Gulf Oil Spill

[lacrew_2000]

My conspiracy comment had to do with the SWAT questions...alot of people have questioned the timing (pure coincidence) and the 'SWAT' teams (good old fashioned heavy hand of government putting their boot on the necks of drilling companies)...nothing more.

A first hand account on 60 minutes described an accidental damaging of a seal in the BOP...and yet Transocean kept drilling.

And, he also described that BP ordered Transocean to cement the well in a risky way (essentially not letting the cement hydrate fully before evacuating the drill fluid between redundant plugs)

There was also mention that the BOP was known to have a bad battery in one of two redundant systems.

So it sounds like good old fashioned human error. It does not seem as if one particular part had a catastrophic failure. Instead, Transocean and BP decided to 'drive on' with damaged or unserviceable parts, and short cutted processes.

[KCJoe]

Governer Rick Perry, Texas, said it was an act of God that couldn't have been prevented. If that's true, then BP shouldn't be held responsible. Of course I disagree. Transocean was acting on the directions of BP, so they shouldn't have to bear the burden of the clean up. I should disclose that I own 200 shares of Transocean. The only places I heard tale of sabotage were on Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. Nothing in the testimony of those on the rig at the time of the explosion would lead anyone to believe there was a deliberate act that caused the explosion.

[john_galt]

I have heard, only heard, that Michael Savage was talking about a North Korean ship that left port in Cuba three days before the blow. This ship was supposed to be able to carry a mini sub and had no legitemate reason to be in the area. Never heard it myself mind you but heard about it through the grape vine.

Goggle search reveals that it has been talked about quite a bit; pro and con.

I guess that is a very good reason to thoroughly investigate and I don't mean BP or Obama. I mean the US Navy.

[topnotchmassage]

I say Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt(Brangelina) should pay for it...They should have plenty of money between the two of them!

[Bartman1963]

I don't want to hang anyone prematurely. But if the stories I am hearing are true, that Transocean wanted to fill the well with mud then cap it as per standard procedure. But BP made them go forward without their normal safety procedures checklist completed so they could save a few bucks when it was time to put the final pieces on the well. Then it's beginning to sound like two things. Some people need to go to prison, and National Geographic has a great topic for "Seconds from Disaster".

[Cheaper2buyit]

shit is just fucked up & even if it cost 100 trill bp is going to pay fuck em don't shut them down just break them & we take it over you say obama it a soci so let the gov take over & make the gov gives us a check off the oil

[Allie_Kat]

I'm boycotting BP. I refuse to buy fuel from them. They lied about everything and didn't even release the video footage of the well spilling oil into the ocean until recently. They didn't want anyone to know how much was actually coming out.
This is putting a lot of fishermen out of business and it's a tragedy what it is doing to the wildlife.
BP can't even say when this will be taken care of. They should have been prepared for an event like this. Hell, for ANY oil spillage related problem before they started deep sea drilling.
This spill will STILL be a problem years and years from now. It's mind boggling and enraging.

[john_galt]

I'm sorry Allie but you can't excuse the federal government. They had contracts to provide support and a moral responsibility to take action when it was obvious that BP was guilding the lily. I don't know if it had anything to do with all the donations made to the democratic party and the 1 million given to Obama or not but it should be investigated. Don't forget that the federal government makes 13 cents off every gallon of gasoline and the oil companies make about 6 cents.

I don't know about a boycott either; those are Americans who have those jobs, Americans that had absolutely nothing to do with this spill. Any fine levied against BP will be passed onto the consumer. The only thing that makes any sense is criminal charges if you can prove dereliction of a criminal nature, lying that causes damage, influence peddling, bribery, and corruption.

[vitokc]

BP is British Petroleum. Boycott them and the corporate bigshots couldnt care less. The hometown independent owners will be the ones hurt. Why not boycott CITGO to hurt Hugo Chavez and Venezuela? Same thing applies, local jobs and local people are the ones who will suffer. Express your outrage to our elected officials. Better oversight and tougher laws and enforcement will help. Along with removing the ridiculous caps in place.

[Allie_Kat]

I'm not buying my gas from them, period. That would be like saying McDonalds is unhealthy and makes americans fat, then going and getting a meal from the same restaurant. Not gonna do it. BP can suck it.
Here is some more info on BP and other incidents. Interesting read. I love Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BP

[john_galt]

As a serious student we learn that wikipedia is a poor source of information and not to be used.
I have to ask some people to consider the example of Gaza and the recent unpleasantness. Not all the people of Gaza have committed terrorist acts but some have that cannot be questioned. The sanctions that Israel and Egypt have placed on Gaza punish everyone and not just the guilty. Why is this posted here? Think of those sanctions like a boycott. Because of the actions of a few, many are punished. I can't tell Allie or others like her what to do but I will point out that you can't be consistent if you boycott BP (and hurt the little people who work for them) and have taken the position that Israel (and Egypt) are wrong. I suppose that you could make the same case for war. We went to war in Afghanistan to punish the deeds of a the few and not the many.
This has always been the problem with liberalism; you can't justify two different moral positions with the same reasoning.
I am in favor of solving the problem first, investigating what caused the blowout, investigating the regulatory conspiracy, and presenting the criminal case against ALL the guilty. That includes government bureacrats, elected officials, BP, Transocean, and anyone else the evidence points to. Also bear in mind that this is not the end of the world. There is constantly oil being leaked from the ocean floor around the world and more oil leaks from tankers than has been leaked from this one spill (so far). I have been overseas and seen some of the dead harbors that have a thick oil sheen on them everyday of the year.
Every thing on the planet has always been here except in a different form. Oil was once vegetable mass that is mostly carbon. That carbon was in the air which came from the burning of plants. It is known as the carbon cycle. When people talk about the coastline of Louisiana being dead they are talking from a very special point of view. We like to think that everything is here and now. The coastline has been dispoiled and will NEVER come back. The planet operates on a longer schedule. Just because things will not return in 20 years or even 50 years the planet will fix the coastline in a hundred or two hundred years. Our view of time is too narrow and focused on the human life span as the constant.

[lacrew_2000]

I don't plan on boycotting BP, because the people who own the local stations have little to do with this...and what stops BP from selling their oil to anybody's refinery? you may be filling up at Shell, getting gas that was refied from BP's oil.

I think BP will get hit in the billfold when the lawsuits and fines start hitting...and they should hit...but I won'y advocate boycotting the stations.

[vitokc]

JG and lacrew both make good points. Especially about the oil going to different refineries which means we could still buy BP oil and not know. Allie is entitled to boycott if she wishes. Others are doing the same but they are hurting members of their own community. Americans are selective about punishing some companies and looking the other way when others provide what we need. BP is being punished by market. Value was down 7B yesterday. They will pay.

[Allie_Kat]

I think the environment is paying more than anyone else. I keep seeing those oil covered marshes and the poor birds and other water animals that have to be manually cleaned up by people because of this situation. I don't feel sorry for people working at BP at all. They can always get a new job. We can't get a new ocean and those animals can't clean themselves and that is their home that is ruined.
Plus, have you given any thought to what's going to happen if a hurricane comes through that area? Oil on the land as well as the water.
I'm sorry if people disagree with me but I'm looking at at from all points of view and I think BP has LESS to lose in this situation than we, the american people whose ocean is now polluted and and the defenseless animals harmed by the spill. What about the fishermen who are taking cuts in pay because BP is giving them less money than what they are losing out on by not being able to fish that area? They are americans too.
Not trying to be argumentative so that is all I have to say about this subject.

[GneissGuy]

Originally Posted by john_galt

As a serious student we learn that wikipedia is a poor source of information and not to be used....

That statement is simply foolish, prejudiced, and elitist. Wikipedia is not an authoritative source that should be trusted to have the one and only "correct" answer. There's a lot of good info there. It often helps you quickly get started to finding info that can be quickly verified or refuted elsewhere.

Google is not an authoritative source, either. Would you tell people not to use Google?

I got news for you. You generally need to consider the source for anything you read. The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, whitehouse.gov, bp.com or any other sources have their own good and bad points. You have to take them all with a grain of salt. Sometimes they have good info, sometimes they're pure crap. You need to consider what each source says and consider what they say. You may need to dig a little further.