Tag Archives: Obama

"No silver bullet" solution to Gulf Spill: Obama

BP said on Friday it may need two more days to know if its complex maneuver to plug a gushing Gulf of Mexico oil well has worked, while President Barack Obama warned there was no “silver bullet” solution to the biggest oil spill in U.S. history. Trying to assert leadership in the face of growing criticism over his handling of the spill, Obama toured the Louisiana Gulf coast, where oil has seeped into delicate marshlands and shut down much of the lucrative fishing trade. BP CEO Tony Hayward flew over the Gulf to where his crew and robots worked on the “top kill” — the injection of heavy fluids, materials and ultimately cement to seal the well one mile below the surface. Hayward said the procedure was making progress choking off the five-week-old leak that has already spewed millions of gallons (liters) of oil into the Gulf. “We have wrestled it to the ground but we haven't put a bullet in its head yet,” Hayward told Reuters while aboard a helicopter over the spill site in the Gulf. When the top kill began on Wednesday, BP said it would need up to 48 hours to gauge its success. But Hayward extended the timeline another 24-48 hours on Friday. He said the top kill's chance of success remained at 60 to 70 percent. BP has called the effort to plug the hole “a “rollercoaster ride,” and investors might say the same. BP shares lost 5 percent on Friday, erasing gains made on hopes for a successful top kill, which aims to eventually seal with cement the ruptured well one mile below the surface. On his second visit to the Gulf in the five-week crisis, Obama faced his own steep challenge to convince Americans that he was in command as frustrated Gulf Coast residents loudly criticized federal authorities for being slow to act and offering too little assistance. “You will not be abandoned. You will not be left behind. We are on your side and we will see this through,” Obama said in a televised statement after meeting local and state officials and inspecting the oil spill damage to the coastline. “I am the president and the buck stops with me,” he said. BP 'WORKING FOR THE GOVERNMENT' The buck may stop with Obama, but the key to stopping the environmental catastrophe lies with BP because the federal government has few tools to work at those depths. Hayward, however, made clear that the government is in charge these days. “We are working for the government,” he said. “The government is running it.” BP views the top kill procedure as its best hope of plugging the well and containing a spill that has tarred its reputation and seen some 25 percent, around $50 billion, wiped off its share price. The company said on Friday the cost of the disaster so far was $930 million. That figure is sure to multiply with cleanup of the oily mess, which is now larger than the spill from the Exxon Valdez disaster off the Alaskan coast in 1989. As Hayward flew toward the site of the rig explosion that killed 11 workers on April 20, the sheen of oil and brown patches of crude and dispersant were visible below. Some 50-60 vessels are in the area working on the BP containment and shut-off effort. Hayward said BP had also injected a “junk shot” of heavier blocking materials, such as shredded rubber and golf balls, into the failed blowout preventer of the ruptured wellhead. They were due to pump in more heavy fluids later on Friday. The mud has not stopped the oil leak but at times has slowed the flow. BP began the top kill operation on Wednesday afternoon and then stopped pumping mud overnight to analyze pressure readings. It did not publicize the halt for many hours, drawing fresh accusations it was concealing information from the public. It denied the charges and blamed an oversight. If the top kill fails, BP says it will try other remedies, such as a second attempt at containing the oil so it can be transported by pipe to a ship at the water's surface or placing a new blowout preventer atop the failed one. FEW LIKE GOVERNMENT RESPONSE Obama said a team of government scientists was exploring contingency plans in case the top kill option failed. “There are not going to be silver bullets or a lot of perfect answers for some of the challenges that we face,” he said. “This is a man-made catastrophe that is still evolving.” continued. added by: JanforGore

Transocean Then – Transocean Now – Transocean Invoking Obscure, 159-Year-Old Law to Avoid Paying Damages, Compensating Injured

Rachel Maddow Covers Gulf Oil Spill… From 1979 By Alex Weprin on May 27, 2010 09:12 AM In one of the more interesting cable news reports about the gulf oil spill, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow busted out some footage from the NBC archives. Maddow broadcast reports from an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, caused when an oil rig exploded. Except that the reports were from 1979, not 2010. Amazingly, the techniques currently being used to try and cap the leak appear to be exactly the same as the ones used over 30 years ago. The only difference are some subtle (and funny) name changes. What BP called the “top hat” containment effort earlier this month, was called the “sombrero” back in '79. The Maddow segment is below. http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/msnbc/rachel_maddow_covers_gulf_oil_spill_fr… added by: EthicalVegan

Christian Survey: Do space Aliens exsist? Is it a sin to be on welfare? Obama?

While they may be split on questions like – is Global warming real? — is it o.k. for Christians to get Tattoos? They agree “being overwieght is Not Technically a sin” Drinking Beer is acceptable, Hard liqueur is not Some of the summerys are prefaced “even christians lie” — “even christians get depressed” — “christians continue to steal” Others — “can women teach men in church?” — “Filling bankruptcy is not a sin” — “Will Jesus return within the next 4 years?” – click on summery for more detailed answer Notice how each Question about Obama is followed with a Question about a Demon. Spoiler Alert !! Romance novels are considered pornography. – Man & Dinosaurs roamed together http://christiannews.christianet.com/ added by: Stoneyroad

Fox News: "We Can’t Trust BP" (Video)

Obama has just wrapped up a press conference affirming his administration’s leadership role in the BP Gulf spill response. Calls have been mounting from all over for the federal government to step up its authority, as BP has been called out as untrustworthy by environmentalists, concerned locals, and even Fox News. Yes, you might think that the conservative network would back Tea Party star Rand Paul, who said that Obama was being too harsh on BP — but as this video attests, the anchors at Fox are incensed:… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Fox News: "We Can’t Trust BP" (Video)

Palin: Drill Baby Drill, but blame Obama for the spill

For OpEdNews: Steven Leser – Writer Sarah Palin is weighing in on the BP oil spill, specifically, who is to blame for it and/or who is to blame for the spill taking so long to stop. I guess she can see the Deepwater Horizon site from her house. On Fox News, Palin had this to say: “the oil companies who have so supported President Obama in his campaign and are supportive of him now …[Palin mused whether]…there's any connection there to President Obama taking so doggone long to get in there, to dive in there, and grasp the complexity and the potential tragedy that we are seeing here in the Gulf of Mexico.” Palin is talking about the ability to grasp complexities? Sarah “in what respect Charlie” and “I know foreign policy because I can see Russia from my house when Putin rears his head over Alaska” Palin? “Death Panels” Sarah wants to talk complexities? Sarah, if you are so confident of your grasp of 'complexities' why don't you ask the producers of the shows you are on to put you head-to-head on various issues against some of the Democrats who appear on Fox? Even though I am not exactly your biggest fan, I'll volunteer, how about that? Any time on any issue. Yes Sarah, this is me, who has never held public office and should therefore be easy pickings for a former mayor and governor, calling you out. The suggestion from Palin is that Obama took the most money from the oil and gas industry and she and her running mate, John McCain were innocent of this and thus would not have been influenced. The LA Times performed some research and found to whom the oil companies contributed the most money: “The oil and gas industry donated $2.4 million to Palin's running mate, Republican John McCain, in the 2008 election cycle, and nearly $900,000 to Obama, according to the Center for Responsive Politics' opensecrets.org website.” It ought to be pointed out that President Obama received tens of millions of dollars in contributions of $100 or less from working Americans all over the country including places like Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. If we are talking about amounts of money influencing people, then one would have to conclude that Obama is working 24×7 on the needs and problems of average working Americans. Sarah Palin typifies the 21st century Republican politician and use of Republican strategy, throw a plethora of accusations at Democrats without any regard to whether they are true and if one sticks, keep using it. Each instance of this is more galling than the next. Its as if Republicans are emboldened by the fact that they keep getting away with it. These latest statements by Palin are perhaps the most egregious example. The fact that Palin who is Miss Big Oil champion herself is trying to assert that someone else is somehow more beholden to the oil companies is unmitigated gall. Who can forget these excerpts that Palin uttered during her Vice Presidential debate with Joe Biden: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EP9ahIdBCr8 “”The chant is “drill, baby, drill.” And that's what we hear all across this country in our rallies because people are so hungry for those domestic sources of energy to be tapped into. “Barack Obama and Sen. Biden, you've said no to everything in trying to find a domestic solution to the energy crisis that we're in. You even called drilling — safe, environmentally-friendly drilling offshore as raping the outer continental shelf. There — with new technology, with tiny footprints even on land, it is safe to drill and we need to do more of that. ” http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt =A0WTb_jAb_xLOhEAdLijzbkF/SIG=134d42glo/EXP=1274921280/**http%3a//www.chumpingstones.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/sarah-palin-kissing.jpg What happened in the gulf is the responsibility of people who operated on exactly the same assumptions that Palin did. That is the mentality that caused us to be where we are now. This is the point at which Ms. Palin should be saying, “Ya know, doggone it, we were wrong when we said that drilling in the gulf was safe, you betcha.” She has no right to be out there making accusations against other people. This is mea culpa time for Palin and the rest of pro-drilling America. By the way, Sarah, your running mate, John McCain, was the only one of the four people on the 2008 national ticket who was against a windfall profit tax for the oil companies yet you go on national television and have the nerve to accuse others of being in bed with the oil companies. It's hard to believe that the first major Republican politician and first Republican President was Abraham Lincoln, a man noted for his honesty and his brilliance. Today's Republicans, like Sarah Palin, do not resemble him at all. added by: Stoneyroad

Obama to Send 1,200 Troops to America/Mexico Border & 500 Million in Funding for Border Security.

he Obama administration plans to announce Tuesday that it will send as many as 1,200 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to improve border security, an Arizona congresswoman said. Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords also said in a statement released Tuesday that President Barack Obama will request $500 million in funding for border security. Part of Giffords' district borders Mexico. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer's spokesman said the governor hadn't been told of the move prior to her office being contacted by The Associated Press and had no immediate comment. In 2006, President George W. Bush sent thousands of troops to the border to perform support duties that tie up immigration agents. The troops wouldn't perform significant law enforcement duties. That program has since ended, and politicians in border states have called for troops to be sent there to curb human and drug smuggling and prevent Mexico's drug violence from spilling over into the United States. added by: Omnomynous

‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ Compromise Approved by Obama [Good News]

Good news ! President Obama has given his stamp of approval to a compromise on repealing the Pentagon’s ” Don’t Ask Don’t Tell ” policy, which effectively bars gay people from serving in the military. It might even happen this week! More

Ignorant Americans – Video

Is it any wonder we have people who still argue that Obama isn't an American! Here is another example of pure ignorance, we actually have people who only vote for candidates that are anti abortion regardless how fucked the country is getting. Somewhere, somebody is saying how much they hate those gays and they should be killed. Reading some of the crap by what I used too think may be smart Americans right here on current has made me question whether we should even bother anymore! added by: kennymotown

Corexit is killing the Gulf

Nick Pozzi, a former oil pipeline engineering and operations project manager is puzzled why BP did not salvage perfectly good crude oil for later sale, and to thereby protect marine and wildlife. What Mr. Pozzi does not know is the oil companies are owned by the world’s only legal counterfeiters – the International Monetary/Banking Cartel – who can “print” all the money they want, so making money on Gulf oil was not important to them. Killing the Gulf of Mexico, apparently, is important to them, for their own cryptic and esoteric reasons. If the Cartel had wanted to save marine life, any oil they had not vacuumed up could have been mulched with any number of non-toxic materials, such as “Oil Sponge,” a name trademarked by Phase III, Inc. Rated as the “best performing” absorbent by the US Army Corp of Engineers, Oil Sponge is 100% organic, and is made from renewable resources. Oil Sponge is built using a microbial and nutrient package, capable of transforming oil hydrocarbons into a safe bi-product of carbon dioxide and water. But, the governmental bureaucrats of the Obama administration, and the Cartel’s oil executives, had no interest in using an environmentally friendly product to clean up what is the greatest man-made environmental disaster of all time … they seemed intent on making this unbelievable cataclysm far, far worse, and one that could never be cleaned up. It cannot yet be proven that the Monetary Cartel purposely blew up their own wellhead, but the crimes they have committed in their so-called “clean-up” efforts are well documented, in spite of no corporate media outrage. Well, of course not, the Cartel that owns the oil companies also own their corporate media. After the Exxon Valdez incident of March 1989, Mycelx of Georgia developed what looks like a paper towel to soak up to 50 times its weight in oil. And while this product is used from the Middle East to Europe to Canada it was of no interest to the parties Obama charged with cleaning up the Gulf of the floating oil those very same parties caused. Then there is the AmeriHaz Petroleum Solidifier that encapsulates environmental contaminants, making crude oil and other oil like substances easy to retrieve, which also proved to be of no interest to the Cartel. Even hair naturally separates oil from water, leaving large tar globs, in which mushrooms can then be seeded. And as the mushrooms grow, they digest the oil, leaving non-toxic organics, which can then be composed into soil, great for growing healthy vegetables. Anyone who has ever had a bad hair day knows how well hair will retain oil. In fact, Lisa Gautier, president of Matter of Fact (website for hair salons) has collected 400,000 pounds of hair, and stuffed it all into nylons to be used as booms near Gulf shores. This idea could have been a shot in the arm of our dying economy, by creating organic compose for the millions of nutrient depleted farm acres in the world. Also there could have been a viable cottage industry of collecting hair from salons. And, hair is certainly a renewable resource, with most of us contributing. But neither Obama or the Cartel has done anything for our dying US and world economy, but ensure it dies, while feebly pretending to resuscitate it. And now that they’ve probably destroyed the tourist, shrimping, and fishing industries along the Gulf Coast, we’ll be hearing about more “stimulus packages” that will make what money we do have even more worthless as it enriches the Cartel’s Wall Street. But in the world of what could have been, there’s hay, sawdust, crushed volcanic rock, sheep’s wool, and even kitty litter that could have mulched with the oil on the surface of the Gulf waters, making for easy pick-up. But, oil industry executives and their confederates in the Obama administration quickly made sure that all spewing oil would either sink well below the surface, or never rise to it, with over half a million gallons of their dispersants. Now the oil that’s been gushing for weeks can never be vacuumed up or safely neutralized. continued. added by: JanforGore

It May Be a Bit Worse Than We Were Led To Believe…

Washington (CNN) — The “top kill” method intended to stop the runaway flow of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico probably will be tried early next week, BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said Friday. In the procedure, thick, viscous fluid twice the density of water will be pumped at a high rate into the site of the leak to stop the flow so that it can then be sealed with cement, Suttles said. “Our best estimate is probably Tuesday,” he said, noting that the operation has never been tried in such deep water. Also on Friday, a top scientist told a congressional panel that the damaging effects of the massive Gulf spill will be felt all the way to Europe and the Arctic. “This is not just a regional issue for the wildlife,” said Carl Safina, the president of the Blue Ocean Institute. Safina, who recently returned from the Gulf Coast region, presented several photographs, including one of an oil-covered bird. “There will be a nest empty in Newfoundland,” Safina said, noting common migratory patterns. Safina warned that multiple forms of marine life in the Atlantic Ocean “come into the Gulf to breed.” Safina's briefing to representatives of the House Energy and Commerce Committee was scheduled as part of an ongoing effort to draw on a broad range of expertise for cleanup efforts. “We have to use science to find solutions,” said Rep. Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts. Markey has been strongly critical of the current cleanup effort, calling it ineffective. Meanwhile, another congressman, concerned about people who are working to clean up the spill, has asked the White House to set up temporary health care centers along the Gulf Coast to serve volunteers and workers. Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-Louisiana, envisions such clinics as providing “medical checkups to people who have come in contact with the oil and assist in monitoring the health effects of the oil leak on south Louisianians.” He sent the request Wednesday to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. There was no immediate response from the agency. “Many residents and volunteers are being exposed to hazardous materials on a daily basis, and some will have to travel hours to get treatment at the nearest health care facility. It is imperative that temporary health care clinics be established to provide basic health care services in this geographic area,” he said. He has also asked Sebelius to “appoint a health care coordinator to oversee and streamline the health care response.” Melancon emphasized that BP should be responsible for such health care services in his state. The energy giant was operating the oil rig that exploded and sank in April, triggering the spill. On Thursday, BP acknowledged that the underwater gusher is bigger than estimated to date, as new video showed a cloud of crude billowing around its undersea siphon. Company spokesman Mark Proegler said Thursday that the siphon is now drawing about 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) per day up to a ship on the surface of the Gulf — as much as government and company officials had estimated the spill was pouring into the Gulf every day for a month. Proegler declined to estimate how much more oil was escaping. BP America Chairman Lamar McKay said Wednesday that the figure used by the oil spill response team had a degree of “uncertainty” built into it. But figures by independent researchers have run up to many times higher: Steve Wereley, a professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University, told CNN's “American Morning” that the spill could be as big as 20,000 to 100,000 barrels a day. And members of Congress released video from the company that showed much more oil pouring out of the damaged well than the siphon was capturing. Rep. Ed Markey, who leads a House subcommittee investigating the disaster, told reporters, “I think now we are beginning to understand that we cannot trust BP.” “People do not trust the experts any longer,” said Markey, D-Massachusetts. “BP has lost all credibility. Now, the decisions will have to be made by others, because it is clear that they have been hiding the actual consequences of this spill.” Meanwhile, the Coast Guard announced the creation of a federal Flow Rate Technical Group to assess the flow rate from the well. Coast Guard Capt. Ron LaBrec said that Adm. Thad Allen would oversee the team, which will include members from the Coast Guard, the Minerals Management Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department of Energy, the U.S. Geological Society and others from the science community and academia. The peer-reviewed team, which has already begun its work, is to determine the flow rate from the beginning of the incident to the present, LaBrec said. The Obama administration announced Thursday that it has ordered BP to release all data related to the massive spill, including environmental sampling analyses, internal investigation reports and details of the cleanup effort. In a letter to BP Group CEO Tony Hayward, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson told BP to post that information on a website and update it daily. “The public and the United States government are entitled to nothing less than complete transparency in this matter,” they concluded. The spill began with an April 20 explosion and fire that sank the drill rig Deepwater Horizon two days later. Eleven workers were lost with the rig, which was owned by drilling contractor Transocean and hired by BP. The resulting slick now threatens the coastal marshes of southeastern Louisiana, where brown, syrupy oil made it past protective booms and into the wetlands near the mouth of the Mississippi River on Wednesday. Over the weekend, BP inserted a piece of pipe into the larger of the two leak points and began drawing oil from the undersea gusher, located about a mile underwater, up to a ship on the surface. It also has been laying booms out along barrier islands and spraying hundreds of thousands of gallons of chemical dispersants on the surface and near the sources of the leak. But that element of the response came under new fire as well on Thursday, as the EPA ordered BP to find a less toxic chemical to use to break up the oil. The EPA gave the company a day to pick a new substance and three days to start using it instead of the current dispersant, known as Corexit 9500. The chemical has been rated more toxic and less effective than many others on the list of 18 EPA-approved dispersants, according to testimony at a congressional hearing Wednesday. “Because of its use in unprecedented volumes and because much is unknown about the underwater use of dispersants, EPA wants to ensure BP is using the least toxic product authorized for use,” the agency said in a statement announcing the order. “We reserve the right to discontinue the use of this dispersant method if any negative impacts on the environment outweigh the benefits.” added by: ignignokt