Because the winds have shifted and are bringing the oil East, the local NPR station, WUWF, was talking to the tourist development officials along the coast about how Memorial Day went [not as bad as had been feared] and what the approaching oil means.

It was interesting to hear these marketing people make the point that you had to be honest with people and tell them the truth about the situation. They said that if you lie to people to bring them down to the coast, they’ll leave angry and won’t be back. But if you tell them the truth, they will believe you when you tell them it is alright to return.

Too bad major corporations haven’t figured that out.

On a happier note, A.B. “Tony” Hayward is toast. BP will dump him as soon as this is resolved, and he knows it, because he replaced the last CEO after the disaster at BP’s Texas refinery. BP dumps the CEO, tells the world they have reformed, and goes back to business as usual.

Starting next week there will be a new feature on the blog. Under the weather sticker in the left sidebar you will see “Okaloosa Island Beach Cam”. If the weather conditions continue as predicted, Dr. Jeff Masters writes:

Oil spill update
Moderate onshore winds of 10 – 20 knots out of the southeast to southwest are expected to blow over the northern Gulf of Mexico over most of the next week, resulting increased threats of oil to Alabama, Mississippi, and the Florida Panhandle, according to the latest trajectory forecasts from NOAA. These persistent southwesterly winds will likely bring oil as far east as Fort Walton Beach, Florida, by Monday.

So beginning on Monday you can click on the Beach Cam and watch the oil foul our sugar white sand.

This event is brought to you by Bloody Pollution, an oil company that can’t figure out how to cut a pipe.