KATRINA II? – AT 7:22 P.M. ET:  Shock.  Some news outlets covering the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico have been caught committing journalism.  This is a felony punishable by being banned from the best parties in the finer sections of town, where people mount their degrees on their living-room walls. 

It turns out that the federal government knew almost immediately of the catastrophic potential of the oil rig collapse.  But very little was done.

A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration video, shot as officials coordinated response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, shows that federal officials almost immediately worried that the oil well could leak up to 110,000 barrels per day, or 4.6 million gallons.

The video appears on a federal Web site.

It was filmed in Seattle, at NOAA's Western Regional Center, as scientists and federal officials in Seattle, Houston and New Orleans engaged in telephone conferences, according to a companion document on the Web site.

And...

"I think we need to be prepared for it to be the spill of the decade," Debbie Payton of NOAA, the meeting's coordinator, says during the NOAA video.

COMMENT:  The story appeared in the Mobile Press-Register.  Shall we take it seriously?  I mean, these aren't real journalists.  How many of them ever participated in an anti-war rally?  How many did their best for Obama during the 2008 campaign?  And I'll bet not one spent his junior year abroad.  Be careful of this scribbling rabble.

But, alas, the story may be true.  In that case, how will the Dems, who bashed Bush aplenty after Katrina, defend the sluggish response of their Action Comics president, Barack Obama?

We know, don't we?  They'll blame the whole thing on Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, a Republican and potential candidate for the national ticket.  Why not solve multiple problems at the same time. 

This is only the beginning of this story.  Let's see if the Republicans, who acted like zombie punching bags in the Katrina episode, can come up with a creative response.

May 1, 2010