ISRAEL KEY TO NUCLEAR TALKS

JOHN LOEFFLER-VETS,I WON'T SHUT UP FOR STICKING UP FOR THEM
http://britanniaradio.blogspot.com/2010/05/john-leoffler-steel-on-steel-i-will-not.html#links
The Collapse of Stock Markets is the Result of Financial Manipulation
http://britanniaradio.blogspot.com/2010/05/collapse-of-stock-markets-is-result-of.html#links
SOLDIERS SURPRISE LOVED ONES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkGzqpGx1KU&feature=player_embedded

LAND FOR PEACE (THE FUTURE 7 YEARS OF HELL ON EARTH)

JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

THE WEEK OF DANIEL 9:27 WE KNOW ITS 7 YRS

Heres the scripture 1 week = 7 yrs Genesis 29:27-29
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.

DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.

DANIEL 8:23-25
23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king (EU DICTATOR) of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences,(FROM THE OCCULT) shall stand up.
24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power:(SATANS POWER) and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes;(JESUS) but he shall be broken without hand.

DANIEL 11:36-40
36 And the king shall do according to his will;(EU PRESIDENT) and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers,(THIS EU DICTATOR IS A EUROPEAN JEW) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces:(HES A MILITARY GINIUS) and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds (CONTROL HEZBOLLAH,AL-QUAIDA MURDERERS ETC) with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many,(HIS ARMY LEADERS) and shall divide the land for gain.
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south(EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR PROTECTING ISRAELS SECURITY) and the king of the north(RUSSIA) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.

ISAIAH 26:21
21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.(WW3,1/2 earths population die).

ISAIAH 13:6-13 KJV
6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:(FROM FRIGHT)
8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

ISAIAH 24:17-23 KJV
17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.

Israel key to conference on banning nuclear arms By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer - MAY 29,10

UNITED NATIONS – After 15 years, Arab nations finally won agreement from the United States and the other nuclear powers to take the first step toward banning nuclear weapons from the Middle East. Now, the next move is Israel's.Although the U.S. joined the 188 other member nations of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty on Friday in giving a green light to a conference in 2012 on the establishment of a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction,senior U.S. officials appeared to backtrack afterward, setting several conditions for the talks to go ahead.Taking the toughest line, U.S. National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones said in a statement Friday night that the United States has serious reservations about the 2012 conference and believes Mideast peace and full compliance by all countries in the region to their arms control and nonproliferation obligations are essential precursors.The compliance demand appeared to be aimed at Iran, which the U.S. believes is pursuing a nuclear weapons program despite Tehran's claims its only goal is nuclear power.Jones also strongly defended longtime U.S. ally Israel, which was singled out for not being a member of the NPT. He said the United States deplores the naming of Israel which puts prospects for the 2012 conference in doubt.As a cosponsor of the conference, Jones said the United States will ensure that it will only takes place if and when all countries feel confident that they can attend.

The Arab proposal for a WMD-free zone — to pressure Israel to give up its undeclared arsenal of perhaps 80 nuclear warheads — was endorsed by the 1995 NPT conference but never acted on. At this month's NPT review, a conference to begin talks on a nuclear-free Mideast was considered by many delegates as the make-or-break issue, and agreement on the 2012 meeting was widely welcomed after the 28-page final declaration was approved by consensus.But the U.S. reaction raised questions and doubts about whether Israel, Iran and other countries in the Mideast will even hold a meeting in two years.Several delegates suggested that earlier comments by U.S. Undersecretary of State Ellen Tauscher and President Barack Obama's coordinator for weapons of mass destruction, Gary Samore, warning about the difficulties of holding a conference and persuading Israel to attend may have been sparked by the upcoming visit of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House on Tuesday.

Egypt's U.N. Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz, speaking for the 118-nation Nonaligned Movement of mainly developing countries, said that during the negotiations there was a little bit of disagreement on mentioning Israel.But he said NAM members thought that since the document issued at the end of the 2000 NPT review conference mentioned the need for Israel to join the treaty and subject its nuclear capabilities to International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards there was no going back on that commitment and Israel had to be mentioned in the 2010 document as well.

A Mideast conference on nuclear issues would put Israel and Iran, which has called for the destruction of the Jewish state, at the same table. But Abdelaziz told reporters the two countries already sat down at the same table at a meeting in Cairo last December.So there is nothing that could prevent any two adversaries to sit at the table and negotiate, and we hope that this is the spirit that everybody is going to be doing, he said.Iran had loomed as a potential spoiler that would block consensus at this conference, and Iran and Syria dissented loudly on various points in the final hours, but no objections were raised in the concluding session.Facing possible new U.N. sanctions because of its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment and enter negotiations on its nuclear program, the Iranians had sought to turn the spotlight instead on the big nuclear powers, demanding the final document call for speedier disarmament moves.Iran's chief delegate Ali Asghar Soltanieh lamented that the deadline of 2025 sought by NAM for complete disarmament was not included in the final document. Nonetheless, Soltanieh called the limited measures in the agreement a step forward.While Israel was named, the final document did not single Iran out as a member nation that has been found to be in noncompliance with U.N. nuclear safeguards agreements.

Jones, the U.S. National Security Adviser, said the failure of the resolution to mention Iran, which poses the greatest threat of nuclear proliferation in the region and to the integrity of the NPT, is also deplorable. Earlier, Tauscher had also criticized Iran for doing nothing to enhance the international community's confidence in it by its performance in this review conference.Iran's Soltanieh said the Americans should think twice before making such statements.This was not the right reaction to a positive response, positive measure by our delegation joining the consensus,he said.According to the final document, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the co-sponsors of the 1995 Mideast resolution — the U.S., Russia and Britain — will now appoint a facilitator to conduct consultations in preparation for the 2012 conference. Jones said the United States will insist that the conference operate only by consensus by the regional countries and that any further discussions or actions also be decided on this basis. Britain's chief negotiator, Ambassador John Duncan, said Friday's decision is the start of a process and dialogue on a WMD-free zone in the Mideast. So it would be surprising if Israel was able to agree today to come to the proposed conference before that dialogue has taken place,he said. But the clear goal of this decision is to have all the countries of the region involved.Under the 1970 nonproliferation treaty, nations without nuclear weapons committed not to acquire them; those with them committed to move toward their elimination; and all endorsed everyone's right to develop peaceful nuclear energy.

The last NPT conference, in 2005, failed to adopt a consensus declaration. In sharp contrast, a final declaration was not only adopted this year but for the first time it laid out complex action plans for all three of the treaty's pillars — nonproliferation, disarmament and peaceful nuclear energy. Under its action plan, the five recognized nuclear-weapon states — the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China — commit to speed up arms reductions, take other steps to diminish the importance of atomic weapons, and report back on progress by 2014. The plan also has 24 steps to promote nonproliferation including making the treaty universal to include Israel, Pakistan India and North Korea, to encourage tighter inspections and controls on nuclear trade to prevent development of secret weapons programs.

Obama advisor in his own [Arabic] words…

27 May 2010: In case you missed it, here is counter-terrorism and homeland security adviser John Brennan pandering to Islamic interests while insulting our friends in Israel by his remarks. Last week, Brennan called Hezbollah a very interesting organization and suggested that the U.S. build up the more moderate elements of Hezbollah, the same Muslim terrorist group that the State Department has designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Yet another example of the Obama administration’s pro-Muslim posture… in their own Arabic words, too.
VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmGe_lVYxDw&feature=player_embedded

Drawing a line in the dust at Ground Zero
By Douglas J. Hagmann, Director

26 May 2010: Shortly after efforts turned from rescue to recovery at Ground Zero, I walked amid the rubble with a New York City police officer named Mark.It was just after daybreak over lower Manhattan, and the noxious odors of death, jet fuel and oppressive toxic dust still filled the air. We said nothing to each other as we stopped at the edge of a darkly stained area on the ground where bodies had fallen or people had jumped to their deaths. Debris and dust covered over portions of the grotesque paisley patterns that extended beyond yellow police tape that flapped in the morning breeze.The NYPD officer was first to break the silence.I remember the first one, he said, referring to the February 26, 1993 bombing that killed 6 people and injured over a thousand more. This time it’s going be a whole lot different,he added. As we walked away from the area, he said that our response was going to be decisive. America was deeply wounded, but Americans were angry. And it seemed like we were united in our anger.We were going to fight, prevail, rebuild and grow stronger. Standing there that morning, neither of us had any doubt that our leaders would not just avenge the deaths of 9/11, but take steps to make sure that such an attack would never happen again. We would emerge stronger and smarter.

That was 8 ½ years ago. Earlier this month, I stood with Mark at the outer perimeter of what once was the World Trade Center, reflecting back on that day. We were wrong, said Mark, gesturing to the fenced void where the North Tower once stood. For the next few hours, we talked about just how wrong we were, and how wrong things are. We talked about some of the heroes that died that day, and their families.I left Ground Zero that day angry. And if you are not angry, you’ve simply not been paying attention, or worse, you are part of the problem. In either case, it’s time for a dose of intellectual honesty without fear or the constraint of political correctness. Americans deserve it. The victims of Islamic terrorism demand it, and the very future and salvation of our country depends on it.Think back for a moment to those sad and mournful days in the wake of 9/11, when the images of death were being replayed over all the news channels. Think back to the occasional clips of our Muslim enemies dancing in the streets of their countries, celebrating the death and destruction on American soil. Think back to the unity and resolve of Americans in the heartland, and the selflessness of those who prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for our country. Now consider being given a glimpse into the future, and answer the following honestly:Had you been told that in seven years, a little-known man of questionable background named Barack Hussein Obama, a man considered by many Muslims to be a Muslim himself, a man who proudly admits to being accomplished at reciting the adhan (the Islamic call to prayer) would occupy the White House, would you have believed it? Or would you have scoffed, or at least wondered how we lost the war or permitted our country to be overtaken?

If you were told that in 2010, the construction of a 13-story mosque just two blocks from Ground Zero would be unanimously approved by New York City planners, and just a few hundred yards from where you stood, where bodies fell and others jumped to their deaths, would you have believed it? What if you were told that the funding source for that mosque originated from the same blood money declined by then Mayor Rudy Giuliani when it was offered to him on October 11, 2001 by Saudi Prince al Waleed bin Talal. You probably would have asked how any American, let alone any New Yorker, would allow that to happen. Is it a case of their unbridled stupidity, naiveté, or perhaps something more nefarious? If you were told that a memorial planned and approved for the heroes and victims of Flight 93 in Shanksville, PA would contain Islamic symbolism, you probably would have laughed, as many still do in their attempts to marginalize those who point out the obvious. I wonder if those who called such claims conspiratorial nonsense might reconsider, in light of the planned construction of the ultimate Islamic symbol of victory – a mosque – at Ground Zero.

If you were told that in the ensuing years fighting domestic threats posed by Islamic terrorism that our Justice Department, policymakers and leaders in law enforcement would succumb to the pressure of Muslim advocacy groups, and permit co-conspirators to influence and actually help create counter-terrorism policies to their current absurd levels, would you have believed it? If you were told that a man named al-Awlaki (a/k/a Anwar Nasser Abdulla Aulaqi), identified as a Muslim cleric who assisted at least two of the 9/11 hijackers was in federal custody after the attacks but was ordered released? Of course, if you’ve been paying attention, you would know that al-Awlaki was the inspiration behind the mass murder of our soldiers at Fort Hood in November 2009 and involved in numerous other post-9/11 plots. Looking across the debris field at Ground Zero, would you not demand answers and accountability for those who let al-Awlaki go? If you were told that you faced the threat of being sued for reporting suspicious activity, even if your observations were accurate and your concerns legitimate, would you have believed it? If you were told that in the process of holding those responsible for the atrocities on 9/11 and those harboring or aiding them, our justice department under new leadership would revert back to 1993 standards to deal with the perpetrators by handling these acts of terrorism as criminal acts, and not acts of war?

Standing amid the rubble as victims were still being identified, would you not have been offended at the instruction of having to carefully avoid using Islam and terrorism in the same sentence, or having to refer to the scene before you as a man-caused disaster? Is there no one left in authority with the guts or integrity to point out just how preposterous and self-destructive this game of semantics is? Had you been told that you, as a proud American and not simply the Muslim terrorists, would be placed on a watch list of potential threats to our country within the next five years, would you have not asked how that could possibly happen? Even before the dust began to settle over New York, Americans were being sold a bill of goods about the agenda of Islamists. The fact that Islam is much more than a religion is carefully omitted from academic discussion. The fact that Islamists, having found common ground with progressives, are deliberately infiltrating all aspects of our government, our military and our law enforcement and adversely affecting our policies is being hidden from the public or mocked by the media.Hardworking and patriotic Americans have been duped by our elected officials, our corporate media, many of our religious leaders, pundits, commentators, anchors, and others over the last 8 ½ years. Many have stood by and allowed our country to be psychologically raped to the point of perverse acquiescence to the agenda of the global elite, who are teamed with the progressive left and the current incarnation of the Muslim Brotherhood in a fight for control over our country.What hijacked airplanes and bombs have yet to accomplish, the policies of our leaders and the politics of the progressive movement are working toward completion. Failing to recognize that political correctness is nothing more than a perversion of truth and a strategic smokescreen for the common goals of Islamists and the progressives is to be blissfully ignorant, or willfully complicit in the destruction of our country.If you are not angry, I would like to know why.

Obama administration officials to speak at Hamas support group’s convention
By Lee Kaplan, Communications Director

26 May 2010: Mainstream media has completely overlooked a national conference that will be held June 4-10, 2010 in Washington D.C., where officials of the Obama administration will speak and rub elbows with Arab-Americans who openly support and work for the goals of Hamas, and who encourage the violation of US laws.The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) presents itself as a civil rights group protecting Muslims and Arab-Americans from discrimination. However, the group is a front for supporting Hamas and promotes the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement against Israel, and through its associations, supports the same enemies our troops are fighting against in Afghanistan and Iraq.According to the website Militant Islam Monitor, The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee is known for openly supporting Hezbollah, and Hamas. One of its members, Souheil Elia of the Florida chapter, has supported suicide bombings in it forums and in interviews, stating that …their bodies are the only weapons they have… In 2004 Elia spoke at an ADC event called Palestine- Perception and Reality- which was an Israel and American bashing fest.This week, the ADC sent out e-mail announcements for the convention and is promoting featured guests that include Rick Wade, Senior Adviser and Deputy Chief of Staff for Barack Hussein Obama’s Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

The ADC openly works with anti-Israel organizations such as Al Awda and the Students for Justice in Palestine as well as the Muslim Student Union chapters on US college campuses to promote the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel. In addition, the ADC serves as a support mechanism for the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) by providing facilities and funding to send activists to the Middle East to support Hamas and act as human shields for the terrorist organization. Jess Ghannam, head of the ADC is San Francisco and a co-founder of Al Awda and ISM organizer was recently part of the Viva Palestina Tour that illegally entered Gaza last year to bring funding and supplies to Hamas.The Secretary of Commerce has an Office of Anti-Boycott Compliance that is responsible for enforcing US trade laws passed by congress making it illegal for American companies to discriminate and boycott Israel. Obviously, both the Bush and Obama administrations have chosen to ignore and violate the rule of law. The BDS Movement as encouraged and supported by Al Awda and the ADC also encourages the boycotting of American businesses that are either owned by Jews or have Jewish management, a clear violation of U.S. Civil Rights Laws.Oddly enough, Wade’s appearance is supposed to … highlight the economic viability of minority-owned businesses and the opportunities for collaboration in areas of commerce, both domestically and internationally,according to the announcement sent out by the ADC.Apparently, the Commerce Secretary’s Office sees nothing wrong with encouraging business among an Arab advocacy group that discriminates against American and Israeli companies and Jews. Oddly enough, the ADC announcement also cites as the theme of the conference as being Thirty Years of Advocacy and Achievement: Strengthening the Voice for Equality and Justice.The ADC has always supported the boycotting and divestment of Jewish and Israeli businesses in the US and abroad.

The conference also includes as guest speakers Clovis Maksoud, the diplomatic head of the Arab League that created the Boycott against Israel originating in 1949, as well as Azmi Bishara, a former Arab-Israeli member of Israel’s parliament who fled the country after it was revealed he had been spying for Hezbollah. Hezbollah is on the US State Department’s list of illegal terrorist groups and was responsible for murdering 241 US marines in Beirut in 1983.Even more disturbing is another high-level guest from the Obama Administration—Attorney General Eric Holder who is scheduled to speak to A Keynote Civil Rights Luncheon at the Conference on June 4th.

So here we have the highest law enforcement officer in the US speaking as a guest at an event given by an organization that discriminates against Jewish Americans in violation of US Trade Laws and that hosts as an honored guest someone who has worked as a spy for a known terrorist organization that has murdered US servicemen.The Obama administration should be ashamed and cancel these scheduled appearances immediately. There is no excuse for this as it shows support for an organization that is the complete antithesis of American values and honesty.

Let’s make the vets wait for care until they all die MAY 26,10 By Laurie Roth

This seems to be the philosophy of the Veterans Services (VA) administration. Just recently I interviewed Dick Phenneger www.vstnow.org, a leading, whistle blower, former vet and business man, who has investigated health care abuse to our veterans for many years at the hands of the VA. He shared enough violations and horrors with the VA against our troops that I couldn’t help thinking about the dreaded IRS. In my view, both should be gutted and started again with an emphasis in common sense, real service and ethics. Oh…..but back to the bigger than life problem.Let me cut to the chase and give you a few bottom line facts regarding the VA.

First problem:Records have been and are being destroyed. Back in 2009, a VA office in Detroit turned in 16,000 unprocessed mail and 717 unprocessed documents that were stuck in storage and hadn’t even been looked at. Many other documents were found in shredding bins, not just in one office but in several regional offices. Phenneger stated during our visit on my national radio show www.therothshow.com (listen to archive, dated May 25th, 1st hour www.therothshow.com) that almost 100% of the time that the typical response of the VA to inquiring and needy Vets seeking care is that we do not have your records.Naturally, the responsibility and problem falls again and again on the needy vet, not the out of control, disorganized and corrupt VA that has actually lost, burned, shredded or misplaced the forms! This is a CLEAR betrayal to our troops. I thought it was bad enough for our troops to face the politically correct crowd in our media and attitude of progressive leftists about this war, but now I find that they come home, needy and maimed from serving their country to face lost forms, hideous service and treatment way too late.

Second problem:Vets have to complete a 23 page application with absurd amounts of detail, even if their injuries or disabilities are clear and simple. Not only is the form intimidating and TOO LONG, but Phenneger found that there there is a literal quagmire of legal documents and forms (80) to figure out. Many troops reported to Phenneger in his investigation that when asking for help to figure out which form to use, they were constantly told that is your problem and responsibility, not ours.What often happens is the needy VET accidentally fills out the wrong form and 6 months later gets the standard refusal for care. They are told that they have to start again with a different form. Typically, another rejection comes 6 months after that and so on. One example Phenniger shared was of Leroy Comer, a Vietnam veteran who had spent over 21 years processing applications with nothing but denials and appeals.

Third problem:VA policy is to reward denial of claims

Yes, the VA actually has a policy to give bonuses for denied claims. That must explain why 70% of the claims are refused or sent back to be redone. It is an absurd daisy chain which ends of betraying and abusing our troops even more than they already may have been!

Fourth problem:The VA senior staff and management defend the employee bonus program which honors and rewards turn downs! They talk about their employee accountability, on and on. They seem to certainly be accountable alright….TO THE BROKEN, OUT OF CONTROL AND MISREPRESENTATIVE BUREAUCRACY, NOT THE VETS IN NEED OF CARE.The VA is an out of control bureaucracy that seems to now exist mostly for itself, not for our vets and their needs. Just recently I had a caller on my radio show talking about his friend not able to get the extra benefits he needed because his file had been mysteriously burned in a fire, thus the VA couldn’t help him. He is told that is his problem not the VA. Naturally, the VET is suffering in the hospital and in need NOW, not years later.It appears that 1000s of vets are in this situation, where they are filling out the wrong forms and getting turned down again and again. It appears that most of them are in endless wait mode trying to stay alive until they get some care.Regardless of what the series of problems with the VA are, there is no excuse, especially in a time of war that our troops have to have any kind of delay or problem getting care. They shouldn’t have to wait anymore than 2-3 weeks for care, not 6 months to 5 years!!! The sign up form (s) should be simplified and dramatically shortened and guidance and help offered before a VET fills out a form so they don’t make a costly mistake which denies them care!

If lack of money is the big problem according to the high up VA leaders then they should be marching into congress and demanding more! Our Government has wasted and spent hundreds of billions of dollars on rubbish. Certainly if they knew there was a budgeting need and revamping need for the VA to function right, they would respond. If they refuse to respond and fix this WE SHOULD ALL MARCH ON WASHINGTON, YELL, SUE, FAX, SCREAM AND DEMAND UNTIL THEY DO SOMETHING REAL ABOUT THIS. It is not just money or lack there of. It is an out of control, disorganized bureaucracy that has betrayed its real mission of health care to Vets, in a timely, affordable and clear manner. I could care less what the high up leadership of the VA bureaucracy says about how proud they are of accountability, bonus structures and service. The facts are numerous and spreading far and wide, just like the BP oil spill, so their words are nothing but bull rot and lies!

IT IS TIME FOR THE TALK TO STOP AND A TOTAL OVERHAUL, FINANCIAL INTERVENTION AND MANAGERIAL CHANGE TO OCCUR WITH THE VA.No longer is it acceptable to hear our leaders in congress, the White House, military and media ignore the ongoing treatment of our Vets at the hands of the VA.

The Sestak Affair By Douglas J. Hagmann, Director
Members of congress demand criminal probe-This is punishable by prison. This is a felony.– Rep. Darrell Issa

Joe Sestak
29 May 2010: Due to the recent equivocations from the Obama White House and the apparent unwillingness by the mainstream media to investigate this matter, the majority of Americans are unaware of the seriousness of the Obama administration’s alleged actions involving Joseph Sestak. If proven, the reported actions of the Obama administration are clear violations of three federal laws[i]. The impact and fallout from documented violations, as well as the refusal of the Holder Justice Department to appoint a Special Counsel to investigate this matter, have the potential to eclipse the Watergate scandal of the early 1970’s – it is that serious.

The crime

In an attempt to retain as much political control over Congress during the 2010 midterm elections, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel dispatched William Clinton and lawyer Doug Band to meet with senatorial candidate Joseph Sestak who was running against Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania. In exchange for dropping out of the race, Sestak was offered a position with the administration. It was reasoned that should Sestak accept, Specter would be unopposed in the primary and have a much better chance of retaining his senatorial seat. The meetings reportedly took place in June and July of last year.Based on open source reports stemming back to February, it is apparent that Sestak had no idea that such overtures are illegal as he readily admitted the meeting and job offer in a February 18, 2010 interview with Philadelphia TV newscaster Larry Kane (documented here).The overture made to Joseph Sestak is not the first time the Obama administration attempted to alter this year’s Senate races by promising employment to opponents posing serious challenges to Obama allies. It is, however, garnering the most attention. The first known incident involves Andrew Romanoff, a Democratic challenger from Colorado running against Senator Michael Bennet. The Obama administration offered Romanoff a position in the administration if he canceled plans to run for the Democratic nomination against incumbent Senator Bennet as detailed in this Denver Post article dated September 27, 2009. As in all cases involving possible criminal activity, such documented multiple instances show a continuing course of conduct and intent.

The cover-up

Recalling the days of Watergate, it is important to understand that it was obstruction of justice charges that ultimately brought down the Nixon administration. Obstruction of justice can take on different forms, including but not limited to obfuscations, equivocations, denials, as well as lack of cooperation with investigative bodies. So far, the White House has failed to cooperate or provide any specific answers to questions posed by lawmakers. The Holder Justice Department has also declined to investigate.

The Timeline
June/July 2009: White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel dispatched William Clinton and lawyer Doug Band to meet with senatorial candidate Joseph Sestak who was running against Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania. In exchange for dropping out of the race, Sestak was offered a position with the administration. It was reasoned that should Sestak accept, Specter would be unopposed in the primary and have a much better chance of retaining his senatorial seat.

February 18, 2010: Sestak interviewed by Philadelphia, PA TV newscaster Larry Kane, admits job offer by White House in exchange for dropping out of Senate race.

March 10, 2010: Rep. Darrell Issa, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee sends letter to White House Counsel Robert Bauer to inquire about the details of the Sestak matter. Specific questions included: (1) who on the White House staff communicated with Sestak about the 2010 race for the Senate; (2) what position, if any, was offered in exchange for the commitment to not run; (3) what, if any investigation did your office undertake to determine whether the criminal activity described by Rep. Sestak occurred?; and (4) Do you expect to make a referral to the United States Department of Justice in this matter? Rep. Issa issued a March 18, 2010 deadline for a reply.

March 16, 2010: Under pressure from reporters, White House Press Secretary issues the following statement during a press conference: I’ve talked to several people in the White House. I’ve talked to people who have talked to others in the White House.” I’m told that whatever conversations have been had, are not problematic. I think Congressman Sestak has discussed that this is – whatever happened is in the past and he is focused on this primary.

March 18, 2010: No response from the White House counsel.

March 22, 2010: Second request sent, with advisory that that if no satisfactory answers from the White House were forthcoming, Rep. Issa would ask Holder to appoint a special prosecutor; Bauer was also asked for more information about who Gibbs spoke with in the White House about this matter. A deadline set for April 5, 2010

April 5, 2010: No response from White House. It was during a press conference that CNS News asked Gibbs if the White House would support a special prosecutor investigating the issue, citing the deadline of April 5. Gibbs did not answer the question, instead referred to his March 16, 2010 comment.

May 18, 2010: Pennsylvania primary; Specter defeated.

May 26, 2010: Seven republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee requested the Holder Justice Department to appoint a special prosecutor to probe the allegations (Letter – PDF format).

May 28, 2010: Letter from 14 Congressmen to FBI Director Robert Mueller requesting FBI probe of criminal conduct. Official White House memo released.

[i] 18 U.S.C. § 600: Whoever, directly or indirectly, promises any employment, position, compensation, contract, appointment, or other benefit, provided for or made possible in whole or in part by any Act of Congress, or any special consideration in obtaining any such benefit, to any person as consideration, favor, or reward for any political activity or for the support of or opposition to any candidate or any political party in connection with any general or special election to any political office, or in connection with any primary election or political convention or caucus held to select candidates for any political office, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.

18 U.S.C. § 211: Whoever solicits or receives, either as a political contribution, or for personal emolument, any money or thing of value, in consideration of the promise of support or use of influence in obtaining for any person any appointive office or place under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both. Whoever solicits or receives anything of value in consideration of aiding a person to obtain employment under the United States either by referring his name to an executive department or agency of the United States or by requiring the payment of a fee because such person has secured such employment shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned not more than one year, or both. This section shall not apply to such services rendered by an employment agency pursuant to the written request of an executive department or agency of the United States.

18 U.S.C. § 595: Whoever, being a person employed in any administrative position by the United States, or by any department or agency thereof, or by the District of Columbia or any agency or instrumentality thereof, or by any State, Territory, or Possession of the United States, or any political subdivision, municipality, or agency thereof, or agency of such political subdivision or municipality (including any corporation owned or controlled by any State, Territory, or Possession of the United States or by any such political subdivision, municipality, or agency), in connection with any activity which is financed in whole or in part by loans or grants made by the United States, or any department or agency thereof, uses his official authority for the purpose of interfering with, or affecting, the nomination or the election of any candidate for the office of President, Vice President, Presidential elector, Member of the Senate, Member of the House of Representatives, Delegate from the District of Columbia, or Resident Commissioner, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.

Central Banking vs. The Republic and the World
By Damon Vrabel Friday, May 28, 2010 CANADA FREE PRESS

A couple of days ago in Japan, Ben Bernanke said that the benefits of low interest rate policies that politicians want are not sustainable and will soon evaporate, leaving behind inflationary pressures that worsen the economy’s long-term prospects…...thus political interference in monetary policy can generate undesirable boom-bust cycles that ultimately lead to both a less stable economy and higher inflation.[pause inserted so you have time to pick your jaw up off the floor]

We are now in the midst of one of the biggest boom-busts in history, all under the Fed’s watch, caused by its multi-decade low interest rate policy among other things, yet that is the scenario he says government oversight would cause! So what’s really going on here beneath Ben’s Harvard veneer? He is trying to scare us with a fabricated boogie man—the idea that your elected leaders might do in some imaginary future what the Fed has already done in the unimaginable present. He wants you to be scared of this republic’s legislature reclaiming some power back from the financial empire that runs the global corporate system, and the US government from behind closed doors (article: Wall Street Empire). In other words, he wants you to continue submitting to financial dictatorship rather than rediscovering the principles of freedom, distributed power, and effective government. Will you choose submission or discovery? As more and more people are realizing, we are now in one of the most critical moments in the course of human events.We have seen this moment before, especially from Hollywood. It is the WALL-E moment when the captain of the starship Axiom (our elected leaders) finally wrestles power back from Auto (the Fed cartel on Wall Street) and restores life by saving humanity from its TV programming (our media). It is the Gladiator moment when General Maximus wakes up to the imperial enemy and commits himself to restoring the republic. It is the Star Wars moment when Darth Vader chooses life for his son and the republic by throwing the emperor to his death. Which will you choose? Will real life turn out as well as fiction? Or will Ben’s scare tactics keep you in fear?

The Ben Bernanke Survey
I’m curious for your opinion about why Ben is doing this. Reply in the comments below with your answer to this multiple choice question: Who is Ben Bernanke?

1.Honest – he actually believes what he says. He’s still a Harvard kid getting gold stars on his homework as he repeats the fraudulent load of crap known as neoclassical economics.
2.Dishonest – he knows he’s just protecting the powers behind the Fed system and furthering their global restructuring plan by threatening the politicians with more boom-busts if they try to serve the people.
3.Insane – he’s not in touch with reality.
Folks like Jim Rogers, Marc Faber, and Peter Schiff promote #1, the idea that he’s a clueless theoretician repeatedly making mistakes. No doubt there was a time when he was just a bright-eyed overachiever being pumped full of theory disconnected from reality. But these guys ignore Ben’s comments in Japan. He makes it clear that he knows exaggerated low interest rate policies cause major problems, i.e. he’s not ignorant, but he engages in them anyway! So again I ask what’s really going on?

Feel free to disagree, but #2 is my answer, which means we need to stop believing Rogers, Faber, and Schiff that he’s a pedantic bureaucrat. That’s pure spin that reinforces the idea there’s no strategic plan behind what the G20, IMF, BIS, and Fed are doing in response to the coordinated actions of Rubin, Summers, Paulson, Geithner, Greenspan, AIG, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, etc. Those who promote #1 are suggesting that these folks, all part of the elite Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), are basically randomly screwing up a kids’ game of checkers. No chance. The fact is we are in the mist of a global chess game being played above the heads of national governments in which debt and leverage are used to restructure the world under a new global money and banking system (video: Emerging Global Empire). I suggest Bernanke’s sole purpose is to hide the real role the Federal Reserve has played in this game while also helping to keep Congress from asserting its power.

Central Banking: Pro or Con?
The media likes to claim that voicing opposition to the Fed is lower class populism. But of course the media doesn’t think. It just promotes left or right groupthink for the few corporate powers that own the media. They don’t want you thinking about the question of a central bank. If they did, we might better understand the pros and cons.The pro is that without a central body regulating the value of currency, thousands of banks across the country would be randomly cranking credit up and down resulting in economic turmoil. True. Some of the founders understood that without a controlled currency, private banking institutions could profit massively off whipsawing the people, which is why Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution says the government should regulate the value of the currency. But of course we know this pro doesn’t apply to the Fed structure because the most extreme periods of economic turmoil have happened since it was created.

The problem with this pro is the first con of the Fed’s form of central banking—it puts currency control in private hands. Rather than the Fed having power over the banks, its structure actually gives the primary dealer banks (mega firms like JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and many foreign banks) significant power to tell it what to do. Entrenched powers behind these firms working together in cartel groups like the New York Fed and CFR have far more leverage than the president, i.e. an individual with no financial experience who rotates into office for a short period of time completely surrounded by bankers and their allies. The entire purpose of the Constitution and having a republic, despite its flaws, was to put power in the hands of the public vs. a concentrated private oligarchy. But the Fed system creates such an oligarchy, as many Americans now see since the crash of 2008.

Mathematical con: Basing a currency on nothing but interest-bearing debt as the Fed system does creates the need for perpetual exponential growth (video: Culture of Empire part 1). This feels like a good thing at first, but eventually the accompanying perpetual inflation becomes clear (Bernanke admitted this in Japan by also saying central banks target 2% inflation—a huge indicator economists ignore that the system is unsustainable—a stable system would target zero). The perpetually increasing debt eventually becomes shocking (look around the world). The perpetually increasing scale and velocity of the system starts causing profound harm (Part 2 and 3). Exponential systems are guaranteed to crash. The eventual reckoning with the impossibility of exponential math is not pretty, and we are now entering the reckoning phase for our system (Chris Martenson video on Exponential Growth).

Economic con: Oligarchic monetary systems tend toward a 2-tiered society, money pushing rulers vs. money using servants who scramble to pay the rulers back plus interest. The ruling financial class eventually takes over the productive economy and then parasitically destroys the host upon which it lives as gambling and speculation replace savings and production as the engine of growth. Such is the power of a monetary system based on nothing but debt (Michael Hudson video).

Moral con: A debt-based monetary system enshrines usury, i.e. living off the backs of others by doing nothing but subjugating a population to systemic interest-bearing debt. So the foundation of our monetary system under the Federal Reserve is built upon immorality (article: Usury and the Coming Crash).

Philosophical con: Related to the moral and economic cons is the philosophical ideal of freedom. An oligarchic monetary system forces the great mass of the population into servitude. It effectively creates a predator/prey structure in society. In a system based purely on debt, the banking powers are able to super-inflate the system to drive up asset prices, and then deflate the system sucking value and assets up the pyramid to consolidate power. We saw this over the last 10 years. This is the biggest and brightest example of why Jefferson said “banking institutions are more dangerous than standing armies.” It’s also the best example of why the Constitution demands that government regulate the currency.

Solution
So how can we get the one pro of a central monetary authority regulating the value of the currency without any of the cons above? Do precisely what Ben says we shouldn’t do—reestablish the republic by putting currency regulation in the hands of public officials as the Constitutions says. If a country doesn’t have a sovereign currency, it doesn’t have a sovereign government. We are learning that painful lesson now as we see Greece being attacked and taken over by financial institutions. The same thing has happened to many countries in the past and it will happen in the future if governments don’t take charge. At that point everyone will know the truth—governments are held hostage by private financial interests. But more and more Americans are realizing the truth now and pushing for change.

However, the change is not as simple as ending the Fed. Without a transition plan, that would cause a disaster since it is the basis for the money supply. The key is to nationalize the Fed, and possibly its primary dealers during the transition phase, to keep them from holding us hostage with the threat of collapse. Then with honest public officials in Treasury and other agencies that don’t represent Goldman Sachs and the rest of the financial cartel—people like William Black, Brooksley Born, Janet Tavakoli, Michael Hudson, Eliot Spitzer, Harry Markopolos—it will be possible to restructure the monetary system. Other components of the solution involve the US Treasury printing sovereign US notes, state banking systems like North Dakota to restore state power, etc. (see details at Freedom’s Vision)

Just a short time ago things felt hopeless because, as Martin Luther King warned, One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change.But the republic has heeded his call. It is awakening. Restoration is on the horizon, and that’s a good thing for America and the rest of the world.

OIL STILL GUSHING AS OF MAY 28,10

POISONED WATERS

REVELATION 8:8-11
8 And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
9 And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood:(bitter,Poisoned) and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.(poisoned)

REVELATION 16:3-7
3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.(enviromentalists won't like this result)
4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.
5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
6 For they(False World Church and Dictator) have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.

LIVE BP OIL FEED
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/26/bp-oil-spill-live-feed-vi_n_590635.html
http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/
homepage/STAGING/local_assets/bp_homepage/html/rov_stream.html

ON MAY 26,10 JINDAL SAYS 100 MILES HAVE BEEN CONTAMINATED IN THIS OIL SPILL.D-BILL NELSON SAYS THE ARMY SHOULD COME IN AND TAKE CONTROL OF THE OIL SPILL IF THIS CAPING FAILS.IF THIS CAPING DOES NOT WORK IT COULD BE A FULL BLOWN GUSH OUT OF OIL.NELSON SAYS SOETORO-0BAMA BETTER GET A PERSON INVOLVED AS THE LEADER OF THE PROJECT INSTEAD OF WHO KNOWS WHOS IN CHARGE.EVEN GODLESS D-JAMES CARVILLE IS HOPIN MAD AT THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION FOR SITTING ON THEIR HANDS FOR 36 DAYS.

THE PRESSURE IS FINALLY STARTING TO MOUNT ON OBAMA.IF OBAMA WILL NOT DO ANYTHING ABOUT OIL HE CAN SEE,HOW CAN HE CAP INVISIBLE GAS(CLIMATE CHANGE-CAP AND TRADE)WHAT HE CAN NOT SEE......CAN YOU SAY-SCAM,MONEY HUNGRY,ENVIROMENTAL CULT WORSHIP.

ITS 4:50PM MAY 27,10 I HEARD ON FOX NEWS THAT BY SHOVING MUD DOWN THE OIL SPOUT IT COULD CAUSE AN EXPLOSION TO OCCUR.IF IT WOULD CAUSE A BIG ENOUGH EXPLOSION I HAVE A FEELING IT COULD CAUSE A GIGANTIC TSUNAMI WHICH COULD THEN DESTROY 1/3RD OF THE SHIPS ON THE GULF LIKE THE PROPHECY SAYS WLL HAPPEN.THIS COULD TURN INTO AN INTERESTING SITUATION I WILL BE WATCHING VERY CLOSELY FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS.THIS COULD GET A LOT WORSE THEN JUST A GIGANTIC OIL SPILL.

ITS MAY 28,10 AND SEE WHAT HAPPENDS IN THE SPILL SITE TODAY.I HAVE A FEELING THAT THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IS SETTING UP A TRILLION DOLLAR BAILOUT TO BP TO COVER THE LOSES THAT THEY WILL BE PAYING OUT....JUST WAIT AND SEE.THIS IS SOME KIND OF SCAM TO GIVE BP TOTAL CONTROL OF THE OIL INDUSTRY YOU CAN BET AND ENDING UP BEING CONTROLLED BY THE CHICAGO THUG OBAMA ADMINISTRATION.WE WILL SEE IF MY HUNCH ON THIS IS CORRECT. IN YESTERDAYS OBAMA OIL SPILL CONFERENCE ALL HE DONE WAS DECIEVE AND LIE ABOUT EVERYTHNG...HOW CAN ANYONE BELIEVE A THING OBAMA AND HIS ADMINISTRATION SAY,I SURE DON'T..HE DOES NOT PULL THE WOOL OVER MY EYES LIKE THE DUMBDOWN THAT GET DECIEVED BY A SMOOTH TALKER LIKE THIS LIAR OBAMA.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoQhH9srELA&feature=player_embedded (LIE)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/27/gulf-oil-spill-exxon-valdez_n_591840.html
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4216379/obama-addresses-oil-spill?playlist_id=86918

THIS IS DAY 39 OF THE SPILL.AMERICAS WORSE EVER SPILL.29 MILLION GALLONS IN THE GULF,ESTIMATED COST SO FAR $1.6 BILLION.EXXON SPILT 11 MILLION GALLONS IN THE WATER AND THAT WAS SUCH A SCANDLE.THIS SPILL IS 29 MILLION AND COUNTING SECOND BY SECOND.

ITS 3:30PM MAY 28,10 EVEN GODLESS CNN IS ADMITTING OBAMA AND THAD ALLEN LIED YESTERDAY WHILE SAYING BP WAS PUTTING MUD IN THE OIL TRAP.MEANWHLE THEY STOPPED FOR 16 HOURS BUT LEAD EVERYONE ON THAT THEY WERE MUDDING THE LEAK.RICK SANCHES IS SAYING WHILE OBAMA WAS DOING HIS OIL SPEECH PRESS CONFERENCE AND WHILE THAD ALLEN WAS DOING HIS SAYING THE MUD WAS BEING INSERTED.GUESS WHAT NO MUD WAS BEING INSERTED...I TOLD YOU THIS IS JUST A LIE AFTER LIE AFTER LIES GOING ON HERE.

ITS 4:45PM MAY 28 AND THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION CONTACTED CNN AND SAID THE MUD MAY NOT HAVE BEEN GOING BUT THE PLUGGING HAD NOT STOPPED.THIS ADMINISTRATION IS IN PARIL AS OBAMA HAD TO GET DEFENCIVE QUICK ON THIS OIL SPILL TO WATER THE TRUTH DOWN OVIOUSLY.SEE WHAT ELSE THESE CRIMINAL,LIERS COME UP WITH TONIGHT.

WE MAY HAVE A MOTIVE FOR OBAMA GETTING ON THIS SO QUICK.BLITZER SAID BP'S STOCK IS DROPPING QUICK DUE TO THIS SPILL NOW.THIS WOULD MEAN I WAS CORRECT AND OBAMA WOULD HAVE TO BAILOUT AND TAKE OVER BP IF THE BP STOCKS BOMB OUT.GREAT TIP I MUST ADMIT BLITZER.

MAY 28,10 6:45PM NOW CAROL COSTELLO INFORMS US ON CNN THAT WE MAY HAVE PEOPLE FLOWN IN FOR A PHOTO OP POTRAYING THE ADMINISTRATION AS BRINGING PEOPLE IN TO HELP CLEANUP.THIS GETS MORE CRAZY BY THE MINUTE.CAROL ASKED ONE OF THE WORKERS ,WERE ARE YOU FROM,HE REPLIES I CAN NOT SAY ANYTHING.OH MAN NOW THEY BRING IMMIGRINTS IN I FIGURE TO PUT ON A SHOW WHILE OBAMAS AT THE SPILL SITE.THIS JUST TAKES THE CAKE.

SDR AS WORLD CURRENCY
http://www.scribd.com/doc/32090166/GS-SDR-Currencies
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2010/05/plunge-protection-team-robbery-sdrs.html
BILL GATES-KILL POPULATION OFF BY 50%-80% BY VACCINES TO SAVE THE EARTH
http://www.scribd.com/doc/31264229/Bill-Gates-Use-Vaccines-to-Lower-Population
ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaF-fq2Zn7I&feature=player_embedded

READ YESTERDAYS LIES FOR YOURSELF.OR WATCH VIDEO.
VIDEO
http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/deepwater-bp-oil-spill-presidential-press-conference

For Immediate Release May 27, 2010 REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT ON THE GULF OIL SPILL East Room 12:50 P.M. EDT
TO READ QUESTION-TRANSCRIPT
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-gulf-oil-spill

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon, everybody. Before I take your questions, I want to update the American people on the status of the BP oil spill -– a catastrophe that is causing tremendous hardship in the Gulf Coast, damaging a precious ecosystem, and one that led to the death of 11 workers who lost their lives in the initial explosion.Yesterday, the federal government gave BP approval to move forward with a procedure known as a top kill to try to stop the leak. This involves plugging the well with densely packed mud to prevent any more oil from escaping. And given the complexity of this procedure and the depth of the leak, this procedure offers no guarantee of success. But we’re exploring any reasonable strategies to try and save the Gulf from a spill that may otherwise last until the relief wells are finished -– and that's a process that could take months.

The American people should know that from the moment this disaster began, the federal government has been in charge of the response effort. As far as I’m concerned, BP is responsible for this horrific disaster, and we will hold them fully accountable on behalf of the United States as well as the people and communities victimized by this tragedy. We will demand that they pay every dime they owe for the damage they’ve done and the painful losses that they’ve caused. And we will continue to take full advantage of the unique technology and expertise they have to help stop this leak. But make no mistake: BP is operating at our direction. Every key decision and action they take must be approved by us in advance. I’ve designated Admiral Thad Allen -– who has nearly four decades of experience responding to such disasters -– as the National Incident Commander, and if he orders BP to do something to respond to this disaster, they are legally bound to do it. So, for example, when they said they would drill one relief well to stem this leak we demanded a backup and ordered them to drill two. And they are in the process of drilling two. As we devise strategies to try and stop this leak, we’re also relying on the brightest minds and most advanced technology in the world. We’re relying on a team of scientists and engineers from our own national laboratories and from many other nations -– a team led by our Energy Secretary and Nobel Prize-winning physicist, Stephen Chu. And we’re relying on experts who’ve actually dealt with oil spills from across the globe, though none this challenging.

The federal government is also directing the effort to contain and clean up the damage from the spill -– which is now the largest effort of its kind in U.S. history. In this case, the federal, state, and local governments have the resources and expertise to play an even more direct role in the response effort. And I will be discussing this further when I make my second trip to Louisiana tomorrow. But so far we have about 20,000 people in the region who are working around the clock to contain and clean up this oil. We have activated about 1,400 members of the National Guard in four states. We have the Coast Guard on site. We have more than 1,300 vessels assisting in the containment and cleanup efforts. We’ve deployed over 3 million feet of total boom to stop the oil from coming on shore -– and today more than 100,000 feet of boom is being surged to Louisiana parishes that are facing the greatest risk from the oil. So we’ll continue to do whatever is necessary to protect and restore the Gulf Coast. For example, Admiral Allen just announced that we’re moving forward with a section of Governor Jindal’s barrier island proposal that could help stop oil from coming ashore. It will be built in an area that is most at risk and where the work can be most quickly completed.We’re also doing whatever it takes to help the men and women whose livelihoods have been disrupted and even destroyed by this spill -– everyone from fishermen to restaurant and hotel owners. So far the Small Business Administration has approved loans and allowed many small businesses to defer existing loan payments. At our insistence, BP is paying economic injury claims, and we’ll make sure that when all is said and done, the victims of this disaster will get the relief that they are owed. We’re not going to abandon our fellow citizens. We’ll help them recover and we will help them rebuild.

And in the meantime, I should also say that Americans can help by continuing to visit the communities and beaches of the Gulf Coast. I was talking to the governors just a couple of days ago, and they wanted me to remind everybody that except for three beaches in Louisiana, all of the Gulf’s beaches are open. They are safe and they are clean. As we continue our response effort, we’re also moving quickly on steps to ensure that a catastrophe like this never happens again. I’ve said before that producing oil here in America is an essential part of our overall energy strategy. But all drilling must be safe. In recent months, I’ve spoken about the dangers of too much -- I’ve heard people speaking about the dangers of too much government regulation. And I think we can all acknowledge there have been times in history when the government has overreached. But in this instance, the oil industry’s cozy and sometimes corrupt relationship with government regulators meant little or no regulation at all. When Secretary Salazar took office, he found a Minerals and Management Service that had been plagued by corruption for years –- this was the agency charged with not only providing permits, but also enforcing laws governing oil drilling. And the corruption was underscored by a recent Inspector General’s report that covered activity which occurred prior to 2007 -- a report that can only be described as appalling. And Secretary Salazar immediately took steps to clean up that corruption. But this oil spill has made clear that more reforms are needed. For years, there has been a scandalously close relationship between oil companies and the agency that regulates them. That’s why we’ve decided to separate the people who permit the drilling from those who regulate and ensure the safety of the drilling.I also announced that no new permits for drilling new wells will go forward until a 30-day safety and environmental review was conducted. That review is now complete. Its initial recommendations include aggressive new operating standards and requirements for offshore energy companies, which we will put in place.

Additionally, after reading the report’s recommendations with Secretary Salazar and other members of my administration, we’re going to be ordering the following actions: First, we will suspend the planned exploration of two locations off the coast of Alaska. Second, we will cancel the pending lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico and the proposed lease sale off the coast of Virginia. Third, we will continue the existing moratorium and suspend the issuance of new permits to drill new deepwater wells for six months. And four, we will suspend action on 33 deepwater exploratory wells currently being drilled in the Gulf of Mexico. What’s also been made clear from this disaster is that for years the oil and gas industry has leveraged such power that they have effectively been allowed to regulate themselves. One example: Under current law, the Interior Department has only 30 days to review an exploration plan submitted by an oil company. That leaves no time for the appropriate environmental review. They result is, they are continually waived. And this is just one example of a law that was tailored by the industry to serve their needs instead of the public’s. So Congress needs to address these issues as soon as possible, and my administration will work with them to do so. Still, preventing such a catastrophe in the future will require further study and deeper reform. That’s why last Friday, I also signed an executive order establishing the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. While there are a number of ongoing investigations, including an independent review by the National Academy of Engineering, the purpose of this commission is to consider both the root causes of the disaster and offer options on what safety and environmental precautions are necessary. If the laws on our books are inadequate to prevent such a spill, or if we did not enforce those laws, then I want to know. I want to know what worked and what didn’t work in our response to the disaster, and where oversight of the oil and gas industry broke down.

Let me make one final point. More than anything else, this economic and environmental tragedy –- and it’s a tragedy -– underscores the urgent need for this nation to develop clean, renewable sources of energy. Doing so will not only reduce threats to our environment, it will create a new, homegrown, American industry that can lead to countless new businesses and new jobs. We’ve talked about doing this for decades, and we’ve made significant strides over the last year when it comes to investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency. The House of Representatives has already passed a bill that would finally jumpstart a permanent transition to a clean energy economy, and there is currently a plan in the Senate –- a plan that was developed with ideas from Democrats and Republicans –- that would achieve the same goal. If nothing else, this disaster should serve as a wake-up call that it’s time to move forward on this legislation. It’s time to accelerate the competition with countries like China, who have already realized the future lies in renewable energy. And it’s time to seize that future ourselves. So I call on Democrats and Republicans in Congress, working with my administration, to answer this challenge once and for all. I'll close by saying this: This oil spill is an unprecedented disaster. The fact that the source of the leak is a mile under the surface, where no human being can go, has made it enormously difficult to stop. But we are relying on every resource and every idea, every expert and every bit of technology, to work to stop it. We will take ideas from anywhere, but we are going to stop it. And I know that doesn’t lessen the enormous sense of anger and frustration felt by people on the Gulf and so many Americans. Every day I see this leak continue I am angry and frustrated as well. I realize that this entire response effort will continue to be filtered through the typical prism of politics, but that’s not what I care about right now. What I care about right now is the containment of this disaster and the health and safety and livelihoods of our neighbors in the Gulf Coast. And for as long as it takes, I intend to use the full force of the federal government to protect our fellow citizens and the place where they live. I can assure you of that.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/27/94956/full-text-of-president-obamas.html#ixzz0pE3H8K94

BP pushes on with top kill as true slick size emerges by Stephane Jourdain – 4:50AM

VENICE, Louisiana (AFP) – BP pressed on Friday with a risky bid to plug a ruptured oil well it said was going as planned, while new data showed the Gulf of Mexico spill is the worst in US history.Amid the looming environmental catastrophe, there were growing fears for the health of cleanup workers exposed to the crude and chemical dispersants, some of whom had to be airlifted for treatment after falling sick while out at sea. Even if BP's top kill maneuver succeeds in capping the leak, millions of gallons of crude are sloshing about in the Gulf waters, and a visibly angered President Barack Obama moved to clamp down on the oil industry.If nothing else, this disaster should serve as a wake-up call, Obama said at his first formal White House press conference in 10 months, called specifically to address the crisis triggered by an April 20 explosion that rocked a BP-leased drilling rig off the Louisiana coast.My job is to get this fixed, Obama said, a day before his second trip to the Gulf of Mexico to oversee disaster relief efforts.The British energy giant said Friday the oil spill had cost the firm close to one billion dollars while BP's market value has also dropped by billions.The cost of the response to date amounts to about 930 million dollars, including the cost of the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, grants to the Gulf states, claims paid and federal costs, BP said in a statement.

BP said it had paused the top kill for some 16 hours on Thursday to monitor the results, before resuming it again as night fell.Nothing's actually gone wrong or unanticipated," BP chief operations officer Doug Suttles stressed at a press conference on the latest bid to cap the ruptured pipe on the seabed nearly a mile (1,600 meters) below the surface.He said it was important for engineers to keep checking pressures as robotic submarines force-fed heavy drilling fluids into the broken pipe in order to stop the oil flow long enough to plug it with cement.Suttles said he expected to know on Friday or Saturday whether the operation has worked.We are very pleased with the performance of the equipment so far, he told CNN.The spill will have far-reaching implications for the livelihoods of those living in the southern Gulf states, as well as the oil industry in the area.Obama slammed past lax regulation as he laid out steps to bar any new deepwater oil exploration for six months and suspend some permits and lease sales off the vulnerable coasts of Alaska and Virginia.In this instance, the oil industry's cozy and sometimes corrupt relationship with government regulators meant little or no regulation at all, he said.

The president also lashed BP, suggesting it may have sought to downplay the true extent of the economic and ecological disaster now threatening Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida.Government scientists meanwhile released data Thursday showing the oil may have been flowing from the burst pipe at a rate up to four times higher than previous estimates by BP and the federal government.The new estimates put the flow rate at 12,000 to 19,000 barrels (504,000 to 798,000 gallons) a day -- much higher than the previous estimate of 5,000 barrels. That would mean between 18.6 million gallons and 29.5 million gallons of oil have seeped into the Gulf -- far more than the roughly 11 million gallons of crude spilled in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska. With 100 miles (160 kilometers) of Louisiana coastline already contaminated, there are fears US officials may order the burning of the state's unique marshlands, home to a variety of endangered birds and mammals. Obama dismissed charges the government response had been too slow, but said it was legitimate to question whether BP was being fully forthcoming about the extent of the damage.US Coast Guard chief Thad Allen, who is coordinating the government's battle against the spill, said the top kill maneuver appeared to be having some success, noting that as long as the mud is going down, the hydrocarbons are not coming up.All 125 commercial fishing boats helping to clean up the oil off Louisiana were recalled after seven workers reported health problems. The cause of the workers' illnesses is under investigation, said BP's Suttles, as he sought to calm public fears over the chemical dispersant used to break down the oil for faster decomposition in the water. As I've stated many times, if there is a less toxic, more effective product (than Corexit), we'll switch to it, without a doubt,he said.

Gulf Coast awaits word that oil flow has stopped By GREG BLUESTEIN and BEN NUCKOLS, Associated Press Writers - MAY 28,10 4:40AM

ROBERT, La. – It could be late Friday or over the Memorial Day weekend before the world knows if BP's latest effort has succeeded in stopping the surge of oil in the Gulf of Mexico that has already surpassed the Exxon Valdez disaster as the biggest oil spill in U.S. history.The good news is that so far, BP's latest attempt — which involves pumping drilling mud into the broken well — hasn't made things worse.After an 18-hour delay Thursday to assess its efforts and bring in more materials, BP resumed pumping heavy drilling mud into the blown-out well 5,000 feet underwater in a procedure known as a top kill.As the world waited, President Barack Obama announced major new restrictions on drilling projects, and the head of the federal agency that regulates the industry resigned under pressure, becoming the highest-ranking political casualty of the crisis so far.BP PLC insisted the top kill was progressing as planned, though the company acknowledged drilling mud was escaping from the broken pipe along with the leaking crude.The fact that we had a bunch of mud going up the riser isn't ideal but it's not necessarily indicative of a problem, spokesman Tom Mueller said.Early Thursday, officials said the process was going well, but later in the day they announced pumping had been suspended 16 hours earlier. BP did not characterize the suspension as a setback, and Eric Smith, associate director of the Tulane Energy Institute, said the move did not indicate the top kill had failed.

The good news is that they pumped in up to 65 barrels a minute and the thing didn't blow apart, Smith said.It's taken the most pressure it needs to see and it's held together.The top kill is the latest in a string of attempts to stop the oil that has been spewing since the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20, killing 11 workers.If the procedure works, BP will inject cement into the well to seal it permanently. If it doesn't, the company has a number of backup plans. Either way, crews will continue to drill two relief wells, considered the only surefire way to stop the leak.A top kill has never been attempted before so deep underwater. BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said the company is also considering shooting small, dense rubber balls or assorted junk such as golf balls and rubber scraps to stop up a crippled five-story piece of equipment known as a blowout preventer to keep the mud from escaping.The stakes were higher than ever as public frustration over the spill grew and a team of government scientists said the oil has been flowing at a rate 2 1/2 to five times higher than what BP and the Coast Guard previously estimated.Two teams of scientists calculated the well has been spewing between 504,000 and more than a million gallons a day. Even using the most conservative estimate, that means about 18 million gallons have spilled so far. In the worst-case scenario, 39 million gallons have leaked.That larger figure would be nearly four times the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster, in which a tanker ran aground in Alaska in 1989, spilling nearly 11 million gallons.Now we know the true scale of the monster we are fighting in the Gulf, said Jeremy Symons, vice president of the National Wildlife Federation.BP has unleashed an unstoppable force of appalling proportions.BP officials said the previous estimate of 210,000 gallons a day was based on the best data available at the time and that the company's response was not tied to the estimate.I don't believe at any time we have misled anybody on this,Suttles said.The spill is not the biggest ever in the Gulf. In 1979, a drilling rig in Mexican waters — the Ixtoc I — blew up, releasing 140 million gallons of oil.

In another troubling discovery, marine scientists said they have spotted a huge new plume of what they believe to be oil deep beneath the Gulf, stretching 22 miles from the leaking wellhead northeast toward Mobile Bay, Ala. They fear it could have resulted from using chemicals a mile below the surface to break up the oil. In Washington, Elizabeth Birnbaum stepped down as director of the Minerals Management Service, a job she had held since July. Her agency has been harshly criticized over lax oversight of drilling and cozy ties with industry. An internal Interior Department report released earlier this week found that between 2000 and 2008, agency staff members accepted tickets to sports events, lunches and other gifts from oil and gas companies and used government computers to view pornography. Polls show the public is souring on the administration's handling of the catastrophe, and Obama sought to assure Americans that the government is in control and deflect criticism that his administration has left BP in charge. My job right now is just to make sure everybody in the Gulf understands: This is what I wake up to in the morning, and this is what I go to bed at night thinking about. The spill, he said. Obama said he would end the scandalously close relationship between regulators and the oil companies they oversee. He also extended a freeze on new deepwater oil drilling and canceled or delayed proposed lease sales in the waters off Alaska and Virginia and along the Gulf Coast. Fishermen, hotel and restaurant owners, politicians and residents along the 100-mile stretch of Gulf coast affected by the spill are fed up with BP's failures to stop the spill. Thick oil is coating birds and delicate wetlands in Louisiana. Charlotte Randolph, president of Louisiana's Lafourche Parish, one of the coastal parishes affected by the spill, said: I mean, it's wearing on everybody in this coastal region. You see it in people's eyes. You see it. We need to stop the flow.Tourism is dead. Fishing is dead. We're dying a slow death,she added. The Coast Guard approved portions of Louisiana's $350 million plan to ring its coastline with a wall of sand meant to keep out the oil. Associated Press Writers Seth Borenstein, Matthew Brown, Jason Dearen, Andrew Taylor and Matthew Daly contributed to this report.

Arresting images of oil spill help drive story By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer - MAY 28,10 4:30AM

NEW YORK – For many following the news, the Gulf oil spill was an important but abstract story — until live video became widely available showing plumes of oil gushing into the water at a furious pace, hour after hour and day after day.The undersea images were first seen publicly late last week and television news networks have used it more as this week goes on. CNN and MSNBC executives debated internally whether to keep the feed constantly on the corner of their screens, much like they do with menacing maps of approaching hurricanes. On Thursday, the videos allowed experts and laymen alike to evaluate whether BP's latest attempt to plug the leak by shooting mud into the well appeared to be working. It was hard to tell, but also hard to look away.The video has become part of the story, and has increased the attention that news executives and news consumers are paying to the spill, said Bill Wolff, vice president of prime-time programming at MSNBC. The first pictures showed oil blackening the clear water around it like an out-of-control fire churning smoke into a clear sky.It's an amazing, startling, shocking, arresting and upsetting picture that is impossible to ignore, Wolff said.PBS' Newshour converted a video feed from BP to make it work on most Web browsers and has made that available for free. More than 3,000 websites have linked to it. On Thursday alone, more than one million people watched the video through that PBS feed, said Anne Bell, the show's spokeswoman.Subscribers to the Newshour channel on YouTube doubled in 24 hours, she said.

U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, the chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, was instrumental in pushing BP PLC to make the video feed public. He said that has helped to pressure BP to work with more urgency to stop the leak and to own up to the magnitude of the spill. BP spokesman Graham MacEwen denied the pictures had anything to do with making the company work harder to plug the flow of oil.BP didn't make the video available until more than three weeks after the spill. President Barack Obama said Thursday his administration sought the release, but should have pushed them sooner.The company has up to a dozen camera views available from near the leak, with the help of undersea vehicles positioned there. The company's primary concern was to use the images to evaluate what should be done to stop the leak, MacEwen said.I don't think it was a case of us trying to cover it up, he said.Markey's office became aware of the underseas footage through a snippet posted on YouTube that had apparently been provided by BP to government authorities. The first video was publicly released by BP after Markey sent the company a letter May 19.At the same time, CNN was trying with little success to get its own pictures of the spill, said Nancy Lane, senior vice president of editorial for CNN U.S.
Undersea rovers rented by the news organization were prevented by the U.S. Coast Guard from getting close enough for a good view, she said. CNN was able to get close enough to see damage done to coral reefs by the oil, she said.Somebody needed to be the eyes and ears somewhat independent of the story to make a judgment about what is really going on there, Lane said.We kept pressing for access and we keep pressing for access.With television news organizations restricted to showing the after-effects of the spill, Lane said CNN sensed viewers were starting to lose interest in the story.

That has quickly changed. The New York Times' Maureen Dowd called it the plume of doom — a symbol of national impotence.While BP made one camera view of the leak widely available to the public, more extensive views have been limited to congressional offices, prompting CNN to take cameras to these offices to record the images off their computers, she said.BP also said on Tuesday that it would black out video during its latest fix effort this week, but backed down after protest from the Obama administration. It's easy to see why a company already suffering through a public relations crisis wouldn't want these pictures out, said Dan Fagin, head of the environmental journalism program at New York University. The gusher is a powerful image that conveys what's happening in a sense that pictures of oil near marshlands can't, he said. While BP and environmentalists and oceanographers argue about how many gallons are leaking out, a regular viewer can look at this and say, who cares? It's a massive amount of oil and that's all I really need to know,he said.It makes the intangible tangible.

Gulf spill surpasses Valdez; plug try going well By GREG BLUESTEIN and SETH BORENSTEIN, Associated Press Writers - MAY 27,10

COVINGTON, La. – An untested procedure to plug the blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico seemed to be working, officials said Thursday, but new estimates showed the spill has already surpassed the Exxon Valdez as the worst in U.S. history.A team of scientists trying to determine how much oil has been flowing since the offshore rig Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20 and sank two days later found the rate was more than twice and possibly up to five times as high as previously thought.The fallout from the spill has stretched all the way to Washington, where the head of the federal agency that oversees offshore drilling resigned Thursday and President Barack Obama insisted his administration, not BP, was calling the shots. His comments marked a change in emphasis from earlier administration assertions that the government was overseeing the operation.As for the spill, even using the most conservative estimate, the leak has grown to nearly 18 million gallons over the past five weeks. In the worst case scenario, if 39 million gallons has spilled, the oil would fill enough jugs to stretch from the Louisiana marshes to Prince William Sound in Alaska. That's where the Exxon Valdez ran aground in 1989, spilling nearly 11 million gallons.

Now we know the true scale of the monster we are fighting in the Gulf, said Jeremy Symons, vice president of the National Wildlife Federation. BP has unleashed an unstoppable force of appalling proportions.BP and the Coast Guard estimated soon after the explosion that about 210,000 gallons a day was leaking, but scientists who watched underwater video of well had been saying for weeks it was probably more.U.S. Geological Survey Director Marcia McNutt said two different teams of scientists calculated the well has been spewing between 504,000 and more than a million gallons a day.BP spokesman Steve Rinehart said the previous estimate came from industry experts and scientists based on the best data available at the time. Asked for the company's response to the new numbers, he replied: It does not and will not change the response. We are going all out on our response.

Gulf awaits word on latest bid to plug oil leak By BEN NUCKOLS and GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writers - MAY 27 3:30AM

ROBERT, La. – If oil stops flowing to the surface in the Gulf of Mexico, BP officials will know that their latest effort to plug a blown-out undersea well off the Louisiana coast was successful.BP PLC was pumping heavy mud into the leaking well, and executives said Wednesday night that there had been no problems so far. Still, BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward said engineers would not know until at least Thursday afternoon whether the latest remedy was having some success.The absence of any news is good news, said Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, who is overseeing the operation. He added: It's a wait and see game here right now, so far nothing unfavorable.If the risky procedure, known as a top kill, stops the flow, BP would then inject cement into the well to seal it. The top kill has worked above ground but has never before been tried 5,000 feet beneath the sea. BP pegged its chance of success at 60 to 70 percent.We're doing everything we can to bring it to closure, and actually we're executing this top kill job as efficiently and effectively as we can, BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said.Fishermen, hotel and restaurant owners, politicians and residents along the coast are fed up with BP's failures to stop the oil that is coating Louisiana's marshes and the wildlife that relies on them. The anger has turned toward President Barack Obama and his administration. Polls show the public is souring on their handling of the catastrophe.Sarah Rigaud, owner of Sarah's Restaurant in Grand Isle is tired and nervous. The oil has to be stopped, she said.The tourists won't come, Rigaud said Wednesday, serving lunch to a half-full restaurant of mostly oil workers and local politicians who are worrying themselves.It makes me very nervous. I have anxiety attacks, she said.Every day I pray that something happens, that it will be stopped and everybody can get back to normal.

The gusher, which has spewed 7 million gallons of crude by the most conservative tallies, began after an offshore drilling rig exploded April 20, killing 11 workers. Dozens of witness statements obtained by The Associated Press show a combination of equipment failure and a deference to the chain of command aboard the rig impeded the system that should have stopped the gusher before it became an environmental disaster.Additional leaks springing from the top kill solution were a grave risk, said Anil Kulkarni, a mechanical engineering professor at Penn State.One scenario is that it may make things worse, Kulkarni said.If it ruptures all over, then it would be even more difficult to close it.

Suttles said BP had not detected any new leaks as of Wednesday night.

He said within the next day, if oil stops flowing to the surface, then engineers will know the drilling fluid being pumped in was starting to work. Engineers were monitoring the well's pressure readings constantly to determine how much oil was escaping.If not, the company had several backup plans, including sealing the well's blowout preventer with a smaller cap, which would contain the oil. An earlier attempt to cap the blowout preventer failed. BP could also try a "junk shot" — shooting golf balls and other debris into the blowout preventer to clog it up — during the top kill process.Last week, the company inserted a mile-long tube to siphon some of the oil into a tanker. The tube sucked up 924,000 gallons of oil, but engineers had to dismantle it during the top kill.A permanent solution would be to drill a second well to stop the leak, but that was expected to take a couple months.

Some 100 miles of Louisiana coastline had been hit by the oil, the Coast Guard said.

When will they stop the oil and can they? They were questions on the lips of residents in Grand Isle at the bottom tip of Louisiana. Certainly there's hope. But the reality for us is that whether they cap it or not, we're still going to have an ecological and economic disaster down here, one that we don't know whether or not we'll be in a position to recover, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand said. In Pass a Loutre, the odor wafting above the oily water was that of an auto shop. There's no wildlife in Pass a Loutre. It's all dead,Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser said. Louisiana-raised Democratic strategist James Carville has been critical of the administration response and hoped Obama's visit Friday would change that. I think you're going to see some real action,once the president sees the oiled coast, Carville said. Associated Press writers Brian Skoloff in Grand Isle, La., Mike Kunzelman in New Orleans, Kevin McGill in Venice, Julie Pace in Fremont, Calif., and Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this story. Online:
http://globalwarming.house.gov/spillcam

BP's top kill underway in attempt to plug oil leak By GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writer - MAY 26 6:25PM

COVINGTON, La. – BP started pumping heavy mud into the leaking Gulf of Mexico well Wednesday, the company's boldest attempt yet to plug the gusher that has spewed millions of gallons of oil over the last five weeks.BP hoped the mud could overpower the steady stream of oil. The company wants to eventually inject cement into the well to permanently seal it.The stakes are high. Fisherman, hotel and restaurant owners, politicians and residents along the coast are fed up with BP's so far ineffective attempts to stop the oil leak that sprang after an offshore drilling rig exploded April 20. Eleven workers were killed, and by the most conservative estimate, 7 million gallons of crude have spilled into the Gulf, fouling Louisiana's marshes and coating birds and other wildlife.The top kill has worked above ground but has never before been tried 5,000 feet beneath the sea. Company officials peg its chance of success at 60 to 70 percent.President Barack Obama said there's no guarantees it will work. The president planned a trip to Louisiana on Friday.We're going to bring every resource necessary to put a stop to this thing, he said.

Meanwhile, dozens of witness statements obtained by The Associated Press show a combination of equipment failure and a deference to the chain of command impeded the system that should have stopped the gusher before it became an environmental disaster.In a handwritten statement to the Coast Guard obtained by the AP, Transocean rig worker Truitt Crawford said: I overheard upper management talking saying that BP was taking shortcuts by displacing the well with saltwater instead of mud without sealing the well with cement plugs, this is why it blew out.At a Coast Guard hearing in New Orleans, Doug Brown, chief rig mechanic aboard the platform, testified that the trouble began at a meeting hours before the blowout, with a skirmish between a BP official and rig workers who did not want to replace heavy drilling fluid in the well with saltwater.The switch presumably would have allowed the company to remove the fluid and use it for another project, but the seawater would have provided less weight to counteract the surging pressure from the ocean depths.Brown said the BP official, whom he identified only as the company man, overruled the drillers, declaring, This is how it's going to be. Brown said the top Transocean official on the rig grumbled,Well, I guess that's what we have those pinchers for,which he took to be a reference to devices on the blowout preventer, the five-story piece of equipment that can slam a well shut in an emergency.A live video stream Wednesday showed pictures of the blowout preventer, as well as the oil gushing out. At other times, the feed showed mud spewing out, but BP said this was not cause for alarm.A weak spot in the blowout preventer could blow under the pressure, causing a brand new leak.Gene Beck, a petroleum engineering professor at Texas A&M in College Station, said the endeavor would likely fail quickly if the mud could not overcome the pressure of the oil.The longer it goes, maybe the better news that is, Beck said.

Frustration with BP and the federal government has only grown since then as efforts to stop the leak have failed.Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser, both outspoken critics, led a boat tour around the oil-fouled delta near the mouth of the Mississippi River. Through the Mississippi's South Pass, there were miles-long passages that showed no indication of the oil, and the air smelled fresh and salty. Nearby fish were leaping and tiny seabirds dove into the water.But not far away at Pass a Loutre, the odor wafting above the oily water was that of an auto shop. We have yet to see a plan from the Coast Guard, a plan from BP, a plan to keep it from coming in, a plan to pick it up, Nungesser said of the oil.There's no wildlife in Pass a Loutre. It's all dead,Nungesser said.
Associated Press writers Mike Kunzelman and Kevin McGill in New Orleans, Jeff Donn in Boston, Julie Pace in Fremont, Calif., Ben Nuckols in Covington contributed to this story. Online: http://globalwarming.house.gov/spillcam

Public opinion turning against Obama on oil spill
MAY 26,10 5PM

The American public is losing its patience with President Obama over his handling of the Gulf Coast oil spill.In the five weeks since an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig sent hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico, Obama had largely escaped political fallout. But as BP attempts yet again to seal the leak, a new USA Today/Gallup Poll finds a majority of Americans unhappy with Obama's handling of the spill. According to the poll, 53 percent rate Obama's handling poor or very poor; 43 percent believe Obama is doing a good job.

Yet the poll also finds that the public tends to blame others in the mess more than it blames the White House. Asked broadly about the federal government's role, 60 percent rated the response poor.BP got the lowest marks: 73 percent of Americans gave the company's handling of the spill a poor rating. Still, a whopping 68 percent say BP should remain in charge of the cleanup.More than two-thirds of respondents called the gulf spill a disaster, and of them, 37 percent considered it the worst disaster in 100 years.Yet 52 percent of registered voters still support offshore drilling. That number is slightly down compared with other polls in recent weeks, including an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll this month in which nearly 60 percent of voters still agreed with offshore drilling.What will no doubt give the White House pause is the shifting public sentiment on Obama's handling of the spill. Earlier this month, the president seemed to be escaping most of the public wrath over the disaster. An Associated Press poll released May 13 found mostly good-to-neutral marks for Obama's role in the mess: 42 percent approved, 33 percent disapproved and 21 percent said they were neutral.But with the leak still unplugged and the economic and environmental impact only worsening, the White House has increasingly come under fire for not doing enough to handle the cleanup and control the spill. That includes criticism both from Republicans including Sarah Palin, who tried to make an issue of BP's donations to Obama's presidential campaign, and Democratic allies like James Carville, who slammed Obama for being too hands off.

Broken down along party lines: 63 percent of Democrats believe Obama is doing a good job on the spill, while 68 percent of Republicans rate the president's job as poor. Among independent voters — the voting bloc credited most for Obama's victory in 2008 — 58 percent describe Obama's job on the spill as poor.White House officials aren’t unaware of the shift. In recent days, they’ve stepped up their media strategy in response to the spill. Tomorrow, Obama will hold his first full-fledged news conference in nearly a year to take questions on the issue. And Friday, he is scheduled to make his second visit to the Gulf.Will it be enough to placate an increasingly frustrated public?— Holly Bailey is a senior political writer for Yahoo! News.

AP Exclusive: Workers describe failures on oil rig By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, MIKE BAKER and JEFF DONN, Associated Press Writers - MAY 26,10 6:40PM

NEW ORLEANS – As the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig burned around him, Chris Pleasant hesitated, waiting for approval from his superiors before activating the emergency disconnect system that was supposed to slam the oil well shut at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.The delay may have cost critical seconds. When Pleasant and his co-workers at rig owner Transocean finally got the go-ahead to throw the so-called deadman's switch, they realized there was no hydraulic power to operate the machinery.Five weeks after the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers, the blown-out well continues to gush oil, pouring at least 7 million gallons of crude into the Gulf.Dozens of witness statements obtained by The Associated Press show a combination of equipment failure and a deference to the chain of command impeded the system that should have stopped the gusher before it became an environmental disaster.On Wednesday, BP launched its latest bid to plug the well, force-feeding it heavy drilling mud in a technique known as a top kill. Officials said it could be days before they know if it worked, and President Barack Obama cautioned there are no guarantees.

At a Coast Guard hearing that started earlier this month and continued in New Orleans on Wednesday, Doug Brown, chief rig mechanic aboard the platform, testified that the trouble began at a meeting hours before the blowout, with a skirmish between a BP official and rig workers who did not want to replace heavy drilling fluid in the well with saltwater.The switch presumably would have allowed the company to remove the fluid and use it for another project, but the seawater would have provided less weight to counteract the surging pressure from the ocean depths.

Brown said the BP official, whom he identified only as the company man, overruled the drillers, declaring, This is how it's going to be. Brown said the top Transocean official on the rig grumbled,Well, I guess that's what we have those pinchers for, which he took to be a reference to devices on the blowout preventer, the five-story piece of equipment that can slam a well shut in an emergency.In a handwritten statement to the Coast Guard obtained by the AP, Transocean rig worker Truitt Crawford said: I overheard upper management talking saying that BP was taking shortcuts by displacing the well with saltwater instead of mud without sealing the well with cement plugs, this is why it blew out.

BP declined to comment on his statement.A congressional memo about a BP internal investigation said that tests less than an hour before the well blew out found a buildup of pressure that was an indicator of a very large abnormality. Still, the rig team was satisfied that another test was successful and resumed adding the seawater, said the memo by Reps. Henry Waxman and Bart Stupak to members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which is investigating.There were other signs of problems, including an unexpected loss of fluid from a pipe known as a riser five hours before the explosion that could have indicated a leak in the blowout preventer.The witness statements show that rig workers talked just minutes before the blowout about pressure problems in the well. At first, nobody seemed too worried, with Transocean chief mate David Young leaving two workers to handle the difficulty on their own and telling them to call when he was needed. The well site leader worked in his office. Then panic set in.Workers called their bosses to report that the well was coming in and that they were getting mud back. The drilling supervisor, Jason Anderson, tried to shut down the well.

It didn't work.

At least two explosions turned the rig into an inferno. Crew members were hurled through walls, doors flew through the air and the living quarters blew apart. Workers stumbled across a bloody, dark deck, trying to pull debris off the injured.
Brown said that as he waited beside a lifeboat for the order to abandon ship, he witnessed complete chaos, mayhem. People were screaming, people were crying. Rig leaders struggled to comprehend the magnitude of what was happening. An emergency generator wouldn't start.Steve Bertone, the chief engineer for Transocean, wrote in his witness statement that he ran up the bridge and heard the captain screaming at a worker for pressing the distress button. Bertone turned to Pleasant, who was manning the emergency disconnect system, and asked whether it had been engaged. Pleasant told Bertone that he needed approval first, according to Bertone's sworn statement. Another manager tried to give the go-ahead, but someone else said the order needed to come from the rig's offshore installation manager. Ultimately who gave the order is a matter of dispute. Donald Vidrine, well site leader for BP, said he did it. But Bertone said it was Jimmy Harrell of Transocean. By the time the workers obtained the approval and got started, Pleasant said he got all the electronic signals but no flow on meters, meaning hydraulic fluid wasn't flowing to close the valves on the blowout preventer. Darryl Bourgoyne, a petroleum engineer at Louisiana State University, said a valve could have been broken or hydraulic fluid could have leaked earlier.

It is not clear whether the delay could have contributed to the system's failure to close off the well and snuff out the fire. The rig burned for two days before finally collapsing in the Gulf. Gene Beck, a petroleum engineer at Texas A&M at College Station, said companies typically have criteria that allow any worker to engage the system if problems get bad enough. It's hard for me to imagine the situation where there's been a fire and an explosion and someone can't make that decision to hit the disconnect on their own, he said. Workers elsewhere on the rig were having problems of their own. Some were told the situation was under control, even though it was absolutely not, said Yancy Keplinger, a senior crew member. Benjamin LaCroix, a tank cleaner, said walls and ceilings were caving in and workers were running for their lives, and yet rig officials wanted to do a roll call. A couple of workers described a debate about whether they should be in lifeboats. Once workers finally started getting into the boats, it took several minutes to persuade officials to start lowering them. Once they did, the operator didn't know how to detach a boat from the rig. It was only by the GRACE OF GOD that we didn't burn to death,LaCroix told investigators. Baker reported from Raleigh, N.C. Donn reported from Boston. Associated Press Writers Greg Bluestein in Covington, La., and Alan Sayre in Kenner, La., contributed to this report.