There is a lot of good writing being done on the oil catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico.  I can’t be down there right now, so below is a story from someone who is there, someone who is also using twitter to spread the news of the situation there.  Mac McLelland writes for Mother Jones.  This was a Twitter message from today:

“That’s it. Grand Isle is totally enveloped in gas fumes. The smell is completely nauseating and inescapable.” (2 hrs. ago) I’ve copy/pasted several tweets from the last 3 days (on comment page) for those not on Twitter.”

BP’s oil is destroying everything in its path.

BP has become an obstructing, criminal organization that does not believe the people of the United States deserve the truth about how bad the oil leak is, and continues to be.  Their CEO said the other day that he thinks the environmental damage will be moderate.  He could not be more wrong or maybe he’s being dishonest on purpose.   So, that’s  why I’ll be reprinting some eye witness reports from the Gulf region about the leak in the next few days.  The ‘top kill’  procedure began today, and they won’t know for a day or two whether it worked.  Divers did diagnostic tests before the procedure began and if there is a weak spot in the blowout preventor, the weak spot could blow, causing a new leak. The mud being used could also tear a new hole in the leaking well pipe, according to reports today.  There is no guarantee this won’t make the situation worse.

If this doesn’t work, BP has other ideas to stop up their leaking oil volcano, but none of them are tested methods, and none of them are guaranteed to work. We might be experiencing an oil gusher for months, even years.  This situation is beyond a catastrophe. Adding to the oil are hundreds of thousands of gallons of toxic dispersants, which are designed to hide the amount of oil that has been spilled.   The U.S. government has had planes spraying this stuff in the water for weeks and only in the last two-3 days it has quit doing this.

Read the following for an example of how BP is trying to remain in control, hide the truth about how bad it is, and push reporters and even the U.S. government away while it continues to screw up and fumble around for solutions.  They need to get out of the way, at this point.

“It’s BP’s Oil” — by Mac McLelland

Elmer’s Island Wildlife Refuge, even after all the warnings, looks worse than I imagined. Pools of oil black and deep stretch down the beach; when cleanup workers drag their rakes along an already-cleaned patch of sand, more auburn crude oozes up. Beneath the surface lie slimy washed-up globules that, one worker says, are “so big you could park a car on them.”

It’s Saturday, May 22nd, a month [...]