1 Billion Gals of Toxic Sludge Oozes Towards River

Sunday, December 28th, 2008

In case you missed it on Dec- ember 21st a TVA levee wall burst in Oak Ridge, Ten- nessee. But it wasn’t water in the retention pond, but rather 1,000,000,000 gallons of coal ash sludge, a byproduct of coal fired power plant.

Initially TVA estimated the spill at about 350 million gallons, but had to up the spillage estimate to 1 billion gallons upon closer examination. The sludge spill roared downhill and reached depths of 6′ burying cars, porches and even downing power lines. (Source)

So what’s in a billion gallons of coal ash sludge? Well concentrated levels of mercury and arsenic, according to environmental experts. TVA experts claim there’s no danger to humans from the chemicals. This claim despite hundreds of fish turning up dead in nearby waters. (Source) Naturally many local residents aren’t too comforted by the TVA’s assurances.

The spill is working it’s way into the Tennessee River, the source of drinking water for 1 million Tennesseans. TVA has built a rock wall to try to stop the sludge from oozing in.

“You have acute problems we are dealing with today, but we’ll have chronic problems for a long time. This whole area has been devastated environmentally.” - Stephen Smith of CleanEnergy.org (Source)

Tags: Coal Ash, Oak Ridge, Sludge, TVA
Posted in Crime, Economy, Environment, Internet, Sports, Weird, news | No Comments »

Top 5 Stories NOT in Today’s BubbleMixx

Monday, November 17th, 2008

With 64 days remaining until Barack Obama takes office, and no significant announcements coming from the transition team today, here are 5 stories we’re NOT covering, but apparently everyone else is.

# 5 - The vetting of Bill Clinton’s finances, regarding his foundation and international business dealings. Yes Hillary is a top contender for Secretary of State, and it’s routine that someone’s family finances etc. are scrutinized before taking such a top job but seriously, could this story be any more boring?

# 4 - The proposed bailout of GM etc., should $25B of the $700B the government is allowing AIG to blow on keggers go to Detroit so they can tap a keg too? Yeah, probably, but President Bush isn’t going to approve it, so nothing’s going to happen here for at least 65 days.

# 3 - Pirates seize control of Saudi supertanker; this is clearly an act of war, and just as soon as W figures out where Somalia is they are in for some shock and awe. Big time.

# 2 - Mark Cuban accused of insider trading, the world is shocked, shocked, to learn that billionaire douche Mark Cuban has been accused of trading on inside information. He dumped a ton of stock in Mama.com before it lost almost all value saving him $750,000 or something like that; I may have dozed off during the report.

# 1 - The U.S. economy sucks, and Japan’s is worse. Is this really a newsflash anymore? Haven’t we entered the self-fulfilling prophecy phase of reporting on bad economic times? We get it already. Now get out on the streets and start selling apples.

Tags: Bailout, Bill Clinton, Economy, GM, Humor, Mark Cuban, news, Obama, Pirates
Posted in Environment, Humor, Internet, news | 2 Comments »

McCain and the Politics of Distraction

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

Why did John McCain “suspend” his campaign and pull out of the debate? Is it because he’s so concerned about the banking crisis that he has to roll up his sleeves as a good Senator and pitch in to write new laws? Is it because Bush’s 700 Billion dollar bailout just won’t fly without the Maverick twisting a few arms?

Why did John McCain pick ultra-conservative right winger, and political unknown Sarah Palin for Veep? Was it because she can see Russia from her house?

No, of course not. It’s purely political; the politics of distraction. He’s trying to draw attention away from his lack of vision, and now his sagging poll numbers too. The Palin ploy worked for a little while, and even gave him a boost, but now with the public’s growing recognition of her complete inadequacy to lead the nation, he needs a new dodge. Pretending to be committed to banking reform, will do this week.

“We need leadership, not a campaign photo op. If there were ever a time for both candidates to hold a debate before the American people about this serious challenge, it is now.” - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid

(Source)

But perhaps Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, when referring to McCain’s politics of distraction, said it best:

“The longest Hail Mary pass in the history of either football or Marys.”

(Source)

Let’s hope the MSM doesn’t drop the ball.

But one thing Senator McCain hasn’t counted on is that the public, like most of the Senate, is turning on the Bush Bailout plan. The idea of pouring more billions of unaccountable taxpayers money down the rat hole is less and less appealing - go figure.

And John McCain wants to be the champion of that? Go get ‘em, tiger.

Senator Obama wisely rejected McCain’s call to postpone the debate noting that Presidents need to be able to focus on more than one issue at a time.

“It’s going to be part of the president’s job to be able to deal with more than one thing at once.”

Senator Obama (Source)

Tags: Campaign, Debate, Election, McCain, Obama
Posted in Election 08, Environment, Opinion, Politics, Weird | 1 Comment »

McCain and the Blackberry - Treason?

Thursday, September 18th, 2008

By now of course you’ve already heard that a McCain staffer claimed John McCain invented the Blackberry. Asked why he thought, McCain was qualified to lead America out of this economic crisis, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a senior McCain policy advisor, held up his Blackberry and said:

“He did this. The premier innovation in the past 15 years comes right from the commerce committee. So, you’re looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create.” - Holtz-Eakin (Source)

Blackberry, a Canadian company, had no comment on this revelation. However every American needs to ask themself, “If John McCain is a true American, why did he invent the Blackberry in Canada?” I’m not going to suggest, as some might, that such a thing borders on treason, just let every American make up his or her own mind on the subject.

Just consider this, in 2007 Blackberry generated $1.37 Billion in revenue for parent company RIM, a Canadian company! (Source) That’s enough money to pay for almost 2 days of the Iraq war! (Source)

Tags: Blackberry, Humor, McCain
Posted in Crime, Environment, Humor, Politics, Science, news | 11 Comments »