Samedi

Levees.org interviews Dr. Bob Bea on the BP oil disaster
~Robert Bea recently leaked important information to the press regarding the BP oil disaster.
In an exclusive interview, we asked Dr. Bea about his motivation for contacting the press with this information.
DR. BEA: Likely starting next week, congressional hearings will begin. President Obama will likely appoint a Commission. Tomorrow at 3pm, I have a conference call with Henry Waxman, Chief of Staff. If someone doesn’t mobilize people to bring out the very best information, it will soon be covered up by corporate political wrangling. I don’t want that to happen again.

Effort to place dome over oil well dealt setback, BP says
~The effort to place a containment dome over a gushing wellhead was dealt a setback when a large volume of hydrates - crystals formed when gas combines with water - accumulated inside of the vessel, BP's chief operating officer said Saturday. The dome was moved off to the side of the wellhead and is resting on the seabed while crews work to overcome the challenge, Doug Settles said.
And'dat Oil Man River he jes'keeps flowin' along...
~Editilla Hotellas~ Slight set back, riiiight.
You will now see a slurry of positive media cuming out of Joint Incident Command. I suspect Boom News, perhaps a new BP Claims center opening. This is getting ridiculous. Jump Shots?
As I listen to today's Press Briefing, it is clear we're in trouble deep. It's gotten to where the mere sound of Adm. Mary Landry's voice makes my blood curdle. I'm sorry, she doesn't sound true.
I am beyond ashamed, closer to Heart Broken, that we cannot even trust our own US Coast Guard --our heroes of the Corps' Flood-- to give us the straight dope even however bad.
This from BP Incident Command: "Analysis of the tar balls is being conducted to determine the origin of the oil and may take 48 hours to complete."
BWAHAHAHA NOT FUNNY ANYMORE Y'ALL!
Try 1.1 Million gallons/day instead of BP-Command's 210,000 gal/day estimate. 1.1M X 14days=15,400,000 gal X 4lbs/gal=61,400,000 lbs of oil! Now THAT is a setback.
This is a serious problem when BP so controls the message our own Government is putting out. It is time to put a Stop to THAT.
WE SEE WHAT IS HAPPENING. And lest the Rest of the Country again thinks this is not happening to them, just wait until hurricane season carries the Red Rain your way.

BP Oil Disaster - Radar Satellite Image May 8~SkyTruth

Tar Balls Wash Up On Ala. Island

NPR Spinning that Americans don't buy Spin, says Obama is on the ball, we say Obama Handed Balls Off To BP
~Editilla Crowtellas~ NPR, who receives extensive funding from BP, apparently sees that we aren't buying the Joint Incident Command BP PR, so they come out with Advance Counter-spin PR. Get ready folks this is going to get even thicker as that oil gets ever thicker on our coasts. We do not feel that the Obama administration has served our interests. We feel that he handed the response off to BP. Just look at the Canadian Sat picture above. Did y'all know the oil is within 10 miles of Grand Isle, La?
That oil took a Lot Longer than just a few days to get that close. But WHERE HAS OUR GODDAMN COAST GUARD BEEN?
NPR sold out to Velvetta a long time ago.
~National Public Radio or National Propaganda Radio?
I advise y'all to keep your ear to the State of Louisiana.
I've picked on him, called him names, didn't vote for him... but our Governor Bobby Jindal is On The Ground Kicking Ass.
We will take have to care of this on our own anyway Sinn Féin.
I also suggest every coastal state look to their own State Governments. It appears that the Feds have compromised their efficacy and veracity by allowing BP to control not only this operation but also such Free Reign on our National Media to control the Information. We cannot afford this.
Been there Done that and have the Mold-encrusted Blood-Stained pictures to prove it! Remember 8/29/05! Remember the Flood!
Remember the Exxon Valdez.
~Special thanks~ Georgianne Nienaber

BP Oil Disaster Report Leaked: Series of failures led to rig blast
~Portions of the interviews, two written and one taped, were leaked to an Associated Press reporter by Dr. Robert Bea, a University of California Berkeley engineering professor who serves on a National Academy of Engineering panel on oil pipeline safety and worked for BP PLC as a risk assessment consultant during the 1990s. He received them from industry friends seeking his expert opinion. The timeline described in the documents provides the most detailed account of what may have caused the April 20 blast that killed 11 workers and touched off the underwater gusher that has poured more than 3 million gallons of crude into the Gulf.

Find more videos like this on Drilling Ahead
~Hat Tweet~Fofalex ~Special Thanks~ RoughneckCity.com

BP Oil Disaster investigation centers on blowout preventer
~Cutoff valves like the one that failed to stop the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster have repeatedly broken down at other wells in the years since federal regulators weakened testing requirements, according to an Associated Press investigation.

Joyous anticipation turns to tragedy~Gordon Jones was one of 11 men presumed killed in the April 20 explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, south of New Orleans.
And Keith Jones doesn’t want people to forget those men while the world focuses on the millions of gallons of oil leaking into Gulf waters weeks after the tragic accident. “I’m an environmentalist, and I am very upset that so much oil threatens the coastlines of Louisiana and other Gulf states,” the grieving father said.
“But eventually, the coastline and beaches will be clean. The shrimp, oysters, crabs and fish will return. And I am certain that (well owner) BP will be forced to fairly compensate those who will lose, for a time, their livelihoods,” Jones added.
“In other words, Louisiana will come back from this oil spill.
But Gordon will never come back, and neither will the other 10 men who died with him.”
~A pod of Bottle Nose dolphins swim through the oily water of Chandeleur Sound on Thur. May 6. Photo: Alex Brandon/AP
~Employers can post any oil leak-related job openings for free through the Louisiana Workforce Commission’s online service.

Wounded Bird
A dead bird floats in oily water in Breton Sound about 10 miles southeast of Breton Island on Thur. May 6.

Audubon Nature Institute Stands Ready to Rehabilitate Marine Life Impacted by the Spill
~Hat Tweet~erster

BP Oil Disaster could devastate U.S. Gulf Coast oyster reefs
~The lowly oyster, a tasty delicacy to seafood lovers but a curiosity to more squeamish diners, is also the backbone of marine life along the U.S. Gulf Coast and among the most vulnerable creatures now threatened by a giant oil spill.

Oil-containment effort's success hard to gauge ~Rick Jervis

NWF Video of what it's like to be in the oil~Too bad they don't allow embedding.

A Hymn for Nature in Peril on the Gulf Seashore
~Georgianne Nienaber

~Louisiana Governor's Office
~Editilla Notellas~ We have decided to rely more on data from the Louisiana Governor's Office, because the NOAA data, alone, seems to have become Incomplete, Untimely, and slanted toward BP Public Relations. Just go check out their cutsy Unified Command website punkishly titled Deepwater Horizon Response. Try the phone numbers. Take a seat.
Go to the NOAA website, try to find updated Satellite imagery.
We don't have time for this kind of "Government Oversight".
I've picked on him, called him names, didn't vote for him... but our Governor Bobby Jindal is On The Ground Kicking Ass.

Officials prepare as oil menaces Port Fourchon, Grand Isle, La.
~Oil-cleanup training set to begin today in Houma

Oil spill cleanup training set for next week in Slidell, La

BP Oil Spill poses potential human health risks

Vendredi

BP Oil Spill Disaster - May 7th
~SkyTruth
~Please click to enlarge.

How big is the BP Oil Disaster?
~Google Lat Long Blog
~Editilla gotta axe~Can someone at Google please STOP their use of BP PR to name this disaster?
Google of all groups should know how this works with their own aggregation. What you Name a thing is what it becomes in History on the Internet. This it the BP Oil Disaster: BP caused it (not the DWHorizon Rig), It is Not a Spill but an Oil Man River.
Also, Google is badly under-quoting the Flow Rate.
We cannot abide Google doing Bad Informing. Why Google?
Editilla would axe them myself but Google Blogs don't seem to Do Comments from their readers that I could find. What'up Wit'dat?
This in itself is an even greater Irony than their continued egregious Miss-Framing the Name of this Disaster.

Oil, Obfuscations and Videotape in the Gulf of Mexico
~Georgianne Nienaber
~Social Networking Crisis Map Shows Impacts of BP Oil Spill
~The Louisiana Bucket Brigade, a health and justice organization in New Orleans, is asking residents of the Gulf Coast to report fisherman out of work, endangered wildlife, oil on shore, oil sheens, health impacts and other problems using a new tool known as the Oil Spill Crisis Map. "The Oil Spill Crisis Map compiles and maps eyewitness accounts of the oil's effects in real time," said Anne Rolfes of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade. "This is a tool for all of us to understand the extent of the damage."

Stop BP Public Relations Spin!

The Branding of the "Gulf Oil Spill", how a manmade disaster gets its name.~Dan Shapely
~The Exxon Valdez, which ruptured in Prince William Sound, is synonymous with its spill, and the company that owned the tanker. But a broad geographic descriptor – "Gulf Oil Spill" – seems to have emerged as the name of choice for the latest manmade disaster. That's what turns up most frequently in headlines, commentary and Google searches.
Why doesn't the brand include BP, the owner of the oil? Or Deepwater Horizon, the rig that exploded spectacularly to catalyze the leak? Or the rig's owner, Transocean? Or Halliburton, which is responsible for some of the failed cementing work? Or Cameron International Corp., which made the "blowout preventer" that didn't prevent the blowout?
~Editilla Sayz~STOP BP PR!
~BP has been accused of numerous human rights violations with their activities in places like Colombia and Turkey, among others. Amnesty International has condemned their pipeline that runs through Turkey, from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean, for displacing thousands of people, risking their health, and stripping them of their civil rights. Similarly, BP has been accused of benefiting from the harassment and intimidation doled out by Colombian paramilitaries to protect their pipeline there, which has also displaced 1,000 farmers. BP settled with a multimillion pound deal that assured they didn't have to admit any liability in the Colombian matter. ~Huff Post

Fishermen say too few hired for temporary cleanup jobs
~Locals say outsiders hired in place of them for BP jobs.
For thousands of fishermen whose livelihoods are threatened by an expanding oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, the offer of jobs by energy giant BP (BP.L) to help clean up the spill seemed like a lifeline. But hope has already turned to disappointment for many in Louisiana and Alabama who complain that too few people are being selected. Some also say that out-of-state fishermen are taking advantage of a program designed specifically for locals.
~Editilla Rotellas~Given their obvious Jailhouse Hubris...
Who still thinks me extreme for loudly advocating, pleading:
ARREST BP EXECUTIVES, SEIZE ALL BP ASSETS?

~Special Thanks to Deborah Gage, Dana Blankenhorn @ Smart Planet and Big Kidooz to John Wright who made poor Editilla laugh so hard wit'da Piggies Video in the comments.
Have you seen the BiggerPiggies in their starched white shirts?

Twitter as Newswire for Discussing BP Oil Disaster
~Karen Dalton-Beninato

BP Oil Drilling Disaster:
Latest Spill Projections
~Gulf Restoration Network

Governor Jindal Signs Executive Order for Emergency Procurement Procedures

New Orleans Hazard Mitigation Meeting, May 11 at 6:00 pm
~Watershed NOLA

As Oil Threat Creeps Closer, a Rush on Seafood

Saturday is an opportunity to help feed fishers and hungry kids
~Judy Walker

Flood Waters Pose Yet Another Threat to Louisiana's Fishermen
~The state had already opened up freshwater diversion projects to flush Mississippi River water into some inland marshes on the west bank of the river; why not let nature’s course do the same thing at the mouth of the estuary leading into the Gulf of Mexico?
But when I ran that thinking by Tracy Kuhns, a fisherman’s wife from Barataria who works closely with the local Association of Family Fishermen, she saw the arrival of flood waters from the north as yet another worst case scenario.
The association is made up of shrimpers mostly, who fish out of Bayou Lafourche and on the Gulf. Her concern is that, rather than push against the oil, the fast-moving water will carry all the young shrimp and other sea life out into the mess.
“That’s one reason everyone’s fishing so hard now,” she says, “before any more water comes down from the north…and before any oil comes in from the Gulf.”
~Editilla Crowtellas~ Oooohhh So00 This is why the Corps of Engineers hopes to use water diversion structures to push water out of sensitive wetland areas and keep away oil that has been drawing near shore!
We knew there had to be a Catch if they jumped into this Disaster. There just isn't enough Destruction for Louisiana and it is the Corps Proven Record of giving us what we Paid For.

State closes some shrimping waters west of Mississippi, Local shrimp season opens Monday
Shown in green, a swath of the Gulf of Mexico from the mouth of the Mississippi to Four Bayous Pass is now closed to shrimpers because of fears of oil drifting west from the BP Oil Disaster.
Oil extending west around Mississippi Delta
~Louisiana Governor's Office
~Editilla Notellas~ We have decided to rely more on data from the Louisiana Governor's Office, because the NOAA data alone has become Incomplete, Untimely, and slanted toward BP Public Relations. Just go check out their cutsy Unified Command website punkishly titled Deepwater Horizon Response. Try the phone numbers. Gimme a forkin'break.
I've picked on him, called him names, didn't vote for him... but our Governor Bobby Jindal is On The Ground Kicking Ass.

Great interview on BP Oil Spill at WWNO with wetlands reporter Mark Schleifstein

BP oil spill manages to mess up NASA's Space Shuttle launch
~The expanding oil slick has cut into the deep water route typically used by NASA barges and their tugs to haul the 15-storey space shuttle fuel tanks from their manufacturing site – the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans – to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to be attached to an orbiter for launch.

BP, other oil spill companies start the blame game~The companies behind the oil drilling disaster threatening the fragile waterways and beaches of the Gulf Coast are beginning to turn on each other.

When asked to respond to Michael Brown’s comments on President Obama causing the BP Oil Disaster, La. Sen. Mary Landrieu said:
“He was a fool when he stepped off the plane in Louisiana 4½ years ago, and unfortunately for him, he apparently still is." H/T~ GN

Officials: Oil spill may endanger human health, EPA Clueless
~"We don't know what the impacts are going to be yet," said Dave Bary, an EPA spokesman in Dallas. "We don't know in what direction this oil will go."

Safety fluid was removed before oil rig exploded in Gulf

St. Bernard Parish officials brace for arrival of the Gulf oil spill on their shores~Bob Warren

Seafood reputation warranted

Florida tourism officials say Message Control as vital as oil clean-up?

Oil Spill Academic Task Force
The Oil Spill Academic Task Force (OSATF) will bring together resources of Florida's academic institutions to assist the State of Florida and the Gulf region in preparing for and responding to the BP Oil Spill Disaster.

Florida Class Action Filed in BP Oil Spill Disaster~Gulf Actions Spill Counsel (GASP), a national team of prominent attorneys, allege multiple failures by BP, Halliburton and other Defendants

Thomas Friedman thinks BP Oil Disaster gives Obama a chance to lead, we see Obama as a punked BP Lackey, One-and-Done

Jeudi

All's Quiet on the Dirty Coast HA!
~Editilla Crowtellas~ Somebody give these people an Award!
Better yet give'em money, wear your T-Shirt with NOLA PRIDE!
~FYYFF is Back!
The United Commercial Fisherman's Association and Louisiana Action Network Issue Subpoenas to British Petroleum and Halliburton ~“Due to the total lack of transparency by BP and Halliburton, the Gulf Oil Disaster Recovery Group, on behalf of the United Commercial Fisherman’s Association and the Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN),has been forced to prepare subpoenas from the U.S. District Court in and for the Eastern District of Louisiana to compel BP to provide pertinent information regarding the cause of the DEEPWATER HORIZON catastrophe and its potential impact on human health and the environment."
BP backs away from extortionist oil spill settlement language

Rig Survivors Felt Coerced To Sign Waivers ~NPR
~Lawyers for the oil rig's owner, Transocean, requested that workers who had survived the blast sign the form in the wake of the April 20 blowout on the Deepwater Horizon. This was hours before the workers had been allowed to see their families.

Oil creeping west of the mouth of Mississippi River

Stop BP Public Relations Spin!

BP avoids being tarred with
Oil Disaster tag~Leonard Doyle
~President Obama named it "the BP oil spill" while in Lousiana last week, much to the horror of BP's boss Tony Howard and its communications chief Andrew Gowers. Elsewhere the media has played with "the Deepwater Horizon spill," the Gulf Coast disaster". Least memorable and therefore the one BP probably prefers is "the Macondo spill," named after the well itself. Barclays seems to have settled on Macondo and a team of its analysts said today in a note to clients today that "The Macondo spill appears to us to be far more serious than Exxon Valdez in its potential longer-term implications for the oil industry."
Funny that Barclays which is also a British bank, should be framing it the "Macondo oil spill" rather than the punchier "BP oil disaster". But London is a small town and such matters can be sorted over lunch at one of several Pall Mall gentlemans' clubs.
~Editilla gotta Axe~What's in a Name? 9/11? 8/29?
Ask anyone devastated by a man-made disaster, an engineering failure, the Federal Flood of '05, Corps' Flooding, the Corps of Engineers' Flood of New Orleans.

Levees.org supporters respond to NY Times editor’s defense of calling Katrina a ‘natural disaster’~We asked our nearly 25,000 supporters to write to Greg Brock, senior editor of the New York Times in response to his defense of calling Katrina a ‘natural disaster.’ We were compelled to do this because Mr. Brock closed his defense with this observation: “I think all the families who were displaced and who lost loved ones would agree that a hurricane did exist.”

BP touts itself as 'green,' but faces PR disaster with 'BP oil spill'~Paul Farhi
~Hat Tip: Corps Watch

Do we have a Fuckmook for You!
~DelGiorno and some others here, on other hand, appear clueless as to the damage and destruction this crude oil can wreak if it hits the beach. Nobody would wish it on a beach anywhere, and when the oil is far offshore -- as it is now -- no right-thinking person would question a full-on aerial attack with dispersants to keep it from getting on a beach. But strangely enough, some along the Gulf Coast are questioning that. Some of the environmental experts who get their information from the internet (which is, given the rotten performance of the "lamestream" media, the only place where you can find out anything about our secret Mars colony) are warning of the toxicity of dispersants.
~Editilla Scrotellas~ Is it something in their water that has turned some Alaskans into Blithering Idiot Palinate Grifters?
~MATERIAL SAFETY DATA SHEET: COREXIT® 9500
Hazardous Substance(s) CAS NO % (w/w)
-Distillates, petroleum, hydrotreated light
64742-47-8 10.0 - 30.0
-Propylene Glycol 57-55-6 1.0 - 5.0
-Organic sulfonic acid salt Proprietary 10.0 - 30.0
~SAFETY DATA SHEET: COREXIT® EC9527A
Hazardous Substance(s) CAS NO % (w/w)
-2-Butoxyethanol 111-76-2 30.0 - 60.0
-Organic sulfonic acid salt Proprietary 10.0 - 30.0
-Propylene Glycol 57-55-6 1.0 - 5.0
~Also see: Tom Philpott, Grist, Matt Rota, GRN, NOLAFemmes

How to help BP oil spill cleanup? Stay home. Let locals do it.

Oil Hits Chandeleur Chain:
14 Days After - View from Above
~Gulf Restoration Network
~As BP's oil drilling disaster continues to pump an estimated 210,000 gallons of their crude into the Gulf, nearly 3 million gallons have now fouled the marine ecosystem of the Gulf.
~Editilla Goz'intas~ That is appx 12,000,000 pounds of oil!

STILL, BABY, STILL?
Some Southern leaders rethink
offshore drilling in wake of
BP disaster, but most stay the course~Facing South

Rut'row! We wondered when these Fakirs would show up
~The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hopes to use water diversion structures to push water out of sensitive wetland areas and keep away oil that has been drawing near shore since the April 20 explosion of the BP Deepwater Horizon rig.
~Editilla But'hellas~ The Corps of Engineers is equally culpable for the destruction of Louisiana's coast. But hell, let's not fault'em for trying. They'll of course need More Funding!
Speaking of Exquisite Corps PR, (and how PR is killing America) we have opened up a conversation with the Humid Beings about BP PR and how to Stop that Flow.
Please come join da'partay!
~Sen. David Vitter told Jindal earlier this week,
"When you slipped and you mentioned the Corps of Engineers as part of the oil protection project, you scared me to death."

Oh Dambala, Come Dambala
~American Zombie

Stop BP Public Relations!

The BP Oil Disaster, Seen From the International Space Station
~Soichi Noguchi, a JAXA astronaut currently floating around the ISS, has been raining down various photos of the Earth's surface for quite some time now, via his Twitter account.
There's no context provided with the picture, so it's hard to be sure which part of the photo is oil, and which is water. Generally, oil has photographed as lighter than water from space, so I'm guessing it's the terrifying, overwhelming lower left section.

How BP pushed tech envelope:
A guest column by Len Bahr
~Hat Tip~Library Chronicles
~Editilla Calls to the AP~ STOP PUSHING BP PR!
Stop allowing BP to say things like "The leak will be stopped but we can't say when." or "One leak plugged." (when that hasn't been actually verified) or "Sea Turtles aren't dying from Oil" (without telling us how they are dying in such great numbers).
~BP has massively ramped up lobby spending under Chief Executive Tony Hayward, reaching $16 million last year versus only $3.6 million in 2006 -- the year before Hayward took over. BP spent $3.5 million in the first quarter of this year alone.
~Urban Dictionary Word for the Day: amirite

Still allowed to walk the streets BP Perp Tony Hayward keeps on spinning like a broken record
~Editilla Rotellas~ We just wonder why this Perp is allowed unfettered access to our National News Media to do his company's Public Relations Spin. Why hasn't he been arrested or at least his passport seized? Or a Pie in His Lying Face.

Feds let BP avoid filing blowout plan for Gulf rig

Sex, Lies and Oil Spills
~Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Hey Bobby give me a call and my people and your people can do lunch ~slabbed

US panel asked to consolidate 65+ BP Oil Disaster lawsuits

~Louisiana Governor's Office

Fishermen seek a second Temporary Restraining Order against BP to assume appropriate worker chemical safety oversight duty in cleanup
~Humid Beings

Terrebonne shrimp-boat armada sweeps Gulf

Despite BP Oil Disaster, Louisiana's seafood catch is fine, officials say~Judy Walker
~Hat Tweet~Bret AndersonTP

BP Oil Disaster brings charitable response for fishing families
~Bruce Nolan

Texas Candidates Spar Over BP Oil Disaster

How did we miss this till today?

~Special thanks~Adrastosno @ Back of Town

Mercredi

Governor Jindal Attends Launching of Jack Up Barge in Plaquemines Parish, announced LANG to build wharf in St. Bernard Parish to help deploy resources
~Governor Jindal said, “Through the leadership of Billy Nungesser, Plaquemines Parish is aggressively moving to protect their coastal resources. Around 100,000 feet of hard boom is currently being deployed and the parish is also ready to deploy around 24 miles of absorbent boom to supplement hard booming efforts. We’re here today to help Plaquemines Parish launch the first jack up barge as part of our work to mitigate the impact of the spill. This jack up barge will literally save hours of time to deploy resources to fragile areas of our coast. These kinds of barges can also be moved in the event that weather conditions shift and take the oil into another part of Plaquemines Parish – or even another part of our state."

NY Times calls both BP spill and Katrina ‘natural disasters’ ~Levees.org

The Horizon File: Mike Roberts, Commercial Fisherman
~Humid Beings

~Special thanks~Humid Beings

~Special thanks~Three Ass Hooked Whitey

“Oil-Spotted Dick”: Cheney’s Oily Fingerprints in the BP Disaster
~Levees Not War~The good people of Great Britain have a beloved and time-honored delicacy, a steamed suet pudding known as Spotted Dick. Well, we Americans too have a celebrated concoction that has served as vice president and secretary of defense as well as CEO of Halliburton.
And what a rare and piquant morsel is our Dick.

God apparently disagrees with Texas Gov Rick Perry: Texas Refinery Catches Fire After Tanker Truck Explodes
~Hat Tweet~Fofalex

An easy way to help alleviate Gulf oil disaster ~Gambit

Federal law may limit BP liability

BP Caps One Leak In Gulf, Another In Washington
~David Dayen, Fire Dog Lake
~The biggest leak-plugging, disaster-avoidance display from BP has been the one their lobbyists are engaged in on Capitol Hill.

BP Chief Sends Mixed Messages on Economic Damage Payments for Gulf Spill ~NYT
~BP PLC's global chief executive, Tony Hayward, privately balked at committing to paying all claims for economic damage caused by the company's oil spill, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) disclosed after the two met yesterday.
That directly contradicts Hayward's public statements, including the ones he made moments before Nelson spoke.
"When I said 'Will you be responsible for the economic damages?' he said, "That's something we'll have to work out in the future,'" said Nelson, a longtime foe of drilling who has co-sponsored legislation to raise a $75 million cap on BP's legal liability for economic damages, retroactively, to $10 billion.

BP Enjoys Lobbying Strength, Close Ties to Lawmakers as Federal Investigation Looms
~Center for Responsive Politics
~Oil & Gas: Long-Term Contribution Trends

U.S. exempted BP's Gulf of Mexico drilling from environmental impact study
~Juliet Eilperin

BP Oil Spill: 7 Secrets BP Doesn't Want You To Know (PHOTOS)
~Huffington Post

What BP's Oil Disaster and Goldman Sachs' Rip-off Schemes Have in Common~Robert Reich

Reinsurance: the BP Oil Disaster
~Editilla Notellas~We alter Titles to call this what it is because 1) it is caused by BP. 2) it is Not a "Spill" but a River.
We are, however, gratified by the turning of this Tag to a more accurate description in an increasing number of Media Outlets.

~A heavy line of oil surrounds the northern tip of Chandeleur Island in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday, May 4.

4 states granted access to funds

~Louisiana Governor's Office of Homeland Security

~Hat Tweet~EDF_Louisiana

Press Conference: NOAA Scientific Support Coordinator with Commander of U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Strike Team take questions from the media regarding the BP Oil Disaster. Video.
Part 1 Part 2, Part 3 Special Thanks: Georgianne Nienaber

Fl Gov Crist makes second flight over growing gulf oil slick
~“Filaments of the Loop Current are within tens of kilometers of the oil spill,” said Robert H. Weisberg, an oceanographer at the University of South Florida who has been modeling the movement of the spill. Once the current catches the spill, he said, “the speed of the current is such that it only takes a week before oil will be at entrance of the Florida straits and another week until it gets as far as Miami.

UNIFIED COMMAND spreads to Alabama, West Coast of Florida

Out of Sight Out of News
~MATERIAL SAFETY DATA SHEET: COREXIT® 9500

This image released courtesy of NWF.org/OilSpill shows a turtle swimming through a massive oil slick about 15 miles south of Louisiana on May 4, 2010, spotted by officials from the National Wildlife Foundation. The group hired a boat from the port town of Venice and went out into the Gulf of Mexico through an outlet in the Mississippi River. Nobody on board was trained in animal rescue and they were forced to leave the obviously distressed turtle in the slick and simply report the coordinates to a hotline. Two weeks after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, the full impact of the disaster is being realized as a massive slick looms off the US Gulf coast, threatening to wipe out the livelihoods of shoreline communities. If estimates are correct, some 2.5 million gallons of crude have streamed into the sea since the BP-leased platform spectacularly sank on April 22, still ablaze more than two days after the initial blast that killed 11 workers.
(Photo/AFP/Getty Images)

Mapping the Gulf oil spill in Google Earth

Could the BP Oil Disaster help our hurricane season?
~Another "Science" Attempt to Miss-Frame this Man-made Disaster with Hurricane Katrina.

Sign linking lack of oysters to oil spill was unauthorized, Parkway Bakery owner says~Judy Walker


Hat Tweet~Deb Cotton

Mardi

BP Oil Spill May 4th ~SkyTruth
~Hat Tweet~Facing South
~This MODIS / Aqua image taken the afternoon of May 4, 2010, shows much of the oil slick resulting from the ongoing Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Fresh upwelling of oil is apparent in the bright patch of slick around the location of the leaking well on the seafloor. Long tendrils of slicks and sheen reach to the southwest and east. Total area covered by slicks and sheen - possibly including some patches of open water - is 3,260 square miles. Pale streaks of turbid water from recent high winds and waves, and dark streaks and patches of wind-shadow oriented southwest-northeast, complicate the picture near shore and could possibly obscure patches of oil in those areas. Heavy clouds to the south may also be obscuring oil.
~Editilla Scrotellas~Yet some Environmentalists would have us Make Nice. "Let's give BP a chance to Make It Right".
Fuck That. This is Why We Have A Navy, to wit: the British.

Are you eating more seafood right now in response to the BP Oil Disaster in the Gulf?

Slicked – $249,813,232 spent lobbying Congress since 1990 – Slabbed

America’s Energy Coast-You Won’t Know What You Had Until It’s Gone~Bayou Child

The Flower of Death Gets Bitchslapped~American Zombie
~Aside from the damages cap ($5000), BP was trying to require all boat captains to carry their own worker's comp and insure their own deckhands. They were trying to offer each boat, $1500/day, for the entire crew on the boat...a meager sum when the pie is divided.
~Editilla Notellas~ We carried this one on over from yesterday due to the comments. Some cousins think preposterous my idea to Arrest All BP Executives and Seize All BP Assets until this Fat Lady Sings. Well fine, I see they missed the joke. Dayum!
Of course it is Preposterous. Look it up.
Attempt to Marginalize Editilla at your peril. Really.
We sincerely thank the Zombie posting my retart to that one.
This is confusing to me: do we allow BP Execs unfettered movement and access to our National News Media simply on the grounds of Free Speech, so they can apply their Corporate Public Relations Spin, while We The People impacted by their AssFuck have No Such Resources. Are We Only The People?
Prisons and Graveyards are Littered with such Bourgeois Naivete.
BP isn't the one here with their heads up their ass. They Lobbied Hundreds of Millions to screw us here right now in this way.
They do not have a Plan to deal with this Problem, but they do have a Complete PR Strategy to Deal With Its Reality.
I say we are a Nation greater than the sum of its parts taken separately, a Synergy, albeit heavily medicated and well armed.
But realistically, let's say I sell heroine to and rape all of your children. Is it OK for me to spend my misbegotten profit to flood the News with PR about how I'm actually not such a bad guy and btw I'll pay for the Emergency Room Visit? Is it OK for me to Tamper So with the Jury Pool in the Court of Public Opinion?
DON'T TREAD ON ME BP! Are we Citizens? Or are we Devo?
And, ahem, thanks Jeffrey.


BP well deeper than allowed, lacked safety shut-off valve
~When asked why BP wouldn’t install a deep-hole valve, Papantonio says, “Because the deep-hole valve when deployed could cause BP to lose the well site and redrill. They were cutting cost to save money.” ~Hat Tweet~CenLamar

Idiocy alert: Some idiotic statements regarding the spill
~Black Gulf ~Hat Tip~Library Chronicles

Louisiana Governor Jindal says
still no plans from BP on cleanup
~Louisiana's governor says he still has not received detailed plans from oil giant BP PLC and the Coast Guard on protecting the state's coast from a massive oil spill.

~Louisiana Governor's Office of Homeland Security

Feds: Slick to slide west, financial help on the way ~WWL

As BP dithers and spins PR, oil spill aid heading to Gulf from Alaska, Pacific Northwest
Under a national compact, other states provide aid when one asks for help, Hart said. Louisiana made the request last week, and state and federal agencies in the Northwest and nationally have been drawing up lists of available assets.

~Oil in the Gulf has countless livelihoods in limbo
The Port of Gulfport in Mississippi is the nation's second-largest importer of green fruit, with Central American bananas from Chiquita and Dole accounting for 74 percent of its imported cargo in 2007. The Port of New Orleans handled 73 millions tons of cargo in 2008, including coffee from South America and steel from Japan, Russia, Brazil and Mexico. Three cruise ships also dock there, handling more than 600,000 passengers a year.
Upriver is the Port of South Louisiana, the nation's busiest with 224 million tons of cargo a year — mostly grain and other agricultural commodities, and chemicals from the scores of plants that line the river.
Recreational fishing draws some 6 million saltwater anglers a year, supports more than 300,000 jobs and contributes $41 billion dollars annually to the Gulf Coast economy, according to the American Sportfishing Association.
Louisiana is also America's top producer of shrimp, oysters, crabs, crawfish and alligators, shipping out 30 percent all the seafood in the lower 48 states, says Ewell Smith, executive director of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board. That adds up to an economic impact of $2.4 billion a year. Louisiana fishermen landed 90.4 million pounds of shrimp in 2008, or 44 percent of U.S. production, and 207 million pounds of oysters, or 36 percent of the U.S. total, Smith says. Any hiccup in production opens the door to foreign competition, which already accounts for 80 percent of the nation's seafood.

Currents keep oil offshore says Lackey State University
~Ocean currents may be keeping a massive pool of thick, heavy oil — leaking from a well deep in the Gulf of Mexico — offshore and out of Louisiana’s marshes, barrier islands and coastline, a Meteorologist said Monday at academically, ethically and PR compromised Louisiana State University.

Officials on Mississippi coast press BP to pay for cleanup

Frustrated MS fishermen want work~Hundreds of frustrated South Mississippi commercial fisherman who may not be able to fish because of the looming oil spill showed up to a loosely organized meeting Monday hoping to learn more about cleanup contracts. The meeting was organized through word of mouth in the fishing communities.
Some there were concerned any oil spill cleanup work would go to out-of-state companies and Mississippi fishermen would be left out of the cleanup. They also were frustrated about the terms of some of the agreements fishermen have been signing.

The “fix” was in before the spill as Slabbed introduces its readers to the Oil Pollution Act

Senator: Can't let BP off the hook
~"BP says it'll pay for this mess. Baloney, they're not going to want to pay any more than what the law says they have to, which is why we can't let them off the hook."
~Florida Senator Bill Nelson

Florida officials say BP response too clumsy~BP officials may be hampering Florida's ability to protect fragile coastal ecosystems from the impact of what could be the worst oil spill in the nation's history, state officials said Monday.
Gov. Charlie Crist dispatched state Environmental Protection Secretary Mike Sole to the Mobile Unified Command center in Alabama this weekend, the hub of the federal and multi-state emergency response coordinated with British Petroleum.
"The message that was sent from me, through the secretary to the (Coast Guard), was that we need to stand up and get more aggressive about this," Crist said.
But echoing complaints during and after the response to Hurricane Katrina, there appears to be a lack of coordination between all of those involved -- including BP, Florida's chief financial officer, Alex Sink, said after visiting Mobile and the Panhandle on Monday.

Florida Keys to be next victim of BP Oil Disaster?
~Spewing forth what appears to be an unstoppable fount of greasy, heavy oil, the Keys and the east coast are now sitting in the path of the oil as it floats into the warm gulf current known as the “Loop.”

Texas governor pans drilling safety regulations, suggests ‘God’ to blame for BP Oil disaster
~Texas AG joins coalition to focus on Gulf oil spill

How the Beltway press (not Rush Limbaugh) launched “Obama’s Katrina”~Media Matters

Big Photos of Disaster @ Apr 30
~Hat Tweet~Erster

Nashville – A Week to Forget ~Dave Gutzman
~Unfortunately, an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a poorly made bomb in New York City, and the constant comedy of Washington DC all contributed to shield the world from the realities of our disaster. Thus, I want to leave my readers with a few images to paint a picture of the suffering and devastation that our proud city and state are battling to overcome.
The threat of additional levees breaking caused the evacuation of the Metro Center north of Nashville. The Corps of Engineers is on-site trying to prevent water levels from rising. (rut'row)
~Readers respond after Flood of 2010

Lundi

St. Tammany officials plan to protect Lake Pontchartrain

St. Bernard Parish fishers work to protect fragile Biloxi Marsh

"It's become clear there is no detailed plan to address this spill on this scale. This spill, it can fundamentally, fundamentally threaten our way of life in Louisiana."
~Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal

A Portuguese Man-o-War is seen in clumps of oil in the waters of Chandeleur Sound, La., Monday, May 3, 2010.
~Editilla Velvettas~ It is time to bring a Hammer Down.
BP is walking America with Big PR Bucks to Spin their Liability for what will become the Greatest Man-made Disaster in History.
What our President actually Did with his Photo-Op drive-by on the BP Oil Disaster is allow BP unfettered Public Relations to spout this False Meme that they will Pay Recompense. Bullshit. This is evident in BP's Ugly PR Tour of major news media all over. Heart Surgery at 5000ft My Ass. Feaking Heart Surgery?
They will NOT PAY as it will be caught in the Courts case by case. We can see it coming now as this "Spill" becomes far larger, which they knew when they told us, and we move into the coming months with Their Failure Killing Us.
What Obama did by Kissing BP's ASS in Venice La, yes kissing their ass, is to provide them The Story. Now all they have to do is say they are responsible, when they are NOT. Why are we here?
If BP and the like were Responsible then we wouldn't be here.
Cancer is the ultimate Economy of Scale. Junk is the Bank Teller.
BP is running around the Gulf Coast trying to Extort everyone out of their livelihoods with quick Cash Offers for Settlement.
Americans need to realize that BP has Cash Reserves that we will Never Even Dream About. Americans need to see that BP plans to Out Spend Us and still Show Profit. Americans must come to the realization that BP is NOT A PERSON BUT A THING.
Yeah right, "people" work for BP. "People" worked for the Nazis too! "People" work for the Oil Industry. "People" killed their neighbors in Sarajevo. "People" stacked up bodies in Uganda because they were Gay. "People" run the Heroin Industry in New Orleans. Who Are These Fucking People?
What do these "People" care about We The People?
Nothing but Cash. You got the Money? Take the Hit. The Meme says if you want to drive a car then you have to take the hit.
Stop Listening to BP as if they are A Person With Feelings.
They Love That Sort of Bourgeois Naivete!
They Are NOT PEOPLE WITH FEELINGS. They Are Pushers.
Truth would be to ARREST ALL BP EXECUTIVES and SEIZE ALL BP ASSETS. That is really what needs to happen. Sinn Féin.
I don't understand why these people have not been Arrested.
We really need to Stop Treating BP like they are the Good Guys.
After that then we can face this Disaster honestly. Otherwise, if we let BP keep telling this story, we are good and truly screwed.
Stop this Precedent Setting Behavior of Taking the Oil Industry at their Word. That is Ridiculous technologically and politically.
Why let these lying incompetent Capitalists Losers say another word? We've had enough of that with the Corps of Engineers.
The Pusher always blames the Junkie...and the Junkie takes it.

Louisiana victory against BP Consent Agreement extended Nationwide~Krewe of Truth

BP Told to Stop Distributing Oil Spill Settlement Agreements
~Alabama Attorney General Troy King said Sunday night that he has told BP they should stop circulating settlement agreements among coastal Alabamians, the Mobile Press-Register reports. King reportedly said the agreements stipulate that residents will give up their right to sue the company in exchange for a payment of up to $5,000. Can we Believe this Shit?

BP still handing out contracts struck down by federal court
~Brentin Mock, The Lens

Halliburton Presentation May Explain Horizon Oil Rig Explosion and Fire
~Fire Dog Lake

Tech Talk: Progress on the Gulf oil leak and comments on cementing pipes and well completion~The Oil Drum

Slabbed presents video and an eye witness account of the BP Deep Water Horizon blowout
~The tuna bites were starting to slow down so we drove right up to the rig to try to catch bait. No bait, but we found more tuna under the floating rig. Around 10pm the entire center of the rig started rushing water downwards over all the pipes...
I've never seen such an event take place. I looked at my friend who previously worked offshore, and he said that's BOP something another and the rig took a 'kick!' I thought the rig was sinking and that was their way of bilging... But nope!
Methane gas began BLOWING out of the West side of it and the noise of the thrust was louder than anything I've ever herd (except for a sonic boom I herd once, and what I'm about to tell you next) My eyes began to burn and that friend I was telling you about earlier began to SCREAM, "GO, GO, GO, GO, GOOOOO!"
I positioned my compass North and put the gears in WOT!
At approximately 100 yds from the rig it Exploded!