Marine mammal rescue hanging by a thread

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Friday September 06, 2013 · 8:39 PM PDT

2013/09/06 · 20:39

Last April I posted a diary warning that "Obama's budget would kill dolphins and other stranded marine mammals".

The danger was in the fact that the proposed budget would have totally eliminated what are called Prescott grants, which are the lifeline providing a miniscule fund ($4 million) that gives vital financial help to all the volunteer rescue groups across the country.

This year has been a particularly hard year because of several "unusual mortality events" declared by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The first such event this year was a flood of starving, stranded sea lion pups on the California coast startiing in January. Well over a thousand had to be rescued, putting extreme pressure on the various volunteer groups' resources. More recent such mortality events have included hundreds of sick and dying dolphins on the east coast, and also manatees.

Now on top of this the slashed budget has come in, and the news is mostly bad. See below the stranded squiggle.

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Saturday April 13, 2013 · 11:56 PM PDT

2013/04/13 · 23:56

While many have rightly denounced Obama's vicious and heartless attack on Social Security and Medicare, there's another, less advertised, but immoral cut hidden in his budget proposal: the total elimination of funding for volunteer groups that rescue desperate stranded marine mammals.

This cut could result in the gruesome death of many of these animals, such as the dolphins you might have seen last year struggling for breath after stranding on Cape Cod. The group involved in rescuing those dolphins, The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), is one of many such groups which depend on a small but crucial federal fund know as Prescott grants. More below.

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Thursday February 02, 2012 · 12:16 PM PST

2012/02/02 · 12:16

His name is Naoto Matsumura, a farmer in Fukushima Prefecture who refused to leave when the government ordered evacuation after the disastrous release of radiation from the nearby nuclear reactors in March 2011. He stays to take care of the many abandoned animals of all kinds, "the sentient beings", he calls them, which the government and Tepco nuclear power company have done nothing to care for.
More below the fold.

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Monday December 06, 2010 · 10:35 PM PST

2010/12/06 · 22:35

American officials are howling like stuck pigs because of Wikileaks’ release of hundreds of thousands of secret diplomatic cables, an act which they say upsets "delicate" negotiations and relations.

In fact, the Wikileaks’ release of the secret cables is a revolutionary blow against the whole edifice of imperialist wheeling-and-dealing behind the backs of the world’s peoples, a blow against the secret planning for war, death and destruction.

What exactly is the rationale given by the United States and other governments to keep such matters secret from its own people?

More below the fold...

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Monday November 08, 2010 · 11:54 PM PST

2010/11/08 · 23:54

I was nearly dozing off listening to the very end of Lawrence O'Donnell's 1-hour show "The Last Word" on Monday (Nov. 8), when his final words hit me in the face like a slap.
O'Donnell spent the final minute announcing coming attractions for tomorrow night's show, including his guest Glenn Greenwald, who had argued forcefully and effectively with O'Donnell on "Morning Joe" a few days ago. One would expect some teaser, but O'Donnell instead lashed into his guest with insinuations that Greenwald was somehow not...American.
More below the fold.

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Saturday May 22, 2010 · 2:43 PM PDT

2010/05/22 · 14:43

People on the Gulf Coast and around the country are screaming for action now to stop the oil disaster caused by BP, but Obama is clearly stalling, trying to salvage his plan to open up more areas for offshore drilling, and avoiding any serious moves against BP. Even James Carville, a Democratic Party strategist (and also a Louisianian), has denounced Obama as being, at least, "naive" and lackadaisical" and having a "go along with BP" strategy. Today Obama's response has been to create another toothless commission to study the matter, one lacking even subpoena power.

What would serious government action look like? Here's my sketch of the basics.

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Sunday January 17, 2010 · 10:39 AM PST

2010/01/17 · 10:39

More evidence has emerged that the international outpouring of emergency aid to save lives in Haiti has been needlessly delayed by the US military, whose priority has been to first deploy its own troops and military equipment. Because of this, many may have needlessly died, and Haitians are still wandering around Port-au-Prince waiting for medical care, water and food.

Lt. General Russel Honoré (who led the Army rescue into New Orleans) first raised this criticism a couple of days ago in the media, including USAToday and on CNN with Anderson Cooper, as noted in my previous diary. Honoré urged the US to not wait for troop deployment but bring in the aid immediately, saying "search and rescue and evacuation trumps security."

Today's New York Times has provided more confirmation of this criticism.(see "Officials Strain to Distribute Aid to Haiti as Violence Rises")

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Saturday January 16, 2010 · 1:06 PM PST

2010/01/16 · 13:06

Many observers including the media on the ground in Haiti, such as NBC's Brian Williams and CNN's Anderson Cooper, are starting to raise valid questions about why first-response aid is so slow in arriving, while stuff is piling up at the airport. Even search-and-rescue teams with dogs, and doctors and nurses, who should be the first at the scene, have found it difficult to even land or could not get transport after arriving at the Port-au-Prince airport. The impression is that the US is holding off everything until troops arrive.
Retired Lt.General Russel Honoré,who is of Louisiana Creole background and who led the US Army's belated rescue operation into New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, has been in the forefront of this criticism.

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Saturday September 20, 2008 · 6:51 PM PDT

2008/09/20 · 18:51

The current historic economic crisis, which nearly everyone now openly admits is on the scale of the Great Depression of 1929, has engendered anew the very old arguments between "free market" proponents and advocates of government regulation of capitalism. But back in the 1930s the public discourse included proponents of Karl Marx, who in the 19th century had pinpointed the source of periodic crises in the capitalist system itself.

Marx has long been banned from the discussion by the smug defenders of capitalism who have lectured us for decades that another 1929 was impossible, given what’s been learned since then and all the "safeguards" put in place by wise technocrats. But today we hear mainstream reporters like CNBC's Scott Cohn telling us on the NBC Nightly News (Sept. 20) that Congress faces "an unpleasant choice between mere disaster and a full-blown depression."

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Tuesday July 08, 2008 · 2:48 PM PDT

2008/07/08 · 14:48

In today's Senate debate about FISA, Senator Specter pointed out that most members of Congress do not even know what the program was, but still are being asked to grant immunity. Senator Rockefeller responded by reading his own tote list of how many senators were briefed on the secret program: 37 members of the Senate.
Specter responded that his figures for the House are: 95 members in the House were briefed. He went on to argue that these figures still show that a majority in both houses were ignorant about the program.
But I think the more important point is that the key leadership of both parties in both houses knew all along, and are protecting their own asses with the immunity bill.

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Saturday December 15, 2007 · 2:23 PM PST

2007/12/15 · 14:23

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is calling upon everyone to contact their Senators now to stop the move for telecom immunity this Monday.

You can go to the EFF website and send an automated message to your Senators, or write/call on your own.

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Tuesday October 09, 2007 · 8:20 PM PDT

2007/10/09 · 20:20

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has just posted an urgent alert:

Tell Key House Committees to Hold the Line -- No Telecom Immunity!

URGENT UPDATE: The House Judiciary and Intelligence committees have moved their markup hearings up to the early morning of Wednesday, October 10. Any effort to defend against telecom immunity in these crucial committee meetings needs to happen immediately -- call now!

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Marine mammal rescue hanging by a thread

Obama's budget would kill dolphins and other stranded marine mammals

One man stays in the Fukushima forbidden zone

Why Imperialism Needs Secret Diplomacy

Lawrence O'Donnell announces Glenn Greenwald, then impugns his loyalty

A modest proposal for dealing with BP, seriously

Haiti aid delayed by US military priorities

Search and rescue and evacuation trumps security

A Spectre Haunts Wall Street: Karl Marx

Specter and Rockefeller spill the beans on FISA

URGENT: Telecom Immunity Showdown in the Senate!

New FISA bill hearings moved up to tomorrow!