Showing posts with label gulf oil spill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gulf oil spill. Show all posts
Friday, June 18, 2010
Rep. Joe Barton is Right. This is a Shakedown!
Rep. Joe Barton is right. This is a shakedown. We have laws in this country and BP is threatened with a criminal investigation. What else are they supposed to do? Especially when you have a thug administration such as this. We have a president who aspires to have Hugo Chavez like control.
The republican party never fails to disappoint. Instead of backing Rep. Barton they cave into political pressure and make the congressman apologize for what is factually correct.
What does it take for the republican party to learn from their mistakes?
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Who's to Regulate the Minerals Management Service
Congressman Michael Burgess (R) of Texas is calling for the Office of Mineral Management Services to testify before congress. The MMS is the regulatory agency that oversees the oil industry.
The oil industry is heavily regulated. The building of those deep sea platforms had to pass the scrutiny of federal agents. The agents who authorized the building of those rigs are just as culpable for the Gulf oil spill as BP. The media is again negligent on their reporting of this disaster.
This is analogous to home construction. When a house is built, permits have to be pulled and inspections take place at every phase of construction. If you fail to meet the codes set forth by the county and state; you will have to correct them, even if that means you have to tear the whole damn building down.
There are those who say that BP corrupted those agents. No, they corrupted themselves. At what point does a person take responsibility for their actions. A corrupt agent is a corrupt agent.
During the great depression the federal government paid farmers to plow under or not plant certain crops; or to leave their fields barren. Federal agents were hired to monitor the farmers to ensure there was no cheating. Of course those agents began to accept bribes and the federal government hired agents to regulate the regulators. This absurdity continued to the point where aerial photographs were taken of each farm to demonstrate that the laws were being followed.
President Obama has appointed Michael Bromwich to reorganize the Mineral Management Services. He is to break the MMS into three separate entities in an attempt to eliminate a conflict of interest. I guess the next thing they’ll do is create a whole new agency to counter corruption. I wonder how effective satellite imagery is on monitoring the building of deep sea platforms.
The oil industry is heavily regulated. The building of those deep sea platforms had to pass the scrutiny of federal agents. The agents who authorized the building of those rigs are just as culpable for the Gulf oil spill as BP. The media is again negligent on their reporting of this disaster.
This is analogous to home construction. When a house is built, permits have to be pulled and inspections take place at every phase of construction. If you fail to meet the codes set forth by the county and state; you will have to correct them, even if that means you have to tear the whole damn building down.
There are those who say that BP corrupted those agents. No, they corrupted themselves. At what point does a person take responsibility for their actions. A corrupt agent is a corrupt agent.
During the great depression the federal government paid farmers to plow under or not plant certain crops; or to leave their fields barren. Federal agents were hired to monitor the farmers to ensure there was no cheating. Of course those agents began to accept bribes and the federal government hired agents to regulate the regulators. This absurdity continued to the point where aerial photographs were taken of each farm to demonstrate that the laws were being followed.
President Obama has appointed Michael Bromwich to reorganize the Mineral Management Services. He is to break the MMS into three separate entities in an attempt to eliminate a conflict of interest. I guess the next thing they’ll do is create a whole new agency to counter corruption. I wonder how effective satellite imagery is on monitoring the building of deep sea platforms.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Barack Obama's Saul Alinsky Leadership
Barack Obama made his first oval office address last night. It was a disappointment. The nation was looking for a leader and we got a community organizer. Saul Alinsky is so deeply ingrained in the mindset of this man, that he can not help himself from demonizing people. We know that BP is at fault. We know they are responsible. We know they are going to pay. What we want to know is what in the hell are you going to do to help out?
Are you going to suspend the Jones Act? Are you going to suspend government regulations that are an impediment to stopping oil from reaching the mainland? Screw environmental impact studies. The evidence is right in front of your face! Lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way!
Governor Jindal said to hell with the federal government. We are going to build barriers. We have citizens saying I don’t care if I get fined or thrown in jail; I’m going to take measures to stop this disaster from reaching our waterways. But our Dear Leader is too busy pointing fingers.
Dear Leader stated:
"From the very beginning of this crisis, the federal government has been in charge of the largest environmental cleanup effort in our history."
And yet people in the Gulf have no idea who is in charge.
Instead of using this moment to show true leadership, he used it for political purposes. His cap and trade bill is currently in the Senate and he wants to make a big push for it. He also dusted off one of his campaign speeches for ineffective alternative energy sources, such as wind and solar.
Obama gave us this little jewel to ponder:
“Time and again, we have refused to settle for the paltry limits of conventional wisdom. Instead, what has defined us as a nation since our founding is our capacity to shape our destiny – our determination to fight for the America we want for our children. Even if we’re unsure exactly what that looks like. Even if we don’t yet know precisely how to get there. We know we’ll get there.”
Well, Mr. Obama the America you are determined to fight for looks a lot like Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela. And we want no part of that.
You have taken over various businesses, and now you have your eyes set on BP:
“Tomorrow, I will meet with the chairman of BP and inform him that he is to set aside, whatever resources are required to compensate the workers and business owners who have been harmed as a result of his company’s recklessness. And this fund will not be controlled by BP. In order to ensure that all legitimate claims are paid out in a fair and timely manner; the account must and will be administered by an independent, third party.”
We have laws in this country Mr. President. You do not have the authority to make demands on a private company. Even Attila the Hun had enough sense, when he extorted money from Rome, to know it’s not profitable to suck the host dry. It serves no one to have BP go bankrupt.
Are you going to suspend the Jones Act? Are you going to suspend government regulations that are an impediment to stopping oil from reaching the mainland? Screw environmental impact studies. The evidence is right in front of your face! Lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way!
Governor Jindal said to hell with the federal government. We are going to build barriers. We have citizens saying I don’t care if I get fined or thrown in jail; I’m going to take measures to stop this disaster from reaching our waterways. But our Dear Leader is too busy pointing fingers.
Dear Leader stated:
"From the very beginning of this crisis, the federal government has been in charge of the largest environmental cleanup effort in our history."
And yet people in the Gulf have no idea who is in charge.
Instead of using this moment to show true leadership, he used it for political purposes. His cap and trade bill is currently in the Senate and he wants to make a big push for it. He also dusted off one of his campaign speeches for ineffective alternative energy sources, such as wind and solar.
Obama gave us this little jewel to ponder:
“Time and again, we have refused to settle for the paltry limits of conventional wisdom. Instead, what has defined us as a nation since our founding is our capacity to shape our destiny – our determination to fight for the America we want for our children. Even if we’re unsure exactly what that looks like. Even if we don’t yet know precisely how to get there. We know we’ll get there.”
Well, Mr. Obama the America you are determined to fight for looks a lot like Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela. And we want no part of that.
You have taken over various businesses, and now you have your eyes set on BP:
“Tomorrow, I will meet with the chairman of BP and inform him that he is to set aside, whatever resources are required to compensate the workers and business owners who have been harmed as a result of his company’s recklessness. And this fund will not be controlled by BP. In order to ensure that all legitimate claims are paid out in a fair and timely manner; the account must and will be administered by an independent, third party.”
We have laws in this country Mr. President. You do not have the authority to make demands on a private company. Even Attila the Hun had enough sense, when he extorted money from Rome, to know it’s not profitable to suck the host dry. It serves no one to have BP go bankrupt.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Magnolia Springs, Alabama: Citizens not Subjects
In today’s America there is reason to worry about our future and generations of citizens not yet born. We live in an age where citizenship is secondary to ethnicity; where personal responsibility takes a back seat to government programs; and where Christianity is treated with suspicion and hostility.
Hurricane Katrina exposed the weakness of American. We have become dependent upon government bureaucrats. Whenever a disaster hits, we expect Washington D.C. to bail us out. Whether it is hurricanes, floods, home mortgages, automobile factories, financial institutions, or the size of our toilet bowls; the federal government is the big daddy. We can’t make a move without a government overlord giving us the okay. We are becoming just like Western Europe.
Alexis De Tocqueville wrote about this very scenario in his Democracy in America:
After all, what good is it to me to have an authority always ready to see to the tranquil enjoyment of my pleasures, to brush away all dangers from my path without my having to think about them, if such an authority, as well as removing thorns from under my feet, is also the absolute master of my freedom or if it so takes over all activity and life that around it all must languish when it languishes, sleep when it sleeps and perish when it perishes.
There are European nations where the inhabitant sees himself as a kind of settler, indifferent to the fate of the place he inhabits. Major changes happen there without his cooperation, he is even unaware of what precisely has happened; he is suspicious; he hears about events by chance. Worse still, the condition of his village, the policing of the roads, the fate of the churches and presbyteries scarcely bothers him; he thinks that everything is outside his concern and belongs to a powerful stranger called the government. He enjoys what he has as a tenant, without any feeling of ownership or thought of possible improvement. This detachment from his own fate becomes so extreme that, if his own safety or that of his children is threatened, instead of trying to ward off the danger, he folds his arms and waits for the entire nation to come to his rescue.
De Tocqueville concludes:
When nations have reached this point, they have to modify their laws and customs or perish, for the spring of public virtue has, as it were, dried up. Subjects still exist but citizens are no more.
Magnolia Springs, Alabama has shown us the way. When the big oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico approached their shores; they stood up and told B.P. and the federal government to get the hell out of their way. The citizens of Magnolia Springs wasn’t about to wait around for a nod from a federal bureaucrat. The people of this town acted like Americans and took the bull by the horns and tackled the problem themselves.
When we have citizens like this, there is still hope for America.
Hurricane Katrina exposed the weakness of American. We have become dependent upon government bureaucrats. Whenever a disaster hits, we expect Washington D.C. to bail us out. Whether it is hurricanes, floods, home mortgages, automobile factories, financial institutions, or the size of our toilet bowls; the federal government is the big daddy. We can’t make a move without a government overlord giving us the okay. We are becoming just like Western Europe.
Alexis De Tocqueville wrote about this very scenario in his Democracy in America:
After all, what good is it to me to have an authority always ready to see to the tranquil enjoyment of my pleasures, to brush away all dangers from my path without my having to think about them, if such an authority, as well as removing thorns from under my feet, is also the absolute master of my freedom or if it so takes over all activity and life that around it all must languish when it languishes, sleep when it sleeps and perish when it perishes.
There are European nations where the inhabitant sees himself as a kind of settler, indifferent to the fate of the place he inhabits. Major changes happen there without his cooperation, he is even unaware of what precisely has happened; he is suspicious; he hears about events by chance. Worse still, the condition of his village, the policing of the roads, the fate of the churches and presbyteries scarcely bothers him; he thinks that everything is outside his concern and belongs to a powerful stranger called the government. He enjoys what he has as a tenant, without any feeling of ownership or thought of possible improvement. This detachment from his own fate becomes so extreme that, if his own safety or that of his children is threatened, instead of trying to ward off the danger, he folds his arms and waits for the entire nation to come to his rescue.
De Tocqueville concludes:
When nations have reached this point, they have to modify their laws and customs or perish, for the spring of public virtue has, as it were, dried up. Subjects still exist but citizens are no more.
Magnolia Springs, Alabama has shown us the way. When the big oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico approached their shores; they stood up and told B.P. and the federal government to get the hell out of their way. The citizens of Magnolia Springs wasn’t about to wait around for a nod from a federal bureaucrat. The people of this town acted like Americans and took the bull by the horns and tackled the problem themselves.
When we have citizens like this, there is still hope for America.
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