The effort to plug the hole may not be working:

BP engineers failed again to plug the gushing oil well on Saturday, a technician working on the project said, representing yet another setback in a series of unsuccessful procedures the company has tried a mile under the sea to stem the flow spreading into the Gulf of Mexico…

…The technician working on the project said Saturday pumping has again been halted and a review of the data so far is under way. “Right now, I would not be optimistic,” the technician, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly about the effort…

Maybe there is no way to plug a hole 5,000 feet under water? I just don’t know – it is so very sad, especially for all the people along the Gulf coast who’s way of life is threatened.

So much, by the way, for Obama’s absurd photo-op trip to the Gulf with its bussed-in extras to make it look like things are being done to help.

That is from Jammie Wearing Fool and I simply can’t improve upon that headline:

http://abcnews.go.com/assets/player/walt2.6/flash/SFP_Walt.swf

Another great one:

The news:

Companies sold the least amount of bonds in a decade this month as concern Europe’s sovereign debt crisis will slow the global economy drove up relative borrowing costs by the most since the aftermath of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s collapse.

Borrowers issued $66.1 billion of debt in currencies from dollars to yen, a third of April’s tally and the least since December 2000, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. At least 14 companies withdrew offerings, including New York-based retailer Jones Apparel Group Inc. and theater chain operator Regal Entertainment Group.

“There’s still a lack of risk appetite for company debt,” said Ben Bennett, who helps manage the equivalent of $125 billion of corporate bonds as credit strategist at Legal & General Investment Management in London.

It would be the smart investors who are either getting out or staying out – dumb investors are the sort who drove up the DOW by 2% on Thursday…only to see it sink about 1% today; there are morons out there who bought just before the close on Thursday and didn’t sell until ditto on Friday. Smart rich people will remain rich, dumb rich people will get no end of a lesson. The crash is coming, people: get ready for it.

Spain lost its AAA rating today – step two in Europe’s collective default. They managed to delay things by playing make-believe with Greece’s bond debt, but all they did was delay the inevitable. There isn’t enough money in the world to cover all the debt outstanding – someone is going to have to lose.

The banksters and bureaucrats hope the biggest loser is the guy you see in the mirror each morning – and that in such loss you still won’t blame them but will turn for a few welfare crumbs. In service of this goal, they will keep trying to fudge the numbers in a game of fiscal roulette and hope against hope that it all comes out ok, for them. Our job, as informed and rather angry citizens, is to prevent this – and our best means of putting a spoke in the wheels is to vote Republican in November.

But regardless of what happens or what we do, we’re going to head in to much worse economic times than we have so far. Wise policy can no longer prevent this – it can only lessen the effects and speed the path out of it. Of course, for there to be wise policy, we will need at least a few people in government with wisdom.

I don’t have a copy of the actual statement but from what I’ve heard, here is what I say:

1. The White House claims they couldn’t have offered Secretary of the Navy to Sestak as they already had a nominee. This is irrelevant – SecNav serves at the pleasure of the President and given a choice between placating someone out of Specter’s way and disappointing a hack already in the job its no contest.

2. The White House claims they just had little, old Bill Clinton offer Sestak, in return for getting out of the race, a continuation of his House position plus unspecified, unpaid White House advisory roles. Why offer someone some thing he already has (the House) and things which don’t matter (unpaid advisory roles)? This is complete nonsense – if you’re being a political wire puller, you either bring something to the table, or you don’t even bother.

3. The White House says they used Bill Clinton. Why? They’ve put out the story that Clinton and Sestak were close…funny, but during the 8 years of Bill, I don’t remember Sestak’s name cropping up as a close friend and adviser of the President. So, Sestak was promoted to Vice Admiral under Clinton…its not like he was the only person so promoted during that 8 years. Worked on the NSC? Lots of officers do – doesn’t mean they’re close, personal friends with the President. This just reeks of an attempt to put a third party in the middle…thus any future revelations about what was said can be blamed on mis-communication between three parties.

Fundamentally, this is nonsense – but very clever nonsense. It writes a plausible story and thus hopes to bury it quickly. Fine. All I want, now, is for Clinton, Sestak and Emanuel to be called before Congress and under oath – swearing so help them, God – that this is all true. Lets see how far they’ll go with this charade.

Just keeps getting worse and worse in the one-time Golden State:

Antioch’s leaders earlier this month said bankruptcy could be an option for the cash-strapped city of roughly 100,000 on the eastern fringe of the San Francisco Bay area.

Antioch’s fiscal woes are standard issue for local governments in California: weak revenue from retail sales and property taxes is forcing spending cuts, layoffs and furloughs.

But cost-cutting measures may not be enough to keep Antioch’s books balanced, so its city council is openly discussing bankruptcy.

“We just want to alert people to the possibility,” Antioch Mayor Pro Tem Mary Helen Rocha said.

Antioch is not even remotely alone – and California is not the only State with ailing municipalities. And this, my friends, is why even if there is a recovery, it is doomed – there is simply too much debt. It can’t be repaid – default in some form is inevitable and when it happens it takes down whatever remains of our financial system.

There are, of course, rumors out there that Uncle Sam might ride to the rescue. Having the ability to print endless amounts of money does give the federal government the ability to move State and local debt on to the federal books…but the price of that is both a weaker US dollar and a exceptionally strong risk of sovereign default on the part of the federal government. There simply is a limit to all this – when, exactly, it will be reached is unknown and unknowable…but eventually the money people figure there’s a chance they won’t get paid, and then they either stop buying US bonds, or start charging extortionate interest rates.

If Uncle Sam doesn’t bail them out, then it will be the cities and States which bring the house of cards down. This would actually be the less painful option for the country as a whole. It would force governments to cancel the absurdly generous public sector union contracts while also imposing fiscal discipline on profligate governments. The problem here, for Democrats, is that it means less union money for campaigns and, temporarily worse, a big spike in the unemployment numbers right before election day as government workers are let go.

Not a pretty picture – and there is no easy way out.

Great video:

Astounding poll:

Businessman Ron Johnson, endorsed at last weekend’s state Republican Convention, is now running virtually even against incumbent Democrat Russ Feingold in Wisconsin’s race for the U.S. Senate.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in Wisconsin shows Feingold with 46% support to Johnson’s 44%. Three percent (3%) prefer some other candidate, and six percent (6%) remain undecided.

For someone as big a wheel as Feingold to be essentially tied with 5 months to go is big news. This is a very clear indicator of the overall weakness of the Democrat brand – not yet an indicator of GOP strength.

Democrats were taking seats like Feingold’s for granted – he was expected to cruise to easy victory in a moderately blue State. Now Democrats will have to pour it on – and still may come up short. This means, in turn, that Democrat challengers and weaker incumbents will have must less resources thus allowing the GOP even more chances to score victories.

How it will all come out in November remains to be seen, but so far its a good year to be a Republican.

Read it and weep, liberals:

Recent research at Harvard Business School began with the premise that as a state’s congressional delegation grew in stature and power in Washington, D.C., local businesses would benefit from the increased federal spending sure to come their way.

It turned out quite the opposite. In fact, professors Lauren Cohen, Joshua Coval, and Christopher Malloy discovered to their surprise that companies experienced lower sales and retrenched by cutting payroll, R&D, and other expenses. Indeed, in the years that followed a congressman’s ascendancy to the chairmanship of a powerful committee, the average firm in his state cut back capital expenditures by roughly 15 percent, according to their working paper…

Easy to figure out – once a politician gains in stature, the corporate interests who raised him to power become complacent. They start to live off their connections in government rather than off of hard work and innovation. Why bother working hard when for a pittance (in comparison) you can just bribe a politician for sweat heart government contracts or tax breaks?

The larger government gets, the worse it gets for everyone for the simple reason that government can be swayed – it can be bribed. After a while, you get the situation we currently have – where Big Government and Big Corporation bribe each other for mutual benefit. The only people suffering in this are, well, the people. We don’t have the free market we need for growth nor do we have a government we can rely on to help us.

Only by breaking down the power of government will we be able to restore a sense of rationality and honesty in both American government and business. The liberal dream of a wise elite using government to ensure the good life for all has proven a nightmare – and it is time we woke up from it.

This noted at NRO’s The Corner:

Let’s see. The United States is broke. Our government has no choice but to cover the costs of our troops fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq and to pay out disaster relief before Memorial Day recess. So what do the President and the speaker of the House focus on? Cutting a deal to ram through $18 billion in energy pork while nobody’s looking.

Never mind that the $18 billion is for unnecessary federal energy loan guarantees ($9 billion for nuclear power and $9 billion for renewables) or that the latest analysis suggests that more than a quarter of the applicants for these loans are likely to default on them. Nor does it seem to matter that just last month at House hearings, both the chairman and the ranking member voiced skepticism about making these loans until they had much more information.

Last week, Republican senator Thad Cochran urged Senators to resist amendments to the War Supplemental Bill that are unrelated to the military or disaster relief. After hearing about this and other deals, Republican senator Tom Coburn was blunter: “The emergency designation of this bill,” he argued, “is a farce designed to evade the budget rules that require Congress to pay for new spending.” You’d like to think that the House Appropriations Committee would block this one when it comes up for a vote later this week…

But, of course, when push came to shove, Democrats decided to lavish (borrowed) taxpayer dollars on favored constituencies. As we head towards complete financial meltdown, we can count on our Democrats to pour a bit more gasoline on the bonfire of America. The moochers got their money; Democrats will get their political donations; the people got the shaft.

There is a nauseating stench of corruption emanating from Washington, DC. It grows worse and worse and I can only figure that the Democrats figure they’ve got a mortal lock on the Congress – that there is no way we can possibly defeat them in November.

Well, fellow Americans, let us work to disappoint them – and when we’ve got back in to power, let us not forget what they have done. This isn’t about revenge – there is no revenge in politics. There are, however, consequences…and the consequences of selling America down the river should be quite stern.