BartBlog

Author’s note: This is getting out of hand!

Excerpt:
There is no end in sight to the oily nightmare for Gulf residents. After halting the “top kill” procedure on Thursday, BP conceded on Saturday that they have failed to stop the volcano of oil and natural gas erupting from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico.

“This scares everybody, the fact that we can’t make this well stop flowing, the fact that we haven’t succeeded so far,” BP PLC Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said Saturday. “Many of the things we’re trying have been done on the surface before, but have never been tried at 5,000 feet.”

According to the AP, BP is initiating the next step in attempting to stop the gusher that they created, which entails using robot submarines to cut the pipe that’s gushing the oil and cap it with funnel-like device, but the only guaranteed solution remains more than two months away.

“People are watching their livelihoods wash up on the beach. Parents are worried about the implications for their children’s health,” he said. “Every resident of this community has watched this nightmare threaten the dreams that they’ve worked so hard to build, and they want it made right, and they want to make it right now.”

Yeah right, Mr. Obama. Who’s we? You have let BP control this from day one. From a PR standpoint, a CYA perspective, or any other for that matter, the truth is, no one has a clue how to stop this leak, and BP is not solving the problem. While it is not your duty, nor the responsibility of taxpayers to clean up after corporations like BP, there comes a time when you need to step in…and by that I do not mean getting a dirty boot from the oil washed up on the shores.

Time to relieve corporations of their control and perhaps, it is time to put some of these people in jail for what they did.

If you want to boycott BP, here’s a link: Speak to BP in a language they will understand. No money required.

Read more here: Orlando Independent Examiner

Author’s note: This is three-part piece, but what is most noteworthy is that all of the information was obtained through corporate media. Are they finally waking up, or this is so bad there is no hiding it anymore?

Excerpt:
The New York Times reported today that BP’s “top kill” effort has been halted due to a snag.

A “snag?” Perhaps that is a reference to the estimated 165 to 170 thousand pounds per square inch of pressure that is blowing oil and natural gas from the floor of the Gulf like a volcano, and now also blowing out the drilling “mud” that BP is attempting to inject in the opening to seal it.

The “top kill” procedure has never been attempted in the deep sea, under such enormous pressure. Keep in mind that the water pressure at the depth of the leak is enough to crush the hull of a navy submarine, yet oil and gas is shooting out like a geyser. Drilling mud is comprised of divided heavy material, such as bentonite and barite, and is commonly used in surface operations by being pumped through the drill pipe during rotary drilling to seal off porous zones and flush out chippings. It was not designed for underwater use at such a depth.

A live video feed of the operation clearly showed the mud being blasted out of the pipe, but with enough mud being pumped in at a fast enough rate, the hope is that eventually enough mud will accumulate to overcome the upward pressure of oil. Apparently that has not been the case, as BP halted the procedure “when engineers saw that too much of the drilling fluid they were injecting into the well was escaping along with the leaking crude oil.”

According to the Washington Post, an area of dissolved oil was found that is about six miles wide, and extends from the surface down to a depth of about 3,200 feet, said Professor David Hollander. The discovery is the second significant undersea plume recorded since the Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20.

Hollander said that he believed the plume might have stretched more than 20 miles from the site of a leak on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico, where the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig sank April 22. It has not yet reached Florida. “Here is a situation where, unless you’re looking at the chemical fingerprints, [the oil] is absolutely not visible,” Hollander said. “It’s not some Italian vinaigrette or anything like that. It’s absolutely, perfectly clear.”

In yet another troubling development, Matt Simmons, told Dylan Ratigan on MSNBC that “there’s another leak, much bigger, 5 to 6 miles away” from the leaking riser and blowout preventer shown on the underwater cameras. (You can view the video clip at my Examiner link).

Simmons was an energy adviser to George W. Bush, an adviser to the Oil Depletion Analysis Center, and a member of the National Petroleum Council and the Council on Foreign Relations. He is also chairman and CEO of Simmons & Company International, an investment bank catering to oil companies.

In other words, that comes from a source who has inside knowledge of the industry and who certainly cannot be labeled an environmentalist or anti-corporatist. At the very least, the Obama administration or BP should either refute or confirm his claims. The silence on that could become the infamous dog that did not bark.

On a positive note, the Obama administration did extend a moratorium on new off shore drilling permits and the corporate media is finally beginning to report that the gusher in the Gulf is worse than BP and the feds have been telling people. Other than that, it is a nightmare for Gulf residents that just does not seem to end.

Read more, get links and video here: Orlando Independent Examiner – BP top kill halted due to “snag,” another giant underwater plume of oil discovered

Author’s note: This is bad…really bad. Anyone else having nightmares about this?

Excerpt:
For weeks, the magnitude of the oil disaster in the Gulf has been something people have read about. Now it is reality for the residents on the coast of Louisiana.

Even CNN, between sound bytes of the latest celebrity and entertainment news, reported that “there is a sense of doom” among Gulf coast residents as “light” crude in the form of thick tar washed up on the beaches and marshes, killing every form of marine life that it touches. Almost 70 miles of the Louisiana coast have been hit by this poison.

“I’ve never heard so much fear in people’s voices,” says Mike Tidwell, author of Bayou Farewell, which chronicled southern Louisiana’s long legacy of environmental problems. “A hurricane is an event with a beginning, a middle and an end. This is more like a nuclear accident offshore and a radiation cloud is coming in. Nobody knows what the consequences will be. There’s a sense of doom.”

And there is no end in sight. Some have likened this to hurricane Katrina, but it may be more like Chernobyl. Neither BP, nor the federal government seem to have a clue as to how to stop the volcano of oil erupting from nearly a mile below the surface of the Gulf.

The federal government, meanwhile, through the newly appointed BP spokesperson from the Coast Guard, Admiral Thad Allen, said they are “satisfied with the coordination that is going on,” and that BP is “exhausting every technical response” to the leak. He added that “there’s no reason to make a change” to the official response to the oil spill. When asked to clarify whether BP or the US government was in charge of the cleanup, Allen said that the two were working in “partnership.”

Have you people not learned anything from the “heckuva job, Brownie” gaffe? In its’ infinite wisdom, the Wall Street Journal now reports that the, “U.S. Wasn’t Ready for Major Spill.” Ummm, hey WSJ editors, this is not a spill, it is an uncontrollable volcano of oil erupting from a mile below the surface of the ocean. And no one knows how to stop it!

On top of that, Reuters reports that BP’s “top kill” solution will be delayed. BP claims they have spent over $760 million on clean up thus far, but considering they have made $6.1 billion in profits in the first quarter of this year, that amounts to about eight days of profit. Wow, the suffering there is astonishing.

It may be time for the federal government to step in and take control of this situation…and throw a few BP executives in jail until it is sorted out. After all, goat herders in Afghanistan have been detained for years for a lot less than this.

Read more here: Orlando Independent Examiner

Excerpt:
A bill was introduced in the House last week that would eliminate the federal income tax on the first $35,000 of all Americans’ earnings. The bill proposes to compensate for the loss in revenue by cutting $159 billion in supplemental war funding.

H.R. 5353, known as the War is Making You Poor Act, is sponsored by Florida congressman Alan Grayson (D-8th District). The bill is co-sponsored by Reps. John Conyers (D-MI), Walter Jones (R-NC), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Ron Paul (R-TX) and Lynn Woolsey (D-CA).

In a speech on the House floor on May 20, Grayson stated that the bill would do three things. Firstly, it forces the pentagon to pay for the wars out of the $549 billion already allocated in the defense budget. Secondly, it enables 90% of the savings from $159 billion in supplemental war spending to cover the cost of a tax cut that would make the first $35K of every Americans’ income ($70K for married couples) free from federal income tax. Thirdly, it ultimately reduces federal spending and the deficit because the remaining 10% would be applied to that, and rather than borrowing money to pay for wars that have no financial return of investment, the money saved by taxpayers can be spent to help stimulate the economy.

Read more, get links and video here: http://www.examiner.com/x-38220-Orlando-Independent-Examiner~y2010m5d24-House-bill-would-eliminate-federal-income-tax-on-the-first-35K-of-all-Americans-earnings