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Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster...

Dinah said:
So it seems that we are all crazy and there is no crisis. I guess this is all just no big deal because the people who are supposed to be in charge don't seem concerned one bit. Mr. Hayward seems to have gotten his life back as he and his family attended a yacht race this weekend to cheer for his personal yacht. Meanwhile, President Obama went golfing and to a baseball game.

http://cfnews13.com/News/CountyByCo...rnment_criticized_for_oil_spill_response.html
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Yeah, too bad we don't have a Republican president in office right now. The media would be ripping him to shreds and maybe the government would get their asses in gear and realize that ALL available resources from every level needs to be directed to fixing this problem. Seems to me that much more resources, time and effort are being put into having meetings and trying to pin blame then just getting HANDS ON the problem to get the damn thing fixed.
 
Rich Z said:
Yeah, too bad we don't have a Republican president in office right now. The media would be ripping him to shreds and maybe the government would get their asses in gear and realize that ALL available resources from every level needs to be directed to fixing this problem. Seems to me that much more resources, time and effort are being put into having meetings and trying to pin blame then just getting HANDS ON the problem to get the damn thing fixed.
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You forgot rounds of golf. And, coming up with lawsuits against Arizona... To me the gulf problem is more important than a state wanting to enforce immigration laws...
 
Politicians should be able to multitask. Obama may be one of those.
Politicians are also humans who need "down time." Why make such a big deal about him playing golf? I just don't get it.

White House defends Obama's fun time during crisis
WASHINGTON — A White House spokesman says the whole country benefits when President Barack Obama takes time to go golfing and "clear his mind."
Obama spokesman Bill Burton on Monday defended Obama's leisure activities amid some Republican criticism that Obama should not be scheduling fun time during the Gulf oil spill crisis. The president went golfing on Saturday afternoon after attending a baseball game Friday night.
Burton said the people of the country stand by the notion that "their president ought to have a little time to clear his mind." He said Obama relaxed after a week in which he got help for victims of the oil spill and traveled to Ohio to speak on the economy, among other work. Burton said that having time to himself "probably does us all good."
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I agree with Burton
 
jpccusa said:
Politicians should be able to multitask. Obama may be one of those.
Politicians are also humans who need "down time." Why make such a big deal about him playing golf? I just don't get it.



I agree with Burton
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If this had been Bush, the media, and every single Democrat in the nation would be calling for impeachment. That is why all the hype on golf and yacht races.
 
It makes no sense to me, still.
"Let's do it to them because they would do it to us" is not a good reason, in my opinion.
I prefer to look at facts in order to criticize what politicians do with their free time (for example hypocrite Republicans spending donor money on a lesbian bondage-theme strip club in LA).
Back to the thread's topic, regarding the oil spill, Tony Hayward now went AWOL.
 
Outcast said:
If this had been Bush, the media, and every single Democrat in the nation would be calling for impeachment. That is why all the hype on golf and yacht races.
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The thing that bothers me is not that the President took the weekend off from the Gulf oil spill (after all, President Bush was pretty hands-off about hurricane Katrina). The thing that bothers me is that I don't see that the Federal government is going a very good job with this disaster, and if we had a Republican president with the press antagonism and all the Democrats yelling for impeachment, that MIGHT (please notice I said might) lead to a more aggressive response (although, to be fair, it didn't with President Bush & hurricane Katrina).

The Federal government needs to hire some independent oil well blowout experts to be looking over BP's shoulder, and they need to get EPA eco scientists working hard & fast on determining if we should be building sand berms, and if we should, throw the National Guard or the Army Corps of Engineers at the job. They also need to ask the eco scientists if we should try any of the other ideas (hay & straw to absorb oil, dispersants, whatever) and there is no time for the scientists to dither, EPA needs to put together a report quickly so the National Guard, the Army Corps of Engineers and a whole bunch of volunteers will know what to do & get starting DOING IT!

Visiting the Gulf a lot is not going to help. Jawboning BP can only help so much. What the Federal government can do is bring together various experts (an oil well blowout Manhattan project) and "crack the whip" to get them working on solving intermediate problems.
 
Wish that camera looked a little more down toward the sea floor! I have some scary suspicions that could be confirmed or disproved with the right images.
 
Does anyone recall if a figure has been quoted for the temperature of the oil as it is coming out of the ground?
 
I wish the live feed had something you could use for scale. How big around is that plum? It obviously isn't coming out of a pipe or a casing.
 
Rich Z said:
Yeah, too bad we don't have a Republican president in office right now. The media would be ripping him to shreds and maybe the government would get their asses in gear and realize that ALL available resources from every level needs to be directed to fixing this problem. Seems to me that much more resources, time and effort are being put into having meetings and trying to pin blame then just getting HANDS ON the problem to get the damn thing fixed.
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I have always had very little faith in the media because of this. The thing is when it comes to Republican or Democrat I couldn't care less what the little letter is that they put at the end of your name. When you are running my country I really only have 3 requests 1. Don't disregard or manipulate the constitution. 2. Don't be evil. 3. Don't be an incompetent slacker who plays golf in the middle of a crisis. I wish that the media would hold every politician who breaks those rules accountable regardless of their affiliation. There are lots of bad apples in both of those bunches.

jpccusa said:
Politicians should be able to multitask. Obama may be one of those.
Politicians are also humans who need "down time." Why make such a big deal about him playing golf? I just don't get it.
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I don't buy this not one bit, and I'll tell you why. When I ran an accounting office and crisis happened, it was me with whom the buck stopped. When our systems all crashed at the same time as a night lady had to be hospitalized, it was me who was working overnights (10 pm-7am) to cover her shift as well as my regular (7am-4pm shift). Do you want to know why because when you are the person in charge you can't just tell the little people to do your bidding while you play. I mean it is a free country you can say that. People are allowed to run businesses that way if they want to, but anyone with integrity or a desire to be respected again in the future would not just set the minions to work on a crisis while they go off and play. Now I will be honest I have been a stay at home mom for about 6 years now, and I'm sure the work place has changed some since then. But has the work force really become so dysfunctional that hard work from our leaders during times of crisis is no longer expected? If the answer is yes well then that is just pathetic.
 
wade said:
I wish the live feed had something you could use for scale. How big around is that plume? It obviously isn't coming out of a pipe or a casing.
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That's exactly what I am worried about, Wade. If it isn't coming from the pipe, and the cementing of the casing has failed, it's very very bad. If it is coming up OUTSIDE the casing, it's unspeakable.
 
Methane in Gulf 'astonishingly high'-US scientist
Tue Jun 22, 2010 5:27pm EDT
By Julie Steenhuysen

June 22 (Reuters) - As much as 1 million times the normal level of methane gas has been found in some regions near the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, enough to potentially deplete oxygen and create a dead zone, U.S. scientists said on Tuesday.

Texas A&M University oceanography professor John Kessler, just back from a 10-day research expedition near the BP Plc (BP.L) oil spill in the gulf, says methane gas levels in some areas are "astonishingly high."

Kessler's crew took measurements of both surface and deep water within a 5-mile (8 kilometer) radius of BP's broken wellhead.

"There is an incredible amount of methane in there," Kessler told reporters in a telephone briefing.

In some areas, the crew of 12 scientists found concentrations that were 100,000 times higher than normal.

"We saw them approach a million times above background concentrations" in some areas, Kessler said.

The scientists were looking for signs that the methane gas had depleted levels of oxygen dissolved in the water needed to sustain marine life.

"At some locations, we saw depletions of up to 30 percent of oxygen based on its natural concentration in the waters. At other places, we saw no depletion of oxygen in the waters. We need to determine why that is," he told the briefing.

Methane occurs naturally in sea water, but high concentrations can encourage the growth of microbes that gobble up oxygen needed by marine life.

Kessler said oxygen depletions have not reached a critical level yet, but the oil is still spilling into the Gulf, now at a rate of as much as 60,000 barrels a day, according to U.S. government estimates.

"What is it going to look like two months down the road, six months down the road, two years down the road?" he asked.

Methane, a natural gas, dissolves in seawater and some scientists think measuring methane could give a more accurate picture of the extent of the oil spill.

Kessler said his team has taken those measurements, and is hoping to have an estimate soon.

"Give us about a week and we should have some preliminary numbers on that," he said. (Editing by Maggie Fox)
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http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2221822720100622
 
Sensationalism aside, this increase in methane infused into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico could be worrisome, if the actual facts indicated have some substance to them...

 
I really hope that doesn't happen anytime soon... Maybe after we move to the moon and after we terraform Mars... which will be long after I am gone.
 
You know, I've been watching some of the live feeds of this event, and something really puzzles me...

How is it that these live feeds are so CLEAR? I just watched ROV1 pick up something off of the sea floor and it created a substantial cloud from the silt. Do you mean to tell me that this HUGE flow of oil (or whatever it is) is not generating any turbulence around it at all, and the sea floor around it still has a deep layer of silt completely untouched by any turbulence at all? The water is WAY too clear down there. I would think it would be like trying to see through a major dust storm.

Oh yeah, and as for the bright coloration of that oil column being from the lighting, please tell me, what sort of light would you use to shine on a BLACK column of oil to make it appear yellow and orange? What exactly IS that that is coming out of that pipe?
 
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