Thanks, BP!

Can anyone from the GOP read a history book, as opposed to composing fan-fic?

Madeleine Peyroux — Don’t Wait Too Long, Los Angeles, 2009.

This week has blown dead rats, as we used to say in my mis-spent youth, and faced with the assignment to come up with something non-Viagra-based which would be uplifting, all I’ve got is me at the moment. It’s 91 degrees in Upstate New York, which qualifies under my climate analysis for June as “too damn hot”.

Today the Coast Guard took a break from following BP’s orders to chase the press away from BP’s crime scenes, long enough to approve wasting millions of dollars building toxic mud pies that will starve or further poison Gulf wetlands. Yep, the Coast Guard’s throwing a poisoned life preserver to two Republican Louisiana pols who’ve spent years scheming to build a wall of toxic mud pies intended to cut off Louisiana’s wetlands from the tides the wetlands require for survival .

Writing earlier today, Salon’s Glenn Greenwald noted that, despite its approval by the House Armed Services Committee, several barriers remain to the Gitmo provision ultimately becoming law, including a forthcoming House floor vote, a markup in the Senate “and then, if it makes it that far, the President’s signature.” But as Greenwald noted, if the language is to be purged from the bill, “Democrats are going to have to insist on its removal. It remains to be seen if they are willing to do that.”

At a late afternoon news conference, Coast Guard and BP officials sought to put the best face on the fact BP had suspended its “top kill” mud injections since about midnight last night. They hope to restart the effort, possibly combined with a “junk shot,” later Thursday night.

The Senate Armed Services Committee, after a closed door session this evening, voted 16-12 for the Lieberman/Levin DADT ‘repeal’ that the full House will vote on tonight or Friday morning.

The same central bankers in the United States, Europe and elsewhere, whose mistakes led to the current economic crisis, are still in power. They are now telling governments to cut Social Security, health care spending and to force workers to take pay cuts.

Sen. Tom Coburn Coburn, a member of the bipartisan budget deficit commission, actually moved toward lowering defense appropriations yesterday with his call for an audit of the Pentagon to get a clearer picture of their spending.