Not everyone is thrilled by Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s announcement that he will continue his run for the U.S. Senate as No Party Affiliation (NPA) rather than Republican. In his news conference announcing the decision, he assured partisans he would keep his personal voter registration within the GOP fold. This tiny gesture doesn’t seem to be enough to appease many of his 15,376 Facebook friends, some of whom were taking the news poorly judging by comments (unedited) they left on the governor’s wall…

It turns out, by the way, that oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills. They are technologically very advanced.

— President Obama, quoted by Think Progress April 2, 2010. Just 18 days later a rig operated 41 miles off the Louisiana coast exploded and caused what may be the largest oil spill in history.

If it’s political office you seek,
You’d better be strong, not weak.
Stake out your position
And stay true to your mission,
Or you’ll end up like Crist, Rubio and Meek.

Read the whole sordid backstory about how and why YouTube caved to a wingnut and pulled this video here.

The Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) announced today that the 2010 Annual Industry SAFE Awards Luncheon scheduled for May 3, 2010 at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston, Texas has been postponed.

– Posted on the MMS web site, to explain that the dinner to recognize oil drilling safety was put off because, “the Transocean Deepwater Horizon drilling accident has caused the MMS to dedicate considerable resources to the successful resolution of this event, which will conflict with holding this ceremony next week.” We can think of a few other good reasons to cancel it.

Update: FOX News is reporting sources say Charlie will run as NPA. If FOX has the scoop, does that mean Charlie’s really still a Republican?

Previously posted: I might be the only Floridian who will be sad after Gov. Charlie Crist makes public his decision on whether to remain a Republican in his run for the U.S. Senate. As a Democrat, watching his fellow Republicans try to manage Charlie’s eventual disclosure is truly gratifying. Take our state legislature for example (please). Ever since the governor boosted his poll numbers with a veto of a truly awful education “reform” bill, the Republican-run state House and Senate have been scrambling to avoid handing Crist any other victories. They’ve been shooting down their own ridiculous bills just to preempt another wildly popular executive veto.

Will the word, “deal” ever again not be preceded by the adjective “shitty” in our minds?

I’m struggling to say something nice about that woman.

— James Carville, quoted by the Santa Cruz Sentinel, on Sarah Palin. However, Carville did say he’s “willing to bet that Palin’s enthusiasm for the political spotlight carries her to the GOP presidential ticket.”

Whether the governor is David Paterson or Rick Lazio or Andrew Cuomo or Superman, we don’t have a structure that empowers a single leader to get his or her state out of a major conflict. It’s kind of like being in quicksand. You can move around a lot, but it just makes the problem worse.

— New York Gov. David Paterson (D), in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

NASA has given us this amazing shot of the oil spill about 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana. To get an idea of the size of the spill, New Orleans is labeled on the left. Of course, nowadays, drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico is perfectly safe, which is why…

Update: The Coast Guard would not have to consider burning the crude oil because it’s reached 42 miles wide by 80 miles long and is threatening land, and the people who live along the northern Florida Gulf coast wouldn’t report waking up to a strong, acrid chemical smell, and we could never have what is now being called the worst oil spill in the history of the country.