Obama's Chernobyl, or Can You Say Criminal Negligence?

   That, my friends, is what this mess in the Gulf of Mexico is turning into.
   Today, http://bbc.co.uk reports that a worker did so see a leak in the blowout preventer (BOP), reported it to his supervisor, who in turn sent it up the chain of command. All that needed to be done was to switch over to a secondary BOP. No interruptions in production. Just hit a switch, and none of this would have happened.
    But no. Someone dropped the ball, and now BP, Transocean, and Halliburton are pointing fingers at one another in a circle blame game. President Obama is doing what he can, even if it's as a result of the foot of the opinion polls in his pants (are there no candidates who decline contributions from the oil companies? Like Ralph Nader? Or why I am likely to change my party affiliation to Green.)
    So while the rhetoric floats like so many tar balls, we are faced with two very real, very possible problems: that the oil will ride currents to many other shores, and that the rapidly emptying well could become a sinkhole.
      I've added my prayers and visualizations. Is there anything that can stop this and clean it up?

Let Only Good Come Of This

I wish I didn't remember the scenes of Tianamen Square so vivdly. We were returning from vacation, and the first tv news we saw covered the military crackdown on the protesters who'd taken up camp there.
I wish I could watch the scenes from Tehran without that floating to my memory's surface. Last week, they had what passed for a presidential election. The incumbant, Mamood Ahdminijad(sp?) had been declared winner despite exit polls to the contrary. Since this weekend, daily footage of protests, peaceful and otherwise, have had their thirty to sixty seconds on US network news outlets. International coverage from the BBC and France 24 has been more in-depth.
I wish that only good comes of this situation. Truth always comes out; it just sometimes takes longer than on would want. The good may have to come in the form of external pressure, or it may have to come in the form of internal reforms. So far, there have been reports of eight deaths in skirmishes with police. May only good come of them.