Reply #32: And shame on them for that. I'm not defending their decisions that

[MineralMan]

caused the disaster. I'm just pointing out that the only people with experience and expertise in this type of situation work for the oil companies. Further, none of the solutions are quick ones. This has happened. Yes, BP is to be condemned for not applying a safety precaution that might have prevented it. BP is to be condemned for trying to rush this rig into production, thereby destroying another safety device.

But, it has happened. Who do you propose to handle this very technical and arcane problem? Who do you suppose knows what is involved? Who can act more quickly? Right now, we need the same people who work in that industry to get in there and repair the damage. Nobody else is qualified to do so.

President Obama knows that. I'm surprised that you don't. We have no "engineers" who do not work in that industry who know a damn thing about what to do. There aren't any. It's a very, very specialized field, and anyone who is good at it is already working for an oil company or one of the engineering firms that serve the oil companies. And they're on the job right now while we're posting...trying like crazy to get this thing shut off. Nobody, and I mean nobody, benefits from this disaster.

You're taking a political position in a technical crisis. That trick never works. Politicians know bupkis about fixing undersea oil leaks.