News That Totally Disappeared from MSM: Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

Remember that? Remember the company named BP, formerly British Petroleum?

Washington's Blog remembers (he also wrote extensively about the oil spill as it was unfolding), and has this post below. If you think all is now well in the Gulf, think again. In this country, important news tends to disappear very quickly while non-news is repeatedly paraded ad nauseum.


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Saturday, October 23, 2010 Washington's Blog
Gulf Oil Spill: Mission Accomplished or Ongoing Crisis?

The corporate media has almost entirely stopped covering the Gulf oil spill.

Many have tried to say that the effects of the spill are not nearly as bad as feared, and that everything is pretty much cleaned up and back to normal.

But today, it is widely being reported that there are currently massive stretches of weathered oil spotted in the Gulf of Mexico .

And websites like Florida Oil Spill Law (FOSL) have tirelessly been reporting on the Gulf oil spill this whole time.

To give an example of the ongoing crisis in the Gulf, here's a roundup of some of the top stories from FOSL from the past 3 days:

•Toxicologist now dealing with at least three autopsies in Gulf — “People who’s esophaguses are dissolving”

•Healthy teenager, 16, hospitalized after swimming in Gulf on AUGUST 30 — “Compromised lung” & “enlarged heart”

•Boat captain mentioned on NPR: “Internal bleeding — Very, very sick”

•Toxicologist: 4 to 5 MILLION people on Gulf Coast exposed to dangerous levels of oil — Going to have incredible health effect

•“We’re starving” — “There are no fish in the waters… and any fish we would see, we would not eat”

•Reporter STEPS onto beach, is then forced by private security to be “decontaminated” — “Yes” it’s about dispersants

•Boat captain “bleeding from her vagina” — “I’m bleeding from my anus, too… This thing is killing me”

•Oct. 19: “A seemingly unrelenting tide of oil” surprises pilot with “countless” flights over Gulf in last 6 months

•Report: Homeland Security agents want organizer to “shut up” — Told by BP to “back off”

•Captain: Mullet observed eating “dispersant as it gathered along the tide line”

•Massive SHELF of tar exposed on beach in Pensacola

•Not just the coast to be affected: “It is going to keep going further and further in”

•“Still so much oil and dispersant in the environment” says Gulf Restoration Network executive director

•“ALL” oyster beds are “dead or dying” says top oysterman — “Very pessimistic”

•Local Official: “The oil is not evaporating — it’s not dissipating, it’s sitting there”

•Florida woman: Oil found in batch of oysters while eating

•Scientists: Acceptable levels of toxic PAH in the Gulf raised simply for the BP disaster

•BP admits oil buried “30 inches under ground"

In related news, the government - always eager to immediately get to the bottom of what is really going on and then to fully publicize the results - has sent crucial Gulf samples to be analyzed in a lab . . . in Poland (all of the American labs are apparently busy testing the toxicity of hinky mortgages, mortgage backed securities, CDOs and naked CDSs). And the result will be shipped back by slow boat: NOAA isn't expecting results back until the end of the year.

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Stuxnet and Deep Water Horizon Rig

From F-SECURE.com's Security Lab blog:

Q: Did Stuxnet sink Deepwater Horizon and cause the Mexican oil spill?
A: No, we do not think so. Although it does seem Deepwater Horizon indeed did have some Siemens PLC systems on it.

F-SECURE.com also thinks this malware was created by a government.

Now, do you remember one curious response of Obama after the oil rig sank? He dispatched SWAT teams to secure other oil rigs and platforms as if he thought it was a terrorist attack on Deepwater Horizon. Or was it a terrorist attack, using Stuxnet that some unknown government created?

It's getting curiouser and curiouser.

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Another Oil Rig Explosion in the Gulf?

From Reuters:

"Shares of Mariner Energy (ME.N) fell 5 percent to $22.30 on Thursday after reports of a possible oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, with some media reporting that the rig was operated by Mariner.

"Shares of Apache Corp (APA.N), which is expected to buy Mariner Energy, also fell 1.8 percent to $90.94."

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Where Has All the Oil Spill Gone?

Long time passin'...

Disaster that never was: Why claims that BP created history's worst oil spill may be the most cynical spin campaign ever (David Jones, 8/6/2010 Mail Online)

"The warm, white sand stretches for miles as clean and flat as a freshly laundered bed sheet.

"The turquoise sea is so clear that I can see silvery fish playing around my toes as I take a cooling paddle.

"If there is any more pristine resort in which to spend a summer holiday than Pensacola Beach, on the Gulf Coast of Florida, I would like to find it.

"And yet, at a time of year when usually there is barely room to unfold a deckchair, the shore is eerily deserted.

"Ask Pensacola’s fretfully quiet seafront traders why the tourists have all stayed away and they angrily recall one chaotic day back in late June.

"Then, hungry for dramatic TV footage to support Barack Obama’s announcement, that the BP - or, as he preferred, ‘British Petroleum’ - oil spill was ‘the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced’, news networks descended on their town.

"They quickly found what they were looking for: shocking images of Pensacola’s famously white beaches thickly-coated with sticky, black crude oil and apparently beyond salvation.

"The apocalyptic message was reinforced in doom-laden interviews with locals. ‘It’s damn near biblical. This place is done for!’ lamented 36-year-old Kevin Reed, whose family have swum and sunbathed in the area for generations.

"Yet, as I saw this week, nothing could be further from the truth. Strolling along the beach for an hour, I found just one, pea-sized tar-ball which crumbled to nothing between my fingers.

"When, as a young boy, I played on Morecambe beach in Lancashire, worse things often washed up from the nearby ICI refinery.

"Moreover, if the U.S. TV news crews had returned just three days after their original visit, they would have seen that the black morass had already been removed by some of the 20,000 clean-up workers hired by BP.

"The workers are still there - only now they are using toothbrushes to sift out even the tiniest particles of oil."

The article continues, to discuss "the disaster" on the ecosystem and the Obama administration's "response" driven by political considerations; you can also view the pictures of a pristine white beach and of marsh grasses with new green growth.

Well, it's not just Brits wondering out loud where the dratted oil has gone. People (not just hard-core environmentalists) attribute this lack of oil to the "toxic oil dispersant", "spraying of bleach on the beaches at night", or "massive importation of white sand to replace the soiled sand on the beach".

Yes, it could be any of those, or it could be that what some sites and some scientists have been saying all along is correct - that the spill is really a tiny drop in the bucket, and the ecosystem is more robust than portrayed and will recover.

(And cleaning the oil soaked birds is just for the camera, in case you don't know yet. They break the birds' necks after the camera stops rolling.)

With his scaremongering (deliberate or out of ignorance), President Obama has managed to kill the tourism in the Gulf region for the summer. And since it is a "perception" by the tourists that the beaches are soiled with oil that caused the cancellations, not the actual damage, Obama's Pay Czar Kenneth Feinberg will find no reason to compensate the tourism industry.

My questions at this point are:

What will happen to that $20 billion escrow fund? My guess is that the Obama administration will try to divert that money to pay the public union workers in the region - teachers, firefighters, police, you know, the usual people who benefit from this administration.

What was that story of people dying from internal hemorraging? Or about a medical treatment facility with barbed wire fence in Venice, LA?

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Obama's Pay Czar Is Paid by BP, and He Manages $20 billion BP Oil Spill Escrow Fund

Talk about "conflict of interest".

I have written about Kenneth Feinberg, President Obama's Pay Czar who has been put in charge of dispensing the BP's $20 billion escrow fund (which is still EMPTY, by the way), and wondered aloud why he seems to be more accommodating to BP than to the 'small people'.

Here's one guess: it is because he draws his salary from BP.

In the July 19, 2010 article, AP writer Frederic J. Frommer reports on the speech that Feinberg gave at the Economic Club of Washington D.C., in which Feinberg encouraged people in the Gulf region who have been negatively affected by the BP oil spill to settle. In the very last sentence, the writer throws in a piece of information I don't think I've seen anywhere else:

"Feinberg, who is being paid by BP, declined to provide his salary. "That's something between me and BP," he said."

Ummm, excuse me?

Mr. Feinberg, as Obama's Pay Czar ("Special Master for Executive Compensation", if you prefer), is being paid by the Treasury Department for his work of "regulating" executive compensation at big Wall Street banks and non-bank financial companies like AIG. (He doesn't seem to do any of that except for a few isolated cases, but that is for my later post.)

He was appointed by Obama to this Pay Czar position, in which he is only answerable to the president. But he has to be paid somehow for his service. So what did the administration do? Have Timmy Geithner hire him at the Treasury Department, of course. (That's how political appointees at the White House are paid, by the way - by creating 'positions' in the executive branch departments and agencies even if they only work for the White House.)

Mr. Feinberg's partner in his law office, Mr. Michael Rozen, has also been active in promoting the escrow fund. Wonder if Mr. Rosen also draws his salary from BP.

(H/T dovp2549)

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BP Oil Spill: Case of Altered Photos

BP was caught doing it again, photoshopping the photograph of a supposed aerial (albeit low-altitude) shot from a helicopter. Just like the previous "fake" photos of the command center (here and here), telltale signs of mediocre photoshop job were easily spotted by someone who quickly forwarded the info to Gawker.com. If you click the photos at their site (not the photo on the left), you can view the high-resolution version so you can join the "finding Waldo" game and test your eyes.

Why did they do it? Probably just to look good on PR, not really expecting the scrutiny by the netizens. No malicious intent. The pictures were probably good enough for the only segment of the population who are not literate enough in tech or the Internet: politicians on Capitol Hill.

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BP Oil Spill: Case of BOP Modified in China

It turns out the blowout preventer (BOP) originally manufactured by Cameron International was extensively modified under the order and instruction from BP. And that modification was done in China by a Chinese subcontractor to save money.

UK's Guardian reports:

BP oil spill: failed safety device on Deepwater Horizon rig was modified in China: Blow-out preventer was sent to Far East at BP's request rather than overhauled in US (Tim Webb, 7/18/2010 Guardian)

"BP ordered the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig, whose explosion led to the worst environmental disaster in US history, to overhaul a crucial piece of the rig's safety equipment in China, the Observer has learnt. The blow-out preventer – the last line of defence against an out-of-control well – subsequently failed to activate and is at the centre of investigations into what caused the disaster.

"Experts say that the practice of having such engineering work carried out in China, rather than the US, saves money and is common in the industry.

"...There is no evidence that the significant modifications to the blowout preventer (BOP), which were carried out in China in 2005, caused the equipment to fail. But industry lawyers said BP could be made liable for any mistakes that a Chinese subcontractor made carrying out the work. It would be almost impossible to secure damages in China, where international law is barely recognised.

"It is understood that lawyers for Cameron International, the manufacturer of the BOP, will argue the device was so significantly modified in China that it no longer resembled the original component, and that Cameron should therefore not be held liable.

"Transocean, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon, which bought the BOP from Cameron, has already told congressional hearings into the disaster that the modifications were carried out at BP's request and "under its direction" as the lessee of the rig. BP and Cameron declined to comment this weekend." [Emphasis is mine. The article continues.]

Well, well. Then the cheap plastic seal made in China may have indeed been used in the BOP that was modified in China by a Chinese company...

It is the culture of BP, I'm afraid, fostered under the BP's previous CEO Lord Browne of Madingley, who also happened to be a director of Goldman Sachs until May 2007: to cut corners, to deceive, to pretend (that BP is a "green" company, for one), to suck up to the power that be, wherever they operate.

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Matt Simmons Is Still Saying the Same Things

that there is an open whole several miles away, from which oil is still gushing unchecked;
that this is a cover-up by BP and the administration on an unprecedented scale;
that the pressure gauge on the cap is a PR stunt;
that there's nothing we can do to stop it other than small nuke bomb;
that the cleanup cost (he doesn't seem to think we can clean it) will be over $1 trillion;
that the Gulf of Mexico is dead;
that BP's shares will go to $1.

Interview on Bloomberg TV on July 21:

Here's another interview he did with Kingworld News on July 17, 2010.

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Feinberg Wants to Protect BP, Not "Small People"

Or so it seems.

Obama's Pay Czar cum Oil Spill Escrow Fund Czar Kenneth Feinberg wants to subtract money that Gulf coast fishermen earn by working on the cleanup effort from any future damage claims against BP.

Dahr Jamail of Truthout reports:

BP's Scheme to Swindle the "Small People" (Dahr Jamail, 7/19/2010 Truthout)

"Gulf Coast fishermen and others with lost income claims against BP are outraged by a recent announcement that the $20 billion government-administered claim fund will subtract money they earn by working on the cleanup effort from any future damage claims against BP. This move, according to lawyers in Louisiana working on behalf of Louisiana fishermen and others affected by the BP oil disaster, contradicts an earlier BP statement in which the company promised it would do no such thing.

"Kenneth Feinberg, who was appointed by President Obama as the independent administrator of the Gulf Claims Facility for the $20 billion BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster compensation fund, said yesterday that the wages earned by people working on BP's cleanup will be deducted from their claims against the company.

"He said the fund is designed to compensate fishermen and others for their lost income, and if BP is already paying someone to help skim oil and perform other cleanup work, those wages will be subtracted from the amount they're eligible to claim from the fund."

The article title is a bit misleading, because this would be news to BP, whose lawyer had formally written to the attorneys for cases pending in Lousiana:

"A.T. Chenault, a lawyer representing BP, responded in writing via letter stating, "We have no personal knowledge of the presentation of a Voluntary Waiver and Release to numerous people from Plaquemines Parish in Venice, Louisiana. However, it is the position of BP that any such documents will be rescinded and not binding on anyone signing same."

"Lastly, we confirm that BP will not offset payments to vessel owners or other volunteers against claims they might have," wrote Cheault, who is with the firm Fowler, Rodriguez, Valdes-Fauli." [The entire article at the link above.]

This blog already raised the question as to exactly whose interest Mr. Feinberg intends to represent in dispensing this fund.

But other questions beg answers, too.

1. Has anyone seen the actual signed agreement for the escrow fund?

2. What is in the agreement, exactly?

3. Who signed the agreement? BP and ....? Obama?

4. If Obama, who (or what) gave him the authority to demand and sign an agreement like that?

5. Where was Congress?

6. Where is Congress now?

7. Why isn't anyone demanding to know what is in the agreement?

8. Why isn't anyone asking why this private attorney (Feinberg) has any authority to dispense this fund? Just because Obama said so?

9. Is Mr. Feinberg's law firm set to benefit in any way? If so, in what way? (The article does mention that the attorneys with cases in Louisiana court are planning to meet Mr. Feinberg's law partner Michael K. Rozen.)

Interestingly, Mr. Rozen was seen speaking to attorneys, insurance companies, government agencies and answering questions in Oil in the Gulf Conference, explaining this escrow fund. He was addressing himself as "we", indicating he is a part of the official team. (So if Obama appoints Feinberg, his partner is also automatically in??)

This escrow fund (if there's any money in it) smells more and more like the settlement of a big class action lawsuit, except the settlement is already at hand without the lawsuit. Just like any class action lawsuit settlement, likely winners are the attorneys representing the 'small people' who will receive pittance. If that.

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Oil Rigs Departing the Gulf as Obama Defies Court and Renews Offshore Drilling Ban

Bloomberg reports:

"U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement to issue new suspensions of deepwater drilling on the outer continental shelf, according to an e- mailed statement.

"Salazar said a pause is needed to ensure that oil and gas companies implement adequate safety measures to reduce the risks associated with deepwater drilling operations and are prepared for blowouts and oil spills."

Good luck figuring out the risks in your committee of partisan non-experts, Mr. President, not to mention how this oil spill occurred.

In the meantime, Diamond Offshore's Ocean Endeavor drilling rig became the first rig to depart the Gulf, and won't be the last. Once they leave, they won't be back for at least 5 to 10 years.

First rig sails away over drilling ban (7/9/2010 Houston Chronicle)

"WASHINGTON — Diamond Offshore announced Friday that its Ocean Endeavor drilling rig will leave the Gulf of Mexico and move to Egyptian waters immediately — making it the first to abandon the United States in the wake of the BP oil spill and a ban on deep-water drilling.

"And the Ocean Endeavor's exodus probably won't be the last, according to oil industry officials and Gulf Coast leaders who warn that other companies eager to find work for the now-idled rigs are considering moving them outside the U.S.

"Devon Energy Corp. had been leasing the Endeavor to drill in the same region of the Gulf as BP's leaking Macondo well, which has been gushing crude since a lethal blowout April 20.

"But Diamond announced Friday it will lease the rig through June 30, 2011, to Cairo-based Burullus Gas Co., which plans to send the Endeavor to Egyptian waters immediately.

"...It was unclear how many U.S. jobs could leave with the Ocean Endeavor, but typically more than 100 workers are on the rig at any given time, doing everything from drilling to cooking meals. Onshore, a network of businesses supplies the rigs with groceries, equipment, uniforms and drilling materials.

""It's not unusual for an energy service company to have 1,000 vendors that they buy from or purchase services from," noted Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands. As a result, Brady said, the economic damage from the moratorium stretches far and wide.

"...Although the administration on Thursday lost its second bid to keep the ban in place while it appeals a federal court's decision to strike down the moratorium, federal regulators plan to try again with a revised version soon.

"Dan Pickering, a financial analyst with Tudor, Pickering Holt & Co. Securities, said the legal uncertainties surrounding the ban - and the administration's plan to issue a new, revised moratorium - ensure that no companies will resume deep-water drilling in U.S. waters anytime soon.

"..."There are two types of rigs in the deep-water Gulf today: those that are leaving the country and those that want to, because with this moratorium hanging over their heads, they simply can't go back to work," Brady said. "I'm afraid this is the first of many rigs and many American jobs to leave the Gulf."

"Once the rigs relocate, it could be a minimum of five to 10 years before they return, predicted Rep. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land." [Emphasis is mine. The entire article at the link above]

One of the last remaining good-paying jobs is thus leaving the US, thanks to the administration who claims it has created so many jobs despite the mess it inherited and wants to create more.

Once jobs leave the American shores, they don't come back. Manufacturing jobs have gone to China and creating more millionaires there than in Great Britain, high tech and software programming and call centers to India.

Fishing and tourism are bust in the Gulf states, thanks partly to the oil spill and partly to the federal government's obstructionism against the efforts by the affected state and local governments. If Obama's Pay Czar cum Oil Spill Escrow Fund Czar Kenneth Feinberg has his way (I don't see why he doesn't), cash-based fishermen won't get a dime, and tourism industry won't get a dime because vacationers are canceling their trips to the Gulf coast based on their "perception" of the oil spill, not based on actual oil blob on the beach they were planning to visit. So he cannot pay on such a subjective "perception", can he?

We'll see how BP's latest effort to cap the well finally succeeds, and if it changes the mind of the administration officials and the president about the drilling moratorium. I doubt it, but never say never.

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Mirror UK: Tony Blair to Become BP Chairman?

The UK's tabloid newspaper Daily Mirror relates the rumor that Tony Blair, ex-British Prime Minister, is tipped to replace the BP chairman.

Tony Blair tipped to take over as chairman of crisit-hit BP
(6/23/2010 Mirror UK)

"Tony Blair was yesterday being touted as the man to rescue stricken BP.

"City experts reckon appointing the ex Prime Minister as chairman is the first step to saving the company after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster.

"They highlighted his huge popularity in America and his close links to BP as Premier.

"City expert Matthew Lynn said: "Anyone who watched chief executive Tony Hayward struggle to find a voice while being skewered by Congress last week would have realised the company needs to step up its debating skills by about 1,000%."

Yes, BP's problem is all about the lack of debating skills. Mr. Blair has excellent skills, which he used them well to goad his nation into the war with Iraq.

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US Express "Dismay" at the Sentencing of a US Geologist While Making It "Class D Felony" to Film Oil Cleanup in the Gulf

Irony is sweet. The Chinese-born US geologist's sentence is eerily similar to what the federal Class D felony charges may involve.

First, the geologist:

China Court Jails U.S. Geologist for Eight Years on State Secrets Charges (7/5/2010 Bloomberg)

"A U.S. geologist was sentenced to eight years in prison by a Chinese court after being convicted of violating the state secrets law by selling a database on the country’s oil industry.

"The U.S. said it was “dismayed” by the sentence given to Xue Feng and remains concerned about his rights to due process under Chinese law. Xue was also fined 200,000 yuan ($29,550) today by a Beijing court at a hearing that was attended by U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, Richard Buangan, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy said. Calls to Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court and the Foreign Ministry weren’t answered today." [Emphasis is mine. The article continues.]

Now, our own Class D felony charges:

BP plc And The Administration Replace First Amendment With $40,000 Fine And Class D Felony (Tyler Durden, 7/3/2010 Zero Hedge)

"CNN's Anderson Cooper, one of the few people who apparently hasn't or isn't leaving the troubled news network (surely Ted Turner has learned by now from CNBC that his female anchors should wear transparent body suits, show belly button deep cleavage, and install a stripper pole or seventeen for those ever more elusive Nielsen points), reports some troubling developments out of New Orleans. "The coast guard today announced new rules keeping photographers, reporters and anyone else from coming within 65 feet of any response vessel or booms, out on the water or on beaches. In order to get closer you need to get direct permission from the coast guard captain of the Port of New Orleans. Shots of oil on beaches with booms - stay 65 feet away. Pictures of oil soaked booms useless laying in the water because they haven't been collected like they should. You can't get close enough to see that. And believe me, that is out there. But you only know that if you get close to it, and now you can't without permission. Violators could face a fine of $40,000 and class D felony charges. The coast guard tried to make the exclusion zone 300 feet before scaling it down to 65 feet."" [Emphasis is mine. The article continues, and includes CNN's clip, which is linked below.]

Here's federal Class D Felony sentencing, according to Wikipedia.org:

Maximum prison term: Less than 10 years but 5 or more years
Maximum fine: $250,000
Maximum supervised release term: 3 years
Special assessment (to fund the federal Crime Victims Fund): $100

Listen particularly to the two Parish Presidents fighting against the feds to get the job done.

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World's Largest Oil Skimmer Arrives in Gulf

and it has been sitting idle since Wednesday (it was sitting in Virginia for a while) partly because of Hurricane Alex (now a tropical storm), but mostly because the US government hasn't issued a permit yet (if it ever does).

The 10-story-high, 3 1/2-football field-long skimmer, "A Whale" (like "A team"), is owned by a Taiwanese billionaire who, upon hearing the Gulf oil spill, ordered the ship to be modified so that it can skim over 500,000 barrels of oil PER DAY and generously made the ship available for cleanup operation.

According to AP,

"Dubbed the "A Whale," the Taiwanese-flagged former tanker spans the length of 3½ football fields and is 10 stories high.

"It just emerged from an extensive retrofitting to prepare it specifically for the Gulf.

"It is absolutely gigantic. It's unbelievable," said Overton [Ed Overton, a Louisiana State University environmental studies professor who consults for the federal government on oil spills], who saw the ship last week in Norfolk, Va.

"The vessel looks like a typical tanker, but it takes in contaminated water through 12 vents on either side of the bow. The oil is then supposed to be separated from the water and transferred to another vessel. The water is channeled back into the sea.

"But the ship's never been tested, and many questions remain about how it will operate. For instance, the seawater retains trace amounts of oil, even after getting filtered, so the Environmental Protection Agency will have to sign off on allowing the treated water back into the Gulf.

""This is a no-brainer," Overton said. "You're bringing in really dirty, oily water and you're putting back much cleaner water."

"The Coast Guard will have the final say in whether the vessel can operate in the Gulf. The owner, shipping firm TMT Group, will have to come to separate terms with BP, which is paying for the cleanup.

""I don't know whether it's going to work or not, but it certainly needs to be given the opportunity," Overton said." [For the entire article, click here.]

So, what are the feds doing?

Why it's the Fourth of July weekend! Taking the weekend off, of course! 9 to 5, Monday through Friday, no matter what the situation is.

WWL Radio of New Orleans reports:

"One local official is voicing his frustration over what he calls a "nine-to-five" attitude by some federal authorities in the face of the oil disaster.

"Jefferson Councilman Chris Roberts says the parish has a plan to build rock levees to help keep oil out of inland waterways like Barataria Bay.

"Roberts told WWL First News that after they submitted the proposal to the Army Corps of Engineers last week, Corps officials said last Friday that discussion on the plan would have to be put on hold until the following Monday, because the Corps office would be closed for the weekend.

""Whoever reviews permits, and whatever departments and stakeholders and agencies need to give approval for this...should be working around the clock, just like the people are that are trying to get this oil picked up," Roberts said.

"According to Roberts, after cooling their heels for the weekend, parish officials are still awaiting an answer. He says, however, he would be very surprised to get a response over the long federal holiday weekend to come.

"Roberts told WWL First News that even if some federal responders take the 4th of July weekend off, many parish workers would be working overtime.

""We don't take breaks, this is an emergency for us," he said. "We're going to continue plugging away at it.""

Happy Fourth of July, but I will be cheering for the efforts by the local people in Gulf states and by BP. The feds can stay away as long as they want, as long as they don't hinder the efforts.

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Why Is the Gulf Cleanup So Slow?

asks Paul H. Rubin, professor of economics at Emory University.


Why Is the Gulf Cleanup So Slow? (Paul H. Rubin, 7/2/2010 Wall Street Journal)

"There are obvious actions to speed things up, but the government oddly resists taking them.

"As the oil spill continues and the cleanup lags, we must begin to ask difficult and uncomfortable questions. There does not seem to be much that anyone can do to stop the spill except dig a relief well, not due until August. But the cleanup is a different story. The press and Internet are full of straightforward suggestions for easy ways of improving the cleanup, but the federal government is resisting these remedies." [The article continues.]

Professor Rubin lists four such remedies:

1. The Environmental Protection Agency can relax restrictions on the amount of oil in discharged water, so that skimmers and tankers can suck up the water with oil, discharge the mostly clean water and store the oil.

2. The Obama administration can waive the Jones Act, which restricts foreign ships from operating in U.S. coastal waters. Taiwanese has the world-largest skimmer, 10-story high, which can remove 500,000 barrels of oil PER DAY.

3. The federal government can free American-based skimmers by easing the regulations so that more US skimmers can join the current 400 that have been deployed.

4. The Obama administration can also permit more state and local initiatives. [Remember that the Coast Guard stopped the skimming operation ordered by the Louisiana governor because it needed to see if the boats had life-vests and fire extinguishers.]

None of these are happening. Why? asks the professor. And he speculates three possible reasons:

1. Sheer incompetence of the administration. But he dismisses by saying "But the government is full of competent people, and the military and Coast Guard can accomplish an assigned mission. In any case, several remedies require nothing more than getting out of the way."

2. The administration places a higher priority on interests other than the fate of the Gulf, such as placating organized labor.

3. "Never waste a good crisis" mentality to push the administration's energy agendas.

I'd say all of three, and one more:

4. This administration, like the one before this, truly believes in the power and competence of the government, and particularly of the executive branch. Letting go of the power by loosening regulations, if only for a while, is unthinkable.

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After 70 Days, Obama Accepts International Help on Oil Spill

Too little too late? We'll see...

US accepts international assistance for Gulf spill (6/29/2010 AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States is accepting help from 12 countries and international organizations in dealing with the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The State Department said in a statement Tuesday that the U.S. is working out the particulars of the help that's been accepted.

The identities of all 12 countries and international organizations were not immediately announced. One country was cited in the State Department statement -- Japan, which is providing two high-speed skimmers and fire containment boom.

More than 30 countries and international organizations have offered to help with the spill. The State Department hasn't indicated why some offers have been accepted and others have not.

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Good for Ron Paul

The good doctor said NO to giving subpoena power to the presidential oil spill commission, created by Obama's executive order and devoid of experts who actually know something about petroleum engineering, exploration, or drilling to figure out what caused the rig explosion and destruction, and resulting oil spill. (For more on this strange commission, read "Obama's Gulf Oil Spill Commission and the Missing Experts" at American Thinker.)

Like old times, Ron Paul was the only one who voted no. No to further expanding the executive power of the government, particularly when that power is created by the presidential fiat without Congressional oversight.

Rep. Paul Casts Sole ‘No’ Vote on Oil Spill Subpoena Power
(Tennille Tracy and Siobhan Hughes, 6/23/2010 Wall Street Journal)

It is an ultra-short article, and 2/3 of the article is about his son (Rand Paul, who won the GOP primary for Senate seat in Kentucky)'s alleged remark on BP and oil spill. Wall Street Journal is simply doing what all the major news outlets have been doing ever since the Kentucky primary - trying to smear Ron Paul via his son.

And it took two people to write it.

The comment section of the article is more interesting, written by people much more informed than the Wall Street Journal writers.

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Uh Oh... Bot Collided with Containment Cap...

From AFP via Breitbart:

"The containment system capturing oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill had to be removed Wednesday, leaving the gusher unchecked after a collision involving a robotic submarine, US officials said."

(UPDATE)

Two people died today in the cleanup operation. One is a boat captain who died of a gunshot wound.

(2nd Update)

Two people who died were part of the program called "Vessels of Opportunity", which is "designed and implemented to provide local boat operators an opportunity to assist with response activities, including transporting supplies, assisting wildlife rescue and deploying containment and sorbent boom" and is part of BP's effort to clean up the oil spill.

For more, visit the Deepwater Horizon Unified Command website.

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BP's $20 Billion "Escrow Fund" May Not Be What We've Been Told

If this was a "shakedown" by Obama, it was more like BP begging "Oh please shake me down, I'll give you all the money you want. It will make you look good, too. A strong leader. But in exchange..."

The Wall Street Journal article yesterday ("Feinberg Ramps Up $20 Billion Compensation Fund" by Neil King Jr., 6/21/2010) says the following about the $20 billion escrow account that Obama demanded and has been established, to be managed by Obama's Pay Czar Kenneth Feinberg:

- As soon as the Deepwater Horizon rig sank in April, Feinberg started to plan for administering the claims.

- It was BP who asked Feinberg to work for them in administering the claims two weeks ago.

- Last week Obama and BP announced the establishment of the escrow fund, without Congressional approval, without even the presidential executive order.

- Feinberg will have the sole and complete latitude to decide who will get how much.

As with other Czars surrounding Obama, Pay Czar is not accountable to Congress or the general public. He's only answerable to Obama, who has told him to "get the payment out quickly."

The article ends with indications on how Mr. Feinberg intends to proceed:

"In the end, one aim of the fund—and a prime reason BP agreed to it—will be to minimize lawsuits against the company. To do that, Mr. Feinberg will offer big lump-sum payments to workers and businesses as an enticement to stay out of court.

""At some point, I will have to make an offer—'You take this amount in full satisfaction of your claim, but only if you waive your right to future litigation,'" Mr. Feinberg said. "And if I package it right, people will see that it makes no sense to fight it out in court."" [Emphasis is mine.]

So the administration (not even the federal government) unilaterally decided to take the responsibility of compensating the oil spill victims from BP and assign it to a presidential appointee who is not accountable to Congress and who will have the sole power to decide who gets what, and the whole point of the exercise is to shield BP from lawsuits from the 'small people'.

That explains why investors have been buying BP's shares and bonds. They think the downside is covered by the administration.

Some 'small people' on a stock message board had an excellent idea the other day: Let's all move to the Gulf states immediately, and start filing claims!

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Will BP Trigger a 'Black Swan' Event?

in the world of structured finance?

Citing Moody's analysis, Zero Hedge reports that BP's bankruptcy would impair more than just the BP's debt holders and equity holders. The loss in CSOs (collateralized synthetic obligations, often using credit default swaps, or CDS) that reference BP and the companies that are involved in the Gulf oil spill - i.e. Transocean, Halliburton, Anadarko, and Cameron could be billions of dollars. If you include other oil and oil service companies that would be negatively affected by the spill, the amount could be hundreds of billions, as it would also involve companies totally unrelated to BP or oil industry but unfortunate enough to have their CDS packaged with BP's.

BP's Bankruptcy Would Impair 117 (18% Of Total) Collateralized Synthetic Obligations, Lead To Pervasive Losses (Tyler Durden, 6/21/2010 Zero Hedge)

"Even as increasingly desperate falling knife catchers try to convince someone, anyone to buy up some or all of their shares of BP stock, which is certainly on its way to a guaranteed doubling, tripling or more, the real investing community is ever more carefully looking at the worst case, and its implications. Said implications would be vast, and in addition to wiping out billions in capital from BPs direct counterparties which are already limiting their BP exposure, a topic we touched upon briefly previously, would also impair indirect holders of pre-packaged securitized BP exposure. Today Moody's provides an analysis of which CSOs (just like CDOs but packed purely with synthetic products - think Goldman's Abacus) would be impaired should BP go bankrupt. The rating agency does not stop there, and also analyzes what a bankruptcy of BP peers Halliburton, Anadarko Petroleum, Transocean Inc., and Cameron International would look like, and who would be wiped out. Below are the results, which upon further analysis will likely indicate total loss potential well beyond BP's total outstanding debt exposure.

"As the recent civil case involving Goldman and the Abacus (and soon potentially others) CDO showed, collateralized products have a special place in the heart of the regulators, due to their avalanche quality of blowing up seemingly completely unrelated entities, which share merely the stupidity of having invested in the same entity. BP, as a company with over $20 billion in debt outstanding, has over the years, seen many of its CDS packaged and repackaged in the form of many and increasingly more complex CSOs. Last week's blow out in BP spreads, in which the 1 Year CDS surged beyond 1,000 bps, has got many people concerned: the least of which are counterparties that are on the other side of the short risk trade. Others include investors in just such CSOs, and other companies whose CDS comprises various tranches in these synthetic obligations, as forced liquidations in any given CSO would result in the blow out spreads in even perfectly solvent companies who just have the displeasure of being packaged in one and the same CSO." [Emphasis is mine. The article continues.]

The whole point of structured finance is to transfer risk by securitization, tranching, credit enhancement and rating. But as we have seen in the past two years, instead of reducing the risk these CDOs seem to do the opposite and amplify the risk in times of acute financial stress. Zero Hedge article concludes:

"Should BP go down it will, on a diluted basis, wipe out many more pro rata billions in value once protection sellers scramble to cover margin and collateral calls. Add the other drilling usual suspects, and the losses could amount well into the hundreds of billions." [Emphasis is mine.]

I would love to know who wrote those protections. And the names of the unfortunate companies whose CDSs were packaged with those of BP.

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Obama's Golfing Necessary to 'Clear His Mind'

necessary also to have two vacations, two gala events, and light daily schedule. And golf every week, if not twice a week. To clear his mind. On taxpayers' expense.

(But no way Tony Hayward should relax and clear his mind on a yacht that he bought with his own money, not even once in 60 days or so.)

Someone in the article's comment section asked, "Clear his mind? From what?"

White House dismisses critics, defends Obama's golf outings (6/21/2010 The Hill)

The White House is dismissing criticism that President Barack Obama shouldn’t play golf during the Gulf oil spill.

White House spokesman Bill Burton on Monday said the president deserves some time to relax, and he doesn't “think that there's a person in this country that doesn't think that their president ought to have a little time to clear his mind.”

During the weekend, Obama played the 39th round of golf of his presidency, according to reports.

White House reporters joke among themselves about who might get stuck with weekend pool duty, which seems more likely than not to include a few hours sitting at the food court near either Andrews Air Force Base or Fort Belvoir while Obama hits the links." [The article continues.]

The article also reminds us at the end that Obama's predecessor was also fond of golf, but gave up while in office:

"Former President George W. Bush publicly gave up the game of golf while in office, saying he didn’t think it was appropriate that he keep playing while troops were fighting in Iraq."

He plays the super-fast golf though, not the 4 plus-hour affair while the White House press pool languish in the food court...

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