Team Obama joins BP in lying?

One day after a shallow water drilling application was OKed, the administration appears to have a moratorium on further such drilling, while fibbing about there being a moratorium:

Meanwhile, the Minerals Management Service stopped issuing permits for new oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, even as an administration official denied a formal freeze on drilling in shallow water.

"There is no moratorium on shallow water drilling," said Kendra Barkoff, a spokeswoman for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. "Shallow-water drilling may continue as long as oil and gas operations satisfy the environmental and safety requirements Secretary Salazar outlined in his report to the president and have exploration plans that meet those requirements."

Barkoff's comments appeared to contradict an e-mail sent out earlier in the day by a top official in the Gulf Coast office of the Minerals Management Service, the federal agency that oversees offshore drilling.

Michael J. Saucier, regional supervisor of field operations for the MMS Gulf of Mexico region, told a company seeking a permit that "until further notice" no new drilling is being allowed in the Gulf, no matter the water depth. A copy of the e-mail was obtained by The Associated Press.

Obama appears to be trying to still run this like a PR operation. And, it's one where clearly not everybody in his administration is on the same page.

Even clearer evidence of Team Obama and PR? Long before the Administration finally "forced" BP to release its underwater video of the oil spew, the government knew all about it.

Let that sink in.

So, should AG Holder criminally investigate Coast Guard Adm. Mary Landry? Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano? Interior Secretary Kenny Boy Salazar? (Yes to that last one, on other grounds.

That said, that's another reflection that we are now a nation of 310 million people. It's not just government bureaucracies; it's not just bureaucracies in general; it's a country that's this size is going to be "lumbering" in more and more ways, or at least potentially so.