a mockery of life

When you are the sole source of information, you tend to have a lot of influence. ~ Dave McGowan

a living creature suffering and dying in misery, courtesy of BP and assorted "experts"
who are taking forever to fix the problem

In watching CNN this morning, I noticed CNN proudly pointing out that their reporter, Kyra Phillips, got to go out to the Deepwater Horizon scene with Thad Allen. Evidently she is the only reporter to have been granted access. How exclusive. No one finds this strange?

Tony Harris asked Kyra Phillips to explain why she, of all people, got to be the only reporter allowed out to the rig. She explained that she knows Thad Allen from way back. She explained what it was like to be embedded with him for two days, bumping into James Carville and Tony Hayward, and Spike Lee making a movie, etc. Just in the first half hour. So Kyra has great sympathy for Thad Allen, for his busy busy days being like Forrest Gump. As Tony helpfully explained in response to criticism from other news outlets that CNN got the scoop, the news business is all about access.

PHILLIPS: I go back years with Admiral Thad Allen. We've covered a number of disasters, a number of sensitive stories, and he facilitated it. He made it happen. I asked him. I told him what I wanted to do. And he made it happen. 

...HARRIS: Well, and let me say something on your behalf here. Look, a lot of this carping about the access, and why the access, and why Kyra, first of all, we know that a lot of that carping is coming from other media outlets who would love to have the access that you have been granted. And the other thing that we know in this business is that this is about personal relationships.
 

...HARRIS: You know what? And I want you to think about this, because, Kyra, as you're talking about Thad Allen's day -- and I will tell you, I had this thought listening to you last hour, as you previewed what you're going to be sharing with us this hour, you know, if you listen to the echo chamber of the world that we work and make our livings in, there is a lot of complaint that not enough is being done quickly enough. And when you listen to that day that you have just laid out, it is amazing how much work is going on, not just by Admiral Thad Allen, but also the other teams.

Does it really make sense that BP can hold off reporters all this time, over forty days? No access to the site. Why is the news business all about access, when this disaster affects untold numbers of people and wildlife? Why do we allow that? Why do we accept that? What does that say about the news business? What does that say about BP? What does that say about the US government? You get the story if you know people. And if you know them you'll spin the story in their favor, or else.... no more stories. Your nice job goes to the next pretty cut-throat waiting in the wings.

So no access, aside from Kyra 45 days in. And yet, a complaint about scrutiny.

CAPT. NICK SCHINDLER, TRANSOCEAN: .... Part of the problem is that there is a lot of outside scrutiny on what it is that we're doing out here. And I think the American population is wanting this well to be done. They want it now. We all want it done now. But we all have to understand that this is a well that's killed 11 people. We have to understand that we're sitting over top of one of the world's best drilling rigs. The well that we're drilling right now killed 11 people and sunk a rig. And so we're not going to speed up and we're going to do this as safe as possible and we're not going to hurt anybody. And that's our goal.

So I guess they don't like that people are making disparaging remarks about what they may or may not be doing out there, for 45 days, while all this destruction goes on and on and on, and  no one has access. But they don't want anyone hanging around either at the "killer well" to get a better look at how hard they're working the problem. I mean shit, someone could get hurt. So we just have to trust Kyra, and she and Thad Allen are likethis.

hurt

CNN mocks us.




Oh-so-helpful Josh Levs with his cute little graphics, always willing to talk to people like they're in fifth grade. Josh helpfully reminds us that:

Nothing has ever been done. All the attempts we've been seeing all these weeks, none of them have ever been tried. None of them. So BP has been trying thing after thing after thing. If we started at already A, we're pretty much up to letter V by now.

Well, Josh, alternatively, BP could have done some of the things that have been tried before. Hmm?

Since 042610 Ruth DeLaMater Bundy and I have attempted to get information across to BP and others making the decisions that the SECRET TO STOPPING THE LEAK AND RECOVERING OF ALL OIL AND GAS WAS KNOWN. Sadly no one reviewed material with the TRUE EXPERTS who work in similar leak problems ALL OVER THE WORLD! (page 5)

Is he correct? Well why don't they find out? How many days did they do absolutely nothing but watch, while they thought up methods that NO ONE HAS USED BEFORE, presumably because they DON'T or WON'T WORK.

I don't think we all need to be plumbers and engineers and technical experts to understand that this is essentially a plumbing problem. It may be an elaborate plumbing problem, but it's a plumbing problem all the same. And engineering principles still apply.

For instance, even I, a lowly right-brained woman, know that a saw blade gets pinched cutting a piece of wood or a broken pipe if you don't keep the pressure off the blade. And that there's a safe way to cut a tree limb or broken pipe.

How exactly does being underwater change that? Well, it doesn't.

We also warned Rear Admiral Landry about the cut saws with teeth being used to cut from the bottom or stressed sides and had no idea someone would attempt a cut below the bent section of the riser FIRST before freeing the top with a V cut then positioning the diamond bit wheel on the flange to cut first half way around then re-position and cut the last half with crane supporting pipe...(page 2)

Therefore, so sorry, but in my opinion there's no excuse for fucking that cut up. It's just another stupid mistake, a mockery of our intelligence, and a mockery of God's creation, by the experts and their obnoxious paid flunkies in the media. Throw it on top of the pile of death.

take your time