I have been wondering why this oil slick has not been attacked with more vigilance and action over this past week. It has been sitting out in the Gulf and now is heading toward shore. Are there not any plans as to what to do when something like this happens. It seems like the oil industry and the government has been watching this thing get progressively worse and not much in the way of solutions. This could be Obamas Katrina. I hope it doesn't get to that but if this thing gets to land, the finger pointing will begin. Definitly could hurt the offshore oil drilling plans.

Obama just released a statement this morning on the cause of this. It was a short statement and read........ Its all Bush's fault! ... End of statement.

Now it is over a month and the oil still gushes into the Gulf. The plan is to blow golf balls, tires etc. into the pipe. After a month this is the best the oil industry and our government have come up with. Meanwhile our society becomes more and more dependent on the government.

U.S. government slams BP for missed deadlines on spill

By Matthew Bigg and Chris Baltimore – 1 hr 2 mins ago

VENICE, La/HOUSTON (Reuters) – The U.S. government threatened on Sunday to remove BP from efforts to seal a blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico if it doesn't do enough to stop the leak, though it acknowledged only the company and the oil industry have the know-how to halt the deepwater spill.

The Coast Guard said on Sunday that over 65 miles of Gulf Coast has experienced "shoreline impact" and less than half of it could be cleaned up relatively quickly, underscoring the growing ecological toll of the disaster.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Washington is frustrated and angry that BP Plc missed "deadline after deadline" in its efforts to seal the well more than a month after an oil rig explosion triggered the disaster.

"I am angry and I am frustrated that BP has been unable to stop this oil from leaking and to stop the pollution from spreading. We are 33 days into this effort and deadline after deadline has been missed," Salazar said after visiting BP's U.S. headquarters in Houston on Sunday.

"If we find they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing, we'll push them out of the way appropriately," he told reporters as the administration maintained its hard line.

Salazar's strong comments followed President Barack Obama's on Saturday, when he blamed the spill on "a breakdown of responsibility" at BP. The unfolding disaster has become a top priority on Obama's crowded domestic agenda.

The chief of the Coast Guard, Admiral Thad Allen, acknowledged on Sunday that the government is forced to rely on BP and the private oil sector to try to plug the gusher. At the same time, BP said the containment method it was attempting on the ocean floor was capturing much less of the leaking oil than three days ago.

Company engineers were readying other short-term solutions, the next one expected to start late on Tuesday. But BP Managing Director Bob Dudley said there was "no certainty" of success at the unprecedented depths at which they were being tried -- one mile down in the Gulf of Mexico.

More than a month after a rig explosion triggered what Obama has described as an environmental disaster and "BP's mess," oil is still spewing virtually unchecked from BP's ruptured Macondo seabed well.

TRUST

At a time of mounting U.S. government and public criticism of the company and its executives over the catastrophic spill, Allen said he trusted BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward, who has made comments downplaying its size and environmental impact.

Sheets of heavy oil have washed ashore in Louisiana's fragile marshlands and lesser "oil debris" has also reached the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama in what is seen as an ecological and economic calamity for the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Given the lack of a solution so far and the doubts over BP, Allen was asked on CNN's "State of the Union" why the U.S. government did not completely take over the spill containment operation from the London-based firm.

"What makes this an unprecedented anomalous event is access to the discharge site is controlled by the technology that was used for the drilling, which is owned by the private sector," Allen said. "They have the eyes and ears that are down there. They are necessarily the modality by which this is going to get solved," he added.

Asked too about the apparent growing U.S. lack of confidence in Hayward, Allen said: "I trust Tony Hayward. When I talk to him, I get an answer."

BP has deployed a long suction tube down to the larger of two leaks from the well, but a BP spokesman said on Sunday this captured only 1,360 barrels per day of oil over the 24 hours to midnight Saturday. The flow has been declining from the 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons/795,000 liters) per day the company had said the tube was siphoning off three days ago.

BP engineers are now preparing a "top kill," pumping heavy fluids into the well to try to shut it off, an operation to begin late Tuesday or early Wednesday, Dudley told CNN.

Many scientists believe the Gulf spill has already eclipsed the 11 million gallons (41 million liters) spilled by the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker accident in Alaska. They warn the spreading oil could be caught in a powerful ocean current that could take it to the Florida Keys, Cuba and the U.S. East Coast.

Coast Guard Admiral Mary Landry said 65.6 miles of shoreline has been impacted so far and about 30 acres of marshland.

She told a briefing that of the area affected on the coast "25 miles ... are really readily cleanable and the others are a little harder access but we'll get to it."

Of the impacted marshland about half of it has heavily oiled she said the rest "lightly oiled with sheen."

PRAYERS TO GOD

Churchgoers in Louisiana coastal parishes affected by the spill prayed for God's help. "You (God) can clear that oil up, because that oil was down there thousands of years before it came up in the Gulf. So you know what to do with it, dear God," retired oyster fisherman Herbert Guidry prayed in the New Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church in Houma.

Analysts say growing ecological and economic damage from the spill could become a political liability for Obama before November congressional elections.

While also promising to hold Washington accountable for proper oversight of the industry, Obama ramped up pressure on companies linked to the spill: BP, Halliburton and Transocean Ltd. He believed a "breakdown of responsibility" between them led to the disaster.

BP stocks have taken a beating in the markets in the month since the well blowout and rig explosion that killed 11 workers and touched off the spill. Its share price shed another 4 percent on Friday in London, extending recent sharp losses.

(Additional reporting by Susan Heavey and Jackie Frank in Washington, Sharon Reich in Louisiana, Hashem Kalantari in Tehran; Writing by Ed Stoddard and Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Eric Beech)

U.S. government slams BP for missed deadlines on spill.

Our government blaming BP for missed deadlines is doing nothing to solve this problem. We have had almost a month of that oil sitting offshore without it coming onshore and causing great damage, this is now changing.

Responding to the massive BP oil spill, Congress is getting ready to quadruple—to 32 cents a barrel—a tax on oil used to help finance cleanups. The increase would raise nearly $11 billion over the next decade.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9...;show_article=1

This morning on ABC news George Stephanopoulos asked James Carville what the President can do regarding the oil spill. Carville went on a 1 minute rant that left George, it seemed almost speechless. He basically said the PResident should have gone down and met with the families of the 11 that died. Do something with the people in the Parishes because as Carville said "We are dieing down here". He could deploy the Coast Guard and Army Corp of engineers to help with the clean up. He could force BP to get their tankers out there and help with the clean up. Deploy research vessels and get help from the folks at Woods Hole and Script. Another words he wants the President to get a plan and take control. The people down there are dieing for help.

saw that too, he was very emotional...and correct

It is truly amazing though that the media couldn't slam Bush enough for the response to Katrina, yet Obama gets a total pass on this.

yea on a day in which obama does fund raising at... the GETTY household! its to the point even cnn is saying if this was bush he would be getting hammered.

This morning on ABC they were defending President Obama and saying James Carville was wrong in some of what he said. For example ABC said Carville indicated Obama has not been down there yet but he was once. First I think Carville was trying to bring out the point that the President has to take control and come down more often. From what I understand Bush was 7 times to the Gulf coast the first month after Katrina. Then Abc said Carville falsely reported that the government was not involved and that the Coast Guard was down there, which is true. Again, however, Carville was making the point that so much more could be done. It almost seemed like someone told ABC to dispute the Carville report or ABC was looking for anything Carville said that could be disputed, regardless how weak the arguement. I can't help but think if this was under George Bush, a lot more would have been done by the government, not because Bush was better or worse than Obama but because the media would have been all over him and after about a week Bush would have been forced into action because of the media pressure.

well the day before abc had (and i can't remember her name or exact agency) energy/environment?? )) on directory and she in no uncertain terms said the gov't is in control not b.p. carville was on a rampage all day yesterday. still suprised i heard anderson on cnn said if this was bush media would be hammering him by now. he is actually doing some good reporting down there, showing the true mess (as i he did with katrina). so disgusting to see thick gobs of oil floating around.

appears its working! fingers crossed

from a.c. 360 last night

Oil & Outrage

COOPER: We're back in Port Fourchon, Louisiana, five weeks since the rig blew.


President Obama is coming back on Friday. Reports say he is frustrated with aides, with BP, with the slow response. Everybody here is. I can tell you that. New polling today shows the public losing confidence in the government's handling of the crisis, though they trust him much more than they trust BP.

Let's turn now to CNN's David Gergen and Rice University presidential historian Douglas Brinkley.

David, I mean, a month ago, it seemed like the federal government was on top of this. They were beating back claims by conservatives that this was Obama's Katrina. And now it seems that may have been premature.

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think it was, Anderson.

But, in the beginning, this was a small isolated problem. At least it seemed so. And so it was understandable that the government would leave the leadership on it to BP. But, since then, in the last two or three weeks, this has become a growing national emergency. And it has come -- it now demands a national response.

It is -- it should be unacceptable -- and I think it is to most Americans -- to let the fate of our precious coastline and the waters off our shores rest in the hands of a foreign-owned company like BP. This is a problem for which government, it's -- it's fundamental that government be there, protect us in times of war and in national emergencies.

The president must take charge of this, especially if BP fails tomorrow in this critical effort to get that top kill in place.




COOPER: And, Doug, you know, you have the secretary of the interior, Ken Salazar, saying, you know, well, we're putting the boot on BP's neck. But it doesn't seem like there's much pressure being applied to that boot, if it's there at all.

I mean, the EPA sent out a letter about stop using dispersants, but that's basically been ignored. And now the EPA today is kind of saying, well, OK, well, now we're going to do our own research and try to find out.

Why haven't they been doing research for the last, you know, month?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, that's a good question.

And I agree with everything David Gergen just said. I think the Obama administration finds themselves in a very difficult position right now. They can't really go after BP until they cap that well in the way that perhaps they would like to, meaning unleashing the Justice Department against BP. There are other possibilities of having a different company drill relief wells. But what can you do now, when we have a clock that is ticking 24 to 48 hours, where this last Hail Mary attempt to plug that mile-deep disaster is going to happen?

I think, on Friday, when President Obama comes to the Gulf South, goes to Louisiana, if that's not capped, he is going to have to take on a whole different tone of leadership, and, as David said, talk about what a glorious place the Gulf of Mexico is and what these coastlines mean and the fisheries and why this is like our Great Lakes or Mississippi River.

We haven't had a bullhorn moment from President Obama. We haven't heard the passion. And you know he's sickened by all this. It's a time we don't need the cool, collected Obama. We need the orator and the leader who's emotive.

COOPER: You know, David, those two defend the Obama administration -- and that's certainly not my job -- but those who do say, well, look, what could they have done? You know, the U.S. government doesn't have the expertise of a company like BP in terms of, you know, dealing with disaster at this depth in the water.

GERGEN: That's true, Anderson. The government cannot solve this. It does not have the capacity.

But what government can do is to mobilize the forces that have answers. And -- and the -- and the way the presidents, forceful presidents, do it is, they put somebody in charge. There's -- it's not clear who's in charge now in the administration. Is it the Interior Department? Is it Thad Allen, who is wonderful at the Coast Guard? Is it somebody in the White House?

We don't know. But there has to be someone in charge. And then you bring in the -- all of the representatives, the CEOs of all of these drilling companies, and say, ladies and gentlemen, you have got a collective responsibility to come up with your best technology, your best scientists, your best engineers, and get this problem solved.

Call in the best minds of the country. Call -- you -- put the National Guard in a far more aggressive position trying to defend our coast, build these berms, do whatever is necessary, and call in for citizen volunteers, and put the Cabinet on notice, if we don't get this problem solved in the next 30 to 60 days, your jobs are in jeopardy.

That's what it means to take charge. And I'll tell you this. This -- Doug Brinkley may think this is stretching a little too far, but I do believe that, if our government had fought World War II the way we're fighting the oil spill, there's a good chance many of us would be speaking German today.

The mainstream media in this country is nothing but a lapdog for the liberal agenda. It's truly pathetic. I don't even watch network news any longer. The bias is painfully transparent.

The blame Bush campaign has officially begun:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2...in_reactio.html





Excerpt:

No where does that excerpt blame Bush. You're stretchin it.

While yes maybe he isn't getting blamed enough, there is a HUGE difference here. One was a natural disaster, one involved a PRIVATE corporation. I guarantee you if he stepped in too early on BP's toes, Obama would've been slammed for "big government" stepping on the toes of private business. Something that he's already been criticized for ala the bailout.

C'mon...it doesn't take a genius to know that was a veiled shot at Bush.

Ehh I could see where your coming from but it specifically pointed out the agency itself. I wouldn't have read it that way unless someone pointed it out.

In fact he specifically called out his own administration, so no I don't think it was a direct attack on Bush's administration.

Gotta Love This One:

Parish official: BP shipped in workers for president's visit
May 29, 2010 12:34 a.m. EDT

Louisiana leader suspicious of BP motives

(CNN) -- A Gulf Coast official accused BP of shipping workers into Grand Isle, Louisiana, for President Barack Obama's visit to the oil-stricken area Friday and sending them away once the president left the region.

Early Friday morning, "a number of buses brought in approximately 300 to 400 workers that had been recruited all week," Jefferson Parish Councilman Chris Roberts told CNN's "Situation Room."

Roberts said the workers were offered $12 an hour to come out to the scene at Grand Isle and work in what he called a "dog and pony show."

But, when Obama departed, so did the workers, he said, adding that he's never seen more than 20 workers at the Grand Isle cleanup site since the effort started.

BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles downplayed the claim Friday evening, telling CNN it is not unusual to see people wrapping up work in the afternoon.

"These individuals are working out in the heat of the sun. These are long days. They start early in the morning and they stop early in the evening," he said. "So the fact that they were leaving the location late in the afternoon was not unusual. It's not associated with the president arriving."

Suttles added that the workers would be back Saturday morning to continue working.

The company hired to provide the cleanup workers told WWL, a New Orleans-based radio station, that it was told to beef up the cleaning work force five days ago.

"No, I did not put extra workers on the job because the president was coming," said Donald Nalty of Environmental Safety and Health, which was contracted by BP to help in the cleanup effort.

An official at the oil cleanup command center told CNN that a temporary busing system had been established to shuttle the growing number of workers because of limited parking and housing accommodations in areas most impacted by the spilled oil. The official said trained responders were putting in 12 to 14-hour days.

Roberts told CNN's Anderson Cooper the hundreds of workers who showed up early Friday wouldn't speak to local emergency management officials.

"The sheriff's office did manage to get one person to speak with them and that individual said they were hired yesterday and told to report to a staging area at 7:30 this morning," Roberts added. "It just doesn't add up."

It is pretty sad if BP staged the workers, and even more sad if they thought they would get away with it. The people down there are suffering. They have lost their fishing industry, tourist industry and who knows when it will come back. They are frustrated with the clean up and feel much more has to be done to protect the coast line. I think this is what is getting people so frustrated. They want much more in the way of protection to keep the oil from getting ashore and they just don't see enough of that taking place. Once the oil reaches shore, the damage is done.

Well according to BP, Top Kill has failed.

True; and the oil spill keeps on spilling. BP may very well go bankrupt if they're found liable for the potential economic losses.

i cant believe they cant figure out some way of blocking it. This is a becoming a joke

another great job by gov't and friends. guess obama really wants to squash off shore drilling.

Yep, it's no wonder why I have little trust in the government anymore. This whole debacle further proves the cluelessness of those with authority (or shall I say alterior motives which do not include the well being of society). BP's relief well strategy should have been initiated as soon as the leak was found, but again, it's all about the cheapest way for them to combat it (at the expense of thousands of jobs being lost). Now if this next strategy doesn't work - cutting off the defected riser and putting in a containment valve - we're dead in the water. Oil will spew out at rates much higher than currently, and the relief well (the permanent solution) isn't "supposed" to be ready until July or August. What a joke is right.

Personally I think the saving grace could actually be Mother Nature - we need a full blown hurricane to roll through and dilute the oil, acting as a giant washing machine.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100529/ap_on_..._gulf_oil_spill

i was actually wondering if that would be worse?? i would imagine globs of oil could also be washed ashore no? what a f-ed up situation, at least katrina was nature

there are 84,600 comments following the article!!!

Yeah but now picture Jim Cantore standing on the shore in a hurricane with globs of windswept oil smacking him in the face.

if it wasn't so sad it would be funny...now the saw is stuck

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37463005/ns/gulf_oil_spill

its flowing now!! looks like more than 20% increase occured after the cut. cnn showing the wildlife getting suffocated from the oil. why a foreign company can keep so quiet as they destroy our country is mind boggleing!!

head of bp wants his life back..poor little man. this is the thinking with these type of people, me, me, me first!!! be it in business or politics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTdKa9eWNFw

Exactly. They're all too damn big for their britches, be it in politics or the corporate world. The government does a lousy job, the corporations are greedy and don't give a damn. Where do you turn? No wonder there's such a populist movement, driven mostly by the Tea Partiers.

Am I wrong or has anyone noticed you don't see new footage of what is going on out in the Gulf as far as the cleanup goes. I keep seeing the same footage of the same boat trying to scoop up oil, it has been the same footage of this particular boat for weeks.

I heard tonight on the news that there are over 2000 boats in the Gulf involved with the oil spill. However only 115 of them are skimmers which are scooping up the oil. Because of pressure from many frustrated people as to why there are not more skimmers out there, another 20 will be added tomorrow and some of the many fishing boats that are sitting idle and waiting to go out and help, have finally received the O.K. A new poll shows 69% of Americans are dissatisfied with the governments response to this crisis, that is 7% worse than the Katrina dissatisfaction. 81% feel BP is doing a poor job.

Not to mention Obama is on America's ****-list, even the people who supported him in the past disapprove of his handling of this crisis.

A few days ago I'm hearing another containment cap will be put over the leak and by this weekend or in a short period of time, the oil leak will hopefully be down to a trickle. Now I here there may have been twice as much oil leaking out over the past month than previously thought and it may be a month before the leak is slowed. It certainly looks like know one really has any idea as to what is leaking out or how to stop it, or, there is a lot of bull---- being thrown around. Unfortunately, many businesses in the Gulf area are way down in sales. Much of this because people are afraid to go to the beaches, even though most are still in great shape with no oil. Sad situation. Not to mention the dieing and suffering animals.

all they need to do is put wedding ring on it and it will stop putting out

LMAO!!!

That's great. LOL Kind of like the joke, why is the bride smiling while walking down the isle? She know's she gave her last B-job. LOL

Or the one about how marriage is a 3-ring circus: engagement ring, wedding ring, and suffer-ring.

80+ days now. bp sucks and so does our changed administration. congrats on killing the south!

We rely on their produce too. Certainly don't expect this economy to turn around any time soon, in fact there have been analyses out there that say this tragedy may cripple the entire US (I guess worse than it is already). Just terrible the way this has been handled by the Obama administration, and the corner cutting that has been prevelant with BP's maintainence of oil wells. Environmentalists aren't innocent either, since they pushed the offshore deep-water drilling. But ironic that what happened here is causing a heck of a lot more ecosystem damage than shallow water drilling ever would. Folks were completely unaware and/or unsuspecting of a potential worst case scenario, and BP assuming it would never happen, didn't put the time into the situation. I consider myself pretty much middle of the road, but I never thought Obama would be good for the job since his campaign. He seemed like all big talk, empty promises, no substance to his speeches. And unfortunately I think I was right so far. What happened with transparency - yeah, right, I knew that one was a joke.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2010/gulf.coas...tive/index.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtfevVB5eBk