Waiting All Day...

On the radio show today I talked about BP taking off the containment cap - a massive spew of course ensued - and were getting ready to put a new one on that they hoped was going to staunch the flow considerably if not completely. I'm the last person to be taken in by these criminal propagandists but I have to admit all day long I've had a feeling that this really might come to an end soon. Surely BP couldn't be dense enough to raise people's hopes yet again only to let them down. So I've been waiting all day to post on their progress and so far are all signs are positive.

While the original cap only caught about half of the estimated oil spewing into the Gulf, the new cap will divert the entire oil flow into a containment system so it can be disposed of. As of Saturday, BP said the total volume of oil that has been collected by the existing system was roughly 3/4 of a million barrels. The new system that it is being introduced should be able to deal with 60,000 to 80,000 barrels a day and should be ready by the end of the month.


Capping the well and collecting the oil is not going to solve the long-term problem. Stopping the flow of oil is still dependent upon two relief wells that BP has been digging since May and are designed to join up with the original well, about 18,000ft under the sea floor. They will then pump the specialised heavy fluids down the relief well and bring the first part of the catastrophe to a merciful end. What will follow can only be guessed at.

Here's something that'll take the edge off if you're half as angry as I am about this criminal and negligent behaviour on the part of BP.

Sunday Links

Never got back yesterday and I even manage to feel a little guilty about it... well not terribly but just enough to remind me I was raised Catholic. So this'll just be links until I'm all caught up here, at the radio station and for tomorrow's show.

Here's some of the things you could have missed if you were busy and had a life and a summer to get to: In the US the Republicans doing everything they can to screw the economy and the unemployed strangely hoping there will be no accountability for their actions and that it will in fact win them seats in November - maybe they hope they can just bury the Dems under an avalanche of corporate money.

Amy Goodman reporting on how the media and scientists are being shut out from examining and covering the ongoing catastrophe in the Gulf and how the lack of transparency may lead to more disasters. From Keith a report on 27,000 abandoned wells in the Gulf of Mexico, 3,500 hundred of which pose a risk of leaking.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The US courts also refused to grant the Obama administration a stay on the deepwater drilling moritoium.
If you saw the post abut the New Black Panther Party and wondered about the extent of the demagoguery taking place in the American MSM, here from David Neiwert is a collection of those news reports and the ones they don't want you to see. The guy who started the caterwauling about the DOJ's refusal to bring voter intimidation cases against blacks over the New Black Panther case from election day 2008 is J. Christian Adams. He's one of the Bush appointees who was running the DOJ back then who was actively purging career attorneys and replacing them with right-wing activists. Why do these people have any credibility? Well, it's Fox news.

The Washington Post reports that a tax on tanning salons is evidence of reverse racism - someone actually cites this and says, "I now know the pain of racism," seriously! Speaking of MSM wankery - the Huffington Post gets inclusion as a new entrant to the club. Turns out money is more important than accuracy or integrity.

The heat wave has abated somewhat in the east although the long-range forecast for this week includes lots more heat so no putting away those fans yet. A study by Stanford University climate scientists says that exceptionally long heat waves could become the norm in the near future. As the mercury rises outdoors, it's a fitting time to consider the affects of summertime droughts and global warming on ecosystems.

It's also the right time to look at sunscreens and two studies that are creating confusion for Canadians on the subject: one from the Canadian Medical Association Journal and the other from the Canadian Dermatology Association - this CBC report tries to sort it out.

May I Have Another?

Today's 1st story link is what the title is about. The relationship the people of the Gulf have with BP is like that of an abused spouse. The beatings are hard on the system but the only thing worse would be if the spouse left or was forced to leave. Alternet asks, when will we end our abusive relationship with big oil? Abusive can hardly be viewed as hyperbolic when we are looking at a dead zone the size of Lake Ontario being created - and I actually think that's optimistic given yesterday's report of methane concentrations 100,000 times more than normal that have been detected in parts of the Gulf.

As has been well documented BP was in no way ready for a catastrophic occurrence - although they claimed that they were, but then neither are any of the oil companies currently drilling in the Gulf. Just to complicate the current clean-up efforts, Tropical Storm Alex is strengthening and moving towards the coast - it could turn onto a category 3 hurricane. here's a Q & A from the NOAA on what is likely to happen if a hurricane hits the area of the spill.

A reminder that 21 years after the Valdez spill many species there are still struggling to survive.

In non-gusher related news, Iraq still twirling towards... heaven knows what as Monday sees 7 killed and 19 wounded. This is not unusual and is the price Iraqis pay daily for US occupation.

The leaders at the G-20 took the decision to screw the poor around the world.

Concerns raised about carbon sequestration - how effective will it be?

Marijuana in a nasal spray? I've said it before, it's a miracle drug!

Accountability

Been trying not to make all my posts about the disaster in the Gulf of late. It's playing out long, slowly and painfully. We made pretty good calls here based on common sense and decent internet sources. The first being that there was no way the rate of flow was anything like only 5,000 barrel a day. The figure has now been set at 19,000 or so and that's still low-balling the true figure - as is pointed out in the video below by CBS legal correspondent Sharyl Attkisson on Face the Nation:



Maybe BP thinks by playing games with the figures they're going to get away with paying a smaller fine - and maybe they will. They certainly have the resources and wherewithal to try. Corporate citizens are never taken to task the way the rest of us are - or would be if any of us were responsible for the deaths of 11 people and destruction of various flora and fauna that has robbed tens of thousands of people of their livelihoods.

Speaking of corporate accountability in these instances, or lack thereof, word today that those responsible for the tragedy at Bhopal were finally convicted - 25 1/2 years later, of negligence. The seven surviving defendants were sentenced to two years in prison and fined 100,000 rupees, or $2,100.

They were the first criminal convictions from the leak at the Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal, a central Indian city. The leak killed 3,000 people almost instantly, and thousands more died later from the aftereffects of the toxic gas, an ingredient in pesticides the plant produced.

Maybe BP will get the same deal. Or maybe they'll get the same deal as Exxon, 'cause that's what they really want. They want the rough estimates to be off by 2/3's and to fight it in court for 20 years and then dole out pocket change and pretend they've paid their debt.

The President has been doing his part near as we can tell, but will get little credit as there is little he can do other than try and make the accountable - seems unlikely if BP finds ways to drag it through the courts for 20 years. The reality is that they will have to wait until August when the relief wells have been dug, and even that's not a sure thing, before oil stops gushing into the Gulf. Meanwhile, he's out-numbered by the whores and spinmeisters and those in the pockets of big oil.

For comic relief from all this, try reading about an under-reported spill stemming from the BP offices in the UK.