I've been reading about the BP disaster in the Gulf, and I've been perusing the progressive blogs, who nearly unanimously condemn Senator Landrieu and President Obama about the lack of government response.
I've been condemning Senator Landrieu and President Obama for a long time. That puts me way ahead of the progressive blogs. And, just to include the other nitwits, don't get me started on Senator Vitter, either.
Howeve, I've got to admit that there is a hell of a mess in the Gulf right now. Somebody screwed-up, and it'll probably be a while before we can know who screwed the pooch on this situation.
At the wedding this weekend, I talked with a good friend who works in the Gulf. He's telling me that the stories he's hearing from co-workers don't necessarily agree with what he's hearing on the news. He's heading out tomorrow for another 14-day shift and I'm sure I'll see him while he gets back. If anyone knows what happened, it's the guys who work on the rigs.
However, for all those guys condemning everyone in the area, to include my Senator and President (and I generally abhor them myself), I have to ask a question. Do you drive a car? Use electricity? Warm your house or cool it? How do you propose to do those things without oil? If you need oil, from where do you presume it comes?
I'm jsut asking - - .
Paw, there is a LOT more to it than is getting put out in the media... And once again, just proves that backups don't always work...
ReplyDeleteWe don't need politicians and an admiral telling an oil company how to stop a leak. We need them saying, "If we have something you might need let us know and you'll get it." And that's exactly what they're saying.
ReplyDeletePaw paw, thanks for the link.
ReplyDeleteYes, we got us a serious situation. But neither I nor Jeffrey nor the overwhelming majority of progressive bloggers in S. Louisiana opposes drilling or oil, in itself. That's a false choice. I think we have a right to complain about this disaster and its response without getting lectured on the value of oil. I think it takes a fair amount of chutzpah, to do that, frankly, since the piping that takes the oil to processing and then to market has vivisected our protective wetlands, the rest of which are now being poisoned by an underwater oil gusher which was a catastrophic risk BP claimed was pretty much impossible. We do think that oil companies should be truthful and accountable for the catastrophic risks and damage that they bring to the communities who support their infrastructure.
Something like this was only a matter of time.
Your all right Paw Paw...I'll be back to talk to ya..
ReplyDeleteAs someone who's spent 20 yrs in the GoM oilfield, I want to know why the BOPs and other safety equipment didn't work. And if there's already a sub-sea well tree on the sea floor, why the ROV can't manually shut the well in.
ReplyDeleteAs for the politics involved, this spill is no more Obama's fault/responsibility than Katrina was the Shrub's.
High ranking DC officials(including POTUS) need to stay away and let the experts handle things. The Coast Guard, MMS, and Gulf Coast oil spill response teams don't need to take time away from the job at hand to ferry officials around for a "dog & pony" show.
The Navy might be helpful; if so, use them.
You guys, consider that the USCG was playing military quartermaster, comma, old school on this one. You did hear that they were demanding beaucoup paperwork signed by every Feddle official on the planet before they'd issue a foot of boom, didn't you?
ReplyDeleteNope, there WERE Katrina-like mistakes made, I heard it from your Governor's lips myself last week.
Oyster, the problem is that your "progressive" people have jumped all over this spill as the only reason necessary to stop drilling/pumping from ALL offshore wells, FOREVER. I heard THAT one from Gov. Schwarzenegger's lips just today (no, he's not a REAL Republican, and this is one of the things that proves it).
There needs to be some responsibility on BOTH sides: on the part of the petro industry for their equipment, which should undergo the reliability testing of a nuke power plant's, and on the part of the Greenie opposition, which fails, as PawPaw pointed out, to account for just how we would survive as a nation with insufficient energy (the answer is that we wouldn't, just look at Venezuela).