"I think it's a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation would be subjected to what I would characterize as a 'shakedown,' - in this case, a $20 billion shakedown." - Joe Barton, R-Texas

OK, so now the Dems are going to be putting this quote on every last mailer they send out, but you have to say that they are entitled. What on earth was this guy thinking? To offer an apology to BP on camera during the Congressional hearing on the oil disaster in the Gulf makes me wonder if this guy is mentally 'there'. Barton has held his position since 1985. This would be one person that I could see losing his next election. We know that he is one of the biggest receiver of funds from Big Oil and then he just shoved the nose of the nation right into the pile of oil out there in the Gulf. He and the Republicans deserve whatever comes their way over this.
We now know that the deregulation that allowed the Deep Water Horizon to be built in the first place was one of the deregulatory decisions made in Dick Cheney's infamous meeting with Big Oil just after the 2000 'election'. No wonder he would never say what took place! The damage done over those 8 years will take decades to undo, if it is even possible to undo it at all.
I found a website that shows the size of the oil spill superimposed over different locations so that people can get an idea of exactly how big it is.

http://www.ifitwasmyhome.com/

See it from your own perspective and you will get even more angry that you probably already are.

I can't seem to stop thinking of all the wildlife that is dying down there. The people's lives will not return to normal for many years, experts are now saying, as they grapple with the unknown. Nothing like this has ever happened, so no one really knows what to do to fix it. There was a similar occurance in Russia where a small 'tactical' nuke was used to seal the leak, but this one is leaking along a fissure, with a new leak discovered 20 miles away from the initial leaks. Now they are wondering what might happen if this fissure is toyed with any more. I used the term 'toyed' loosely, of course, favored over cruder terms that I am really thinking.

Maybe some wunderkind will come along and solve this. But maybe it will continue to gush into the Gulf with disasterous effects that we can now only imagine. My heart hurts.