50 days after the Deepwater Horizon explosion, Louisiana Sweet Crude is still bleeding into the Gulf of Mexico. The President is talking about “kicking somebodys ass” and claims he would fire BP CEO Tony Hayward if… Well, do it. Get the perpetrators off the clean up site and let them focus on getting the toxic waste out of our ocean. Kick Hayward’s ass for lying about the existence of oil plumes and making his friends at Goldman Sachs richer by using half of the world’s supply of COREXIT. Then beat him down again for sending teams of people into communities along the Gulf Coast with no rhyme or reason (only the intension of limiting his company’s liability). Hold him to the “clean every drop of oil” speech, and once you finish mopping the floor with the Brit, figure out how you’re gonna keep your “boot on the Neck of BP“. The way this thing is being handled is disrespectful to the 11 men that died on the Deepwater Horizon. Right now, do something about the fishermen & poor people who are forced to work without respirators (they’re getting sick everyday). Next, give local and state agencies what they need to take care of themselves. 50 days is too long to keep pissing in the wind!

I just got back from Mississippi, Florida, & Alabama. Let me tell you, it don’t look good for the rest of the Gulf Coast. Do they really think they are hiding anything by keeping the media out of areas where fisheries and wildlife are being decimated? OPA 90 gives British petroleum full reign and responsibility over the clean-up, but has minimal provisions for oversight and enforcement of environmental laws. The truth is by keeping federal employees from talking about the spill our government has enabled BP to control the media. The Coast Guard & MMS are Militant about anyone (including oilfield employees, the USGS, and clean-up crews) taking pictures or video offshore, fly overs are largely prohibited, many public beaches are blocked off, and I don’t see current satellite images anywhere. BP has done a less than honorable job of helping fishermen and is still using archaic techniques to clean the mess. After this MAN MADE DISASTER- that is poisoning our people, decimating our wetlands and crushing our economy is over, where will British Petroleum be? Since BP showed up in Venice, I’ve been watching folks lose everything. How much longer will we allow BP to keep us from protecting ourselves and our homeland? Once they shut down the oilfield and nobody has a job down here, people will be throwing photos and footage of this mess out like candy. In Vermilion parish alone 1,000 oilfield employees are already out of work. Like I said in April- the time is now to prepare for Hurricane season & block off inlets to the marshes.

System of Helplessness

Instead of aggressively preventing oil from hitting beach heads and marshes, BP hires a few local people who make the most noise. These upstanding citizens and community leaders are legally bound by contract not to talk to the media and in most cases sit on a dock where they can’t fight the spill. Sure they train local fishermen with HAZMAT classes and boast about those numbers, but only deploy a small percentage of them. This keeps the folks who know the waters best from taking action. I was hoping the rest of our Southeastern Conference brethren would learn from our mistakes as the oil headed east, but now I realize that BP may soon have to deal with another SEC.

GET LOCAL PEOPLE THE MEANS AND PROTECTION TO DEFEND THEIR HOME LAND NOW AND BILL BP FOR IT. Each state has a list of folks that have commercial fishing licenses. Instead of making this a gold rush for anybody with a boat, they should start by employing local fishermen.

Dauphin Island

The beach at Ft. Gaines was well prepared with a trench of hay at the tide line. More susceptible beaches on Dauphin Island were protected by 2 layers of sand berm. Until I asked local people what was going on it looked like this was the best response yet. Like Louisiana a month ago, the good people of South Alabama don’t know much about the spill and just hope to spend a few more days fishing in the waters they love.

Alabama natives fear that contractors are cashing in on the spill with illegal Immigrants and convict labor. Families on vacations were scared to let there kids go near the water or near the employees working there. The people think this is another big money grab for contractors and multinational companies. I will say I talked with 3 groups of folks doing cleanup on the beach; the first (nearest to the roadblock) was mostly native Bama boys, the second spoke only Spanish and had a translator. At City Hall I heard a contractor ask another employee about background checks for buses full of mostly African Americans from faith based organizations in Houston, TX. Again, no one could tell me where local people could volunteer.

BAYOU LaBATRIE

At a town hall meeting the Fire Chief of Bayou La Batre linked BP to COREXIT through a safety fact sheet (claimed they manufactured the dispercent). What is being posted on the web is that 3 weeks before the explosion our friends a Goldman Sachs sold 44% of their BP stock. They also went short on Transocean stock just before the well plummeted to the sea and share ownership in NALCO (the company that makes COREXIT). Even BP CEO Tony Hayward dropped a third of his holdings in BP a few weeks before this mess started.

An official at Bayou La Batre city hall let me know BP money was drying up and they were going to run out of funds while prepare for the oil to hit. He also gave me directions to where the fishermen had blocked off vessels contracted with BP from leaving the state docks.

I went down to the docks and talked to fisherman, William Moroux. A host of airboats and other vessels were sitting at the dock while people in white suits congregated under a sizeable white tent in a makeshift BP compound. He’s got plenty to be mad about. It’s funny how the stories that matter get so little media attention.

ORANGE BEACH

In Orange Beach local businesses were already feeling the affects of the spill as they wait for the oil to hit. We visited the legendary Florida-Bama and Silver Slipper for open mic night.

The next morning we went down to Zeke’s Marina. Much like Venice a month ago- the only way they can make a buck is to take reporters out to see the oil. Thanks to Captain Ed Sims.

Captain Thad Stewart says he witnessed various species of fish eating off the mattress sized rafts of the toxic oil laden dispersants. He then fought off tears as he explained that the only Boat Captain working in the oil was very ill. Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon reacts to the BP response below

PENSACOLA

Pensacola/Navarre was the most puzzling. While tar balls hit the sand the beach was packed with locals and tourists wanting to surf, fish, walk the pier, or just get a last breath of fresh of air in their sacred place. I walked from Navarre a few miles back toward Pensacola and found a vast number of fresh tar balls baking in the sun near a bird sanctuary.

COL. BADASS

We passed by the USS ALABAMA for a few pictures of the battleship and ran into war hero Glenn D. Frazier. He shed some light on where we are in history and made me appreciate my freedom. People as diverse as Frazier and Doctor John are saying the same thing, “It’s time to let go of the anger & ego and come together as a country before it’s too late.” Taking our country back will not be an easy fight. We can start by helping each other clean this mess.

MOST ALARMING are the moves made prior to the explosion. I’m simply not buying the submarine story for several reasons, but here’s an article written by Matt Savoy that made me sicker than any oil I may have inhaled over the last month. It may connect some dots and give people a place to go fishing for the truth.

on the way back, through Ocean Springs, Ms. I talked to a surgeon who was walking his dog. His thoughts were, “They’d never let me cut somebody open unless I could stop the bleeding”. It was dark and the beach was groomed like a horse track . I saw no oil, but who knows? If they shut down the casinos it will be tough for the local economy.

Last, I called a podnuh in Pascagoula working for BP on Barrier Islands. He said the place pretty is well blocked off and no one there could talk about the situation. At least he was working.

Cajun Conspiracy Theory- (Hear say and Rubbish)

From what I understand you can blow a well by pumping the wrong grade of mud below. A family member of one of the survivors told me the Rig was “circulating seawater”…. So, there was no mud, the Halliburton cement job did not hold,  and Transoceans blowout preventor (made by Cameron) failed. Now they point the finger at one another.

What we know is they were trying to cap the well when it blew. People told me on the road that the force and pressure of water and oil below the Deepwater Horizon Rig is beyond human comprehension. Rumors persist that BP got the rights to drill from Exxon and will lose them if they don’t drill the relief well. Who really knows?

It was reported weeks ago that there were numerous leaks (3) from the explosion. Just because we are only being shown footage of one pipe don’t mean the other leaks went away. Sen. Bill Nelson had the balls to go on television and confirm that oil is leaking from the sea floor. The Coast Guard is readying itself to defend the leak for the entire summer and it’s questionable if a relief well will stop the Gusher.

My crystal ball says it’s more likely that the sea floor had been a problem before the well blew. The Deepwater Horizion was the Titanic of Rigs in the Gulf. It stood as the model for safety and was the poster child for Deep Sea Drilling. From what I gather they started having issues long before the explosion and the warning signs are well documented. Maybe folks who knew the well was a time bomb were also privy to conditions on the Horizon. Either way, it’s not hard figure out who sold off their shares of BP, shorted Transocean holdings, and made numerous other moves that can be found on paper. Personally, I’d rather get to the bottom of this mess now than watch some hearing in four years once the gulf is a dead zone.

*The progress of Louisiana fishermen will help their brothers along the coast. I will post an interview with Warren Perrin tomorrow about what legal steps have been taken on behalf of the fishermen.

*AC Cooper (rep for the fishermen in Venice) says Oil is almost to Empire, La

*After 2 reporters were arrested BP supposedly  lifted the Media Blackout

* from wikipedia- On March 10, 2010, a BP executive emailed MMS that there was a stuck pipe and well control situation at the drilling site, and that Halliburton said it had finished cementing 20 hours before the fire, but had not yet set the final cement plug. A special nitrogen-foamed cement was used which is more difficult to handle than standard cement