Showing posts with label Gulf oil spill. Show all posts
The Government Oil Spill: Coast Guard Liable for Sinking of Deepwater Horizon Rig, Ensuing Chaos
Hot Air has the story on the latest wrinkle in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It seems that the Coast Guard's botched response to the initial fire contributed, at least in part, to the sinking of the rig which made a bad situation into (switching to ominous voice) The Worst Oil Spill in American History: Did The Government Cause the Oil Spill
The generally accepted view of the Deepwater Horizon disaster has focused on the blowout preventer and the non-standard procedures BP conducted just before the explosion and fire. However, most of the damage and the main source of the spill came from the collapse and sinking of the DH platform rather than the initial explosion. A new report by the Center for Public Integrity, based on testimony from people on scene and Coast Guard logs, contains evidence that the platform sunk because of a botched response from the Coast Guard, which failed to coordinate firefighting efforts and to have the proper resources to fight the fire:
The Coast Guard is not supposed to participate in firefighting, but instead assign an expert to coordinate the private firefighting efforts of the rig operator and its contractors. The Coast Guard failed to do so, and the result was an uncoordinated, “general response” effort that mainly relied on salt water to extinguish the fires. That is not the most effective way to fight rig fires; the best way is to use foam, which apparently wasn’t on hand. An expert would have known this, but as CPI’s report of the testimony shows, none was assigned:
What can say about this except:
The Coast Guard has apparently been struggling in the face of budget cuts at the hands of the Obama Administration. Has this ever been in the news before? Does anyone remember any public debate about the Coast Guard budget?
The crippling budget cuts President Obama proposed for the Coast Guard also deserve a closer examination. Obama's spending plan reduced the blue water fleet by a full one-third, slashed 1,000 personnel, five cutters, and several aircraft, including helicopters. According to the Center for Public Integrity, the Coast Guard updated its official maritime rescue manual -- advising against firefighting aboard a rig -- just seven months before the Deepwater Horizon explosion. That change in policy came at a time when Adm. Thad Allen warned the budget cuts threatened to turn the Coast Guard into a "hollow force."
At this point, you just have to laugh to keep from crying. Can you imagine anyone running for office on a platform of slashing the Coast Guard's budget? We might be passing massive health care "reform" bills of questionable utility and of even more questionable constitutionality; but when faced with budgeting for federal responsibilities that are actually in the Constitution, the sophisticated Left puts on their green eye shades and play "fiscal hawk" for 5 minutes. This is why Big Government is self-defeating. Taxes and Spending spiral ever upwards, yet the government can't seem to get anything done right.
Sigh.
Cold comfort: we've been through this sort of misprioritization before. The post-Viet Nam Left took power and slashed defense spending; leading to the sort of weakening of America's position in the world, demoralization of the armed forces, and equipment failures resulting in military fiascoes that you would expect. But, President Reagan turned that around - in the face of "what if the Pentagon had to hold a bake sale" style protests, of course - quickly and forcefully. We can turn this around too.
In the mean time, we will have to watch the spectacle of a trillion dollar federal government that struggles to perform its most basic functions.
Back on the Block: A News Round-Up
Boy, take a couple days off from blogging and suddenly Special Forces generals, and their staff, are giving expletive-laden interviews to Rolling Stone as if they were Billy Joel's road crew! If you rely solely on Free Will for your news updates, I apologize. Herewith, a quick round-up of the last couple days' worth of blog-worthy material that I couldn't tackle:
1.) So...you might have heard that Afghan commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal let some Rolling Stone reporter follow him and his staff around, listening to them curse out their civilian bosses. Gosh, usually in the movies - and during Republican Administrations - that's what the hero does! I guess, McChrystal didn't get the message, tho' you'd think he would. He apparently is a political liberal who voted for Obama and can't even countenance the dread Fox News. If McChrystal really is a liberal, what did he think was going to happen when Obama took office? The Democrat Party's been the anti-war party for decades, and is filled with deep thinkers like Joe Biden who think nothing of dividing countries into three parts and declaring that US war efforts are "lost."
BTW 1: supposedly the dissension between the military and civilians in Afghanistan was an "open secret" in DC. By open secret, we mean: all of the big league DC-based journalists knew all about it, but didn't want to write about it for fear of making The One look bad. (hmmmm....sounds familiar). That Rolling Stone got a scoop of this quality should be a wake-up call for the rest of the MSM.
BTW 2: I don't care either way whether McChrystal should have been fired, but I do know this. We haven't seen Obama looking this serious and engaged in a while. Regardless of what you think of McChrystal's choice of embeds, the views expressed in the article were a sign of an incipient breakdown in military-civilian (at least Democratic civilian...) relations. I hope this snaps Obama out of his Afghan funk.
2.) We're so used to seeing progressive initiatives get approved by the courts, and watching conservative ones declared unconstitutional for failing to comport with the Living Constitution, that it was a pleasant surprise to see a federal judge lift the ban on deepwater oil drilling. People can bitch all they want about the judge being a (hiss!) Reagan appointee who owns (hisssss!) stock in oil companies. That doesn't make the ruling any less correct.
3.) There was a crazy rumor going around that Obama was planning to grant a blanket amnesty to every illegal alien in the US. I'm sure he would do it if he thought he could get away with it, but the backlash would overwhelm him.
4.) Four Christians passing out leaflets outside a fairgrounds in Dearborn, MI were arrested for disturbing the peace...for passing out Bibles to Muslims. No offence, but, if Muslims need a police state so they can feel more righteous about their religion, that doesn't make me think theirs is the One True Faith.
5.) You know what was the last thing Tipper said to Al before they sent out that "We're getting divorced" email? Apres Moi, Le Deluge. How else to explain the sudden interest in a four year old sexual assault complaint from a middle aged (ew!) massage therapist? Apparently, The Oregonian had the story in hand a couple years ago, but nobly stayed their hand. I'll bet Kobe Bryant and the Duke Lacrosse team wish they had received the same courtesy.
6.) SF Mayor Gavin Newsom is getting behind a local initiative that would go a long way towards reducing the Croesus-like pay scale of the City's transit workers. Watch out for Newsom. Everyone thinks he's a standard-issue SF progressive, but he has a real knack for finding liberal Sacred Cows to run against. Sure, he's a liberal goof, but he's liberal goof who isn't quite as doctrinaire as people might like to think.
The Magic Hour, but CNN may be preparing to broadcast a new king of crap. I give you...The Elliot Spitzer/Kathleen Parker Hour! No, this is not a joke. It's hard to know what's worse: that CNN's journalistic standards now include a blow-hard lefty who abused his prosecutorial discretion as NY AG, was an ineffective governor of NY (and directly precipitating that state's current crisis state), and resigned his office after getting caught with a call girl, complete with the "anguished-wife" press conference...or that Kathleen Parker is considered "conservative." Note to media types - just because someone was born in the south and isn't a liberal does not mean she is a conservative.
8.) And, congratulations to Nikki Haley who looks like she will be the next governor of South Carolina, a state that is in desperate need of a political house cleaning, if not a long hot bath. I think when people like Mitch Daniels and (ahem) me call for a truce in the culture wars on the GOP side, this is what they are talking about.
Haley's clearly not a RINO squish, but the campaign against her was the sort of social conservative button pushing effort that gives uptight Bible thumpers a bad name. It had everything: adultery, racism, plus they questioned her religion. None of it was true, and even if it was, who gives a good goddam? Too many Republicans, especially in the South, have gotten too used to an electoral formula that involved putting on a prissy face, denouncing your opponents as sinners...and then soaking up earmark money and campaign donations from their real supporters. We've had one too many GOP politicos talk a big game about family values and then (heh heh) fall on their sword. I don't literally believe that Haley (or Sarah Palin) can do a better job because they are women, but they certainly can't do any worse than the men who've been in charge for the last 15 years.
Cardigan Fits: Obama's Oval Office Oil Spill Speech
I did not watch the Obama Oval Office speech last night, but did listen to it on the car radio. Iwas shocked at how lousy it was. His tone was completely off, with Obama in full "the Cambridge Police acted stupidly" mode. It was utterly unreassuring, and also disturbing.
We have, in 2010, a President of the United States who says things like "we have 2% of the world's population but use 20% of the world's oil." That's right, bud. Would you prefer that everyone in the world use the exact same amount? Because if you do, that means dragging Americans down to the level of the Third World. You sure you want to take that argument to the voters?
We have, in 2010, a President of the United States who says without flinching that we are drilling in deep water because that's all that's available. Yeah, because Democrats have made so much of our proven reserves off-limits via legislative and regulatory fiat. Don't you think people can't find this out?
We have, in 2010, a President of the United States who thinks nothing of ordering a corporation to put billions of dollars into an escrow account administered by political appointees to pay out whatever downstream claims the Left can imagine. Is this even legal?
And, we have, in 2010, a President of the United States who has taken up the "alternate energy" sources like solar and wind, but either doesn't know or doesn't care that all but one of the alternatives can't match the power and efficiency found in a barrel of oil or a lump of coal. So, if this is so important, why can't nukes be on the table? The French, the Japanese, even the US Navy have operated nukes without incident for decades, but our President simply can't conceive of this as a reasonable alternative
Frightening.
Althouse live blogged the speech and concluded "well, that was a terrible speech! When it wasn't grim and dreary, it was grandiose...Oh, the malaise!" Look for the special Psota comment in the thread.
Just One Minute says, "With all of the things that have gone wrong in the Gulf, I was expecting Obama to ask Congress to repeal Murphy's Law" Don't give him any ideas.
Gateway Pundit live blogged the speech too, noting the most shameless lie of all: "we're drilling in deep water because we've run out of other places to drill" That we have "run out" of places to drill due to environmental legislation and regulatory fiat - and not because of Peak Oil - is an argument that the GOP should be able to make in its sleep, but only Sarah Palin is brave enough to say so.
Ticker Guy reminds us that BP has options to avoid the fines and liability heading its way, and the more the rhetoric is ratcheted up against them, the more likely it is BP will exercise those options. "There is real danger here for the Obama Administration. If it appears that the fines and litigation losses will come within reasonable reach of their US assets, they may be better off to draw down the curtain and place the US subsidiary in Chapter 11 - then let the creditors - including litigants - fight it out for the scraps in a restructuring." This is why the Left hates any form of economic freedom.
Q&O susses out the background message of the speech: only government is our last best hope: "(the) falsehoods provide a platform to launch into another 'crisis' that only government can handle - completely revamping our energy mix and insisting on changing it now."
The Macho Response has a Message To Millennials. Not specifically "about" the speech, but it certainly is a riposte to the attitude underlying the speech.
The speech inspired Verum Serum to coin a new rhetorical term: "I heard a lot of verbal moon walking"
Even MSNBC hated the speech, especially the parts where Obama touted the academic credentials of his ineffective team.
And let's not leave out the lonely stand of Paul Begala who praises Obama's perfect sense of timing. Come for the abject fawning. Stay for the labored basketball analogies.
