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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: i-node who wrote (572579)	6/19/2010 5:14:46 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1579127

Rs sometimes can be very precocious. ;-) GOP STEPS ON ITS OWN 'SHAKEDOWN' TALKING POINT.... It's hard to see how Wednesday's meeting at the White House could have gone much better. President Obama met with BP executives, told them how it was going to be, and BP quickly agreed. The result: a $20 billion pot of money that will bring much-needed help to workers, businesses, and families who've been victimized by a devastating oil spill. The Republican response was quick: the relief fund is outrageous. The matter, the GOP said, should have been resolved in the courts. Obama pressuring BP on Americans' behalf was evidence of a "shakedown" and "extortion," which might have even been "illegal." How dare the president step up to secure needed funding for struggling families and small businesses in the region. The nerve. Hell, one key Republican official even apologized to BP for Obama strong-arming the oil giant into setting the money aside. Yesterday, though, the Republican message seemed to shift a bit, at least in some corners. What was initially deemed an outrageous presidential abuse turned into a GOP idea that Obama shouldn't take credit for. Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), for example, issued a statement yesterday implicitly arguing that there couldn't have been a shakedown, since BP intended to put $20 billion into the escrow fund before the White House meeting. "The true outrage," Franks said, "is that this was never the President's idea at all." It wasn't just Franks. On Thursday, Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao told me that he pressed BP on the fund idea a month ago, inspired by the example of Exxon after its 1989 spill off the coast of Alaska. And on Friday I talked with Ray McKinney, another engineer, who is running for Congress in Georgia against Rep. John Barrow (D-Ga.). McKinney stressed that there was no serious disagreement about the escrow issue, and said Democrats were concocting a political debate when all that mattered was making BP pay and investigating the disaster. First, there was considerable disagreement about the escrow issue, since the entire Republican establishment quickly rose up to trash the agreement, loudly and publicly. Second, this new message completely invalidates the first. Simultaneously, we have Republicans saying Obama extorted the money out of BP and that BP agreed to the payment before Obama walked into the room. The president's efforts were scandalous, some Republicans are arguing, but the effort was a GOP idea. Can't anybody here play this game? Just pick a message and go with it.

To: i-node who wrote (572579)	6/20/2010 4:55:27 PM
From: combjelly	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1579127

"I've condemned MANY Republicans for their actions before they were convicted" Like? You usually don't even condemn a Republican after they are convicted, you usually claim you know nothing about the conviction. Like, for example, Bruce Cunningham. Or all of those who got caught up in the Abramoff scandal. "but only when the guilt was self-evident -- which isn't the case with BP. " Uh, actually it is pretty clear that BP is guilty. They violated many safety protocols, that is pretty clear. Conclusions Well Planning * The hanger was run without a lock ring. Pressures from gas leaking up from the producing formation could have provided sufficient pressure to move the hanger and affect seal integrity. There was no lock ring or secondary seal (pack off) to prevent this. * Hanger was only a single barrier—the cement was and could not be tested. * Gas from the annulus getting past the hanger seal was the most likely source of the kick and subsequent blowout. Policy & Procedure * The method of conducting the inflow or draw-down test in conjunction with displacement of the well from weighted mud to seawater is suspect at best, and possibly fundamentally flawed. Basic Rig Practices * The inflow/draw down test did not appear to offer satisfactory results, and also took place over a relatively short period of time. * During the displacement of the well to seawater, volume, flow show and pressure anomalies were evident but did not result in the well being shut in in a timely manner. * Even after there were some indications that all was not well, pumping operations continued. Returns were dumped and the return flow meter was bypassed,so the rig was effectively blind until things started to get quite serious. * When the well was shut in, the drill pipe safety valve or IBOP was not closed in time to stop rapid rise in pressure getting back to the pumps and probably blowing the pressure relief valves. theoildrum.com