I agree ... Leave it to the news to focus on the whinners who lost on the bid to cleanup. You could have focused on those who won the bids and heard how happy they are for the good paying jobs. But noooo, let's keep the doom and gloom going, even if it's just rumors and bad mouthing from the losers.

And in turn you bad mouth the losers an d the media.

"I wish you people (media) would just shut up about the “Big, Bad Oil Spill” unless your going to start to be honest with your readers / listeners."

The estimate of independent scientists is that this will be the largest oil spill in US history by a wide margin. And the more people read about the spill, the more they learn that is was caused by BP cutting corners and costs and not being regulated at all.

My only criticism is we should be seeing quality investigative reporting in the headlines. For example, I had to do my own research to find out that the Blow Out Preventer design being used at Deepwater Horizon had been tested under deep ocean, high pressure conditions and failed to respond satisfactorily. That indicates a need to develop Blow Out Preventers designed to work under deep ocean pressure.

They are also accumulating a mountain of evidence to underscore the fact that BP was cutting corners and costs from the start with this oil rig. They had almost a year of problems with upward methane pressure from the oil reserve, including near disasters. Yet a BP manager ordered the oil rig to use sea water in the pipeline to balance the pressure, not industry standard. The usual technique uses mud, which takes longer and therefore costs more - industry standard. The fact is the Deepwater Horizon was over a month over the deadline to start producing oil, and way over budget. The sea water failed to work, a huge methane bubble reached the surface and caused the explosion that killed eleven oil rig workers. The control panel operator hit the switch to activate the Blow Out Preventer. The shear ram failed to close off the pipeline all the way.

BP is guilty of reckless endangerment of the Gulf. This should never happen again. The oil industry needs to be held accountable for safe deep ocean drilling. America needs to adopt the Canadian mandate for deep ocean drilling, that two wells be established - one primary and one safety back up well.

I have it on good authority that the Feds are running this and not BP. What a load of.....

Hired perverts to clean beaches? A Masse Torte from every U.S. Citizen agianst..and....

What authority? Why haven't you named it or him/her or them? This is important to make your statement strong and have bite.

Lithium in automotive batteries is only a short-term stepping-stone to much better technology. If we can make the jump to all-electric vehicles in the first place, finding sustainable ways to power them won't be that big of an issue. There is great potential with methanol/silicon fuel cells, just for starters. That technology won't happen tomorrow, but it will happen soon enough. And it won't require further raping of the rain forest, that's for sure. And further, there is more than enough lithium available elsewhere to satisfy energy needs in the shorter-term.

Although, I'm sure they'll find plenty of other reasons to rape the Amazon, anyway. Just sayin'.

Before I click to read the comments here I try to think about what the most bizarre responses could be and I have to say Riddles, Behr and (not) MrCool, you all have really taken the crown on this one.

Riddles, lose the anti-green agenda, read the article and try to stay at least within 25 miles of the actual topic, which is that BP is botching (yet another) project by paying lip service to those whose livelihoods have been ruined by BP's negligence, so nicely summed up by mountainmike.

Behr, the article is not about who won or lost bids, which is a ridiculous perspective on this, by the way. It is about yet another BP screw up. Try to grasp this - it is about restitution, not free enterprise. There is no bidding. There is no competition for just compensation. At least there d*mn well better not be. BP's negligence is inflicting slow death on these families and BP is responsible for making sure that they are taken care of until this is over and they are screwing that up, too. If anything, the article has failed to report the increase in suicides among these fishermen.

(not)MrCool, your "good authority's" message is about as reliable as what would come out of my ten year old playing "telephone line" with his 8 year old sister. I sat down a few nights ago with four people from Louisiana and the frustration is clearly with BP's mishandling of the restitution project. The government workers in place have been a lifeline.

You all need to lose the partisan blinders, activate your compassion and read the article again...

The bigger issue is this: We have this adversarial relationship between government and business. Like BP, many companies try to get around regulations, just like you when you throw trash out your car window so you can save time not stopping at a waste recepticle.

Companies, like mine, welcome regulators and when they leave we continue as if they are there every day, inspecting us. When regulators say 90% is good enough, we say no, 100% is our goal. We don't bribe, cheat and lie for a few extra dollars. We are honest and stll make a profit. We have not killed our employees, received bad PR, or blown up our plants. We are good, corporate citizens, and because we know that if we are not, we destroy all we work for - a safer world with places like the beaches where we can retreat to relax and enjoy our hard earned gains. Money is not an end to itself, but a vehicle to allow us to enjoy life - a house devoid of dangerous Chinese wall board, food safe to eat without salmonella, drugs that are as safe and tested as possible, rivers and oceans clean from bacteria and toxins so we can swim and drink safely, and safe working conditions so we can go home to our families and remain a viable, experienced, asset to our company and community.

a.w. riddels..........You do know that the oil spill happened this year? And is, at this moment, ruining the gulf and that the oil will eventually spread? Actually, it is spreading as I type.
You get off your faceless high horse and quit chewing people out because they see that local people need help on the gulf.
I am sick of people coming in here and blaming everyone except who is really responsible for this mess.

What authority?

Didn't Obama and his army of lackey's claim they had been on it from day one? Did you miss his address from the oval office?

Pat

I see you did not get the point of my post, don't worry nobody else did either...

there are 40 news stories a day evecerating BP, Big Oil in general....and bloggers pointing fingers at everybody from Obama to Bush to Cheney...all while we, the innocent, are doing things on "purpose" that does hundreds of times more damage to our air, land, and water than this "accident" would if BP had just walked away and nobody had tried to clean up a drop

The hipocracy of sitting on your toilet and @!$%#tting into water that half the people on the planet would die for (and are) doesn't make you a murderer, or does it????

It's good to hear from a fellow American from the Gulf, who can tell us the truth. BP's and Obama's handling of this terrible crisis has been pathetic! My heart goes out to you and to all fellow Americans in the Gulf. Is there ANY leadership down there (from Obama's "team?")

Welcome, to newsvine, Capt. Brad

It is an honor to be reading your very first post ever, where in the Gulf do you work out of, and I hope we get this stopped soon

Capt Brad,

Welcome to newsvine.

Would you shed some light on aspects of Vessel Of Oppurtunity Program that prevents locals from participating? Who is in the way and why? How would you cut the red tape? Who should take command of this program?

Give me an earful and I promise to not shout back, it is school time for me. See my # 8 below

I've read about this before and here could be the reason. BP will not hire clean up crews from local fishermen who are eligible for lawsuits later on losses. I don't know this to be a fact but it could be.

well with washington and BP in charge, nothing can go right, let the govenors of each state do the hiring of these vessels. it's easy for BP to hire pleasure boats, they work for half the money than the fishing vessels. want to get rid of the red tape, get rid of washington, the coast guard,and army engineers! but that will never happen

We should separate fishermen, boat owners and pleasure boat/part time fisherman into appropriate categories. Are we talking about true fisherman who go out until the boat is full or weekend lawyers looking for fun? What is the yardstick? Who is making the rules.

Gulf coast residents. Once again, I will watch you survive, but this time you need help. Educate me. I will help when I can.

Please do educate. Tell us how your businesses run, how you you are paid, etc. Especially tell us how you are getting along today, what yout problems are. Give us a complete run down so we can all help.

I was hoping that the people put out of work in the local area would be hired. I don't see how BP missed the point. More British thinking? Maybe Tony Hayward will hire his yachting friends?

BP is the one that needs to be held accountable!!! MMS non regulators need to be held accountable!!!The only way to focus primary attention on Obama is from a non conservative point of view in wanting the nanny state to take over. The fixation on Obama is obviously to exploit the situation for a partisan agenda. Leave the politics out of this.

mountainman,

there is a mess to be cleaned up and politics should be dumped. Take yours and we can talk.

Do not take it personal. There is a mess to be cleaned up. I am not in charge. Are you?

Come back with who is. But, please, no politics.

<em>Capt. Brad, I am sorry that you haven't been hired to help with the cleanup. I hope you get work soon. I trust nothing that BP says.

BP is the one that needs to be held accountable!!!

Sure. Let's continue to look the other way while the child in the Whitehouse gets a pass. If a Republican was in office the useful idiots would be screaming for his head.

The facts of the matter is the current administration blundered from start (inspections) to finish (response, lack thereof). This story is only further testimony to the fact they are incompetent.

#2.9

What you said on the surface sounds wonderful, however politics rule everything.

There is nothing in this, the 21st century, nor any other century, that has not been ruled by

politics.

Politics is what gave B P the permission for offshore drilling in the beginning.

Politics with some technological help is what will solve this crisis.

People should not just be accepting what BP is "willing" to do but hire a lawyer and act as a consolidated group effort to sue BP and get all that has been taken away from you all because of BP knowingly creating this situaiton knowing full well they did not have the technology to contain and recover from a disaster such as the one that has developed.

Protest....Sue....let the media feed off your anger----------give them something besides the anger of the "tea party" movement to focus on.............................LET THE WORLD KNOW WHAT IS REALLY GOING ON AND BE LOUD ABOUT IT!!!!!!!!!

Heck, start a movement against BP...use the media....you tube....blog...face book...and others....post signs on telephone poles and at the beach with the names of the local folks who are looking for work through BP and who have been on a waiting list and looked over in order to provide work for non locals....sone tears it down put another one.

Let your situation be known.................do not sit by discontent..........the time for protesting is at hand......................................................................................BP took away your lives..............you have more right to be angry and protest than any tea partier................

Start a movement......one not run by the media or Bp but by YOU!

I am Impressed, all four of the first four numbers and in the correct order, check+...

and, I assume you meant (4) to be insulting, little did you realize, it is just embarrassing

How does the government order BP to hire the locals? Hiring non locals is entirely a BP thang.

I believe that BP wants to keep as many locals from working as possible. My theory is that BP thinks that the locals will talk more about what they see while cleaning up. After all the locals have more reason to tell the truth about what they see than the "pleasure boats" from Florida..

I think that BP is playing the "cover our asses" game.

The people of the Gulf did themselves a big favor in this article. They told the IRS that for years they have been cheating on their income tax. They run cash business but only report a small segment of their income. As Forrest Gump would say: "Stupid does what Stupid is."

However, they will have a roof over their heads and three square meals a day. Maybe not so stupid afterall.

Here is the reality I found interesting as huskergal said....

And many who have put in claims will never be repaid because much of their business was cash and they do not have proof of income,

Now, if these folks had correctly claimed their CASH income to the IRS they would have the proof they need to file a realistic claim now. Seems that Karma is a @!$%#. It never pays to cheat. But they will continue to cry and whine now. Wonder how much the bilked other federal programs in the past for low wages and income when all it was is hidden cash.

And so may complained about those who hide funds in off shore banks.

And do local fisherman consider this program to be part of their claim and only they may participate? "Vessel of opportunity" seems pretty wide open to me. Great post by the way.

We can only ask the fishermen to know for sure, but I am going to put myself out there and say no, the victims of this are not going to consider income opportunities as an offset to their claims.

Captain? What do you have to say about this? If BP changed the policy and only hired directly affected victims, would you consider this a partial pay-off for the income lost from your trade? I believe it is very similar to unemployment benefits...once you get hired by a different company, while you are wait for the claim, you no longer get the benefits.

Peggy, I like your point of "vessels of opportunity" being like unemployment insurance. It is a new job and therefore it make one ineligible for any loss payoff. If it is too good to be true it usually isn't true. This Vessels of Opportunity is only good for BP.

It may have started out as an open invitation with no strings, just an opportunity. Now with the whining of the unemployed, the victims, I can see BP seeing this opportunity to change the policy so that it does work like unemployment insurance and begin hiring fishing vessels from the area and later claim that these worker had no losses.

The victims are not going to consider it as compensation for their losses, but in reality it is. They are or will be working so there is no loss of income for them.

Mr. Seamans is correct---BP holds the purse string and does set the rules.

This is a perfect example of why it's better to stay quiet and to becareful of what you wish for.

Have you seen some of the scum they have doing the clean up,I would rather live with the oil.I don't think fishermen need to re-educate themselves,they are fine the way they are.Besides it wouldn't do any good anyway because there is always a higher level of educated people that keeps things screwed up.The more educated it seems the worse off this Country becomes.

peggy martin said "Yes, BP should have hired from the local areas first, but in the long run, it is not going to matter."

It may not matter in the long run to you, but what about the people who are having to go to food banks? They can't eat the "long run".

This whole clean up process is a joke,the oil is still flowing.Obama should have allowed the berms to be built.What good is it to clean up a beach when there is tons of oil arriving at all times.It would have been ideal to build the berms to contain the oil.But there you go another example of those higher educated people I was refering to in my previous comment.

And you in turn bad mouth the media.

Kathy Behr......What is wrong with you?

Some flying fish are coming home to roost no doubt.

Totally agree.

Yep, that is the downside of "doing business for cash." You avoid paying taxes, but you're out of luck if and when you ever need to document your income history for you own benefit.

And twenty two nations have been so generous as to offer to "sell" us everything we need. And every single one has recieved free aid from the U.S.

Your drinking too much tea. Like I could really blame Bush about Katrina ? no way !!!!!

No, no, no! It was a deal made with BP. Our nation, our people, and our government have their hands tied. It is BP's decision out of our fear that they may just pull out and tell us to fix the problem ourselves. Because it is a corporation we are dealing with and not an individual person, we wil have no future recourse if we piss them off!

Is that really such a bad thing? Obviously, we are too fearful to find out. Regardless, it is BP's calling the shots right now and we are only negotiating the terms.

22 nations or one nation who offer help and can help but want money?

Let them in. Now is the time to go global and show which nations are and which nations do not support globilization. The ocean currents are connected to land masses everywhere. The entire world will soon be affected by the lack of attention to detail. Oil is not an American problem. The rest of you countries, step up and kick in.

Obama,

You want me to believe you are a leader? Get the help. Now. We, the people will judge you later. G-8, G-20, sign them up. be a leader.

Focus on Obama? Why? BP is the one the scr#wed the pooch on this one.

At least you don't subscribe to the other Tea Party conspiracy theory that Obama has his Black Panther jihadis seal team blow up the Deepwater Horizon for the sake of advancing his socialist agenda.

When do we cap the well, genius? What was the plan to cap the well? Tree huggers made us do it, drill too deep. Really? So, because a tree hugger said go out deep you did it, knowing you had no plan to handle a spill? Might blow up your billion dollar rig, kill your men, cost you billions in law suits, lost time and bad PR. You, as an oil company, made that decision? And since the oil was really close to shore and not out deep, you decided to drill deep for scant oil? That right?

In addition, knowing it was dangerous, you as an oil company, decided to ignore all safety warnings, bribe fishermen and the Feds and do your own safety reports and before the explosion you overrode safety concerns by the other two partners and your employees , telling one employee "don't use safety as a crutch." That good corporate decision making to you?

As the "expert" in the oil field BP did not decide to have those extra boats ready for a spill, the states did not decide to use the oil royalty monies to prepare for a spill as Mary Landru of La, said to the Feds as to the reason the Gulf states needed a share of the oil royalties.

And you blame the "clean up lady?{" And you can't shut off the leak? And, of course you knew a hurricane season would be coming so even with a contained leak what ya gonna do there Joe Six Pack when a hurricane is coming and you haven't capped the well?

mountainmike,

Obama is a leader or not. Put forth your conspiracy diatribe but leave me out.

Call me out, call me out fairly, but do not suggest or intimate I am false. Do not try to silence valid opinions. You will kill that which makes America strong. Diversity.

America needs help. G-22 0r G-8 0r whoever can help/

Clipper, you can always find a way to blame Obama. You people make me sick. He is not to blame for this. BP is the culprit who didn't keep the rig safe.

Clipper, Obama is not responible for this mess, but BP is. I realize that, long ago BP should have had regulations, and a plan but this. We all know anything, can fail and you have to have a back-up plan. The sad thing about this is, BP knew the rig was faulty, so WHY. WHY did they use it, Money, they were more interested in the money , than human lives and the harm to the gulf states. You can blame Obama until Hell freezes over but it'll still be a lie. My thinking is this, BP really doesn't care;, they are still leaving the same CEO in charge, why isn't anyone screaming about that? The man hasn't doing anything that will stop the leak in 70 days, why haven't they put another person with new ideas that might work. Oh yes, the man had to go on a Yachet race trip overseas, while oil spilled out of control in the gulf but everybody talked about Obama for playing golf in Washington . We are truly losing, our sense of fair play, and that's bad; History will definitely remember all of this and not favorable I'm afraid. we worry about the debt legacy we will leave our children;, we should almost worry about the moral values we are teaching by example. You can disgree with a person and not have to blame him for all the ills in the world, because if not for the grace of God that could be you, instead of him, scary thought isn't it.

Please show us the documentation on this for if it is true it sheds new light on this catastrophe and changes a lot of things.

That is your Republica way of business...bribes and keep quiet about problems. Then when it backfires, blame the government.

One issue here: It is like hearing the "government can't tell me to wear a helmet riding my mororcycle" talk and later, he's a vegetable and MEDICARE will cover the nursing home costs.

Right wingers are mostly crooks and many are arrogant dumb rears. Many are techically smart, but outside that they are dumnber than a farm animal.

WHT3, you hit the nail on the head. My ex is a surgeon and he always said that riding a motorcycle without a helmet means scrambled brains and much more expense for the taxpayer. Blame the government.

Don't insult farm animals. I've known some very smart cows, chickens, pigs and horses. :-)

good for us ya ain't prez, now back to cleaning toilets at McDonalds...break is over.

Izz Hattar#2 has been happening since day 1. So far nothing has worked. Relief tunnels are the solution and they will be finished sometime in August.

KathyBehr: It is a really good thing that you aren't President. You'd alienate the world from us. Sorry to say but your public relations methods need a complete overhauling. Learn to be more diplomatic.

huskergirl, i always like your posts.

You need to check your facts. There are currently lots of boats from other countries working the spill response. Find the press briefing from Thad Allen from Friday. He went into some detail on that specific issue.

I never heard foreign help called a "security risk." Got a link or is this anti Obama propaganda?

Ever notice how the Coast Guard Commander Thad Stevens is aggressively responding to the oil spill, has conducted several blunt and straight forward briefings answering many technical questions, yet he is completely ignored by the Newsvine Tea Party inorder to launch into their anti Obama rants.

Does everyone here realize the other countries want to get paid for their help? They have been refused by BP first, then it becomes an issue of the nanny state and daddy Obama spending taxpayer money. It is ironic how so many right wing "conservative" Republicans will talk about big government spending, need for small government and spending that increases the national debt - but when there is an opportunity to cheap shot Obama they are advocating the nanny state, big government and spending to increase the national dept.

In the meantime - the Dutch oil skimming booms are indeed being used, Kevin Costners new invention to skim oil, and other outside help is indeed being utilized.

Why would you need to borrow boats when BP and the oil industry should have them already there in case of a spill? You were depending on the government to handle a spill, protect the land (beaches), the waters (oceans, gulfs, rivers, streams, ponds, drinking water); and the air? Sounds like you are an EPA man and a whacko environmentalist.

Are you a "tree hugger?"

Oh, you see that governments are the soultion? I see. Not a Reagan kinda guy are you?

"Governments can't solve problems; governments are the problem" hahahah Take your Hannity points elsewhere, you socialist.

Evidently, government (nanny) needs to stay close by to wipe the rears and noses of incompetent free enterprise? Jingle..."government is NOT the solution." hahahahalol.

International assistance is part of Gulf spill response. In an interview on the June 15 edition of Fox & Friends, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs stated that "foreign entities are operating within the Gulf that help us respond" to the oil spill. Further, in a June 15 press release the Deepwater Horizon Incident Joint Information Center stated, "Currently, 15 foreign-flagged vessels are involved in the largest response to an oil spill in U.S. history." The Center further explained, "No Jones Act waivers have been granted because none of these vessels have required such a waiver to conduct their operations in the Gulf of Mexico." The administration has further stated that they would waive the Jones Act if waivers were requested, but that "there are no pending requests for foreign vessels to come into the Gulf."

These facts can easily be checked and verified, but, hey, why let the truth get in the way of a good disinformation campaign?

In case you didn't know, the Bush administration gave incentives to drill in deep water.

Most of the oil corporations have leases to land sites for oil drilling, but the sites are not cost effective for drilling. No one is twisting arms to get corporations involved in deep ocean drilling. That is where the largest untapped oil reserves are of the easier to refine crude oil.

I'm sick and tired of this Republican talking point that deep ocean drilling was caused by the poor little innocent corporations getting beat up by the tree huggers.

LM, Polar Bears and Caribous are fragile, the rednecks of the gulf are tough.

KathyBehr I give you points here.Truer words have not been said. "The Southerner can survive" a great song and the truth. Those living around the gulf can still survive. They still have their gardens for vegetables and they all know how to can. and lowand behold, they all own guns so they can hunt. They are surviviors. The south is the one part of the country that can survive anything short of a nuclear attack. Actually, to be more accurate, all people from the "country" can survive.

You people always forget that it is Bush who started this mess? How convenient. You need to change your name, I.M.Curious. Obviously you don't feel the need to do research AND tell the truth.

In case you didn't know, the Bush administration gave incentives to drill in deep water.

I think trying to pin past actions on certain people and administrations is fuzzy at best. There are so many conflicting interests in Washington, even between the Legislative branch and the Executive branch. That being said, the deepwater royalty relief act was started in 1995 or so, when Clinton was president. I am not trying to say it was Clinton fault, I am merely stating that incentives for deepwater drilling have been around before Bush was president.

Most of the oil corporations have leases to land sites for oil drilling, but the sites are not cost effective for drilling. No one is twisting arms to get corporations involved in deep ocean drilling. That is where the largest untapped oil reserves are of the easier to refine crude oil.

There are a lot of offshore sites that are not cost effective either. This is one of the problems with other sources of energy than oil. Take natural gas for example. There are many places to drill for natural gas, but with the current market price, it does not make it worth the companies time or money to do so. Technology has to catch up in order to bring costs down, or the price has to increase.

I feel like this is exactly the same problem with some of the forms of alternative energy. Right now, the technology works, but it is not yet ready for cost effective widespread installation. In a few years though, the situation may be different, but given enough time, they will eventually catch on.

Hahahahahahahahahaha! Thanks for the link, Daily Goat! Fabulous! I'll be smiling all day from that final paragraph and the comment about Stephen Hawking's wheelchair access!

Yeah, but, if they have an income then they can not collect from BP for lost income. what will happen to them after the well is capped and the water cleaned up. They still won't have an income because of the contaimination in the fish and seafood. and they will have no recourse as they took another job...a job with the at fault party. When they are laid off at the end that's it for them; they'll be on there own.

They are blinded by their oil checks. Plus many Southern govenors are really dumb, hick good ole boys with a GED.

and do you have information to prove this wht3 or are you just some yankee popping off

The you had the formaldehyde boards in the FEMA trailers.

I was fortunate and owned my own camper and didn't need one. But I think the people complaining about the formaldehyde just need to back off with the law suits, and be grateful the government provided them with a place to lay their heads at night. cause there may not be a next time.

Well from what I know, your Govenor didn't use the resources he had at the time of the Hurricane. The ones in Katrina that were trying to work were robbed from what little they had left. Folks were shooting at the rescue workers bringing in food and water. The majority pissed and moaned about the trailors and shelters that were better then what was had before.

Don't freaking ask for FEMA and the Government to help if your going to sue over Mother Nature and her wrath.

Excellent Post. Are you going down to help or are you there already? Your trainig is definietly needed and wanted. Thank you for doing your part and your best.