"Its his first overseas visit as President."

- - -

Again....it seems to me he has left the country a few times.  How old is this article?

WHERE IS THE OIL (FROM BP OILSPILL)  WHOOT?   WHERE?

i THINK THE POLITITIANS SHOULD BE MADE TO CLEAN UP THE OIL (TOXIC) SPILL OIL IF YOU CAN FIND ANY.

LIKE RUSH SAID, IT WILL DISSAPEAR INTO THE OCEAN... LOOKS LIKE RUSH IS RIGHT AGAIN.

CAPS ON PURPOSE.....

I repeat:  your point being what??????  People make choices.  Once they cross the line and break laws seriously enough to end up in jail/prison, they lose the rights that the rest of us worked to maintain.   They have to regain those rights. 

The article complains about prisoners being hired in an area of high unemployment.  Then, it goes on to say they are working in a hot toxic environment.  So, "punish" the unemployed  by forcing them into a hot toxic environment for temp work so they can lose their unemployment benefits. 

Beach cleanup is a Sisyphean task. Shorelines cleaned during the day become newly soaked with oil and dispersant overnight, so crews shovel up the same beaches again and again. Workers wear protective chin-to-boot coveralls (made out of high-density polyethylene and manufactured by Dupont), taped to steel-toed boots covered in yellow plastic. They work twenty minutes on, forty minutes off, as per Occupational Safety and Health Administration safety rules. The limited physical schedule allows workers to recover from the blazing sun and the oppressive heat that builds up inside their impermeable suits.

During their breaks, workers unzip the coveralls for ventilation, drink ice water from gallon thermoses and sit under white fabric tents. They start at 6 AM, take a half-hour lunch and end the day at 6PM, adding up three to four hours of hard physical labor in twenty-minute increments. They are forbidden to speak to the public or the media by BP's now-notorious gag rule. At the end of the day, coveralls are stripped off and thrown in dumpsters, alongside oil-soaked booms and trash bags full of contaminated sand. The dumpsters are emptied into local HazMat landfills, free employees go home and the inmates are returned to work release centers.

Work release inmates are required to work for up to twelve hours a day, six days a week, sometimes averaging seventy-two hours per week. These are long hours for performing what may arguably be the most toxic job in America. Although the dangers of mixed oil and dispersant exposure are largely unknown, the chemicals in crude oil can damage every system in the body, as well as cell structures and DNA.

Inmates can't pick and choose their work assignments and they face considerable repercussions for rejecting any job, including loss of earned "good time." The warden of the Terrebonne Parish Work Release Center in Houma explains: "If they say no to a job, they get that time that was taken off their sentence put right back on, and get sent right back to the lockup they came out of." This means that work release inmates who would rather protect their health than participate in the non-stop toxic cleanup run the risk of staying in prison longer.

Prisoners are already subject to well-documented health care deprivations while incarcerated, and are unlikely to have health insurance after release. Work release positions are covered by Worker's Compensation insurance, but pursuing claims long after exposure could be a Kafkaesque task. Besides, there is currently no system for tracking the medical impact of oil and dispersant exposure in cleanup workers or affected communities.

"They're not getting paid, it's part of their sentence"

To learn how many of the 20,000 prisoners housed outside of state prisons are involved in spill-related labor, I called the DOC Public Relations officer, Pam LaBorde, who ultimately discouraged me from seeking such information. ("Frankly, I do not know where your story is going, but it does not sound positive," she said on our third phone call.)

Going to prison officials directly didn't help. The warden of a South Louisiana jail refused to discuss the matter, exclaiming, "You want me to lose my job?" A different warden, of a privately-owned center admitted, on condition of anonymity, that inmates from his facility had been employed in oil cleanup, but declined to answer further questions. Jefferson Parish President Steve Theriot and Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser, and Grand Isle Police Chief Euris DuBois declined interview requests.

Or this?  This is good!http://dailyradar.com/beltwayblips/video/hannity-interviews-peter-king-and-anthony-weiner/

Rider,  I take it my check is in the mail too..... Well, when it gets here I am gonna buy me one of them there Obama Batteries to go with my future Volt... :)

Anyone hear mr. weiners (D) rant on voting yesterday...  that was great.

Grant, you aren't running the country, that is where you went wrong!!!  Have you posted that on the WH web site??? 

Rider, if I own GM, where is my money???????