Obama's Deepwater Response Another Disaster

The year and a half disaster known as the Obama administration has completely crystallized in their response, or should I say in the President's non-response, to the outrageous oil spill containment measures, and lack thereof, in the Gulf of Mexico.

On April 20th, an eon ago as far as appropriate disaster response by the government should be concerned, there was a fire and explosion on a British Petroleum (BP) licensed oil drilling rig known as the 'Deepwater Horizon' which was operating approximately 42 miles off the Louisiana coast at the time. Two days later the rig sank, and a 5-mile long oil slick became visible.

By April 25th, the US Coast Guard estimated that the rig was leaking approximately 1,000 barrels of crude oil per day into the waters of the Gulf. Within 3 more days that estimate had risen dramatically to 5,000 gallons per day. Still no effective response by President Obama or his administration. It would be another day, nearly a week after the initial incident, before he would announce "every single available resource" would help resolve the situation.

It would take until May 2nd before the President deemed the oil spill important enough to clear space from his busy schedule of private-industry takeovers, debt-and-tax raising program creation, and irresponsible financial entity bailouts to squeeze in a visit to the disaster area.

Over the next two weeks, the Obama administration would watch stoically and dispassionately as the oil spread towards Louisiana, reaching the Breton National Wildlife Refuge among other places. Despite leaving the incident in the hands of those who created it, Obama himself had the nerve to finally issue a statement on May 14th in which he chided the companies involved for creating a "ridiculous spectacle" of trading blame. Meanwhile, as Obama played Nero and fiddled, his Rome continued to burn as the oil slick continued to spread.

By May 19th the oil slick began to wash ashore at the Louisiana mainland and dangerously spread into heavy currents that could easily carry it on to Florida and beyond. Nine days after that, over a month after the initial incident, Obama finally made a 2nd visit to the area stating "I am the President, and the buck stops with me". But not apparently the oil slick, which continues on now with no end in sight as the month of May draws to a close. Some estimates are that at the current rates of oil spreading and poor effectiveness of response, it will not be contained until August.

During the administration of President George W. Bush, the liberal-controlled and Democratic Party-biased mainstream media and the Dems themselves all displayed self-righteous anger and indignation at the President and his team for what they deemed a particularly slow response in the exact same region of the country in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Waiting for a similar reaction to Obama's non-action in the Gulf, one can hear the crickets chirping.

There will be the usual hand-wringing from the lib circles here. Calls to halt offshore oil drilling have already begun. The President himself had recently commented that the procedures and equipment in today's modern world were safe and secure. He was, in that instance, absolutely correct. Just because of one accident, no matter how large, we should absolutely not stop searching for American resources and doing what it takes to extract and utilize those resources. Just because one plane or bus crashes, people don't stop flying or riding the roads.

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin had it right when she led the call to "Drill baby, drill!" during her Veep run two summers ago. New geological surveys have revealed massive natural oil reserves are likely right here in the continental United States. Those are in addition to what we already know exists in her home state in the ANWAR reserves.

Despite her critics cat-calls, Palin loves here home state, and would never endanger it, and has led the fight to get those reserves opened and get the drilling going. She is absolutely correct, and needs to be supported publicly by all those who recognize the truth of energy resource management.

The United States needs to lessen our dependence on foreign sources of oil, be those sources from the Middle East or Russia, or from closer to home in Mexico or Canada. We have an abundance of those resources right here, and we need to go after them. Alternative energy needs to continue to be explored and developed, but those sources are not currently available or viable, and likely will not be for decades to come.

President Obama's excrutiatingly slow and ineffective response to this oil spill disaster is itself yet another disastrous example of the incompetence of his administration. We shouldn't extrapolate that by worsening our national economic situation.

Drill, Baby, Drill -- Well Maybe Not

There is (or was) a broken oil well spewing crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico.  The owner of that well, BP, has been trying all manner of ways of plugging this, but nothing like this has been tried at depths like this.  I've not heard much of a cry from the proponents of drilling lately, but hey if we drill for oil in sensitive places, these kinds of accidents are bound to happen.

So, it's time to vent.  First of all, we all must take responsibility for this accident, for it is our desire/need to drive cars that use gasoline that leads to the need to drill for oil in such sensitive places.  I am as complicit in this as anyone, even if I drive a smaller, relatively fuel efficient car. 

Second, I find it interesting as well that many of the same people that are calling for smaller government are the ones crying the loudest for government help.  I'll leave things there.

Finally, I find it interesting that the President is being blamed for not handling this properly.  But, until the well is capped there is little that can be done.  This isn't the same as Katrina, and so those comparisons need to be dropped.  By all reports the Administration is doing all that it can, but as long as the oil spewing out, there's not much that can be done topside.  Hopefully this top-kill attempt will do the job, and ultimately it is the petroleum industry that has the know-how to get this done.  Then, when the oil stops, the job of cleanup can start and the government will be greatly involved. 

So, back to the point -- we can drill baby drill, but if we drill baby drill it's likely that such disasters will happen.  Are we willing to live with the possibility, or is now the time to get on with serious efforts at alternative energy sources? 

Pandemics Are Nothing to Sneeze At

For some people it's probably a big joke. 'Swine Flu', it just has a funny name, right? For others it's probably a case of wondering what all the fuss is about, since we are talking about a few dozen cases in the United States, and all of those are down around the border with Mexico, which has the real problem. So what's the big deal? Why all the headline stories in the newspaper and on television? And what's with all those empty stadiums this past weekend for all the big soccer matches down there south of the border? Well glad that you asked, because the topic of handling a pandemic, at least from a law enforcement perspective, is being addressed this year in one of the courses that I am teaching. The course, titled 'Crisis & Emergency Management', is a scenario-based course in which the police officers of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania are presented with four unusual situations, asked to place themselves in the scenario, and are guided as to how they should be expected to have to respond. They are also given information on some of the resources that would be coming to help in the situation from the government and other entities. One of the scenarios, in fact the final one that they are being presented, is a pandemic flu outbreak. How timely, huh? I can't tell you how many times that I have gotten that look in class. You know the one, the "You gotta be kidding me, this will never happen" look. Well as today's headlines are beginning to relate, pandemic outbreaks are not only things that happened in the distant past or the subjects of science fiction, but they are very real threats to our society and our world, and we need to be prepared and informed. A 'pandemic' is a breakout of an infectious disease that spreads through populations of humans or animals or both from person-to-person (animal to person, animal to animal) across large geographic regions, continents, and even around the world. There have been a number of pandemics to hit the world in recorded history. Many have heard of the 'Black Death' of 'bubonic plague' pandemic that struck in the 14th century and killed 20-30 million Europeans in just six years. In the 19th century, another plague outbreak began in China and spread all around the world, killing 10 million people in India. There were numerous outbreaks of 'cholera' in the 19th century, including an 1866 outbreak in our own country that killed some 50,000 Americans. Also here in the U.S., the 'Spanish flu' pandemic struck in 1918-1919, eventually spreading to all corners of the world and infecting up to 5% of the human population, with 20% of people feeling some effects. In six months, some estimates had the number of dead worldwide as 50 million, but others placed it at twice that number. As recently as 1957-58, the 'Asian flu' caused upwards of 70,000 deaths here in the U.S., and in 1968-69 the 'Hong Kong flu' killed 34,000 Americans. During the 1700's, at the time of the 'Thirty Years War', approximately 8 million Germans were wiped out by an outbreak of plague and typhus. Just as recently as 2003 the world reeled at the possibility of another pandemic called 'SARS', a highly contagious pneumonia type, but quick action around the world stopped its spread before it could become a pandemic. That illness was not eradicated, however, and could reemerge at any time. The bottom line is that there is nothing at all cute about 'Swine flu' despite its comical sounding name. It is an illness that draws that name because it is prevalent in swine or pig populations. This is a killer illness that at the very least can make a lot of people very ill. You need to pay close attention to the news on this pandemic, and take every precaution that public health authorities release as seriously as possible. In a worst case scenario here in America, we could see scenes such as played out in those Mexican football/soccer games this past weekend. What are known as 'social distancing methods' could well be put into effect, where large groups of people are kept apart from one another by methods such as closing schools, bars, restaurants, and other public gathering places and events such as pro sports games would perhaps be played, but in front of empty ballparks and arenas. We will see individuals placed into 'isolation', where they have been diagnosed with the illness and are kept away from others during their period of infectiousness. We would also likely see individuals, and possibly families, work places, or entire communities put into 'quarantine' where these have been in contact with individuals who are diagnosed as positive with the illness, until those folks in contact can be deemed illness-free. And if things ever get really bad due to a pandemic disease outbreak, you need to not only pay strict attention and follow along with strict adherence to public health and law enforcement authorities directions, but it couldn't hurt to toss in a prayer or two while you're at it, because hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people are likely to end up dead.

It's A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall

For the 2nd time in three years, the City of New Orleans prepares this morning to be blasted by a powerful hurricane. The devastation wrought back in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina is now legendary, but a great deal of that horror was not a creation of God, or Mother Nature, or any kind of natural or supernatural being or event. The devastation was brought on man by man. For at least decades, the governments, both local and regional, and the people of the Gulf region were warned that this was going to happen, it was just a matter of time. It is not the responsibility of the federal government to build giant walls and roofs so that men can be protected from every possible disaster. Men need at some point to take responsibility for their own actions and lives. When you purposefully and intentionally make the decision that you and your family are going to live in an area that is historically prone to certain natural events, then you have chosen to take on certain risks and have the responsibility to ensure that you and yours can survive and recover when those events occur. And the key word in that entire statement is 'when', because this is not an 'if' scenario. Hurricanes barrel through the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico every single year, they have done so for all of recorded history, and they will continue to do so into the future. In the U.S., this means that coastal states such as Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and the Carolinas are always going to be vulnerable to these types of events. Anyone who moves into or remains living in those states near the coastlines makes the choice that the beauty of everyday life there is worth the trade-off in having to evacuate or baton down when these strong storms hit. When they do hit, those who have made those decisions, along with their local and state governments, should be responsible for any recovery and rebuilding. It is not as if these events are a surprise, a sudden calamity that could not have been forecast. While any particular storm cannot be foreseen, the fact that there will be storms year after year, and that some of these will be of the devastating variety, means that people who live in these areas are rolling the dice. When we gamble and win, it is considered being 'lucky', it is not usually considered smart. When you gamble and lose, it should not be my responsibility to bail you out and put you back on your feet. Do people need help out of the goodness of others hearts? Sure, that is the point of charity and volunteerism. But for the federal government to continue to take hundreds of millions of dollars in hits because of the continued and repetitive gambling of some of our citizens is ridiculous. Every time that a natural disaster hits, the first question is "What is the federal government going to do about this?" The fact is that members of local governments have made the choice to be citizens of those communities, and they need to be responsible. They need to educate their fellow community members, prepare for responding to these incidents, and prepare for recovery from these incidents. The local governments and businesses and citizens of New Orleans and the surrounding parishes were told that a Katrina-like event was going to happen, and they chose to make other decisions over the years and decades in their spending that did not address the issues of basic protections against such a storm. Instead, the federal government was expected to protect them from their choice to live in that area, and bail them out in recovery when the event actually happened. And this is not the only example of this type of thinking and lack of preparation. For decades, the people in the San Francisco and Oakland areas, and many other communities in southern California, have been warned that a major earthquake of a devastating magnitude is going to strike at some point. Not some point hundreds of years in the future, but likely at some point in the next few years or decades. It is going to happen: buildings, bridges, roads, homes will topple and hundreds if not thousands or more of people are going to die. It is a fact of the future that every one of those people has been warned about. But they have chosen to live in those areas anyway because there are many benefits on a day-to-day basis. I respect and acknowledge the right of those folks to live in those areas. But they have chosen to live there in a known disaster-waiting-to-happen neighborhood, and when it happens, likely in my lifetime, it should not be my responsibility to bail them out and help them rebuild right there so that it can all happen again someday. Sudden, unexpected events are one thing. Predicted and expected events are another. One results in a tragedy, the other results in a bad choice coming home to roost. It appears that Hurricane Gustav, which will slam into Louisiana today, will not be nearly as bad as Katrina was, but it will be a strong storm that will beat down an area already beaten badly. The fact is that a hard rain is going to fall, and the further fact is that it won't be the last time.