum companies.^[6]

In August 2006, Ken Salazar supported fellow Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman in his primary race againstNed Lamont in Connecticut. Lamont, running primarily as an anti-war candidate, won the primary. Salazar's continued support of Lieberman, who successfully ran as an independent against Lamont, has rankled the anti-war wing of the Democratic Party.

In 2006, Salazar voted to end protections that limit offshore oil drilling in Florida's Gulf Coast.^[7]

In 2007, Salazar was one of only a handful of Democrats to vote against a bill that would require the United States Army Corps of Engineers to consider global warming when planning water projects.^[8]

According to Project Vote Smart, Ken Salazar received a 25 percent vote rating for 2007 by the Humane Society of the United States,^[9] a zero percent vote rating for 2005-2006 by Fund for Animals,^[10] a 60 percent vote rating for 2007 by Defenders of Wildlife,^[11] and a zero percent vote rating on the Animal Welfare Institute Compassion Index^[12]. He also supported the Bush Administration's release of lands in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) for emergency haying in Colorado's Yuma and Phillips Counties.^[13] Salazar has an 81 percent lifetime rating from theLeague of Conservation Voters, including a 100 percent rating for the year 2008.^[14]