The Coast Guard will finally let us see how fucked up the Gulf is:

National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen today announced new procedures to allow media free travel within the 20-meter boom safety zones if they have followed simple procedures for credentialing, and provided they follow certain rules and guidelines.

“I have put out a direction that the press are to have clear, unfettered access to this event, with two exceptions — if there is a safety or security concern,” said Allen. “This boom is critical to the defense of the marshes and the beaches.”
“We need to discriminate between media, which have a reason to be there and somebody who’s hanging around when we know that we’ve had equipment vital to this region damaged,” Allen said.

Previously, media were required to contact local authorities each time they wished to access booming operations. The 20-meter safety zone was created to prevent boats from going over the top of booms; it is not intended to limit media access.

This step will further expand media access to frontlines of the BP oil spill response, and ensure that media representatives have the access they need to report this historic response-while maintaining the effectiveness of more than 560 miles of protective boom currently deployed to protect sensitive shorelines along the Gulf Coast.

Now instead of reading stories about how reporters aren’t allowed to report on the oil spill (here’s an example, and here’s another one, and another one, and – wait, what’s this? – another one); I can read stories about how fucked we all are.

Isn’t life grand?

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Tags: BP, Coast Guard, Oil Spill, The Gulf is Fucked
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And their slaves have responded:

The oil and gas industry measure by Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, failed to muster even a simple 51-vote majority, although 60 votes were needed to pass it.

It was offered as an amendment to a bill that would extend unemployment insurance for hundreds of thousands of jobless workers whose benefits ran out last month and also renew a set of popular business tax breaks.

The bill faces a key procedural vote on Wednesday, but it appears doubtful that Democratic leaders will be able to muster the 60 votes needed to advance the bill to a final vote.

Only 35 senators backed the Sanders’ amendment as a number of Democrats joined the Republican opposition to defeat it.

Sanders argued that big oil companies making billions in profits do not deserve the tax breaks at a time when the nation is facing record budget deficits and rising debt.

“With a record-breaking $13 trillion national debt and an unsustainable federal deficit, the last thing we should be doing is giving tax breaks to oil and gas companies that have been making enormous profits,” Sanders said.

Opponents argued that removing the breaks for oil and gas drilling would hurt small producers as well as big oil companies.

Sure, our government could take that 35 billion dollars and give it to the people who’ve gotten fucked over in the BP oil spill, but we can’t have them getting rich off of taxpayer money. I mean, who the fuck do they think they are? Oil companies?

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Tags: BP, Congress, Oil Companies Own Us All, Oil Spill
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I’m going out of town today so enjoy this awesome article about how fucked people living in the gulf are.

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Tags: BP oil, I Wonder How Much Money BP Is Going To Have To Give Up, Oil Spill
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