Beachfoxx has a blog on Weather Underground that is obviously centered on the local beach. She has a photo of the eastern end of Okaloosa Island [you have to scroll down a bit] that must have been taken from the dunes behind the beach. That is the sand and water that makes this area worth a visit.

There are a lot of pictures on the blog, but the more recent ones are not nice.

Via Ellroon, a picture in the Guardian, that the local tourist agencies hope no one sees:

Wave breaking at Orange Beach, Alabama

Orange
Black
Sleek and symmetrical
Fatal beauty.

… and the water is unhealthy according to the Local Puppy Trainer:

Okaloosa County Public Safety Director Dino Villani announced the Destin Pass would be closed Wednesday at 7 p.m. and Coast Guard booms would be deployed across the pass and at the Destin Bridge.

The time was chosen because that’s when the tide is high and water from the gulf is moving into the pass.
…

After a new wave of larger tar balls hit Okaloosa Island Wednesday, the county health department advised people to stay out of the water, according to a press release.

People are urged to avoid all contact with the water on Okaloosa Island from Eglin property to the eastern boundary of Beasley Park, the Okaloosa County Health Department release reads. “No wading, swimming, or entering the water.”

People are urged to avoid contact with tar and dead or dying fish. People seeing animals in need of rescue are asked to call 311, option 0.

People are also asked to not fish in oiled waters and avoid harvesting fish that have oily residue or a petroleum odor. People also should not boat through patches oil sheen and tar balls.

The local boats that are part of BP’s Vessel of Opportunity program had to leave their docks and anchor in the Gulf so they wouldn’t be blocked in if they were called to work.

Fortunately the county had already installed a back-up system, because the “official Unified Command” response was late and lacking. Apparently no one learned that centralized control was a bad idea, even after its greatest proponent, the Soviet Union, failed.

McClatchy reports that GOP’s Barton apologizes to BP, accuses Obama of ‘shakedown’

WASHINGTON — A day after top BP officials met with President Barack Obama at the White House and agreed to set up a $20 billion compensation fund, Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas called the money a “shakedown” of the company and apologized for the president’s action.

Barton, the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce committee, told BP CEO Tony Hayward Thursday morning that he was sorry about what the president had done. The money is a “slush fund,” Barton said, and “unprecedented in our nation’s history.”

“I do not want to live in a country where anything a citizen or corporation does something that is … wrong is subject to some sort of political pressure, that again, in my words, amounts to a shakedown,” said Barton.

In case there was any doubt about Joe Barton’s interests, he is concerned that the government might require him to put money in escrow if the gas well he owns part of should blow out. Obviously the $100K/year he makes from natural gas is more important than the “small people” on the Gulf Coast.

If there were anything approaching ethics in Congress, Barton wouldn’t be assigned to a committee with such an obvious conflict of interest, but IOKIYAR.

It would be easier if we required Congresscritters to wear team jerseys, Red for Republicans and Blue for Democrats, with the logos of their corporate sponsors on them.

In the second round of Group play –

Group A:

South Africa 0-3 Uruguay
France 0-2 Mexico

Group B:

Argentina 4-1 Republic of Korea
Greece 2-1 Nigeria

France has a problem and may not make out of the Group. The Mexico side showed why they are in the Cup,

In a single cartoon Joel Pett efficiently explains Obama’s thought processes.

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein