Author Archive

Has The Gusher Really Stopped? An Oily Update »

By Linda Anselmi on Jul 19, 2010 in Current Affairs | View Comments

That sense of relief, that the Deepwater Horizon gusher in the gulf was stopped, was nice while it lasted. All three days. Unfortunately, pressure tests have exposed a seep (a.k.a. a leak) and “undetermined anomalies” (via CNN): The federal government’s oil spill response director says testing has revealed that there is a “detected seep a distance [...]

Dear Commander-in-Chief, The Oil Spill Is Winning! »

By Linda Anselmi on Jul 9, 2010 in Current Affairs | View Comments

Dear Commander-in-Chief: Mayday, Mayday, Mayday!  This is the American people.  It is day 81.  The oil invasion is spreading.  We will soon be surrounded on two sides! Our food supplies are tainted.  Our morale is low.  Our information unreliable.  Our front lines are falling to illness and fatigue.  We are undermanned.  And the weather is working [...]

Surrendering to the Worst »

By Linda Anselmi on Jul 7, 2010 in Current Affairs | View Comments

When it comes to the art of compromise in the political world today, the measure of success is visible good. If you can see good at the end of the deal, then you can point to it and call it a win. Because, as everyone knows, you “don’t let the best (or the perfect) be [...]

The Oil Isn’t Just a Perception Problem *updated* »

By Linda Anselmi on Jun 4, 2010 in Environment, Obama Administration | View Comments

/ Bumped up / On the surface it may look like BP and the Obama administration are having some bad oil days.  Rust-colored oil that fouled Louisiana’s ecologically sensitive marshes washed ashore on barrier islands off Alabama and Mississippi on Tuesday.  The oil slick now looms about 7 miles off the Florida coast and changing wind [...]

Serving a Corporate Criminal Culture »

By Linda Anselmi on May 30, 2010 in Current Affairs, EPA, Environment | View Comments

The National Republican Senatorial Committee has released a devastating ad against President Obama’s handling of the BP oil spill vs Obama’s political words as a candidate. h/t LATimes “Never again” is easy political talk. Too easy.  And while this ad plays gotcha politics (and fairly so), it also reflects just how bipartisan the anger and [...]

Why Does BP Get to Make the Rules? »

By Linda Anselmi on May 20, 2010 in Current Affairs | View Comments

If I am in a collision with another vehicle, regardless of my level of fault or innocence, I do not get to decide how the accident scene is handled.  I do not get to decide what information any government agency can know.  I do not get to decide where the injured get treated.  Or what [...]

Oil Spill Meets Loop Current »

By Linda Anselmi on May 18, 2010 in Big Oil, Environment, Off-Shore Drilling | View Comments

Strange how everyone’s worse case scenarios seems to be turning into the most likely case scenarios.  It’s hard not to feel like a captive audience forced to watch a slow motion perfect storm develop and unfold, but have no way of stopping it.  Only left to wonder when and where it will end. The May [...]

First You Laugh, Then You Cry »

By Linda Anselmi on May 13, 2010 in Energy Policy, Environment, Off-Shore Drilling | View Comments

Tuesday oil industry executives from BP, Halliburton, and Transocean were on Capital Hill to give Senate testimony on what happened to cause the explosion and spill at Deepwater Horizon. As you might imagine the execs did a lot of finger pointing, but provided almost no information. So Jimmy Kimmel put Judge Judy in charge. ____ It [...]

BP and the Art of ‘Just Business’ Practices for Profit Containment »

By Linda Anselmi on May 10, 2010 in Current Affairs | View Comments

Friday night, the containment box that was the best hope for slowing down and funneling oil from BP’s Deepwater well failed.  At least for now.  There are other options like the “junk shot” being considered, but all have considerable risks and other down sides.  Like needing a lot more time to implement. The most dependable solution is [...]

Sometimes, One Graph Says It All – Open Thread »

By Linda Anselmi on May 8, 2010 in Economy, Unemployment/Jobs | View Comments

In the debate over April’s 290,000 jobs added VS April’s increase in the unemployment rate to 9.9 percent (which some claim is really 17.1 percent), this graph seems to best capture my sense of where we are at.  Our ‘Great Recession’ is the dark blue line. From Economix: Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics Horizontal axis [...]

The Flood You May Have Missed – OPEN THREAD »

By Linda Anselmi on May 6, 2010 in Current Affairs, Environment | View Comments

A weekend storm that dumped fifteen inches of rain in 48 hours has left Nashville and middle Tennessee devastated by flood waters after the Cumberland River, which cuts through Nashville, rose 13 feet above flood stage Wednesday. The death toll has reached 31 in three states and is expect to rise. While damages for Nashville [...]

More Oil, The Gulf Stream, Liability Caps and Environmental Exceptions »

By Linda Anselmi on May 5, 2010 in Current Affairs | View Comments

Have we created a perfect storm? Don’t get me wrong, I’m an optimist by nature and a firm believer that ingenuity and determination can overcome almost any thing. And as someone geeky enough to enjoy watching the Robot Wars (though I’m not nearly geeky enough to build one), it is hard not to get caught [...]

No Quarter Radio’s Sins of Omission with Paulie Abeles – Mondays at 9:00pm (ET) »

By Linda Anselmi on May 3, 2010 in Current Affairs | View Comments

(Bumped down. Show over) Please tune in this Monday, May 3, 2010 at 9pm (ET) to No Quarter Radio for Sins of Omission with Paulie Abeles. Paulie will be talking to New York Times Bestselling Author Kevin Gutzman about his book, the cult classic and “Tea Party Bible” – “Who Killed The Constitution? The Federal Government [...]

Words Failed »

By Linda Anselmi on May 2, 2010 in Big Oil, Current Affairs, Environment | View Comments

Growing up as a city girl in the midwest, my introduction to and early education about crude oil and its impact on our society came through watching reruns of The Beverly Hillbillies.  With every show, the opening spiel told the tale of the poor Clampetts’ discovery of oil on their land and the ensuing wealth they [...]

The Sweet Smell of Prosecution »

By Linda Anselmi on Apr 30, 2010 in Current Affairs | View Comments

Spring is in the air and the wafts of prosecutions that are coming from the Justice Department and the office of Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) couldn’t smell any sweeter.  From the Washington Post: The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into possible securities fraud in mortgage trading at Goldman Sachs, law [...]

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