Gulf 21 May 2010
Posted by marisacat in DC Politics, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, The Battle for New Orleans, WAR!.trackback
A young girl stands in front of a banner during a demonstration outside a building that is being constructed by BP in Berkeley, California, in response to the oil spill. Picture: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Sort of a pathetic AP report just out now, old numbers and rehash… but at the end it gets a little something going…
[“W]e’re now looking at a scenario where response plans include lighting the ocean on fire, pouring potent chemicals into the water, and using trash and human hair to stop the flow of oil,” said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, in a letter to Obama calling for a formal moratorium on new offshore drilling permits. “If this is the backup plan, we need to rethink taking the risk in the first place.”
Lawmakers including Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., wonder why the company has to invent remedies on the fly.
“Shouldn’t you have thought of a worst-case scenario and prepared for it and had this type of technology from day one?” Cohen asked BP America President Lamar McKay during a hearing.
He’s not the only one with questions.
In New York, a morning show anchor pressed U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar to accept responsibility; he didn’t.
In London, activists strung a banner at BP headquarters, rechristening the oil company, “BP, British Polluters.” And on Facebook, tens of thousands join groups with names such as “I demand to know how much of BP’s oil is in the Gulf.”
Ask Vincent Creel, spokesman for the city of Biloxi, Miss., about the spill and his words nearly spew, like a leak he can’t control. The oil hasn’t hit shore here, he says, but it overshadows everything, including a major golf tournament. It is an economic and PR nightmare.
“It’s staying out at sea so far,” he said, “and yet it’s bringing doom to our shores.”
Patience was wearing thin among state and local officials who called on Obama to take a larger role in the fight against oil invading the Louisiana coast.
“We’ve given BP enough time,” said Jefferson Parish Councilman John Young.
“Everything in that marsh is dead as we speak,” Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser said after touring the clogged marshes. “Had you fallen off that boat yesterday and come up breathing that stuff, you probably wouldn’t be here, either.”
Poor Markey. Not up to speed.
[“I] think now we’re beginning to understand that we cannot trust BP,” said U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass. “BP has lost all credibility … It’s clear that they have been hiding the actual consequences of this spill.” snipthedrip
Apparently the house site with the live vid of the gusher crashed… Slipped and fell in its own oil, I would guess.
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I scammed this from Sky Truth, in the comments… it explains why the usual milquetoast host on the CBS AM show yesterday pushed Salazar a bit, as in, Who’s in charge down there? BP or the Government?
Coast Guard Under ‘BP’s Rules’
Kelly Cobiella reports that a CBS News team was threatened with arrest by Coast Guard officials in the Gulf of Mexico who said they were acting under the authority of British Petroleum.
A couple more comments:
Mithras61 said…
I’ve reached the point where I believe that the CG/NOAA lie is about more than just covering BP’s backside. I believe that they are scared. They think we will panic if the true extent of the gusher is known generally.
I also think its time to quit trying to save this well and just shut it down. BP is doing their dead-level best to save the well, and plan to worry about the clean-up later. We need to cut this well off and worry about getting to the oil later.
*****
Skruffy said…
I, too, am convinced that the CG and NOAA are pretty much reading scripts written by BP, or at least are going out of their way not to dispute anything BP says. Without going all political… I am retired from a NOAA agency… and you’d better believe that science is censored. NOAA is part of Dept of Commerce… and I was told more than once, literally, that saying things (even if true)that could harm “commerce” goes against the Department’s mission statement about “promoting commerce”.
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richflocker said…
In a 60 minutes report Sunday, a driller/operator who survived shared that the pressures just prior to the blowout was ~3500 PSI – 7 times the normal range. If the pressure driving this oil and gas is even half that (1750 PSI) and the blowout preventor seal is gone (damaged a week prior, and seal rubber chunks came up in the mud and BP official said to ignore it), then what would the flow rate be out of the pipe at 1700 PSI assuming it’s a normal opening area for the BOP?
bolding is mine…
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Marisacat 
fwiw, Sky Truth says as of the 18th, the visible slick is twice the size of New Jersey….
‘visible’ being the operative word…
All of the shit washing up in the Mississippi Delta is coming from beneath the barriers – hence, not visible.
It’s a slow moving nightmare.
Rand Paul still going on talk shows… coming up on ABC’s morning show.
Gah.
what a nightmare the spill is, and it really demonstrates what happens when you subvert the open communications that science requires to operate to the profit needs of a huge corporation.
Of course, it also demonstrates what happens when you subvert gov’t administration to a huge corporation.
well Ob, Salazar and all the others have certainly demonstrated how it looks to be flat on your back for BP.
Snatching more defeat from the jaws of victory: Rand Paul: Obama’s criticism of BP ‘un-American’
He shouldn’t be too worried for BP, methinks. It’s not like Obamalama meant it in any way, shape or form.
well thsi is a clusterfuck.
No doubt. But he knows his audience.
Sex shop to give away pope condoms in the Netherlands
That’s certain to discourage all forms of sexual activity. Must be “Abstinence Now!” campaign
If you go to Google today the logo at the top is a Pac Man game that you can actually play.
And I still suck at it. 🙂
i certainly failed……………………
me too!
It’s painfully obvious, watching Gibbs during his presser today, that the administration has absolutely no power to take over the reins from BP if they continue to fail. They just do “oversight”. That’s it.
Maybe they should order a mixed shipment, half Popemobile Condoms (also available in Cardinal Magenta) and half Oil Slicks R US! Condoms. I feel somehow the Netherlands can supply.
I hope Obby was not counting on the Gulf states being with him come 2012.
Times are tough for the boychicks… not that they care. I see Gibbs also declared the mole / vole (it does NOT looklike a mouse to me, but it also was not very distinct picture) to be a rat. Well a Dem operative would know. Esp scum like Gibbsy.
I do think the boys should wear their red white and blue kneepads in public. Cut the fake leadership crap.
In the same breath, he said NOAA and some other gov’t outfit were measuring air and water quality. IMHO, they have no idea WTF they’re doing.
Can you imagine if they treated a nuclear leak the same way? Oh – just oversee what the company responsible is doing and keep issuing sternly-worded letters…
I don’t know if anyone can stand it, but IOZ is back on RandRon Paul again today………….
Personally, I think RandRon have a line of schtick going. I’d believe either on anything about as far as I could throw either or both of them. Which si not at all.
His last paragraph is spot on.
IOZ? Yeah it was the part that hung together best for me.
But many blacks just give Obby a pass (geesh, see that drool from Ishmael Reed that I posted. Utter lunacy). And other than conservative reactionaries, for whom that works for their agenda, it gets a pass from Dems/libs.
God forbid the all too frantic (many of them and many of them women over 50) Hillary supporters get a pass. NO, they were spectacularly and nationally ridiculed.
Congealing fuckball. ALL LIARS, all of them.
I think he enjoys being a contratian 😉
contrarian rather
who, IOZ?
yeah sometimes he just tosse off a fleshed out joke, as I see it. I don’t quite agree with him on this… and I am unsure what he believes. At all…
Etc.
Bizarre: Mysterious creature pulled from Ontario lake. What is it?
John Amos of Sky Truth links to a report in the Mobile Press Register and says/tweets at 4 million gallons a DAY, he is now praying (as a non-prayer) that “Top Kill” works this weekend (if BP gets around to it then, that is).
Full text Press Register
What a mess. It could nto be worse.
well, it will be worse when top kill fails.
I don’t think they can stop it..
I don’t think they can either …
hmm I sense a downward trajectory… Rand Paul CANCELS his Meat the Press appearance.
Whooops.
😳
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PS via Huff Po
Rand Paul Cancels On ‘Meet The Press,’ Only 3rd Guest To Do So In 62 Years
and he’s claiming exhaustion. [It’s hard out there for a boychick opthmalogist.]
It’s hard out there for a LibertarianPimp.
He says he had a busy week…
Hey no shit!
Here is a good laugh… he is the third in all the years to cancel Press the Meat… the other two? Louis Farrakhan… and Prince Bandar.
so worth snickering at………………… 😆
Nouriel Roubini’s on Bill Maher’s show tonite.
unfortunately, after him one has to suffer through John Fund and Ayann Hirsi Ali, who’re batshit winger nutballs.
the only “lefty” is Eric Michael Dyson, who makes me want to scoop out my ear drums with a hot melon baller.
Not sure why I keep watching Bill.
Agreed. The best part of that show was the “new rules”.
I realize no one asked, but thought I’d share.
If I had to crudely generalize “the US system” in terms of prominent “professions” (not to say there aren’t exceptions) within 30 minutes, without time for further analysis.
I’d do it this way, at this point in my life, with my cynicism, regretfully, running on high:
1. Finance; Accounting; Tax – Red/Republican/Libertarian (or work in “hell”)
2. Legal – Blue/Democrats (quite confident of themselves, extremely competitive, generally engaged, whether they care to, or not, in assisting number 1.)
3. Politicians; Judges – Grey (somewhat, a subset of number 2., though more and more frequently, number 1. and number4., engaged with themselves on an intellectual level, and then, in assisting number 1, with not much respect for anyone outside of themselves, or lose your shirt, possibly your life.)
4. Lifer Military; “Law” Enforcement; Athletes; Entertainers (generally engaged with themselves, and their own ‘History,’ on a physical abilities (or appeal) level, with not much respect for anyone outside of “their own,” who mostly do the bidding of number 1.)
5. Medical (including mental health); Science; Engineering; Education; Literary – Purple, or Transparent (could care less about political party), (subservient to income determined by number 1. ).
Has Obama created a Social Security ‘death panel’?
Say, ……just checked the last thread for last minute additions:
Waves to moiv!
There you go, diane ;0)
One more patriotic American doing her duty to provide health care for all the impoverished kiddywinkles — and their numbers are growing by the day.
I can’t afford to smoke as much as I used to do, but I still try to fire up 4 or 5 times a day myself. It’s one of the few things I can do and know that I’m making a real difference!
Have some of mine Honey! And, I’ll meet you by the cardboard box at the windbreak, when we both run out……….
(Yeah, the kiddywinkles they love to negligently shoot in the neck and shackle at the ankles….)
seriously honey if you can give a safe, mundane address that can’t be traced to anyone it would endanger, would love to send you some extra change (very unfortunate but I no longer do any contact info via internet (mundane story)), otherwise I will do cigarette toast whenever I have one, in warm and sincere thought of you, one of the best at “that place” …….
salute Honey!
;0)
Another reason to ban official prayer at public meetings
planes seem to be falling from the sky.
the US is the most liberal country on the planet
I’m sorry – what?
Depends on the planet.
shit, I haven’t even “searched” the news yet today, but from the looks of the posts, think I’ll skip it for now, and go put some starch in my system (try to BUCKLE UP ……ugh )
Too somewhat fortify for the non stop bad news:
quicky ‘scetti’ for one, two, or three (with at least a bit, left over )
dry oregano. teaspoon or better (if powdered, 2 dashes)
dry basil, teaspoon or better
¼ teaspoon plus, fennel seeds
parmesan, etc. (to taste)
jus a dash sugar
water
1 can tomato paste
1 14.5 oz. can stewed tomatoes (larger okay, just don’t add as much water, see below)
Enough oil to very thinly layer, cooking pan
garlic cloves or powder (to desire)
¾ pd. ‘scetti’ (macaronis, most pasta will do just fine)
Put pan of water for ‘scetti’ on (read instructions on ‘scetti’ package if unfamiliar, and test frequently by forking a strand to see if you like it (I like to add at least ¼ teaspoon salt and some oil to the water, at least add the oil if you have some)
Heat oil in another pan, at very low heat (especially if funky electric oven) sauté chopped garlic cloves for about 2 minutes, or sprinkle in powder (to smell test). Open up both ends of tomato paste can, and slide one end off (don’t forget to lick any excess off of it, but be careful of your tongue). Push the paste into the pan from the other end. Stir it into the heated oil and garlic. Open stewed tomatoes and use the lid to drain the liquid into the pan, then stir in. Take a knife and cut stewed tomatoes into smaller pieces (in the can) if desired, then pour into pan and stir. Stir in the herbs, fennel seed and sugar. Put empty tomato paste can with remaining residue in the empty stewed tomatoes can and fill it half way. Stir the remaining paste off the can, in that water, and use it (to your own taste) to make the sauce less thick. Keep on very low heat til scetti’s done.
Of course there are endless variations, and certainly, many of the ingredients can be left out, outside of the noodles, water.
yesterday, I added a tad of the local Chinese restaurant’s take out hot sauce w/pepper seeds in it (which I usually do) , and some left over green pepper, ‘shrooms would be wonderful if I had’m. V-8 , tomato juice, or ketchup (?, go slowly though), can certainly stand in for the stewed tomatoes and/or tomato paste in a pinch.
(at least a bit better than tattered shirt, which one really shouldn’t feel obliged to eat in this hideous mess …………….)
New
LINK
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