A Deepwater Horizon rig worker has told the BBC that he identified a leak in the oil rig's safety equipment weeks before the explosion.
Tyrone Benton said the leak was not fixed at the time, but that instead the faulty device was shut down and a second one relied on.
That said, via the Existentialist Cowboy's Facebook page, a few items to make you think. After 8 years of Bush/Cheney, and all the illegal crap they've done, it falls into the realm of probability.
...It just makes we wonder why none of our elected representatives want to "look back" at anything the previous administration has done.
9. "President Bush personally asked Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle Tuesday to limit the congressional investigation into the events of September 11..." ..."Tuesday's discussion followed a rare call to Daschle from Vice President Dick Cheney last Friday to make the same request."
10. The Project For a New American Century, which wrote of the need for a "catastrophic and catalyzing event, like a new Pearl Harbor," had members throughout the top of the government on 9/11 including Cheney, Rumsfeld, Perle, Wolfowitz, Feith, Bolton, Armitage, Abrams, Wurmser, as well as Bush's brother, the governor of Florida, Jeb.
11. Four days before 9/11, Jeb Bush activated the Florida National Guard, "Based on the potential massive damage to life and property that may result from an act of terrorism at a Florida port." (Executive Order 01-261).
12. On 9/11 Jeb Bush declared a "State of Emergency" in Florida (E.O. 01-262). "I hereby delegate to the Department of Law Enforcement the operational authority to coordinate and direct the law enforcement resources and other resources of any and all state, regional and local governmental agencies..." And by 2am on 9/12/01, Jeb Bush was reported to have confiscated the police records in Venice, FL related to the Huffman Aviation flight school. Two rental trucks full of these records drove onto a C-130 military aircraft at Sarasota Airport and flew out with Jeb Bush aboard.
...
When Joe Barton, the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, revived Rand Paul's defense of BP last week by apologizing on camera to Hayward for the "tragedy" of the White House's "$20 billion shakedown," the G.O.P. establishment had to shut him down because he was revealing the party's true loyalties, not because it disagreed with him (my em). Barton was merely echoing Michele Bachmann, who labeled the $20 billion for gulf victims a "redistribution-of-wealth fund," and the 100-plus other House members whose Republican Study Committee had labeled the $20 billion a "Chicago-style shakedown" only a day before Barton did.
These tribunes of the antigovernment right and their Tea Party auxiliaries are clamoring for a new revolution to "take back America" — after which, we now can see, they would hand over America to the likes of BP. Let Deepwater Horizon be ground zero for a 9/11 showdown over the role of government. There couldn't be a riper moment for Obama, as a man once said, to bring it on.
Always remember the First Law Of Bar Fights: Ya gotta bring some ta get some.
The Second Law jumps around that: The sucker punch is yer best friend. The Repugs are sucker punchin' themselves. Heh. Another draft an' some popcorn please, barkeep!
But I thought they were only blocking weapons:
Bowing to worldwide pressure and condemnation, Israel on Sunday formally announced an eased blockade of Gaza that could significantly expand the flow of goods overland into the impoverished coastal Palestinian enclave, isolated by the Israelis for three years.The announcement, made by the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, came three weeks after a deadly Israeli naval commando raid that thwarted a breach of the blockade by a flotilla of pro-Palestinian aid activists. That raid outraged much of the world and became a catalyst for a serious re-examination by Israel of its policy toward Gaza, which is governed by the militant anti-Israeli group Hamas and is home to 1.5 million Palestinians.
While Mr. Netanyahu did not signal an end to the naval blockade of Gaza or specify precisely what goods would be allowed, his action earned unusual praise from the Obama administration, which has been critical of Israel over the past year and has called the Gaza situation unsustainable.
If they were only trying to keep weapons out, how can they "significantly expand the flow of goods?" The failure of our media to point out the reality behind the Gaza blockade is just another notch in its tombstone.
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Who knows how the President will celebrate Father's Day and, frankly, who gives a shit? Considering that this is a guy who has ordered extra-judicial assassinations on American citizens and has ramped up an incredibly unwinnable, incredibly corrupt, incredibly bloody and incredibly cruel war in Afghanistan, I think it's pretty safe to say that Barack Obama won't give any more thought than did Bush to the fathers who can't be with their families today and those who never again will be with their families.
So let's take stock as to what's happening just this weekend, starting with Iraq:
http://brilliantatbreakfast.blogspot.com/2010/06/happy-fathers-day-iraqi-and-afghani.html
If the Almighty even answered the plea, I would expect an answer from Him (or Her) along the lines of "All y'all got yourselves into this mess, you get yourselves out of it." The state government in Louisiana has been very, very accommodating to the oil and gas industry and their legislative delegation in Washington has bent over backwards to do the bidding of those folks and to make sure that any bothersome regulations are minimized or removed entirely.
Humans have free will for a reason. We were entrusted with it and, when we make a hash of our choices, it's not the job of the King of the Universe to save us from our own stupidity.
thinks we are all out to make whoopee with his wife. In a fundraising mail, no less…
I write to you today as an outraged husband. My wife Michele Bachmann is under attack in the most vulgar and disgusting terms.
Just this week, all around the Minneapolis-St Paul area, posters started popping up for a concert titled "F*** Michele Bachmann." This was a juvenile and immature act by those unwilling to have a dignified debate, but it doesn't stop there!
Because a dignified debate with that screeching and lying harpy dingbat, you know, the one who wants to raise up a militia and assassinate anyone who disagrees with her dystopian view of the world, would probably be most civil until the f***ing started.
I wonder how his psychology practice, where he claims to "cure" gays is going?
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Steve King's immigration plan: 'Deport a liberal for every immigrant granted legalized status'
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Awkward questions about Jesus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQak6ng0RXQ&feature=player_embedded
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Even if the defense appropriations bill to which the repeal of DADT is attached makes it through the Senate, the president may veto it over certain spending provisions to which he is opposed. Yesterday Robert Gates repeated the veto threat to Fox News.
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This Week In Holy Crimes
Over the last seven days...
Italy: Father Pierino Gelmini charged with molesting twelve underage boys.
Wisconsin: Pastor Travis Gandy arrested twice in one week for two separate sexual assaults on children.
Florida: Imam Yasser Mohamed Shahade pleads guilty to child molestation.
Michigan: Four Christian activists arrested for disorderly conduct after attempting to convert Muslims at the International Arab Festival.
Michigan: Pastor Christopher Settlemoir charged with child molestation.
Texas: Pastor Hezekiah Stallworth charged with molesting a seven year-old girl. Stallworth reportedly lured young girls into his office with offers of candy. He is 75.
California: Pastor Melissa Huckaby sentenced to life in prison for murdering and sexually assaulting an eight year-old girl.
New Jersey: Rabbi Eliahu Ben Haim confesses to $1.5M money laundering scam.
Massachusetts: Pastor Simeon Stefanidakis charged with multiple felony counts of possessing child pornography.
New York: Televangelist Samuel Solanky pleads guilty to scamming $3M out of his followers via a phony gemstone business.
Israel: An unnamed rabbi has been arrested for the rapes of multiple underage females.
North Carolina: Pastor Robert Lee McQueen convicted on multiple felony counts of heroin distribution.
Ontario: Pastor Fred Hanson convicted of sexual exploitation of a minor.
Texas: Pastor Pastor Tracy Burleson charged with hiring his son to murder his wife. Both the pastor and his son were having a sexual affair with the same woman.
New York: Rabbi Baruch Lebovits accused of molesting more underage boys. Lebovits was sentenced to 10-32 years in prison for child molestation in April.
California: Cardinal Roger Mahoney didn't search for the victims of a confessed pedophile priest because they were only the children of "illegal aliens." Big deal.
This Week's Winner
Finland: Pastor Francois Bazaramba has been sentenced to life in prison for taking part in Rwanda's 1994 genocide of Tutsis. Finland had refused to extradite Bazaramba to Rwanda because he faced the death penalty there. Eyewitnesses told the court that Bazaramba had provided weapons and led gangs of Hutus in their killing spree.
Most would not expect the Texas GOP platform to be liberal, but many might be surprised that their agenda includes charging those who perform same-sex marriage ceremonies with a felony.
The Republican Party of the Lone Star State released their platform last week and it takes a hard line at illegal immigrants, gay people, and abortion. Aside from making the officiating of gay ceremonies a serious crime, Texas Republicans hope to repeal the healthcare bill, make English the official language of the United States, urge the state legislature to require voter identification (ostensibly at polls), ban stem cell research, and require sonograms for women seeking abortions.
Here's how a Texan (from the Comments section) responded.
Traditional, moneyed, conservative Republicans in Texas have ceded control of their party to religious extremists who are driven by unmitigated bigotry which is enhanced by a lack of education and compassion. That their party platform states such ludicrous ideas isn't surprising. If *we* as a community fail to recognize the very real threat some Texas Republicans pose we will rue the day they and their counterparts in the rest of our country regain Congress and the White House.
Well said.
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