I agree 100% with everything you just said here IC. There is some kind of craziness going on out in the Gulf, I believe this could have been stopped after the first day they learned of the leak not weeks and weeks later still trying to stop it!!!!!! I am so lost as to the WHY of it ALL...................:confused:

if you think back to the debate of whether or not to allow off-shore drilling, one of the questions that came up was: and what happens when it goes wrong.

the "industry" of course assured everyone they would be ready ready and capable to handle any such event. those individuals should be located and put in jail, right along side the bureaucrats who had the responsibility to see that these companies were ready and able.

and think about your local friendly politician next time you vote. where was their opinion / insistence that safeguards exist - next time they go into their spiel about how hard they worked for you and how they're the right one because of all their experience, given they record of the current politician crop, perhaps we need less experience.

as for the Dutch offer, very kind. they have _eight_ people and _four_ pieces of equipment - the equipment is so huge, they put it on a airplane and fly it around. there are 1,200 vessels engaged in the cleanup. I don't think four Dutch skimmers could make a lot of difference.

lemme see, 60,000+ sq miles involved, that's 1,691,744,947,200 sq feet or 38,837,120 acres.
assume the skimmer booms have a 200 ft wide path and can be deployed at 5 knots.
one skimmer could cover roughly 130 acres per day, times 4 skimmers say 500 acres per day.

38,837,120 acres at 500 acres / day = 77,674 calendar days for four skimmers to cover the area once. and the oil has not stopped yet.

Fines: a company is not a person - you can't put a company in jail. there's nothing but fines for punishment. the unfortunate part of fines and compensatory (legal) damages is the law that says the amount cannot be such that the company is put out of business. we need to put some of these companies out of business.

and I see no problem with the government getting the fines - the government will be picking up the "incidentals" tab for decades to come. the fisherman can't fish - so he gets compensation for lost income. but the boat yard where he docks doesn't need to repair anything, and sells very little fuel, so they lay-off their help. well, unemployment and the wife's wage don't cover the bills so those folks go on public assistance / welfare - the trickle down effect, in negative motion.

whatever the fine turns out to be, it is not big enough.

"I see no problem with the government getting the fines - the government will be picking up the "incidentals" tab for decades to come."

The Government will not be picking up the Tab for anything, the Tax payers will. How many trillions of dollars in dept are we now to China. Do you really think a Government fine will fix anything?

Wacovia Bank for years was laundering money for the drug cartels. Oh a fine will teach them. OK. Wacovia had over 8 billion dollars of drug monies go through their banks. The fine???? 160 million. I'm sorry but 160 million is chump change in the banking industry.

I would say that if a fine was to be set against BP, That money has already been spent by the politicians on some off the wall project like building tree houses for tree frogs in Burbank Alaska.

Clean it up and make BP pay for it. If they cry poverty, confiscate every Service/gas station they own in this country and kick them out of it. Every sale of property they owned should go towards the clean up efforts and not into the hands of one single politician or lawyer... Within a 20 mile radius of me there are 8 BP stations on prime rel estate.. #1 grade commercial property here would probably bring in several million. Do that every where in The US and it would sure bring in more than any fine would.

Oh, have to throw in all the stock holders too. If they can profit from a company doing well, then they should suffer when there is a problem. fine them, lol.

:DLOL, I love it IC!!! You really have a knack for speaking loud & clear and making a Terrific point! Thank you for the terrific laugh, during this otherwise totally unlaughable event unfolding in our beautiful Gulf of Mexico!