A couple of notes on things nobody above seems to have caught:

1. Rush Limbaugh suggested that since the disaster began on Earth Day, that "liberals" might be guilty of having sabotaged the platform to cause the disaster so people would turn against off-shore drilling.

2. During Cheney's still secret energy policy meetings at the start of Bush's presidency, Cheney assured oil companies drilling in U. S. waters that they wouldn't have to use the expensive "fail safe" well capping techniques that are standard on off-shore sites in the seas around the rest of the developed world. So BP's Gulf platforms are not so equipped.

I heard both of these on progressive radio, so I don't have print or internet sources to direct you to for verification, but I the Limbaugh thing was a sound bite in his own voice and not someone saying he said it.

Charles