Quote Of The Day

Caption: A NASA MODIS image of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Even from space, and in false color, it still looks like an ugly mess. Click on the image credit link for a more detailed explanation.

Image credit: NASA

Robert Reich on what to do about a couple of problems all at once:

Florida’s panhandle beaches are already marred with sticky brown globs of oil. Workers with blue rubber gloves and plastic bags are already losing the battle to keep them clean. Pelicans and other wildlife coated in oil tar are dying by the droves.

It will get far worse. Most of the oil hasn’t hit land yet. When it does, hundreds of thousands of workers will be needed to clean beaches, siphon off oil from wetlands, and rescue stranded wildlife. Tens of thousands more will have to bring in new landfill, replace tarred sea walls, and rebuild shoreline infrastructure.

Yet we’ve got hundreds of thousands of young people sitting on their hands right now because they can’t find jobs. Many are from affected coastal areas, where the tourist and fishing industries have been decimated by the spill.

The President should order BP to establish a $5 billion clean-up fund, and immediately put America’s army of unemployed young people to work saving the Gulf coast. Call it the new Civilian Conservation Corps.

Put Jobless Young People to Work Cleaning Up BP’s Mess and Order BP to Pay

Actually, the title alone was good for the quote of the day. I'd just like to suggest that there's no reason to limit ourselves to $5 billion. The total cost of this thing could be incalculable. BP richly deserves to go out of business, and have the people who decided to ignore the rules and good engineering practice here sent to jail for a while.

Once again, though, we can assume President Obama will not be doing this.