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

Author’s note: I posted this short article with a you tube video embedded. It clearly shows the shooting of an unarmed civilian in Iraq. Within three hours, You Tube removed the video citing a “terms of service violation.” The only thing I heard in the video that may have called for that was one or two f-bombs, but we hear those on paid-for cable TV every day. The thing that we are not supposed to see is in the video.

I was able to get another version of it, thanks to Michael Rivero at WhatReallyHappened.com. Check out the article and hit the link below the embedded video.

Excerpt:
With all of the time and effort spent on covering the Gulf oil disaster, let’s not forget there are two ongoing wars.

Here is the latest video circulating on the internet from the other two disasters in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Perhaps if taxpayers were not compelled to spend billions per year for this, there would be a little more resources to invest in mitigating the disaster on our own shores.

I’ll let the video clip speak for itself:

<embedded> —->censored

You can view it here: http://www.examiner.com/x-38220-Orlando-Independent-Examiner~y2010m5d21-Oh-and-by-the-waywere-still-at-war

Click on the “here” link in the article for a look at the reality of the war in Iraq.

Author’s note: Yeah yeah yeah…another one on this. But I feel like sayin’ to the dumbass corporate media, “I told you so.” This is bad, really bad… I’ll post a sat image.

Excerpt:
Now that BP, the federal government and the corporate propaganda networks known as ABCBSCNNBCFOX have finally conceded that oil is gushing into the Gulf at a far higher rate than the public has been told for the past month, will a real disaster response be initiated, or will there just be more cover ups and more finger-pointing at who may be to blame?

“Officials” have finally admitted that the volcano of oil erupting from the seabed of the Gulf is probably gushing closer to a rate of about 95,000 barrels per day, instead of the 5000 barrels that has been incessantly repeated for the past month. Many people have been saying that for weeks. How does it feel to be scooped by a bunch of shrimp-huggers, scientists who can take one look at it and tell it is worse than official reports, and even a lowly Examiner? I don’t think you care because, after all, you get paid more to lie for your corporate masters than scientists and fisherman on the Gulf earn who really work for a living.

As heavy crude washed onto the beaches of Louisiana earlier this week, unlike the oily sheen that touched shore earlier this month, BP had a great public relations announcement. The oil giant proudly proclaimed that a 4-inch in diameter, mile-long insertion tube was extracting 5000 barrels per day into a tanker on the surface. The only problem with that – 5000 barrels per day was the official estimate until now, and oil is still gushing into the water. Videos clearly show that the tube is catching only a fraction of the oil. Guess it was finally time to ‘fess up, huh boys? Even the feds got tired of covering up your bovine excrement.

So now what? Is it it time for finger-pointing, as scientists blame the White House and BP for stifling the flow of information and not allowing experts in the field to have access to the site in which this could have been properly assessed almost from day one? Or is it time to start cleaning up the mess? It may be too late. The time for the disaster response was four weeks ago, not now. The damage has already been done.

BP, meanwhile, seems to remain in CYA mode. Coast Guard officials, along with BP contractors threatened CBS reporters with arrest for photographing oil-slicked beaches in Louisiana. McClatchy news reports that the “low estimate of [the] oil spill’s size could save BP millions in court.”

It’s perfectly fitting that BP and the federal government are not as adept at restraining the flow of oil as they are the flow of information. Unfortunately, the truth will wash up on our beaches…soon. And there are going to be a lot of angry people when that happens. Apparently we can finance and fight wars halfway across the globe, but when a real problem arises on our own shores, no one has a clue as to what to do about it.

Read more, get links here: http://www.examiner.com/x-38220-Orlando-Independent-Examiner~y2010m5d21-BP-feds-forced-to-admit-oil-gusher-is-larger-than-estimated-now-what

Author’s note: I know I have been beating this one to death, but that’s because I think this is the most significant event of our times. I have been writing for weeks that this is WAY worse than we are being told by BP, the media and the feds. I also predicted it would hit the Loop Current. The catastrophic results are going to be beyond comprehension and people are about to start smelling, seeing and feeling it. This disaster is also a good example of how both parties are in bed with corporations at the expense of the American people. I hope this one wakes people up and becomes a catalyst for change, because that would be the only good that can come from it.

Excerpt:
NASA satellite imagery on Monday shows that the rapidly expanding oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico has entered a powerful current known as the Loop Current, which flows through the straits of Florida and along the eastern seaboard as far north as North Carolina before heading out into the Atlantic. The entrance of the oil slick into the Gulf Loop Current is what officials fear will be a catastrophic event.

The pollution could endanger Florida’s shoreline mangroves, sea grass beds and the third-longest barrier reef in the world, the 221-mile-long Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Millions of snorkelers, fishermen and other tourists are drawn to the Keys each year, whose dollars are vital to the state’s economy.

This is bad news for Florida residents. Once the oil is in the loop, it could reach the Keys in as few as 10 days. “It’s only a question of when,” said Peter Ortner, a University of Miami oceanographer. The Sun-Sentinel reported that the oil slick not only poses a danger to the Florida Keys, but also to the southeast coast from Miami to West Palm Beach and as far north as coastal North Carolina.

“When” could be sooner rather than later, as the Coast Guard reported today that tar balls have already been found on the beach at Fort Zachary Taylor State Park in Key West on Monday. Park rangers conducted a shoreline survey of the beach and the adjacent Navy beach at Truman Annex and recovered the tar balls at a rate of nearly three tar balls an hour throughout the day, with the heaviest concentration found at high tide, around 12:30 p.m.

According to the satellite imagery, the oil slick on the surface of the water has rapidly increased in size. SkyTruth, an independent research organization, states that “the total area covered by slick and sheen, at 10,170 square miles…is nearly double what it appeared to be on the May 14 radar satellite image, and is bigger than the state of Maryland.”

The general consensus among scientists is that the leak is anywhere between four and 15 times greater than the official estimate. These reports indicate that the majority of the oil in the Gulf is located below the surface of the waves.

Read more, see the satellite imagery and get links here: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-38220-Orlando-Independent-Examiner~y2010m5d18-Oil-slick-enters-Gulf-loop-current-tar-balls-found-in-Florida-Keys

Author’s note: It is becoming clear to even the mainstream media that BP and the U.S. government are lying about the severity of this disaster.

Excerpt:
A review of widely varying estimates of the amount of oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico showed huge discrepancies between the “official” government and BP estimate and those of various scientists.

The discovery of huge underwater plumes of oil by University of Georgia researchers suggests that scientists may be correct and that BP and the U.S. government have grossly underestimated the amount of oil gushing into the waters of the Gulf.

The New York Times reported yesterday that “scientists are finding enormous oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as large as 10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick. The discovery is fresh evidence that the leak from the broken undersea well could be substantially worse than estimates that the government and BP have given.”

Some analysts have reported that as much as 80% of the oil is not rising to the surface. If one considers that the oil slick on the surface already covers more area than Puerto Rico, then the magnitude of this disaster can begin to be put into perspective. According to scientists at the universities of Georgia and Mississippi, the real disaster may be lurking beneath the waves of the Gulf.

All reports indicate that the situation in the Gulf is going from bad to worse, and that the severity of it has been either grossly underestimated, or hidden from the public by BP and the U.S. government. Unfortunately, the truth will inevitably hit the beaches and the economy of the Gulf states.

Read more, get links here: http://www.examiner.com/x-38220-Orlando-Independent-Examiner~y2010m5d16-Giant-underwater-plumes-of-oil-discovered-suggesting-official-estimate-of-leak-may-be-incorrect

Author’s note: Just trying to be objective in the article, but I think someone is lying their ass off about this one.

Excerpt:
After BP released underwater video footage of the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, conflicting estimates of the amount of oil leaking raise many questions.

What is the rate of flow? How much oil is already in the water? Is there any way to make an accurate assessment? When will it hit shore? What will be the economic and environmental impact? Does anyone really know the answers, and if so, who is telling the truth?

The current reports on the rate of flow range from a minimal estimate of about 210,000 gallons per day to an extreme of 8.4 million gallons per day. That means that since April 20, anywhere between 5.04 million and 201.6 million have been released into the water. Keep in mind that it takes only one quart of oil to poison 250,000 gallons of seawater for all marine life.

It is becoming clear that no one knows exactly how much oil has leaked into the Gulf of Mexico, but a review of the conflicting reports and their sources can give one a general idea of the magnitude of this disaster.

An initial report by BP and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shortly after the well erupted on April 20 put the rate of flow at 1000 barrels per day, which at 42 gallons per barrel, is 42,000 gallons per day. A report by the same sources on April 28 upped that to the 5000 barrels per day that has been accepted without question by most media outlets, until recently.

According to the New York Times, “The figure of 5,000 barrels a day was hastily produced by government scientists in Seattle. It appears to have been calculated using a method that is specifically not recommended for major oil spills.” It was calculated with a protocol known as the Bonn convention that calls for measuring the extent of an oil spill, using its color to judge the thickness of oil atop the water, and then multiplying.

Several scientists not affiliated with BP or the federal government have used other methods and calculated that the rate of oil flow is far higher than 5000 barrels per day.

Dr. Ian R. MacDonald, an oceanographer at Florida State University, who is an expert in the analysis of oil slicks, made his own calculations using satellite imagery. They suggested that the leak could “easily be four or five times” the government estimate, he said. Other scientists agree that the leak is much larger than BP and the federal government have revealed.

Steve Wereley, an associate professor at Purdue University, told NPR the actual spill rate of the BP oil disaster is about 3 million gallons a day – 15 times the official guess of BP and the federal government. Wereley analyzed videotape of the seafloor gusher using a technique called particle image velocimetry, which is accurate to a degree of plus or minus 20 percent.

According to NPR, another scientific expert, Eugene Chiang, a professor of astrophysics at the University of California-Berkeley, calculated the rate of flow to be between 840,000 and four million gallons a day. Without even having a sense of scale from the BP video, he deduced that the diameter of the pipe was about 20 inches. And though his calculation is less precise than Wereley’s, it is in the same ballpark. “I would peg it at around 20,000 to 100,000 barrels per day,” he said. Chiang called the current estimate of 5,000 barrels a day “almost certainly incorrect.”

Timothy Crone, an associate research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, used another well-accepted method to calculate fluid flows. Crone arrived at a similar figure, but he said he’d like better video from BP before drawing a firm conclusion.

Paul Noel, a software engineer contractor working at the U.S. Army arsenal in Redstone, AL, who also has extensive experience in the oil and gas industry, puts the figure even higher – at 8.4 million gallons per day. Writing for Pure Energy Systems News, Noel bases his estimate on two additional factors, a process called Fractioning and his claim that the actual diameter of the source of the leak is five feet, not 21 inches as is commonly reported.

Rising through 5000 feet of water, the oil is going through a process…call[ed] Fractioning. Literally the tremendous pressure and temperature [cause]…the oil and Natural Gas [to] change on their way up. The very light, easy-to-evaporate parts are all that is rising to the surface. The heavy oil isn’t even getting to the top…the chemicals added at the well head to disburse the oil, speed this process up. Because of this fractioning, what you see from the air on the surface of the water represents maybe just 20% of the volume of the various types of oil in that area.

Furthermore:

The numbers on the Transocean rig are for the drill pipe size. The inside hole of the drill pipe is 18 inches and the outside is 21. The platform numbers are for a 60.5 inch drill platform opening. This is what fits the outer casing. It is used to torque the casing down into the well. The platform is used at the turntable to torque the well drill pipe. I have seen lots of these wells. They are really 5 feet in diameter.

So, at one extreme estimate, oil is erupting at a rate of 4 barrels per second through a five foot hole in the sea bed. At the other extreme, “only” about 5000 barrels per day are gushing through a 21 inch in diameter pipe. Most scientists put the number somewhere in between.

If Noel is correct that 80% of the oil is heavier than water and remains below the surface, then that explains why tar balls are washing up on the beaches of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. If BP and the NOAA are correct, that still means the oil leak in on track to exceed the amount of oil that the Exxon Valdez spilled in 1989 by June 11. If the scientists with the mid-range estimates are correct, this already is the worst oil disaster in the history of the world.

Either estimate raises even more questions. The most pertinent to coastal residents of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida are: When will this oil slick hit the shores and what will the economic impact be? If no one knows how large this oil leak is, or if anyone does and are not revealing the truth, then it is impossible for Gulf residents to know what to prepare for.

Read more, get links and video here: http://www.examiner.com/x-38220-Orlando-Independent-Examiner~y2010m5d15-Widely-varying-estimates-about-severity-of-oil-leak-in-Gulf-raise-many-questions