No, it’s not socialist Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant who took part in protests staged by kayak-paddling activists against Royal Dutch Shell’s deep-sea oil drilling rig headed for Alaska’s Chukchi Sea on Monday. It was council member Mike O’Brien who thought floating his kayak in Elliot Bay to join protesters was a good use of city time. KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson sounded off on O’Brien’s involvement,
“He’s doing this on city time. This [the Seattle City Council] is becoming a clown show.
“A dispute between Shell and a bunch of radical activists and drilling in the arctic, has nothing to do with a Seattle city council man’s job.
“These people have such delusions of grandeur and we’re paying them. We’re paying them so they can engage in their radical hobbies.
“It’s quite the clown show we have here in Seattle.”
After the Obama administration approved exploratory oil drilling in the Artic, Shell’s the Polar Pioneer (an oil drilling rig) arrived in Seattle. The “kayaktivists” protested the ship’s arrival and, yesterday, as the ship headed toward the artic, they protested its departure.
According to Greenpeace, 40 to 50 kayaktivists lined up to form a blockade. In Bellingham, activists chained themselves to a support ship… twice.
The Coast Guard detained a total of 24 kayaktivists, including O’Brien. They each received a $500 fine.
One has to wonder if O’Brien will try to bill the that $500 as an “official” expense for “constituent relations.”
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