'Not for public': the oil spill may be getting much worse

[Bruce Dazzling]

DOJ gags scientists studying BP disaster.
Think Progress
By Brad Johnson on Aug 10th, 2010 at 10:01 pm

In an explosive first-hand account, ecosystem biologist Linda Hooper-Bui describes how Obama administration and BP lawyers are making independent scientific analysis of the Gulf region an impossibility. Hooper-Bui has found that only scientists who are part of the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) process to determine BP’s civil liability get full access to contaminated sites and research data. Pete Tuttle, USFWS environmental contaminant specialist and Department of Interior NRDA coordinator, admitted to The Scientist that “researchers wishing to formally participate in NRDA must sign a contract that includes a confidentiality agreement” that “prevents signees from releasing information from studies and findings until authorized by the Department of Justice at some later and unspecified date.” Hooper-Bui writes:

It’s not hazardous conditions associated with oil and dispersants that are hampering our scientific efforts. Rather, it’s the confidentiality agreements that come with signing up to work on large research projects shepherded by government entities and BP and the limited access to coastal areas if you’re not part of those projects that are stifling the public dissemination of data detailing the environmental impact of the catastrophe.

Hooper-Bui’s depictions of samples confiscated by US Fish and Wildlife officials and expeditions blocked by local law enforcement is consistent with the steady stream of reports about obstruction, censorship, and confusion under BP’s private army of contractors. A full and open scientific assessment of the effects of the BP disaster is crucial for the health of the ecosystem and the residents of this American jewel.

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/08/10/scientists-bp-gag

[2012 Countdown]

New marsh grass was photographed Tuesday in an area that had been impacted by the oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill near East Grand Terre Island.

Louisiana authorities report oil sightings from Gulf of Mexico spill
Published: Thursday, August 12, 2010, 5:38 PM

Here is a list, released by Louisiana emergency officials, of areas where oil was sighted Thursday. The list is not a comprehensive tally of areas affected by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

St Bernard Parish
Dark brown substance, 50 feet by 25 feet, in an unnamed marsh island in Lake Fortuna 0.4 mile north-northeast of Point Gardner.

Plaquemines Parish
Oil sheen in Pass Abel 1 mile N of the E end of Isle Grande Terre.
Oil sheen in Lake Grand Ecaille 1.46 miles W of Rattlesnake Bayou.
Oil patch, 20 feet by 10 feet, in an unnamed marsh island in Black Bay a half mile north-northwest of Grassy Point.

Jefferson Parish
Oil sheen in Bayou Saint Denis 0.54 mile southwest of the south entrance to Bayou Cutler.

Lafourche Parish
Three very small pools of oil on the east bank of Bell Pass 0.7 mile north of the mouth.

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill ... _o_24.html

[pepsified thinker]

I'd like to know if there are any precedents for such limits on research--

folks investigating plane crashes or food contamination, where there would likely be court cases and damages at stake would be similar scenarios.

I don't mean to be in favor of keeping research about the Gulf spill from public discussion, but want to be sure whether with-holding it is particular to this situation or not.

[beeline]

Link


Cause of Fish Kill: Low Oxygen or Scared to Death?

Fishy theories don't explain why seagulls won't eat the dead fish washed up on the shore

By TERESA MASTERSON


Environmental officials trying to unravel the mystery behind millions of dead fish washing up on the Jersey shore have two theories now that toxins have yet to be found in the water:

1.) The water was hot and the fish couldn’t breathe
2.) The fish were swimming away from a scary predator

Some Middle Township officials are skeptical.

“The fact that the initial finding that there’s no toxins is sort of a relief,” said Middle Township Mayor Susan Atkinson Delanzo. “But they still need to find out the cause so we can have reassurance!”

Originally estimated in the tens of thousands, and now thought to be millions, piles of dead peanut bunker fish covered eight miles of beach along the Delaware Bay Wednesday. Each stinky corpse measures at about 3.5 to four inches long and the reason for the sudden mass fish death is still unknown.

Department of Environmental Protection officials say water samples showed the level of oxygen in the ocean in Cape May County was low and considered “biologically stressed.”

"These low levels likely occurred as a result of very warm weather and warm temperatures in the bay,” said Robert Van Fossen, the DEP's Assistant Director for Emergency Management. “The warmer water is, the less dissolved oxygen it is able to hold. If the fish schooled very tightly in shallows very close to shore for any reason, they may have simply used up all the oxygen that was available to them and died."

The experts' second theory is that predators drove the fish ashore to their sandy deaths.

But neither one of the DEP’s theories explains why birds aren’t eating the fish. Since the giant seagull buffet washed up to shore, the scavenger birds -- as well as bugs -- have kept their distance. Odd behavior since seagulls aren’t exactly picky eaters.

“That’s what was the creepy part,” shore vacationer Christine Cummings said. “No birds or bugs are going all over them. And I would think, maybe, it’s not a natural cause.”

New Jersey environmental crews have taken tissue samples from the fish to see if Mother Nature is not the murderer. In the mean time, residents and renters are staying out of the water.

[No_Baseline]

“When you have dead water, you have dead zones”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-1 ... udied.html

Gulf of Mexico ‘Dead Zone’ Grows as Spill Impact is Studied

Aug. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Martin Preston, a marine chemist at the University of Liverpool, talks about the environmental impact of the BP Plc oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. He speaks from Edinburgh with Mark Barton on Bloomberg Television's "Countdown." (Source: Bloomberg)
The Gulf of Mexico faces a renewed and enlarged threat to marine life: a low-oxygen “dead zone” about the size of Massachusetts, caused by chemical runoff into the Mississippi River that flows into the sea.

The dead zone, which occurs in Gulf waters in summer and is unrelated to BP Plc’s oil spill, covers an area twice as large as last year, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration study released this week. The low-oxygen area this year is the fifth-largest since measurements began in 1985.

Aside from the dead zone, where shrimp and other sea life can’t survive, and the BP spill that dumped an estimated 4.1 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf, there’s a looming threat of hurricanes. Meteorologists at the U.S. National Hurricane Center say a warming of the Atlantic indicates the storm season could be one of the most active on record.

“You start adding these things up, and there’s a question of what the cumulative effect is and how much additional stress the ecosystem can take,” Kevin Craig, a professor at Florida State University’s Coastal and Marine Laboratory who’s studied oxygen depletion for a decade, said in a telephone interview.

The Atlantic may have 15 or more named storms between now and the end of hurricane season in November, according to researchers at Colorado State University.

Move or Die

This year’s dead zone is bigger because of more nitrogen- and phosphate-rich sewage, fertilizer and other agricultural runoffs flowing from the Mississippi River, Nancy Rabalais, head of the NOAA research team that produced the dead-zone study and director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, said in a telephone interview. Larger farms that require more fertilizer resulted in higher concentrations of nitrates in the river, she said.

Dead zones, or areas of hypoxic water defined as having 2 milligrams or less of oxygen per liter, form when bacteria use up oxygen to break down fertilizer- and nitrate-fed algae. Many types of marine life can’t survive in hypoxic areas, and must migrate away from the zones or perish. That means fishermen have to trawl farther and spend more on fuel, Rabalais said.
This year’s dead zone, which stretches from the Mississippi River Delta west toward Galveston, Texas, measured 7,722 square miles (20,000 square kilometers) as of July 31, the NOAA study said. The estimate is likely too low, according to Robert Diaz, a professor of marine science at The College of William & Mary in Gloucester Point, Virginia.

Spill’s Possible Impact

Tropical storm Bonnie blew through the region last month, before measurements began, stirring up and re-oxygenating the water, Diaz said in a telephone interview. “The hypoxia can reform in a matter of just a few weeks,” he said.

The oil dumped into the water by the BP spill from April 20 to July 15 could create dead zones by spawning an explosion of bacteria that feed on crude, Rabalais and Diaz said. The spill “may cause a local oxygen drawdown” as bacteria decompose the oil, Diaz said.
Scientists haven’t tied this year’s confirmed dead zone to effects from the oil spill, Rabalais said.

Hypoxia, first documented off the Louisiana coast in 1972, can result in a 10 to 15 percent loss for shrimp fisheries, according to a study conducted by Martin Smith, an associate professor of environmental economics at Duke University. Louisiana’s fishing industry is the second-largest in the U.S., behind Alaska’s.

Fishing Industry Hurt

“Shrimping is very, very slow right now,” Terrie Looney, a coastal and marine agent for the Texas Sea Grant College Program, said in a telephone interview.

The season opened July 15 in Texas, and shrimpers have netted 25 percent of what they normally would, Looney said.

“When you have dead water, you have dead zones,” said Kyle Kimball, a third-generation fisherman in Nederland, Texas. “Fish have to move out of that water because there’s no oxygen.”

Kimball, who usually skippers his 60-foot shrimp boat from Vermilion Bay in Louisiana down the Texas coast, said his catch is 60 to 70 percent below normal this year. After finding much of his usual fishing areas dead and being chased from Louisiana waters closed off because of the oil spill, he said he had to travel more than 100 miles to Freeport, Texas, to net shrimp.

The western Gulf of Mexico, including the dead zone, will have a shrimp harvest of about 45.2 million pounds this year, 20 percent below the historical average, according to the Southeast Fisheries Science Center in Galveston.

Populations Reduced

“Most of the time the fish and shrimp are smart enough to realize the oxygen is going down and flee,” Diaz said. Even so, the food supply for the creatures is diminished by hypoxia, he said, reducing fish, shrimp and crab populations.

The damage to wildlife from the oil spill and low-oxygen zones could be compounded by hurricanes, said Craig, the Florida State University scientist. Tropical storms could flush animals out of their marsh habitats and damage oyster beds, he said.

While the Gulf can recover from hurricanes and low oxygen, the effects of the oil spill remain a long-term concern, Craig said.

“How it’s going to influence hypoxia or wildlife or fisheries is an unknown,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Leslie Patton in Chicago at lpatton5@bloomberg.net.

[No_Baseline]

BP is obfuscating, as usual

http://www.georgewashington2.blogspot.com/

Will BP Skip the Relief Well, Declare Mission Accomplished, and Abandon Ship Without Permanently Killing the Oil Leak?

Yesterday, I pointed out that - while everyone is claiming that the oil well has been capped - it hasn't really been capped.

AP reported last night:

BP, U.S. mull whether to skip 'bottom kill'

***
The federal government and BP have recently raised the possibility that they won't need to perform the operation at all, since the well was plugged last month with mud and cement pumped in through the top.

(Bottom kill is, of course, just another phrase for relief wells.)

Similarly, Bloomberg writes today:

BP Plc may not finish drilling a relief well to its Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, National Incident Commander Thad Allen said during a conference call today.

The relief well, which for months has been touted by the U.S. government as the ultimate solution to stopping the flow from Macondo -- a process known as “killing” the well -- may not be needed after all, Allen said.

Oil industry expert Robert Cavnar has a must-read piece today on the situation:

For the last several days, I've been trying to figure out what BP is doing and what is the actual condition of BP's MC252 well after their "static kill" and cementing procedure last week apparently didn't work. You'll recall that when [BP's] Kent Wells announced this procedure, he actually used the words "killed" and "dead".

***
To add to the argument to go ahead with the kill, Adm. Allen said in his July 22nd briefing:

"We have a pressure head up there that would help us now fill the top part of the well with mud. That would actually ultimately enhance the relief well effort that would take place five to seven days later." (emphasis added)

On August 2nd and 3rd, BP ran the "static kill" pumping 2,300 barrels of mud. Early in the morning on the 4th, BP issued a press release saying the the well had reached a "static condition" with well pressure "controlled by the hydrostatic pressure of the drilling mud." In his McBriefing later that day, Wells actually said that when they pumped the mud, they could actually see it go into the reservoir by pressures, and that they pumped up to 15 barrels per minute. They studiously avoided the terms "dead" and "killed". During the briefing, Wells also said:

"And what we - what we're doing now is, every six hours, we just inject a little more mud into the well, just to continue to give ourselves confidence that we can do that, keep our equipment live, and we're seeing a very, very static set of conditions as we continue to monitor the pressure, which is all very encouraging." (empasis added)

With all the encouraging signs, [U.S. Secretary of Energy] Steve Chu approved pumping cement, which they did on the 5th. In a briefing on the 6th, Doug Suttles declared victory, say that the "...cement job is performing as expected". He also said that they pumped 500 barrels of cement, leaving about 200 inside the casing.

All was right with the world. Except, it wasn't. Day before yesterday, Adm. Allen announced they were going to start a "pressure test", babbling about the annulus and raising the ominous spectre that they are still actually communicated to the reservoir. Wells confirmed that fear in the afternoon, admitting that they indeed had 4,200 psi on the well when it's supposed to be dead. At the seafloor, the well should have no more than 2,200 psi on it, and conceivable less, if the hydrostatic of the mud in the closed well had overcome reservoir pressure. Then it got really confusing. Wells said that it wouldn't hold 4,200 psi because of "bubbles" leaking out of the wellhead, implying that they are pumping on it to keep it there, but that they're going to "test" it by relieving pressure. ?? Also, the more Adm. Allen explains what's going on, the more the press gets confused. Hell, I understand this business and I'm confused.

To add to the jumble, Adm Allen said this in his briefing yesterday:

"Sure, there's a very low probability that we might have actually sealed the annulus with the cement that came down the pipe casing and came back up around it. What we want to do is understand whether or not there's what we call free communication. In other words whether there, the hydrocarbons in the reservoir can actually come up through the annulus outside the casing, if that's the case when we go in and we drill in we put the mud and cement we're just going to drive that down and seal the well. OK? If there's cement there and there's no communication that means we have what we call stagnate oil trapped around that casing up to the well head. If you go in and you start pumping mud and cement in there the chances are you could raise the pressure and push that up into the blow out preventer. And that's a very low possibility, low probability event but we want to, we want to test the pressure in the blow out preventer and see if we actually have pressure coming up that would indicate that we have free communication with the reservoir. If not that would change our tactics and how we do the final kill."

Clear as drilling mud. What's going on here is that the "static kill" looks like it did the opposite of what BP and Allen had suggested at the beginning. It certainly hasn't accelerated the relief well. To the contrary, it has caused interminable delays. As a matter of fact, since July 13, the DDIII has only drilled 70 or 80 feet and set one string of casing. With all of the shut downs for the "well integrity test", then the "well injectivity test", then the "static kill" plus cementing, they haven't been able to get much work done for a month, especially with the 2 weather delays.

The mis-information and confusion is also taking its toll. I got asked in an interview yesterday that since the well is "dead" now, why are they bothering with the relief well? AP reported last night that BP and the government are contemplating skipping the bottom kill. Every time Wells, Suttles, or Allen get in front of a microphone, everyone gets even more confused, mis-informed, or both; everyone just wants this to go away, but it's not going away; not until the relief well kills from the bottom as we've been saying for over 3 months.

In actuality, this "static kill" did nothing that BP and Allen said it would do. Certainly the well is not dead or "static". It hasn't accelerated the relief well, but it has obscured the well's pressures, making it more difficult to kill. Hence, these new tests to figure out what's going on. BP and the government don't really have a clue where the 2,300 barrels of mud and 500 barrels of cement went. They originally claimed it all went down the casing and out to the reservoir. I would set the probability of that actually having happened at zero. Here's why: The positive test on the casing the night of the blowout was rock solid. The casing was good. It is possible that they may have collapsed the production casing during the blowout, but that would have been relatively high up in the wellbore, probably where they had displaced with seawater on the inside. If that happened, it would be communicated with the backside. In addition, at the bottom of the production casing is a float shoe, 134 feet of cement in the shoe track, then a float collar, then 2 cementing plugs with probably cement on top of those. Oh, and don't forget about the 3,000 feet of drill pipe hanging inside all of that. There is no way, unless that entire float assembly blew off, that they pumped down the casing and up the backside. On top of all that, there are HUGE lost circulation zones both below and above the reservoir. During drilling they lost 3,000 barrels of mud trying to drill that last section.

So, where did all the mud and cement go? It likely went down the backside of the production casing and either out through some damage that was caused during the aborted top kill, or out the lost circulation zone right below the 9 7/8" liner at 17,100. The fact that they're getting pressure now tells me that they are indeed communicated to the reservoir below, probably obscured by the fact that they now have mud strung through the annulus. If they are indeed communicated, pressure will build on the wellhead, which is exactly what's happening. Adm. Allen pledged to get BP to release the pressure data 3 days ago. The next day, when asked about it, he said it was released, but "nobody can find it." The data is still AWOL.

So, now, here we sit, waiting on weather again, and then we're going to pressure test a well that's supposed to be dead instead of getting the relief well finished. The press is confused; the public is bored.
BP has tried to cover up every aspect of the spill. See this, this and this.

The bottom kill - the procedure which all oil industry experts agree has the best chance of killing the leak - hasn't yet been performed. The underwater cameras still show methane and oil leaking into the Gulf.

And yet the country's attention is already drifting away from the Gulf and to celebrities, stocks, and other issues.

I'm beginning to wonder whether BP keeps on doing one confusing procedure after another, and keeps on saying that the well has been capped, hoping that everyone stops paying attention so that BP can just pack up its bags and slink away while people aren't paying attention.

Relief wells are the best hope for permanently capping the well. But it is possible that BP has messed up the well so badly that the relief wells will fail.

As Cavnar notes, BP has already taken down or blurred most of its underwater camera feeds. BP might just declare "mission accomplished" and skip the relief wells, leaving a ticking time bomb which will pollute the Gulf for years to come.

Note: I hope that BP and the government do complete the relief wells next week after the tropical storm passes. I am not predicting that BP will skip the bottom kill ... I am only warning that they are considering it, and am writing this so people can put pressure on BP and the government to complete both relief wells.

[2012 Countdown]

Train Wreck: Who Is Going to Come Out and Tell Us This Is Not OK?
by Abby Zimet


Some of you may have Gulf and BP fatigue, especially with the mainstream media telling us everything's fine now, thanks. But scores of coastal communities remain contaminated by oil and Corexit 9500, many people are sick and getting sicker, and there is no sign of life in the area's vast waters. A long first-person account of the ongoing effects on animals and humans - and the cover-up of it - is here. Much comes from the plain-speaking Robyn Hill, a beach supervisor who wanted to know "what the hell was going on," even as she started vomiting and passing out from it.

"It's like a train wreck because you tell one person and they are yeah, ok and then you tell the next person and they are like yeah, ok but nobody really cares at the end of the day they are like ok so you all are getting sick down there. OK fine....And the workman's comp doctor says you realize we all live in Gulf Shores and if we report you got sick from the fumes that we will create a problem and that would not be a good situation to have. You can't just say you got sick from the fumes. And I was like, I did, I am giving you the knife that stabbed me." - Former Gulf Shores Beach Supervisor Robyn Hill


http://www.commondreams.org/further/2010/08/13

======


The Jaws Syndrome; Life Imitates Art On The Gulf Coast; The Crime of the Century Pt II



When Steven Spielberg thrilled audiences around the world with the release of Jaws in 1975, who would have thought that the fictional scenario of a beachfront community faced with a mortal enemy threatening life and the summer tourist economy would be played out on an exponentially larger scale 35 years later in the summer of 2010 along the Gulf of Mexico. The credits now roll with BP's disastrous oil spill at the Mississippi Canyon 252 site as the Great White Shark, The Obama Administration and the Federal, State, and Local Authorities as the Town of Amity, and the lone rational voice of Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungasser as Chief Brody. But unlike the film and novel, along the Gulf Coast, the voice of reason has been drowned out by the unified assertions of BP and government officials that the situation is under control and the water and beaches safe for recreation and fishing.

Had not the Obama Administration chosen to allow BP to dictate the response to the massive catastrophe, the economic and long term impacts from the release of hundreds of millions of gallons of crude into the Gulf might have been manageable to some degree. But as it played out with millions of gallons of Corexit dispersants being sprayed by the US Coast Guard from C130s at night and from BP ships near the Source, deep underwater, and along the coast in order to put the oil out of sight; the devastation expanded across thousands of miles of the gulf and throughout the food chain onto the beaches and through evaporation into humans along the coast as well.

Charles Hambleton, Pierre LeBlanc and I arrived in the Gulf region in mid-July to investigate reports of a coordinated effort by BP and Federal and State authorities to cover up the tremendous loss of marine life due to the spill and dispersants being used to break down the oil so it would be out of sight. We quickly discovered that while the allegations of a cover-up of untold numbers of dead animals (Crime of the Century Part I ) was both dramatic and emotional it was the impacts on human health and welfare from the oil/Corexit mixture and the cover up of those realities that was the more important story. This was a story mainstream media seemed content to echo official sources on without any substantial effort to report on the large numbers of people sickened as a result of exposure to toxic crude and dispersant Corexit.


FULL-
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jerry-cop ... 74481.html

[DoYouEverWonder]

Train Wreck: Who Is Going to Come Out and Tell Us This Is Not OK?

Didn't Katrina and 9/11 teach these folks, that the corporate controlled government doesn't give a shit about them?

[2012 Countdown]

Nint' Wardica, 2010
acrylic on Tyvek, with plastic grommets
94.75 x 175.75 inches

http://www.arthurrogergallery.com/

[Iamwhomiam]

Millions Of Barrels Of Oil Safely Reach Port In Major Environmental Catastrophe

August 11, 2010

Millions-Of-large.jpg

PORT FOURCHON, LA—In what may be the greatest environmental disaster in the nation's history, the supertanker TI Oceania docked without incident at the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port Monday and successfully unloaded 3.1 million barrels of dangerous crude oil into the United States.

According to witnesses, the catastrophe began shortly after the tanker, which sailed unimpeded across the Gulf of Mexico, stopped safely at the harbor and made contact with oil company workers on the shore. Soon after, vast amounts of the black, toxic petroleum in the ship's hold were unloaded at an alarming rate into special storage containers on the mainland.

From there, experts confirmed, the oil will likely spread across the entire country's infrastructure and commit unforetold damage to its lakes, streams, and air.

"We're looking at a crisis of cataclysmic proportions," said Charles Hartsell, an environmental scientist at Tufts University. "In a matter of days, this oil may be refined into a lighter substance that, when burned as fuel in vehicles, homes, and businesses, will poison the earth's atmosphere on a terrifying scale."

"Time is of the essence," Hartsell added. "If this is allowed to continue, the health of every American could be put at risk."

Officials predicted that the oil could be carried as far north as Minneapolis and as far west as Honolulu. Hopes of containment are said to be scant, as the pipelines transporting the oil are numerous, massive, and buried deep underground, making it virtually impossible to dig them all up and reverse their flow back toward the TI Oceania.

"Our fear is that we'll start seeing this stuff in tanker trucks headed to gas stations all over America," Environmental Protection Agency official Ralph Linney said. "And once they start pumping it into individual cars for combustion, it's all over."

"How can we possibly contain this after it's spread to 250 million vehicles, each one going in a different direction?" he added.

Millions-Of-Jump-R_jpg_250x1000_q85.jpg

Experts are saying the oil tanker safely reaching port could lead to dire ecological consequences on multiple levels, including rising temperatures, disappearing shorelines, the eradication of countless species, extreme weather events, complete economic collapse, droughts that surpass the Dust Bowl, disease, wildfires, widespread human starvation, and endless, bloody wars fought over increasingly scarce resources.

Meanwhile, government officials, stunned to learn of the massive amounts of carbon dioxide that will be released into the atmosphere as a result of the TI Oceania tanker's successful docking, have called for a full investigation into the disaster's cause.

"I am shocked and horrified by this development," Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) said. "Rest assured, we will find the people responsible for allowing this to happen, and they will be held accountable. Every last one of them."

Public opinion across the country has likewise turned from confusion to outrage, with many concerned Americans fearing that the worst may be yet to come.

"It's scary stuff," said Logansport, IN native Wayne Cummings, talking to reporters from behind the wheel of an idling Ford F-150 XLT pickup. "I read somewhere that it might take years before we know the full extent of the damage, and by that time it will be impossible to do anything about it."

"All I know is, we have to think of some way to fix this problem before it's too late," Cummings said before driving off.

Noting that they have acted in strict accordance with U.S. laws and complied with the orders of federal regulators, representatives from ExxonMobil, BP, ConocoPhillips, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Chevron have all denied responsibility for the disaster.

~~~~~~~

Of course we must thank The Onion for disguising truth as humor.

[82_28]

As always with the onion, that is very good.

[Julia W]

Another video version on the well A vs. well B topic, I don't know about the music...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oaf998Fw ... re=channel

[pepsified thinker]

What was the status of the blown/leaking well at the point when they had to leave due to the threatening weather (on July 23?)?

If they left and it was leaking and returned--and switched to well A--and showed a non-leaking well, wouldn't that have been a bit obvious?

If they had supposedly continuous video feed (once they'd returned after the bad weather) wouldn't they have to show a still leaking well (if it was stil leaking at that point) and then show the process of fixing it to bring it to what it presently looks like? Not saying that faking all of that would be impossible , but is that what this video implies? (or maybe I've assumed something that isn't necessarily so).

Of course they could have just screwed up in their cover-up, but why wouldn't they have also somehow rigged the video read-out to give the coordinates of the 'B' well?

(not meant to challenge/dismiss the proposed A - B switch, just trying to think it through--see how the deception it asserts would have had to occur and what would be involved. Hopefully, that would allow further looking to see if that did actually happen.)

. . . and yeah, the music is a way-far bit over the top. It will make the video seem cheesy and conspiracy theory-ish to most folks.

[Gouda]

2012 Countdown wrote:

Train Wreck: Who Is Going to Come Out and Tell Us This Is Not OK?
by Abby Zimet

Not this guy:

Obama takes plunge, swims in Gulf



(CNN) -- The one really big question hanging over President Obama's weekend vacation to Panama City, Florida, now has an answer.

Will he or won't he dive into the water to send a message that the Gulf Coast is back?

The answer: He will, and sooner than expected.

"I think we're going to go tomorrow and as I just said Ed, I'm not going to let you guys take a picture of me with my shirt off," Obama jokingly told CNN Saturday. "You guys will tease me just like last time. I was on the front page ... People commenting."

But just hours later, a photo was published on the White House Flickr page showing a smiling President Obama and his daughter Sasha taking a dip in the Gulf waters off Alligator Point in Panama City Beach, Florida.

No reporters or press cameras were present for the swim, but the image will nonetheless send a message that the White House has sought to convey with the first family's trip: the Gulf Coast is open for business.

Obama caused a bit of a tabloid stir when he took off his shirt to reveal a muscular physique during trips to Hawaii during the 2008 presidential campaign and subsequent presidential transition. But some are less concerned about Obama ending up on magazine covers, and more worried about the White House sending the right message.

"Absolutely, I want him to take his shirt off and get in the water and show it's clean and safe," said Stephen Leatherman, a professor at Florida International University in Miami who puts together an annual list of America's best beaches.

Leatherman rates the beach there as one of the top 10 in the country, and he said Obama has a unique opportunity to showcase the fact that the Gulf Coast is still open for business despite the worst oil spill in American history.

"It's got lily-white sand, and frankly the oil didn't really make it there. It was pretty well spared," said Leatherman, who noted that the water is 87 or 88 degrees because of the steamy Florida weather, making it conducive to at least a quick presidential plunge.

"There is no better symbol than the president of the United States showing us the way," Leatherman said.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs was cagey Friday when reporters asked whether the president will take a swim during the first family's 27-hour mini-vacation.

"Stay tuned," said Gibbs, who grew slightly impatient and a bit bemused about getting so many queries about something as seemingly minor as a presidential swim.

"Look, he's going to have some fun," Gibbs said. "Whether or not he gets in the water is up for clearly some debate. But, look, he will have an opportunity to enjoy ... the physical beauty of the Gulf and do some work at the same time."

Gibbs turned it around on reporters and wondered whether they would bare their midriffs this weekend.

"Are you bringing your suits?" Gibbs said with a smile.

But Leatherman suggested it's no joking matter because the president's decision to swim or not to swim will carry tremendous symbolic weight.

"I think it's very important that he gets into the water because I think there's this feeling that if you get in, you're going to get contaminated or get all kinds of diseases," he said.

This is the president's fifth trip to the Gulf region since the April 20 explosion that sparked the oil disaster. The trip is generating criticism over whether Obama is giving the region short shrift by spending only parts of Saturday and Sunday in Panama City.

White House officials announced the trip earlier this summer after critics wondered why the president and first lady had urged Americans to vacation in the Gulf but originally chose Bar Harbor, Maine, and Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, as the only locations for their own sojourns.

Now, the criticism has shifted to whether 27 hours in Panama City is too quick of a jaunt, and the Republican National Committee released a statement Friday that also said Obama has included Florida in only a couple of his trips to the region in recent months.

"It's nice to see the president take the time out of his busy schedule of golf games and campaign fundraisers to clear his conscience and visit Florida for only the second time since the oil crisis began," RNC spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg said. "As he meets with business owners in the Panhandle, it seems like the perfect opportunity for him to explain how his reckless spending, tax increases, and government takeover of health care are supposed to help the Gulf's devastated economy. Not even the Sunshine State can put a positive light on the president's failed liberal policies that have sunk his approval ratings to an all-time low."

The president is accompanied by first lady Michelle Obama and their younger daughter Sasha. (The oldest, Malia, is still away at camp and will not be in Florida). Also making the trip is Gulf Coast recovery chief, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, to try to show the administration is committed to a long-term turnaround.

Gibbs largely deflected questions about whether the trip was too short, saying the president is focused on promoting the "health of the region" with the vacation.

"Tourism in Florida and along the Gulf Coast is the economy," Gibbs told reporters Friday. "This is an opportunity to highlight the notion that this important region of the country is still doing well and open for business."

While Leatherman said he does think the trip seems too short, Obama should be applauded for carving out some time to help the region.

"I think it's basically a photo-op, isn't it?" said Leatherman. "But I still think it's a good thing for the president to come down and show the world that it's clean and safe. That will go a long way to helping the Gulf Coast."

Leatherman added: "The best thing that could happen is the president saying, 'I'm going in!' And I don't mean damn the torpedoes. I mean him saying, 'It's clean and safe, and I'm going in the water!' "

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/08 ... &wom=false

(Cross-posting at the Fuck Obama thread for reckless child endangerment).

[DoYouEverWonder]

Obombya went swimming in Panama City. What a joke. Panama City is about as far away from the spill as you can get and still be considered in the zone.

If he had real balls he'd should have gone to Grand Isle or Dauphin Island. But he's just a showman, all he has to do is look good for the cameras.