The Whole Delivery

Somehow, conservatives will still advocate for more deregulation despite more disturbing evidence of why enforcing rules and laws on powerful industries is paramount to a country's sanity : Halliburton knew weeks before the fatal explosion of the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico that the cement mixture they planned to use to seal the bottom of the well was unstable but still went ahead with the job, the presidential commission investigating the accident said on Thursday. In the first official finding of responsibility for the blowout, which killed 11 workers and led to the largest offshore oil spill in American history, the commission staff determined that Halliburton had conducted three laboratory tests that indicated that the cement mixture did not meet industry standards. Corporations such as these have no shame in cutting corners, if if they violate crucial safety rules. And we see the disastrous effects of not only their ill-advised choices, but also the lack of suffic...

Look at one some folks found ! Scientists on a research vessel in the Gulf of Mexico are finding a substantial layer of oily sediment stretching for dozens of miles in all directions. Their discovery suggests that a lot of oil from the Deepwater Horizon didn't simply evaporate or dissipate into the water — it has settled to the seafloor. The Research Vessel Oceanus sailed on Aug. 21 on a mission to figure out what happened to the more than 4 million barrels of oil that gushed into the water. Onboard, Samantha Joye, a professor in the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Georgia, says she suddenly has a pretty good idea about where a lot of it ended up. It's showing up in samples of the seafloor, between the well site and the coast. "I've collected literally hundreds of sediment cores from the Gulf of Mexico, including around this area. And I've never seen anything like this," she said in an interview via satellite phone from the boat. But ...

What is wrong with this country ? A federal judge in New Orleans on Tuesday sided with the oil industry , striking down the temporary moratorium on new offshore exploration and deepwater drilling the Obama administration imposed last month. That judge, it turns out, has in recent years had interests in Transocean—the world's largest offshore drilling company and the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig—as well as other energy companies engaged in offshore oil extraction. According to the most recently available financial disclosure form for US District Court Judge Martin Feldman, he had holdings of up to $15,000 in Transocean in 2008. He has also recently owned stock in offshore drilling or oilfield service providers Halliburton, Prospect Energy, Hercules Offshore, Parker Drilling Co., and ATP Oil & Gas. Feldman was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1983. So this Reagan appointee with ties (at least old ties, at the very least) to the oil industry, rules in favor for ...

And basically leading to a great political day for all Democrats : That is what you do for your masters . The White House and Democrats have gone right away at seizing on Barton's unbelievable stupidity . "What is shameful is that Joe Barton seems to have more concern for big corporations that caused this disaster than the fishermen, small business owners and communities whose lives have been devastated by the destruction. Congressman Barton may think that a fund to compensate these Americans is a 'tragedy', but most Americans know that the real tragedy is what the men and women of the Gulf Coast are going through right now. Members from both parties should repudiate his comments." And how did the TV people cover it?? Update 4 -- CNN and MSNBC both replayed Barton's apology to BP at the top of the hour. Fox completely ignored it. Go figure. CNN also played Markey's response. I guess Barton's other masters at Fox didn't want to see their ...

That was the key quote, but still a lot of questions. And was really up with that excuse of approving drilling? Anyway, the full text of the speech . The full speech.

I think another part of the punishment for them is to pay Bart Stupak's rent at K-Street: Key sad quote: TILLERSON: The answer to that is that when these things happen, we are not well-equipped to deal with them ... It's the scenario that the MMS and the Coast Guard require us to calculate using their methodologies and that's why it's in there. But to your point, and I think that's all that matters is, the point is, we have to take every step to prevent these things from happening because when they happen, it is a fact that we're not well equipped to prevent any and all damage ... but there is no response capability that will guarantee you will never have an impact. It does not exist and it probably will never exist. THEY EVEN MADE BART STUPAK LOOK GOOD! Just think about that sentence for a second.

Not........Good............... AT.....................ALL : Figures he might say that, since he believes in the "Heckuva Job" philosophy as well I guess : The managing director of one of the big companies of this world, with this type of judgment and foresight. No wonder why we are in the dire mess that we are in.

After all of that talk and hype, it will have to wait another day : Ugh : HOUSTON — BP had to halt its ambitious effort to plug its stricken oil well in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday afternoon when engineers saw that too much of the drilling fluid they were injecting into the well was escaping along with the leaking crude oil. A technician at the BP command center said that pumping of the fluid had to be stopped temporarily while engineers were revising their plans, and that the company hoped to resume pumping by midnight, if federal officials approved. The technician, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters, said the problem was not seen as serious. "We’re still quite optimistic," he said, but cautioned: "It is not assured and its not a done deal yet. All of this will require some time." Midnight they say is when it will continue.....we shall see.

The news is breaking that "Broken Promises", I mean, Bristol Petroleum has plugged the whole . And here's the delivery : Reporting from Houma, La. Engineers have succeeded in stopping the flow of oil and gas into the Gulf of Mexico from a gushing BP well, the federal government's top oil spill commander, U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, said Thursday morning. The "top kill" effort, launched Wednesday afternoon by industry and government engineers, has pumped enough drilling fluid to block all oil and gas from the well, Allen said. The pressure from the well is very low, but persists, he said. Now from the live feed, stuff is still coming out of the Pipe: But they have pronounced that they have closed it. We shall see if that news, which would be very welcoming, is true. Update 2: Now a Reuters report is saying that isn't officially the case yet : The unified command tackling the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico cannot confirm or deny a Los Ange...

It really needed to happen : A White House source said today that President Barack Obama will travel to Louisiana and the Gulf Coast on Friday to to assess efforts to halt the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. No details on the visit were immediately available. Sargent makes another terrific point : But it seems to me there's another solution to this perception problem. Maybe Obama should take an additional path of decisive action that clearly is an option right now, which is to use the crisis to rally the public towards real energy reform. Reasonably people can disagree as to whether there's more the White House could be doing to stem the current crisis. For the sake of argument, let's say the White House is right: There's nothing more in the way of decisive action Obama can take in response to the disaster. If that's so, Obama may as well take another course of decisive action that is open to him: Seize this opportunity to shift the energy reform debate...

Bring in..... Luda De La Soul.... And Obama weekly message.....one month after BP Still though, despite everything, he is still giving the usual centrist stubborn crap : President Barack Obama said on Saturday that offshore oil drilling could only go forward if there were assurances that a disaster like the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill would not happen again. With frustration growing and political risks looming over the spill, Obama announced former Democratic Senator Bob Graham and former Environmental Protection Agency chief William Reilly would co-chair the bipartisan panel with six months to report back to him. "The purpose of this commission is to consider both the root causes of the disaster and offer options on what safety and environmental precautions we need to take to prevent a similar disaster from happening again," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address.

Their favorite phrase they don't even want to embrace anymore : So funny how ridiculous and insane events change an insane party's audacity.

it's what classy corporations that mess up the environmental and cause serious national security problems do of course. Real seriously problems that go deeper than creating The Gulf of BP. I'm just going to say that whatever I do wrong, I will not be responsible for doing it. I just won't be held accountable for my troubling actions since BP is more than allowed to say they aren't responsible for creating America's Black Sea.

And another one : The U.S. Coast Guard said Friday that a drilling ring has overturned in the Charenton navigational canal near Morgan City, Louisiana. The rig has a 20,000-gallon diesel fuel capacity, and Coast Guard pollution investigators have determined that the rig is not leaking fuel at this time, officials said. As a precaution, 500 feet of containment boom has been deployed around the rig. The Coast Guard has established a safety zone 1,000 yards on either side of the incident. Who needs the real "Black Sea" over in Europe when you can make your own one at home. Touching stuff.

This early in this month from our current President, as reminded to us by Mr. Moulitsas : Ooops. I guess he forgot to say "except when BP conducts them." Let this whole week forever be a reminder with how unnecessarily stupid an idea that Obama Administration made by trying to be centrist by opening up the option to expand offshore drilling. This is what happens when being centrist can cause bad ideas instead of doing the obvious common sensical right thing. Now David Axelrod (Obama's advisor for those who still somehow don't know) said this morning that BP won't be drilling anymore until they know more about the spill. So despite all of this, BP may drill yet again? If that's the case, then may I recommend the Mississippi River for you BP! I might as well recommend that since you somehow haven't been banned from ever drilling again despite ruining numbers of lives along with the environment because of your wonderful spill. Now can you ...