i think these congressional plebs know what nay are doing and they got to be called on it. no question about it. great to have you with us. that s the ed show. the rachel maddow show starts now. good evening. i could only get out ten seconds early. you have a great weekend. thanks to you at home for staying with us for the next hour. watch this. this is from nbc news from 1979. it s 33 years ago but it s really uncanny. in the gulf of mexico they are trying to handle larger spill. airplanesรง are to be used to dp chemical ons the oil but there s a shortage of aviation fuel. they are putting it into place and trying to contain the oil slick in the gulf of mexico. oil skimming vessels are put into service to catch any
the national hurricane center has decided they are not going put the hurricane hunters out in it tomorrow. we remain in the high category. 60% chance or better that this could become a tropical depression or maybe in the next tropical storm. of course shall everybody wants know where is this thing going. here is the computer model forecast. every model brings it up towards the north and west and heading up towards the bahamas. there is a lot of wind shear ahead of the system and will make it difficult to develop as it moves through this area. the further northwest it goes, the conditions become more favorable. that s why we have to keep a close eye on this system because it could get into the gulf of mexico. while at this time it doesn t appear like it is going to become a major system. as we learned from alex, though, we could see some problems perhaps with the oil skimming efforts and things like that. now, want to talk about flooding conditions. we have seen it across parts of the a
angle and outpost to look from is a huge, huge advantage. so we re on the command vessel, as amber noted. about a 60-foot vessel, ice lady, as it s called and usually a touring vessel to catch fish, red snapper. but it s one of the vessels of opportunity. it is commanding the other vessels of opportunity involved in this skimming operation. about ten that we re in charge. there are other sectors around the gulf doing the same thing. and a lot of the information fed in by that air ship up there. there were two much smaller vessels of opportunity working in tandem to coral a sheen of oil and that is about the extent of oil skimming we have done or been in control of thus far today. but we are just we re less than a mile off the beach, tony. you can be sure that another sector of the gulf of mexico, certainly closer to the well head site that it s a little bit more active.
so far it appears the new cap is holding. some of the beaches along the gulf coast reportedly having the busiest day in weeks. and locals in biloxi, expressing optimism about the future. i ve been listening to it on the news and i m concerned. i m vacationing and here with my family at the family reunion and having a great time. if you ve got to get it right and everyone here as far as business is concerned, we re all looking forward to what bp does, and hopefully get things cleaned up. and to help with that effort. bp has been paying ship captains between 1200 and $3,000 a day for oil skimming and other cleanup work and we re told that people who accept the wages will have that deducted from any claims they make against bp for lost income. that s the word today from kenneth feinberg, the federal administrator in charge of the 20 billion dollar oil compensation fund. he says it s fair policy that should eliminate incentives to help. bp and government officials are focusing on the