The American people and the MSM will 'discover' the horror of the oil spill

[Are_grits_groceries]

like they always do. When it becomes a big enough disaster in their minds to be noticed. Nevermind that it has been an unprecedented and horrifying catastrophe from the beginning. That too was slow to truly get traction for a few days even though people were guessing.

Suddenly, this disaster will be *BREAKING NEWS* 24/7. It began to be a problem. The oil just appeared out of nowhere, and there was no reason for them to cover it before then. At some point we will see correspondents from every news outlet with the resources covered with oil out in shallow water and bemoaning the loss of life and a way of living.

When did it begin? I believe it began when W took office. With their disregard for making new regulations or enforcing the ones already on the books, the die was cast. In truth, it probably began somewhere well before that.
===================================================
Ida Tarbell exposed the John D. Rockefeller's tactics in her book "History of the Standard Oil Company."
this was at the beginning of the 20th century. She used a method that has become accepted practice:
"Tarbell's biggest obstacle, however, was neither her gender nor Rockefeller's opposition. Rather, her biggest obstacle was the craft of journalism. She proposed to investigate Standard Oil and Rockefeller by using documents - hundreds of thousands of pages scattered throughout the nation - then fleshing out her findings through well-informed interviews with the company's current and former executives, competitors, government regulators, antitrust lawyers, and academic experts."<8>

"And then, in an inspirational tale for journalists, Ida Tarbell went to work. Her History of the Standard Oil Company spotlighted Rockefeller's practices and mobilized the public. Readers nationwide awaited each chapter of the story, serialized in 19 installments by McClure's between 1902 and 1904." <9>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_M._Tarbell
====================================================

Her efforts led to antitrust legislation. However, it also foreshadowed the way the oil companies would handle the problems they encountered with opposition today. There was a strong government in place then that took action. The complicit government in the decade past opened the doors that should have remained closed.

Ida Tarbell Biography
Investigative Journalist, Author, 1857-1944
“There is no man more dangerous, in a position of power, than he who refuses to accept as a working truth that all a man does should make for rightness and soundness, that even the fixing of a tariff rate must be moral.”
http://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/pgs/portraits/Ida_Tarbell.php

We were warned. The economic system also crashed, but man could intervene with methods to alleviate this crisis. Man cannot fix what they have done to the environment. Mother Nature doesn't respond to money like men do.

We can't run from this and we can't hide.

[annabanana]

1. There is a lot of whistling past the graveyard going on

along the coast and throughout the Country. The media nervous system is going to get rung like a bell when that stuff hits shore.

[dipsydoodle]

2. That's because the current impact

is on the States which border the Gulf of Mexcio from which all other States are insulated so its not in their backyard. If the issue had occured elsewhere in the world , middle east for example , then even your own Gulf States would probably have shown equal apparent disregard.

[pnorman]

3. I couldn't find her book at Project Gutenberg, so I checked Amazon.

It's available there for Kindle for $.99! I have Kindle For PC, soI just bought it and have already downloaded it. I had long known of that old classic, but thanks for the reminder!

[eShirl]

8. here it is free (illustrated html) for Kindle-less people

http://www.history.rochester.edu/fuels/tarbell/MAIN.HTM

found it by searching the Online Books Page - they include Project Gutenberg and many other sources in their search engine http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/search.html

[pnorman]

10. Thanks, particularly for the second link!

I urge all others here on DU to bookmark that URL.

[anthroguy101]

4. Common sense, people!

This is the exact reason we need to break our addiction and get a new energy policy. Seriously, now is the perfect time!

[JCMach1]

5. Possibility that it so far out to sea it will be a slow-motion disaster

lasting for years.

Not so dramatic, but just as deadly and ruinous to the environment.

[Are_grits_groceries]

6. it's like sleeping while carbon monoxide builds up in your house.

You may not wake up in time.

[JCMach1]

7. Exactly, this is what I have seen from Tankers illegally flushing their tanks in the UAE

before entering the straights of Hormuz. They are usually far off shore, but the oil eventually makes its way in slow motion to the UAE east coast where it builds up slowly in the environment and eventually causes stuff like this:



Picture I took of a pufferfish victim of the UAE's long-lasting red tide 2008-2009.

[Are_grits_groceries]

12. Unfortunately, we will see a lot of that type of thing. nt

[Usrename]

9. The Chinese have a way of dealing with these criminals.

They'd be dead men by now. I'm starting to see the reasonableness of their system.

[ensho]

11. kick

nt