Anyone who thinks they have all the Answers before they've even heard the Question - is Dangerously Deluded! Real Truth Requires Vigilance, Perseverance and Courage, regardless of Party and who wields Power. Left, Right, Center, Corporations, Government, Unions, Criminals or the Indifferent.
Ken Fienberg on both CBS and CNN via Crooks and Liars where he talks up the current "success" of the program.
Despite all of Feinberg's happy talk above the Press-Register has revealed this.
BAYOU LA BATRE, Ala. -- Ken Feinberg said today he hasn't been able to start writing claims checks because BP PLC has not yet deposited any money into the $20 billion escrow fund it promised to create.
Feinberg, who was appointed last month to administer individual and business claims stemming from the oil spill, held an early morning town hall meeting in Bayou La Batre on Saturday before meeting with the Press-Register editorial board in downtown Mobile.
Feinberg said he is leaning toward giving partial payments to companies and people who are indirectly impacted by the spill -- an outlet store in Foley hurt by the decline in beach traffic, for example.
He also said he would do something for real estate owners to cover a decrease in property value.
BP officials and President Barack Obama agreed last month that the oil company would put $5 billion a year over the next four years into an account to pay for spill-related costs, such as claims, environmental restoration and cleanup costs.
This might just be a bureaucratic snafu, and in the long run may not be a big deal, but when we also look at how BP has treated local Scientist and experts by trying to legally shut them up about what the ecological and environment impacts of the spill has really been...
BP PLC attempted to hire the entire marine sciences department at one Alabama university, according to scientists involved in discussions with the company's lawyers. The university declined because of confidentiality restrictions that the company sought on any research.
CNN may not know what they have documented. Will anybody tell them? Will they figure it out? ...
CNN documents, on this documentary airing tonight and tomorrow, that the “air smell’s [sic] bad” (it’s full of carcinogenic and other hazardous material in oil and dispersants). None of the cleanup workers are wearing respirators and nobody is testing the air.
Just like 911 WTC, these workers are gonna be in trouble 5, 10, and 20 years down the line.
Where is EPA and OSHA?
Yeah, good question - they've been MIA for quite some time.
Despite the current Right-Wing Meme that "Obama has been to MEAN to Business, and has scared them to too much change", the fact is that he's actually been pretty toothless in regards to BP.
If anything U.S. Officials have been flacking for BP, not keeping their "Boot on their Neck".
And they're certainly not getting in the way while BP hires Prison Labor - working them for up to 12 Hrs a day, 6 hours a day, in 100 degree plus toxic environment.
Work crews in Grand Isle, Louisiana, still stand out. In a region where nine out of ten residents are white, the cleanup workers are almost exclusively African-American men. The racialized nature of the cleanup is so conspicuous that Ben Jealous, the president of the NAACP, sent a public letter to BP CEO Tony Hayward on July 9, demanding to know why black people were over-represented in "the most physically difficult, lowest paying jobs, with the most significant exposure to toxins."
Hiring prison labor is more than a way for BP to save money while cleaning up the biggest oil spill in history. By tapping into the inmate workforce, the company and its subcontractors get workers who are not only cheap but easily silenced—and they get lucrative tax write-offs in the process.
...
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.
Did someone say Slavery was over? Fact is - it's not, particularly if you read all of the 13th Amendment which has an bright bold exception for the "Duly Convicted".
The Oil Spill itself may be stopped for now, but it's long term environmental and health impact remains a giant dark cloud looming just under the surface of our full comprehension, one that is likely to continue taking it's toll - for generations.
From Day One, the Right has been turning hand-springs to try and make the BP Oil-Tastrophe either the fault of The Left (with specters of Greenpeace SCUBA SWAT Teams with explosives in the night) or offering ill-thought comparisons with the 2005 Hurricane Katrina Disaster.
But I think all of this ignores who the clear and obvious villains are in this situation, and the fact that we brought them to the party ourselves - and now we have no one else left to dance with.
The Deep Water Horizon Disaster IS A CRIME - quite possibly the absolute worse and most wide-ranging criminal disaster this nation, and potentially The WORLD may ever see. Although stopping the leak is paramount, and minimizing the long term ecological and health effects is critical we need to start seriously chanting ... "Never Again!"
Then we need to follow that chant with some actions.
The behavior of the Right has been typically psychotic.
Obama officials have it backwards: They talk tough about BP's responsibilities but do not meet their own responsibilities under federal law. They should not have let more than a month go by without telling BP what to do. And they should avoid recriminations against their partner in solving the problem until after the leak is sealed.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar sounds whiney when he rails against BP. It didn't build confidence when his opening statement to a congressional hearing Wednesday focused on future safety and inspections requirements, and not on what the administration will do now to end the leak.
Could this be Mr. Obama's Katrina? It could be even worse.
Even those on the relative Left have been tossing Obama under the Bus proclaiming this is a referendum on the effectiveness of government. ala Frank Rich.
Now Obama is stuck between a rock and a Tea Party. His credibility as a champion of reformed, competent government is held hostage by video from the gulf. And this in an election year when the very idea of a viable federal government is under angrier assault than at any time since the Gingrich revolution and militia mobilization of 1994-5 and arguably since the birth of the modern conservative movement in the 1960s.
So Government can't be trusted because Obama hasn't meet his "responsibilities under federal law" - the same way that Bush didn't?
Bush: You know, people said that the federal response was slow. Don’t tell me the federal response was slow when there was 30,000 people pulled off roofs right after the storm passed.
(Right, sure, and just what did you do with those 30,000 people after the roof top rescues?? NOTHING! Which is the point Chimpass!)
And that's funny too because I remember John Gibson (who was FIRED by Fox News) saying that the Left had "Swiftboated Bush" over Katrina.
"They were lying through their teeth and they got away with it," Gibson told the hosts of Fox & Friends on Wednesday morning -- referring not not to the Swift Boat Veterans but to Democrats and liberals who portrayed Bush as incompetent and indifferent.
It took Fox host Steve Doocy to make the connection explicit. "They looked at the game plan that the Republicans and the Swiftboaters did back against Kerry," Doocy suggested, "and they said, 'Okay, it worked.'"
Rove for example claims that Bush's "Hands were tied" in Katrina by Federal Law.
The federal response to Katrina was governed by the 1988 Stafford Act, which says that in natural disasters on-shore states are in charge, not Washington.
But BP's well was drilled in federal waters. Washington, not Louisiana, is in charge. This is Mr. Obama's responsibility. He says his administration has been prepared for the worst from the start. Mr. Obama's failure to lead in cleaning up the spill could lead voters to echo his complaint in Katrina's aftermath: "I wish that the federal government had been up to the task."
(This ignores the simple fact that under the Stafford act once a Disaster Has Been Declared Federal Assistance becomes available - and the President is responsible for providing that assistance not the state - and Katrina was declared a disaster even before the Hurricane made Landfall and the Levees broke, but let's not belabor that right now)
If Bush was really "so wronged" by the Left for not getting food and water to the Superdome for days, does that mean that John Kerry - the Original Swiftboat Victim - "Did Nothing Wrong" in Vietnam, and that the Right just made up a bunch of Lies about him simply for Political Gain back then?
Oh golly gee Willickers? You mean all those purpleheart band-aids were actually an smarmy insult to an Actual American War Hero and assault on the sacrifices and integrity of our troops?
Heaven Forfend!
If Kerry was "Swiftboated" and therefore if this is "Obama's Katrina" and Katrina was "Bush's Swiftboating" - doesn't that mean the ROVE AND THE RIGHT ARE USING THIS DISASTER TO SWIFTBOAT OBAMA!!
You're Damn SKippy they are.
Is Rove suggesting that what Obama has failed to do is Seize Physical Control BP's Equipment and Technology - toss their technicians out and just plug in somebody else who would have to do on the job training in the middle of a growing disaster? That would be just brilliant.
The problem that Obama faces is technological and proprietary in that the U.S. Military isn't in the Drilling 5,000 Feet Below the Ocean Business - they're in the Blow Shit UP Business. Exactly what a Nuclear Submarine might do to cap the well, no one seems to be able to answer. We don't have an Underwater N.A.S.A. So unfortunately we've had to rely largely on the hardware and expertise the initial perpetrator in this crime, BP.
And lets make no bones about it, Katrina was a natural disaster compounded with an engineering error followed by lackadaisical indifference - but This was and is an ongoing Crime.
Under Obama Federal Officials are doing their job by looking seriously at Prosecuting BP
Reporting from Washington — — A team of top federal prosecutors and investigators has taken the first steps toward a formal criminal investigation into oil giant BP's actions before and after the drilling rig disaster off Louisiana.
The investigators, who have been quietly gathering evidence in Louisiana over the last three weeks, are focusing on whether BP skirted federal safety regulations and misled the U.S. government by saying it could quickly clean up an environmental accident.
Keeping a "Boot on BP's Neck" is rather like having the criminal lead you back to the Crime Scene and help dig up the bodies. They did the crime, they know where the bodies are - we don't. And there are a whole lot of things buried in this situation...
BP claimed they knew how to stop a leak like this, even this far down, when they applied for the permits. BP LIED. BP claimed that they had procedures in place to prevent this kind of disaster - BP LIED.
Some are beginning to argue that BP may even be guilty of (Ecological) Terrorism.
I read with growing outrage that several Greenpeace protesters were arrested the other day in Louisiana. What was their crime? They painted an anti-offshore drilling message on the side of an oil exploration ship. [...] To compound the injustice, a parish officer said that they might be charged as terrorists.
Meanwhile, the CEO of BP is treated as a privileged member of the wealthy ruling elite as he chronically lies about his company’s latest act of crime against the earth and its inhabitants, as well as other living creatures of the sea and planet. But whether it’s BP, Wall Street, or Wal-Mart, global corporations know that crimes committed on a massive scale don’t get prosecuted; they are just a statistic that goes unchallenged by the paid-off elected officials and regulators in D.C. [...]
We have evolved into an oligarchy that considers cost savings and profit ahead of lives and the preservation of our earth. [...]
Could a terrorist do more harm than BP has done?
That's right, Greenpeace protesters might be charged as "terrorist" for Graffiti For PAINTING A MESSAGE - essentially for tagging! ( Couldn't they just use some Corexit on that tag and call it even?)
Isn't the DeepWater Horizon Catastrophe doing damage that al Qeada could only dream of?
And that's just talking about the Oil Spill itself, add to that the potential damage of spraying hundreds of thousands of gallons of Corexit 9500 into the Gulf, a substance which becomes three times as toxic when mixed with Oil.
Add to that the fact that BP has been threatening to FIRE any Fishermen - whose livelihoods they've already destroyed - who use their own protective respirators while doing spill cleanup work.
Clint Guidry - Louisiana Fishermen's Association: I bought respirators, and I brought them down to these people. And when they tried to wear them, the BP representatives on site told them that it wasn’t a dangerous situation, and they didn’t need to wear them, and if they did, they would be taken off the job.
So BP is not only putting the Fish and the Wildlife at risk, they're deliberately putting their own employees health at greater risk - even when it costs them nothing - simply because admitting that the risk might exist, might mean they could be held Liable and Accountable for it.
This is why they didn't bother to use the right kind of drilling mud, and they didn't bother to drill a relief well - as countries like Canada and Europe require - to cut costs and limit their liability. This may be why BP has been low-balling the size and impact of the Spill from DAY ONE, claiming at first that only 1,000 Barrels-a-day were spilling, only to have that corrected and upgraded to 5,000 Barrels, and now 12,000-19,000 Barrels.
This kind of wild mis-estimate may not be the only one on BP's part, there just might be an elephant hiding behind the mouse of a spill they've been focused on so far.
Here's a telling tweet I saw yesterday...
@BorowitzReport Bin Laden sees what BP's done, and he's like, "Man, I've got to step up my game."
Yeah, it's like that.
George Lakoff doesn't think Obama has yet pounded home the deeper moral narrative of what has truly occurred here and what needs to occur.
The following "shoulds" are not mine. They follow naturally from President Obama’s own values as he articulated them is his 2008 campaign, and as they leaked out, largely unnoticed, during his press conference.
The president recognizes that financial reform requires dealing with systemic risk, which means not mere regulation, but restructuring the financial system to minimize, and if possible eliminate, systemic risk. Applying the analogy to oil spills, it would mean no more deep-water drilling because major systemic risks ("worst case scenarios") cannot be eliminated when you drill starting a mile down where no human being can go and drilling three miles deeper.
Like other large corporations, BP uses cost-benefit analysis to maximize profits. It is no surprise that, to save money, BP chose inferior materials in Deepwater Horizon, materials whose defects may well have caused the explosion. The use of cost-benefit analysis for a corporation’s benefit (and not the public’s) is a dangerous practice in many industries. Cost-benefit analysis itself, used this way, should be considered as an important component of systemic risk by the President’s commission on safety.
What were seeing here will not be a referendum on the Obama Presidency, or his effectiveness as leader no matter how those on the left or right would like to see it that way. IMO this will ultimately be a referendum on Selfish Corporate Bullshit.
There isn't a Oil Company that has gone further out of it's way to advance it's Green and Ecological Bona Fides than BP. Their damn Logo is a Flower for Christ's Sake. Yet when the rubber meets the road they leave a 100 Mile Skid Mark of Oil & Corexit across the Gulf of Mexico.
Look at the Guif, look at the shoreline of Louisiana, Texas and soon Florida. Look at the Death Plumes Beneath the Water's surface.
This is what the Precious, Sacred, "Infallible" Free Market Hath Wrought.
Corporations aren't inherently evil, but when their only priority and fiduciary duty is to protecting the profit of their stockholders by reducing liability and accountability while increasing risk - they can certain become amoral. They're own natural tendency is to askew the pointing finger of a moral compass. They use secrecy, denial and Non-Disclosure Agreements backed with armies of Corporate Lawyers intent on ensuring they're never blamed or held responsible for anything until it's far too late and it becomes so damn big you can see it from Space - and it just can't be hidden anymore.
BP problems didn't begin with the leak, the leak is just a symptom of their rotting internal disease of amorality.
This amorality isn't just on Wall Street, it's not just halls of BP or offices of Massey Mining, or Blackwater/Xe or KBR or Wackenhut - it's something that exists deep in our culture, and just as 9/11 was a hard and cold wake-up call that the world as we knew it was suddenly, swiftly transformed into something completely different - so should we take heed of the Economic Terrorist Attack that was fostered by Goldman Sachs, AIG and Lehman, as much we now watch the Ecological Terrorism of BP, Transocean and Halliburton unfold.
We have to stop the leak, difficult though that may be. We have to clean up the spill, also a difficult task. Unlike Rich I don't that's an question of "If" only "When" -- but after that we need to start looking at the root cause of these acts of blatant myopic irresponsibility and ravenous greed.
Making money is a great thing, but when you're already breaking profit records and still need so much more, and more that you drive yourself and the nation right off a cliff - I think, as Obama himself stated, "You don't get the Keys back".
The possibility of Taking BP Down, revoking their corporate Charter and banning the entire company from our shores, needs to be on the table. There have to be consequences. Companies like this have to be shown the error of their ways like shoving a dog's nose in their own shit pile. We have to take a "Smoke 'em out of their Boardrooms" - "Wanted Divested or Alive" attitude about this.
It's time to re-empower the Corporate Cops.
EPA, SEC, OSHA and MMS should be under the same ethics rules and garner the same respect (and yes, fear) as the FBI, Homeland Security and ATF. The idea of their officers taking gifts and jobs from the people their investigating should be taken as deadly seriously as an FBI agent taking presents from John Gotti.
It's time to reverse decades of atrophy and decay that has crept into the muscles and bones of the people's representative and their enforcement agents to look out for the public good, not just some fatcat's wallet.
The reason I compare this to 9/11, isn't because of the potential casualty count (which I believe in the end will be greater in the long run - more like Chernobyl), it's because 9-11 supposedly "changed everything", we committed ourselves to two separate Wars on Terror - maybe it's time to commit ourselves to a War on Indifferent Corporate Error!
It's time for us to say again as we did that September Day - "Never Again!... Never Again!... Never Again!"
In this interview from Democracy Now, Clint Guidry who is head of the Louisiana Fishermen's Association states that his 20 years of experience working in the Oil Industry with KBR (yes, That KBR) tells him that the seven fishermen who were Hospitalized during the cleanup were deliberately put at risk by BP.
Clint: I bought respirators, took them out to these people ... BP told them if they wore respirators they'd be taken off the job
AMY GOODMAN: We’re joined now in New Orleans by Clint Guidry, president of the Louisiana Shrimp Association. He’s a third-generation shrimp fisherman.
This is Democracy Now! We welcome you to the studios of Democracy Now!, though we’re speaking to you in New Orleans. Tell us what’s happening, Clint.
CLINT GUIDRY: Well, good morning. Thanks for having me.
This is a situation that has been ongoing for several weeks now. Having had prior training and experience working with the oil and the chemicals in oil and their danger—[no audio]—several of the fishermen out on the worksite, they were complaining of burning eyes and strong smells. And my experience told me that they were getting exposed to dangerous chemicals—the benzenes, all the light ends off the crude—and this Corexit is a new experience for me. I have been doing some research. It contains a substance called 2-butoxyethanol, up to 60 percent by volume, which is a very, very dangerous chemical. I don’t have a lot of experience with it, but just doing the research. And I knew that they spraying this chemical in the same area where my fishermen were working. And I have brought this to light. I have tried to make public. As a matter of fact, just a couple of days ago, three days ago, I met with a Washington delegation in Galliano and expressed my concerns that this was happening.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Now, Clint Guidry, what about OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration? Aren’t they supposed to be monitoring worksites that involve US companies, even if they’re offshore?
CLINT GUIDRY: I’m not sure about that, but I’m understanding it’s MMS and US Coast Guard in this situation.
AMY GOODMAN: What about respirators? Are people wearing respirators?
CLINT GUIDRY: No, ma’am. Having had prior experience, I know these people. They’re friends. They’re family. I bought respirators, and I brought them down to these people. And when they tried to wear them, the BP representatives on site told them that it wasn’t a dangerous situation, and they didn’t need to wear them, and if they did, they would be taken off the job.
Why would BP do that?
Well, because if BP admits that there is a health hazard it opens itself up for liability claims for the longterm health care of the workers and citizens of the Gulf - and they simply don't want to Pay for Those People.
Hmm, sounds kind Tea Baggery to me.
In part 2, Clint Describes how he himself have seen Corexit being sprayed into the air in Venice, LA near the mouth of the Mississippi - near private homes where kids live, like a sick replay of those old DDT spraying in the 70's. He's been so concerned that he has already personally brought this issue up to wigh Governor Jindal and both Secretary Napolitano and Secretary Salazar. Clearly he hasn't been impressed with the level of response so far.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Your governor, Governor Bobby Jindal, has been very outspoken in his criticisms of how some aspects of the response have been conducted. Have you appealed to Louisiana health officials or to your local government to intercede in one way or another about the issues, these health issues, with the fishermen?
CLINT GUIDRY: Yes, I have. But, you know, their hands—you know, I spoke the other day—Bobby Jindal is a very good man. I meet with him—I’ve met with him several times. He’s done a lot for the shrimp fishery and the state. But when BP is the entity in charge, there’s not a lot that local people can do, including the governor. I met with two cabinet-ranked people from Washington, Secretary Napolitano, Secretary Salazar. I sat six feet from them three days ago and told them this was going to happen. If they can’t do anything about it, or won’t do anything about it, how do you expect our governor to?
Ok, well - so much they "Nobody could have anticipated the burning eyes, burning skin, nausea, dizziness, long term respiratory problem and Ocean of Dead FISH from exposure to dispersant" gambit.
For some reason the EPA has continued to sign-off on the use of dispersant which do little more than hide the oil under the surface turning into dark death plumes dozens of miles long. Some of those plums have even begun to turn clear, even though they still OIL in them.
JUAN GONZALEZ: You mentioned earlier the dispersant. There are some critics who say that the long-term impact of the dispersant could be even greater than the actual oil spill itself, in terms of marine life. Your sense of what the dispersant is doing in terms of the potential for destruction of the fisheries in that area?
CLINT GUIDRY: The trade-off position is a false one, because eventually this dispersant is going to cause whole species to collapse. This is going to be, you know, a collapse of some of the shrimp species, the fish, the turtles, tuna. I mean, this is unbelievable that we did this. You just added poison on top of a bad situation.
This is going to call entire species to collapse?
Toward the end of this interview Clint suggests that the Cleanup Operations be taken out of BP's hands - which are NOT getting the job done and are mostly trying to cover their ass - and handled by the Military.
JUAN GONZALEZ: But what do you say to those even in the government who has say that the government doesn’t have the expertise, that only the oil companies themselves have the expertise, and that the whole cry for a federal takeover would not really change anything?
CLINT GUIDRY: If the oil company is such experts, why are they trying to kill my fishermen?
Because their cost benefit analysis indicates it's cheaper than admitting the truth and doing something about it. Just like it was cheaper to rush through the test procedures on the blow out preventer, just as it was cheaper to skip drilling a relief well ahead of time, just as it was cheaper not to do the cementing properly, just as it was cheaper not to use the proper drilling mud in the first place... and we can all see what that has already led to from space!.
As BP is attempting it's "Top Kill" to end the ecological disaster that they themselves fostered and created, and we see the oil coming ashore turning the State Bird of Louisiana into the Brown Petro Pelican there's something happening that we can't see - something that may actually be far worse than the oil spill itself.
It's the Oil Mixed with tens of thousands of gallons of Corexit 9500, a substance which is actually banned in Britain - while British Petroleum is dumping it off of our shores to break up hide the true size of their Oil Volcano.
The other day Sam Champion of Good Morning America and Phillipe Cousteau Jr., grandson of Oceanagrapher Jacques documented just when is going under beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, and it's frankly "A Nightmare".
Using Hazmat Dry-Diving Suits Champion and Cousteau documented the flecks of oil which are gradually sinking into the water column about 20 miles off the coast of Louisiana. These are huge greasy oil, diesel and gasoline-like toxic plumes which can burn the skin and easily be absorbed into the gills and skin of marine life, including shrimp, dolphins, oysters, kelp and other elements of the food chain.
How you like your Tuna served? Regular or Unleaded?
Cousteau: This is the worse thing I've ever seen underwater in my life. It's a Nightmare
Even though Good Morning America is a National Show, and even though this footage is fairly explosive we still continue to listen to wan platitudes from BP and the Administration that they're' "Doing all they can..." and "the impact will be fairly mild", yet this footage makes it clear this might causes damage that will spread through the eco-system quite easily for decades.
And it's not like BP and the government have been helpful at helping recognize and identify the amount of damage taking place as one CBS crew discovered as they were threatened by arrest by the Coast Guard while exploring public waters off the coast of Louisiana.
Emerging reports are raising the question of just how much of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill journalists are able to document.
When CBS tried to film a beach with heavy oil on the shore in South Pass, Louisiana, a boat of BP contractors, and two Coast Guard officers, told them to turn around, or be arrested.
"This is BP's rules, it's not ours," someone aboard the boat said. Coast Guard officials told CBS that they're looking into it.
So the U.S. Coast Guard is now a wholely owned subsidiary of BP? Exactly when did that happen?
How is it that BP gets to defy the EPA when they request a less toxic alternative to Corexit 9500, particularly when a former BP Exec and Board member for 45 years is the current head of Nalco (Hm, Incest is Best?), the company that provides Corexit 9500, which in turn is owned by in part by that bastion of corporate compassion - Goldman Sachs? So far Nalco has sold $40 Million worth of Corexit to BP.
Not to be all Beckian about it but, Coincidence? I think not.
Similarly stocks for Transocean, the Offshore Oil Drilling company that is headquartered in a the completely landlocked country of Sweden Switzerland for tax purposes, has issued a $1 Billion bonus to it's Stock-holders after the Deep Horizon Catastrophe, and even been awarded over $200 Million in insurance benefits from the loss of the oil rig.
Talk about selling short and cleaning up while making a huge fracking mess, they've made a profit from this.
Meanwhile as they make $Billions BP is still too chincy and cheap to provide adequate protection to Fishermen who've they hired to help clean up the spill.
Like other cleanup workers, Jackson had attended a training class where he was told not to pick up oil-related waste. But he said he wasn’t provided with protective equipment and wore leather boots and regular clothes on his boat.
“They [BP officials] told us if we ran into oil, it wasn’t supposed to bother us,” Jackson said. “As far as gloves, no, we haven’t been wearing any gloves.”
Some of those workers, dealing with the toxic stew of oil and Corexit have been suffering from headaches and nausea - and after the long term respiratory problems we've seen among people who worked the cleanup at ground zero - we should all know better than this by now.
Imagine if that cloud was airborne, and hanging over the states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama like a Plume of Death? Now, just remember that the fish don't have any protection either, and that all that toxicity isn't going to magically disappear, it's going to work it's way through the food chain, then be evaporated into the atmosphere and come back down as rainwater - just in time for Hurricane season. Good Bye Water Table - Hello Cancer Clusters.
I agree with Randi Rhodes, in 10 to 20 years were going to be hearing Larry H. Parker Styled Commercials about Corexit Exposure Settlements, just as we have previously for DDT, Agent Orange, Malathion and Mesothemiola from Asbestos.
Today President Obama is scheduled to take his first press conference in 10 Months and announce a round of sweeping now mining and drilling regulations. Hopefully among those regulations are a requirement for Relief Wells to be drilled in tandem with the primary exploratory well - as is required by Canada and other countries. Accidents do happen, but being completely unprepared for one - just to save $500,000 in extra drilling coasts - doesn't have to.
It also might be nice if corporate employees aren't allowed to fill in their own inspection reports in pencil, only to have them copied over in ink by regulators after the fact, beside y'know doing Chrystal Meth and Boinking the people they're supposed to be regulating.
Quite a bit of focus has been on the MMS in the past months, but we also should hope to have the issue of burrowed in Bush Moles who philosophically object to the mission of the department. Moles such as Climat-Change denier Liberterian Cato Instititue Fellow, and American Enterprise Institute member Indur Goklany who still retains a high position in the Interior Dept despite Bush's Presidency being over for over 2 years.
Admittedly it's easy to point fingers, and like Limbaugh or Brownie who - without any evidence - argued that either Greenpeace sabotaged the oil rigged, or the Obama administration has slow walked the response in order to support their "secret true agenda" of derailing offshore drilling, it could be easy to surmise that the Bush Mole's may still have an influence on the spill response, like a stuck parking brake on a speeding car...
But in the end we have to admit the the ultimate responsibility for this mess, both above and below the water, falls directly in Obama's lap.
The argument of the need for government to step in and address personal and corporate malfeasance and Crimes should be over, money-grubbing corporations are NOT going to regulate themselves and a public that as easily distracted by shiny vapid objects such as Teen UnRapper Justin Beiber, Kim Kardashian's huge bulbous ass and a Skate-boarding dog are not going to bring them to heel, but the question of the governments ability to actually implement correction and justice in the wake of those crimes remains sadly in question.
Obama has to take control of this situation, personally if necessary.
First on the list, whether the "Top Kill" works or not, is the fact that there is no legitimate reason to use ANY dispersant to hide the oil spills actual size and disable the ability to vacuum the oil up from the surface as has been suggested by former head of Shell Oil. Sure we have to fix the spill, but we also need to clean it up and we can't do that with it hiding under the surface or sinking slowly to the bottom into the ecosphere.
However it turns outs, now is the time for the Obama Administration and President Obama personally to truly show what's they're made of, now is the time for him to Step the Frack Up and show the we can still do great things, even though they are incredibly difficult - or else suffer the electoral consequences.
Is this "Obama's Katrina"? Frack No, but if he doesn't get his SHIT together, it could be worse. Much Worse.
Still praying "Obama Fails" Rush? I'm not. We can't afford it, none of us can.
Vyan
Update: Amid all the Doom and Gloom - I've heard two good things this morning. So far the "Top Kill" is holding and working according to Adm Thad Allen of the Coast Guard, and the head of the Offshore Drilling Oversight Agency has been fired retired.
WASHINGTON (AP) - AP sources: Elizabeth Birnbaum fired as director of the U.S. Minerals Management Service.
How's that for change?
Update 2 BP is contesting the Coast Guard report, saying the top kill hasn't stopped the leak - yet, but it is "working as planned". An independent task force says that this spilled somewhere between 17-39 Million Gallons of Oil into the Gulf, and could be as much as 5 Times the size of the Exxon-Valdez.
