If ever a town earned the right to perpetual panic, New Orleans is it. The people of New Orleans face the economic and environmental consequences of the BP oil spill before they’ve fully recovered from Katrina. I’ve been spending a good amount of time in New Orleans lately, and panic is the last thing on [...]

Some Alabama shrimpers are working with the US Coast Guard on a net system designed to pull up tar balls from the BP spill. Looks interesting, and probably safer than Corexit.

After three-and-a-half years, author Michael Otterman is closing shop over at his “American Torture” blog. The site was named after his book of the same title. Much of what I have wrote about over the years first found its expression in Michael Otterman’s incredible history of U.S. torture experimentation and implementation. While his website isn’t accepting or posting new submissions, Mike isn’t dropping off the radar. Along with Richard Hil and Paul Wilson, he just published another amazing work of political journalism. In his new book, Erasing Iraq: the Human Costs of Carnage, Otterman again traces the history of U.S. intervention in Iraq.

I’m amused by the panic revealed in a memo the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a few weeks ago preparing all members of the intelligence community for an upcoming Dana Priest series covering the same terrain.

Is it the oil? The Corexit? The oil and the Corexit? Mobile, Albama’s News Five did water tests in several key locations revealing a high level of hydrocarbons. Disturbing results, but more tests are needed. (video h/t Political Carnival.)

As for today’s talking heads’ topics, we’ve got midterm elections, FinReg, the BP oil disaster — and then some.

Tom and Jerry in The Cat and the Mermouse. This Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer cartoon was released on September 3, 1949.

Grab your popcorn, put your feet up on the seatback in front of ya, and no spitballs aimed at the ushers please. This is Late Late Night FireDogLake, where off topic is the topic … so dive in.

K’thugru: … expect many, many fake scandals; we’ll be having hearings over accusations of corruption on the part of Michelle Obama’s hairdresser, janitors at the Treasury, and Larry Summers’s doctor’s dog. If you don’t believe me, you weren’t paying attention during the Clinton years; remember, we had months of hearings over claims that something was [...]

Yesterday, after the passage of the financial regulation bill, conservative host Charlie Rose had Rep. Barney Frank on his show to explain what had been accomplished in its passage.

Thursday the Court of Appeals issued a largely positive order in the case of CRUDE documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger who had been ordered by a federal judge to turn over 600 hours of unused documentary footage to energy giant Chevron as part of the lawsuit discussed in the film.

Laurie Anderson’s terrific performance of “Only an expert (can deal with the problem)” on The Late Show Wednesday night provokes thought on our current reliance on precisely the wrong experts to deal with the problems we face.