Rachel Maddow's President Obama Oval Office Speech Re: BP/DWH Gulf Oil Disaster

God... I Love Rachel Maddow!

Here's what she wished President Obama had said in his Oval Office Speech:
(And, I agree with her 1000%!)

President Obama: Enough rhetoric. Enough blah blah blah. It's time for Effective, Lifestyle-Changing, Planet-Saving ACTION.
I hope to God that You are Listening to This!

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BP's 8 Dumbest Mistakes,,, So Far.

(From: theweek.com.)

The List
Best Opinion: AP, WSJ, New York Times...

BP's 8 Dumbest Mistakes

The Oil Giant Is Being Widely Criticized For Its Handling Of The Massive Gulf Spill - B0th Before And After The Blowout.

Here's Why...

It is now clear that the disastrous Deepwater Horizon oil spill was eminently preventable. And even since the April 20 rig fire, experts have cited many examples of how poor choices by BP have worsened an already dire situation.

Here are eight particularly unfortunate errors that experts say contributed to the biggest oil spill in U.S. history:

1. BP never had a realistic plan to deal with a spill
The oil giant's official plan for dealing with a potential Deepwater Horizon spill, and its more general plan for any spill in the Gulf, both wildly overestimated its preparedness and seriously lowballed the potential damage, according to an AP analysis. The plan — approved by the Interior Department in 2009 — lists a dead scientist among its wildlife experts and a defunct Japanese home-shopping website among its equipment suppliers. Portions of it are written in pencil.

2. BP went with a risky type of blowout preventer — and then didn't maintain it
The blowout preventer is a giant valve that is supposed to be the last line of defense against a damaged well becoming an ecological catastrophe. But for the Deepwater Horizon project, BP chose a model — made by U.S.-based Cameron International — with well-documented design flaws. To make matters worse, according to a congressional investigation, the Deepwater's blowout preventer was in terrible shape: It had a dead battery, debilitating hydraulic-system leaks, and "shutoff shears" that weren't strong enough to seal the well. BP also opted not to install a voluntary $500,000 acoustic shutoff switch that could have sealed the well by remote control in the event the blowout preventer failed, reports the WSJ.

3. The well's critical plumbing was shoddy and poorly designed
Days before the blowout, BP decided to use a type of single-wall well casing that it knew increased the risk of gas leaks like the one that ultimately caused the deadly fire on the rig, according to The New York Times. Why? To save money. Drilling experts also say that BP's design for the casing pipe from the sea floor to the oil reservoir has a baffling design flaw that made it essentially impossible to create effective cement seals, the primary guards against natural gas leaks.

4. BP and rig workers ignored or misread clear warning signs
As Halliburton contractors were lowering the final cement plug down the well, rig workers conducted several tests for gas leaks — and in what an internal BP postmortem calls a "fundamental mistake" — they misinterpreted a "very large abnormality." When they decided, wrongly, that the test results were acceptable, they replaced the heavy drilling mud in the well with lighter seawater, allowing the pockets of natural gas below to explode upward and, ultimately, set the rig ablaze.

5. A "company man" overrode explosion concerns of well cementers
BP sent home the contractor it had hired to test the cement plug inside the well 11 hours before the explosion, without ever having him conduct the "gold standard" test on whether the seal was secure, according to the testing firm. A BP "company man" also overruled other safety concerns, including replacing the drilling mud with seawater, says another partner company.

6. BP hasn't fessed up about how much oil is really spilling
Experts tend to agree that, in order to prepare for containment and cleanup efforts, federal and state officials need to know how much oil they're dealing with. But the oil company has been slippery on that point: BP said two days after the explosion that no oil was leaking; three days later, it said 1,000 barrels per day (bpd) were leaking; three days after that, it was 5,000 bpd — even after a "confidential" company memo said that up to 14,266 bpd was gushing out. BP no longer gives estimates, but government scientists Thursday said the true leak rate is has been between 20,000 to 40,000 bpd.

7. BP's "solutions" may be making the spill much, much worse
The company's string of failed attempts to seal or contain the leak — top hat, top kill, junk shot — may, in fact, be intensifying the problem. A flow-rate expert on the government panel looking into the leak rate, Dr. Ira Leifer of the University of California at Santa Barbara, says that both the top kill and containment cap strategies have damaged the well and dramatically increased the amount of oil spurting into the ocean. He suggests that, following BP's decision to install a containment cap, the leak may now be 100,000 barrels per day.

8. BP needs a bigger boat
While the containment cap strategy may have made the overall situation worse, the company is finally collecting sizable quantities of oil from the wellhead. The problem? There's no place to store it all, reports the WSJ. The tanker now floating above the wellhead can process about 18,000 barrels per day, while BP has a stated goal of collecting 50,000 bpd. The company is scrambling to bring in more ships, and will begin burning off as much as possible.

BP Has $9 Billion In Contracts With US? De-Fund BP Now!

Several months ago, following Fox News's barrage of reports on those ACORN "pimp-and-ho sting" videos by some far-right wingers... the GOP's impassioned, indignant cries to "De-fund ACORN" could be heard echoing throughout the halls of Congress. One after another, Republican Congressmen stood at the podium and demanded that the US government end all contracts with ACORN. That, basically, since ACORN had some employees who looked to be (in the heavily-edited video) breaking the law by helping law-breakers, ACORN should not receive any government funding... not any American taxpayers' money. Some GOP Governors and Mayors even jumped on the bandwagon, ordering their people to stop all funding of ACORN... even though none of them had anything to do with funding ACORN.
(Everybody's gotta get into the act...)

The result of the Republican fire and brimstone brouhaha?

Although we now know that the sting videos were very-heavily edited and, therefore misleading, as of April 1st of 2010, ACORN no longer existed as a business entity. ACORN wasn't a perfect organization but, it helped a lot of people after the nation-wide housing disaster. And, besides, there's no such thing as a "perfect organization".

That was on April Fool's Day...

Nineteen days later, BP's oil rig, the Deepwater Horizon, exploded - killing 11 workers - and sank to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

Keeping in mind the above-mentioned, media-frenzied, witch-hunt aimed at all things ACORN by the GOP, here's a run-down on BP's known and verified"sins":

Despite the fact that BP's cost-cutting measures meant that they consistently chose to use parts and materials in the design and building of the oil rig which were known to have flaws and/or be unsafe (BP not only went with a risky type of blowout-preventer — they didn't maintain it).

Despite BP's initial claims that the disaster was no big deal and the amount of oil leaking out - if any - was negligible (a big, fat, ludicrous lie).

Despite BP's refusal for (days and days) to allow access to the live footage - and later, the HD live footage - of what was going on at the broken well head to government scientists and other experts, so that the scope of the disaster could be assessed and the urgency of the necessary response could be known (BP wasn't saying).

Despite not only BP's pitiful - if not criminal - foot-dragging, "Aww... do I have to?", piss-poor response to the disaster, but also BP's utter criminal negligence as shown in their absolute refusal to have invested any of their $Billions in profits in researching and developing effective, state-of-the-art means, methods and technologies to minimize ecological destruction or to in any way deal with such a huge disaster.

Despite BP (in Alaska) having recently been fined $200 Million by the DOJ.

Despite BP's being fined many millions of dollars in recent years by government agencies for repeatedly breaking the law.

Despite BP CEO Tony Hayward's impatient, unconscionable and whiny declaration: "I want my life back.". (Want some cheese with that whine, Tony?)

Despite the fact that all those thousands of feet of "absorbent booms" (which BP crows about putting on the water on the website's homepage) are utterly ineffective and useless when put out on open water due to winds and waves - particularly if they aren't constantly tended and maintained by people.

Despite BP currently holding over $9 Billion (Billion with a "B") in lucrative government contracts with the US government.

Despite the fact that BP has been repeatedly evasive and has repeatedly lied both to the US government and to the American people about everything:
BP fabricated their Gulf of Mexico "Emergency Response" plan. It acknowledges that walruses and sea otters - arctic sea mammals - are in the area (The Gulf of Mexico?).
BP lied and continues to lie about the amount of oil spewing out:

"BP said two days after the explosion that no oil was leaking; three days later, it said 1,000 barrels per day (bpd) were leaking; three days after that, it was 5,000 bpd — even after a "confidential" company memo said that up to 14,266 bpd was gushing out. BP no longer gives estimates, but government scientists Thursday said the true leak rate is has been between 20,000 to 40,000 bpd." (From: theweek.com.)

Despite the fact that...
Eleven people lost their lives in the completely-preventable explosion. Their families lost their loved ones. Their children lost their fathers. Thousands of fishermen have lost their livelihoods. All of those businesses/restaurants/seafood markets who were dependent upon the fishermen are likely going to lose theirs as well. The Gulf states will now be losing their marshlands and outer islands (the ones which protect them from the deadly storm-surges of hurricanes) at a much greater rate. Countless fish, crustaceans, sea birds have died/are dying. The (only-recently off the Endangered Species List) brown pelican's sole nesting sites are getting oil-soaked... and so are the brown pelicans.

Despite the fact that we are all facing what is and will be (hopefully none worse will follow) the single-greatest, man-made environmental disaster of all time. All courtesy of British Petroleum.

(I say "hopefully", because Shell Oil - in spite of this ecological, economic and ongoing disaster - has been issuing self-congratulatory announcements about it's "Perdido" oil rig project, located 200 miles off the coast of Texas, in 8000 feet of water. Apparently, Shell Oil is unaware that the word "Perdido" translates to: "lost; in trouble; done for; hopeless".)

In spite of all of this, I haven't heard any of that good old, Grand Ol' Party Fire and Brimstone.

Hmm... Aren't they angry with BP? With Tony Hayward? With being lied to?

Aren't you angry? Haven't you been angry? I'm angry. I've been getting angrier and angrier.

Surely, all of those brave Republican Senators and Representatives who took ACORN to task, withdrew all funding and brought about it's swift demise... Surely they, too, are mad as hell and are taking their outrage to the podium in both Houses of Congress. Surely, they are demanding that we "De-Fund BP Effective Immediately!"

(If I could wield their power, I would.)

But, this is the "Drill, Baby Drill!" Party. The GOP?... Punish Big Oil?

Yeah, right. "Dream, Baby Dream." And, whilst dreaming, enjoy this great TRMS clip on the topic.

(From: The Rachel Maddow Show.)

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