SpongeBob Is Dead

My Buddy, Tengrain at Mock, Paper, Scissors shared the video above.

TG also shares a link explaining the circumstance behind Eric Holder’s visit to the Gulf region and the administration’s condemnation of the culprits (“if” they are culprits). Call me a pessimist, but do you really think that anyone is going to serve any time over this? At least, anyone who isn’t simply a patsy? Will the ownership or management be held accountable for the decision to remove the “mud” and re-inject it with sea water before the blow out (which is the main reason for the mud to begin with)? Will management be held responsible for the decision to save $500,000 by not providing the real safety valve? Will our government (signed by the Obama Admin) be held responsible for not forcing BP to do an environmental study and prove the safety that wasn’t?

Please don’t hold your breath to get the answer (I don’t know you well enough to put my lips on yours for mouth to mouth).

Remember when I said the air quality would suffer (here and here)?

Well, Its Here!

McClatchy notes that the dispersants’ toxins may be making its way into the air that workers are breathing. Air sampling data gathered to ensure the safety of cleanup workers has identified a chemical compound in the air that is also in the dispersants BP is applying to the Gulf [2]:

Little-noticed data posted on BP’s website and the Deepwater Horizon site show that 32 air samples taken near workers have indicated the presence of butoxyethanol, a component listed as present in an oil spill dispersant used by BP, known as Corexit. The Environmental Protection Agency considers it toxic.

The BP document said the data demonstrates “that there are no significant exposures occurring.” OSHA is monitoring the data and has said the workers haven’t been exposed to harmful levels.

Here’s what we’ve noted about this compound [3], 2-butoxyethanol:

The exact makeup of the dispersants is kept secret under competitive trade laws, but a worker safety sheet for one product, called Corexit, says it includes 2-butoxyethanol, a compound associated with headaches, vomiting and reproductive problems at high doses.

Well, the workers are getting sick, but BP (and the Coast Guard) explains that it is just heat and fatigue or maybe food poisoning. Of course, it could never be the shit they are pouring into the underwater cloud or the hundreds of airplane drops of that corrosive and health threatening chemicals? Can anyone say, 911 responders? For this will be the same type of shit, done again to those who are the ones fighting on the front lines.

I wonder what BP’s response will be to the criminal investigations? You think they may work even harder to fix or stop this? Or would you wager that they give up or implement some failing strategy?

According to Bloomberg BusinessWeek, they are giving up until the relief wells are complete in August.

What? You thought they would keep trying after being threatened?

I laugh at your gullibility.

June 1 (Bloomberg) — BP Plc said it won’t be able to stop the flow of oil from a gushing well in Gulf of Mexico until August when a relief well can be finished, and in the meantime it will divert as much of the oil as it can to surface ships.

The diversion strategy, unlike capping the flow, is subject to disruption by tropical storms and hurricanes.

The oil spill, the worst in U.S. history, so far has soiled 100 miles (161 kilometers) of coastline, brought the Gulf’s exploratory deep-water drilling to a halt, shut down more than a fourth of its fishing areas and cost BP almost $1 billion.

Interim efforts to stop the leak, estimated by government scientists last week at 12,000 barrels to 19,000 barrels a day, are over after the failure of an attempt to stanch the flow called “top kill,” Thad Allen, the U.S. government’s national commander for the incident, said.

“We’re talking about containing the well,” Allen said. “We don’t want to restrict the pressure or flow down that well bore because I don’t think we know the condition of it after the top kill.”

Dude. That ain’t the only thing you don’t know.

Thanks for the screwing. I am sure your protectorate will ensure you are taken care of and the patsy does time and you spend some frivolous amount in fines that amount to a very small fraction of your profits this week.

Assholes, all.