Hundreds of scientists work together to throw everything but the kitchen sink at the problem of the rapidly growing BP oil spill. Next up, the kitchen sink.

From the LA Times:

Hundreds of engineers from universities, rival oil companies and the federal government immediately went back to work, in shifts lasting 13 hours or more.

"Anyone who we think could make a difference, we brought in," said Kent Wells, BP's senior vice president for exploration and production.

Then came the "dream team" that President Obama had ordered his Nobel-winning energy secretary, Steven Chu, to assemble: out-of-the-box thinkers including a nuclear physicist, a pioneer on Mars drilling techniques, an MIT professor whose research interests include "going faster on my snowboard," an expert on the hydrogen bomb, and a controversial astrophysicist who was later booted over a past essay defending homophobia.

Those involved say they are crafting and deploying in a matter of days what under normal circumstances would take a year or more.

And yet a limitless budget and all that brainpower have failed to fix the pipe 5,000 feet below the sea surface that has leaked oil for more than a month, spewing at least 6 million gallons, possibly far more.

That may be about to change.

As early as Sunday, BP engineers will launch their "top kill," their most ambitious attempt to overpower the oil flow and seal the 13,000-foot-deep well. The operation will be the culmination of weeks of sleuthing and calculation, daylong practice runs and nonstop contingency planning.

Once again, engineers will watch nervously in Houston, acutely aware of the hazards that have encumbered their mission: the crushing pressure of ocean depths so great that divers cannot survive, of a spewing well that could blow all its restraints.

Perhaps most intense of all, the pressure of a nation that is watching and wondering: What's taking so long?

I received a lot of blowback for posting James Carville's rant and suggesting that the Obama administration appeared impotent in dealing with this crisis.  Many of you started to argue with me, and with each other, and sent me numerous links and bits of information to correct my opinion that the administration was letting BP run the show and not doing enough to solve the problem.

Thanks, that is exactly what I needed from you.

You see the point of my post was that I, along with many other Americans, did not know exactly WHAT the administration was doing in response to this unbelievable catastrophe.  I am not exactly an uninformed observer, as I read news releases and opinion pieces much of the day. Yet I STILL I did not get the sense that there was enough being done to stop this leak and clean up the millions of gallons of oil that have already escaped.

And if I did not know what was happening behind the scenes then you know damn well that the majority of Americans have no idea either.  So getting the information onto this blog, and hopefully hundreds of other blogs and websites, will finally let people know that THIS President is NOT just delivering a birthday cake to John McCain, or simply flying over the scene below him,  or allowing an incompetent to handle the catastrophe on his behalf, while this situation continues unabated.

Because guys I have to tell you that as soon as the Republicans are done covering their own asses and burying THEIR responsibility for this disaster they are going to go after President Obama with both guns blazing and try desperately to make this his Waterloo.

And sadly they have plenty of shocking visual tools at their disposal.