Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
BP BAILOUT
Dear Concerned American,
Liberals in Congress are currently working to slap massive new tax increases on American energy producers and consumers at a time when our nation’s economy can least afford them.
But that’s not all...
...The new energy taxes being schemed up by Congressional liberals will actually have the effect of subsidizing the operations of BP and other foreign-based corporations like Hugo Chavez’s state-run oil company!
That’s right. If proponents of these energy tax increases get their way, foreign-owned corporations will be handed a competitive advantage over American employers by our very own politicians in Washington.
With Barack Obama’s politically-motivated offshore drilling moratorium in place, America’s oil and gas companies have already been forced to lay off workers, scale back energy production and limit important investments that support local economies.
Entire communities in Louisiana and on Florida’s Gulf Coast literally have been crippled.
Yet, now Congress wants to put our nation’s economic and energy security at further risk by rewriting the tax code in favor of foreign competition from places like China, Venezuela and the Middle East.
As if that’s not troubling enough, these massive new energy tax increases would effectively amount to a Bailout for BP!
Never mind the fact that BP just spilled more than 100 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, when is it ever good policy to reward it and other foreign corporations with a competitive leg up on American companies?
The answer is NEVER.
America’s domestic oil and gas industry supports over 9 million American jobs and contributes more than $1 trillion to the U.S. economy each year. If Congress is successful at adding another $35 billion in new taxes to our energy industry’s balance sheet, many of those jobs and billions of dollars in economic activity could either vanish or be sent overseas.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator Robert Menendez and other Members of Congress who support such new energy tax legislation are out of touch with the American people’s desire for a strong economy and affordable, reliable energy supplies.
New energy taxes will mean less oil and gas production, and that means fewer American jobs and higher prices at the pump.
The future of our nation’s economic and energy security is on the line. The last thing we can afford now is new taxes on our domestic energy industry that will cut jobs, raise gas prices and slow our economic recovery.
Yours in Freedom,
Jeffrey Mazzella
President
Center for Individual Freedom
Liberals in Congress are currently working to slap massive new tax increases on American energy producers and consumers at a time when our nation’s economy can least afford them.
But that’s not all...
...The new energy taxes being schemed up by Congressional liberals will actually have the effect of subsidizing the operations of BP and other foreign-based corporations like Hugo Chavez’s state-run oil company!
That’s right. If proponents of these energy tax increases get their way, foreign-owned corporations will be handed a competitive advantage over American employers by our very own politicians in Washington.
With Barack Obama’s politically-motivated offshore drilling moratorium in place, America’s oil and gas companies have already been forced to lay off workers, scale back energy production and limit important investments that support local economies.
Entire communities in Louisiana and on Florida’s Gulf Coast literally have been crippled.
Yet, now Congress wants to put our nation’s economic and energy security at further risk by rewriting the tax code in favor of foreign competition from places like China, Venezuela and the Middle East.
As if that’s not troubling enough, these massive new energy tax increases would effectively amount to a Bailout for BP!
Never mind the fact that BP just spilled more than 100 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, when is it ever good policy to reward it and other foreign corporations with a competitive leg up on American companies?
The answer is NEVER.
America’s domestic oil and gas industry supports over 9 million American jobs and contributes more than $1 trillion to the U.S. economy each year. If Congress is successful at adding another $35 billion in new taxes to our energy industry’s balance sheet, many of those jobs and billions of dollars in economic activity could either vanish or be sent overseas.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator Robert Menendez and other Members of Congress who support such new energy tax legislation are out of touch with the American people’s desire for a strong economy and affordable, reliable energy supplies.
New energy taxes will mean less oil and gas production, and that means fewer American jobs and higher prices at the pump.
The future of our nation’s economic and energy security is on the line. The last thing we can afford now is new taxes on our domestic energy industry that will cut jobs, raise gas prices and slow our economic recovery.
Yours in Freedom,
Jeffrey Mazzella
President
Center for Individual Freedom
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Health Care Bill & New Taxes, What Obama Didn't Tell You
Expiration of 2001 and 2003 Tax Relief
In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for
investors, small business owners, and families.
These will all expire on January 1, 2011:
Personal income tax rates will rise. The top
income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate
at which two-thirds of small business profits are taxed). The
lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent. All the rates in
between will also rise. Itemized deductions and personal exemptions
will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as higher
marginal tax rates. The full list of marginal rate hikes is below:
- The 10% bracket rises to an expanded 15%
- The 25% bracket rises to 28%
- The 28% bracket rises to 31%
- The 33% bracket rises to 36%
- The 35% bracket rises to 39.6%
Higher taxes on marriage and family. The
“marriage penalty” (narrower tax brackets for married
couples) will return from the first dollar of income. The child tax
credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child. The
standard deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples relative
to the single level. The dependent care and adoption tax credits
will be cut.
The return of the Death Tax.
This year, there is no death tax. For those dying on or after January 1 2011, there is a 55 percent
top death tax rate on estates over $1 million. A person leaving behind two homes and a retirement
account could easily pass along a death tax bill to their loved ones.
Higher tax rates on savers and investors.
The capital gains tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 20 percent in
2011. The dividends tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 39.6
percent in 2011. These rates will rise another 3.8 percent in 2013.
Second Wave:
Obamacare
There are over twenty new or higher taxes in Obamacare. Several will first go into effect on
January 1, 2011. They include:
The “Medicine Cabinet Tax”
Thanks to Obamacare, Americans will no longer be able to use health
savings account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA), or health
reimbursement (HRA) pre-tax dollars to purchase non-prescription,
over-the-counter medicines (except insulin).
The “Special Needs Kids Tax”
This provision of Obamacare imposes a cap on flexible spending accounts (FSAs)
of $2500 (Currently, there is no federal government limit). There
is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly
cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children. There are
thousands of families with special needs children in the United States
, and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education.
Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children
in Washington , D.C. (National Child Research Center) can easily exceed $14,000 per year.
Under tax rules, FSA dollars can not be used to pay for this type of special
needs education.
The HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike.
This provision of Obamacare increases the additional tax on non-medical early withdrawals
from an HSA from 10 to 20 percent, disadvantaging them relative to IRAs
and other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10 percent.
Third Wave:
The Alternative Minimum Tax and Employer Tax Hikes
When Americans prepare to file their tax returns in January of 2011,
they’ll be in for a nasty surprise—the AMT won’t be
held harmless, and many tax relief provisions will have expired.
The major items include:
The AMT will ensnare over 28 million families, up from 4 million last year.
According to the left-leaning Tax Policy Center, Congress’ failure to index the AMT will lead to
an explosion of AMT taxpaying families—rising from 4 million last
year to 28.5 million. These families will have to calculate their
tax burdens twice, and pay taxes at the higher level. The AMT was
created in 1969 to ensnare a handful of taxpayers.
Small business expensing will be slashed and 50% expensing will disappear.
Small businesses can normally expense (rather than slowly-deduct, or
“depreciate”) equipment purchases up to $250,000. This
will be cut all the way down to $25,000. Larger businesses can
expense half of their purchases of equipment. In January of 2011,
all of it will have to be “depreciated.”
Taxes will be raised on all types of businesses.
There are literally scores of tax hikes on business that will take
place. The biggest is the loss of the “research and
experimentation tax credit,” but there
are many, many others. Combining high marginal tax rates with
the loss of this tax relief will cost jobs.
Tax Benefits for Education and Teaching Reduced.
The deduction for tuition and fees will not be available. Tax credits
for education will be limited. Teachers will no longer be able to
deduct classroom expenses. Coverdell Education Savings Accounts
will be cut. Employer-provided educational assistance is
curtailed. The student loan interest deduction will be disallowed
for hundreds of thousands of families.
Charitable Contributions from IRAs no longer allowed.
Under current law, a retired person with an IRA can contribute up to
$100,000 per year directly to a charity from their IRA. This
contribution also counts toward an annual “required minimum
distribution.” This ability will no longer be there.
PDF Version Read more: http://www.atr. org/six-months- untilbr-largest- tax-hikes- a5171##ixzz0sY8w aPq1
Now your
insurance is INCOME on your W2's......
One of the surprises
we'll find come next year, is what follows - - a little
"surprise" that 99% of us had no idea was included in the
"new and improved" healthcare legislation . . . the
dupes, er, dopes, who backed this administration will be
astonished!
Starting in 2011, (next year folks), your W-2 tax form sent by
your employer will be increased to show the value of whatever
health insurance you are given by the company. It does not
matter if that's a private concern or governmental body of
some sort. If you're retired? So what; your gross
will go up by the amount of insurance you get.
You will be required to pay taxes on a large sum of money that you
have never seen. Take your tax form you just finished
and see what $15,000 or $20,000 additional gross does to your
tax debt. That's what you'll pay next year. For
many, it also puts you into a new higher bracket so it's even
worse.
This is how the government is going to buy insurance for the15% that don't
have insurance and it's only part of the tax increases.
Not believing this??? Here is a research of the
summaries... ..
On page 25 of 29: TITLE IX REVENUE
PROVISIONS- SUBTITLE A: REVENUE OFFSET PROVISIONS-( sec. 9001,
as modified by sec. 10901) Sec.9002 "requires employers
to include in the W-2 form of each employee the aggregate cost of
applicable employer sponsored group health coverage that is
excludable from the employees gross income."
Joan Pryde is the senior tax editor for the Kiplinger letters.
Go to Kiplingers and read about 13 tax changes that
could affect you. Number 3 is what is above.
Why am I sending you this? The same reason I hope you forward
this to every single person in your address book.
People have the right to know the truth because an election is
coming in November.
In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for
investors, small business owners, and families.
These will all expire on January 1, 2011:
Personal income tax rates will rise. The top
income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate
at which two-thirds of small business profits are taxed). The
lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent. All the rates in
between will also rise. Itemized deductions and personal exemptions
will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as higher
marginal tax rates. The full list of marginal rate hikes is below:
- The 10% bracket rises to an expanded 15%
- The 25% bracket rises to 28%
- The 28% bracket rises to 31%
- The 33% bracket rises to 36%
- The 35% bracket rises to 39.6%
Higher taxes on marriage and family. The
“marriage penalty” (narrower tax brackets for married
couples) will return from the first dollar of income. The child tax
credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child. The
standard deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples relative
to the single level. The dependent care and adoption tax credits
will be cut.
The return of the Death Tax.
This year, there is no death tax. For those dying on or after January 1 2011, there is a 55 percent
top death tax rate on estates over $1 million. A person leaving behind two homes and a retirement
account could easily pass along a death tax bill to their loved ones.
Higher tax rates on savers and investors.
The capital gains tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 20 percent in
2011. The dividends tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 39.6
percent in 2011. These rates will rise another 3.8 percent in 2013.
Second Wave:
Obamacare
There are over twenty new or higher taxes in Obamacare. Several will first go into effect on
January 1, 2011. They include:
The “Medicine Cabinet Tax”
Thanks to Obamacare, Americans will no longer be able to use health
savings account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA), or health
reimbursement (HRA) pre-tax dollars to purchase non-prescription,
over-the-counter medicines (except insulin).
The “Special Needs Kids Tax”
This provision of Obamacare imposes a cap on flexible spending accounts (FSAs)
of $2500 (Currently, there is no federal government limit). There
is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly
cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children. There are
thousands of families with special needs children in the United States
, and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education.
Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children
in Washington , D.C. (National Child Research Center) can easily exceed $14,000 per year.
Under tax rules, FSA dollars can not be used to pay for this type of special
needs education.
The HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike.
This provision of Obamacare increases the additional tax on non-medical early withdrawals
from an HSA from 10 to 20 percent, disadvantaging them relative to IRAs
and other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10 percent.
Third Wave:
The Alternative Minimum Tax and Employer Tax Hikes
When Americans prepare to file their tax returns in January of 2011,
they’ll be in for a nasty surprise—the AMT won’t be
held harmless, and many tax relief provisions will have expired.
The major items include:
The AMT will ensnare over 28 million families, up from 4 million last year.
According to the left-leaning Tax Policy Center, Congress’ failure to index the AMT will lead to
an explosion of AMT taxpaying families—rising from 4 million last
year to 28.5 million. These families will have to calculate their
tax burdens twice, and pay taxes at the higher level. The AMT was
created in 1969 to ensnare a handful of taxpayers.
Small business expensing will be slashed and 50% expensing will disappear.
Small businesses can normally expense (rather than slowly-deduct, or
“depreciate”) equipment purchases up to $250,000. This
will be cut all the way down to $25,000. Larger businesses can
expense half of their purchases of equipment. In January of 2011,
all of it will have to be “depreciated.”
Taxes will be raised on all types of businesses.
There are literally scores of tax hikes on business that will take
place. The biggest is the loss of the “research and
experimentation tax credit,” but there
are many, many others. Combining high marginal tax rates with
the loss of this tax relief will cost jobs.
Tax Benefits for Education and Teaching Reduced.
The deduction for tuition and fees will not be available. Tax credits
for education will be limited. Teachers will no longer be able to
deduct classroom expenses. Coverdell Education Savings Accounts
will be cut. Employer-provided educational assistance is
curtailed. The student loan interest deduction will be disallowed
for hundreds of thousands of families.
Charitable Contributions from IRAs no longer allowed.
Under current law, a retired person with an IRA can contribute up to
$100,000 per year directly to a charity from their IRA. This
contribution also counts toward an annual “required minimum
distribution.” This ability will no longer be there.
PDF Version Read more: http://www.atr. org/six-months- untilbr-largest- tax-hikes- a5171##ixzz0sY8w aPq1
Now your
insurance is INCOME on your W2's......
One of the surprises
we'll find come next year, is what follows - - a little
"surprise" that 99% of us had no idea was included in the
"new and improved" healthcare legislation . . . the
dupes, er, dopes, who backed this administration will be
astonished!
Starting in 2011, (next year folks), your W-2 tax form sent by
your employer will be increased to show the value of whatever
health insurance you are given by the company. It does not
matter if that's a private concern or governmental body of
some sort. If you're retired? So what; your gross
will go up by the amount of insurance you get.
You will be required to pay taxes on a large sum of money that you
have never seen. Take your tax form you just finished
and see what $15,000 or $20,000 additional gross does to your
tax debt. That's what you'll pay next year. For
many, it also puts you into a new higher bracket so it's even
worse.
This is how the government is going to buy insurance for the15% that don't
have insurance and it's only part of the tax increases.
Not believing this??? Here is a research of the
summaries... ..
On page 25 of 29: TITLE IX REVENUE
PROVISIONS- SUBTITLE A: REVENUE OFFSET PROVISIONS-( sec. 9001,
as modified by sec. 10901) Sec.9002 "requires employers
to include in the W-2 form of each employee the aggregate cost of
applicable employer sponsored group health coverage that is
excludable from the employees gross income."
Joan Pryde is the senior tax editor for the Kiplinger letters.
Go to Kiplingers and read about 13 tax changes that
could affect you. Number 3 is what is above.
Why am I sending you this? The same reason I hope you forward
this to every single person in your address book.
People have the right to know the truth because an election is
coming in November.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Sunday, July 4, 2010
OBAMA Not a US Citizen
|
|
OBAMA is a Muslim
Obama is a Muslim, out of his own mouth, check the video on youtube, you need to copy and
paste on the address bar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=tCAffMSWSzY#t=28
BP Oil spill
verwhelmed by Oil and Toxic Pollutants: The Destruction of an Entire Coastline
By Felicity Arbuthnot
URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20005
Global Research, July 3, 2010
"The sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours ...
For this, for everything, we are out of tune." (William Wordsworth, 1770-1850.)
For the people of the Gulf and the region - watching some of the most toxic pollutants known to man, being sprayed to disperse one of the most toxic pollutants known to man, unleashed as a result of man's fallibility, in a near-global addiction to consumerism - it must be an environmental apocalypse now. One dispersant Corexit 9500, is four times as toxic as oil, and also disrupts the reproductive systems of organisms.
There is magic about those sun-sparkled coasts, translucent, shimmering, sapphire sea, later turning peach, apricot, deep blush, then seeming near blackberry as the sun falls and the dusk, then dark, takes over. Then the great pelicans sit sentry, on remains of old breakwaters, sillhouetted against the moon's silvered light.
An all time memory is of the Mexican coast on the Gulf. One day remains apart, on some special mental shelf for treasures, oft taken down, wondered at, minutely re-savoured. Four of us hired a boat for the day, the others wanted to fish for marlin, I to relish the glittering ocean and sun. Lying below the little open wheelhouse, the old, toothless boatman and I quickly formed a bond. His boat was his life, he was an extention of it and it of him. His eyesight was phenominal. "Look, look", he'd say, pointing somewhere into the distant horizon: "tuna .." I could see nothing, but a few miles towards the spot, sure enough, the ocean boiled and churned with the great shoal.
Shark fins often glided along side the boat, their sleek elegance visible below the surface.
Another: "look ..", a pointed, gnarled finger, and there would be the unmistakable spout from a whale, then a great, seemingly ocean-shuddering, roll or two. The Gulf hosts twenty nine marine mammal species, alone, including blue, beaked, fin, dwarf sperm and humpback whale. On 16th June, the first whale, a sperm whale, was found dead off Mississipi. Whales are thought to live up to one hundred and thirty years. The July 1st issue of "Nature" reveals remains of a sperm whale in Peru, thought to be thirteen and a half million years old. The whale is also thought to possibly be the world's oldest species. If the oil industry turns out to be the biggest threat they have ever faced, that will be quite a first.
As ever, the old man of the sea, saw the dolphins before I did : "look, look, look ...." they leapt, in their joyous pairs, in perfect synchrony. As the boat neared, they surrounded it, cavorting in fours, sixes, eights, twelves, higher and higher, over and over. Attempting to capture the images, the lens appeared less than clear, then I realized it was not the lens, but the tears streaming down my face, in response to witnessing overwhelming minutes of beauty beyond imagination. Suddenly, was a certainty of feeling blessed, to understand poet John Gillespie Magee's words : "...in the sunlit silence, put out my hand, and touched the face of God."
Fifty dolphin have so far, been reported found dead. Experts estimate only one tenth of species which die will be washed up. The full toll of big oil's "collateral damage", now, previously and in the future, will likely never be known.
When my friends hauled in a huge marlin, which had fought for its life with wile and valor, the old man of the sea said again: "Look. Watch." The great creature lay in the sun, gasping on the deck, its body glittering all over, in sequin-like, opalescence. "Watch", he repeated. In seconds, the lights started to go out and the magnificent creature became just a very large, dark, lump of flesh. Killing for sport is another obscenity.
As the sun lowered, we headed for the shore. Approaching it, the boatman ("Watch...") put his arms above his head, steering with his knees. Instantly, the sky darkened with birds, appeared seemingly from no where. They called, swooped, rose, fell, circled. He leant in to the bait bucket and threw the remains, bit by bit, in to the air. Every morsel was expertly caught. Not one missed, dropped. The bucket empty, his hands went back on the wheel, the birds did a farewell fly past and departed in to the dusk. In the shallower waters shoals of vibrantly coloured fish, darted between the delicate coral reefs.
Bird species of the region include albatrosses, petrels, shearwaters, frigatebirds, cormorants, gannets, boobies, gulls, terns and skimmers. With temperatures of one hundred degrees and birds becoming oil covered, experts warn they are boiling, alive. The thick, tarry oil, absorbs the heat.
The many turtle species lay their eggs on or near the beach where they were born. Conservationists are removing eggs to unpolluted shores hundreds of miles away, where hopefully they will survive but another extraordinary natural miracle will have been severed. Four hundred and thirty two turtles have been found dead since April.
The Gulf's Loggerhead turtle's hatchlings follow the light of the moon to reach the ocean and swim to safety, away from land's predators, when they emerge from the egg. For the tiny moon followers, the ocean itself has become their ultimate predator.
Inspite of the scale of this environmental death warrant, Louisiana Governor, Bobby Jindal, supports a legal action to reverse the Presidential six month moratorium on deep water drilling, in place to allow time to determine the exact cause of the spill, thus, hopefully, avoiding a repetition. Jindal views the cost in jobs as too high. Oil jobs, that is. And as the hurricane season has moved in with the great winds spreading unleashed deadly pollutants, farther and wider.
Dahr Jamail, in Louisiana, writes of a poignant, differing view. Locals have erected white crosses, each representing something loved and lost: "Family time, crabs, white trout, camping, diving, walking the dog on the beach, sea shells, sea turtles, dolphins, barbecues, shrimp, shark, sand between my toes, boogie boarding, mullet, marsh, palm trees." (Christian Science Monitor, 22nd June 2010.) The crosses will undoubtedly multiply.
Mexico's ancient mariner was utterly in tune with with his universe and all which shared it with him. A reverence a million miles from those who think only to ravage it.
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The url address of this article is: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20005
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By Felicity Arbuthnot
URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20005
Global Research, July 3, 2010
"The sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours ...
For this, for everything, we are out of tune." (William Wordsworth, 1770-1850.)
For the people of the Gulf and the region - watching some of the most toxic pollutants known to man, being sprayed to disperse one of the most toxic pollutants known to man, unleashed as a result of man's fallibility, in a near-global addiction to consumerism - it must be an environmental apocalypse now. One dispersant Corexit 9500, is four times as toxic as oil, and also disrupts the reproductive systems of organisms.
There is magic about those sun-sparkled coasts, translucent, shimmering, sapphire sea, later turning peach, apricot, deep blush, then seeming near blackberry as the sun falls and the dusk, then dark, takes over. Then the great pelicans sit sentry, on remains of old breakwaters, sillhouetted against the moon's silvered light.
An all time memory is of the Mexican coast on the Gulf. One day remains apart, on some special mental shelf for treasures, oft taken down, wondered at, minutely re-savoured. Four of us hired a boat for the day, the others wanted to fish for marlin, I to relish the glittering ocean and sun. Lying below the little open wheelhouse, the old, toothless boatman and I quickly formed a bond. His boat was his life, he was an extention of it and it of him. His eyesight was phenominal. "Look, look", he'd say, pointing somewhere into the distant horizon: "tuna .." I could see nothing, but a few miles towards the spot, sure enough, the ocean boiled and churned with the great shoal.
Shark fins often glided along side the boat, their sleek elegance visible below the surface.
Another: "look ..", a pointed, gnarled finger, and there would be the unmistakable spout from a whale, then a great, seemingly ocean-shuddering, roll or two. The Gulf hosts twenty nine marine mammal species, alone, including blue, beaked, fin, dwarf sperm and humpback whale. On 16th June, the first whale, a sperm whale, was found dead off Mississipi. Whales are thought to live up to one hundred and thirty years. The July 1st issue of "Nature" reveals remains of a sperm whale in Peru, thought to be thirteen and a half million years old. The whale is also thought to possibly be the world's oldest species. If the oil industry turns out to be the biggest threat they have ever faced, that will be quite a first.
As ever, the old man of the sea, saw the dolphins before I did : "look, look, look ...." they leapt, in their joyous pairs, in perfect synchrony. As the boat neared, they surrounded it, cavorting in fours, sixes, eights, twelves, higher and higher, over and over. Attempting to capture the images, the lens appeared less than clear, then I realized it was not the lens, but the tears streaming down my face, in response to witnessing overwhelming minutes of beauty beyond imagination. Suddenly, was a certainty of feeling blessed, to understand poet John Gillespie Magee's words : "...in the sunlit silence, put out my hand, and touched the face of God."
Fifty dolphin have so far, been reported found dead. Experts estimate only one tenth of species which die will be washed up. The full toll of big oil's "collateral damage", now, previously and in the future, will likely never be known.
When my friends hauled in a huge marlin, which had fought for its life with wile and valor, the old man of the sea said again: "Look. Watch." The great creature lay in the sun, gasping on the deck, its body glittering all over, in sequin-like, opalescence. "Watch", he repeated. In seconds, the lights started to go out and the magnificent creature became just a very large, dark, lump of flesh. Killing for sport is another obscenity.
As the sun lowered, we headed for the shore. Approaching it, the boatman ("Watch...") put his arms above his head, steering with his knees. Instantly, the sky darkened with birds, appeared seemingly from no where. They called, swooped, rose, fell, circled. He leant in to the bait bucket and threw the remains, bit by bit, in to the air. Every morsel was expertly caught. Not one missed, dropped. The bucket empty, his hands went back on the wheel, the birds did a farewell fly past and departed in to the dusk. In the shallower waters shoals of vibrantly coloured fish, darted between the delicate coral reefs.
Bird species of the region include albatrosses, petrels, shearwaters, frigatebirds, cormorants, gannets, boobies, gulls, terns and skimmers. With temperatures of one hundred degrees and birds becoming oil covered, experts warn they are boiling, alive. The thick, tarry oil, absorbs the heat.
The many turtle species lay their eggs on or near the beach where they were born. Conservationists are removing eggs to unpolluted shores hundreds of miles away, where hopefully they will survive but another extraordinary natural miracle will have been severed. Four hundred and thirty two turtles have been found dead since April.
The Gulf's Loggerhead turtle's hatchlings follow the light of the moon to reach the ocean and swim to safety, away from land's predators, when they emerge from the egg. For the tiny moon followers, the ocean itself has become their ultimate predator.
Inspite of the scale of this environmental death warrant, Louisiana Governor, Bobby Jindal, supports a legal action to reverse the Presidential six month moratorium on deep water drilling, in place to allow time to determine the exact cause of the spill, thus, hopefully, avoiding a repetition. Jindal views the cost in jobs as too high. Oil jobs, that is. And as the hurricane season has moved in with the great winds spreading unleashed deadly pollutants, farther and wider.
Dahr Jamail, in Louisiana, writes of a poignant, differing view. Locals have erected white crosses, each representing something loved and lost: "Family time, crabs, white trout, camping, diving, walking the dog on the beach, sea shells, sea turtles, dolphins, barbecues, shrimp, shark, sand between my toes, boogie boarding, mullet, marsh, palm trees." (Christian Science Monitor, 22nd June 2010.) The crosses will undoubtedly multiply.
Mexico's ancient mariner was utterly in tune with with his universe and all which shared it with him. A reverence a million miles from those who think only to ravage it.
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