Oil FAIL: Obama administration and its owner, BP, to scientists: "Thou shalt not measure the Gulf."

I kinda lost track of Froomkin after he left Pravda for HuffPo, but he's as sharp as ever:

A group of independent scientists, frustrated and dumbfounded by the continued lack of the most basic data about the 77-day-old BP oil disaster, has put together a crash project intended to definitively measure how much oil has spilled and where and how it is spreading throughout the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

An all-star team of top oceanographers, chemists, engineers and other scientists could be ready to head out to the well site on two fully-equipped research vessels on about a week's notice. But they need to get the go-ahead -- and about $8.4 million -- from BP or the federal government or both. And that does not appear imminent.

Gee, that's odd. You'd think "the most transparent administration in history," especially one filled with technocrats and wonks (not) would support such a project immediately -- if they hadn't already done it themselves.

Oh well. It's really worse than Katrina, isn't it? I mean, nobody in the Bush administration actively prevented the Katrina rescuers from measuring how high the floodwaters went. And this time, it's like the entire Gulf is trapped in the Superdome.

NOTE Of course, if the size of the spill were measured, that might increase BP's liability. So it's entirely natural that the administration would want to help BP avoid that. Especially -- it would be irresponsible not to speculate -- when campaign contributions from other sources are drying up.

Say, you think Obama's going to go work for BP after his first term ends? Oh, wait....