The United States continues to lead the world in defense spending, according to a new report released Thursday by the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, a U.S.-based non-partisan research organization.
In fact, the U.S. outspends Russia, the next highest spender, by more than 800 percent.
Soooo… Now what?
After indicating on Thursday that the top-kill effort was working, then pausing the operation, then resuming it and indicating that it is going as planned on Friday, BP now says that the amount of oil spewing from the well hasn't changed, and there is not guarantee that the procedure is actually working."I don't think the amount of oil coming out has changed," BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles said on Saturday. "Just by watching it, we don't believe it's changed."
So we're back to trying to put a hat on the damned thing that will allow BP to salvage the well? There is absolutely no reason for a public that's tired of being treated like mushrooms... kept in the dark and fed a daily ration of bullshit... to believe this will be any more successful than your last three efforts. So, what happens if this latest scheme doesn't work?
He estimated that the procedure would take about four days to complete, but if it also fails, it could be several months before BP can finish drilling two relief wells to intersect the runaway well so concrete can be poured into it.
Oh, is that all? What does that mean to the rest of us then?
As much as 73 million more gallons of oil could contaminate the Gulf of Mexico if the flow continues unabated until August _ the soonest that officials estimate the relief wells can be drilled _ poisoning wildlife, destroying fragile marshlands, closing more fishing grounds and depriving fisherman, resort workers and many others of their livelihoods.
In other words, a minimum of two more months of the same crap that's been going on for 6 weeks already right?
So you people really had nothing... not one god damned thing... ready to deal with this situation that you yourselves were creating when you went into the deep water drilling business? You're just stumbling around in the fricking dark trying one hit or miss scheme after another hoping that something will work? Hell, I could do that.
And what about all the other wells in the Gulf? It's my understanding that there are over 3500 of the damned things out there, many of them drilled by companies with exactly the same regard for the rest of the world exhibited by BP.
How many of them are sitting out there like ticking time bombs just waiting to become major catastrophes themselves? Does our government even know? Probably not. They obviously haven't provided any oversight or exercised any form of control over the companies involved. They really don't seem to know much at all about anything that's been going on in the Gulf, or anywhere else where private corporations are sucking the resources out of our public lands.
I had been advocating just blowing this sucker up... now I would favor stuffing all the oil company execs and the entire MMS into the damned thing to slow the flow. And THEN blowing it up. If someone hasn't suggested that yet, consider this a proposal.
In years to come, I predict there will be a lot of scholarly books on the groupthink that took place in the run-up to this disaster, much like the Tompkins books on the Challenger disaster.
In other news, bin Laden states he is professionally envious of BP.
All aircraft operations are prohibited except those flights authorized by ATC, routine flights supporting offshore oil operations; federal, State, local and military flight operations supporting oil spill recovery and reconstitution efforts; and air medical and law enforcement operations.
What the two TFRs do, of course, is keep aircraft hired by reporters and conservation groups from observing what is going on.
It is clear which side of the picture this Administration is on, and that is the side of BP. That would have been expected from the Cheney-Chimpy Administration and we all would have been appropriately cynical about it, but this is far, far worse.
So what is the alternative to the Democrats when it comes to looking out for the interests of working people? The Teabaggers are clearly not it; they are an astroturf group for the GOP. The Libertarians are even worse than the GOP.
Who stands up for us? Maybe three senators out of 100: Russ Feingold, Bernie Sanders and Al Franken, perhaps? It's becoming clear that this administration does not.
We are so screwed.
