Oil Slicks & Slippery Slopes

School's out and we're busy trying to build a house. So I've been watching the news but haven't had time to comment. I still don't have time, but I've got to comment.

Some embarrassing things have happened in and to our nation in the past, but I can't remember a time I was ever ashamed of being an American...until now. As I have watched the news over the past few weeks in reference to Israel, the oil spill, environmental science, Arizona immigration law, etc., I have become increasingly baffled and discouraged by what is happening in our nation right now. More especially, I have been sickened to watch the Obama administration flail and flounder, blame and posture, fail and politicize.

Like all Americans, I am deeply saddened by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It is horrible to watch. Forgive me however, if I refuse to panic and believe that this is the greatest trial to ever hit planet earth. We as a nation, and to a large degree a planet, are plagued by what I will call "Chicken Little Syndrome" or CLS. Both politicians and the media have chronic, acute and possibly incurable CLS. Whenever something bad happens anymore, they run around in circles, shouting at the top of their lungs about the sky falling. There's never any time allowed to step back and analyze what is really happening. This knee-jerk, reactionary panic to every occurrence is neither helping nor solving a single problem.

I would like to make an attempt at some sane thought. Is the oil spill a bad thing? Of course. It is going to have obvious short- and long-term consequences to the environment, the economy and the lives of the people living in that area. Unforeseen consequences will also arise. But let's take a deep breath and realize the following: 1) Crude oil is a naturally occurring substance. Mother Nature is capable of dealing with naturally occurring substances. There was an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico twenty years ago that went on for ten months. Did you know about that? Did you further know that within 2-3 years of the cleanup, things were back to normal in that area of the Gulf? The spill was estimated to be 3.3 million barrels and stretched all the way up to Texas. Interestingly though, "...scientists noticed how fast the marine environment recovered, helped by naturally occurring microbes that feasted on the oil and degraded it...'We were really surprised. After two years, the conditions were really almost normal' ". (Wildlife Recovered Quickly After Big Gulf Spill in 1979, by Tim Johnson, McClatchy News, 5/53/10) So, yes it will be bad for a while, but once they get it capped and we get it cleaned up, we will recover. It's not the end of life as we know it.

2) CLS must stop. Running around and shouting things like: "knowing whose a** to kick", "plug the d**n hole" and "I can't suck it up with a straw" are not only useless, but immature and un-Presidential. Furthermore, halting all deep shore drilling for six months due to CLS is beyond stupid. How many years have we been drilling for oil under the ocean floor? How many times has this happened? For all the Pollyannas out there, I regret to inform you that sometimes, crap happens. Tornadoes happen. Hurricanes happen. Volcanoes spout off. Airplanes and cars crash. People get sick. Boats sink--sometimes even oil tankers. Those with an acute case of CLS will demand that we therefore ban all oil drilling, driving, flying, volcanoes, storms, illnesses and bad days generally. Seriously. Are we grown-ups or not? Life is risk. Stuff happens. Banning oil drilling for six months is not going to prevent another disaster from ever happening. But we can use it as a learning opportunity as we go forward. Until we are in a position to rid ourselves of fossil fuel use, we need crude. So, Obama's reactionary response will serve to raise the cost of gas, cost jobs in an already suffering part of our country and push forward his political agenda for which we are totally unprepared.

For the first time in a long time, gas prices actually were going down during the summer. I can't remember that ever happening. Obama has just assured that oil prices--and therefore the cost of gas, plastics, lubricants and everything else made from oil--will skyrocket. That is brilliant planning any time, but particularly during our current economy.

Louisiana is still struggling to recover from Katrina. And every other state in the nation is suffering in the current economic situation we have created. Putting those oil rigs out of business and costing jobs is a huge blow to states like Louisiana and Texas which are heavy oil producers. Brilliant planning.

The final insult is Obama's politicization of this problem. As long as he has been politically active, he has been pushing an environmental policy that would kill what is left of our economy. In January of '08, candidate Obama said, "Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket". In his June 15, Oval Office address, he insisted on pursuing this Cap and Trade boondoggle at any cost. It will not matter what pretty name it is given; it will not matter what promises are made; sacrificing our economy to the Green God will push it over the brink. Obama has continually talked about creating "Green Jobs" without bothering to tell you that for every green job created, 2.2 other jobs are lost. He regularly touts Spain's green economy as his exemplary goal for the U.S., without telling you that Spain is following closely behind Greece into the economic abyss as a direct result of their green economy. (Check out this article from that conservative bastion, the Seattle Times: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2009385016_will26.html) In fact, Google, "Spain's green economy" and see how much comes up. This one will scare you to death. (http://republicbroadcasting.org/?p=9073) Spain is quickly collapsing and we are, under this administration, chasing them deliberately over the cliff. Unbelievable.

Fixing this oil spill is the priority. This is not the time for politics. Set your green agenda aside for a while and let's just deal with this. Set aside the Jones Act, which is an antiquated protectionist piece of legislation from 1920, created to protect unions, and get the international help we need. Many have offered, most have been turned down for political reasons (i.e. Obama's personal political agenda). Unleash the creativity of the private sector. The government has never solved a dadgum thing, but they are very good at failure and red tape. People across the country have been offering suggestions for solutions, but if they're not Kevin Costner, they've been completely ignored and shut out. Bobby Jindal, the Republican governor of Louisiana has hardly had any communication with Obama administration, I suspect because of his political leanings. I wonder what the media would have said if Bush had treated New York State that way after 9/11--after all, New York didn't vote for him.

3) Shouting does not equal leadership. I hate to be the one to inform you, Barack, but this is not about you. The more you make it about you, the more you screw things up. True leaders do not have to spend every waking minute proving or reminding us who is in charge. Believe me, everyone knows who the President of the United States is. The more you try to prove that you are in charge, the more you accomplish the opposite. A true leaders knows his limits and knows where to get appropriate help. A true leader knows how to give credit where credit is due. A true leader doesn't waste time on blame. A true leader defers to others, when necessary. People will naturally follow a leader--they don't need to be flogged and berated. Obama is grossly inept in the leadership department and has wasted valuable time in this mess worrying more about himself and his reputation than any other thing. Not good.

4) An extension of this fraudulent leadership is the political witch hunt for BP heads. They may have thought they were safe, as the largest contributor (from an oil company) to Barack's campaign. Assuredly they don't now. BP holds the lion's share of the blame for this disaster. It would seem they cut corners and were sloppy. They have made no attempt to run and hide from this, nor would they be allowed to. They are legally bound to pay for the consequences of the leak. The perpetual brow-beating of BP serves one purpose: the aggrandizement of Obama and every politician that can get a minute at the mike. They must prove at every opportunity that they are "leaders" and that they're "tough"; instead they look like the vindictive, grand-standing fools that they are. Heaping fiery coals on BP's head accomplishes nothing towards stopping the leak. (If only we could stuff the hole full of politicians...a girl can dream, can't she?) I wonder in all of their political grand-standing and investigative committees if they will disclose the part that government and environmentalists played as contributors to this problem. The leak is over 5,000 feet deep, almost a mile deep, where no diver can go. Why are they drilling that deep? This is yet another example of our energy policy being held hostage by environmental extremists. If they weren't forced to drill so deep in an effort to appease the unappeasable, it would be much easier to cap the leak in the first place. The 1979 leak that I mentioned earlier was in only 160 feet of water. Even at that depth it took them 10 months to cap it. 5,000 feet of water makes it that much harder.

5) Rule of law? I am starting to seriously wonder if the rule of law means anything in our country anymore. From the inception of our nation, the idea that broke the mold was the rule of law. No-one and nothing was above the law of the land. Equal protection under the law was guaranteed by the Constitution. Now it seems we have granted Obama nearly dictatorial powers with nary a whimper of dissent. We have laws about deep water drilling that were ignored because of BP's cozy relationship with government lackeys. We have laws that require oil companies to be accountable for clean-up costs. Instead of following existing law, the President...er, King, ordered BP executives to appear at the throne where BP was ordered to create a $20 billion fund to pay for their mistake. An additional $100 million of BP money will be paid to cover the expenses of the other rigs that were ordered shut down by the king. That was Obama's decision, not BP's. Why is BP paying for that? And the high king further ordered that no dividends will be paid to BP shareholders for the second quarter. It's those darn shareholder's fault too. I'm sure the king couldn't be bothered by such details as these: 40% of BP shareholders are Americans; millions of dollars of British and American pensions are invested in BP stock; BP stock value has plummeted since the spill, already punishing the company and shareholders; BP will likely not survive this as a company. I am not trying to exonerate or excuse BP in any way. They should pay to clean up the messes and the collateral damage. Both the marketplace and natural consequences of their actions will destroy them. That is enough. We all make mistakes and do stupid things sometimes. Sometimes those stupid things are manifest on a grand scale. Who among us, would want this extra dose of vilification for our stupid mistakes? It's pointless, immature and a waste of everyone's time. Furthermore, nothing can really be fixed until the leak is capped. There will be plenty of time to go back and "get" BP if and when they fail to meet their responsibilities. But we already have laws in place for this situation--let the system work appropriately and haul them in to court if necessary. Never forget that precedence once set, can be used by corrupt people against anyone.

6) "Grab yer partner, give a high five; poke yer ally in the eye." It has been painful enough to watch the Obama Apology Tour, as he's galavanted about the world and bad-mouthed the U.S. to our enemies, but it's even worse to watch how he has treated our allies. Obama's foreign policy seems to be right off the playground at school. When you're the school kiss-up, you spend all of your time trying to be friends with people that will never like you and will always use you; you then go around poking your real friends in the eye, at the behest of others, hoping they're too nice to ever retaliate. So Obama's foreign policy consists of appeasing people that will never like us or our way of life and poking our allies in the eye. His treatment of Israel (Gaza, building in Jerusalem, nuclear policy) and Britain (BP stands for BRITISH Petroleum, Churchill bust, gifts to Gordon Brown) and Poland and Honduras, etc. is utterly disgraceful and appalling. With friends like us, who needs enemies? I wonder how we might feel as a nation if Great Britain were going after Coca-Cola or Ford? Britain and Israel have been our two greatest allies for decades and this is how we treat our friends? I have had a friend wrong me before. When a friend apologizes, I'm much more quick to cut them slack, than I might be for a stranger. Does Britain's stalwart friendship count for nothing? Apparently not with this administration.

We are on slippery, treacherous footing when we politicize everything, throw out the rule of law and betray our allies all in the name of personal pride. The executive branch of government is completely out of control under the Obama administration. His willingness to skirt the law to accomplish any of HIS ends is a terrifying direction for our nation. I don't care what your political leanings are, this destroys the balance of power, the checks and balances, purposely established by the Founders. Remember, everything they established was a direct reaction to living under a powerful tyrant who ruled by fiat and with an iron fist. They spilled their blood and lost their fortunes to be free; we are running pell-mell into servitude.