Free Republic

Right now, the hopes of the nation rest on the successful drilling of two relief wells aimed at "plug[ging] the damn hole" in the Gulf of Mexico. On Thursday, the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing featuring BP's CEO, Tony Hayward. In its invitation to Mr. Hayward, Congressman Bart Stupak wrote: The Subcommittee anticipates that its members may have questions requiring technical knowledge of the Deepwater Horizon rig operations, well design, and safety measures and, accordingly, we ask that you be accompanied by a BP employee or official with sufficient knowledge to answer these questions under oath....

On to Plan Z. Efforts to stop the massive oil leak beneath the Gulf of Mexico were stymied once again yesterday after the much-hoped-for "Top Kill" fix failed -- sending officials scrambling back to the drawing board. "This scares everybody, the fact that we can't make this well stop flowing," BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said on the 40th day of the leak that has already spilled as much as 40 million gallons of oil into the Gulf. The combined "Top Kill" and "Junk Shot" effort -- which involved pumping heavy drilling mud and debris like golf balls and...