Crystal clear this early Monday morning, stars twinkling and the air lucid even — far cry from when I dozed off last night as all along California’s north coast was turbulent weather.
Power outages, fairly-heavy wind — a 75-foot fir tree was knocked down, blocking one road for awhile — and rain mingled reportedly into hail at one point.

Although the noise could be heard outside as sleep came, I was  like a baby, blissfully unaware of the chaos blustering all around.

(Illustration found here):

Oil giant Exxon is trying a similar approach in trying to buffer its oil spill last week in Mayflower, Ark.
Via Raw Story:

Activists with the group Tar Sands Blockade published new videos on Sunday showing oil from the Arkansas pipeline rupture purportedly diverted from a residential neighborhood into a wetland area to keep it out sight and, most importantly, out of the media.
While it’s not clear if the oil was intentionally moved into the wetland, the company says it is cleaning pavement with power washing devices, which could cause some of the oil to be pushed off neighborhood streets and into other areas.
…
A letter sent by ExxonMobil to residents of Mayflower on March 31 claims the oil did not reach Lake Conway.
“I don’t have allergies,” a man who lives on Lake Conway told tar sands activists.
“But now my sinuses are bothering me. My throat’s bothering me.
My eyes water constantly.
But they [Exxon] act like nothing’s wrong. They don’t have to live here, we do.
And we’re not moving just because of them.”

And WTF — ‘Exxon Media?’
Via Mother Jones:

Michael Hibblen, who reports for the radio station KUAR, went to the spill site on Wednesday with state Attorney General Dustin McDaniel.
McDaniel was in the area to inspect the site and hold a news conference, and Hibblen and a small group of reporters were following him to report on the visit.
Upon arrival, representatives from the county sheriff’s office, which is running security at the site, directed the reporters to a boundary point 10 feet away that they should not pass.
The reporters agreed to comply.
But the tone shifted abruptly, Hibblen told Mother Jones on Friday:

“It was less than 90 seconds before suddenly the sheriff’s deputies started yelling that all the media people had to leave, that ExxonMobil had decided they don’t want you here, you have to leave.
They even referred to it as “Exxon Media”…Some reporters were like, “Who made this decision? Who can we talk to?”
The sheriff’s deputies started saying, “You have to leave. You have 10 seconds to leave or you will be arrested.”

The EPA and the FAA are also seemingly following orders from ‘Exxon Media.’
And Inside Climate News reporter Lisa Song was caught in the nefarious web of corporation control:

Song went to the command center in hopes of reaching representatives of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation.
She had been told they were working out of the command center, but had been unable to get their names or contact information despite multiple requests to the agencies.
…
Song had tried to enter the command compound on Tuesday, but was turned away by a security guard.
On Wednesday, however, a different guard was on duty and he waved her through the gate.
Inside, a second person directed her to the warehouse that houses the command center.
Inside the building, Song went to a table with a sign that said “public affairs,” where she was given the name and contact information for Austin Vela, the EPA spokesman at the site.
Before she could get the name of a DOT representative, however, Exxon spokeswoman Kim Jordan spotted Song and told her to leave.
A second person arrived and said, “You’ve been asked by security to leave. If you don’t you’ll be arrested for criminal trespass.”
Song left the compound.

And way-telling: About 600 people at the site are working for Exxon and various contractors. The EPA has five employees on site.

Video of the nasty scene can be found at LeakSource – here and here.
And some black, gruesome photos an be seen here via Imgur.
Some nasty shit, buddy.

This is the future — President Obama will most-likely okay that horrible Keystone XL pipeline, and shit as shown above will become near-common place.
Exxon media my ass!