BREAKING-- Oil Volcano "Triggered By Safety failures"

By GottaLaff

Via a Yahoo e-mail alert:

ON THE GULF OF MEXICO (AP) Documents: Oil rig's deadly blast triggered by methane gas bubble, series of safety failures.

Confirming what we already suspected. Hey BP, how does it feel to be responsible for Big Oil's Katrina?

More details when they come in.

Black Katrina

By GottaLaff

I previously posted about BP's horrific Oil Volcano being "Big Oil's Katrina".

Editorial cartoonist extraordinaire, J.D. Crowe, has another name for it, and has graciously permitted me to post his work, "Black Katrina", which is powerful and beautifully executed:

A hurricane, as devastating as it is to humans and physical structures, is an act of natural cleansing. An earthy enema. An oil spill is poison. A man-made, toxic rape of Mother Nature.

Blaming President Obama for BP's (and maybe even Halliburton's) devastating blow to the ocean, wildlife, and the health and welfare of America, is also toxic, but not nearly as nightmarish as the current-- and future-- long term, filthy nightmare.

Note to Punditiots: Gulf oil disaster is NOT "Obama's Katrina"

By GottaLaff

In an earlier post, I mentioned how some in the media (Gee, guess who?) are pushing the meme that the Gulf oil catastrophe is "Obama's Katrina". Wrong. It's a memorable catch phrase, but it's inaccurate, to say the least. But that won't stop them from perpetuating the lies. It never has, it never will.

While BP was the first responder, the Coast Guard reacted right away to the situation and deployed 70 vessels and 1 million feet of boom for possible service, Napolitano said.

Salazar noted that the Obama administration has ordered inspections of "blowout preventers" on other Gulf rigs. The government's job was to "keep the boot on the neck" of BP to ensure it meets its obligations in stopping the spill, dealing with the oil slick and paying for all costs and damages.

President Obama is on his way:

President Obama headed to Louisiana on Sunday to see for himself the growing oil slick from a damaged offshore well that threatens the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Compare that to this memory jogger, "A Tale of Two Photos":

As for the meme, maybe this will help, Via Greg Sargent:

Michael Shear counts the ways that the Gulf oil spill isn’t Katrina:

The gulf oil spill is no Katrina, in which 1,836 people died amid the near total devastation of one of America’s great cities…

Unlike Katrina, there has been no obvious failures of government, no images to compare to the Superdome or the flooded streets of St. Bernard Parish. And unlike Katrina, there is an easy target for blame in the current oil spill: the oil giant BP, which by law is the “responsible party” and must pay for all of the costs of the cleanup.

However, if you are a Rushpublic, it's all Obama's fault. So is that paper cut I just got, according to them.... And that flat tire that caused gridlock on the 101 freeway, along with global warming, terrorism, locusts, Vanilla Ice's career, and Trump's hair.

VIDEO: Federal officials forecast potential for massive oil flow in Gulf spill

By GottaLaff

NOTE: Title edit. It's now over 200,000, worse than was forecast.

Sorry for double video. I can't get around it.

Word gets around fast, doesn't it. In fact, as early as April 22nd:

A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration video, shot as officials coordinated response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, shows that federal officials almost immediately worried that the oil well could leak up to 110,000 barrels per day, or 4.6 million gallons.

The video appears on a federal Web site.

It was filmed in Seattle, at NOAA's Western Regional Center, as scientists and federal officials in Seattle, Houston and New Orleans engaged in telephone conferences, according to a companion document on the Web site.

Please go here for all the details.



H/t: jryanlaw

U.S. sues BP in Alaska

By GottaLaff

Via a Tweet by Breaking News:

The U.S. has filed a civil complaint against BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc., alleging the company violated federal clean air and water laws.

I'll update as I find information.

Russia, BP, and Mr. Sarah Palin

By GottaLaff

Six degrees of separation...

Jon in Comments linked me to this (it's from March of this year):

BP's problems in Russia continued Friday.

A Russian environmental agency announced that it would inspect a large oil field in Siberia, the Samotlor, which is controlled by BP's joint venture, TNK-BP. The announcement came a day after Russian security authorities arrested a TNK-BP employee on charges of industrial espionage.

Pop quiz: Whose husband is a BP employee?

UPDATE from Jon:

Since writing the above sentence, I went to Moscow Times and found the latest story is secret talks to hammer out a permanent deal. Interesting I'd find that headline today, of all days, because it sure wasn't looking good for the partnership before today.

The future of petroleum supply is the Arctic Circle, and most of that belongs to Russia. Palin and her BP-employed husband ought to particularly understand that. What makes no sense about this ticket is McCain's apparent desire to actively antagonize Russia, as he's done long before the recent events in the Caucasus (and before we found out about Scheunemann's lobbying for Georgia). I can only wonder what McCain's adviser-handlers are really up to, or if the team's incompetence really is worse than we thought.