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No End in Sight as Gulf Oil Spill Hits Day 40
NEW ORLEANS/VENICE, La. - The worst oil spill in U.S. history hit its 40th day on Saturday with Gulf residents clinging to the tenuous hope that BP's complicated "top kill" operation will plug the gushing well.
A protester looks on after pouring mock oil over herself outside a BP gas station in New York on May 28. (AFP/Getty Images/Mario Tama) The tricky maneuver started on Wednesday and involves pumping heavy fluids and other material into the well shaft to stifle the flow. BP had said repeatedly that it needed another 24 to 48 hours to know whether it would succeed, but backed off of giving time estimates on Saturday.
"The top kill operation continues and will carry on throughout the day today. We're not putting any time constraints on the operation - it will progress as operations teams deem appropriate through the day today and longer if necessary," company spokesman Tom Mueller said in an email.
Beleaguered Louisiana residents heard from President Barack Obama and BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward on separate visits to the Gulf coast on Friday as they tried to get a handle on a crisis damaging the credibility of both the government and BP.
Obama faced criticism that he responded too slowly to the environmental catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico and assured Louisianians during his five-hour visit that they "will not be left behind" and that the "buck stops" with him.
Hayward visited the site of the April 20 rig explosion that killed 11 workers and unleashed the oil, and said the energy giant needed up to two more days to determine if the top kill will stop the underwater gusher once and for all.
investors jittery and drove BP shares down 5 percent on Friday.
"We're continuing because we are making progress," Hayward said on a drilling ship at the site, with perspiration dripping from under a white plastic BP safety hat.
Obama is caught in a tight spot: there is not much he can do about the well other than apply pressure to BP to get it right and put his best scientists in the room. The government has no deep-sea oil technology of its own.
That fact is not lost on the people of Louisiana's coast, a hub of the U.S. oil industry and now the site of the country's largest oil spill which surpassed the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaskan waters.
'WANT OUR BEACH BACK'
"I wouldn't know what to ask him to do, other than stop the leak," said John Bourg, a resident of Grand Isle who watched the president's motorcade roar by on Friday. "And I'd put more faith in an oil company to stop a leak than anybody else."
But that doesn't mean the public will forgive the first-term president, who is anxious to avoid comparisons to former President George W. Bush after his government's much-criticized response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Polls show that Americans are losing faith in the Obama administration's response to the spill as oil seeps farther into fragile marshlands and shuts down a good chunk of the lucrative fishing industry.
Still, BP gets worse marks and faces anger over lack of proper clean-up of the 100 miles (160 km) of Louisiana coastline and the oil in the gulf.
In Grand Isle, 17-year old Hanna Lemoie posted a sign she painted that read "BP ... we want our beach back."
"The beach, the waves had like orange oil coming in and it made me mad because there was nobody cleaning it up and I felt helpless," Lemoie said.
The frustration, the anger and the delays all were taking their toll - on Obama, Hayward, the residents and those working to plug the well.
Concocting revenge fantasies has become a popular sport.
A Louisiana resident suggested in a letter to the Times Picayune newspaper that BP executives be tarred in spilled oil, rolled in blackened pelican feathers and sent to the guillotine so their severed heads could be used in a "junk shot" to clog the well.
The creators of the "B-Pee Day" Facebook page urged readers to urinate on BP gas stations, declaring "They leaked on us, it's time to take a leak on them."
73 Comments so far
Show AllEvery headline says "oil spill" -- it is not a spill -- it is an oil disaster. If no one can even get the words right, is there any hope to find someone with the know-how to cap the well and clean it up? The Exxon Valdez was an oil spill but even so the words belittle that disaster.
In 2000 and 2004, you all hooted at one guy who did everything he could to pass legislations to protect the environment, workers, consumers back in '70's.
So what did you all expect?
Forty days and forty nights
This is truly a deluge of Biblical proportions.
No, it's a Greek Tragedy. You know, the old plot line that has the arrogant human who's so convinced that he can do no wrong. Until the Goddess Nemesis teaches him that he's just another human, who has very bad smelling poo.
If a strongly worded open letter to the powers that be does not work, let's try prayer. It's about as effective.
hope, baby, hope.
It has been 40 days and 40 nights. Being one of those who thinks President Obama and his administration hasn’t done a very good job so far, felt his visit yesterday was a mixed review. He was at a D- before his visit and getting close to failing, but I decided to give him a D+ because he did show some improvement. Let us see if he means his words or if it was just another staged show to look good without any real substance.
There are fishermen who have been trained to clean up the oil and they are just sitting there. Why aren’t they being put to work? They love their home and they will work hard to clean it up, but to have them just sitting there while no one is working on areas where oil has come into the wetlands is a crime. Will Mr. Holder our AG look at pressing charges? Will he start the process to hold BP to the fire?
I think the White House is WRONG to make nasty comments about James Carvell who lives in LA and is trying to save his beloved home from being destroyed. I am glad he is speaking out for the people in LA. They need someone to speak out for them and fight for LA. He doesn’t want to be mad he wants HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please keep fighting and speaking out James. You do LA proud!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just be honest and passionate and know that the people all across America believe you must speak out and tell the truth of what is unfolding.
I have been in that place where I didn’t want to be angry either with those who serve in government but only wanted HELP. The answer I received was YOU ARE NOTHING AND NOT WORTH SAVING. I hope that James and the people I came to love in LA don’t get the same answer from those who serve in government.
You might ask why did you raise Obama’s grade on the environment to a D+? Billy one of the Parish Presidents said that President Obama said if he had any more problem that he could call the President directly. They got the permits so they can start building the sand bars that they need to build and now would work on getting BP to pay for all the sand bars that need to be built and not just one. I think that is a step in the right direction.
Why I couldn’t bring it up to a C? Attacking James Carvell and the other people in LA who are speaking out and trying to get the truth out so that LA is not forgotten again. They are trying to perserve their wonderful culture that ” the blob” of oil is killing. He invited people from the White House to come down and visit and he would take them on a tour so they can see for themselves what is going on. Have they done it? Will they do it?
Americans have valid reasons why they are so angry at not only BP but the government. It is going to take more than saying the right words to prove to us (the American people) that the right thing will be done. We know from past experience that BP doesn’t care and our government doesn’t care.
I like many other Americans are praying that this top kill works and the oil is stopped from adding to the big blobs of oil already in the gulf of Mexico.
James carville and his obnoxious, cheney-loving wife, are the ultimate washington-insider-whores who serve the corporate system that is exploiting us all. Now that they are on the receiving end of the system's destructiveness, all of a sudden they are screaming for justice? That is the problem, nobody cares until it happens to THEM, and then they want things put right.
The Carvilles have no credibility in this matter. You cant whore for the system and then complain when it dumps on you. Corporations have been destroying this country for decades - where were the Carvilles? Working for Bubba Clinton and George Bush and Dick cheney. Bubba's sanctions killed hundreds of thousands of children in Iraq - where was james then? They are parasites who have lived off the system quite well.
>>Bubba's sanctions killed hundreds of thousands of children in Iraq - where was james then?<<
Carville would stammer and spin and start/stop, uhh..., etc., but he wouldn't stop talkin' 'n' spinnin'... hey, man, i just got him elected, what he done did then well that there well yuh know I can't control a man ya know...
The BP station near Raleigh, NC is still full of customers. Many people outside of LA just don't seem to care.
I traveled thru FL panhandle several weeks ago driving back to NM. People in the panhandle were pissed and we saw practically no car at any BP even though they lowered their price by 15-20 cents. It was a bit different as we headed more north and west, away from the coast.
The Floridians I know are very protective of what remains of their environment. Some of the wetland in the panhandle is absolutely beautiful. While in the Apalahcee Bay area the locals were lining up to protect the wetlands, this was nearly theee weeks ago.
I tell my kids to see as much of the natural world as possible while it's still around. It ain't gonna get any better.
Top Kill is a very complicated procedure. They have a downhole flow of fluids between zones that swallows up that mud!
It won't work, you have to seal ALL the leaks to make it work.
How many of the Citizens of this region , 50 and 60 days ago were THANKING BP for the jobs and riches they bought into the state?
How many of the Governors were promoting their State as a place to invest hoping to draw in those resource dollars?
How many fisherman and owners of hotels and business operators were grumbling about "Regulations" and how a plethora of the same were forcing investment out of the region?
The "Blame" here certainly lies with BP . I am merely pointing out that the potential of this scenario occurring has always been there and wonder why all that nager only happens when it DOES occur.
It would have served more good 5 years ago. Now its all pointless.
I love how your post points out that all of this "nager" is pointless, but you turn your nager immediately to the "Citizens of this region".
Bizarre.
Seems like to me, you are trying to shift blame.
Keep focused. BP ran a shoddy operation. The regulatory agencies responsible have over the decades been bought out by the industries they are tasked to regulate.
The regulation that might have prevented this catastrophe wouldn't be "forcing investment out of the region".
What is forcing itself into the region, is bloody oil from the bloody blown out well, that was caused by a bloody greedy and irresponsible company, with a long bloody track record.
We need more regulation, not less, to have an actual healthy environment that will attract investment in the region.
Why is it anti-regulatory trolls never get the whole environmental thing?
It seems to me that GwNorth has posted valid questions. The citizens of the region, and by extension, the citizens of the U.S. want to be left off the hook. But how many of us are at least partly responsible for this crisis? Certainly everyone who drives a fossil fuel-burning vehicle is at least partly responsible.
Yes, BP is "a bloody greedy and irresponsible company." But should the American public be absolved of all responsibility? You can live in denial or deal with the reality of life in these irresponsible, dis-united states.
BTW, I don't see how GwNorth is one of the "anti-regulatory trolls." He refers to "fisherman and owners of hotels and business operators (that) were grumbling about "Regulations."
Your chamber of commerce line: "an actual healthy environment that will attract investment in the region" is questionable at best. Exactly what kinds of investment would support "an actual healthy environment?" Certainly not oil drilling - even with regulations.
Right over your head.
In Ft Macmurray Alberta there are tailings ponds that are holding back 10s of thousands and more gallons of some of the most toxic material ever known to man.
You have your enviromentalists all pointing out how this a petential disaster just waiting to happen and these same people are ridiculed by the peoples that live in the area.
These people see a booming economy due to the prescence of the same Industries, mining oil each and every day.
Now the fact is THIS.
The potemtial for an envormental disaster is there TODAY as we speak. The Concern for the same is limited to one small group dismissed as "eco-terrorists". There is no anger from the population at large for the POTENTIAL of damage that does in fact exist. This vast group of people will only get angry when it happens.
By then it is too late because it HAPPENED.
You sir are the TROLL. Indeed you are typical of what the hell is wrong in the world today.
Should not these people ny the tens of thosuands in the Gulf used their anger BEFORE the spill occurred to ensure that it could not?
It is too fracking late now.
Mr GWNorth is correct on that point, imho.
The whole south is a red-state, anti-environmental, anti-union nightmare.
Faux News misinformation blares from every diner.
Even on the coast, the shrimpers and boaters hate the EPA because it unfairly levies fines and scrutiny on the small individual boat operator while Huge Oil Companies are not even examined or taxed.
Returning to my central theme:
Big Government is not going to save us because it is owned by Big Oil.
And right now, I have no doubt, that Obomber is calculating how to pump US Treasury "relief" funds to Haliburton where the Bush Crime Family can continue it's war on the poor. Once a Haliburton associate (or CEO), ALWAYS a Mafioso. Once part the Bush Crime Family of the Gulf, always....
The only answer is to plug the financial volcano pouring into a river of corporate welfare..... Cut US government spending by 90 percent, and all our problems go away.
It is the only way.
TJ
The small-scale shrimpers and others are angry at regulation mostly because the big corporations get around it, but their ire is directed at the government, not the corporations. They have been taught in this culture to not connect the dots.
Breaking out of the USan cultural cage, the people will find that we do need the government but only for a VERY narrow and specific set of tasks, and the main one is to bring the full swing of the sledgehammer down on the elites. When the people fail to confine the government's role to this, you see the chaos and oppression we have today, with the "wealthiest country on the planet" resembling a "third world banana republic", actually worst in many respects as many former "banana republics" are enjoying better standards of living than USans when it comes to things that matter such as healthcare, education, low-cost transportation, high-quality food, etc.
Take a survey of the relative progress of different countries over the past 50 years. Most countries have progressed spectacularly. Only a few have regressed spectacularly, the USA leading in this group.
Exactly rtdrury,
My standard of living is extremely high outside the US, compared to the oppressive onslaught of corporate dishonesty I suffered stateside. Doctors on this Island are US trained, and charge ten dollars to see you. They will spend an hour with you whereas, the "In-Network" Quacks back in the states would not even make eye contact and dart out the door in five minutes under orders of the Insurance Companies not to waste more than five minutes with any one patient.
My employer's paid for insurance plainly states they will pay for international care, but they reject 100 percent of claims. I could go on all day about the decade of screw jobs by Harvard and Yale CEO's.....
My new solution is just not to have any dealings with the Fortune 500 as much as possible. Little local companies out here will answer the phone and send people to your house to take care of the customer free of charge.
It's like stepping through to a different universe when you materialize on the other side of the ocean, greeted not by spiteful Fatherland Security prison guards, but smiling friendly locals who love American citizens.
It cost fifty cents to cross town on a tricycle, and the food is a bounty of unmodified tropical tree harvest, some of the most nutritious unknown species you could ever put in you mouth.
I'm never going to leave. Every year, hundreds of abused Americans show up over here. Here's hoping they don't ruin it.
TJ
"Obama is caught in a tight spot: there is not much he can do about the well other than apply pressure to BP to get it right and put his best scientists in the room. The government has no deep-sea oil technology of its own."
Response: I'm tired of hearing this apologist argument from M$M. From the start and continuing til today, the US hasn't put a full effort into the cleanup. It started by the Obama administration deferring too much responsibility to BP for the cleanup. BP may be the only one able to stop the well leak, but it isn't the only one that is able to assist in the cleanup. BP is big but doesn't have the mobilization ability of the US government. The US could get the US Navy involved (or further involved). The US could ask for help from other countries. As many boat that there are in the Gulf skimming, obviously we don't have enough working (the Gulf is huge). As many containment booms as there are, obviously we don't have enough. With the full force of the US government behind the effort, I'm sure some companies could manufacture more quickly (its been 40 days). How about importing some if we aren't? With unemployment as high as it is, people shortage can't be a problem with the cleanup effort. And the Obama Administrations approval of allowing BP to use chemical disbursements to effectively keep the oil in huge underwater pools only hides the problem. Wouldn't have it been better to let more rise so it could get skimmed; rather than turn the Gulf into a chemical soup that contaminates the sea life. The Coast Guard and BP were lowballing the spillage at 5,000 barrels a day while outside scientists were saying the number was too low. They were ignored by the Obama administration and as a result less effort was made. M$M didn't help. I remember an article posted on Yahoo in the days after stated that the spill wouldn't be so bad for sea life because the oil would stay on top and fish could just swim away and oysters wouldn't be affected because they lay on the gulf bed (what a joke). Another problem with BP is that they spent too much time trying one failure after another rather than mobilizing different efforts simultaneously. Again, Obama deferred to much responsibility to BP, who ultimately will never be held fully responsible for the environmental and economic damage the spill caused. My thoughts are just layman suggestions. I imagine engineers and others (especially if you throw money at them) could come up with better ideas.
[the US hasn't put a full effort into the cleanup]
No, you're quite right. The thing is though, the National Guard is deployed in the Mideast. Or is resting after being deployed. The Navy doesn't have ships, or boats, that are capable of picking up oil from the ocean. They could try to use their ammo to blow up the oil and set it alight, or use a nuke torpedo to try and seal the well, but I'm not sure either would really be effective.
You're also right to criticize the lack of planning from the corporation. No, they'll not be paying the full price of this disaster either; unless the execs are tarred, feathered, beheaded and used as material for a 'junk shot'. (I do like that idea, if for nothing else it would encourage other execs to pay attention to what they're doing and might make the sociopaths less likely to do things that threaten the survival of everyone...)
The money needed to spend on the disaster was transfered to keep the very large banks afloat. Of course, the us gov't could impose a 200 or 300 percent tax on BP, Halliburton and the other company to pay for the disaster. However that would require the gov't to reverse thirty years of right wing thought. It's quite obvious that the corporation is far far more important a priority to the Gov't of the usa than the people of the usa are...
Please don't get the idea that I'm trying to defend the slime responsible for this clusterfuck.
PLEASE learn the use of paragraphs; you'll have far more readers.
You're right. I was in a hurry, but no excuse.
Bubonic Petroleum...
As for Obomber, he is too busy bombing and bullying other countries to take any serious measures to curb the damage as much as possible.
May I suggest a solution to the continuing British Petroleum oil disaster in the gulf. Round up every CEO, politician, Wallstreet Banker,and speculator world wide. Bring them to the gulf and shove their collective asses down that hole using them more or less as a giant wad. While this may fail as a means to stopping the leak it will go a long way towards assuring this kind of event will not occur again.
Ha Ha! Don't forget to shove in every Fox News gasbag first!
that would be the real "junk shot"....
I was just watching the live feed on The Oil Drum site and there appeared to be an explosion- then it went off briefly and then it just looked like a huge hole with pure black stuff escaping- lots of it. Now their "server" is down completely.
I looked at their site, the stuff coming out looks quite black, they say the 'live' feed is from PBS. Then I went to anther link at CNN and saw a totally different 'live' feed as the cnn site was showing a black/brown mix.
Just saying...
BOTH MMS AND BP KNEW THE BLOWOUT PREVENTER WOULD NOT WORK.
It's amazing, but not a surprise that information like this is not out in the open !
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/projects/gulf-spill/5498-gulf-oil-spill-the-technology-oil-executives-dont-want-to-talk-about
Gulf oil spill: The technology oil executives don't want to talk about
Craig Medred | May 28, 2010
"A mini-study done for the MMS in 2002 and a lengthy "Shear Ram Capabilities Study" completed two years later had concluded that some of the new higher-grade steel being used in drill pipe couldn't be cut and sealed by existing rams. The study also noted the inability of existing rams to cut and seal pipe if there were tools inside, or slice through welded joints where sections of pipe were joined.
These inherent weaknesses in existing blowout preventers were the reason many Arctic nations -- although not the U.S. -- required oil companies to keep a second drill rig on location when drilling in case a relief well was needed to seal a blowout. BP, it should be noted, did not have a second rig on site in the Gulf of Mexico."
"It has been 40 days and 40 nights." Brings to mind that great blues song "Forty Days and Forty Nights", by, Oh my! Muddy Waters.
Now we hear that BP is saying the junk shot/top kill is not working. This is bad news.
The question I've had since the beginning is why they were constantly streaming video of that tiny pipe leak - the only reason that made sense is that there was actually a much more serious leak out there - one that could actually produce that oil plume which is now the size of the state of South Carolina.
Now, arguably THE top expert in the world on this stuff - a recently retired energy investmant banker named Matthew Simmons just confirmed it - he believes we've been deceived from the start by BP and the media - he believes there is in fact a massive leak about 5-6 miles away somewhere on the ocean floor.
I've been reading Simmons opinions since 2004 - he is THE guy on this stuff and he's not one to mince his words.
Go here:
- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/37363529#37363529
Also - all modesty aside, I made a rather prophetic post here last Wednesday in which I predicted that no conclusion would be made on this ridiculous "top kill" tactic before Sunday - It will not work and they know it - and mark my words they will never flat-out admit it - they will spin it in the most subtle way as a lead to another hail-mary tactic.
Rapacious bastards!
In other words IT IS NOT WORKING.
Someone below posted this, but the address was getting cut off...
No one should miss this.
From the article "A mini-study done for the MMS in 2002 and a lengthy "Shear Ram Capabilities Study" completed two years later had concluded that some of the new higher-grade steel being used in drill pipe couldn't be cut and sealed by existing rams."
So that is what BP knew was being installed on its rig. And on countless other wells. Useless equipment.
Read the article…
I went to post, but in the preview I see that the url is getting cut off automatically.
Just go to the main url, and the article is on the front page
www.alaskadispatch.com
this is finally an event that could bring into play a real examination of the concept of corporate responsibility, and the removal of 'corporate personhood', ooopsie, if the Supremes hadn't recently just gone the other way, enhancing corporate immunity while affirming their political personhood. the current fiasco does not exist in a vacuum. it is systemic. better re purpose the system, eh?
an exemplary resolution to this will involve the revocation of BP's corporate charter and right to operate in the US, plus jail time for everyone who touched this thing and a government seizure of assets.
and that still leaves the issue of how to deal with the actuality of the oil plume. my bet is against bp being able to stop this thing for a while longer. and when /if they plug it, how long might it hold until it pops open again? relief wells? months. hey, its only a rainbow sheen, right? sell all those sea creatures personal brita filters!
decapitate BP! get on it, Obama! and then get to work on sustainable energy systems, like we should have 25 years ago. drop the wars and reallocate the "war" money you are wasting toward what we actually need. oh, and that would stimulate the economy with LOTS OF JOBS!
banks & bombs? that isn't working, from what i can see.
wake up people. its time to push.
I wouldn't count on Obama or Congress or even our corporate controlled courts
to dole out true justice to BP.
The only thing I see them doing,(forget what they say) is taking care of the big money.
I'd bet that in the end, some mid level stooge working on the rig will be the scapegoat. BP will pay 30 million, tops, but nobody is going to stop them from drilling in the Gulf today or five years from now.
Never gonna happen with the crime syndicate we have in DC now.
My heart goes out to the people of the gulf states. They did not deserve Katrina either. They assumed that the government was maintaining their levees like they do in the Netherlands. Another group of good hard working Americans is about to lose everything. I wonder if they will just disappear from our collective memory like the Katrina people.
There is a lesson to be learned. Louisianans sold their souls to the petrochemical industry years ago. They made a Faustian bargain with the Cheney gang. Louisianans have benefited financially for years. Their unemployment rate was only 6.2% at the end of March of this year. It now appears that their deal with the devil was just another ponzi scheme.
With global warming, more and larger hurricanes, skyrocketing homeowners insurance rates and a dead zone off Louisiana and Texas before 4/20, maybe the BP spill is just part of the grand scheme of things. What better use for a dying gulf than to "Drill Baby Drill!"
Does this whole event not qualify for a declaration of 'a state of emergency?'
Good point!
The ONLY obligation of a publicly owned company is to preserve and enhance shareholder value. Either you're a capitalist with BP or you're not.
i would hesitate to call BP publicly owned. institutionally owned is more accurate. preserving and enhancing value is not going to happen in a world severely (negatively) altered by acts perpetrated by that corporation. and this mess doesnt look like preservation of value, would you agree? except if BP miraculously gets the us treasury (thats our $$$) to pay for this thing.
capitalism is not a law of nature. it is a system with rules made by people. change the rules to fit the needs of people. corporations foul our water, air, mental space & much else, all for minimal cost. because we let them. true cost accounting would get their attention real quick! and it would actually be a good investment on their part, since overall systemic returns on sustainable practices are many times over the initial cost. except for purely extractive industries, of course.
btw: corporations are *not* "people". they certainly dont go to jail or get executed or have their charters revoked when they cause the deaths or destruction of actual peoples lives. pretty sweet setup, no?
'Publicly owned' is not debatable as a matter of opinion. A company is either private (you own it outright) or public, when you sell shares publicly and anybody can buy shares. BP is public.
yes, there is a precise webster's definition of "publicly owned". you are letting language be used against you if you blithely accept that the words 'publicly owned' do more than *imply* the public actually 'controls' anything. it only means you can buy into an entity set up with a commercial purpose, whereas you cannot easily buy into a 'private' enterprise. you must know de facto control of public companies resides with institutional holders of the largest buy-ins. when is the last time you voted your block of shares and got more than an annual 'report' & a dividend check? did you pick that board of directors? did you shape any policy? whats missing from the equation (and it should be an equation, to be 'equal', assuming all people are as equal as others, (with apologies to george orwell)), is that it does not include an element of actual responsibility to the public which granted them use of "public" commons, or a common benefit (not necessarily monetary, either) to be derived from use of common grounds. why is it that the common people generate 70% of the spending in this country, and corporations (which profit far more than we proles), obviously have the larger voice in deciding where the taxes get spent? Banks & Bombs? yup!
until we re frame the debate around what the purpose of these entities is, and where government fits into it, we will wander in the wilderness. the founding fathers (yes, how patriarchal, and subservient to the "great man" trope) at least knew how things could go pear shaped when empire and enterprise run things. successive generations have let the tools of trade and ideals slowly fall into the hands of narrow interests, and somehow we assume that to be OK. its not!
life and debate now center on spectacle more than intrinsic, real world meaning. isnt that a beautiful disaster?
for our current ironic spectacle, we have an evil black volcano, viscerally demonstrating the black slime that lies beneath our comfortable little bubble lives. time to shut off the tv & hit the streets. time to go public.
Which is exactly why the oil industry is too important and to dangerous
to be left to capitalism. The oil industry should be nationalized.
BP + BO = BS
The Supreme Court has determined that a corporation has the same standing as a person. This person named BP has caused the deaths of eleven people (remember them?) and violated every environmental law on the books. It is apparent that negligence and violations of protocol led to their deaths, under the supervision of BP management.
Let's contact our State Attorneys General and ask them to press for indictments against this person named BP for manslaughter and every violation of environmental law s/he has committed.
Then they seize his/her assets, including the stock, options and retirement plans of all executives.
Excellent.
the real magnitude of this disaster cannot be measured. in addition to the eleven people there are incalculable plankton, baby oysters, resident birds, migratory birds, all kinds of fish, dolphins, sharks. Then we get to the wetlands now being invaded, and again the damage cannot be measured. it's just way too big. BP needs to surrender all its assets to try to clean up whatever can be cleaned.
after that real serious criminal prosecutions. They are already guilty,of criminal negligence, and knowingly using toxic dispersants, which magnified the damage they've done.
But maybe bp will ask for a gov't bailout. Our congress would probably grant it.