Oh... My... God... They're Going To Announce A Commission To Deal With The Spill

Pressure Grows for Gov't To Take Over From BP
Congressman, Others Call for All Governmental Resources Available to Stop Month-Long Leak from Continuing to Gush into Gulf
By Sharyl Attkisson
WASHINGTON, May 21, 2010

<snip>

(CBS) Five thousand feet deep, oil still gushes nonstop in the Gulf of Mexico, no longer out of sight thanks to the live feed BP was forced to make public.

A lead congressman says patience has run out.

"The American people want this leak plugged now; they are outraged," said Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Edward Markey. "This is an all-hands-on-deck crisis, and we need to use every asset the U.S. has, including the Defense Department and all of its most sophisticated technology."

Markey and others are taking issue with the approach so far of leaving it up to BP, CBS News Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports. BP has been - and continues to be - in charge of the response to the oil leak.

"They have the legal responsibility and the technical expertise to plug the hole," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.

Or do they? They haven't plugged it in 31 days. On Friday, the press corps hammered away.

"They're not getting the job done," CBS News Correspondent Chip Reid told Gibbs. "Does the government just stand there as a spectator and hope for the best?"

"Chip, Chip, there's nothing that would denote that the federal government has stood there and hoped for the best," Gibbs said.

Gibbs says the Obama administration has been aggressive, prodding BP and "asking" it for more data and information.

"Why don't you order them to do it rather than ask them to do that?" Reid asked.

"Because you can't do that from a private company," Gibbs said.

"You took over AIG," one reporter said.

"Well we -- the company is largely in receivership," Gibbs said.

On Friday, CBS News obtained more undersea video turned over 11 days after Congress found out about it and asked for it, including another clip showing an abortive attempt to cap the well on May 6 and more video apparently showing use of toxic chemical dispersants to break up the oil, a strategy that one scientist called unthinkable.

"It's a PR stunt to dissolve this oil with disbursements," Carl Sarfina, president of the Blue Ocean Institute, said while testifying at a government hearing Friday. "It's just to get it away from the cameras on the shoreline."

Late Friday, the White House reported President Obama will announce the establishment of a bipartisan national commission on the spill in his Saturday morning radio address. Two-term Florida governor and former Senator Bob Graham and former EPA administrator William K. Reilly will serve as co-chairs.

<snip>

Link: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/21/eveningnews/main6507629.shtml

:wtf:

:banghead:

:crazy:

:beer:

:smoke:

:grr:

In.

Edited because spelling "commission" properly is something I do believe in.

:banghead:

The why THE FUCK is a private company in charge?


NATIONALIZE EVERYTHING!

Unbelievable! And the government allowed this potential disaster to go on for decades without having a plan to deal with a disaster like this!!

I'm beginning to wonder who we have been electing to govern this country. It seems they are the least competent people on the face of the planet and we have been far, far too trusting, even at our most cynical, the sheer magnitude of the incompetence regarding this is stunning!

:banghead:

you are so right........

I laughed out loud, but it's not funny, really......

and let the navy deal with this situation.

...to plug 50,686 holes and pull up 33,600 miles of gas and oil pipeline.

Of course, that's just what's offshore in US waters in the Gulf of Mexico.

:patriot:

It's really amazing the things you can learn on DU..

of the Commissions

http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=103&subid=111&contentid=426

Isn't that special!

of it in no time flat.

and now that he's doing what he can, there's more bitching about it.

Sometimes I think it's all about the bitching and nothing about what's going on.

situation, but are pissed that it's not being handled.

Happens all the time.

The stupid...

it burns.

And then rush the process to incur even more risk..

IN PUBLICLY OWNED PROPERTY.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-cje17OGnQ

We've got to protect our phoney baloney jobs here! Harumph! Harumph!

"Give the Governer a harumph."

The way things are going, it would seem so.

When will that STOP THAT SHIT????

had by Republican and corporate operatives.

"bipartisan commission". I agree with you wholeheartedly.

We have one big mess in the gulf, nobody seems to know what is going on, and most people feel that the wrong people are in charge.

I do not know if Obama is a fighter, his strength perhaps lays in gathering a consensus.

He needs to gather Coast Guard, Navy, some politicians, scientific experts, oil execs, I may be missing some here, into a meeting and tell them no more bullshit, no more lies. Ask them where everyone is at as far as getting this mess stopped. Threaten if he has to. But the most important thing is to get honest answers.

Then get on tv and tell the American people what the facts are. No holding back because holding back is not going to change the facts. The American people have always prided themselves on being to solve problems. The problem right now is we do not know the facts. We may not be able to solve the problem, this may be the start of the downfall of man, but at least we will know. Right now many think it is, some think it is no big deal, A lot of people are just plain scared. Obama needs to get the facts and then get the facts to the people so everyone knows , and there is no more guessing.

Americans fo rthe most part do not like not knowing. It just pisses us off.

then a contained small nuke is the answer to stop the flow.

I can't wrap my mind around it.

to close off well heads.

seems a bit rash.

It'd be more like an implosion.

From what angle does the drill come in? I'm curious as to how the hole is excavated.

50 miles offshore? To cap a well that is said to have oil that goes underground to central Alabama?

Were those Russian wells underwater? I thought I read otherwise. What about the golf ball junk shot? Honestly, I don't think BP knows crap about stopping this gusher.

They aren't using the Booms correctly. There is quite a science to using them so to trap the oil. No one paid attention in 'Boom School.'

Get the damn Petroleum Engineers out there with the best geologists in the nation. We need scientists, not drillers and not politicians.

edit: typo

It's not like it's without precedent. The experts should get together and weigh the pros and cons on this option. The Russians have successfully used this in the past to seal fissures. However, there are a lot of methane hydrates on the bottom of the Gulf, the sediment itself has the consistency of pudding. This option should seriously be considered because at this point, if it cannot be sealed until August -- we are looking at a possible collapse of the ecological chain and a massive extinction level event. This is not hyperbole.

"However, there are a lot of methane hydrates on the bottom of the Gulf, the sediment itself has the consistency of pudding."

Seems like you are contradicting yourself in that statement.

Wow. Just.. there are very few times in life when words just utterly fail..

unless it is Neanderthal (pre 1975 in this case) or corrupted by ignoring.

There is very little attention paid to Federal environmental law and contracting procedures at DU regrading BP and the oil gusher created in the Gulf of Mexico.

Tony much surely be trembling right now!

Why not JUST DO FUCKING SOMETHING AND tell BP to step aside...we will let you know when the OCEAN IS SAFE again.

Agreed.

This is not a spill. It's the Earth's ecosystem in extreme jeopardy.

makes you wonder. In such a polarized country where there's no concept of the common good...how does that work?

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

nt

regardless of party, I have zero faith in the government. Sure, let's wait a month while toxic earth-barf poisons the water.

The compromise? You end up in a coma but still alive. There's your bipartisanship.

Do these assholes have any idea what they are dealing with? If they do they are being criminally dishonest.

This event is an act of war upon the biosphere and thus humanity. It is not being treated as such.

k&r

CLUELESS?!?!"

I think I've now probably lost all hope for Obama to do the right thing about ANYTHING. I kept thinking that, well, at least he's intelligent -- and surely, for an intelligent person, certain facts must eventually become obvious.

I've wanted to hold onto that small comfort because the alternative felt too unthinkable, too despair-inducing. And how does one cope with the realization that we are saddled with a president who apparently has no core values, no sense of leadership, no inner compass, no common sense?

A commission, a fucking commission!?!?! Is THAT supposed to reassure the American public? Is THAT supposed to make us feel like our government is on top of this crisis? Is THAT supposed to convince us that they're DOING SOMETHING???

My gawd, it's PATHETIC! It's ABSURD! It's RIDICULOUS! It's INSULTING!

We, the ordinary citizens of this country, have NO ONE out there taking our side, NO ONE out looking out for our interests -- not the useless corrupt Congress, not our useless clueless President.

We don't need a fucking commission, we need someone kicking BP's ass NOW. Not to mention kicking Wall Street's ass, Health Insurance Companies ass, Pharma's ass, Agribusiness's ass, Pentagon's ass, Multinational Corporations' ass, and on and on.

But no, we've NO ONE on our side.

Gah!

:nuke:
sw

:wtf:

He's in a bubble, within a bubble!!!

Talk about out of touch...

:banghead:

:shrug:

I want to hear, "We've assembled a team of the best scientific minds on the planet to devise a way to stop this gusher and mitigate the environmental damage IMMEDIATELY!" And I want to hear that a FUCKING MONTH AGO!

Declare a state of emergency until the gusher is plugged up, dammit. And as someone above posted, let the causes be examined in the discovery phase of the court trials.

sw

:shrug:

:hi:

No further words are necessary, you've said it all.

Isn't that a relief?!