Today, as millions of gallons of toxic crude oil continue to spew uncontrolled from the mile-deep Deepwater Horizon blowout into the Gulf of Mexico, we are hopeful that this catastrophe will the be the very catalyst we need to begin to break our century-long addiction to oil. This may be looked at some day as Three Mile Island and Chernobyl are to the nuclear industry. Indeed, the Deepwater Horizon disaster may provide our last best chance to hasten the switch to sustainable energy in time to avert global ecological and economic disaster.

I’m in Louisiana trying to document the struggles of locals whose livelihoods have been ruined by the Gulf oil spill.

The solution ideas to date have been straight out of the Wile E. Coyote Acme School of BP Profitology.

There is a lot of experience in controlled implosions under a variety of circumstances. Would it be harder a mile under the sea? Sure, but if we have the technology to be drilling there and two miles further down from the sea floor, then we ought to be able to figure this out too. If it destroys BP’s precious well, that is just an extra benefit; they don’t deserve it anyway.

It’s difficult to watch the disaster unfolding, knowing there’s little you can do to stop the inevitable destruction. It’s even more difficult to know that President Obama wants to build even more offshore oil rigs and put more of our oceans at risk.

That’s why Firedoglake is launching a TV ad against expanded offshore drilling, featuring images of the destruction in the Gulf and President Obama’s own voice advocating for more offshore oil drilling, even after the BP disaster.

Join us in saying no to expanded offshore drilling. Click here to help put our ad against offshore drilling on the air in DC.

The latest spill extent graphic from NOAA shows an increasingly staggering area impacted by the Horizon well leak by mid-week. Winds have reversed now, spreading the slick Westward, and temporarily relieving fears that the slick could migrate to the East Coast though Atlantic fisheries could still be impacted.

The one constant theme underlying all the elements that could have and/or did lead to the BP Gulf oil spill is the mendacious corporate servitude of the Republican party, their leaders and policies. The arrogance and recklessness of BP and its oily partners gestated wildly under the Bush/Cheney administration and little is changing significantly under Obama.