Rumors About the Gulf

"World killing event."
Turtles and crabs may become extinct in the Gulf.
Brown pelicans, just removed from endangered species list, threatened.
Here's seven more.
Too early to say if it's the worst disaster in history or not, but it's up there.

Continuing Ogre-oid: Trans-Ocean to Hide Money

The Associated Press reports:

After the chief executive of Transocean Ltd., owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig, held a closed-door meeting with shareholders Friday, the company issued a terse statement after the Zurich stock market closed saying it would distribute some $1 billion in dividend to shareholders. News of the dividends, which amount to about $3.11 per share, came just days after company chief executive Steven Newman appeared before Congress to explain his company’s involvement in the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

When a company facing claims that exceed its assets makes distributions out to its shareholders, this may be attacked as a preference or a fraudulent conveyance under debtor-creditor law in many jurisdictions. But moving the money down the line to shareholders makes it much more unlikely that much of it will ever be recovered by the parties suffering from the leaks in the Gulf of Mexico—like fishermen, owners of coastal resorts, and the United States, which is now preparing to assume control of the efforts to stem the leak and launch a clean-up following the demonstrated inability of British Petroleum, Halliburton, and Transocean to do so. via

Ogre-oid update: Deep Horizon Oil Spill

Oil spill video: T-P reporter update

Continuing Ogre-oid: Michael "Brownie" Brown

Ex-FEMA director Michael Brown today claimed that President Obama waited to respond to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico because he wanted an excuse to shut down offshore drilling.
more at TPM

Ogre-oid: BP

See this full set of pictures here.

When obtaining the license to build this enormous oil well that reached over a mile down into the water to drill, baby drill, BP said the chances of an explosion or catastrophic accident was next to zero.  Aren't these same people making the same claims about nuclear power plants?

Oh, and a little tidbit about this that brings a nostalgic image of the evil Dick Cheney to the mind's eye:  Haliburton was the company that did the cementing, a process of injecting cement to line the well cap and the walls of the well to contain the highly explosive gases.  Haliburton's cementing is also implicated as the cause of the gigantic Timor oil well blowout last year.


cross posted to my other blog