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Old 06-11-2010, 05:20 PM   #31
Marcus
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Re: BP doesn't know what to do with captured oil!!!!

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Originally Posted by rigdvr View Post
its the only place with enough draft for the majority of the service vessels invloved. Why would they use Grand Isle? Its an unsecure residence/vacation area with lots of eyes. Fourchon is strictly a commercial port with security and limited access. You cant even get into any of the dock areas without a TWIC credential and proper reason for being there(like crew change, vessel repairs, supply delivery, ect.). There are even tighter areas for security like the LOOP shed facitlity. Cant even get near that. I would imagine as retarded as the government is, they would use the most secure location that the vessels can actually go. The LOOP facility, C-Port 1 and 2 are also covered facilities where a large service vessel can pull into a shed to be offloaded/loaded. I mean huge sheds that 300ft plus vesseld fit into. And like I said...media cant even get into Port Fourchon.
K...thanks. It then makes sense that they would utilize Port Fourchon.
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Old 06-11-2010, 06:14 PM   #32
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Re: BP doesn't know what to do with captured oil!!!!

No problem. The three ring circus of media can make a bad problem worse every time. This situation is bad enough without the piss poor reporting and speculation.
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Old 06-11-2010, 06:22 PM   #33
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Re: BP doesn't know what to do with captured oil!!!!

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No problem. The three ring circus of media can make a bad problem worse every time. This situation is bad enough without the piss poor reporting and speculation.
I agree. That's why posted for some sort of confirmation and feedback.
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Old 06-11-2010, 06:57 PM   #34
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Re: BP doesn't know what to do with captured oil!!!!

just like the oil industry where safety is backseat to production despite what is preached(trust me....), the media is all about selling papers and getting viewers, truth be damned. Some outlets are struggling to stay afloat...responsible and accurate reporting is definately backseat to sales and sensationalism. You've never heard that the tabloids were struggling to stay in business Though many bust your chops Marcus, I admire your quest to read between the lines.

I dont mean to downplay the seriousness of the spill in any way shape or form. It has robbed me of one of my favorite things in life...swimming around a platform teaming with 20# ARS. I might not even get to dive at all this summer!
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Old 06-14-2010, 04:16 PM   #35
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Re: BP doesn't know what to do with captured oil!!!!

http://www.waltonsun.com/news/york-4...ton-align.html

A BLACK STAIN: Did capitalism or the government fail us?

The inevitable pictures of pelicans covered in oil finally surfaced, solidifying this oil spill as the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. We have not seen this many pictures of unintelligent animals covered in oil since the first season of “Jersey Shore.”

Now we ask the bigger question: Which failed us more, capitalism or government?

Since they are partners in this crime against nature, it is hard to say.

The Minerals Management Service (I always love the way government attaches the word “service” to agencies like the Postal Service and Internal Revenue Service; it just shows they have a sense of humor) siphons $10 billion a year from oil companies that drill. This is not counting the roughly 30 percent tax per gallon at the pump. This cut, or “partnership,” is supposedly for the MMS’s fine safety oversight — much like the pimp gets paid to regulate his sub-contractors.

All I know is that, so far, the only solutions to this problem have come from the private sector. While they have not yet been successful, it shows that our government has no better ideas to offer.

“Top Hat,” “Junk Shot” and “Top Kill” sound like rejected titles of Bruce Willis movies. When BP says it’s going to try all these crazy ideas, the Obama administration basically says, “Ok, anything you try is still better than anything we’ve got.”

All Obama knows how to do is give a speech, tax his political adversaries and threaten more regulation —otherwise he really has nothing. Even his speeches have waned; at this rate he may have to lay off three teleprompters.

Does anyone find it curious that the areas of business we have the most problems with are the ones most “regulated”? The financial sector, banks, health care, automobile manufacturing — and now energy — fall into this category. “Regulated” in America just means you have to hire more lobbyists and pay more politicians to protect you — from the government.

It seems we never have any issues with the truly free enterprise sectors of our economy, represented by Wal-Mart, Coca Cola, Caterpillar, FedEx, Google, Intel, Starbucks, Proctor & Gamble, Taco Bell and Apple. Hmmm, I wonder if there is a reason for that?

When an industry is forced into bed with the government over regulation they come out as slimy as those birds in the Gulf now. The result is that the customer and society are forgotten in favor of “pay-to-play” politics and the buying of political cover for anything that might go wrong.

BP gave the most money to Obama. Ditto for Goldman Sachs. And, in fairness to Obama, if the Republicans had not lost power for becoming Democrats, BP and Goldman Sachs would be their largest contributors. These folks have no political ideology. They are just buying indulgent politicians, which is their best use of capital expenditure dollars when they are that heavily regulated.

BP had 97 percent of all flagrant violations found in the oil business by government safety inspectors, including 759 citations for “egregious, willful” violations, compared to only eight for the two companies tied for second. So BP was clearly spending their money on politicians, not safety.

If you buy Obama’s stern speeches threatening the very businesses that donate heavily to him, then you believe that WWF wrestler who makes bravado-based predictions about the demise of his opponent before their “wrestling” match.

In reality, they go out for drinks afterwards and laugh at us for believing them.

BP has and will pay for this. And they should. At least when a business pays for its mistakes it does it with earnings, not like the federal government that does it by borrowing money that future generations will have to pay back. I am sure Obama will make BP pay money on this, probably to the thug SEIU or unions in Detroit so hurt by Gulf of Mexico spill.

What Obama fails to realize is that his constant blame game is wearing thin. Events continue to unmask the fact that government does not have any real answers.

Blame is not a solution Mr. President. “Plug the damn hole,” are words, not a fix. You need to understand the difference between rhetoric and competence.

Sadly, at the end of the day, you and your beloved government had fewer resources and ideas to plug this oil leak than a company that attempted to put a “top hat” on it and considered shooting old tires and golf balls at it.

Ron Hart is a libertarian op-ed humorist columnist, author, TV and radio commentator. He can be reached at Ron@RonaldHart.com or www.RonaldHart.com
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Old 06-16-2010, 06:09 PM   #36
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Re: BP doesn't know what to do with captured oil!!!!

The Psychopathic Criminal Enterprise Called America
The Government uses the Law to Harm People and Shield the Establishment

by Prof. John Kozy

Most Americans know that politicians make promises they never fulfill; few know that politicians make promises they lack the means to fulfill, as President Obama's political posturing on the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico makes perfectly clear.

Obama has made the following statements:

He told his "independent commission" investigating the Gulf oil spill to "thoroughly examine the disaster and its causes to ensure that the nation never faces such a catastrophe again." Aside from the fact that presidential commissions have a history of providing dubious reports and ineffective recommendations, does anyone really believe that a way can be found to prevent industrial accidents from happening ever again? Even if the commissions findings and recommendations succeed in reducing the likelihood of such accidents, doesn't this disaster prove that it only takes one? And unlikely events happen every day.

The president has said, "if laws are insufficient, they'll be changed." But no president has this ability, only Congress has, and the president must surely know how difficult getting the Congress to effectively change anything is. He also said that "if government oversight wasn't tough enough, that will change, too." Will it? Even if he replaces every person in an oversight position, he can't guarantee it. The people who receive regulatory positions always have ties to the industries they oversee and can look forward to lucrative jobs in those industries when they leave governmental service. As long as corporate money is allowed to influence governmental action, neither the Congress nor regulators can be expected to change the laws or regulatory practices in ways that make them effective, and there is nothing any president can do about it. Even the Congress' attempt to raise the corporate liability limit for oil spills from $75 million to $10 billion has already hit a snag.

The President has said that "if laws were broken, those responsible will be brought to justice" and that BP would be held accountable for the "horrific disaster." He said BP will be paying the bill, and BP has said it takes responsibility for the clean-up and will pay compensation for "legitimate and objectively verifiable" claims for property damage, personal injury, and commercial losses. But "justice" is rendered in American courts, not by the executive branch. Any attempts to hold BP responsible will be adjudicated in the courts at the same snail's pace that the responsibility for the Exxon-Mobile Alaska oil spill was adjudicated and likely will have the same results.

The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in Prince William Sound on March 24, 1989. In Baker v. Exxon, an Anchorage jury awarded $287 million for actual damages and $5 billion for punitive damages, but after nineteen years of appellate jurisprudence, the Supreme Court on June 25, 2008 issued a ruling reducing the punitive damages to $507.5 million, roughly a tenth of the original jury's award. Furthermore, even that amount was reduced further by nineteen years of inflation. By that time, many of the people who would have been compensated by these funds had died.

The establishment calls this justice. Do you? Do those of you who reside in the coastal states that will ultimately be affected by the Deepwater Horizon disaster really believe that the President can make good on this promise of holding BP responsible? By the time all the lawsuits filed in response to this disaster wend their ways through the legal system, Mr. Obama will be grayed, wizened, and ensconced in a plush chair in an Obama Presidential Library, completely out of the picture and devoid of all responsibility.

Politicians who engage in this duplicitous posturing know that they can't fulfill their promises. They know they are lying; yet they do it pathologically. Aesop writes, "A liar will not be believed, even when he speaks the truth." Perhaps that's why politicians never do.

Government in America consists of law. Legislators write it, executives apply it, and courts adjudicate it. But the law is a lie. We are told to respect the law and that it protects us. But it doesn't. Think about it people! The law and law enforcement only come into play secundum vitium (after the crime). The police don't show up before you're assaulted, robbed, or murdered; they come after. So how does that protect you? Yes, if a relationship of trust is violated, you can sue if you can afford it, and even that's not a sure thing. (Remember the victims of the Exxon-Valdez disaster!) Even if the person who violated the relationship gets sanctioned, will you be "made whole"? Most likely not! Relying on the law is a fool's errand. It's enacted, enforced, and adjudicated by liars.

The law is a great crime, far greater than the activities it outlaws, and there's no way you can protect yourself from it. The establishment protects itself. The law does not protect people. It is merely an instrument of retribution. It can only be used, often ineffectively, to get back at the malefactor. It never un-dos the crime. Executing the murderer doesn't bring back the dead. Putting Ponzi schemers in jail doesn't get your money back. And holding BP responsible won't restore the Louisiana marshes, won't bring back the dead marine and other wildlife, and won't compensate the victims for their losses. Carefully watch what happens over the next twenty years as the government uses the law to shield BP, Transocean, and Halliburton while the claims of those affected by the spill disappear into the quicksand of the American legal system.

Jim Kouri, citing FBI studies, writes that "some of the character traits exhibited by serial killers or criminals may be observed in many within the political arena.;" they share the traits of psychopaths who are not sensitive to altruistic appeals, such as sympathy for their victims or remorse or guilt over their crimes. They possess the personality traits of lying, narcissism, selfishness, and vanity. These are the people to whom we have entrusted our fate. Is it any wonder that America is failing at home and world-wide?

Some may say that this is an extreme, audacious claim. I, too, was surprised when I read Kouri's piece. But anecdotal evidence to support it is easily cited. John McCain said "bomb, bomb, bomb" during the last presidential campaign in response to a question about Iran. No one in government has expressed the slightest qualms about the killing of tens of thousands of people in both Iraq and Afghanistan who had absolutely nothing to do with what happened on nine/eleven or the deliberate targeting of women and children by unmanned drones in Pakistan. What if anything distinguishes serial killers from these governmental officials? Only that they don't do the killing themselves but have others do it for them. But that's exactly what most of the godfathers of the cosa nostra did.

So, there are questions that need to be posed: Has the government of the United States of America become a criminal enterprise? Is the nation ruled by psychopaths? Well, how can the impoverishment of the people, the promotion of the military-industrial complex and endless wars and their genocidal killing, the degradation of the environment, the neglect of the collapsing infrastructure, and the support of corrupt and authoritarian governments (often called democracies) abroad be explained? Worse, why are corporations allowed to profiteer during wars while the people are called upon to sacrifice? Why hasn't the government ever tried to prohibit such profiteering? It's not that it can't be done.

In the vernacular, harming people is considered a crime. It is just as much a crime when done by governments, legal systems, or corporations. The government uses the law to harm people or shield the establishment from the consequences of harming people all the time. Watch as no one from the Massey Energy Co. is ever prosecuted for the disaster at the Upper Big Branch coal mine. When corporations are accused of wrongdoing, they often reply that what they did was legal, but legal is not a synonym for right. When criminals gain control, they legalize criminality.

Unless the government of the United States changes its behavior, this nation is doomed. No one in government seems to realize that dissimulation breeds distrust, distrust breeds suspicion, and suspicion eventually arouses censure. Isn't that failure of recognition by the establishment a sign of criminal psychopathology?

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.p...t=va&aid=19536
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Old 06-21-2010, 10:35 AM   #37
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Re: BP doesn't know what to do with captured oil!!!!

YouTube- BP rig worker reported oil leak weeks before Deepwater Horizon disaster
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Old 06-21-2010, 11:29 PM   #38
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Re: BP doesn't know what to do with captured oil!!!!

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Tankers are used to ship oil. We generally don't ship oil out of the US.

The "suck it up and clean it" method works REALLY well, but the EPA won't let them discharge the "cleaned" water. If you want to see why this mess has been allowed to get is REALLY bad look no farther than our current administration's lack of sanity.

Oily water that has +90%less oil in it than what came in the pipe is a LOT better than just leaving it in place, but the EPA's "rules" and lack of sanity preclude effective skimming. Even the "mousse" can be effectively separated into a refineable product, with the addition of a little acid.

The best skimming/reclamation method available is to pump the water/oil mix on board a tanker, separate it and reclaim ~99% of the oil, then pump the much cleaner water over the stern. This method was used to clean up the Persian Gulf after Saddam's goons dumped a few hundred million barrels of Kuwaiti oil into it.

The method cannot be used in the GoM because in it's infinite wisdom the EPA/USCG won't permit the ships to dump the 99% cleaned water back into the sea. Blame your administration, and all congress critters for this insanity. Congress laid out the catch-22 regulation trap design, but it takes a totally clueless administration to make it tight enough to stop all possible cleanup efforts!

BTW It took less than a year to clean the Persian Gulf, even while efforts were underway to cap the blown wellheads.
Obama is a freaking retard in the leadership and command and control bussiness. He could have a huge impact if he would leave the lawyers behind but that aint' his' style.

Lots of blame to go around but Obama is adding to his' almost as fast as BP is.
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Old 06-26-2010, 11:02 PM   #39
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Re: BP doesn't know what to do with captured oil!!!!

6-25-10 Extremely Clear High Detail Satellite View of Oil Spill

http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/s...terra.250m.jpg
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Old 07-02-2010, 08:26 PM   #40
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Re: BP doesn't know what to do with captured oil!!!!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100702/...gulf_oil_spill

NEW ORLEANS – BP and the Obama administration face mounting complaints that they are ignoring foreign offers of equipment and making little use of the fishing boats and volunteers available to help clean up what may now be the biggest spill ever in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Coast Guard said there have been 107 offers of help from 44 nations, ranging from technical advice to skimmer boats and booms. But many of those offers are weeks old, and only a small number have been accepted. The vast majority are still under review, according to a list kept by the State Department.

And in recent days and weeks, for reasons BP has never explained, many fishing boats hired for the cleanup have done a lot of waiting around.

A report prepared by investigators with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform for Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., detailed one case in which the Dutch government offered April 30 to provide four oil skimmers that collectively could process more than 6 million gallons of oily water a day. It took seven weeks for the U.S. to approve the offer.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs on Thursday scorned the idea that "somehow it took the command 70 days to accept international help."

"That is a myth," he declared, "that has been debunked literally hundreds of times."

He said 24 foreign vessels were operating in the Gulf before this week. He did not specifically address the Dutch vessels.

The help is needed. According to the high end of the federal government's estimates, millions of gallons of crude have spewed from the bottom of the sea since the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform.

According to the government's estimates, the disaster would eclipse the 140-million-gallon Ixtoc disaster in the Gulf three decades ago and rank as the biggest offshore oil spill during peacetime. The biggest spill in history happened in 1991 during the Persian Gulf War, when Iraqi forces opened valves at a terminal and dumped about 336 million gallons of oil.

Still, more than 2,000 boats have signed up for oil-spill duty under BP's Vessel of Opportunity program. The company pays boat captains and their crews a flat fee based on the size of the vessel, ranging from $1,200 to $3,000 a day, plus a $200 fee for each crew member who works an eight-hour day.

Rocky Ditcharo, a shrimp dock owner in Buras, La., said many fishermen hired by BP have told him that they often park their boats on the shore while they wait for word on where to go.

"They just wait because there's no direction," Ditcharo said. He said he believes BP has hired many boat captains "to show numbers."

"But they're really not doing anything," he added. He also said he suspects the company is hiring out-of-work fishermen to placate them with paychecks.

Chris Mehlig, a fisherman from Louisiana's St. Bernard Parish, said he is getting eight days of work a month, laying down containment boom, running supplies to other boats or simply being on call dockside in case he is needed.

"I wish I had more days than that, but that's the way things are," he said.

Billy Nungesser, president of Louisiana's hard-hit Plaquemines Parish, said BP and the Coast Guard provided a map of the exact locations of 140 skimmers that were supposedly cleaning up the oil. But he said that after he repeatedly asked to be flown over the area so he could see them at work, officials told him only 31 skimmers were on the job.

"I'm trying to work with these guys," he said. "But everything they're giving me is a wish list, not what's actually out there."

A BP spokesman declined to comment.

Newly retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government's point man for the response effort, bristled at some of the accusations in Issa's report.

"I think we've been pretty transparent throughout this," Allen said at the White House. He disputed any suggestion that there aren't enough skimmers being put on the water, saying the spill area is so big that there are bound to be areas with no vessels.

The Coast Guard said there are roughly 550 skimmers working in the Gulf, with 250 or so in Louisiana waters, 136 in Florida, 87 in Alabama and 76 in Mississippi, although stormy weather in recent days has kept the many of the vessels from working.

The frustration extends to the volunteers who have offered to clean beaches and wetlands. More than 20,000 volunteers have signed up to help in Florida, Alabama and Mississippi, yet fewer than one in six has received an assignment or the training required to take part in some chores, according to BP.

The executive director of the Alabama Coastal Foundation, Bethany Kraft, said many people who volunteered are frustrated and angry that no one has called on them for help.

"You see this unfolding before your eyes and you have this sense that you can't do anything," she said. "To watch this happen in our backyard and not be able to help is hard."
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Old 07-04-2010, 12:26 PM   #41
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Re: BP doesn't know what to do with captured oil!!!!

First Amendment suspended in the Gulf of Mexico
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Old 07-05-2010, 08:45 PM   #42
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Re: BP doesn't know what to do with captured oil!!!!

The BP/Government police state
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