ROLLING STONE: "The Inside Story" = The Spill, The Scandal and the President

[kpete]

The Spill, The Scandal and the President
The inside story of how Obama failed to crack down on the corruption of the Bush years – and let the world's most dangerous oil company get away with murder

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Even after the president's press conference, Rolling Stone has learned, the administration knew the spill could be far worse than its "best estimate" acknowledged. That same day, the president's Flow Rate Technical Group – a team of scientists charged with establishing the gusher's output – announced a new estimate of 12,000 to 25,000 barrels, based on calculations from video of the plume. In fact, according to interviews with team members and scientists familiar with its work, that figure represents the plume group's minimum estimate. The upper range was not included in their report because scientists analyzing the flow were unable to reach a consensus on how bad it could be. "The upper bound from the plume group, if it had come out, is very high," says Timothy Crone, a marine geophysicist at Columbia University who has consulted with the government's team. "That's why they had resistance internally. We're talking 100,000 barrels a day."

...............

The effect of leaving BP in charge of capping the well, says a scientist involved in the government side of the effort, has been "like a drunk driver getting into a car wreck and then helping the police with the accident investigation." Indeed, the administration has seemed oddly untroubled about leaving the Gulf's fate in the hands of a repeat criminal offender, and uncurious about the crimes that may have been committed leading up to the initial sinking of the rig. The Obama Justice Department took more than 40 days after the initial blast killed 11 workers to announce it was opening a criminal probe.

From the start, the administration has seemed intent on allowing BP to operate in near-total secrecy. Much of what the public knows about the crisis it owes to Rep. Ed Markey, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment. Under pressure from Markey, BP was forced to release footage of the gusher, admit that its early estimates put the leak as high as 14,000 barrels a day and post a live feed of its undersea operations on the Internet – video that administration officials had possessed from the earliest days of the disaster. "We cannot trust BP," Markey said. "It's clear they have been hiding the actual consequences of this spill."

But rather than applying such skepticism to BP's math, the Obama administration has instead attacked scientists who released independent estimates of the spill. When one scientist funded by NOAA released a figure much higher than the government's estimate, he found himself being pressured to retract it by officials at the agency. "Are you sure you want to keep saying this?" they badgered him. Lubchenco, the head of NOAA, even denounced as "misleading" and "premature" reports that scientists aboard the research vessel Pelican had discovered a massive subsea oil plume. Speaking to PBS, she offered a bizarre denial of the obvious. "It's clear that there is something at depth," she said, "but we don't even know that it's oil yet."

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way more:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/111965?RS_show_page=6

[uponit7771]

1. Rolling Stone would be complaining about another multi billion dollar corporation bail out if Obama

...totally took over.

It'd be the same deal GM and the banks got cept the feds would have to do the work and get BP to pay them back...

NO THANK YOU...

Entering the government as HALF owner and responsible party to BP's fuck up is beyond words, nothing they mention WILL STOP THE LEAK either.

[midnight]

2. This statement helps shed light on why there is no progress.

"The effect of leaving BP in charge of capping the well, says a scientist involved in the government side of the effort, has been "like a drunk driver getting into a car wreck and then helping the police with the accident investigation."

[Cary]

8. No, it doesn't

There is no progress because there have been no advances in technology and methods for preventing and abating deep water accidents.

Yes, Obama might have started to address this issue in his first 16 months in office but even still it is not really reasonable to expect him to undo all of the damage done by 30 years of "conservative" philosophy of deregulation and objectivist crap.

As Alan Greenspan, arch objectivist, said himself, there is a flaw in the ideology. It was inevitable that we would pay a huge price for objectivist folly, and here we are.

[Cary]

3. Why do you berate a president for not immediately fixing all the incredible damage. . .

...done by 30 years of having a malignant philosophical underpinning?

So much of the "conservative" philosophy is bogus, from "creation science" to "supply-side economics" to Terri Schiavo to "limited government" and so on. I mean these "ideas" aren't ideas at all. They're flat out lies and politicians, even many Democrats, have been guided by them ever since Ronald Reagan foisted them upon us.

Yes, in retrospect it would have been nice if Obama had shut down all offshore drilling and ferreted out all of the corrupt "conservatives" at Minerals Management, and agency established by James Watt of all people, and invested money into clean ups so that if and when this inevitable tragedy or one like it were to have occurred we could feel good about actually doing something about it.

I'm not so concerned that people are railing against Obama for not being omniscient and omnipotent as I am thoroughly pissed that any of the blame and justifiable anger rage isn't directed at this radical, ridiculous, odious and pernicious ideology that labels itself as "conservative".

Obama isn't the enemy simply because he hasn't fixed everything in 16 months. "Conservatives" and their filthy, stinking, and dangerous ideology are the enemy. Forget that and all you're doing is enabling "conservatives".

[kpete]

5. Cary

I try not to berate anyone - but I also do not believe in looking the other way.
We are ALL responsible in some way for the mess we are in.
peace, kp

[Cary]

6. When you don't blame "conservatives" for what they have done

. . . you are looking the other way and you're enabling them.

[kpete]

7. no

i look at everyone, no looking the other way, no stone unturned...
peace, kp

[Cary]

9. You're making a huge mistake

These "conservatives" are very dangerous. They are a cancer. When you have cancer you try to cut out the bad cells--not the healthy ones.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

12. there are "bad cells" on both sides...

it is dangerous to believe one side is flawless

[Cary]

14. No one said anything about anyone being flawless.

This is a red herring. Perfection is not an appropriate standard. We know what "conservatives" do and we know how bad it is.

Even the worst among us is better than the best of them. Don't take your eye off the ball. Unless and until "conservatives" evolve, they are the enemy.

If you don't believe me I'll direct you to some "conservative" sites. Try to reason with these people and in about five minutes you will understand.

I know what I am talking about.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

4. K&R

[G_j]

10. "uncurious about the crimes that may have been committed"

that has turned out to be a major theme.

[pnwmom]

11. Most of the bad Bush appointees now hold CIVIL positions, that they were

appointed to at the end of the Bush administration, and which take much longer for any incoming administration to fire.

[emulatorloo]

13. And from the govt employees I know, the standard ethos is that they should be "neutral"

That is, have no political loyality, do their job for whoever is in power.

Apparently the Bush people don't think this way. But that is how most people think, so I can see how these Bush types may have been given the benefit of the doubt.

[99 Percent Sure]

15. My mother said it best...

But I'm'a try to say it without being too incendiary, yet say it I must.

Liberals and every other white person in this country, in fact, around the world, knew that Shrub and the Blood-Thirsty Beast had, among many heinous crimes too numerous to mention, stolen 2 elections, committed treason by outing an intelligence operative, illegally invaded Iraq and shot up Uday and Qusay Hussein, looted the Treasury and Fed Reserve, yet not one had the courage of their convictions to risk their lives to prosecute them.

It was all hush-hush and on the down low, with folk half-heartedly moaning about their crimes on the web.

Not even Shrub's 2 white opponents had the guts to pursue justice after they were blatantly cheated by Governor Dim Son and his crooked henchmen.

But y'all expect the black man to reach back and do what not one of y'all dared. Where was this hue and cry while things were spinning out of control from 2000 to 2008?

If y'all didn't while it was happening, why should President Obama now, especially with all the dikes he's having to plug because of the previous admin's criminality?

It is a crock and a form of repudiation and racism against Obama to blame him for not prosecuting Shrub and Company.

And it is inappropriate and it ain't right for him to be blamed.

Stop the madness. It ain't Obama's job to pursue a justice that not even RS pursued during our dissension into a terroristic 3rd world state under the other 2 before him.

Not one white law firm has sought to file suit against either Shrub or Mr. Go F*** Yourself since they've left office. Not even the ACLU has taken up the mantle to seek justice for what was done. Legal action can be initiated outside of the White House, so get to it.

[Bragi]

16. Sad story, good journalism /nt