April 20th the explosion happened. Last week Obama had the BP executives sign an agreement to have 20 billion put aside to pay these folks. So why did this guy kill himself this week, just as things were obviously opening up for him and others. Had he done something two weeks ago then maybe it would have made sense, but not now if it was just this Wednesday.



There certainly are some very distressed folks along the gulf and it is not all because of BP. The US has ways to make things better while they wait for BP to fix their part of the problem. Not all of the problems are directly due to the BP problems and BP has from the beginning said they would pay for all the damages including lost businesses, jobs, shore line cleanups, etc. There was no reason why the US did not just start getting the waters cleaned up and to keep the beaches clean, send the bill to BP. This they have not done. There is plenty of blame to share between the BP and the US lack of, or slowness in taking action.

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What an absolute shambles, troops available to help but not being used..



As of today, the federal government has authorized a total of 17,500 National Guard troops across four Gulf states, all to be paid for by BP.



But CBS News has learned that in addition to Louisiana's 1,053 troops of 6,000, Alabama has deployed 432 troops of 3,000 available. Even fewer have been deployed in Florida - 97 troops out of 2,500 - and Mississippi - 58 troops out of 6,000.



Those figures prompted President Obama to weigh in. "I urge the governors in the affected states to activate these troops as soon as possible," Mr. Obama said.



It's believed officials in Alabama, Florida and Mississippi and are reluctant to use more troops because their presence could hurt tourism. In hardest-hit Louisiana, however, Jindal is pointing fingers. "Actually we asked the White House to approve the initial 6,000," Jindal said. "What they came back and said is the Coast Guard and BP had to authorize individual tasks."



But Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the national incident commander in charge of the government's response to the spill, said Jindal is just flat wrong. "There is nothing standing in the governor's way from utilizing more National Guard troops," Allen said.



In fact, the Coast Guard says every request to use the National Guard has been approved, usually within a day. Now Jindal's office acknowledged to CBS News the governor has not specifically asked for more Guard troops to be deployed.



Whether it's simple confusion or the infusion of politics into the spill, the fact remains thousands of helping hands remain waiting to be used.



http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/06/24/eveningnews/main6615414.shtml

Add to that all the unemployed boat operators, fishermen, workers, that are not being hired to work in the cleanup and we have a monstrously poorly managed situation. Slow reactions by the federals, Obama, and state governors, and some more partial truths by the press.



When I live in Florida, about two miles from the beach, back in the 1970's there were tar balls even then. They rise from the bottom of the ocean naturally. I think I posted an ocean article a while back that explains such actions. Anyway, when we went to the beach I always carried a small jar of gasoline with us and a couple old rags. Before I let the children get back in the car I washed any tar off their feet with the gas and they took a shower when we got home. Normally the oceans are just another dirty place for people to go and play.



What they have right now in Florida is not much compared to Louisiana, where the federal government has really dropped the ball and allowed the oil to enter into the tidewater and swamp areas while they sat around and played politics with what to do, who should do it, and lots of finger pointing. Now it is actually too late to save lots of animals and the swamp lands will likely die off and never recover.

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About three miles off the coast of Alaska, BP is moving ahead with a controversial and potentially record-setting project to drill two miles under the sea and then six to eight miles horizontally to reach what is believed to be a 100-million-barrel reservoir of oil under federal waters.



All other new projects in the Arctic have been halted by the Obama administration’s moratorium on offshire drilling, including more traditional projects like Shell Oil's plans to drill three wells in the Chukchi Sea and two in the Beaufort.



But BP’s project, called Liberty, has been exempted as regulators have granted it status as an “onshore” project even though it is about three miles off the coast in the Beaufort Sea. The reason: it sits on an artificial island — a 31-acre pile of gravel in about 22 feet of water — built by BP.



The project has already received its state and federal environmental permits, but BP has yet to file its final application to federal regulators to begin drilling, which it expects to start in the fall.



http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/24/us/24rig.html?hp

Isn't that just about the craziest thing to do. If it was not for those over anxious environmentalist BP could likely just go where the oil is and drill a normal well from the mainland areas. In the US we have a number of oil deposits under the land but the environuts won't let us drill them. We have to be far out to sea, in the deep waters, where failures can be major disasters. If you haven't realized it yet the failure in the Gulf is a major problem. Thanks to the folks that won't let the oil companies operate in shallow water or on land.



Why pick on BP? They must keep the wells working and earning money in order to pay back all the losses in the Gulf.

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The US sure has a bunch of whacko's here. There are some folks that have threatened the life of the judge that wants to break the Obama 6 month hold on oil rig operations. There had to be some Federal Marshals protecting him. Why? He made a valid and good judgment call that went against the Obama gang. So he should now have his life threatened? That doesn't say much for the Obama followers.



http://www.bayoubuzz.com/buzz/latest-buzz/10729-gulf-oil-moratorium-judge-threatened



Judge Faces Death Threats After BP Gulf Oil Drilling Moratorium Ruling

Thursday, 24 June 2010 12:55



New Orleans--While many Americans undoubtedly agree with the decision of U.S. District Court Judge Martin Feldman to overturn the Obama administration’s moratorium on deep water drilling, not everyone is happy. In fact, the Judge is now receiving death threats in the aftermath of his bold ruling.



Last night, Feldman served as a celebrity judge at a cooking contest at a school gymnasium in Uptown New Orleans. Due to the threats, Feldman was accompanied by a federal marshal security team.







The lawsuit was filed against the Department of Interior by more than a dozen companies involved in offshore drilling operations, led by Hornbeck Offshore Services LLC. Feldman found that the Obama administration did not base the moratorium on solid facts and made a sweeping decision that was not justified. The Judge noted that just because the BP well was beset with problems and resulted in a massive oil spill, there is no reason to believe other wells would have similar problems. "If some drilling equipment parts are flawed, is it rational to say all are? Are all airplanes a danger because one was? All oil tankers like Exxon Valdez? All trains? All mines? That sort of thinking seems heavy-handed, and rather overbearing,” Feldman wrote.



Feldman is right on target with his ruling, which is why a constant stream of people thanked him last night for his decision. The final outcome remains in doubt, but Feldman exposed the faulty reasoning that the Obama administration used in banning deep water drilling. The suspension of drilling in the 33 wells 500 feet or more below the surface could have a major impact on Louisiana’s economy. According to some estimates, the ban could cost the state of Louisiana 50,000 jobs or more. In a horrible economy, these are good paying jobs that no state can afford to lose.

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Bob, you are obviously not reading my posts, I told you this man was a rat fink but you don't believe me. I'm surprised the man is breathing in the land where every second person owns a gun.



[i]Feldman's 2008 financial disclosure report indicates that in that year, he owned stock in Transocean the company that owned the Deepwater Horizon rig, as well as in other oil companies which would be affected by the moratorium.



Feldman's 2009 financial disclosure report indicates that he had financial investments in Black Rock, the largest holder of BP stock. Feldman held stock in Exxon-Mobil during the hearing on the drilling moratorium and from June 8 to June 21, he issued several orders related to the moratorium case. On June 22, at the "opening of the stock market", he reportedly sold his Exxon-Mobil stock. Hours later, he issued his ruling lifting the moratorium.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Leach-Cross_Feldman[/i]

Oh yes I did read your post, but apparently you did not read the post I put up. He has not held those stocks for some time now. Read my post completely and you will see that he was checked out prior to making his correct decision.



Why are the Obama followers threatening his life? That makes absolutely no sense at all. Most of the country would like to see those 50,000 jobs saved and the floating rigs to remain in the gulf. If they are not used they might just get shipped to some other location and then where will those jobs go? Up the creek for sure. Those oil companies have billions invested and they won't hang around long if they can not make money. This entire mess is from one very confused and often illegal government of the US.

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President Obama announced that Navy Secretary and former Mississippi Gov. Ray Mabus, will develop a long-term plan to restore the Gulf.



The president has told Mabus to work with fishermen, small businesses, and environmentalists -- as well as state officials -- to design the plan. That's a long-term solution to a long-term problem. The Gulf Coast supplies America with food and energy. It will take years to undo the damage.

Extract taken from [url=http://edition.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/06/16/carville.obama.speech/index.html]CNN[/url]

Nine weeks after the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, there is more money in the little fishing town of Bayou La Batre today than there has been in many years.



Delane Seaman watched a procession of boats coming into the town dock, each owner with a promise of a day’s pay of $1,400, each mate around $200, all courtesy of a BP program created to employ boats to help with the oil spill cleanup. The program, called Vessels of Opportunity, has been a lifeline for hundreds in this town of 2,300 at the mouth of Mobile Bay, paying several times more than they could make fishing. But for others, like Mr. Seaman and his brother, Bruce, whose oyster-processing business has been closed since May, it has been weeks of anger and frustration.



“These folks you see right here, they shouldn’t be hired on,” Mr. Seaman said, pointing to a group of sport-fishing boats from Florida. “We heard BP was going to be hiring the people directly affected by the oil spill. But we can’t get hired, and they’re hiring all these people who quit their jobs to come here. We’ve had our application in for two months.”



Bayou La Batre has become a one-employer town, BP destroyed the livelihoods of many and is now, through their cleanup programs, the only source of employment.



The company is trying to hire more commercial fishermen and plans to cut the share of recreational boats but those who are not working say this still has not happened. And for everybody, there is fear that the money will run out, BP will declare bankruptcy or end Vessels of Opportunity. There are 915 vessels in the Alabama program, 262 of them working from Bayou La Batre.



Mayor Stanley Wright said he had repeatedly fought with BP to hire more local fishermen, and got grants of $7.5 million and $1 million from the state’s BP grant to put residents to work, at about half the rate BP pays. This money, however, has run out. “How we got out of this without a murder, it’s a miracle,” he said.



For Delane Seaman, there is the feeling that “BP took our life away,” only to replace it with a form of dependency that he and his brother went into business to avoid. “All our lives we’ve made decisions for ourselves,” he said. “Now BP is telling us what we can and can’t do. You have no mediator. BP has the final yes or no because they’re holding the purse strings.”











http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/06/26/us/20100627-BAYOU-4.html

From the beginning, the federal government has failed to provide as it should have. For a month no effort to prevent the oil from getting on the beaches and into the swamp lands of the tidal areas. Never once allowed the foreign skimmers to come to work here. After the locals became so angry the feds then created the 20 billion fund from BP run by a third party to make sure it is spread around properly, apparently that has not yet taken over the job, though I have seen the director making speeches to the towns in Louisiana.



You love the NY Times for some reason. So I hope you can see that the NYT has been pointing out the failures that the Obama administration has been making. Just because the BP has a problem with no sudden fix doesn't mean that the feds can not help the people get a fair break. They could be their making sure the boat people are not being ripped off by opportunists or BP. They could have fixed the dikes to protect the beaches and swamps, They could have made special arrangements to carry these folks along for a while until they can convince BP to make these payments. All this could have been done with special funds that would then be paid back by the BP funds. This government is spending far too much time politicking and not enough facing reality.

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Bobagain said,

This government is spending far too much time politicking and not enough facing reality.

Reckon that could apply to nearly all Governments!:-)

Yes Henel--so very true

How deep do they drill--just came across this





http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread587554/pg1