An explosion has torn through an offshore oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, west of the site of the blast in April that caused a huge oil spill.
The blast, which threw 13 people into the water, was reported by a helicopter company at 0930 local time (1330 GMT).
The platform, which caught fire, was not producing oil or gas, the Department of Homeland Security said.
The blast occurred around 130km (80 miles) south of Vermilion Bay along the central Louisiana coast.
Helicopters, boats and aircraft were sent to the site.
Immersion suits
All 13 workers who fell into the Gulf are accounted for and have been transported to another platform by an oil support vessel, the Coast Guard said. One person is reportedly injured.
The platform is owned by Mariner Energy and is located off the Louisiana coast
Before being rescued by the support boats, all 13 workers were given special immersion suits to protect them from the water, said Coast Guard chief petty officer John Edwards.
The federal government was prepared to respond to the situation if there had been reports of pollution, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
Mr Gibbs added that President Barack Obama was in a national security meeting, and he was unaware if the president was informed of the blast.
The platform is owned by Mariner Energy and is located in shallow water, approximately 340ft (105m) from the floor of the Gulf.
“Right now we’re focused on search and rescue and then, ultimately, as this thing progresses we’re going to be looking into the cause,” Mr Edwards said.
Mariner Energy Spokesman Patrick Cassidy told the CNN TV network the blast occurred “quite a ways away” from any wells.
Mr Cassidy confirmed the platform was not in production at the time of the explosion.
The structure had been undergoing maintenance activities prior to the blast, said Melissa Schwartz, spokeswoman for Bureau of Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement.
Seven Coast Guard helicopters, two planes, and three boats were sent to the site of the explosion from the states of Louisiana, Texas, and Alabama.
Coast Guard helicopters did not spot any oil floating around the burning platform, said Coast Guard fireman Katherine McNamara.
The latest explosion comes more than four months after an blast ripped through a Deepwater Horizon rig run by BP, causing about hundreds of million gallons of oil to be released into the Gulf of Mexico.
This photo (sorry about the quality) was delivered to me by a brave little pelican which he took 3 days ago,bless his heart. This is just a small glimpse of miles of dead rotting fish being ignored and dismissed by “BP” affiliates in lower Plaquemines Parish. Many types of fish are floating on the water off South Pass @ the mouth of the Mississippi River at (Garden Island). Surface “OIL” is also covering our waterways @ Main Pass and Passaloutre and there is oil creeping up Main Pass as I type this. I wish I had a photo of the oil but for some “mysterious reason” many boats were grounded today and my little pelican didn’t make it to the scene. BP is telling us the oil is gone…Yeah right, ok, whatever you say! Are they wearing blinders instead of safety glasses? BP is ignoring this and they expect our fisherman to do the same.We need these bayous and marshlands. The dispersants are killing our fish,and making the oil sink, SO IT’S NOT SEEN! Well, I guess it’s time to spray again BP because it’s surfacing! Our hired fishing boats are getting layed off but there’s cleanup to be done!! C’mon now…this is our way of life,our living,our future.Please,do something already!!!!!
Coast Guard Admiral sent a letter to Louisiana’s St. Tammany Parish official, “Kevin Davis ” flexing the Big Government muscle, (3rd video). The Admiral threatened to arrest Davis for drafting an executive order that would force the oil spill clean-up equipment to stay put until the end of the 2010 hurricane season. Davis was simply trying to protect the interest of his parish until they can be better prepared with out Federal assistance.
So let the military start to arrest those that defy the Obama-Zombies start to happen. Can you say, ‘Posse Coma tadas’ ? Once we start to see people “Disappeared” what will you do then? Do not forget Obama can have you jailed and held for a time that may NEVER be determined, with no access to friends family or an attorney. You have no rights at all!
Or� he may simply decide to have you assassinated. He now has that RIGHT according to his new way of administering the laws and executive orders of his Big Government wealth redistribution machine.
Barack Obama says the oil spill is over, which means Louisiana cannot continue to access the $20 billion fund to fight the oil spill on their beaches. This may be payback to BP for some nice campaign contributions made to Obama for the 2008 election cycle that helped launch him into the 44th presidential reign. The first post American President. Barack Obama is a Socialist Marxist president.
Senator Jane Cunningham and supporters watch the results in Missouri.
It’s not going to take very long either. With the mood in the country going from angry to ugly, other states are considering similar laws of their own, given the resentment that was pretty much universally present when Harry, Nancy and Obama pushed an illegitimate, vast and ill-considered morass of close to 3,000 pages of absolute political psycho-babble through, against the specific wishes of the vast majority of the American people. All the king’s horses and all the king’s spin couldn’t cram that genie back in the bottle.
The American people, constantly reminded by the National Patriot movement, haven’t gone back into their between-elections somnambulism. They are remembering… and remembering every cheap and unconstitutional stunt the Demarxist Clown College has perpetrated. Putting it mildly, they are peed. No amount of Bush-hating vituperation will buy the MaoBama Demarxists out of this one.
The lies and spin are falling flat, and the Missouri Law passed by the astounding rate of 70%. Arizona, Tennessee, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Ohio and Oklahoma, to mention a few, but altogether there are twenty nine states contemplating similar laws. Perhaps, someday, when the history of the new American revolution is written, they will say that Arizona and Missouri fired the first shots across Obama’s bow.
Another Democrat incumbent went down in flames again today as Democrat Representative Carolyn Kilpatrick of Michigan was soundly defeated in the Democrat primary.
Yes, the country is in a very anti-incumbent mood.
We need to see Obama’s job-killing victims in the streets every day.
Make your voices, faces, stories heard, seen, and re-told often.
Thousands stood up today in Louisiana. How about you?:
The crowd, many wearing T-shirts with slogans like “Drill Baby Drill,” and “No Moratorium,” began streaming into the Lafayette Cajundome as soon as the doors opened, eager to show their support for ending the federal offshore drilling moratorium.
Tuesday’s gathering, billed as the “Rally for Economic Survival,” was set in the heart of Louisiana’s oil patch.
Thousands stood in silence as the names of the victims of the Deepwater Horizon explosion appeared on the stadium’s big screens. But they were rarely silent after that – cheering every statement against the moratorium.
It was standing room only in Lafayette Louisiana’s Cajundome as the 15,000-20,000 people assembled for the Rally for Economic Survival. Attendees called for common sense action by the federal government to lift the moratorium and send them back to work.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal fired the crowd up and said that Louisianans “don’t want a check from BP, and don’t want an unemployment check from the federal government”. Instead he noted that Louisianans just want to “go back to work”.
Lt. Governor Scott Angelle highlighted the important role that oil and natural gas play in the U.S. economy. He said, from 2005 to2007, the oil and gas industry paid $222 billion in taxes and $23 million in mineral royalties. Angelle told the workers that they’re not only “helping find energy to fuel America”, but helping to “produce the revenue to pay the taxes so America can educate, medicate, rehabilitate and if all else fails, incarcerate.”
Ewell Smith, executive director of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board, quoted an excerpt from President Obama’s remarks this past Monday on unemployment insurance. The audience stood and cheered as Smith read Obama’s words… “It’s time to stop holding workers laid off in this recession hostage to Washington politics. It’s time to do what’s right – not for the next election but for the middle class.” Smith called on President Obama to heed his own words and end the ban on jobs and growth in the Gulf.
U.S. Citizens must do for ourselves, while we are being mushroom managed by the Obama administration and their accomplices in globalist mega-racketeering (Link-1Link2). This is especially essential at the Gulf. Here are two important examples on video, of citizens at work.
The first reports what may be very serious contamination of the waters, as far eastward as Florida.
“As far as EPA, OSHA, NOAA, BP, and the ‘Federal’ Government… every one of them is in collaboration with each other. That comes from someone at the top of NOAA.”
Meet Kindra Arnesen of southern Plaquemines Parish, a force for the People, at the toe of Louisiana’s boot. She is addressing Citizens who are organizing on their own and using the Web site, gulfemergencysummit.org.
Kindra Arnesen may now be America’s leading reporter (among professionals and amateurs alike) on the doings of the “cleanup” operations in the Gulf of Mexico. She relates, the Obama Administration has placed British Petroleum plc “in charge” of those operations, and are bypassing federal OSHA regulations written to protect workers with basics, such as respirators. She also describes how the residents, in their homes, workplaces, and schools, are being seriously harmed, the empirical evidence being the symptoms she describes, symptoms of chemical toxicity — and that this is being made light of, with no real solutions offered.
No government solutions offered by the Obama administration? Odd behavior, especially for a politician of the “far left,” would it not seem? Not odd behavior for a government moving toward authoritarian Marxofascism, which has been complicit with (and in hiding, crouched behind) BP, all along.
There is now gross contamination in the geography immediate to this posionous flow. Imagine the cases of cancer and other degenerative conditions, on their way. Arneson reports, the Obama/BP operation is using their local Louisiana marshland as a “boom” to receive the petroleum products. Would the intentional destruction of marshland be the reason the Obama administration has continued to fight the Jindal berms?
The header for the Gulf Emergency Summit’s site, which does not beat around the bush (no presidential pun intended) about the villains involved:
The BP oil blowout is an environmental catastrophe, bringing great peril to marine and wildlife in the Gulf and threatening ecosystems of the planet. The spill is still out of control and spreading. It jeopardizes communities and livelihoods. The government and BP have proven unable and unwilling to stop the disaster, protect the Gulf, or even tell the truth. The people must come together now to stop this nightmare.
These are the ones who should know. Here is their post, of Wednesday June 23, their most recent, at the time of this writing:
The BP oil blowout is an environmental catastrophe, bringing great peril to marine and wildlife in the Gulf and threatening ecosystems of the planet. The spill is still out of control and spreading. It jeopardizes communities and livelihoods.
For over 2 months we have had an out-of-control oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Despite all efforts, the hole has not been plugged and oil continues to pour out into the gulf at an alarming rate. The Gulf States are being destroyed economically as well as environmentally.
For several decades we have had out-of-control illegal immigration. The Border States have been begging for assistance in stopping this invasion from the south but illegals, drug lords, human smugglers and anything else can pass freely through the border. The Border States are being destroyed economically and environmentally.
What to these two problems have in common? You cannot address the consequences and start the cleanup until you plug the hole – one being the drilling hole and the other an open border.
The Obama administration and Janet Napolitano want you to believe that both situations are “under control.” Evidence proves otherwise.
In the CNSNews.com Article: Napolitano: ‘You’re Never Going to Totally Seal That Border’ Napolitano was quoted as saying; “It’s a big border,” she said. “It’s 1,960 miles across that Southwest border. It’s some of the roughest, toughest geographical terrain in the world across that border. And so, the notion that you’re going to seal that border somehow is something that anybody who’s been involved in the actual doing of law enforcement–the front office work or the front line work of the law enforcement–would say, ‘You’re never going to totally seal that border.’”
So their answer is what – do nothing?
The states cannot continue to wait while the federal government does nothing. So Alabama, Louisiana and Arizona have taken action to protect their state and citizens from the impending disaster.
In the case of the oil spill, Obama has stopped all state actions trying to protect their environment. He delayed the placement of sand booms to protect the Louisiana coast. With the help of the Coast Guard, he has removed the booms Alabama put into place to guard the Louisiana coastline instead. Even the backup plans Alabama had ran in to government regulation problems. The snare booms they wanted to use to catch the oil as it washed up on the beaches was denied by the Fish and Wildlife Administration because they might endanger the sea turtles. The 400 workers they decided to hire to patrol the beaches and scoop up the washed up oil became an OSHA issue, allowing them to only work 20 minutes of every hour and required an hour-long break after 40 minutes of work.
The oil continues to spill and the states hands are tied by government regulations and lack of effective action on the part of the Obama administration.
Arizona could no longer tolerate being under attack from the southern border. Phoenix had become the world’s 2nd highest kidnapping city, the murder of innocent citizens was escalating at the border, drugs are pouring in, human smuggling is on the rise and acres of Arizona national lands have become so dangerous that US citizens are warned not to enter that territory. So the Arizona legislature took action and passed state immigration laws.
Although Barack Hussein Obama may not have pulled the trigger on the BP Gulf oil rig explosion, his abrogation of sand berms and virtually all other means to minimize the damage from the toxins and protect this US coastal region places him the position of destroyer-in-chief. Through his actions involving apparent criminal mischief leading to the destruction of entire ecosystems and their attendant wildlife — including but, not limited to human life and livelihoods — Obama has placed himself firmly in the position of the most destructive and vicious leader of the USA that America has ever witnessed. And what has The Obama done to warrant such a statement? Let’s take a look.
1. Obama’s federal government refused to allow any foreign skimmers to assist in collecting the gushing oil that had surfaced. Note: The tyrant initially cited the Jones Act (Merchant Seaman Protection and Relief) as his excuse — an act sponsored by unions and initially passed to protect merchant seaman from having to compete with foreign entities in US waters. Suffice it to say, this act has been suspended numerous times by true US presidents in times of emergency. Obama, however, had his excuse for additional and total destruction of a large portion of the United States of America and was unwilling to give it up
2. Obama’s insistence that “studies be affected” (aka ‘foot-dragging’ and ‘fiddling while the Gulf States are decimated’) before anything would be done to assist the disaster-impacted Republican-run states of Louisiana and Mississippi. Note: Florida may be given a “pass” as soon-to-be former Florida Republican Governor Charlie Crist, now running as an “Independent” in the Florida Senate race, is giving strong indications that (if elected) he will vote with the Democrats
3. Obama orders Louisiana to stop protecting itself from the oil onslaught by ceasing the building of sand berms. Apparently, these sand berms were operating too effectively for the Obama. They worked so, Obama has ordered their building be stopped. Note: Obama gave Louisiana a death sentence and the dictator expects Governor Jindal and the rest of Louisiana’s residents to accept their deaths for the dictator and a suppressive to all humans Obama Cap & Trade bill!
In no uncertain terms, Obama is showing all of us that he has decided and is now demanding that OUR country be destroyed. He’s doing it all over the USA from more and more Obama massive land grabs resulting in displaced persons, to his refusal to protect a US State — notably Arizona — from illegal invasion. Instead, with Arizona he is not only bringing the entire US government to bear against the State (with a lawsuit) for attempting to protect itself from massive Mexican drug cartels and other illegals that cannot be sustained by the system but, is now siding with the enemy country. Obama has encouraged Mexico to file a lawsuit against Arizona for the State’s attempting to uphold the laws of our land, while he has ordered the ObamaGov not to uphold them.
Tomorrow begins the greatest display of political theater we will have ever seen as a nation. Congressmen are set to publicly humiliate and verbally execute BP CEO Tony Hayward. Never mind that this could and should be a civil and forceful questioning to better understand what went wrong and how BP plans on fixing the problem. No, Republicans and Democrats both want to prove they are on top of the situation. One asshat from Louisiana, RINO Rep. Joseph Cao, said
“During the Samurai days, we’d just give you the knife and ask you to commit hari-kari.”
This is a United States representative. Suggesting that this man Hayward kill himself. It is vile. I have no use for BP. They should simply make right what they broke. But this kind of public flogging should be beneath the dignity and honor of the United States. But it’s not.
The abortion traitor Bart Stupak said:
“I expect him to be sliced and diced.”
That’s nice representative. I expected you to vote with honor during the health care debacle but you did not.
Congressman Dingell said:
“He’s going to have, if I’m any judge of the committee and the temperament of the members, a very unpleasant afternoon.”
It seems as if these members want to put on a show to see how badass each one can be. After watching these congressmen completely dismantle any semblance of constitution law I really have no use for what they are going to say to Hayward. I wager that nothing they say tomorrow will do anything positive for the people in living and working at the Gulf. It is simply political theater. Hayward will be prepared. I doubt he will be fazed.
Hayward has said he’s got thick enough skin to handle the verbal assaults.
“I’m so far unscathed,” he told analysts in a recent conference call, referring to the general criticism he’s received. “No one has actually physically harmed me. They’ve thrown some words at me. But I’m a Brit, so sticks and stones can hurt your bones but words never break them, or whatever the expression is.”
What we are seeing is the failure of big government. All they can do is talk and set up commissions (think community organizing). They can blather on tomorrow and give BP hell. Whatever. It won’t be impressive. It won’t be dignified. It won’t plug the leak. And it won’t clean up the Gulf.
The government should be using all resources offered and available. But no, the layers of bureaucracy have turned this into a horrible mess. From forcing drilling out into 1 mile deep water to not being responsive to the cleanup. Slice and dice Hayward all you want but take a look in the mirror at your smug face tomorrow night, Congressman, to see where the real blame lies.
In his widely-panned, bloodless Oval Office address Tuesday night (did I call this last month or what!?), President Obama tapped his Navy Secretary Ray Mabus as the new oil spill recovery czar. Doesn’t he have enough to do leading the Navy? More to the point, as my latest column below points out, don’t we have enough czars and bureaucrats tripping over each other for Gulf headlines and photo-ops already?
Meanwhile, Mark Knoller reports that Obama is scheduled to finally meet with BP execs tomorrow at 10:15am…for a whopping 20 minutes. Where is the ass-kicking czar?
The speech was a dud, but never fear, Organzing for America is here to exploit the crisis with spam solicitations and a snazzy new green Obama hardhat graphic (soon to be the new oil recover czar’s logo, too?)!
***
Stuck on stupid: Obama’s czar fetish
by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2010
Here is the Obama Disaster Management Theory: In times of crisis, you can never have enough unelected, unvetted political appointees hanging around. Nearly two months after the BP oil spill, the White House will now name an oil-spill-restoration point person to oversee recovery efforts in the Gulf of Mexico. Too many czars have already spoiled this administration’s credibility. Might as well pile on another.
The new oil-spill czar is not to be mistaken for the old oil-spill czar, U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, who was officially designated the “National Incident Commander of the Unified Command for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico” on April 30. Allen was appointed by Department of Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano ten days after the disaster, which Napolitano claimed the administration had been on top of since, um, “Day One.”
Fifty-six days later, President Obama has deemed the leadership skills of Allen, Napolitano, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, environmental czar Carol Browner, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, and the rest of his self-declared “all hands on deck” crew insufficient. The new disaster czar also comes on top of the “National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling,” created by executive order on May 22 and “tasked with providing recommendations on how we can prevent and mitigate the impact of any future spills that result from offshore drilling.”
As I’ve noted before regarding Obama’s czar-mania, this White House has bypassed the Senate advise-and-consent role and unilaterally created a two-tiered government. It’s fronted by cabinet secretaries able to withstand public scrutiny (some of them just barely) and then managed behind the scenes by shadow secretaries with broad powers beyond congressional reach. Bureaucratic chaos serves as a useful smokescreen to obscure the true source of policy decision-making. While past administrations going back to the Nixon era have designated such “superaides,” none has exploited and extended the concept as widely as Obama has (we’re up to the 40th appointed czar, by Washington-based watchdog group Judicial Watch’s count).
It’s government by proxy and government by press release all rolled into one.
The platform is owned by Mariner Energy and is located off the Louisiana coast
This photo (sorry about the quality) was delivered to me by a brave little pelican which he took 3 days ago,bless his heart. This is just a small glimpse of miles of dead rotting fish being ignored and dismissed by “BP” affiliates in lower Plaquemines Parish. Many types of fish are floating on the water off South Pass @ the mouth of the Mississippi River at (Garden Island). Surface “OIL” is also covering our waterways @ Main Pass and Passaloutre and there is oil creeping up Main Pass as I type this. I wish I had a photo of the oil but for some “mysterious reason” many boats were grounded today and my little pelican didn’t make it to the scene. BP is telling us the oil is gone…Yeah right, ok, whatever you say! Are they wearing blinders instead of safety glasses? BP is ignoring this and they expect our fisherman to do the same.We need these bayous and marshlands. The dispersants are killing our fish,and making the oil sink, SO IT’S NOT SEEN! Well, I guess it’s time to spray again BP because it’s surfacing! Our hired fishing boats are getting layed off but there’s cleanup to be done!! C’mon now…this is our way of life,our living,our future.Please,do something already!!!!! 
Although Barack Hussein Obama may not have pulled the trigger on the BP Gulf oil rig explosion, his abrogation of sand berms and virtually all other means to minimize the damage from the toxins and protect this US coastal region places him the position of destroyer-in-chief. Through his actions involving apparent criminal mischief leading to the destruction of entire ecosystems and their attendant wildlife — including but, not limited to human life and livelihoods — Obama has placed himself firmly in the position of the most destructive and vicious leader of the USA that America has ever witnessed. And what has The Obama done to warrant such a statement? Let’s take a look. 
In his widely-
