From the transcript:

[T]he stuff that did not work back then is the same stuff that hasn’t worked now.  Same busted blowout preventer, same ineffective berm, same underwater plumes, same toxic dispersants, same failed containment domes, same junk shot, same top kill – it’s all the same technology.

The Ixtoc well, which couldn’t be plugged for nine months, was in roughly 200 feet of water.  Now, in 2010, we’re using the same exact techniques to try to plug a well that leaking in 5,000 feet of water…

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It’s worth noting that lessons of the Ixtoc I disaster – the largest oil spill in history – haven’t been lost on everyone.  Canada, for example, requires oil drillers to demonstrate their ability to drill relief wells “in the same season as the original well…” according to a source cited by NPR.

Incidentally, the NPR post also illustrates that BP “sought to ease Canada’s policy” within a month of the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf.  According to a June 4 Vancouver Sun post, BP’s lobbying effort was effective as the relatively modest precautionary language is absent from newly released regulatory policy.

As it stands, the recent “top hat” mechanism deployed by BP captures some of the oil flowing into the Gulf.  Their relief wells — two are being drilled because, as was the case with the Ixtoc I, initial efforts aren’t always successful — slowed by a lack of preparedness, won’t reach the necessary depth until August.

Related Reading:

• Reuters, May 24 – BP’s Gulf battle echoes monster ’79 Mexico oil spill

And, unrelated to the Ixtoc, but here’s some spot on satire, if you fancy it:

• The Onion, June 7 – Massive flow of bullshit continues to gush from BP Headquarters

                          

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Think Progress reports that Virginia isn’t the only state harboring nostalgia for the Confederacy —  Both Mississippi And Georgia Have Confederate History Proclamations Without Any Mention of Slavery.

                          

Crossposted at Care2.com ~ Originally published 6 March 2010

President Barack Obama outlined his administration’s proposal Wednesday, seeking to bring reform of the American health care system to a successful conclusion.  Considering  the recent spurious criticisms from reform opponents, it appears that, indeed, the arduous process of steering health care reform through Congress may well be nearing its end.

It’s really only become apparent in the last week or so.  Leading up to and during the White House bipartisan health care summit, Republican politicians have repeatedly acknowledged the need for reform, but that Democrats should scrap their health care bills and “start over.”

Meanwhile, the Democrats began to show some spine leading up to the summit, signaling their willingness to use the budget reconciliation process to pass reform, if necessary.  Consequently, Republicans’ concerns over the use of reconciliation became more prominent within their media talking points, and at the Blair House summit where the issue was frequently raised. Since the summit’s conclusion, however, GOP concerns over reconciliation have evolved into what appears to be panic.

Republicans are decrying the potential use of the parliamentary measure, attempting to gloss over the GOP’s historical record, having happily employed the measure when it suited them.

Further, in their attempts to rationalize their hypocrisy — insisting that the pending health care legislation is beyond the parameters of reconciliation — they have engaged in a campaign of historical revisionism.  Senator Orin Hatch (R-UT) wrote an op-ed, published Mar. 2 in the increasingly subjective Washington Post, is a prime example of how Republicans are falsely framing the historical use of reconciliation.

Regarding Hatch’s opinion piece, Steve Benen of The Washington Monthlywrites, “Hatch is simply and unambiguously wrong.  And the Post published his demonstrably false arguments anyway…” From Benen’s Political Animal blog, Mar. 2:

The whole pitch is absurd to the point of being insulting. Hatch has repeatedly supported up-or-down votes on legislation large and small. Indeed, he thought it was a great idea for delivering massive tax breaks for the rich — packages that cost far more than health care reform now — but whines incessantly when Dems consider the same procedure to pass a modest fix related to health care.

Hatch really ought to be embarrassed.

But Hatch, and those who mimic his intellectually dishonest argument, aren’t embarrassed, as Rachel Maddow deftly explains in this clip from her Mar. 2 MSNBC broadcast:

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Adding emphasis to his lack of shame, Hatch tweeted his response to Maddow’s damning assessment.  Here’s his tweet by way of PoliticusUSA:

@maddow ran me down on her show last night over my views on health care reform. Wonderful badge of honor.

However, if you watched the above clip you’d know that Maddow’s assessment had nothing to do with his “views.”  Rather, as Maddow indicated in her response tweet, it was Hatch’s misstating of the facts which were at issue.

Sadly, no matter how plainly the GOP’s efforts to falsely frame reconciliation are laid out, they’ll continue beyond the bill’s passage.  And, as Maddow put it in the above clip, “It’s going to pass.”

What I’m struggling with is, how could Republicans expect anything different from the Democrats?  It seems to me that consistently obstructing Democratic efforts on health care — and everything else, for that matter, guaranteed that reconciliation would be used.

They’ve already telegraphed their intentions to use health reform’s passage as a campaign issue in the 2010 midterms, asserting that using reconciliation will cost the Democrats votes.  However, wouldn’t a failure by the Democrats to use any means at their disposal to conclude a year’s worth of work cost them more?

Frankly, the GOP needs to get over it.  I think is was Jon Stewart who put it best.  Following Obama’s 2008 election to the presidency, Stewart reminded the already whining congressional Repbulicans of what their electoral losses meant.  “You’re in the minority,” Stewart said.  “It’s supposed to taste like a s#!t sandwich.”

See Also:

• Igor Volsky, “Republicans ‘Agree On About 80% Of the Issues,’ But Want to ‘Start Over’ on Health Reform.“  ThinkProgress.org, 26 February 2010.
• Watch Rachel Maddow’s March 3 follow up segment regarding her tiff with Sen. Hatch at MSNBC‘s site.

                          

Weiner is awesome, of course, but Maddow concludes the below clip stating America’s health care reform dilemma in manner so rational that, in my opinion, it should give the staunchest reform cynic pause.

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*Sigh*  I really wish the Democrats would have let Weiner attend today’s health care reform “summit.”

                          

The below clip is from her final 2009 broadcast.  Within it, Maddow gives a fantastic explanation for why the shadowy fringe of right-wing politics should be subjected to constant scrutiny.

                          

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Maddow aptly assesses that the ‘Bush Legacy Project’ is on a fools errand.  Thanks, in part, to the “Google Machine” and the “Internets,” it will be extremely difficult for the  administration to polish the turd that was the Bush presidency.

Rachel is such a gem.  If you’ve got about ten minutes to spare, view the below clip.

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