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Congress looks like it will call BP to hearings on the Hill. Will Congress do anything, or is it just another daytime drama?

A massive smoke plume rises from the burning Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, 04/21/10. (photo: Gerald Herbert/AP)

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+1 # Guest 2010-05-04 07:21

Wow, more Congressional investigations coming up. I'm impressed! Is anyone looking forward to a bigger waste of time since the investigation by Congress of Goldman Sachs where no one was held accountable and Goldman Sachs continued their laughter all the way to the bank? I guess our illustrious members of Congress have to prove to the American people that they are worth their salaries that the taxpayers are paying them. Congress is a total waste. To get paid $175,000 per year and not do much of anything and to enjoy one of the best healthcare systems in the world and all of those wondrous perks that they get, I would love to have that job. Based on what they do, I really don't think that one needs much of an education, or much in the way of experience to qualify for the job, just a desire to rip off the American taxpayer.

-2 # Guest 2010-05-04 08:43

Wake up, take a trip to D.C. and shadow just one congressman or Senator and then speak from some experience instead of just criticizing them without any FACTs to back it up!

+3 # Guest 2010-05-04 10:44

Your statement is totally meaningless and says absolutely nothing. Just to make a statement like this without any explanations or details to back up what you stated is completely ludicrous. I'm 66 years old and I have been around for 45 years as a legal voter. As a rational adult who has been aware of what the real world is like for even longer than that, and going through the Iran/Contra investigations and all of the other investigations that have taken place by Congress where no one was held accountable or gone to jail for crimes committed as a result of a Congressional investigation, I feel very safe in my original posting. How old are you and how much political experience do you have? You sound extremely naive about life in general.

Quoting

Wake up, take a trip to D.C. and shadow just one congressman or Senator and then speak from some experience instead of just criticizing them without any FACTs to back it up!

+3 # Guest 2010-05-04 13:48

Shucks, Harold. Everyone that has even a little bit of brains by now understand that republicans, The GOP, Corporate America, right wing conservative nutcases, all of these buggers couldn't care about planet earth. They only care about today (grabbing everything they put their hands on and it doesn't matter who dies or lives) and the hell with yesterday and tomorrow.

Conservatism is today's man made disease!

+2 # Guest 2010-05-04 16:54

The problem, foxtrottango, is that we have no opposition party to fight this man made disease. Whereas the Repubs are not afraid to show their real selves, the Dems are either covertly part of the problem, supporting Repub values without actually admitting to it, or they're afraid of their own shadows & will easily cave-in to anything when pressured by the Repubs. We have a man-made disease that permeates all of Congress whether we're talking about Repubs or Dems, except that the Dems seem to put on a better show of righteous indignation than that of the Repubs. Initially, the Dems come across like knights, ready to fight the dragon, but they end up passing legislation that's as toothless as a chicken. People have easily forgotten the results of the so-called Congressional investigation into Plame-Gate & the firings of certain federal prosecutors by the Bush admin where Roberto Gonzales feigned memory loss, where no one was fired or went to jail.

+1 # Guest 2010-05-06 21:43

Right you are Harold. I see the Democrats as a party of irrelevence...a chorus of little birdies that tut-tut what they disagree with and then join the rest of the flock magpies feeding at the trough.

0 # Guest 2010-05-06 21:36

Connie, I have had numerous occasions to visit D.C. and both observe Congress in action and my senator at work...at a distance of course. I wish I could have shadowed my senator because from all that I could see, it appeared that the hardest part of the job was jockying a busy appointment calendar and shaking way too many hands for my tastes. When I was younger I did serve a summer internship with my Representative and learned quickly a multitude of reasons for finding D.C. to be more murky and repugnant than gratifying in any manner.

Does my experience qualify for you, or do you wish to further correct the likes of Howard and I?

Just curious.

+5 # Guest 2010-05-04 08:11

This mess will cost at least $13B (yes, $13,000,000,000!!) . For that money 13,000 wind turbines could have been erected, and that oil would never have been needed. Instead of 'Drill, baby, drill!, we're in 'Spill, baby, spill', but we should be chanting 'Spin, baby, spin'!!!

+1 # Guest 2010-05-04 13:01

Nero fiddled while Rome burned !!

Paul Noel, a founding member of the New Energy Congress, "you can turn out the lights, because we're all done"

"First they have to get the oil rig off the hole to get at it in order to try to cap it. Do you know the level of effort it will take to move that wrecked oil rig, sitting under 5,000 feet of water? That operation alone would take years and hundreds of millions to accomplish. Then, how do you cap that hole in the muddy ocean floor? There just is no way. No way.

The only piece of human technology that might address this is a nuclear bomb. I'm not kidding. If they put a nuke down there in the right spot it might seal up the hole. Nothing short of that will work. If we can't cap that hole that oil is going to destroy the oceans of the world. It only takes one quart of motor oil to make 250,000 gallons of ocean water toxic to wildlife. Are you starting to get the magnitude of this?"

+1 # Guest 2010-05-04 22:12

Quoting

Nero fiddled while Rome burned !!

Paul Noel, a founding member of the New Energy Congress, "you can turn out the lights, because we're all done"

It is a shame that you take an anonymous email as to be the truth about what is going on at the well site.

Fact is there has been no news saying the drilling platform is on top of the casing, quite the contrary, they are down there with robotics cutting the casing at the smaller leak and preparing it to be capped off. They are building a 94 ton dome to place over the larger leaks so that the leak can be controlled and the oil collected rather than allowing it to poison the Gulf.

There has been no talk of setting off a nuclear device less than 50 miles from the shore of the United States.

Here is the link to the email you are referring to http://pesn.com/2010/05/02/9501643_Mother_of_all_gushers_could_kill_Earths_oceans/

+1 # Guest 2010-05-04 13:41

Not to worry. Those republicans at the hearing will only disrupt what ever is being said and vote on giving the oil corporate tycoons an even bigger bonuses at the taxpayers expenses.

My advice is, send all those oil barons to jails and chain all the republicans politicians, put them on a boat and let float in the oil spill.

+2 # Guest 2010-05-05 01:36

Quoting

Not to worry. Those republicans at the hearing will only disrupt what ever is being said and vote on giving the oil corporate tycoons an even bigger bonuses at the taxpayers expenses.

My advice is, send all those oil barons to jails and chain all the republicans politicians, put them on a boat and let float in the oil spill.

Don't foget to include DINOs like Mary Landreiu! It wouldnt be a party without them!

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