U.S. Officials: Al Qaeda No. 3 Killed
Monday, May 31, 2010
Do you remember when putting a federal marshal on every flight was out of the question, far too expensive?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Why Obama Should Put BP Under Temporary Receivership
I think this is the biggest misconception about Obama, that he's just been an innocent dupe (of corporations, of Rahm Emanuel, of Tim Geithner, et al).
David Plouffe and David Axelrod have done a masterful job of keep Obama separate from his decisions, so that everybody else gets tarred, except Obama.
If you go back and listen to Candidate Obama's speeches, interviews and debates (with your now 'experienced'-ears) you'll see how Obama used ambiguous words which led his supporters to believe what they wanted to about him. It's why even today his most ardent supporters are split on whether he's a liberal or a centrist (he's neither), and why they are breaking their backs trying to find a rationale for his anti-populist (against THEM, the People who put him into power) ways.
I'm an old liberal Democrat, never voted Republican, and say he's a fraud only after great study and certitude.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Why Obama Should Put BP Under Temporary Receivership
During the campaign, Obama told people that they had to stay involved after the election, that they couldn't just vote for him, go away for four years and expect that he would do what they had hoped. He said that there were powerful interests working against what the people wanted, and if We The People wanted Obama to do our bidding, we would have to MAKE HIM DO IT.
Obama's most ardent supporters forget that those of us who criticize Obama are only doing what he warned us needed to be done. NOT to trust him.
Since the election (and even before, with his FISA vote), Obama has been deceptive, breaking every campaign pledge and promise, conceding the positions of the left (getting nothing in return), and hobbling real Democrats at every turn while catering to Republicans and Blue Dogs.
The fact is that those in charge of the greatest environmental crime in human history are NOT working at maximum capacity.
Obamabots are the most immediate problem, as they help him screw them (and us) over. Until Obamabots wake up to these facts, they are their own worst e n e m ies, and the reason we don't get what we all thought we were voting for when we voted Obama and Democrats into office as the majority power in our government.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Why Obama Should Put BP Under Temporary Receivership
Obama is meeting with his new "commission" chairs (Bob Graham and William Reilly) tomorrow, to discuss new regulations to place on offshore drilling.
What went wrong wasn't a lack of regulations (although there sure are few enough of those); what went wrong was an industry that knew it didn't have to adhere to regulations.
Will we hear more "Look forward, not back" rhetoric?
Until Obama investigates and prosecutes the Bush administration (and that's not going to happen now because he's as guilty as & complicit with Bush on every front), we might as well toss all regulations out because we have an executive branch and a Congress that refuses to enforce them.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Why Obama Should Put BP Under Temporary Receivership
“I trust [BP CEO] Tony Hayward. When I talk to him, I get an answer,” Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen said.
http://pol
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
BP and the Bankers
Internal documents from BP show that there were serious problems and safety concerns with the Deepwater Horizon rig far earlier than those the company described to Congress last week.
http://www
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Gulf Oil Spill: Massive Underwater Plumes Spell Disaster, Scientists Say
Internal documents from BP show that there were serious problems and safety concerns with the Deepwater Horizon rig far earlier than those the company described to Congress last week.
http://www
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Gulf Oil Spill: Massive Underwater Plumes Spell Disaster, Scientists Say
At BP's press conference the day after Obama's press conference, when Obama said he was the one who got BP to drill a second relief well, BP's COO Doug Suttles said that they'd stopped drilling the second relief well.
There's been no follow-up.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Gulf Oil Spill: Massive Underwater Plumes Spell Disaster, Scientists Say
Yowie zowie, when did Chris Hedges become anti-capitalist?
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Carol Browner: Administration 'Prepared For The Worst,' Oil May Leak Until August
Sunday, May 30, 2010
You're either very young or ig.nor.ant
This is precisely what the government does, or did do before conservatives got their hands on the steering wheel about 40 years ago. This is not a job for a foreign oil corporation, but for the US government, the US military (the Navy & Army Corps of Engineers).
Colin Powell agrees: Oil Spill Is 'Beyond The Capacity' Of BP To Solve, Military Might Have Role
http://www
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Carol Browner: Administration 'Prepared For The Worst,' Oil May Leak Until August
The hoped-for solution several months away is not a sure thing. Relief wells aren't "proven technology", they're no guarantee.
All the talk about how far drilling technology has come is just hype -- Drilling technology isn't all that advanced. The technology to fix blow-outs is identical to what it was 30 years ago -- There have been no advances.
The only reason that the oil industry is drilling deep sea wells now is because it has to, to get to the oil (all of the easy places have been drilled). So expect many more disasters with no solutions.
The answer is not offshore drilling, or any oil industry. Between global warming and the Chinese and Indian middle class building ten-lane highways and running shifts around the clock manufacturing cars for their citizens, we can't continue on an oil economy.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Taliban Training In Iran: McChrystal Says 'Clear Evidence' Of Inappropriate Iranian Activity
Taliban Training In Iran: McChrystal Says 'Clear Evidence' Of Inappropriate Iranian Activity
==========
The excuse for bombing Iran.
Who didn't see this coming?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Gulf Oil Spill: Ken Salazar Faces Calls For His Resignation
BP is running this operation, not Obama and not the US government.
If US marine geologists and engineers, the US military, Army Corps of Engineers were working on this, Obama would have said it straight out given all of the criticism for the way he's handling this. He's got the USCG running interference for BP, and that's the extent of US government involvement. Obama has rejected international offers of help. Obama "trusts BP" -- Straight from his mouth.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Gulf Oil Spill: Ken Salazar Faces Calls For His Resignation
Um no, I didn't watch the video.
==========
Forming an opinion based on ig.norance is nothing to boast about, but it sure is an American trait.
Relief wells are NOT the only solution, they don't always work and they don't deal with the disaster of tens of thousands of barrels of oil and gas gushing into the Gulf and beyond.
And Eliot Spitzer isn't opining in the clip about capping deepsea oil wells. But he is an expert on the law and on what a chief executive ought to be doing in a catastrophe like this.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama: Ongoing Oil Spill 'Enraging,' 'Heartbreaking'
Elizabeth Birnbaum, Ken Salazar, Lisa Jackson, Carol Browner, (Rahm Emanuel, et al) were and are all following Obama's directives. This isn't that Obama was taken for a ride by BP or Bush-Cheney -- This is Obama hoping you think he was duped instead of the fact that Bush's policies are Obama's policies. The proof is that Obama has NOT shut down BP's other operations, like Atlantis, which is in worse shape than Deepwater Horizon. Obama is allowing offshore oil drilling by BP and other oil companies with bad records to continue in the Gulf and other US waters.
BP's Atlantis platform (off the coast of Louisiana in "Hurricane Alley" at a water depth of more than 7,000 feet) poses a serious, immediate and potentially irreparable threat to the Gulf of Mexico's marine environment, oil workers and communities.
Atlantis operates with incomplete and inaccurate engineering documents, which one official warned could "lead to catastrophic operator error," much worse than BP's Deepwater Horizon rig, many times larger than the spill from the Horizon explosion:
http://www
http://www
Obama's MMS kept giving out drilling permits after Obama announced a suspension on permits, and for weeks there was no clarification or end put to that. The suspension, by the way, is only on NEW drilling. Not on maintenance drilling, which occurs all the time. It's just more of the same Obama weasel lawyer-speak.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama: Ongoing Oil Spill 'Enraging,' 'Heartbreaking'
MMS is an executive branch agency, directed and controlled by the president. Whether it happened under Bush's watch (and it did) no longer matters because Obama chose to block all investigations and prosecutions into that administration's activities. By doing that, Obama (for all intents and purposes) was certifying that what went on wouldn't be going on, and that it was all now his responsibility. Obama would make it all better. Obama and Democrats were put into power because they promised to clean up the mess. This particular mess falls right at Obama's feet.
It's been 16 months and what we're finding out is that Obama has continued Bush's policies throughout all of the government. It's not that he hasn't gotten to it yet -- He's rubber-stamped and is continuing what Bush and Cheney did.
All offshore drilling is dangerous, especially deepsea drilling, and all of these rigs have histories of problems. It's not like he walked into the job not knowing that Bush and Cheney had planted Liberty University graduates in executive branch agencies. We all knew about it.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Gulf Oil Spill: Ken Salazar Faces Calls For His Resignation
The hoped-for solution several months away is not a sure thing. Relief wells aren't "proven technology", they're no guarantee. And by the time it's ready, it may be too late:
"It may not be possible to fix this. What that means is that if it isn't fixed, that well will continue to gush until there's no more oil in it or the pressure gradients have matched up. It will take 9000 days (30 years) for this well to run dry, and waiting until August for the relief well to be drilled is too late to save the Gulf, the east coast of US and the N. Atlantic Ocean."
-Matthew Simmons, one of the world's leading oil experts to Dylan Ratigan this week.
Joining Ratigan and Simmons, Captain Dave Ballay and Eliot Spitzer, who talks about what Obama must do.
Part 1 - http://www
Simmons & Spitzer are on Part 2:
Part 2 - http://www
If this is so, this is not a job for a foreign oil corporation, but for the US government, the US military (the Navy & Army Corps of Engineers).
Colin Powell agrees: Oil Spill Is 'Beyond The Capacity' Of BP To Solve, Military Might Have Role
http://www
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Gulf Oil Spill: Ken Salazar Faces Calls For His Resignation
The hoped-for solution several months away is not a sure thing. Relief wells aren't "proven technology", they're no guarantee. And by the time it's ready, it may be too late:
"It may not be possible to fix this. What that means is that if it isn't fixed, that well will continue to gush until there's no more oil in it or the pressure gradients have matched up. It will take 9000 days (30 years) for this well to run dry, and waiting until August for the relief well to be drilled is too late to save the Gulf, the east coast of US and the N. Atlantic Ocean."
-Matthew Simmons, one of the world's leading oil experts to Dylan Ratigan this week.
Joining Ratigan and Simmons, Captain Dave Ballay and Eliot Spitzer, who talks about what Obama must do.
Part 1 - http://www
Simmons & Spitzer are on Part 2:
Part 2 - http://www
If this is so, this is not a job for a foreign oil corporation, but for the US government, the US military (the Navy & Army Corps of Engineers).
Colin Powell agrees: Oil Spill Is 'Beyond The Capacity' Of BP To Solve, Military Might Have Role
http://www
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Gulf Oil Spill: Ken Salazar Faces Calls For His Resignation
The technology to drill oil isn't revolutionary, 21st century, and the technology to fix blow-outs is identical to what it was 30 years ago -- There have been no advances.
The only reason that the oil industry is drilling deep sea wells now is because it has to, to get to the oil (all of the easy places have been drilled).
This isn't rocket science, and the US government has marine geologists and engineers that are better equipped than the oil industry.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Carol Browner: Administration 'Prepared For The Worst,' Oil May Leak Until August
the engineers over at oildrum.co
==========
Anonymous posters who claim to be COMPUTER software engineers are who you're citing.
I rely on my own expertise or experts who I know who have explained the science to my satisfaction, in that I can research it to form my own opinion. Matthew Simmons isn't the only expert relating this. He is, however, in a video clip that was immediately accessible.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Gulf Oil Spill: Media Access 'Slowly Being Strangled Off'
A CBS news story said one of its reporting teams was threatened with arrest by the Coast Guard and turned back from an oiled beach at the mouth of the Mississippi River. The story said the reporters were told the denial was under "BP's rules."
==========
And CBS reporters didn't let themselves get arrested because?
That's how the media is going to have to end the government's illegal denial of the public's right to know.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
BP Says So Far, Gulf Well Plug Isn't Working
I am an old liberal Democrat.
Democrats took over control of Congress in 2006. Digging began at the Deepwater Horizon rig in April, 2009.
The DLC-controlled Democratic Party is as complicit in this as Republicans.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
BP Says So Far, Gulf Well Plug Isn't Working
And how much oil would that be? Via the New York Times:
BP’s chief executive, Tony Hayward, has estimated that the reservoir tapped by the out-of-control well holds at least 50 million barrels of oil.
That would be about 2 billion gallons of oil. If all of this floods out, it would be the biggest oil spill in history by a huge margin and 20 times bigger than the biggest previous spill in the Gulf of Mexico. From the National Geographic piece: "The 1979 Ixtoc oil spill, also in the Gulf of Mexico, took nine months to cap. During that time the well spewed 140 million gallons (530 million liters) of oil — and the Ixtoc well was only about 160 feet (49 meters) deep, noted retired energy investment banker Simmons."
Even if the well is capped, this is going to be a huge spill. The spill rate, originally estimated at 50,000 gallons a day and then 210,000 gallons a day, might actually be as much as a million gallons a day — or maybe even more. But it's hard to tell because BP is using chemical dispersants to send most of the oil to the bottom of the sea. This keeps it off the shore, but might end up doing more damage in the long run. Nobody seems to know for sure.
http://mot
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
BP Says So Far, Gulf Well Plug Isn't Working
Is it going to be possible to ever cap the Deepwater Horizon oil blowout? Maybe not, says National Geographic:
Such recovery operations have never been done before in the extreme deep-sea environment around the wellhead, noted Matthew Simmons, retired chair of the energy-industry investment banking firm Simmons & Company Internatio
"We don't have any idea how to stop this," Simmons said of the Gulf leak....If the oil can't be stopped, the underground reservoir may continue bleeding until it's dry, Simmons suggested.
KEEP READING
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama: Ongoing Oil Spill 'Enraging,' 'Heartbreaking'
And shutting down all offshore oil rigs.
Green, sustainable energy is the solution. Wind, solar, hydro and conservation are the solution and can handle all of our energy needs. Obama's not committed to it. Nuclear and coal is not green, not clean. Obama likes to boast that he's done more than any other president. $1 would have been more than the others. What Obama has designated isn't anywhere near enough to move us into a green energy future. He's a joke.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama: Ongoing Oil Spill 'Enraging,' 'Heartbreaking'
"It may not be possible to fix this. What that means is that if it isn't fixed, that well will continue to gush until there's no more oil in it or the pressure gradients have matched up. It will take 9000 days (30 years) for this well to run dry, and waiting until August for the relief well to be drilled is too late to save the Gulf, the east coast of US and the N. Atlantic Ocean."
-Matthew Simmons, one of the world's leading oil experts to Dylan Ratigan this week.
Joining Ratigan and Simmons, Captain Dave Ballay and Eliot Spitzer, who talks about what Obama must do.
Part 1 - http://www
Simmons & Spitzer are on Part 2:
Part 2 - http://www
If this is so, this is not a job for a foreign oil corporation, but for the US government, the US military (the Navy and Army Corps of Engineers). Listen to part 2.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama: Ongoing Oil Spill 'Enraging,' 'Heartbreaking'
For the clean-up?
Super tankers should have been (& still should be) moved into the Gulf to siphon up the oil. The only reason dispersants are used is to hide the oil, sink it beneath the surface from view of the media and the People.
All offers of help, both foreign and domestic, should have been accepted on day one, instead of turned down. Massive quantities of boom should've been sent to the region on day one, instead of waiting to see what might be needed. There still isn't enough.
Building berms around the barrier islands should have been authorized and expedited -- Not announced after being forced by this press conference to act.
All of the efforts to shut down the gusher should have been put into place and tried sequentially, immediately, after the initial blow-out. They shouldn't have been spending days building a top-hat (not an original idea, but one that had failed in a previous blow-out -- It was called "a sombrero"), seeing if it would work before starting on the next idea. Pumping mud/cement should have been initiated as soon as the blowout happened.
Obama needs to shut down all offshore oil rigs - Especially BP's Atlantic operation. That is NOT being done!
The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 requires oil companies to be FINANCIALLY responsible for the damage & repairs, but does NOT transfer require/transfer the responsibility for fixing the problem and clean-up to oil companies.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama: Ongoing Oil Spill 'Enraging,' 'Heartbreaking'
By the way, fishing has only been shut down in about 4% of the water along the areas affected in the Gulf.
I've seen reporters out in boats, complaining of the stench and the goo in and on the water point out shrimpers and other fishermen "out for a last run". They're catching seafood, and selling, fish and other seafood that has been through that muck.
80% of US seafood comes from overseas, and it's not much, if at all, better - http://www
Our "American way of life" is k!lling us.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama: Ongoing Oil Spill 'Enraging,' 'Heartbreaking'
I'm an old liberal Democrat.
Obama and Democrats were put into power to reverse the last 30 years of Republican privatization and deregulation. Obama and the DLC-controlled Democrats in Congress have done NOTHING in that regard. Obama has continued just about all of Bush's policies.
The only people that Obama is fooling are his most ardent admirers, who think he's either a populist, a liberal, "playing 3 dimensional chess", has some grand scheme to trick Republicans, OR, those who think he's a centrist and are happy with his failure to accomplish anything because they, for all intents and purposes, conservatives themselves, libertarians, for less government.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama: Ongoing Oil Spill 'Enraging,' 'Heartbreaking'
Obama going on vacation has nothing to do with the oil spill. BP made this spill and should clean it up.
==========
The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 makes oil companies FINANCIALLY responsible, but in no way requires them to be in charge or even involved in dealing with accidents or clean-up.
Subtitle B alone parks this FUBAR directly at the Oval Office:
Subtitle B: Removal - Amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) to require the President to ensure effective and immediate removal of a discharge, and mitigation or prevention of a substantial threat of discharge, of oil or hazardous substances into the Exclusive Economic Zone or onto adjoining shorelines or in any way threatening natural resources under exclusive Federal management authorization. Requires the President to direct all Federal, State, and private actions in the event of an actual or potential discharge which is a substantial threat to the public health or welfare. Exempts from liability, with certain exceptions, any person acting pursuant to the National Contingency Plan or as otherwise directed by the President. Requires the Plan to establish procedures for: (1) removing a worst-case discharge or threat; and (2) coordinating the activities of Coast Guard strike teams and specified others. Requires revision and republication of the Plan by a certain date.
KEEP READING
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama: Ongoing Oil Spill 'Enraging,' 'Heartbreaking'
Or maybe BP should have had the equipment in place and tested these fixes at 5000 feet below sea level --- BEFORE this happened?
==========
Actually, it's the US government's job to make sure that the nation and its people are protected.
A president does not leave duty to go on vacation when the very existence of an entire region of his country (not to mention the effect on other nations) is in an ongoing crisis. To say it's about appearances, public relations, doesn't drive home how dire this situation is, but much of what a president does happens through people's perceptions.
Being disengaged didn't work for Bush ("cell phone", "video conferencing") and it certainly doesn't work for Obama. It took 35 days of him (& people like you, his most ardent supporters echoing), "Not my responsibility -- It's BP's", before his handlers realized that wasn't playing well. So they switched the script, had him say, "I'm responsible, the buck stops here ... Now watch me go on vacation".
Last week, as proof of his assertion that the government has been in charge since day one, Obama told of his insisting that BP drill not one but two relief wells.
Today we learned that BP has stopped drilling that second relief well.
As Donna Brazille, Democratic Party insider & fierce supporter of Obama said to Howard Fineman about the AWOL Obama to her state's crisis with this blow-out, "What happened to the fierce urgency of now?"
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama: Ongoing Oil Spill 'Enraging,' 'Heartbreaking'
Actually, it's the US government's job to make sure that the nation and its people are protected.
A president does not leave duty to go on vacation when the very existence of an entire region of his country (not to mention the effect on other nations) is in an ongoing crisis. To say it's about appearances, public relations, doesn't drive home how dire this situation is, but much of what a president does happens through people's perceptions.
Being disengaged didn't work for Bush ("cell phone", "video conferencing") and it certainly doesn't work for Obama. It took 35 days of him (and people like you, his most ardent supporters echoing), "Not my responsibility -- It's BP's", before his handlers realized that wasn't playing well. So they switched the script, had him say, "I'm responsible, the buck stops here ... Now watch me go on vacation".
As Donna Brazille, Democratic Party insider and fierce supporter of Obama said to Howard Fineman about the AWOL Obama to her state's crisis with this blow-out, "What happened to the fierce urgency of now?"
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama: Ongoing Oil Spill 'Enraging,' 'Heartbreaking'
It seems, however, that Obama's efforts go into preventing reporters, scientists and outside observers from documenting the FUBAR -- How BUSH of Obama:
Photographers say BP and government officials are preventing them from documenting the impact of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
As BP makes its latest attempt to plug its gushing oil well, news photographers are complaining that their efforts to document the slow-motion disaster in the Gulf of Mexico are being thwarted by local and federal officials—working with BP—who are blocking access to the sites where the effects of the spill are most visible. More than a month into the disaster, a host of anecdotal evidence is emerging from reporters, photographers, and TV crews in which BP and Coast Guard officials explicitly target members of the media, restricting and denying them access to oil-covered beaches, staging areas for clean-up efforts, and even flyovers.
http://www
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama: Ongoing Oil Spill 'Enraging,' 'Heartbreaking'
Except that the work isn't getting done.
http://ac3
Obama's government continues to play hot potato with BP, and word games with the American people over what "responsibility" actually looks like, getting nothing accomplished while sensitive habitat is destroyed, and this crisis gets worse.
According to local officials at the parishes, USCG leaves a representative behind in a parish, they don't stick around, they keep getting changed, they have no authority and defer to BP, and nothing gets done.
One example of this FUBAR:
If BP has put booms out (rare and inadequate numbers), nobody returns to pick them up when they're soaked to replace them with fresh boom so the oil overwhelms the boom barricades and soaks the marshes.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama: Ongoing Oil Spill 'Enraging,' 'Heartbreaking'
Obama's biggest boast of his being engaged, in charge, was the he, himself, order BP to drill a second relief well.
BP has stopped the drilling of that second relief well. Not on anyone's orders but their own.
I guess you're unaware of what took place during Obama's 3 hour visit on Friday. It was a photo op, carefully staged, on a beach where BP had brought in 300-400 workers in haz-mat suits right before Obama's arrival, as "atmosphere", and as soon as Obama left, the workers did, too.
Thad Allen needs to be replaced. And making 2 or 3 agencies out of MMS does nothing to stop the corruption, the cozy relationship that Big Oil has with MMS's employees.
I could list many others, like Carol Browner, Ken Salazar, etc., but ultimately the problem is Obama himself. He's NOT the one we were waiting for. He's far too cozy with the Corporatocracy himself, doesn't have the will or the desire to fight to save the nation from their continuing assaults.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama: Ongoing Oil Spill 'Enraging,' 'Heartbreaking'
Super tankers should have been (& still should be) moved into the Gulf to siphon up the oil. The only reason dispersants are used is to hide the oil, sink it beneath the surface from view of the media and the People.
All offers of help, both foreign and domestic, should have been accepted on day one, instead of turned down. Massive quantities of boom should have been sent to the region on day one, instead of waiting to see what might be needed. There still isn't enough.
Building berms around the barrier islands should have been authorized and expedited -- Not announced after being forced by this press conference to act.
All of the efforts to shut down the gusher should have been put into place and tried sequentially, immediately, after the initial blow-out. They shouldn't have been spending days building a top-hat (not an original idea, but one that had failed in a previous blow-out -- It was called "a sombrero"), seeing if it would work before starting on the next idea. Pumping mud/cement should have been initiated as soon as the blowout happened.
Obama needs to shut down all offshore oil rigs - Especially BP's Atlantic operation. That is NOT being done!
The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 requires oil companies to be FINANCIALLY responsible for the damage & repairs, but does NOT transfer require/transfer the responsibility for fixing the problem and clean-up to oil companies.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama: Ongoing Oil Spill 'Enraging,' 'Heartbreaking'
"It may not be possible to fix this. What that means is that if it isn't fixed, that well will continue to gush until there's no more oil in it or the pressure gradients have matched up. It will take 9000 days (30 years) for this well to run dry, and waiting until August for the relief well to be drilled is too late to save the Gulf, the east coast of US and the N. Atlantic Ocean."
-Matthew Simmons, one of the world's leading oil experts to Dylan Ratigan this week.
Joining Ratigan and Simmons, Captain Dave Ballay and Eliot Spitzer, who talks about what Obama must do.
Part 1 - http://www
Simmons & Spitzer are on Part 2:
Part 2 - http://www
If this is so, this is not a job for a foreign oil corporation, but for the US government, the US military (the Navy and Army Corps of Engineers).
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
BP Says So Far, Gulf Well Plug Isn't Working
And how much oil would that be? Via the New York Times:
BP’s chief executive, Tony Hayward, has estimated that the reservoir tapped by the out-of-control well holds at least 50 million barrels of oil.
That would be about 2 billion gallons of oil. If all of this floods out, it would be the biggest oil spill in history by a huge margin and 20 times bigger than the biggest previous spill in the Gulf of Mexico. From the National Geographic piece: "The 1979 Ixtoc oil spill, also in the Gulf of Mexico, took nine months to cap. During that time the well spewed 140 million gallons (530 million liters) of oil — and the Ixtoc well was only about 160 feet (49 meters) deep, noted retired energy investment banker Simmons."
Even if the well is capped, this is going to be a huge spill. The spill rate, originally estimated at 50,000 gallons a day and then 210,000 gallons a day, might actually be as much as a million gallons a day — or maybe even more. But it's hard to tell because BP is using chemical dispersants to send most of the oil to the bottom of the sea. This keeps it off the shore, but might end up doing more damage in the long run. Nobody seems to know for sure.
http://mot
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
BP Says So Far, Gulf Well Plug Isn't Working
Is it going to be possible to ever cap the Deepwater Horizon oil blowout? Maybe not, says National Geographic:
Such recovery operations have never been done before in the extreme deep-sea environment around the wellhead, noted Matthew Simmons, retired chair of the energy-industry investment banking firm Simmons & Company Internatio
"We don't have any idea how to stop this," Simmons said of the Gulf leak....If the oil can't be stopped, the underground reservoir may continue bleeding until it's dry, Simmons suggested.
KEEP READING
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
BP Says So Far, Gulf Well Plug Isn't Working
Is it going to be possible to ever cap the Deepwater Horizon oil blowout? Maybe not, says National Geographic:
KEEP READING
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
BP Says So Far, Gulf Well Plug Isn't Working
No, I don't think we're basically in agreement. Your "anger" seems like lip-service, like Obama's: Complacency, "What can we do? It's the price we pay for our need for oil, and we're just going to have to be patient -- But we're still going to drill offshore." And a false belief that relief drilling, months away, is guaranteed to work. It isn't. And in case you didn't know, that second relief well that Obama "ordered"? BP has stopped drilling it.
I've been hearing all morning from Obama's surrogates that "we should wait, until after a commission report, etc. Damage control, attempts to slow down the environmental movement, avalanche, to move the nation off of oil and to green, sustainable energy.
And all across the news this morning, from oil corporation surrogates and their media spinners, "This blow-out was a fluke". "Thirty years of no accidents", "no spills" (nonsense).
And from David Gregory, Candy Crowley, Jake Tapper? "It's these deepsea wells, and perhaps we should just drill in shallower water" (Ixtoc was in shallow water, and as we're seeing, the technology for repairing these blowouts has not changed, not improved).
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
BP Says So Far, Gulf Well Plug Isn't Working
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Ruin the whole weekend.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
BP Says So Far, Gulf Well Plug Isn't Working
Shame on you, Carolab; stop filling these threads up with more distractant music videos. This isn't MTV, and all that the music video links do is disrupt real conversations taking place about how to activate the public into action.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Rahm Is Done: It's a Crime, Stupid!
We the People can participate little enough in this democratic republic (the Constitution only guarantees our right to vote, and NOT to even have those votes counted), without a president of the US, his chief of staff, and a former president interfering with our right to decide who we want to represent us in our government.
I'm an old liberal Democrat, and Obama's deal with Specter p!ssed me off (as did his deal to let Lieberman caucus with Democrats did). I'm not a great fan of Joe Sestak's (he supports the continuation of these wars), but it's up to the Democratic voters of Pennsylvania to decide which Democrat they want representing them in the US Senate. It's outrageous that Obama, Emanuel and Clinton would try to circumvent that.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
What Have we Bought for $1 Trillion?
You hit the nail on the head.
Schakowsky just voted for the war supplemental this past week.
About Afghanistan
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
What Have we Bought for $1 Trillion?
Democrats ran on the pledge that they would put the wars on budget, not allow any more supplemental bills to fund these adventures, and there's been one supplemental after another these past 16 months of the Obama administration.
And this dvmb bunny, Schakowsky, just voted aye this past week for the latest supplemental war bill and has the audacity to claim bafflement over the amount of money being spent on these wars. As if she's had no role in it.
Vote her out and get REAL Democrats into Congress.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Repeal Author: We Will Look Back At This Debate With Puzzlement
Friday, May 28, 2010
Just when I think Obama and the DLC-controlled Democratic Party couldn't be any more deceitful, they sink to a new low.
This legislation changes nothing. It allows the Pentagon to repeal DADT if and when it chooses to.
http://www
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama Oil Spill Speech: FULL TEXT
BP transported 300-400 clean-up workers to the beach where Obama and television cameras were today (Jefferson Parish), and as soon as Obama and the cameras left, so did the BP workers.
Tragically reminiscent of Bush at Jackson Square in New Orleans after Katrina.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama Oil Spill Press Conference: Government In Charge Of Oil Disaster Response
The WhiteHouse had the live feed from the first day & said nothing, did nothing, kept scientists & independent observers from the area, as BP l!ed about the amount of oil & gas gushing into the Gulf.
It's been clear to me since day one that the plan has always been to drill a relief well (which will take months & may not work), downplay the situation as much as possible in an effort to stall public pressure to treat this with any urgency.
"It may not be possible to fix this. What that means is that if it isn't fixed, that well will continue to gush until there's no more oil in it or the pressure gradients have matched up. It will take 9000 days (30 years) for this well to run dry, & waiting until August for the relief well to be drilled is too late to save the Gulf, the east coast of US & the N. Atlantic Ocean."
-Matthew Simmons, one of the world's leading oil experts to Dylan Ratigan this week.
Joining Ratigan and Simmons, Captain Dave Ballay & Eliot Spitzer, who talks about what Obama must do.
Part 1 - http://www
Simmons & Spitzer are on Part 2:
Part 2 - http://www
If this is so, if top k!ll doesn't work, this isn't a job for a foreign oil corporation, but for the US government, the US military (the Navy and Army Corps of Engineers). Listen to the clip.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama Oil Spill Press Conference: Government In Charge Of Oil Disaster Response
How can you even say "they didn't see the federal government down there" until recently with a straight face??? What is the freakin' USCG, chopped liver? Local Yokels?
==========
It's a complete clusterfvck -
http://ac3
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
James Carville To Obama On Oil Spill: 'Get Down Here And Take Control... We're About To Die'
Now that Ted Kennedy has d!ed, even without a filibuster-proof Senate, Democrats control the Senate by a greater margin than either party has had in decades. Still Obama doesn't (and didn't) pressure the Blue Dogs, or threaten Lieberman with loss of his committee chairmanship.
But if you think that isn't enough, that it doesn't matter because Republicans can still filibuster anything and everything, there's Rule 22 of the Senate.
When we talk about Republicans filibustering, they really haven't been: They've been threatening to filibuster. Rule 22 leaves it up to the discretion of the Senate Majority Leader (Harry Reid) whether to actually force them to do it or just let them threaten (bluff).
Harry Reid has just let Republicans threaten, bluff. He's called them on it once in the last 3 1/2 years, when Republican Jim Bunning threatened to filibuster a bill to temporarily extend unemployment benefits, and Republicans caved. Filibustering is hard work.
Obama and Democrats are constrained by nothing.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
James Carville To Obama On Oil Spill: 'Get Down Here And Take Control... We're About To Die'
No, I think that he is constrained by the system, he needs some republican support to break the current rules of the Senate, where a minority prevail on even the most sensible of laws to block their passage.
==========
No, not true.
When Obama got into office, he had a filibuster-proof Senate. He also knew he didn't have the luxury of that filibuster-proof Senate for long - Two Democratic senators were on death's door (Kennedy & Byrd). In spite of that fact, he slammed the brakes on healthcare reform, slowed everything down to a crawl, declared it was "Congress's job to come up with a healthcare reform bill", he wasn't going to get involved, except that any bill he signed must have a public option. Then Obama went to work undermining the committees writing the legislation in Congress, and l!ed about it when caught red-handed. Obama made deals with PhRma, hospitals, the AMA, and the insurance industry, undercutting the committees working on controlling medical costs.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama Defends Offshore Drilling But Won't Say 'Drill Baby Drill'
Thursday, May 27, 2010
The White House had the live feed from the first day after the blow-out, and said nothing, did nothing, kept scientists and independent observers from the area as BP l!ed about the amount of oil and gas gushing into the Gulf.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama Oil Spill Press Conference: Government In Charge Of Oil Disaster Response
"Waiting until August for the relief well to be drilled is too late to save the Gulf, the east coast of US and the N. Atlantic Ocean."
-Matthew Simmons, one of the world's leading oil experts to Dylan Ratigan this week.
Joining Ratigan and Simmons, Captain Dave Ballay and Eliot Spitzer, who talks about what Obama must do.
Part 1 - http://www
Simmons & Spitzer are on Part 2:
Part 2 - http://www
If this is so, if top k!ll doesn't work, this is not a job for a foreign oil corporation, but for the US government, the US military (the Navy and Army Corps of Engineers).
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama's Oil Spill Press Conference May Have Changed Perceptions -- But The Reality Remains The Same
"It may not be possible to fix this. What that means is that if it isn't fixed, that well will continue to gush until there's no more oil in it or the pressure gradients have matched up. It will take 9000 days (30 years) for this well to run dry, and waiting until August for the relief well to be drilled is too late to save the Gulf, the east coast of US and the N. Atlantic Ocean."
-Matthew Simmons, one of the world's leading oil experts to Dylan Ratigan this week.
Joining Ratigan and Simmons, Captain Dave Ballay and Eliot Spitzer, who talks about what Obama must do.
Part 1 - http://www
Simmons & Spitzer are on Part 2:
Part 2 - http://www
If this is so, if top k!ll doesn't work (and it's unlikely it will work), this is not a job for a foreign oil corporation, but for the US government, the US military (the Navy and Army Corps of Engineers).
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama Oil Spill Press Conference: Government In Charge Of Oil Disaster Response
What is it you want?
Did I criticize Kathleen Blanco for her actions after Katrina?
No.
Have I criticized Bobby Jindal, over his words and actions before the BP blow-out (or even after the blow-out)?
YES.
Just not over what you and the other id-jit (Fastwriter) think merits criticism.
Whether you agree with the Republicans' 'Less Government is Good' belief or not (and I don't), Jindal's complaint isn't hypocritical, isn't about wanting 'More Government'. It's about the roles set out for the state and the feds in a disaster like this in the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, and the plans each are to make and put into action when/if the time comes according to the law.
The building of berms to protect the barrier island is the responsibility of the federal government, and the costs fall to the feds, too, because the feds supercede the state's authority (and take the money, too) when it comes to all of those activities on the outer continental shelf (and even those on the inner -- oil drilling, ports, etc.).
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama Oil Spill Press Conference: Government In Charge Of Oil Disaster Response
Now this is a great example of "d@mned if I do and d@mned if I don't."
The one time (and I mean the ONE TIME) I do not throw in the kitchen sink and cover every conceivable retort I might get, the one time that I don't address every conceivable "but...but
Are you really unable to research on the internet, find and post what it is that you think I've been unfair about?
If it's YOUR belief that it's relevant, that it somehow exonerates Obama and would make him look good, do your own homework. Get off your f@t l@zy @$$ and make the argument for yourself.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama Oil Spill Press Conference: Government In Charge Of Oil Disaster Response
I just wish he would do the job of the presidency, by having his Department of the Interior enforce the regulations they are charged with enforcing, and his EPA stop BP from making this catastrophe worse by using toxics and and further destroying the environment of the region (and the evidence at the crime scene).
Obama needs to perform his role as outlined in the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which he is NOT doing.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
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