I have to hand it to Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (NPA), whose wardrobe choice for a recent roundtable with the president in Panama City helped him stand out. Charlie and the First Lady went with aqua, while the business owners, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, and others stuck to neutrals. If you’re going to go, go bold, Crist seems to say, while sitting as far from Obama as possible without leaving the room. No doubt Crist wants to avoid more photos of himself seeming friendly with the president. The endless repetition by Republicans of a shot of Crist doing the one-armed man hug with Obama last year could have been one reason for his departure from their party as a candidate for U.S. Senate. Well that, and the fact that they are soulless jerks.

Today's poster child for Republican hypocrisy, Florida Rep. Matt Hudson

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has called a special session of the legislature to consider a constitutional ban on offshore oil drilling. Republicans are crying “foul,” citing the fact that there are already statutes that determine how close drilling can be to Florida’s shores.

“I think it’s completely unnecessary,” said Rep. Matt Hudson, R-Naples, in a view expressed by others. “There’s absolutely no reason we have to go and create a law for something that’s already unlawful.”

What Hudson is saying is that there is no need to add something to the state constitution that’s already been dealt with by statute. Kind of like adding an amendment to the Florida constitution banning same-sex marriage when there’s already a law against it. Obviously there’s no need for that, right?

Hudson didn’t think so in 2008, when he and almost every other Republican politician in Florida, including then GOP-er Gov. Crist, publicly endorsed Amendment 2, a Republican initiative to make same-sex marriage double-triple-really-really-quadriple illegal in Florida.

That kind of hypocrisy will likely be the predominant feature of the special session on oil drilling and disaster, which starts today. It should be interesting, if you find Republicans posturing and blustering and acting out their hurt feelings over Crist’s decision to leave their party interesting. Crist is already anticipating a tough battle.

“They put the interests of special interests or their party ideology ahead of what’s right for the people,” Crist said. “They’ve lost their way. They’ve completely lost their way, and the people know it. And if they go down this path, they’ll demonstrate it in regrettable glory.”

“Regrettable glory” sums up the determination of Republicans everywhere to oppose reasonable debate and consensus building. Democrats agree.

“It’s not about policy right now. They are thinking, ‘How can I embarrass the governor?’ ” said state Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, a Crist ally and candidate for Florida attorney general. “In other years, they may have quietly gone along, but there’s outright war right now. There is no question, they’re hanging him in effigy.”

We applaud the sentiment behind these T-shirts, available now at bitterpelican.com.

We do hope to benefit others such as The National Wildlife Federation and retailers that are suffering loss of income due to the oil spill. We also hope to inspire others to get involved. Our bp bitter pelican T-Shirts provide you the opportunity to express your feelings regarding the handling of the situation and the insensitive comments by BP.

The group is donating $1 from the sale of each T-shirt or coffee mug, along with 10 percent of the proceeds from each “photo art on canvas” print to the National Wildlife Federation.

Everyone wishes they could think of something constructive to do about the oil disaster, which is why calls to boycott BP, face the ocean and hold hands, and donate to wildlife groups seem like action. Those things are important but the bottom line is that we need to pressure the market to come up with alternatives to an oil-based economy.

I’m sure that you’re like me, and the only reason you drive a car that runs on gas and oil is because that’s what was available when you needed to buy one. We have to support alternative energy, by using our dollars as votes for the kind of products we expect, and by supporting candidates that facilitate change.

Video from Pensito Review reporters on the scene.

– Rep. Ed Markey (D – Mass.), Chair of the House Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment and the president’s point man on the Gulf oil catastrophe, responding to calls from Donald Trump and others to nuke the oil spill. Markey was responsible for forcing BP to install its “spill cam” so the gushing oil could be viewed by the public.

BP's YouTube site: happy horse manooty

The oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico already showed that BP has a basic disconnect between words and actions. The whole “Beyond Petroleum” campaign was just that: a media campaign, a tagline, an empty slogan. BP and the other oil companies have done almost nothing to move beyond petroleum, nor has there been any real pressure — by consumers, shareholders, or legislators — for them to do so.

But the company’s crisis communications is shaping into an even bigger sham. BP has done all the right things, according to the new media ethic. They have profiles on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr. The message is the same at each of these sites: “BP cares, and no one is working harder than BP to make this thing right. Check out for yourself how hard we’re working.”

No one seems to have told the operations folks at BP about all this openness and transparency. In an article titled, “Let the Press See the Spill,” the New York Post listed recent obstructions on BP’s part.

Reporters trying to visit coastal public parks and lands in a Louisiana community were repeatedly turned away by BP officials. When they complained to the local sheriff, he referred them to a number to obtain written permission. It was a BP phone number.

According to the [New York] Times, the Coast Guard suddenly reversed itself on allowing a small group of journalists to accompany Florida Sen. Bill Nelson on an inspection trip aboard one of its vessels. When the Democratic lawmaker’s office asked the Department of Homeland Security for an explanation, his aides were given the patently ridiculous excuse that it was department policy not to allow elected officials and reporters on the same “federal asset.”

A Louisiana seaplane operator who wanted to fly a photographer for The Times-Picayune of New Orleans was denied permission to enter the controlled airspace over the spill — by BP.

Most recently, Matt Gutman of ABC News was hassled by a BP manager when he set up his equipment for a live Web chat on a public beach in Alabama while a cleanup crew worked quietly in the background. And CBS News told the Times that one of its crews was threatened with arrest for filming on a public beach.

If you visit any of BP’s social networking sites, you’ll find such facts as the number of barrels of oil their “LMRP Cap containment system” has captured since they got it to work (119,300 total), but nothing about the 30,000 barrels pouring out each day since the explosion on April 20. You’ll see photo after photo of workers in full hazmat suits but none of oil-coated shore birds and sea life. The closest you’ll come is a shot of a bird in a warm, sudsy bath, surrounded by smiling folks. Happy horse manooty, as they say.

Meanwhile, in Florida and probably the other gulf states, there is a new addition to our weather reports. We now get the oil spill forecast, which shows the looming threat hovering just off our shore.

BP’s claim that it will make this right, like the rest of its marketing campaign, is just so many words. One can only guess that the reason BP doesn’t want people to know the extent of the disaster is because they hope to be allowed to continue drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico. And that doesn’t sound like the strategy of a company that is moving beyond petroleum.

– U.S. Senate candidate Gov. Charlie Crist (NPA), commenting on the importance of his leadership in helping Florida deal with the BP oil spill disaster. It’s unclear what actions, if any, Crist has taken in the crisis outside of accepting federal relief, and calling upon BP to provide more compensation to Floridians affected by spoiled beaches, fisheries, and habitat. Crist already accepted $25 million from BP to promote tourism and has asked for another $50 million to cover additional state expenses.

I’m thinking, “Big Polluters,” “Beware Pricks,” “Bleak Payoff,” “Begin Picketing,” and “Blatant Profits.”

What do you think “BP” stands for?

Plaquemines Parish, LA. Pres. Billy Nungesser (R), commenting on Pres. Obama, and the current response to the BP oil spill.

This is not a parody from The Onion or Andy Borowitz, sadly, it’s an actual news bulletin from CNN.