Stop Calling This a Leak - It Is A Gusher!

Hey MSM - call this disaster for what it is. This is not an oil leak, it's an oil gusher! The term "leak" is understating the ongoing and long term disaster to our environment. An oil leak drips out of an older cars' oil pan and can be absorbed with kitty litter; a gusher is an underground volcano full of dirty crude that no one knows how to stop. This oil disaster isn't ending any time soon. I get more angry every single day and I'm not sure if it's due to BP's initial arrogance and current incompetence, our government not putting the boot heel on BP's neck sooner or the plain disgust that nothing has gotten better in 35 days. I don't live there and I'm not a seafood eater and I'm pissed. I can't even imagine how the people this really affects are feeling. Mike Papantonio passionately describes his position on Chris Matthews' Hardball earlier today. Seems like we could learn a lesson from Saudi Arabia where they had a disasterous spill in 1994 and sucked up roughly 85% of the crude. Wait until you hear why we're not in a position to do the same.
Hint: It starts with a "G" and ends with a "D".

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Beyond Belief - The Disaster Continues

Video has been released of the oil leak that‘s still gushing, and I mean GUSHING a mile beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. This is the main oil leak on the ocean floor that is the cause of the environmental disaster emerging over the entire Gulf region. It is one of the two leaks from the Deepwater Horizon well that has resulted in millions of gallons of oil being dumped into the Gulf of Mexico so far. Until this video was released, most of what we‘ve seen are images of oil slicks on the surface of the water, but BP released this video apparently under pressure from federal officials. The Deepwater Horizon‘s rig sunk on the ocean floor about 40 miles off the coast of Louisiana. And they still don't know how to stop it! Keep this company away from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska! Do not allow them into environmentally sensitive areas like the Atlantic Frontier or the foothills of the Andes. This will likely go down as the worst environmental disaster in history. It's pretty obvious that big oil had no disaster plan ready to enact. Very sad.



According to information learned watching TRMS; the company that owns the rig, Transocean, is based in Switzerland. The company that leased the rig and is trying to clean up the mess is, as we know, BP. “B” as in Britain. They‘re headquartered in London. These offshore rigs are technically ships since they can move around. So, even though they‘re "anchored" on water, they have to be flagged as if they are ocean-going sea vessels. That means they have to say what country they‘re coming from. Guess where this Swiss rig leased by a British company to drill American oil is flagged? The Marshall Islands! Why does this giant oil rig from the flag of this tiny, totally unrelated country? Because the Marshall Islands have lax maritime regulations. Apparently, where you‘re flagged isn‘t just a matter of what sort of taxes you pay, it‘s a matter of what sort of safety regulations you are held to. The U.S. Coast Guard, which goes around inspecting vessels in U.S. waters for obvious reasons, inspects foreign-flagged rigs a little differently. Nah, we don't need regulations or any kind of worldwide standard, do we?

Been Flirtin' With Disaster

In a nutshell, they drilled, it spilled and now a lot of wildlife will be killed. It has come to light that BP downplayed the possibility of a catastrophic accident at an offshore rig that exploded, causing the worst U.S. spill in decades along the Gulf coast and endangering shoreline habitat, documents suggest. BP repeatedly said it was virtually impossible for an accident to occur that would lead to a giant crude oil spill and serious damage to beaches, fish, mammals and fisheries.

Can we begin to connect the dots? Will we learn anything from these crisis? In Washington we have the spectacle of a deregulated Wall Street spinning wildly out of control and bringing the world economy to the brink. In West Virgina we have a mining company, Massey Energy who thumbs its nose at safety violations resulting in over 100 miner's death. In the gulf coast we have a massive oil rig spewing out oil and threatening several southern states with no end in sight.

What they all have in common is this: In the deregulated world of the unfettered free market with little government regulations, disasters are bound to happen. Why? Because every company works endlessly to do two things; increase profits and reduce costs. In reducing costs to meet investor demands they forego safety procedures, they defer maintenance, they buy cheaper shoddier equipment and if there is no entity holding your feet to the fire you'll do it until what you do creates a disaster. The government that governs least, we are now learning, courts disaster for the nation. What's really weird in the twisted irony is that these Republican loving southern states that will be damaged for decades have actually jeopardized their own livelihood by supporting the party of greed. Innocent wetlands, wildlife, and Gulf fishermen's own livelihood have been discarded in this "free market." Wake up America! I'm mostly talking to you red staters.

Environmental lawyer Michael Papantonio joined Ed Schultz and explained how this disaster could've been minimized. It turns out every country in the world who allow oil exploration require a fail safe system called the Acoustic Switch System that will immediately lock down a well in an emergency such as this one. The cost is $500K per ASS. However in our free market land of no oversight or regulation, the U.S. doesn't require them and since BP (and the others I'm sure) decided the almighty dollar outweighs the risk, we have a mega-disaster on our hands.

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The always idiotic Rush Limbaugh who is always quick to side with those with the most including corporations is claiming that the disaster might have been caused by environmental activists protesting Obama's expansion of off shore oil drilling. Seriously? It will be those very environmentalists cleaning oil off of birds and beavers or any other animal that can be saved. He also proudly proclaimed that this disaster would be Obama's Katrina. The truth of the matter is that the Coast Guard was on the scene almost immediately after this accident. The deputy secretary of the interior was on the ground the next day, and the administration's been coordinating closely with the local authorities and BP from the very beginning. Just last year Limpy actually said "Nature cleaned up itself" after Exxon Valdez oil spill. What a bunch of bullshit. The area still has remnants of the disaster partially because St. Ronnie let Exxon off the hook. How can anyone listen to this piece of chit?

Then there's the immense silence of the "Drill, baby drill - drill now" crowd. Excluding Sarah Palin's tweet that her prayers are with those who will be affected...instead of doing something that will actually be useful. Why doesn't she at least start a fund with some of that $12 million she bilked from her fans? Michael Steele? Rudy Guiliani? We can't hear you! Every asshole who ever chanted 'Drill baby drill' should have to report to the Gulf coast today for cleanup duty.