Oh for the daze (ha ha) of Jimmy carter -- never thought I'd say that!!!

Jon Stewart showed that it's been, what, the last 8 presidents that have all essentially said the same thing.

So nothing's truly changed - it's all hot air, regardless of the party, hair, face, name and colour of skin.

Quote
R

Quote
fuman


In America we are counting the days to the mid term elections this November so as to effectively castrate Obama and his disastrous agenda by throwing his fellow thugs out of congress. He now enjoys strong support from only about 26% of the electorate because, as I referred to earlier, half the folks who supported him realize now they were played for fools.

I don't think progressives are "better".

Well good luck in November. I know BP is hoping your GOP takes back the House. The hearing today would have had a completely different tone if the gavel was in the republican's hands . . .

LOL. That would be why BP was one of Obama's most generous contributers in the '08 elections, gotcha. BP went along with the show trial charade you were so impressed with. They don't care. The $20 billion will come out of your Mum and Dad's pension fund anyway.[/quote]

Just meant the tone of the hearing. The only part I liked was Dingle's moment.
What's the "gotcha" for.
Obama received hundreds of millions of dollars from tens of millions of citizens.
BP gave tens of thousands of dollars.

What else can you tell me about my "mum and dad"?

well aside from the radical right attackers here i am very grateful to all the folks who take time to read all this. it's really rolling with a lot of info from intelligent passionate concerned rock fans and i appreciate getting a chance to get perspective and info here w this.

it's even a good thing we have some political trolls on attack of a democratic party president in office a year and a half who had nothing to do with the republican party rampant "degregulation" etc... i'm not gonna argue that point here. it's just good to see the tea party kinda of outright mockery hate and politcal attack out in the open; to know that these kinds of philosophies are exactly what protects huge mega corps making billions and paying no usa tax from having sane contingencies and responsibility. obama just put a 20 billion plus guarantee directly into the hands of the people most immediately affected. red states all.
i'm not gonna promote or protect obama tho. i'm just saying that including all these tired lines from scarey etc.... really do show the crazed and frankly vicious mocking idiocy that is attracted to a philosophy of state rights UNTIL there's trouble and then MAMA FED lookin' reeaal good to them. they take all that cash from the 'blue' states pretty damn quick. and u know what? they SHOULD> they are Americans in trouble and we must do
EVERYTHING to inform and protect and love them and be honest about the unbelievable exploding extrapolation of the worst Abomination other than nuclear war i can think of....

sperm whale seventy miles away dead. big trouble comin

Quote
Beelyboy
well aside from the radical right attackers here i am very grateful to all the folks who take time to read all this. it's really rolling with a lot of info from intelligent passionate concerned rock fans and i appreciate getting a chance to get perspective and info here w this.

it's even a good thing we have some political trolls on attack of a democratic party president in office a year and a half who had nothing to do with the republican party rampant "degregulation" etc... i'm not gonna argue that point here. it's just good to see the tea party kinda of outright mockery hate and politcal attack out in the open; to know that these kinds of philosophies are exactly what protects huge mega corps making billions and paying no usa tax from having sane contingencies and responsibility. obama just put a 20 billion plus guarantee directly into the hands of the people most immediately affected. red states all.
i'm not gonna promote or protect obama tho. i'm just saying that including all these tired lines from scarey etc.... really do show the crazed and frankly vicious mocking idiocy that is attracted to a philosophy of state rights UNTIL there's trouble and then MAMA FED lookin' reeaal good to them. they take all that cash from the 'blue' states pretty damn quick. and u know what? they SHOULD> they are Americans in trouble and we must do
EVERYTHING to inform and protect and love them and be honest about the unbelievable exploding extrapolation of the worst Abomination other than nuclear war i can think of....

R's hate the idea of our government growing bigger and needing more tax dollars to fund it. It's not a position without merit.

I fear that without regulation we're all screwed, especially our children. BUT, the regulation has to work or it's pointless. Just look at MMS. What a @#$%& joke. Why aren't these people charged with negligence? Or the regulators in the finance industry that were appointed by THE FINANCE INDUSTRY they oversee. It's insane.

Sea creatures flee oil spill, gather near shore
By JAY REEVES, JOHN FLESHER and TAMARA LUSH (AP) – 1 day ago
GULF SHORES, Ala. — Dolphins and sharks are showing up in surprisingly shallow water off Florida beaches, like forest animals fleeing a fire. Mullets, crabs, rays and small fish congregate by the thousands off an Alabama pier. Birds covered in oil are crawling deep into marshes, never to be seen again.
Marine scientists studying the effects of the BP disaster are seeing some strange phenomena.
Fish and other wildlife seem to be fleeing the oil out in the Gulf and clustering in cleaner waters along the coast in a trend that some researchers see as a potentially troubling sign.
The animals' presence close to shore means their usual habitat is badly polluted, and the crowding could result in mass die-offs as fish run out of oxygen. Also, the animals could easily be devoured by predators.
"A parallel would be: Why are the wildlife running to the edge of a forest on fire? There will be a lot of fish, sharks, turtles trying to get out of this water they detect is not suitable," said Larry Crowder, a Duke University marine biologist.
The nearly two-month-old spill has created an environmental catastrophe unparalleled in U.S. history as tens of millions of gallons of oil have spewed into the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem. Scientists are seeing some unusual things as they try to understand the effects on thousands of species of marine life.
Day by day, scientists in boats tally up dead birds, sea turtles and other animals, but the toll is surprisingly small given the size of the disaster. The latest figures show that 783 birds, 353 turtles and 41 mammals have died — numbers that pale in comparison to what happened after the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska in 1989, when 250,000 birds and 2,800 otters are believed to have died.
Researchers say there are several reasons for the relatively small death toll: The vast nature of the spill means scientists are able to locate only a small fraction of the dead animals. Many will never be found after sinking to the bottom of the sea or being scavenged by other marine life. And large numbers of birds are meeting their deaths deep in the Louisiana marshes where they seek refuge from the onslaught of oil.
"That is their understanding of how to protect themselves," said Doug Zimmer, spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
For nearly four hours Monday, a three-person crew with Greenpeace cruised past delicate islands and mangrove-dotted inlets in Barataria Bay off southern Louisiana. They saw dolphins by the dozen frolicking in the oily sheen and oil-tinged pelicans feeding their young. But they spotted no dead animals.
"I think part of the reason why we're not seeing more yet is that the impacts of this crisis are really just beginning," Greenpeace marine biologist John Hocevar said.
The counting of dead wildlife in the Gulf is more than an academic exercise: The deaths will help determine how much BP pays in damages.
As for the fish, researchers are still trying to determine where exactly they are migrating to understand the full scope of the disaster, and no scientific consensus has emerged about the trend.
Mark Robson, director of the Division of Marine Fisheries Management with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said his agency has yet to find any scientific evidence that fish are being adversely affected off his state's waters. He noted that it is common for fish to flee major changes in their environment, however.
In some areas along the coast, researchers believe fish are swimming closer to shore because the water is cleaner and more abundant in oxygen. Farther out in the Gulf, researchers say, the spill is not only tainting the water with oil but also depleting oxygen levels.
A similar scenario occurs during "dead zone" periods — the time during summer months when oxygen becomes so depleted that fish race toward shore in large numbers. Sometimes, so many fish gather close to the shoreline off Mobile that locals rush to the beach with tubs and nets to reap the harvest.
But this latest shore migration could prove deadly.
First, more oil could eventually wash ashore and overwhelm the fish. They could also become trapped between the slick and the beach, leading to increased competition for oxygen in the water and causing them to die as they run out of air.
"Their ability to avoid it may be limited in the long term, especially if in near-shore refuges they're crowding in close to shore, and oil continues to come in. At some point they'll get trapped," said Crowder, expert in marine ecology and fisheries. "It could lead to die-offs."
The fish could also fall victim to predators such as sharks and seabirds. Already there have been increased shark sightings in shallow waters along the Gulf Coast.
The migration of fish away from the oil spill can be good news for some coastal residents.
Tom Sabo has been fishing off Panama City, Fla., for years, and he's never seen the fishing better or the water any clearer than it was last weekend 16 to 20 miles off the coast. His fishing spot was far enough east that it wasn't affected by the pollution or federal restrictions, and it's possible that his huge catch of red snapper, grouper, king mackerel and amberjack was a result of fish fleeing the spill.
In Alabama, locals are seeing large schools hanging around piers where fishing has been banned, leading them to believe the fish feel safer now that they are not being disturbed by fishermen.
"We pretty much just got tired of catching fish," Sabo said. "It was just inordinately easy, and these were strong fish, nothing that was affected by oil. It's not just me. I had to wait at the cleaning table to clean fish."
Lush contributed from Barataria Bay, La., Flesher from Traverse City, Mich.
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

The Animals Most Threatened by the Gulf Coast Oil Spill
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As oil continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico 59 days after the explosion on BP's Deepwater Horizon rig, cleanup crews and animal welfare experts are working tirelessly to prevent massive ecological damage on the coast. But several animal species are in the crosshairs of the giant oil slick spreading across the gulf. With time running out, here are the animals most at risk in the disaster, and you what you can do to help.

1. Atlantic Bluefin Tuna


Bluefin Tuna seen in the water off Sicily. (Photo: Reuters Pictures).
Already one of the most threatened species of fish on the planet, Bluefin tuna could suffer huge losses in the wake of the spill.

The reason? Bluefin tuna only breed in two places on earth: the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. And the Deepwater Horizon spill is impacting the very area of the gulf where the bluefin spawn. And they only spawn once a year. The time? You guessed it: right now. According Ellycia Harrould-Kolieb, a marine biologist interviewed by Newsweek, "This could spell the end to bluefin."

Before the spill, it was predicted that man's hunger for sushi might spell the end of the bluefin. Bluefin is especially prized in Japan, and overfishing has already devastated worldwide bluefin stocks; the population has dropped by more than 70 percent in the past 30 years.

2. Sea Turtles


A sea turtle surface in the gulf. (Photo: Reuters Pictures).
For millions of years, sea turtles have lumbered onto the beaches of what is now Gulf Shores, Alabama, to lay eggs and continue their lineage. The annual ritual is carried out like clockwork each summer.

But now, more than 350 dead turtles have been discovered in the gulf since the Deepwater Horizon explosion, and experts are worried that the spill could disrupt their mating and breeding cycle for good.

Sea turtles are thought to be especially at risk since they spend most of their time on the water's surface, putting them at high exposure for inhaling and ingesting the oil floating in the gulf. The animals also are known to "mouth or chew on anything," according to Michele Kelley, standing coordinator of the Louisiana Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Rescue Program, in an interview with National Geographic. That means they'll likely munch the oil to see what's going on.

There are only seven species of sea turtle in the entire world, and five of them rely on the Gulf of Mexico to serve as a critical habitat. And each of those five species is endangered.

3. Dolphins


A bottlenose dolphin swims underwater. (Photo: Reuters Pictures).
Dolphins are among the many sea creatures surfacing closer and closer to Florida beaches in the weeks since the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon, a phenomenon that some marine experts think is tied to the spread of the oil slick.

As many as 5,000 bottlenose dolphins could be calving at the moment—right in the oil's path. Earlier this week, a team from Greenpeace spotted dozens of the mammals frolicking in the oil sheen off the coast of Louisiana.

Like sea turtles, dolphins are at risk from inhaling and ingesting the oil since they must surface to breathe. Dolphin carcasses have already been found in three states since the beginning of the crisis. Scientists are attempting to determine whether the animals died due to exposure to the oil.

4. Brown Pelicans


An oiled brown pelican flaps its wings in Louisiana. (Photo: Reuters Pictures).
The Brown Pelican—the State Bird of Louisiana—uses the delicate wetlands of the Delta region to spawn and raise new generations. But state officials fear that decades of rebuilding the state's pelican population (they started in the 1960s with virtually none of the birds in the Pelican State) could be negated by the BP oil spill.

The first time around, pesticides like DDT had destroyed pelican populations. Now, the chemical ooze seeping in from the gulf could devastate the population once more.

Wildlife experts in Louisiana estimate that as many as 10,000 pairs of pelicans could be breeding at the moment in the affected area. Oil could continue to wash up near nesting areas for months and months to come. And since young pelicans like to wander around the affected marshland as they get their bearings, the oil contamination could spell disaster.

Pelicans spend much of their time floating on the surface of the water—the same place as the oil. Wildlife experts fear that their feathers could become coated in oil, causing them to lose buoyancy.

5. Oysters


Oysters at a restaurant in New Orleans. (Photo: Reuters Pictures).
Oysters have long been associated with Gulf Coast cuisine, but oyster houses that have been open for generations are closing in the French Quarter as oystermen are forced to stay home.

Due to oil contamination, many oyster beds have already been shut down. And oystermen fear that proposed plans to pump freshwater into the Delta to help push back encroaching oil could throw off the precise balance of seawater and freshwater that allows oysters to grow.

And as the water warms, oyster larvae could be born right into the oil, poisoning another generation of oysters.

Quick Study: Ocean Pollution

Full Coverage: Gulf Coast Oil Spill

Related Stories: Nation's Oldest Oyster House to Close in New Orleans Due to Spill | Voices From the Spill: Man vs. Nature in the Wetlands

Take Action How to Help: Gulf Coast Oil Spill

The Oil Spill and the Soul of Nature
"I am the soul of nature, who gives life to the universe," Goddess liturgy written by Doreen Valiente.

You don't have to be a Pagan to know that animals have awareness and are capable of both suffering and compassion--every dog owner knows that! Pagans see all the world as animate, imbued with life and spirit. Every aspect of life is important and has a role to play in the whole.

The Pagan view sees everything as interconnected. As we look at the pictures of birds and sea creatures drenched in toxic oil and dying, we are horrified both by the individual suffering they represent and by the toll on the larger systems of life. The suffering of a seabird causes me pain, whether or not I allow it to come to consciousness. The toll of the spill on the life and biodiversity of the Gulf diminishes us all.

No amount of money can ever repair the damage that BP has done by its criminal negligence and carelessness. BP never had a realistic plan to deal with an accident or a spill. They cut corners on safety and plumbing, and attempted to conceal the scope of the disaster and the amount of oil that is actually leaking. Their callousness has caused irreparable damage to the ecosystems of the Gulf and may have destroyed whole communities whose culture is linked to the once-thriving biodiversity of the bayous and deltas of the south. They must be held accountable for the damage as far as amends can be made, and in a way severe enough to prove a deterrent to other companies tempted to put profits above the safety of their own workers and the environment.

If a vandal spilled oil over a neighbor's yard, he'd be sent to jail. Why should BP executives go free, when they are responsible for the greatest environmental catastrophe in U.S. history, one that has killed vast numbers of living things, destroyed the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of people, and endangered the survival of many keystone species? In the Pagan view, ecocide is a heinous crime on a level with genocide--for indeed, to kill an ecosystem is to destroy the people and cultures that depend on it for survival.

The BP disaster should be a clear lesson to us all--that the age of oil is over. We cannot afford the impact on the earth's climate of continuing to burn fossil fuels, nor the risks inherent in searching for oil in ever-deeper water or more pristine places. Were the costs of disasters and cleanups, the immense costs in life and suffering factored into the costs of production, it would be clear that oil has become unaffordable by any standard. Yes, we will all be required to give us some comforts and convenience to make the shift--but not nearly as many as people fear. Safe and renewable alternatives exist--sun, wind, water, a bit of muscle power, a focus on the local and the truly sustainable would give us an energy policy and the beginning of a new culture and economy that could bring us back into balance with the natural world. Without that balance, there is no security. No terrorist attack on the US has done anything close to the damage that BP has done. No amount of armaments will save us if our oceans no longer produce food or oxygen, our waters are poisoned and our soils blow away.

The world needs to shift to values which have long been held by Pagans but are certainly not unique to us. Indeed, every religion holds within it an imperative to care for and nurture creation. We must make a shift to a culture that values life over profits and the health of the environment over the financial balance sheet. To do so is not only a moral and religious imperative but a matter of survival. We are meant to be earth healers, not destroyers, and a moral person is one who cares for the web of life which sustains and supports us all.
BY STARHAWK | JUNE 19, 2010; 2:37 PM ET | CATEGORY: PAGAN , SOCIAL JUSTICE , ENVIRONMENT

Interesting...


[www.huffingtonpost.com]


The Text:

Trace Adkins may be best known for his cowboy-style country music crooning, but in his first in-depth interview about the BP oil spill, this former oil rig roughneck and derrickman reveals he's unhappy with BP's "company man" mentality and the media's portrayal of his former profession. And he insists the president, despite his rhetoric, is powerless.

"He's hamstrung now," Adkins says. Without opening leases on the continental shelf and drilling for oil in "depths that are more manageable," he says companies are forced to drill in deeper water where the risks are exponentially greater.

But he believes the actions that led to the Deepwater Horizon well disaster are not the fault of the federal Minerals Management Service (MMS). While President Obama named a new head of MMS today after firing the previous leader for not adequately monitoring rigs, Adkins paints a different picture of the agency. "As far as the coziness with MMS...when that orange helicopter landed on the heliport, everybody's butt puckered... [MMS] had complete free reign."

So what's Adkins' solution? "There's nothing we're going to do to stop it," he says. "They don't want to come out and say 'well there's really nothing we can do about it'. They can't say that, but I can. "

We caught up with Adkins on his 64-acre farm in Tennessee.

Q: What is the advice you have?

Lift the moratorium on drilling, first of all. I don't know how many tens of thousands of wells we drill in the Gulf of Mexico. But how many times have you heard about this happening? I think that is a pretty good track record, and the chances of it happening again are even less now because they're going to learn from this and this is not going to happen again. I'm not going to say never. Chances are going to be slim.

The President was going to open up some of those leases on the continental shelf, in water that we absolutely know how to do it, in depths that are more manageable. And he should go ahead and do that, but he's hamstrung now. But he should.

As far as any advice about the well, it's gonna have to sand itself up. It's going to have to bridge over is what we call it; at some point bring enough material into bore that it will clog itself up and it will stop. Could take some time. That's what's going to stop it. There's nothing we're going to do to stop it. Nobody will tell anybody that, but I'll tell 'em. They don't want to come out and say 'well there's really nothing we can do about it'. They can't say that, but I can.

Q: What about a nuclear explosion?

God, what a bad idea. No, it's not a solution. You have an open hole going into a reservoir that is under high pressure. And if you create enough of an explosion that you cover it up with a bunch of material, it will just be a few months and that pressure is going to find its way out of there and seep through all of that material. If that's what they're trying to accomplish by blowing it up and creating a pile of rubble; I don't know what they expect to accomplish by something like that.

Q: What's your advice to BP?

Pay for your mess. That's' all they can do. They're going to have to pay for the mess and probably change their name. They've pretty much soiled BP at this point.

Q: Will the oil stop at some point?

Yeah, it will. It's not like an artesian well. It's not going to continue in perpetuity. If it did, we wouldn't have the oil crisis we have today. Every well we ever drilled would still be producing and we wouldn't have anything to worry about. But they do deplete. It will stop.

Q: Do you watch the coverage of the BP oil spill?

I've been keeping up with it, sure.

Q: Did your time on the oil rig make you feel closer to the story?

Yeah, sure. As a matter of fact, I was asked by the folks at Transocean [drilling contractor]...to record a video for them [that] addressed that audience there at the memorial service [May 25th]. I was proud to be asked to do that and glad to do it. It's a brotherhood out there. It's a very dangerous occupation. We all knew that and we all looked out for one another. It was a team- type atmosphere out there. You were looking out for one another. Always.

One of the things I've been a little dismayed by is that some of the coverage seems to try to make it look like some of those guys out there are reckless, irresponsible yahoos. And nothing could be farther from truth.

And as far as the coziness with MMS, I'm here to tell you when that orange helicopter landed on the heliport, everybody's butt puckered. There was no coziness. When MMS landed on the rig, everybody got really uptight. They'd come unannounced, they'd get off helicopters and start walking. They wouldn't even tell anybody what they were looking for, where they were going to go or what they were going to do. They had complete free rein. And you had to be ready any time for them to land. And we always were.

I worked on a drilling rig and derrick for 6 years- three years as a roughneck --and was promoted three years as a derrickman- assistant driller. I don't know how many wells we drilled, but we ain't never drilled a well in over 200 feet of water. So the blowout preventer was always above water. It was on the riser pipe - it was standing up below the rig floor. We maintained it, serviced it, function- tested it every week. More regularly if we thought we needed to. And that's what failed on the Deepwater Horizon well - was the blowout preventer. When a blowout preventer fails in just under 5000 feet of water: Game over. There's nothing you can do about it. The reality is that they haven't been able to secure the rights to drill where they know how to do it. So they've been forced out into deep water and the risks get exponentially greater and this is what this you end up with.

Q: Do you feel for families of the victims?

Only in last couple days have I being hearing stuff about some of shortcuts the BP company man was making out on the rig and some of the things that I heard that he demanded of Transocean. I know I worked for some tool pushers [rig managers] when I was offshore who would have looked at that company man and told him to' go to hell- 'it's going to be the end my crew and I'm not going to do it'. But for some reason they did what the company man wanted them to do. I trusted my life a lot quicker to that old tube pusher who had been drilling wells for 30 years than I did to that company man who just graduated from college.

Q: Why did you quit?

I wanted to try [singing]. In '91, things were getting a little tough in the oil field and Global Marine was starting to lay some people off. I talked to my wife and said, 'hey, you know, I think I'm going to take a voluntary layoff and let's go to Nashville and see what we can do' and that's what we did.

Trace Adkins grew up near Shreveport , La. He spent six years in the late '80s as a roughneck and derrickman for Global Marine on an oil rig in the Gulf before launching his music career. He'll be on tour with Toby Keith beginning June 19th in Holmdel, NJ. He releases a new CD 'Cowboy's Back in Town' August 24th.

Quote
Beelyboy

The BP disaster should be a clear lesson to us all--that the age of oil is over. We cannot afford the impact on the earth's climate of continuing to burn fossil fuels, nor the risks inherent in searching for oil in ever-deeper water or more pristine places. Were the costs of disasters and cleanups, the immense costs in life and suffering factored into the costs of production, it would be clear that oil has become unaffordable by any standard. Yes, we will all be required to give up some comforts and convenience to make the shift--but not nearly as many as people fear. Safe and renewable alternatives exist--sun, wind, water, a bit of muscle power, a focus on the local and the truly sustainable would give us an energy policy and the beginning of a new culture and economy that could bring us back into balance with the natural world. Without that balance, there is no security. No terrorist attack on the US has done anything close to the damage that BP has done. No amount of armaments will save us if our oceans no longer produce food or oxygen, our waters are poisoned and our soils blow away.

Beelyboy, I'm unclear as to whether you wrote that or are just quoting. But these are profound observations, and if we ignore these truths, the human species is doomed.

Drew

Quote
SwayStones

I have nothing good to say about this selfish, insensitive son-of-a-bitch.

Better off he stays away from Louisiana and turns the project over to a real man.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-06-20 21:10 by Edith Grove.

Here is a rather unique way to protest big oil.
[www.cnn.com]

Quote
Beelyboy
sperm whale seventy miles away dead. big trouble comin

Awww Dude, you are SO over reacting to this little spill..... they'll have it fixed faster than you can snap your fingers......

Quote
HelterSkelter

Quote
Beelyboy
sperm whale seventy miles away dead. big trouble comin

Awww Dude, you are SO over reacting to this little spill..... they'll have it fixed faster than you can snap your fingers......

Own some BP stock do ya Helter?

"It's just some friends of mine and they're busting down the door"

Help will arrive shortly, thank ( . . .)

Obama's knee-jerk reaction to this disaster (banning new drilling) has just been overridden by a Federal judge in New Orleans.

Quote
Edith Grove
Obama's knee-jerk reaction to this disaster (banning new drilling) has just been overridden by a Federal judge in New Orleans.

I don't know what's knee jerk about not wanting another one of these disasters. How many rigs are in the gulf in deep water? Have they all been inspected to make sure they don't have the same problem?

"It's just some friends of mine and they're busting down the door"

Quote
Edith Grove
Obama's knee-jerk reaction to this disaster (banning new drilling) has just been overridden by a Federal judge in New Orleans.

I think it's the smart move. BP lied about their capability to respond to a spill, they lied about following safety standards when they drilled. They saved lots of money, we get the catastrophic results. We have to know what other wells have been drilled in this manner.

I know many many people depend on this work, but if another well blows the gulf may never recover. It's only 6 months, right?

I can see this going all the way to the SC, and fear they will side with business rather than earth.

Over 4000 rigs in the Gulf total, 4300 or so, I think I read there are something like 95 deep water rigs, can't remember the exact number. One has a 'small problem in a huge body of water', er, well, one blows up and sinks and breaks due to BP's greed, cutting corners, not doing things correctly, etc. Not caring or respecting anything, out dated info and wrong info on the area, etc...

Odd thing a friend told me last night - the US government gave Brazil quite a few million dollars to drill in water that is 15,000 feet deep. I'm looking for it. Haven't found a lot. There is this though:

[industry.bnet.com]

Here is something about the number of deep water drilling rigs in the Gulf Of Mexico:

[www.nola.com]

Of course, the moratorium was for deep water drilling but somehow magically got turned into ALL drilling.

Quote
HelterSkelter

Quote
Beelyboy
sperm whale seventy miles away dead. big trouble comin

Awww Dude, you are SO over reacting to this little spill..... they'll have it fixed faster than you can snap your fingers......

Coming from someone who doesn't live in the US.

Different safety systems are used in the drilling of new wells as opposed to wells that are in production.

The disaster was caused by a well that was being drilled, but Obama's moratorium would have shut down at least 25 actively producing deep-water wells.

I'm not in the business, and I don't pretend to know, but I would think that these wells could be inspected without arbitrarily shutting down production for six months.
As for job loss, there are many more support jobs that depend on each rig worker out there, resulting in job losses in the thousands.
Lastly, a moratorium on drilling would have some, perhaps most of these rigs moving to other countries, possibly not to return.

I'm all about safe drilling, but Obama'a decision was knee-jerk, arbitrary and overreaching.

interesting, coming from an israeli news source...

Iran Offers to Rescue Obama from Oil Spill Mess

by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

Iran has offered to help solve the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill and extricate U.S. President Barack Obama from the mess that has caused his already sinking popularity to drop even further.


A New York Times/CBS poll published Tuesday morning revealed that 59 percent of Americans think the president does not have a “clear plan” for combating the spill, and 61 percent said the president’s response to the spill was “too slow.”

The survey also showed a lack of confidence that President Obama can stop the flow of oil soon and give necessary help to residents affected by it. Nearly half of the respondents replied it will take “several months” to stop the spill, and 16 percent said the spill will take a “year or longer” to end.

However, Iran is ready to rescue President Obama if he requests help, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported Tuesday. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast underlined Tehran's technical capability to help the United States control the oil spill and the resulting slick, which he said is a "humanitarian issue."

One day earlier, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, otherwise known as the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), offered to provide experts to help the Americans. "The experience of Iranians' presence in curbing oil spills in a number of neighboring states in the Persian Gulf, such as Kuwait, demonstrates Iranian capabilities and skills, and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps is ready to help curb the oil spill,” Commander of the IRGC's Khatam ol-Anbia Headquarters General Rostam Qassemi stated.

“If Americans and Britons and also the Western companies find themselves incapable of capping the oil spill, [they can] ask Iran, [we] will study the case, and send… IRGC experts to the region to help prevent the continuation of this serious crisis,” Qasemi added.

An oil rig leased by British Petroleum exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers before sinking two days later and spilling hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico every day. The oil slick threatens tourism, the fishing industry and nature reserves.

Iran made political hay out of the oil spill, noting that "despite American-promoted sanctions against the Islamic Republic, the IRGC is prepared to fulfill its humanitarian duty.” Qasemi added, “Considering Washington and London's claims that they are economic and industrial superpowers, the U.S. and Britain's inability to stop the oil spill two months after the initial incident is ‘humiliating and shameful.'" (IsraelNationalNews.com)

[www.israelnationalnews.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-06-22 22:15 by bernardanderson.

Gulf species face unprecedented disaster
By Dan Brennan
22 June 2010

"The ultimate ecological impact of the oil spill on wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico is unknown, and will likely remain so for years to come. Still, two months into the worst oil spill in US history, indications are that the ecological impact will be nothing less than disastrous.

This was a key message from a group of scientists and officials testifying earlier this month before the US House of Representatives Oceans and Wildlife subcommittee. The testimony came as thousands of dead or oiled organisms are washing ashore and found floating at sea.

By the latest count, nearly 1,600 birds, 500 turtles and dozens of mammals suspected of oil contamination have been collected, most of which were dead or died. This represents a tiny fraction of the real mortality to date, since the spill area is so vast and much of the damage occurs under water and out of sight.

Even after two months, the disaster is in its early stages. “In all likelihood, we will see the consequences of the Gulf spill for decades,” Dr. Michael Fry, an avian toxicologist with the American Bird Conservancy, told the committee. He explained that oil is still present today in mussel beds and other sensitive habitats in Alaska’s Prince William Sound, 21 years after the Exxon Valdez spill.

Robert Barham of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries raised the truly frightening prospect that this time around the effects could linger even longer, since the deepwater dispersed oil is subject to extreme pressure and cold. “The transfer rate for mutually buoyant particles to surface is 300 years,” he stated.

On a more immediate level, the spill is currently proving lethal to wildlife in a number of ways. The most visible manner is through direct contact with oil, as oil-coated animals often die from hypothermia, drowning or suffocation. Oil is also lethal to many organisms when ingested (directly or through consuming contaminated food) or when inhaling the fumes.

The dispersants used to break up the surface slick and prevent oil from reaching the surface are themselves toxic and can lead to death in some organisms. In addition, Dr. Carys Mitchelmore, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, described potentially devastating sub-lethal effects from the dispersed oil, including reduced growth rate, mutations, behavioural changes and impaired reproductive ability. “These more subtle endpoints than death can nonetheless have huge consequences for populations,” he told the committee.

Several scientists have begun raising alarms about the impact of the oil and chemical dispersants on species low in the food chain, such as plankton. If these populations are severely affected, it will have untold consequences for the entire ecosystem.

The area affected by the spill is extremely rich in biodiversity. Scientists have documented over 8,000 species in the region of the spill. Many more remain undiscovered, particularly in the deep sea. For some, the ongoing disaster poses the threat of annihilation for the entire species.

The House committee heard testimony on the potential impacts on a wide variety of wildlife threatened by the spill, several of which are highlighted here.

Marine mammals
Sperm whales

An underwater canyon near the spill site is the primary feeding area for a subpopulation of the endangered sperm whales, which may be exposed to oil when breathing at the surface or from dispersed plumes underwater as they dive to hunt.

The Gulf population of sperm whales is extremely fragile, a point underscored by Aaron Viles of the Gulf Restoration Network in his testimony. “Current research suggests that if human-caused mortality exceeds three whales annually, then recovery of the Gulf sperm whale pod will be negatively impacted,” he noted.

Sperm whales can live to be 100 years old, but only reproduce every 15 years or so. The total impact on sperm whales is exceedingly difficult to assess, since finding carcasses is unlikely due to the expanse of their marine habitat. Nonetheless, a lifeless 25-foot juvenile was found last week floating just south of the spill site. Though scientists have yet to conclusively link the death to the oil spill, the observation is ominous.

Dolphins


Bottlenose dolphins are another celebrated species facing severe harm from the spill. Playful by nature, dolphins have been seen following response boats into contaminated water. Rather than avoiding contact with oil, their behaviour tends to increase the likelihood of contact.

To make matters worse, dolphins are also currently calving in shallow water near the extent of the surface oil. Aaron Viles reported to the committee that 30 dead dolphins have been counted by the response team. Dozens more have surfaced elsewhere in the spill region, representing a significant spike in dolphin mortality. Less-than-fatal impacts are also prevalent, as apparent inhalation of oil vapour triggers a confused response that can lead to stranding.

Birds

Brown pelicans


The state bird of Louisiana has become the most recognized symbol of the spill, due to the many disheartening images of oil soaked pelicans. The brown pelican was just removed from the endangered species list, after decades of conservation efforts restored population levels from a localized extinction in the 1960s. Brown pelicans nest in colonies on barrier beaches and marsh islands, where they have already encountered an onslaught of oil washing ashore. It is not only in their nesting grounds. Brown pelicans hunt for fish by diving into the sea. They may even be attracted to the oil slick, which makes the water look calmer.

Dr. Fry explained how the oil affects birds such as the brown pelican. “Oil, either fresh, weathered or chemically dispersed, destroys the insulation properties of feathers, and allows water to penetrate to the skin of birds.” He continued, “This causes loss of stored fat followed by muscle wasting, so that the birds are severely weakened, cannot fly, cannot feed, and rapidly deteriorate. If not recovered by rescue teams within a few days, they will starve to death. If oiled birds are far out to sea, many will drown and sink without ever being detected.”

Terns


Along with pelicans, terns also nest on barrier beaches and islands. Terns are exposed to oil when foraging for food in the coastal waters. Some species of tern, for example the endangered least tern, have low reproductive rates, making them particularly vulnerable to collapse. The risk is especially acute for tern chicks, which are susceptible to severe impacts from all levels of oil contamination, whether through direct contact in the nest or through consuming tainted seafood.

Migrating songbirds

Millions of migrant songbirds use the Gulf Coast as the last stopover before embarking on the 1000 kilometer sea crossing to Central America. These songbirds depend on a rich stock of healthy food and sufficient resting grounds prior to and after their crossing. Jane Lyder of the Interior Department laid out the likely long-term impacts: “We expect the oil to persist long-term in the food chain. When these migratory birds return to the Gulf Coast in the fall, they will likely be exposed to oil as they forage, or possibly face starvation as a result of depleted insect, marine and plant life due to oil incursion.”

Turtles

The spill occurred during peak breeding season for all five species of sea turtles present in the Gulf: the green, hawksbill, Kemp’s ridley, leatherback and loggerhead. All are listed as either threatened or endangered. Nearly 400 dead turtles have been found in the impact area since the explosion on April 20. Over 100 have been collected alive, most of them visibly oiled.

The largest number of sea turtles found so far is among juvenile Kemp’s ridleys, the most endangered of the five species. Unlike other turtles, they typically remain in the Gulf year round. The mouth of the Mississippi, a heavily impacted area, is a vital foraging area for them. Kemp’s ridleys typically feed on whatever food is available, and, like other sea turtles, show no signs of avoiding oil contaminated waters.

Fish and shellfish

Bluefin tuna


The Gulf of Mexico is one of two spawning grounds in the world for bluefin tuna, a species that has been decimated by overfishing in recent decades. Scientists estimate that since 1970, the bluefin population has declined by roughly 80 percent.

Mr. Viles explained the acute risk posed by the huge amounts of dispersed oil in the water column, particularly related to the reproductive capacity of the species. “April and May are the peak spawning time for this species, and researchers have found significant amounts of larvae in what is now BP’s impact area. This is troubling as fish eggs and larvae are highly sensitive to oil and dispersants. As a result,” he continued, “this year’s age-class of bluefin tuna, as well as many of the 42 federally managed species in the Gulf of Mexico, may suffer significant decreases to population size, which will in turn effect the commercial and recreational fisheries of the Gulf.”

Shellfish


Oil can be toxic to shellfish, both to those living on the seabed (such as crabs) and those residing in intertidal zones (such as oysters). With these species, BP’s decision to apply dispersants may prove disastrous. Dispersed oil droplets are comparable in size with the plankton consumed by oysters and other filter feeders. As such, they will likely consume oil droplets with which they come in contact.

For those oysters that survive, the chemicals tend to persist and accumulate, thereby also harming their predators. For crabs, which are higher up on the food chain, the risk comes primarily from consuming other organisms in which the toxins have already accumulated. Both crabs and oysters are important components of Louisiana’s fishing industry, which accounts for 20 percent of the entire US catch."

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sweetcharmedlife

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Edith Grove
Obama's knee-jerk reaction to this disaster (banning new drilling) has just been overridden by a Federal judge in New Orleans.

I don't know what's knee jerk about not wanting another one of these disasters. How many rigs are in the gulf in deep water? Have they all been inspected to make sure they don't have the same problem?

It's a knee-jerk reaction because the Idiot In Chief put tens of thousands of people out of work as a result of his REACTION and then, to cover his skinny butt, deigned that BP was going to pay for their losses. Can we make it up as we go along? "Yes, we can!"

We still need the oil but now it's going to have to be delivered and transported on tankers and barges both of which have FAR MORE DISMAL SAFETY RECORDS than the drilling platforms.

"to cover his skinny butt".

Skinny butt? What's up with that? I never really noticed.