Racism, inequality is literally in the very air we breathe

Raw Story: A study released by the University of Minnesota this week indicated that people of color are exposed to air that is 38 percent more polluted than the air breathed by white people.

In an interview with The Minnesota Post, the study’s lead researcher, Julian Marshall, an associate professor of civil engineering at the University of Minnesota, said that “the main [factors in how polluted the air breathed in was] are race and income, and they both matter. In our findings, however, race matters more than income.”

When Marshall compared the exposure gap between high-income Hispanics and low-income whites, for example, the nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations were still higher among high-income Hispanics.

“We were quite surprised to find such a large disparity between whites and nonwhites related to air pollution,” Marshall told The Minnesota Post. “Especially the fact that this difference is throughout the U.S., even in cities and states in the Midwest.”

That income inequality is a factor in the purity of the air you breathe is nothing new. When it comes to polluting industries, people are protected by their wealth and power — you’re never going to see an incinerator or a fracking site move in next door to a multi-million dollar mansion. This is one of the ways in which income inequality is a very real problem that creates very real dangers. It’s not about people being “jealous” of rich people — despite what Republicans and blowhards on Fox News tell you — it’s about very real dangers that people at the bottom of the ladder face every day. If we really were a society dedicated to equality, the poor person’s health would be as much a concern as the rich person’s. They voices would be equal. But they aren’t — and people are literally and inarguably suffering because of it.

The disparities in race paint an even darker picture. There, it’s not as much about income, but about status. People of color breathe dirtier air because they’re automatically lower on the societal ladder, regardless of income. These are both very real problems and the people who bring them up aren’t just bellyaching. Conservatives who talk about free market solutions should take a closer look at what this market does and ask themselves if the people at the bottom rung — measured by income, race, or both — are by any stretch of the imagination free.

Or are they just worthless peasants in a nation that’s increasingly governed by a new aristocracy based on income and a racist class system? When working people have to literally consume the waste of the rich, calling those working people “free” is a ridiculous joke.

Here’s your “trickle down economics.” That’s not money that’s trickling down.

Industry on the march in West Virginia!

Charles Pierce: The Invisible Hand is just never going to get tired of slapping West Virginia around.

More than 100,000 gallons of the coal slurry is believed to have flowed into Fields Creek, a tributary of the Kanawha River, officials said. Inspectors are testing the water to determine exactly how much leaked into the creek, the officials said. The spill at Patriot Coal was caused when a valve inside a slurry line malfunctioned, the state environmental protection officials said. Containment efforts by Patriot Coal began immediately, and cleanup activities are underway, said Janine Orf, a vice president at Patriot Coal. State EPA spokesman Tom Aluise said the water in the county was safe to drink, though West Virginia American Water has a “do not use” alert in place for pregnant women in the Kanawha Valley after an unrelated January 9 spill.

So there’s a new spill, about which nobody has to worry, so they can relax and just worry about the spill in January, which is “unrelated” to the latest one, unless you count the fact that they’re all connected by centuries of environmental damage and neglect, and forty years of deregulatory frenzy. Unless you count that.

If you happen to be a woman and pregnant, this water is most definitely not for you. But for everyone else, it’s perfectly healthy. Hell, it’s probably even nutritious. Don’t ask how that’s supposed to work, it just does. In any case, every glass includes a little something to chew on, so what are you complaining about?

Time to drink up. Everything’s fine. At least, until Liberty Eagle Flag Industries dumps toxic fly ash in school lunches somehow. But we can’t put regulations on the job creators and if Paul Revere’s Freedomgasm Chemical Company can’t sometimes put toxic coal slurry into your groundwater, then freedom is dead and the terr’ists have won.

In North Carolina, another success story for the 'hands off' approach to environmental regulation

Associated Press: Canoe guide Brian Williams dipped his paddle downstream from where thousands of tons of coal ash has been spewing for days into the Dan River, turning the wooden blade flat to bring up a lump of gray sludge.

On the river bank, hundreds of workers at a Duke Energy power plant in North Carolina scrambled to plug a hole in a pipe at the bottom of a 27-acre pond where the toxic ash was stored.

Since the leak was first discovered by a security guard Sunday afternoon, Duke estimates up to 82,000 tons of ash mixed with 27 million gallons of contaminated water has spilled into the river. Officials at the nation’s largest electricity provider say they cannot provide a timetable for when the leak will be fully contained, though the flow has lessened significantly as the pond has emptied.

An Associated Press reporter canoed downstream of the spill at the Dan River Steam Station and saw gray sludge several inches deep, coating the river bank for more than two miles. The river had crested overnight, leaving a distinctive gray line that contrasted with the brown riverbank like a dirty ring on a bathtub.

Williams, a program manager with the Dan River Basin Association, worried that the extent of the damage might not be fully understood for years.

“How do you clean this up?” he said, shaking his head as he churned up the ash with his paddle. “Dredge the whole river bottom for miles? You can’t clean this up. It’s going to go up the food chain, from the filter feeders, to the fish, to the otters and birds, to people. Everything in the ecosystem of a river is connected.”

According to the AP, the sludge is a “witches’ brew of toxic chemicals, including lead, arsenic, mercury and radioactive uranium.” But here’s the kicker:

Environmentalists and government regulators have been warning for years that the 31 ash ponds at Duke’s power plants in North Carolina had the potential for calamity, especially after a similar pond in Kingston, Tenn., burst open in 2008.

“Even without a spill, these settling ponds have been releasing continuous contamination into the rivers downstream from coal-fired power plants,” said Avner Vengosh, a professor of geochemistry at Duke University, which was named for the same family that founded the power company.

So the ponds leak chemicals into drinking water, have resulted in a previous spill, and now this disaster. But this is North Carolina, so how much do you want to bet that absolutely nothing will change as a result?

After all, going after the “job creators” for taking a big toxic crap in your drinking water would be class warfare. And we can’t have that.

"I'd like to take the CEO of BP and jam his face in that pile on the beach"

From the St. Petersburg Times:

Kevin Reed, 36, of Pensacola breaks down and weeps upon seeing the oil-defiled shores of Pensacola Beach on June 23, 2010. Reed's father taught him to swim in these waters, and Reed just taught his five year old son to swim here. "This will never be the same," he says. "I'd like to take the CEO of BP and jam his face in that pile on the beach."

Where no comment is necessary, I won't offer any.

Oil Leak Coming Down in Rain Along the Gulf Coast

"It's raining oil... It is literally raining oil," a Louisiana resident reports.

And that's just a normal rain. We're heading into hurricane season.

GOP to Big Oil: Don't Worry, We'll Let You Keep Your Servant

Good news for oil companies, drillers, and Smokey Joe himself.

Talking Points Memo:

NRCC chairman Pete Sessions, whose job it is to increase GOP ranks in the House, says Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) will likely retain his post as the top Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee. Asked last night after a House vote if Barton may face further repercussions for apologizing to BP CEO Tony Hayward, Sessions told reporters that Barton's already paid his penance.

"I don't think that's the direction we're headed in," Sessions said. "...I believe that Joe has adequately addressed the issue."

Sessions noted numerous times that he was speaking as a member of the GOP leadership team (he is the fourth ranking Republican under Minority Leader John Boehner, Whip Eric Cantor, and Conference Chair Mike Pence ) and not as a rank and file member of the House. Boehner, Cantor and Pence organized last week's rapid response to the Barton flap, in which anonymous GOP leadership aides left the door open to further recriminations.

Because, really, who better to represent the Republican Party on the Energy and Commerce Committee -- which deals with oil companies -- than an obsequious little slaveboy to Big Oil? Putting the fox in charge of the henhouse is the GOP way, after all.

VP Biden is Very Unhappy with Smokey Joe Barton

Hey idiot pundits, you want more emotion from the White House in regards to the oil gusher? Here ya go:

A passionate declaration of Democratic Party principles and the role of government in public life. You can shut up now.

White House Attacks Barton in Email to Supporters

The White House is making hay with Rep. Joe Barton's apology to BP for the "shakedown" that the $20 billion dollar escrow account negotiated by the White House and BP execs. Here's the email blast being sent out:

Organizing for America
XXXX --

When BP CEO Tony Hayward testified before Congress this morning, many expected to hear him apologize for the disaster his company has caused. Instead, GOP Congressman Joe Barton was the one saying he was sorry -- to BP.

In his opening statement, Barton, the top Republican on the committee overseeing the oil spill and its aftermath, delivered a personal apology to the oil giant. He said the $20 billion fund that President Obama directed BP to establish to provide relief to the victims of the oil disaster was a "tragedy in the first proportion."

Other Republicans are echoing his call. Sen. John Cornyn said he "shares" Barton's concern. Rep. Michele Bachmann said that BP shouldn't agree to be "fleeced." Rush Limbaugh called it a "bailout." The Republican Study Committee, with its 114 members in the House, called it a "shakedown."

Let's be clear. This fund is a major victory for the people of the Gulf. It's a key step toward making them whole again. BP has a responsibility to those whose lives and livelihoods have been devastated by the disaster. And BP oil executives don't deserve an apology -- the people of the Gulf do.

Stand with us to show that the American people support holding BP accountable -- and we won't apologize for doing so.

We support holding BP accountable. And we won't apologize for doing so. Add your name.

Rep. Barton and Republicans like him don't understand that the real tragedy is what's happening to the people in the Gulf Coast. They're the ones who deserve his apology -- not BP.

But big oil knows exactly who its allies are. And if Republicans win control of the House, Rep. Barton could be chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee -- overseeing regulation of the oil and gas industry.

Notably, companies like Halliburton -- the folks responsible for cementing the Deepwater Horizon rig -- are directing their political committees to deliver thousands of dollars to GOP candidates this cycle. Barton himself has received more than $100,000 from the oil and gas industry this election cycle.

Barton should apologize to the people of the Gulf and he should step down as the highest-ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Adding your name to our open letter is one of the best ways you can show him and other Republicans that they weren't elected to defend big oil.

Sign the open letter today:

http://my.barackobama.com/NoApologies

Thanks,

David Plouffe

Barton really stepped in it and Democrats are probably not going to let it go any time soon. The GOP is trying to distance themselves from the comment, but they're going to have a little trouble on that front.

More on this tomorrow.

On Dick Cheney, the Newly-Invisible Man

There was a fun exchange on ABC's This Week between Steny Hoyer and John Boehner. The subject was the Deepwater Horizon disaster and the Bush administration's love for deregulation.

HOYER: ...The psychology of neglect in terms of regulatory oversight that was pursued in the Bush administration, which led to the banking failure, insurance prices going way up, and oil companies thinking they could do whatever they wanted because the "drill, baby, drill" crowd, all they wanted them to do was to drill. So I think John's right. I think the regularly psychology of the last administration was not appropriate, and there was mistakes made in this administration, as well.

BOEHNER: How long are you going to blame the Bush administration?...

I thought that question tied in well with this video from MNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, where Kate Sheppard discusses a piece she wrote for Mother Jones:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

When will we stop blaming the Bush administration? About the same time that their idiotic decisions stop having catastrophic consequences. In other words, not for a long, long time, Rep. Boehner. Get used to it.

Oil May Be All Over the Place, But People are Still Dumb

What's a little oil in the water when it's a nice day for swimming?

(h/t Huffington Post)

George Will's Punditry Fail

One of the things that infuriate me to no end is smug, mocking certainty in people who are obviously wrong. You see it all over the net, in comment threads and on twitter, in blog posts and Sarah Palin's Facebook page; people being ridiculed for being right. "Haha! You really think Barack HUSSEIN Obama's a citizen? You libtard!" or "My grandpa's no monkey, you evolution-believing moonbat!" It's one thing to be ignorant and proud of it, it's another to jam everyone's face in your ignorance and mock them for not sharing it.

So you can see why I had a problem with George Will on ABC's This Week:

Steve Benen points out the problem:

As the columnist sees it, the president said the government could solve problems. And since it hasn't yet solved this problem, the disaster "just strikes at the narrative of competence."

I continue to be mystified by this. Blaming the president is unfair, Will conceded, because the president is doing all he can under impossible circumstances. But blaming the president is worthwhile, Will added in the next breath, because we now know government officials can't quickly shut down a gushing oil leak a mile below sea level.

If we were to take Will's point to the next step -- the federal government lacks the wherewithal to fix every problem, so some tasks should be left in the hands of private enterprise and the states -- I suppose the lesson is we should have BP and Louisiana state agencies solve the problem.

That ought to work, right?

The alternative to "big government" is big business -- the private sector. How can George Will possibly walk away from this thinking the lesson to be learned is that the private sector is more competent than government? At every step, BP has done the wrong thing. I don't know about you, but I'm still waiting for the Invisible Hand of the Market to jam its Divine Finger into that leak and solve this whole thing. It may be that at no point in my life has the argument that private industry corners the market on innovation and solutions been so thoroughly shown to be absolute horseshit.

I often find myself wondering how in the hell George Will ever got a reputation as a brainiac -- and never more than now.