The US Coast Guard Considers Me a Felon

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Georgianne Nienaber writes from Barataria Bay: "The United States Coast Guard considers me a felon now, because I 'willfully' want to obtain more photos like these to show you the utter devastation occurring in Barataria Bay, Louisiana as a result of the BP oil catastrophe."

A Dolphin in Barataria Bay, fins coated with oil, chances for survival slim, 07/03/10. (photo: Jerry Moran)

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Comments

+7 # Guest 2010-07-04 22:07

Thank goodness we have heroes like Georgianne Nienaber and Jerry Moran. I can understand that BP feels they have a financial obligation to only care about their bottom line, but it makes me sick to see how ineffective Obama is in speaking for the people of the Gulf.

+5 # Guest 2010-07-05 06:35

So, ummmm, BP's ok in your view, and the problem is Obama??

0 # Guest 2010-07-06 12:29

The problem is people who fail to hold Obama or Bush to task and instinctively rally to his defense or launch into fact-free, tea-party/birther-style attack; the problem is people (including those of the Gulf coast) who continue to chant "Drill, Baby, Drill" even as their communities and ecosystem drown in oil. If Obama is using the Coast Guard to shield BP rather than protect the coast, then yes, the problem is Obama. As long as criminal corporations know that they can count on the likes of Obama and Bush to protect them, we can not expect anything different from them. If you want a corporation with a "soul", start a co-op.

+10 # Guest 2010-07-04 23:28

It kind of looks like what's important here is to keep the public and the press from learning the true facts of the situation--which would negate the massive spin campaign by BP. It appears this is the major concern, not "public safety" or whatever.

+11 # Guest 2010-07-05 01:49

AND the real felons ARE>>>
Maybe the people who caused the spill??
How could a photographer of something in real time be a felon??
Get get that.

+17 # Guest 2010-07-05 02:34

I have the greatest admiration for these photographers who have shown the greatest courage in bringing the truth to light. Many thanks.

+13 # Guest 2010-07-05 02:49

I want to be kept informed about the situation in the Gulf Coast area concerning the oil spills and degradation of our land and water.

+2 # Guest 2010-07-05 04:35

I don't really see much here that has not already been shown on TV and in other photos. Of course these photographers will try and get the most gut wrenching photos to outdo each other. I am sure that hundreds of photographers would do nothing more than get in the way. Personally, I would like more articles talking to BP employees from that rig, talking about the negligence leading up to this disaster. I would like to hear that the other similar rigs are being inspected for similar problems. And to think that people down there are ranting to lift the ban---and let the others keep working, without such reviews! My husband or son's life is worth more than just a paycheck coming in by continuing going and climbing on these other rigs. The people are crazy!

+9 # Guest 2010-07-05 06:04

ironic that yesterday we celebrated our ''independence'' wake up, we dont own this country the corporations do. How else caould we have this going on, and 10 years of war in afghanistan sucking our economy dry? Southerners talk big and brandish their weapons,but what are THEY doing about this? Anyone can have a big mouth,where's the action??

-9 # Guest 2010-07-05 06:53

Why am I not surprised? That our exercise of First Amendment rights is being felonized by Barack Obama's Coast Guard is merely more evidence the man for whom I so foolishly voted in the name of "change we can believe in" is in truth Barack the Betrayer. Thus hope is (once again) proven to be not "audacity" but imbecility.

+8 # Guest 2010-07-05 07:29

Look, we voted in a middle-of-the-roader who knew how to throw the rhetoric around, who was bound to be maintaining the status quo(with some adjustments). he inherited a huge deregulated mess, an insanely full plate. Certainly this administration is very flawed. You would've preferred the alternative, for what, spite's sake?

+2 # Guest 2010-07-05 11:24

Obama's methodical reduction of health care reform to the huge bonus-for-Wall-Street of mandatory insurance; his renewed war on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid; his permanent obstruction of Employee Free Choice; his expansion -- say again EXPANSION -- of the Bush Regime's nullification of the Constitution: these are not the policies of a "middle-of the-roader." They are in fact the policies of a hard-core corporatist whose core ideology is that of the Republican Party -- "what's good for Big Business is good for America." As to alternatives, it is now obvious there were none: just as Bill Moyers himself has (finally) admitted, the two-party system is a charade. Indeed Obama is the perfect representative of the new American paradigm: government and governance at every level exclusively by, for and of capitalism: absolute power and unlimited profit for the Ruling Class, total subjugation and bottomless poverty for all the rest of us.

-4 # Guest 2010-07-05 07:09

It is not BP that authorizes the Coast Guard to do anything at all. According to our constitution Article 2 paragraph 3, the President's authority is this:
he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.
It is the Executive branch of our government that authorized BP to drill--even when, less than ten days before the disaster, it did not meet safety codes. It is the Executive branch of our govenment that licensed BP, with it's horrid record of disasters, to drill. If I wanted to create an oil disaster in the Gulf, that is how I would have gone about it.

JHB

+8 # Guest 2010-07-05 07:21

This sounds as though BP is directing our Coast Guard, instead of vice versa. BP may be "in charge" of the cleanup, but we don't need any more of their creative fiction. We need to tell them that their sloppy booms, poisonous dispersants, banishment of observers and reporters, and obstructionist direction of employees cannot and will be tolerated. The BP management as stupid and venal in this cleanup as they have been in their to-hell-with-safety drilling. Yes, they must pay the money, to both workers and sufferers, but we must take back the direction.

+8 # Guest 2010-07-05 08:48

I do believe that Pres. Obama wasn't aware of the drilling situation, because he had so many other things he was involved with. However, this deregulation started with Nixon, Reagon, Bush Sr., little Bush, Cheney, et al. In fact, who has heard from Cheney? What Pres. Obama needs to do is to stop listening to the floating trash oil executives and start ordering them what to do, as well as putting a gag order on nitwits like Beck, Limbaugh, etc. And yes, photographers have a right to photograph our land. We should all be singing the Woodie Guthrie song, "This land is my land..." especially the verse he recorded about those who just want money.

+3 # Guest 2010-07-05 14:25

Amen! Thank you foe having a sane mind and not "guessing" what Obama knew or didn't know. I totally agree however, that he needs to stop listening to the wrong people, and in particular put gag orders on all those that encourage unrest in this country. Now, if ever, we need to unite and do whatever it takes to save our precious wetlands and wildlife! We ALL need to speak up and collectively tell our Government and BP ....whatever it takes, make this a priority! What we are losing is "priceless! The oil is destroying what cannot be replaced! Obama, I beg you, this is a disaster that reaches FAR beyond 20 billion dollars!!!

+7 # Guest 2010-07-05 09:01

The appropriate response to this would be for some of the larger news outlets, who can afford limitless legal representation, to send photographers en masse to the areas in question and have them start clicking away. If any are arrested, defend them on Constitutional grounds and report developments each day on the front page or equivalent.

Some people will get photos. Some may well be arrested. Most likely they will be locked up until they are perceived as no longer "dangerous" PR-wise (as with, for example, those who were arrested at the Republican National Convention in 2008). Report every arrest and every detail in the largest type and the longest lead stories possible....and perhaps this sort of crap will stop.

Newspapers and TV stations have the power to have the last word in any argument. Here's a place for them to use it. Make it good and loud, for too many Americans are used to "media figures" who shout and have no facts behind their words. Drown them out.

+1 # Guest 2010-07-05 20:20

Even Anderson Cooper reported he was barred from access to the oil areas and was threatened with fines. So, the big media is also being banned from the real story.

0 # Guest 2010-07-05 10:02

Who's in charge??

0 # Guest 2010-07-06 12:35

+2 # Guest 2010-07-05 17:54

If you expect the Reactionary corporate media to report on the crimes of their corporate brethern, then lots of luck. Kudos to the person who noted that the "Rebels" talk a good game but can't defend their own homes and waterways. The South is gonn sink beneath the globs of oil.
Kalundborg

0 # Guest 2010-07-05 20:27

Keep up the good work. Here's a little something to help get the word out:

http://www.motleymoose.com/diary/2582/felonius-monks-a-criminally-open-thread

0 # Guest 2010-07-06 01:28

There are things we the people should not know. If we had known how our government was breaking all its treaties with our Indians in the nineteenth century, we might have put a stop to it. If we had understood how our CIA was undermining Mossadegh in Iran in the early 1950's, we might have interfered. Had we been aware of and stopped the training of death squads at the School of the Americas, who would have done our killings for us in Latin America? If our government were to release photos of U.S. agents engaging in enhanced interrogation, it might harm public morale. A full knowledge of the terrible damage being wreaked in the Gulf could bring people to the point of outrage. It is clear that if progress is to continue, there are things we should not know.

0 # Guest 2010-07-06 05:37

I called the number listed, and was referred to the Deepwater Response number, which was not answered by a real person. I was given 4 choices, none of which was appropriate for protesting what they are doing.

0 # Guest 2010-07-06 23:14

Great job Jerry.

Now America- SUPPORT HIM! Send him $$, track his cause, scream if he is indicted for this public service he is doing for us all. Truthtellers can not survive alone. THEY NEED TANGIBLE BACKING- OURS!

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