The Bad News Is...

that there isn't any good news.
April 20th, 2010 began the end. It was the day that Deepwater Horizon, an offshore drilling rig owned by BP, exploded, and then, on the 22nd, it subsequently sank. In 5000 feet of water, mind you. Deeper than man can go. So deep that the water is ice cold and it's pitch black.



From Wikipedia: -Deepwater Horizon was an ultra-deepwater dynamically positioned, semi-submersible offshore oil drilling rig. Built in 2001 in South Korea by Hyundai Heavy Industries, she was commissioned by R&B Falcon, which later became part of Transocean, registered in Majuro, Marshall Islands, and leased to BP plc until 2013.

In September 2009, the rig drilled the deepest oil well in history at a vertical depth of 35,050 ft (10,683 m) and measured depth of 35,055 ft (10,685 m) in the Tiber field at Keathley Canyon block 102, approximately 250 miles (400 km) southeast of Houston, in 4,132 feet (1,259 m) of water.
On April 20, 2010, when drilling at the Macondo Prospect, an explosion on the rig caused by a blowout killed eleven crewmen and ignited a fireball whose flames were visible from 35 miles (56 km) away. The resulting fire could not be extinguished and, on April 22, 2010, Deepwater Horizon sank, leaving the well gushing at the sea floor and causing the largest offshore oil spill in United States history.-

Technically it isn't a spill. If you really needed to call it something, call it an eruption. It spews and gushes and spouts out oil day in and day out and without cessation.  Sadly, the efforts of BP have failed to diminish the oil eruption. The Top Cap didn't work; a 100-ton steel-and-concrete box to cover a deepwater oil well gushing toxic crude into the Gulf of Mexico was aborted Saturday after ice crystals encased it. BP offered this " It didn't work". Ya think?

They tried the Top Kill then... Pumping thousands of barrels of drilling mud down into the riser pipe, hoping that it would clog up the tears in the bent pipe and stop the leak. Nothing happened... So they decided to add the Junk Shot. Junk is comprised of shredded rubber, golf balls, other miscellaneous 'junk' that would clog the holes... But nothing worked.

They decided to use the LMRP cap... Lower Marine Riser Package Cap. Fancy name for a roof apparatus that they lowered over the gushing oil. They pump methanol down into the upward flowing oil so that ice crystals are prevented from forming. There is a pipe attached to this and oil is blown upwards to waiting ships who collect it, and flare off the gases and then take the oil away to be either processed or burned. I'm betting that the oil is being processed. BP isn't in this business for their health.

Of course, all of this has been done after hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil began making it's way to shore. BP said it was only going to be about 1000 barrels a day. Then they had a moment of clarity and said it was closer to 5000 barrels a day. After some serious questioning and some influence by the powers that be, as well as some studies independent of BP's influence, it was discovered that approximately 60,000 to perhaps 100,000 barrels are leaking into the Gulf Of Mexico daily.
BP is liable for each and every gallon; fined a sum of $4000.00 a gallon, in addition to being responsible for every dime it takes to clean the mess up. Sadly, my limited imagination cannot conceive of how this could ever truly be cleaned up. BP promises to put things right, to fix it all, to make it good, to return it to the way it was before the oil began suffocating the marshes, the birds, the shrimp, the oysters, the dolphins, the sharks, the crabs, the fish, the sea turtles...

"In fact, oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico just keeps getting worse and worse. The slick is getting bigger every day. The environmental havoc from this oil spill is just beginning. It threatens destruction to wetlands and sea life as well as the livelihoods of fishermen and the health of clean-up workers. Apart, dead turtles are seen washed ashore as well. In other words, a colossal damage has already been caused to wildlife and animals."

These images are all over the internet.

I can't look at these without crying - literally sobbing. This hurts my heart and reminds me of how fragile our wildlife truly is.

It's 70+ days now. The broken well in the Gulf has spewed over 100,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf. There are 42. something gallons in a barrel. Just for your information.

So I have made considerable effort to feed the wild birds in my neighborhood. I make sure that they have a source of good drinking water. I fill the little shallow bowls and saucers with water so they can bathe if they want. I find myself thinking, irrationally I admit, that somehow they might be able to get the message to the birds in the Gulf that not all humans are callous and uncaring... and that at least one of them wants to apologize to all of them for the greed and stupidity of others.

Well, why not? Someone apologized to BP because we insisted that they pay to clean up this mess...

Joe Barton of Texas, a major recipient of oil and gas industry campaign contributions, apologized to Hayward for BP having been pressured by the White House into setting up a $20 billion escrow account for spill damages.

Personally I liked the comment from Representative Ahn "Joseph" Cao (R-La.),

"In the Asian culture, we do things differently," Cao said. "During the Samurai days, we'd just give you the knife and ask you to commit hara-kiri," the congressman added, describing the traditional Japanese practice of suicide by disembowelment.

This was directed to one of BP's top officials.

Tony Heyward says; "I just want my life back". I guess those 11 men who died in the explosion, and their wives and families, could say the same thing. So could the fishermen, the oystermen, the shrimpers and crabbers, and tour boats and fishing tour operators.

Meanwhile in Washington, D.C....

Instead of focusing on the possible degradation of life in the Gulf that will spread like cancer to the entire world...  our President believes that we should focus on Immigration Reform.

We should be "proud that our borders have more boots on the ground than they ever have..."

He is - an idiot. He is above all else, sadly, a politician and his TRUE color is not black, it is not white, but is in fact, a dull gray of disconnection, and an inability to see beyond the teleprompter, and the doors of his perfect world and life inside the Whitehouse...

His little girls want to know " Did you plug the hole yet, Daddy?"

He has to tell them no. Perhaps he can ease their worried little minds by telling them how many boots we have on the border and how much more secure we are since he posted signs 80 miles inside the state of Arizona warning Americans about the dangers and possibilities of meeting up with drug smugglers, gun smugglers, illegal immigrants... Yes, Mr. Obama, that sounds comforting.

It will soon be migration season for millions of birds. The oil is moving into areas where Dolphins come to breed and birth their young... They're mammals you know. They breath air. Of course if that air hole in top of their head gets clogged by oil... Their babies suckle just like other warm blooded animals do, too. If their teats are covered in oil, well...

Maybe he can ease their worries by telling them how they can live without shrimp and oysters, and dolphins and sea turtles...

Focus, Obama. Put the politician inside of you on the back burner. You'll save more votes by saving the ocean than by reforming illegal immigration. You may still have time to save the lives of your daughters and grandchildren.

Plug the damn hole!