Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill 2010: when 'we told you so' is hopelessly futile and any penalties imposed on polluters not enough to satisfy

The U.S. Public Broadcasting Service is running a meter calculating the amount of oil now devasting the marine environment, sea creatures both large and small, bird life, foreshore and estuary ecosystems for hundreds of miles along the Gulf of Mexico thanks to British Petroleum and partners.




PBS 'The BP Spill's Impact on Wildlife'
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Transcript
WARNING: Some images are distressing

UPDATE on 30 May 2010:
There is some talk that BP executives are pressuring the mainstram media and organizations involved in the oil spill clean-up not to give regular accounts of numbers of wildlife killed or rescued and not to give a daily reckoning of the amount of oil still leaking into the Gulf of Mexico.
The fact that PBS paused its meter (above) on 28 May 2010 seems to lend credence to this claim.

Best tweet by far in April 2010

billmaher
Every asshole who ever chanted 'Drill baby drill' should have to report to the Gulf coast today for cleanup duty via web Retweeted by you and 100+ others

A bit of background on this massive oil spill here and here.

Pic found at
Watts Up With That?

Fess up - you grinned when you heard that Goldman Sachs was charged with fraud, didn't you?

"WALL STREET POWERHOUSE ACCUSED OF FRAUD: The government says Goldman Sachs & Co. sold mortgage investments without telling the buyers that the securities were crafted with input from a client who was betting on them to fail. Goldman denies the civil fraud allegations."
{Google News}

The Commission brings this securities fraud action against Goldman, Sachs & Co. ("GS&Co") and a GS&Co employee, Fabrice Tourre ("Tourre"), for making materially misleading statements and omissions in connection with a synthetic collateralized debt obligation ("CDO") GS&Co structured and marketed to investors. This synthetic CDO, ABACUS 2007AC1, was tied to the performance of subprime residential mortgage-backed securities ("RMBS") and was structured and marketed by GS&Co in early 2007 when the United States housing market and related securities were beginning to show signs of distress. {SEC versus Goldman Sachs & Co. and Another}

I know I had a grin from ear to ear when I heard that the financial anaconda had finally been caught out and I think I'm not alone in that. I'm not sure who demanded trial by jury but I'm willing to bet that there will be few in any American juror pool who will be unaffected by the sub-prime debacle and it aftermath.

"Ever since the financial catastrophe of 2007-08, Goldman Sachs has been hyper-vigilant when it comes to the media. Many like myself have been complained about and rudely denied access. The blogosphere has been patrolled 24/7 so that critics can be promptly pounced on.
Now we know why.
Yesterday's bombshell announcement that Goldman was charged with fraud by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is hardly surprising. This is Wall Street's last survivor, and it is about to be ordered off the island too, so to speak." {My confidence in the SEC is restored}

Tweets on the subject:
timbray: Any morning where Goldman Sachs is getting prosecuted by the Feds is a good morning. Pity it's civil not criminal.

theexpert: Please ... PLEASE, prove to me that Twitter has some relevance. Make Goldman Sachs a trending topic.

bobhayward: RT @Lucas_Wyrsch: In Goldman Sachs We Do Not Trust http://dlvr.it/XFbl http://myloc.me/65XdS

KeithSwiderski How can the government sue Goldman Sachs? I thought Goldman Sachs ran the government?

NASA images show Australian Government failure to curb oil & gas companies

A NASA satellite image of Australia's north-west coast, said to show the sheen of the Timor Sea oil leak. (NASA Earth Observatory) courtesy of ABC News 31 October 2009

Oil slick in the Timor Sea on 30 August 2009 from NASA Earth Observatory

Click on images to enlarge

Fears of second oil leak off WA

Toll rises as sea life feed at oil spill

After seeing the scale of the oil slick, which is spread over 4223 square kilometres, Dr Watson told the Herald: ''I am amazed at how little Australia really cares about this. This is a huge oil slick.'' (WA Today 31 October 2009)

It's been 70 days since an uncontrolled toxic oil leak began from the Montara rig in the Timor Sea

Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Thailand’s PTT Exploration & Production Pcl delayed a fourth attempt due today to plug an Australian well that may have spewed 27,000 barrels of oil into areas inhabited by dolphins, sea turtles and humpback whales.
“We’ve got an environmental disaster unfolding,” Gilly Llewellyn, Sydney-based conservation manager at WWF-Australia, said by telephone today. Dolphins, birds, sea snakes and other marine life have been seen swimming in a slick from the field off the northwestern coast, the group said in an Oct. 23 report.
PTTEP, Thailand’s only publicly traded oil explorer, has failed in three attempts to plug the leak that started Aug. 21. It has estimated the well has been spilling 300 to 400 barrels of oil a day into the Timor Sea. The Australian resources and energy department’s estimate is “in line” with that, said Michael Bradley, spokesman for Energy Minister Martin Ferguson.

Bangkok-based PTTEP said today a bid to intercept a 25 centimeter diameter steel well casing 2,600 meters (1.6 miles) below the seabed was now likely later in the week, after drilling equipment became stuck on Oct. 24 and caused a delay. On Oct. 25, PTTEP said it planned to make the attempt today.
The Thai company met yesterday with rival oil companies in a bid to find a way to stem the Montara field leak, the Perth-based West Australian reported, without citing anyone. Woodside Petroleum Ltd., Apache Corp. and Texan oil-well firefighting specialist Boots & Coots, were among those at the meeting, the paper said. Woodside offered in late August rigs, boats and experts to assist PTTEP.

Times Online slide show of oil spill