The manner in which the BP oil spill has played out shows how powerful corporations have become

[Tony_FLADEM]

The oil is no longer spilling into the gulf and it's as if the incident never even happened.

They put toxic chemicals into the gulf to hide the oil and the federal government was powerless to stop them.

They spent millions of dollars to make people sympathetic towards them and it seems to have worked.

More people are mad at the federal government than at BP who was negligent and actually responsible for this mess.

[Autumn]

1. Was our federal government really powerless

to stop them from using the dispersant's? I don't think they were. They chose to allow them to pour toxic chemicals into the gulf. Otherwise I think you are right.

[Tony_FLADEM]

2. The federal government did not have the capability to deal with oil spill

Had they forbid BP from using the dispersant, they would have had to get more involved in dealing with the spill and they did not have the knowledge to do so. To that extent they were powerless.

[flyarm]

5. the EPA told BP to stop using Corexit ..BP ignored the EPA and This admins did nothing to stop BP!

now we get nothing but revisionism! and lies!

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. The EPA told BP to cut back on the use of dispersant.

BP complied.

Now they've stopped entirely.

[flyarm]

8. No ..wrong , in the days after the gusher happened the EPA told BP to stop using Corexit,

now conveniently the story has changed...that is called revisionism!

From a Gulf Resident.

[flyarm]

17. EPA DIRECTIVE TOLD BP TO STOP USING CHEMICALS EXCEPT FOR RARE CASES!

Aug 1, 2010
Toxic chemical used on spill

WASHINGTON - THE US Coast Guard has routinely approved BP requests to use thousands of litres of toxic chemical a day to break up oil slicks in the Gulf of Mexico despite a federal directive that the chemicals be used only rarely on surface waters, congressional investigators said on Saturday after examining BP and government documents.

The documents show the Coast Guard approved 74 waivers over a 48-day period after the restrictions were imposed, resulting in hundreds of thousands of litres of the chemicals to be spread on Gulf waters. Only in a small number of cases did the government scale back BP's request.

The extensive use of dispersants to break up oil gushing from BP's Deepwater Horizon raised concerns early on as to what long-term damage the toxic chemicals might be doing to the Gulf's aquatic life. That prompted the Environmental Protection Agency on May 26 to direct BP to stop using the chemicals on the water surface except in 'rare cases'. But Republican Edward Markey said on Saturday that the chemicals continued to be used extensively with Coast Guard approval, often at a rate of 22,710 to 37,850 litres a day.

A request was made and approved on June 13 to spread as much as 136,270 litres of dispersant, according to data obtained by Mr Markey's Energy and Environment subcommittee.

The EPA directive 'has become more of a meaningless paperwork exercise than an attempt ... to eliminate surface application of chemical dispersants,' Mr Markey wrote in a letter sent on Friday to retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the government's point man on the spill.

Mr Markey's office released the letter on Saturday as well as the documents his panel had analysed. Mr Markey said that instead of complying with the EPA directive, 'BP often carpet bombed the ocean with these chemicals and the Coast Guard allowed them to do it'. The House investigators found that the Coast Guard routinely approved the chemical use, in some cases a week in advance. On five occasions the Coast Guard approved a BP request to use 22,710 litres a day over a weeklong period and 'in many of these days BP still used more than double' the limit that was approved, Mr Markey said in his letter. -- AP
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_560579.html



SO WHO GAVE THE COAST GUARD FROM THE TOP OF OUR GOVERNMENT THE PERMISSION TO IGNORE THE EPA???????? BECAUSE THE COAST GUARD WOULD HAVE HAD TO HAVE AN ORDER TO DO THAT FROM THE TOP ESCHLEON OF OUR GOVERNMENT! LIKE THE CIC..OBAMA..YEAH..AHHH AND PSSSSSSSSSSSS..WHEN YOU WANT TO POST STUFF KNOW WTF YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT.. I live on the Gulf and in the early days of this disaster our local news told us that the EPA had stopped BP from spraying the dispersant and banned it's use ..only to have it come into our homes and our air shortly afterwards,,while our local news said numerous times the EPA forbade BP from spraying dispersants..see when we were breathing it and having our eyes burning from it , and our throats burning from it ..the local news was told by our government that the EPA had banned BP from using dispersants.And our local news reported that. They just don't count on anyone remembering, and they figure they can have people like you spreading propaganda and re-invent the truth.
Obviously, we now know the EPA was being lied to , our local news was being lied to, we people on the Gulf were being lied to and our White House and our Caost Guard were telling BP go ahead and spread their deadly toxins on Americans ..and fuck the EPA..they just thought no one would catch them! Or remember.

[Cherchez la Femme]

39. unwise to argue with flyarm, grasshoppa

never seen where he didn't know his chit :popcorn:

[Lorien]

28. Yep. The corporations are the ones in control, and our government

acts as their enablers.

[Autumn]

9. I don't see how stopping them from using a toxic

chemical would force them to be more involved in dealing with the spill, which is something I think they should have been more on top of any way. With all due respect I can't agree with that. Liked the rest of your post though.

[Lorien]

27. That's a load of PR bullshit and you know it

the government was never "helpless" until 9/11. Now they've convinced those who have forgotten history to believe that ONLY corporations can solve problems and the government lacks the expertise or ability to do anything except wage major military campaigns. That anyone actually believes this bullshit shows just how gullible Americans are in the face of relentless propaganda.

[glitch]

29. Propaganda works on all people some of the time, some people all the time,

"They are the ones we focus on" - George Wanker Bush.

[Individualist]

37. +1

[flyarm]

3. BP and our government are in Bed together! and have been from the get go! eom

[louis-t]

4. And now, BP is going to sell their product for less

to win back customers. Hooray.

[flyarm]

7. yeah while people on the gulf contract cancers , and many life treatening diseases

including children..while toxic fish get into our food chain for all to share the cancers and diseases..and the toxins get into even your air through evaporation and getting into the atmosphere..which it already has.

[LTX]

33. Bullshit.

Please produce evidence of these cancers and life threatening diseases. And "toxic fish" are not coming out of the Gulf. Why don't you Apocalypse fetishists take a breather, and give us on the Gulf coast a chance to recover. Or at least direct your fetish at another target for awhile.

[KansDem]

10. The fact the word "spill" was used shows just how powerful the corporations have become....

...in influencing the media.

"Spill?" It was a gusher!

Oh, look! A lava spill!

[earth mom]

11. I am SICKENED by what I've seen on DU the past couple of days.

The unrec crew have gone nuts on any OP that makes the powers that be look bad regarding the oil GUSHER and the ECOCIDE they have committed in the gulf.

Sorry but BP and the White House have LIED. It's as simple and disgusting as that. :grr:

[marions ghost]

12. Working overtime...all shifts...the tireless

Troll Patrol. On every thread about the oil disaster. Lots of parties interested in SUBMERGENCE....

Gotta apply snow to the whole picture. Works like Corexit.

[earth mom]

15. The snow job ain't working for me. And shouldn't for anyone with any common sense.

I'm glad there are still some DUers like you who won't be told what to think. :hi:

[flyarm]

25. +1 million gallons of poison!

[glitch]

30. I just hope BP is paying for it and not We the Taxpayers. nt

[Poboy]

35. The marching orders have been issued. Party operatives told

to get 'in line' for election season.

"Smiles everyone, SMILES!"

[flyarm]

18. You and me both! But if these Un-rec'ers think this will not effect them or their children or their

grand children, they best be aware ..the cancers their loved ones will contract, will be the blood on their own hands!

Obviously they don't give a rats fucking ass if we on the Gulf get the cancers..but they are not immune by any stretch of the imagination.. Its already in the atmosphere..and on it's way to them!

And will be in the food supply soon, if it isn't in their food supply already!

You can't fool mother nature..she will strike back with vengence! No matter how much or how hard they try to hide the truth!

[LTX]

34. I'm sickened by what I've seen as well.

A pack of hyperbolic Cassandra's telling the world that Gulf seafood is poison, and that the Gulf coast and Gulf cities are toxic wastelands. Thanks for your contributions, but it would be nice if you would now go piss somewhere else. We have enough to cope with down here without recreational slander from the apocalypse fetishists.

[spanone]

13. and spend millions upon millions on advertising to the newsfolks.......

[DirkGently]

14. Pretty chilling. Especially the perception of co-opting

of the Coast Guard, the NOAA, the EPA and to one extent or another, the administration. The entire thing reeks of relentless P.R. spin and the attempt to float ridiculously optimistic interpretations of the disaster, from the amount of oil spilled -- ludicrously low, yet backed by NOAA and quoted without apparent critique by the administration -- to the bizarre back-and-forth on the "dispersant" with the blackly comical moniker "Corexit" with the EPA demanding BP stop using it in one moment, and reversing itself the next. And then back again. I forget what the EPA's stance on Corexit is at the moment, but maybe that's the idea.

Now we're blithely told that "Top Kill" (love the violent code names of these things -- can "MEGA KILL!!" be far behind) worked so well that it's all over, and gee, we "can't find any oil." Ho hum, a little whoopsy -- what we all so upset about.

There's a tawdry P.R. reek to the whole thing that I can only interpret as "We're going to keep drilling in the Gulf, period. Anything that would militate against that, such as, say, evidence that the oil industry has neither the ability to deal with the inevitable environmental catastrophes that will result, and no industry in developing any, will be pointedly ignored."

I get B.P. spinning it. Expect it. Hell, they're probably bound by fiduciary duty to their shareholders to try to lie about this. But it's chilling to see this rather naked political tug-of-war going on in the EPA (whistleblower scientists claiming that data about Corexit's dangers was deliberately squelched for political purposes)as well as the NOAA, which one would think we could assume was apolitical, and the odd tone we're getting from the administration, fuming at BP outwardly, but not questioning its transparently fantastical narrative about how minor the spill was, and how completely it's cleaned up.

How stupid do they think we are, exactly? Or, as they all seem to be getting away with this, should it be, "How stupid are we?"

[marions ghost]

16. +++++

:thumbsup:

"a tawdry PR reek to the whole thing"....yep.

They think Americans will buy it all, just to be able to get on with their lives without having to worry about the oceans.

[flyarm]

20. its all political and political ass covering and payoff! eom

[flyarm]

19. and do not forget the FAA and Homeland security..they were all involved in

fucking the American people..but they were given orders by the only people that could give them the orders..straight from the White House!

[SugarShack]

22. They used our military planes too! Take a look!

http://www.oshkosh365.org:80/ok365_DiscussionBoardTopic.aspx?id=1235&boardid=147&forumid=175&topicid=4431

pics of the spraying at link

Basler BT-67 (DC-3 turbine conversion) battling the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico

We received several photos of an Oshkosh aviation company helping to battle the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Over the past two weeks, Clean Gulf Associates’ Basler BT-67 from Basler Turbo Conversions , Oshkosh, has been spraying dispersants on the oil slick in the Gulf, with Basler pilots at the controls. BT-67s are DC-3s converted to turboprops by Basler. The aircraft is fitted with a spray delivery system and has been particularly effective in battling the oil that’s been leaking into the Gulf since an April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon.

U.S. Coast Guard photos by Petty Officer 3rd Class Stephen Lehmann.

Oil dispersant is carefully pumped from tanks into a Basler BT-67 fixed wing aircraft by workers at a hanger in Houma, Louisiana on May 5, 2010.

(and notice in the pics they are covered from head to toe!)

[flyarm]

23. yes I know..I live on the Gulf..we saw them and we were blessed with the awful smell

they left behind after spraying ...that burned our eyes and throats and gave us massive headaches..

[SugarShack]

21. Our coast guard had lots to do with this...

Aug 1, 2010
Toxic chemical used on spill

WASHINGTON - THE US Coast Guard has routinely approved BP requests to use thousands of litres of toxic chemical a day to break up oil slicks in the Gulf of Mexico despite a federal directive that the chemicals be used only rarely on surface waters, congressional investigators said on Saturday after examining BP and government documents.

The documents show the Coast Guard approved 74 waivers over a 48-day period after the restrictions were imposed, resulting in hundreds of thousands of litres of the chemicals to be spread on Gulf waters. Only in a small number of cases did the government scale back BP's request.

The extensive use of dispersants to break up oil gushing from BP's Deepwater Horizon raised concerns early on as to what long-term damage the toxic chemicals might be doing to the Gulf's aquatic life. That prompted the Environmental Protection Agency on May 26 to direct BP to stop using the chemicals on the water surface except in 'rare cases'. But Republican Edward Markey said on Saturday that the chemicals continued to be used extensively with Coast Guard approval, often at a rate of 22,710 to 37,850 litres a day.

A request was made and approved on June 13 to spread as much as 136,270 litres of dispersant, according to data obtained by Mr Markey's Energy and Environment subcommittee.

The EPA directive 'has become more of a meaningless paperwork exercise than an attempt ... to eliminate surface application of chemical dispersants,' Mr Markey wrote in a letter sent on Friday to retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the government's point man on the spill.

Mr Markey's office released the letter on Saturday as well as the documents his panel had analysed. Mr Markey said that instead of complying with the EPA directive, 'BP often carpet bombed the ocean with these chemicals and the Coast Guard allowed them to do it'. The House investigators found that the Coast Guard routinely approved the chemical use, in some cases a week in advance. On five occasions the Coast Guard approved a BP request to use 22,710 litres a day over a weeklong period and 'in many of these days BP still used more than double' the limit that was approved, Mr Markey said in his letter. -- AP
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_560579.html

[amborin]

24. K&R the feds helped BP cover up this catastrophe, and are still aiding BP

[flyarm]

26. You got that right and it goes to the top of the DC food chain! eom

[tex-wyo-dem]

31. I only regret that I have but one rec to give...

Also see...http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8888711

This is a cover up of unbelievable magnitude. Our government no longer works for the people...it now only exists to grease the skids for private profit taking, taking the fall for corporate fuck-ups and helping with cover-ups.

It's called Mussolini's version of fascism.

[Romulox]

32. "Powerless?" Nonsense. It's called COLLUSION. The gov't is on the side of the corporations.

I predicted when this first happened that BP would be protected by President Obama, just like the banksters were. Am I psychic, or was it just really predictable? :hi:

[blindpig]

36. Capitalism rules.

Can it be any clearer? The government works for Capital, not the people.

And this is what we get.

Kill Capitalism

[Blue Owl]

38. No coincidence the Bu$h family made their millions in oil

No doubt they went above and beyond to get things where they are today.