Tuesday CCC/WPA Blogging: Artists Gotta Eat Edition, Part 1

at the PC! Damn, transcribing is a bitch. (How might those program which transcribe spoken words into text work for this kind of thing??? I have no idea how to connect a streaming audio to such a program, nor know anything about them, but correcting text with mistakes in it would be a breeze compared to actual transcribing. Oh, and what's with my short term memory??? Heh.)

Anyway, this is from the blog you link to which covers something I'd heard, that BP has a legal upper limit to how much it must pay in reimbursements and reparations.

Attorney Abigail Field writes that the maximum BP can be stuck for is $75 million, "a sum that's orders of magnitude below the losses" likely to be suffered across the Gulf Coast.

BP will face unlimited damages under the 1990 law [only] if the accident was caused by BP's "gross negligence," or by BP's violations of federal safety, operational or construction regulations.

So, when you read the assurances of some spokesperson for BP, or one of the congressmen and senators they have in their pocket, or a state DEP official who says BP is the "responsible party," be sure to look carefully to see if anyone is admitting that BP was "grossly negligent." We know a corporation that would probably bet you $ 35 billion dollars it'll never happen.

4. Senator Bill Nelson.

On CNN yesterday, Bill Nelson (D-FL), said it was "baloney" to believe that BP willingly will pay more than a pittance to compensate for the all damage its Deepwater Horizon well has caused. That's why he's offering new legislation next week to amend the law.

Even as lawmakers rush to put together legislative responses to the spill, none appeared to be trying halt drilling in the gulf altogether. Instead, they are likely to focus on increasing inspections, oversight and safety requirements on offshore rigs. There could also be broad support for measures to halt new deep-water exploration and ensure that oil companies will foot the bill for cleanup.

Florida Democrat Bill Nelson , who has been one of the most vocal opponents of new offshore drilling, has introduced legislation to do both. One bill would halt new exploratory wells such as the exploded Deepwater Horizon, until an investigation of the current disaster is complete. Another would dramatically raise the cap on an oil company’s liability for economic damages in a spill from $75 million to $10 billion.

It will be a challenge to draft legislation that would effectively, and within the constraints of the Constitution, accomplish what Nelson proposes. It also will be a huge task to marshal the bill through the thoroughly dysfunctional U.S. Senate.

But Nelson has been a stalwart opponent of drilling in the Gulf. At least until Obama cut the legs out from under him, he was effective, too. If anyone can do it, we're guessing Bill Nelson can.

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much of the written and photographic history we prize so much now. Other forms of art as well: The styles of buildings for our national, state, and local parks came out of those programs. The photo you used in your previous post of one of those park buildings was so very charming. Those buildings were on a very human scale, welcoming, relaxing.

So many parks in the metro Milwaukee area were a result of WPA/CCC programs. They are indelible parts of the memories of my childhood years. It was a great treat to go to one of these parks for a summer picnic, which we did with some frequency to Whitnall Park, with its wonderful flower gardens, and Grant Park, with its stunning views of Lake Michigan from its high bluffs overlooking the lake. This was before freeways, so they were a bit of a drive, especially all the way to the lake, but wonderful outings.