Continued Live Coverage From Louisiana Of The BP Oil Leak Disaster

Hi everyone. The road trip continues, now with more oil! Man, this is DEpressing. Luckily, the bullet points remain awesome. Away we go:

• While I am very loath to make Hurricane Katrina comparisons, Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser is totally this disaster's Junior Rodriguez. All we need is for him to say "bullshit" live on air.

• Our anchor's piece:

• Apparently, the red tape is out of control. Ah, government. Of course, I'd take them over BP any day. Also? Kenneth the Page appears to be doing a fairly good job. He might recover from that Republican rebuttal just yet.

• I am not impressed with the ragin' cajun schtick, but I've never been a fan of James Carville to begin with. So there's that. This Newsweek piece takes on his criticism of Obama and hits on some of what has me bothered.

• The weird part is that both Nungesser and Carville swear Obama cares; he just apparently hasn't been properly informed of the situation. Um, does that make anyone else worried? Maybe heads really do need to roll, but I want them to roll because someone actually screwed up; not to give political cover. I don't know what to think of the situation right now. Friday will be interesting.

• Our anchor REALLY wants you to come to New Orleans, people.

• Anderson to Nungesser re: BP: "Do you think they have just been dishonest with you? And, if so, why? What is their motive?" Their motive? Um, covering their ass to protect their bottom line? Does anyone actually think there's another explanation?
  

• More from our anchor: "...today, just as we have done every day for weeks now, literally weeks, we invited BP's CEO, Tony Hayward, to come on 360. Again today, the answer was no. He does the morning shows. Maybe he doesn't want to stay up late. We will stay up. I will wake up early to talk to him as a service to viewers, so you can hear the company's side, because we do want the company to be able voice their side." Anderson Cooper will set his alarm for you, Tony! And aw, it's very sweet of him to be service-y like that for us.

• Still more: "We put the one and only interview we have done with a BP executive, not Mr. Hayward, online at AC360.com. Take a look at the interview. See if maybe you think I did something in that interview that would make them not want to come back on this program. I can't, for the life of me, figure it out. I did a lot of research for the interview, but I think they're up to it." Okay, please tell me this is extreme subtle snarking and he is not actually scratching his head over why Hayward won't come on the show. Perhaps, Anderson, he has seen you on the TeeVee being all impassioned and stuff and he knows you will politely rip him a new one. Like a Jedi. Does oil jerk want the big headline at Huffington Post to be "Anderson Cooper Demolishes BP's Tony Hayward"? No, he does not. Does he want a viral video of him looking a-fool? Nope. So there you go. Also, I laughed out loud when our anchor said he did a lot of research for that interview. Aw, yes you did. I swear Anderson Cooper, sometime you're just too adorable.

• Interesting interview with Zygmunt Plater.

• The ATF story was definitely important, but couldn't it have been run anytime? We still haven't gotten any coverage of Gary Tuchman in Haiti. Here's what I found online:

• I've been doing a fair amount of defending of our prez (and still don't believe this is his Katrina), but the news from Ed Henry that he attended a fundraiser for Gordon and Ann Getty of the Getty oil fortune is just unacceptable. Bad Obama, bad! If I see a picture of you with a senator and a birthday cake, you're sooo going on my list.

• Obviously Anderson and David Gergen have entered a conspiracy to drive me crazy. From our anchor: "David, you said something the other night to me which I've been thinking about a lot. You said, if we fought World War II with the same kind of attitude and energy with which the government is fighting this, a lot of us would be speaking German. Do you still believe that?" Oh good lord. Okay, I'm not a historian, but didn't we go through some massive messed up periods during WWII? Did neither of them watch Flags of Our Fathers? Or, like, any true-to-life movie/documentary on the subject? Anderson, I know you've seen Fog of War. Romanticizing the past only gets us into trouble in the present. But I guess history really is written by the victors.
  

• People are apparently emailing our anchor in defense of Obama (not me, people. I swear!). He goes on to tell us two things he thinks the federal government could have done: NOAA could have figured out how much oil was actually leaking and the EPA could have done more tests on dispersants. "Those are two things that--and again, I'm not particularly smart, but I can see on the ground here, those two things are things the federal government could have done in answer to the e- mails I'm getting." Dude. You're not particularly smart? I think that goes a little beyond self deprecation. I mean, could you have your own cable show if you weren't particularly smart? Okay, bad example. But stop saying that. It gives me sad face. Listen to me Anderson Cooper, you're good enough, you're smart enough, and gosh darn it, people like you. As for what he said about the government, would it have truly helped? Hell if I know, but we'll just assume that it would.

• The 360 kids are staying in the gulf through Friday. It'd be cool if Anderson could get an interview with Obama. I think he has a better shot at that than BP oil jerk.

• That'll do it. Sorry this post was more inside-baseball than usual. This bullet point contains Cheetos, mostly just because I'm craving Cheetos. They can't all be winners, people.

Live From Port Fourchon, Louisiana For Coverage Of The BP-Created Oil Disaster

Hi everyone. Road trip! I hope you didn't forget your toothbrush...or your hazmat suit. Tonight the 360 kids came at us live from Port Fouchon, Louisiana, to give us an on-the-ground look at what is turning out to be a disaster of unimaginable proportions. Earlier today, I was watching BriWi and he reported that if we don't get this oil leak plugged, it's just going to keep leaking throughout our lifetime. I don't even know how to put into words how bad that would be. Can we send BP to Gitmo? No? Fiiiine. On with the bullet points!:

• Tonight is Glee night and I was subsequently a minute or two late to the 360 party. When I flipped over to CNN, all I saw was a big white marshmallow on the beach, talking at me with Anderson Cooper's voice. The top part of my satellite's info screen was still up, cutting his head off, so literally all I saw was the white. Amusing. Also? When did they start making hazmat suits out of white trash bags?
  

• I keep hearing about problems regarding communication with the Coast Guard. I'm assuming no one related is doing interviews? I'd like to hear their side. They kicked ass during Hurricane Katrina.

• This is my special bullet point where we all cross our fingers and pray the top kill thing works.

• I like that they continue to report on the corruption within the Mineral Management Service (Tom Foreman's piece), though I hope in the future we get some more context. That's not a criticism and it's not directed specifically at 360. I was reading about the inspector general's report earlier today and wondered what percentage of MMS employees had actually engaged in the abhorrent behavior/conflicts of interest. How far gone is this agency?
  

• David Gergen! I guess it's true that absence really does make the heart grow fonder. There's been a bit of love lost between the Gerg and I lately. Okay, well, probably just on my end, given that I don't think he knows of my existence (if he did, he would cry sad, sad tears over my lost love!). But we haven't seen much of him lately and I was generally happy when his reasonableness popped up on my TeeVee.
  

• And he was very reasonable during the panel with Douglas Brinkley on Obama's leadership. Mostly. I was totally into the discussion...and then the Gerg said this: "Doug Brinkley may think this is stretching a little too far, but I do believe that, if our government had fought World War II the way we're fighting the oil spill, there's a good chance many of us would be speaking German today." While I do appreciate that he basically gave us a disclaimer that he was about to say something crazy (who else but the Gerg would do that?), duuuude. Really? Since when did the Gerg start saying the lines of a curmudgeonly sitcom dad? Stick to being reasonable, Gergen! By the way, I love that the response from Douglas, the historian, was simply to stare, speechless.

• Douglas Brinkley is a smart man. Made some good points about how Obama needs to step it up, but also kept the situation in context. Though I'm sure he's right about the political ramifications, I personally disagree that Obama needs to be emotive. As long as our prez is doing his Jedi moves behind-the-scenes, that's good enough for me. Whether or not that's happening, I couldn't tell you.
  

• Anderson Cooper brought up Katrina again: "...for a president who watched Katrina and saw the failures of the Bush administration--and there were failures, also, on the state and local level, we all know in Katrina. But for a president who saw that and was very critical of it to now find himself in a situation in which he's being criticized for the lack of response or lack of coordination is kind of stunning." Meh. There are so many different variables here. I've been talking to a New Orleans friend and one thing I find almost comforting is that, unlike during Katrina, there seems to be a real willingness among all levels of government to work together. That's great if true, and I tip my hat to Bobby Jindal. Unfortunately, this time around everyone has to deal with the idiots at BP, which completely changes the ballgame.
  

• I wasn't really that bugged by our anchor's comments tonight because the fact of the matter is that the narrative will change on Friday when Obama visits the gulf. And whether that change is for the worse or for the better will likely be his own doing. Don't screw this up, Obama. Step it up and stay away from photo-ops.

• While I'm currently tepid in my criticism of our president, I have to say, if he opts to "move forward" rather than unleashing the Justice Department on BP, I will be the first one to cheer if 360 goes after him.
  

• Rob Marciano's piece and Jack Hanna's segment were disturbing. This is a monumental ecological disaster. (Also, Rob wears scruffy well. I'm just sayin'.)
  

• Ed Lavandera has been doing a really nice job with the dispersants story. I don't trust the EPA. The Bush administration destroyed that agency, and unless they've since completely cleaned house and I didn't hear about it, they're still worthless.

• Well, Anderson's just a big "shot" tease, isn't he? He's all like, usually this is where we show you something to make you smile before bed, but tonight we're just going to further bum you out by showing you more oil. Okay, it's possible that's not exactly how he said it. But dudes, if ever there was a need for a cute animal video. Yes, yes, tone wasn't appropriate. Still. Sad face.

• So okay, Gary Tuchman is in Haiti where there is lots of news happening and I haven't seen him anywhere on my TeeVee screen. You couldn't spare three minutes, 360? Below is the only clip I could find of his coverage, less than a minute long:
  

• That'll do it. The show went by really fast, which I guess is a good sign. In light of our anchor's initial get-up, this bullet point contains marshmallows for your toasting enjoyment.