Seriously thoughtful interesting unreported story regarding the oil spill

[The Straven]

According to Rolling Stone, the Department of the Interior -- of which Fish & Wildlife is a bureau -- is untrustworthy and completely failed to ensure appropriate safety measures were being taken. Even now Interior is failing to enforce compliance on other drilling rigs, including at least one deep water rig with a similarly poor safety record.

Bottom line is that we cannot trust anything coming out of Ken Salazar's mouth, and he should be forced to resign forthwith, if not included in the criminal investigation.

The US Government continues to downplay the severity of this crisis.

[The Straven]

Another story from Greg Palast.

A couple of excerpts:

"With the Gulf Coast dying of oil poisoning, there's no space in the press for British Petroleum's latest spill, just this week: over 100,000 gallons, at its Alaska pipeline operation. A hundred thousand used to be a lot. Still is.

"On Tuesday, Pump Station 9, at Delta Junction on the 800-mile pipeline, busted. Thousands of barrels began spewing an explosive cocktail of hydrocarbons after "procedures weren't properly implemented" by BP operators, say state inspectors. "Procedures weren't properly implemented" is, it seems, BP's company motto.

And:

You can go to Alaska today and see for yourself the evidence of BP's care of the wilderness. You can smell it: the crude oil is still on the beaches from the Exxon Valdez spill.

Exxon took all the blame for the spill because they were dumb enough to have the company's name on the ship. But it was BP's pipeline managers who filed reports that oil spill containment equipment was sitting right at the site of the grounding near Bligh Island. However, the reports were bogus, the equipment wasn't there and so the beaches were poisoned. At the time, our investigators uncovered four-volumes worth of faked safety reports and concluded that BP was at least as culpable as Exxon for the 1,200 miles of oil-destroyed coastline.

[GeoffC]

BBC link

Perhaps an outcome that may move us away from our dependence on oil .... faster than it may have done pre-April 2010 ....

[GeoffC]

Another BBC link - Stopping the Oil, progress so far ....

[ardeegee]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/pict...zoomed-picture

Bonus-- this guy should be held face down into that water until he stops twitching:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_1...20-503544.html

[dsvick]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

Bonus-- this guy should be held face down into that water until he stops twitching:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_1...20-503544.html

What an ass. I'm constantly reminded why politics, more often than not, just makes me angry. Taking what would otherwise be legitimate thing to say and turning it into political posturing drives me nuts.

[The Straven]

SFGate.com (San Francisco) blogger Yobie Benjamin has put up this video of an eyewitness to BP's operations (or lack thereof) to clean up the Louisiana coastline. Please watch it.

The news media has moved on to other stories, but hurricane season is upon us....

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by The Straven

SFGate.com (San Francisco) blogger Yobie Benjamin has put up this video of an eyewitness to BP's operations (or lack thereof) to clean up the Louisiana coastline. Please watch it.

The news media has moved on to other stories, but hurricane season is upon us....

Youtube version of the link above:

[beachwanderer]

Florida ...

http://blogs.tampabay.com/photo/2010...ola-beach.html

Situation according to their own site now:

http://www.visitpensacolabeach.com/w...-oil-spill.asp

[glowhappy]

The news media has moved on to other stories, but hurricane season is upon us....

Things could only get worst, with tropical storm Alex nearing Hurricane strength and now in the vicinity of the gulf coast. It's depressing to know that 80 percent of the community I grew up in will lose their livelyhood for several years to come.

[ardeegee]

Watch your back for hungry, hungry hippos!

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/07/06...narios/?hpt=T2

[Joebill]

You have to sink a well into the area you are paying access for.

I live down here near the Gulf.

Many down here, not just the environmentalists, demanded the oil rigs not be visible from the beaches.

Most oil rugs in the Gulf of Mexico are south of Louisiana, they don't have beaches. They have marshes. There are beaches along Mississippi's coast, about 28-32 miles of them. Alabama is marshes and Mobile Bay. Their beaches are out on the islands south of that bay. Florida has both beaches and marshes along the south coast of the Florida Panhandle.

From time to time, I have looked at news about spills, and in this case an uncapped gusher, and the skimmers are pathetic in size and capabilities. You may as well try to pick the oil up with a one person row boat. The new one in the Gulf is huge. It isn't made in the U.S.

[Joebill]

Originally Posted by glowhappy

Things could only get worst, with tropical storm Alex nearing Hurricane strength and now in the vicinity of the gulf coast. It's depressing to know that 80 percent of the community I grew up in will lose their livelyhood for several years to come.

Didn't hurt much here. Alex hit Mexico and south Texas. We jsut got rain.

There were cleanup crews, bussed in via 55 passenger buses, before we felt the wind and waves of Alex, and the days after. I drove down by the beach since then, clean up crews are gone in the Biloxi and Gulfport areas. Some tar balls, but mostly litter.

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by Joebill

Didn't hurt much here. Alex hit Mexico and south Texas. We jsut got rain.

Yep, that was good news, at least.

http://www.theonion.com/video/hurric...and-mas,14262/

[Joebill]

Got an update. Of the three coastal counties, Hancock, Harrison, and Jackson; Hancock has tar balls on their beaches. That is the one furthest west, adjoins Louisiana.