Yup, and then into the oil patch, only this one a topical one, drilling pipe not included.

But don’t worry, Barack H. Obama, teeth bared and loins girded for combat, vowed during his Oval Office address to make ‘em pay, yes sir, make those evil knaves from British Petroleum pay through the nose, or else…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama vowed on Tuesday to compel BP Plc to pay the price for its “recklessness” in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and sought to harness public outrage over the disaster for a “national mission” to cut U.S. dependence on fossil fuels.

“We will fight this spill with everything we’ve got for as long as it takes. We will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused,” Obama said in a televised address aimed at restoring confidence in his handling of the crisis before it further tarnishes his presidency.

Obama’s stern message for BP, delivered in a solemn tone, was a centerpiece of his high-stakes speech on the oil spill, which threatens to distract from his domestic agenda of reducing nearly double-digit U.S. unemployment and reforming Wall Street.

How forcefully Obama responds to America’s worst ecological disaster will have implications not only for the British energy giant but for the future of U.S. offshore drilling and for any hopes he has for rejuvenating climate change legislation stalled in Congress.

While urging Americans to “seize the moment” to break their addiction to fossil fuels, Obama’s appeal offered no detailed prescription for getting there and lacked a timetable for passing comprehensive energy legislation.

“Now is the moment for this generation to embark on a national mission to unleash American innovation and seize control of our own destiny.”

I hate to be the harbinger of reproof, here, but… While George W. Bush was in office, all we seemed to hear from the left side of the aisle, between the ladies and gentlemen over there blaming Bush for everything under the sun, was of the vital need for America to drop everything and single mindedly concentrate on finding alternatives to fossil fuels before “it” was too late; Yet since the Democrats took over both the House and the Senate and got their fearless leader into the White House, there has been nary a peep about spending any money on that “vital” goal.

Instead, we’ve had unbelievable quantities of the taxpayers’ hard earned cash, much of it in debt instruments to be paid off by said taxpayers’ children, grandchildren and their issue and issue’s issue thrown at bank and brokerage bail-outs, the nationalization purchase of auto manufacturing companies and a “stimulus” bill that has stimulated nothing but the coffers of ACORN and various other friends of the Obama Administration.

Now, suddenly, as…

NEW ORLEANS – Scientists provided a new estimate for the amount of oil gushing from the ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday that indicates it could be leaking up to 2.52 million gallons of crude a day.

A government panel of scientists said that the ruptured well is leaking between 1.47 million and 2.52 million gallons of oil daily. The figures move the government’s worst-case estimates more in line with what an independent team had previously thought was the maximum size of the spill.

…comes to light, our dictator the president, who’s already stressing out under the pressure of two wars (he doesn’t acknowledge the war on terror, since that would mean also acknowledging that his friends and fellow Muslims are behind it), an inevitable, multi-state rout of DC Democrats, a pitched battle over illegal immigration (he’s for it, patriotic Americans are against it) and our collapsed economy, which includes rampant, depression era levels of unemployment, is striking out with a vengeance at the most visible target, BP, as though his onslaught might make the ongoing oil problem go away.

Speaking of unemployment, his infamous drilling moratorium and support of operations “elsewhere” is definitely “helping”, unfortunately not helping the taxpaying, voting Americans in Louisiana.

The six-month drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico will cripple Louisiana’s economy and leave thousands of families without income, particularly in coastal Louisiana, where one in three jobs is related to the oil and natural gas industry.

In Louisiana, oil and gas production can be divided into three industries – oil and gas extraction, refineries and pipelines – which in 2005 supported more than 15 percent of the total household incomes earned in the state.

Okay, how about a statistic or two?

How much oil comes from the Gulf of Mexico?

Around 33 percent of domestic oil in the United States comes through the Gulf of Mexico;

Eighty percent of the Gulf of Mexico’s oil and 45 percent of its natural gas comes from “deepwater” operations that occur in more than 1,000 feet of water.

How many jobs does the oil and gas industry provide in Louisiana now?

The Louisiana Department of Economic Development estimates that the active drilling suspension alone will result in a loss of 3,000 to 6,000 Louisiana jobs in the first two to three weeks;

The ban could cost Louisianans more than 10,000 jobs within a few months;

The state risks losing more than 20,000 existing and potential new jobs during a 12 to 18 month period, if the federal panel takes longer than six months to do their reviews and write their reports;

Coastal Louisiana, where one in three jobs is related to the oil and gas industry, services around 90 percent of deepwater operations in the Gulf of Mexico;

The Louisiana Department of Natural Resources estimates that an average of two supply boats per rig work every day with rates of $15,000 to $30,000 a boat, which means that suspension of drilling activity will result in a nearly $1 million loss per day in supply boat rental income. Each drilling rig job supports four other jobs in local communities.

On the other hand, the moratorium does seem to be of great help to both Brazil and the “infamous” George Soros, to whom the Democrats, knowing upon which side their bread is buttered, pay homage.