UPDATE:Oil Spreading In Louisiana & Bush's DOJ Killed a Criminal Probe Into BP & Brit Hume Take Note Oil Filled Beaches

UPDATE:4:26 ,May 20, 2010
Check out:


Gulf Oil Spill: Oil Has Entered Loop Current, Officials Say via Huffington Post /AP,May20,2010

and : New Underwater Footage Of Oil Leak With "Insertion Tube" -- Is It Working? (VIDEO) by Kevin Grandia via Huffington Post, May 18, 2010

Two new videos have surface showing footage of the BP oil leak at the source 5,000 feet down at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

These new video are important because they show footage (if the time stamp on the video of May 17th is correct) taken after the oil company responsible for stopping the leak - British Petroleum (BP) - had inserted a tube into the leaking pipe in an attempt to siphon off some of the oil and pump it up to an awaiting ship on the surface.

Looking at this video there remains serious question about the exact amount of oil that is actually flowing from the burst pipe as well as how much is being captured by the inserted siphon:



and Shocking NASA Image: Never-Seen-Before Southeast Oil Slick Arm by Kevin Grandia via Huffington Post, May 18, 2010

Obama Ally Accuses GOP Of Doing Big Oil's Bidding After Gulf Spill by Sam Stein via Huffington Post, May 2o, 2010

A group allied with the Obama White House released a new television advertisement Wednesday attacking Republicans for foot-dragging on energy legislation in light of the massive oil spill in the Gulf.

In one of the sharpest indications of the politicization of the BP disaster to date, the group Americans United for Change's ad places images of oil rushing into the Gulf waters alongside accusations that the GOP is doing the bidding of the oil industry.

"2.5 million gallons of oil have flowed into the gulf each day," the narrator declares in the ad. "But oil isn't just polluting the Gulf -- It's polluting our politics. In the last three and a half years, the oil industry has given over $35 million dollars to Republicans. Tell Mitch McConnell and the Republicans to stop blocking clean energy and start holding the polluters accountable. Tell them to pass the American Power Act."

also see: at Huffington Post Miles Grant accusations that the oil gushing out of the BP well is more than BP says it is 5,000 barrels a day and it is probably closer to the 80,000 barrels estimated by independent researchers and experts. Meanwhile and the pressure is being put on President Obama to take over the whole clean up operation and testing of the spill since BP has been lying about the situation from the beginning and apparently just sees this catastrophic blow to the environment as BP's Public Relations problem. And to add insult to injury GOP is still defending BP and is more worried about BPs stockholders than the 11 men killed or the environmental impact. So its politics as usual for these conservatives who suffer from deregulation at any cost mania . Could US politicians who show little or no sympathy for their suffering fellow Americans be considered sociopaths who will continue to follow their failed and disastrous energy policies.

BP Executive: Oil Spill "Impossible to Measure" by Miles Grant, May 19, 2010

The National Wildlife Federation believes it's time for President Obama to step in & deliver the answers the American public needs. NWF joined with 10 conservation organizations today, asking the federal government to immediately take over all environmental monitoring, testing, and public safety protection from BP.

So what other head-scratchers were heard at the hearing? China doesn't drill off Cuba, but both Rep. John Mica (R-FL) & Rep. Don Young (R-AK) cited that long-since-debunked fable as fact.


Rep. John J. Duncan, Jr. (R-TN) couldn't spare any time to express concern for the victims of the Deepwater Horizon rig disaster or for the Gulf Coast residents who've had their lives turned upside down. Who did he take time to say he was worried about? Rep. Duncan separately singled out both BP and BP stock owners for sympathy.

Oil washing up on shores and into marshlands of Louisianna
BP thugs tell Journalists and members of the public they couldn't film the oil filled beaches ?
BP & Pres. George W. Bush connection
BP was under criminal investigation during the Bush presidency . The investigation once it found proof of criminal activities and were about to start indictments Bush shut the whole thing down to protect BP.

Drilling for oil is now far more dangerous because the oil companies need to tap into oil patches that are more difficult to get at and that is far deeper under water .

Note: to Brit Hume look oil in the marshes oil on the beaches and oil in the Gulf Stream & T. Boone not so much like chocolate milk
Thick crude oil is now in the marshes in Louisiana
BPs Tony Hayward said the damage would be minimal and now he is proven wrong .
Note the Bizarre bit at the end saying the good news BP is siphoning off 3000 barrels a day which leaves only 2000 barrels escaping every day but she is basing this on what BP told her but she just said you cant trust them .The other problem is that this sounds good if we accept BPs estimate of 5,000 barrels leaking out - that would indeed be a significant reduction. The problem is their estimate has been challenged by experts that 80,000 barrels are gushing oil So even now with all the lies BP has told the public she once again makes the mistake of believing them. Insanity doing the same defeating action over and over again hoping or expecting a different outcome.

Spill Takes Ominous Turn-CBS May 19, 2010
Millions of gallons of crude oil are still pouring into the Gulf of Mexico after the massive spill. As Kelly Cobiella reports, clumps of petroleum have reached the fragile shores of the Louisiana coastline.



Coast Guard and BP threaten journalists with arrest for documenting oil spill by Karl Burkart ,via Mother Nature Network May 18, 2010

Meanwhile, oil washes up on shore as Louisiana governor says he was unable to get funding for an emergency retaining wall.

CBS film crew told to stop filming oil washing up on a beach or they would be arrested. There are reports of peoples camera phones etc. being seized and people told they are not permitted on public beaches where oil is washing up.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

* EDITOR'S NOTE: The U.S. Coast Guard contacted MNN today with this update:

CBS Evening News reported they were denied access to oiled shoreline by a civilian vessel that had clean-up workers contracted by BP, as well as Coast Guard personnel on board. CBS News video taped the exchange during which time one of the contractors told them (on tape) that " ... this is BP's rules not ours."

Neither BP nor the U.S. Coast Guard, who are responding to the spill, have any rules in place that would prohibit media access to impacted areas and we were disappointed to hear of this incident. In fact, media has been actively embedded and allowed to cover response efforts since this response began, with more than 400 embeds aboard boats and aircraft to date. Just today 16 members of the press observed clean-up operations on a vessel out of Venice, La.

The only time anyone would be asked to move from an area would be if there were safety concerns, or they were interfering with response operations. This did occur off South Pass Monday which may have caused the confusion reported by CBS today.

The entities involved in the Deepwater Horizon/BP Response have already reiterated these media access guidelines to personnel involved in the response and hope it prevents any future confusion.

and from Truthout criminal investigator the EPa had found enough evidence against BP to prosecute its CEOs and managers but the Bush government shut the investigation and prosecutions down to protect BP. Here's the story in an informative article via Truthout.

How Bush's DOJ Killed a Criminal Probe Into BP That Threatened to Net Top Officials by Jason Leopold via Truthout, May 19, 2009

Mention the name of the corporation BP to Scott West and two words immediately come to mind: Beyond Prosecution.

West was the special agent in charge with the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) criminal division who had been probing alleged crimes committed by BP and the company's senior officials in connection with a March 2006 pipeline rupture at the company's Prudhoe Bay operations in Alaska's North Slope that spilled 267,000 gallons of crude oil across two acres of frozen tundra - the second largest spill in Alaska's history - which went undetected for nearly a week.

West was confident that the thousands of hours he invested into the criminal probe would result in felony charges against the company and the senior executives who received advanced warnings from dozens of employees at the Prudhoe Bay facility that unless immediate steps were taken to repair the severely corroded pipeline, a disaster on par with that of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill was only a matter of time.

In fact, West, who spent more than two decades at the EPA's criminal division, was also told the pipeline was going to rupture - about six months before it happened.

In a wide-ranging interview with Truthout, West described how the Justice Department (DOJ) abruptly shut down his investigation into BP in August 2007 and gave the company a "slap on the wrist" for what he says were serious environmental crimes that should have sent some BP executives to jail.

He first aired his frustrations after he retired from the agency in 2008. But he said his story is ripe for retelling because the same questions about BP's record are being raised again after a catastrophic explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig killed 11 workers and ruptured an oil well 5,000 feet below the surface that has been spewing upwards of 200,000 barrels of oil per day into the Gulf waters for a month.Mention the name of the corporation BP to Scott West and two words immediately come to mind: Beyond Prosecution.

West was the special agent in charge with the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) criminal division who had been probing alleged crimes committed by BP and the company's senior officials in connection with a March 2006 pipeline rupture at the company's Prudhoe Bay operations in Alaska's North Slope that spilled 267,000 gallons of crude oil across two acres of frozen tundra - the second largest spill in Alaska's history - which went undetected for nearly a week.

West was confident that the thousands of hours he invested into the criminal probe would result in felony charges against the company and the senior executives who received advanced warnings from dozens of employees at the Prudhoe Bay facility that unless immediate steps were taken to repair the severely corroded pipeline, a disaster on par with that of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill was only a matter of time.

In fact, West, who spent more than two decades at the EPA's criminal division, was also told the pipeline was going to rupture - about six months before it happened.

In a wide-ranging interview with Truthout, West described how the Justice Department (DOJ) abruptly shut down his investigation into BP in August 2007 and gave the company a "slap on the wrist" for what he says were serious environmental crimes that should have sent some BP executives to jail.

He first aired his frustrations after he retired from the agency in 2008. But he said his story is ripe for retelling because the same questions about BP's record are being raised again after a catastrophic explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig killed 11 workers and ruptured an oil well 5,000 feet below the surface that has been spewing upwards of 200,000 barrels of oil per day into the Gulf waters for a month.

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As Michael Clare at Toms Dispatch points out that because the easier to get at oil is almost depleted so they need to go deeper which is much more dangerous to the workers on board these rigs and to the environment. So we can be sure of one thing there are bound to be more accidents killing a few workers and spewing millions of gallons of oil into the oceans.


The Gulf spill is no fluke:
As corporations pursue extreme energy sources, a new oil rush endangers the planet by Michael Clare at Tomsdispatchvia Salon.com. May 18, 2010

But whether or not the immediate trigger of the explosion is ever fully determined, there can be no mistaking the underlying cause: a government-backed corporate drive to exploit oil and natural gas reserves in extreme environments under increasingly hazardous operating conditions.

The New Oil Rush and Its Dangers

The United States entered the hydrocarbon era with one of the world’s largest pools of oil and natural gas. The exploitation of these valuable and versatile commodities has long contributed to the nation’s wealth and power, as well as to the profitability of giant energy firms like BP and Exxon. In the process, however, most of our easily accessible onshore oil and gas reservoirs have been depleted, leaving only less accessible reserves in offshore areas, Alaska, and the melting Arctic. To ensure a continued supply of hydrocarbons -- and the continued prosperity of the giant energy companies -- successive administrations have promoted the exploitation of these extreme energy options with a striking disregard for the resulting dangers. By their very nature, such efforts involve an ever increasing risk of human and environmental catastrophe -- something that has been far too little acknowledged.

and so it goes,
GORD.