Ogre-oids, May 20, 2010

Obama's anti-science response to the Gulf Spill. Oceanographers accuse the Obama administration of failing to conduct adequate scientific analysis of environmental damage and permitting BP to obscure the scope of the spill's impact. Scientists say there may problems occuring from plumes of oil that appear to be spreading beneath the surface of the ocean. The flagship vessel of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) was off the coast of Africa and was not redirected to the Gulf until May 11, three weeks after the disaster began. NOAA is criticized as being "derelict" in analyzing conditions beneath the sea. A prominent oceanographer says that the government's efforts have been a "catastrophic disaster" and that no one is paying attention to a "vast ecosystem being exposed to contaminants."

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindel reports "heavy oil is coming into our wetlands." The governor says "it's past time to act" and criticizes BP, the Coast Guard, and The Army Corps of Engineers. More evidence of Obama's complacent and indifferent reaction to the moutning crisis. A procedure that could shut the drill well off completely won't be ready until next week. BP is so scattershot and clueless that it has been taking email suggestions for stopping the flow, even getting advice from Kevin Costner. "If you build it, it will stop spilling," or something like that. In the meantime, BP has been successful in taking a full page public relations ad in today's Times assuring us they are doing everything to correct the problem. I guess in the real world, words speak louder than actions.

Teachers face worse job market since Great Depression. Where is the stimulus package for teachers? Even upscale suburban districts prepare for huge layoffs. How does this mean that unemployment is improving? What about the future of education? Schools have their pick of teachers, and teachers' market vulnerability will make them even easier pawns for adminstrative agendas based on around teaching to the test and controlling curriculum. In the meantime, teachers serve as scapegoat #1 for the country's economic and social problems. Sounds typical of a poorly educated society.

Necro-fest, Obama Style. In the last two days, nine U.S. servicemen have been killed, bringing the total U.S. deathtoll in Afghanistan to 1,000. But thanks to the attempted bombing at Times Square, Obama and the American people have the political fodder necessary to continue their necro-orgy for the foreseeable future. Perhaps laid-off teachers should get into the handy-wipes business. These attacks followed annoucements from the Taliban before Karzai's visit to D.C. that they would begin a series of offensives against U.S. forces, which U.S. military spokesmen blew off--futher testimony to their lack of deliberative credibility.

NYPD stop and frisk measures--The NYPD has been stopping and frisking citizens, mostly minorities in their efforts to protect American freedom. The ACLU has filed suit over the fact the NYPD has kept personal information on record even from people were found not to have committed crimes or paid fines that meant their records should have been purged. Nothing like martial law tactics to uphold the American way of life.

Alabama Crazy Land, Continued!

A geometry teacher from a county north of Birmingham has been suspended after the Secret Service took interest in his example of tangency:  The assassination of President Obama.  via

If the incident went down as reported the student that made the suggestion should have been admonished for it.  I'm not sure the teacher should be fired but I'll bet money that these kids were all white and their parents are a bunch of closeted Klansmen.

NY Times Propoganda Depicts Oil-Spill Containment Efforts as a Success

In its latest endorsement of corporate mania and reckless greed, the front page of yesterday's NY Times (2010, May 17) featured an "article" that blatantly depicts BP's efforts to contain the oil spill that resulted from its exploded rig in the Gulf of Mexico as a success. This interpretation of events follows the same rhetorical trope that shapes popular media discourse about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars that are also successes no matter the loss of life, widespread destruction, and all of the many other things that obviously go wrong (like the failure to protect American lives on September 11, 2001, for example). The word "success" is featured in the title of the article and again on page A15 in the title of the article's continued section. The word "success" or close variations of it, e.g. "successful" appear seven times in the 23 paragraph article. But the word "failure" only appears twice and does not appear until the 19th paragraph--even though there wouldn't be anything to report in the first place were it not for the fact that everything about the operation has been a total, abject failure. And the first time an event related to containing the spill is described as a failure it is immediately re-interpreted as a "success" because of what the damage-control people figured out as a result. BP spokesman Tom Mueller is quoted in the article as saying that the oil spill itself and the time it's taken to mitigate its rate of flow into the ecosystem are "not a problem" and spins the environmental tragedy and BP's tortoise-esque urgency at stopping the fucking oil from filling the entire Gulf of Mexico as an educational opportunity: ". . . it's what I'd call learning, reconfiguring, doing it again." Funny how when these virtues are mentioned in support of investment in education and teachers salaries, they are ridiculed as a welfare-state appeal on behalf of people who don't want to be held accountable. Of course, if you're BP, Halliburton, or the U.S. military, you don't have to worry about being held accountable, because major media outlets like the NY Times will fuel the feedback loop whereby Americans tell themselves over and over that those organizations never fail, even when they fuck up colossally.