Well, thank the heavens and Halle-f***ing-lujah! Not using a Nuke might just be the first intelligent decision this administration has made.
For better or worse, America is now a nation of money managers (yours truly, guilty as charged), lawyers, accountants, programers, nurses, clerical workers, professors of woman's studies (hehehehehe!), etc... gone are the days where large numbers of us fixed our own cars, changed the oil, repaired the roof... the vast, vast majority of us has ZERO mechanical expertise, and accordingly, we really believe, almost on religious level, that our government can handle the evacuation of a half million people from an undetermined location (hurricanes like Katrina are notoriously fickle about where they land) in a matter of HOURS... or stop an Oil well blow out in 5,000 feet of water in a matter of days.
(Being a Wall Street Kn0w-Nothing I remember watching in AWE as my older brothers would build a gas station, literally from the tanks set deep in in the ground to the roof. Tanks, pipes, pumps, pump island, signs, building, electrical, welding, bathroom plumbing... these guys could do just about anything mechanically and given enough time solve any mechanical problem. If you took ALL of the MBA's and Phd's on Wall Street and all of the "Journalists" in the MSM and drove them up to this real life erector set they wouldn't know a backhoe from ARC welder; if you took them to my farm I would be willing to bet on the same sort of problem.)
There is an old saying in the military: "Amateurs talk strategy, professionals talk logistics". In other words, flanking strategy is less important than food, water, port-o-poties, and toilet paper in a military campaign.
It is my assertion that a nation that can't change a flat tire probably has some unreasonable expectations when assessing a GOM well blow out or a hurricane evacuation.
There is a great deal of "Get Some Even" going on here. A great many Non-Dems are furious at the treatment of GWB in the Katrina disaster; I know this is hard for the Obama "true-believers" and other Dems, but GWB was no more responsible for the unreasonable expectations of the American people (which the Media stocked with reckless abandon) than BHO is, in this case for the inability of TPTB to cap the Horizon Well in 5,000 feet of water. But that does not change the political realities; the Dems drew first blood, and did so with GREAT SUCCESS in the Katrina episode... and now the Non-Dems (that's my term for the 2 parties within the Republican party - the Libertarians and the not-so-Libertarian, as well as registered independents) are using that play book against its creators.
Well, that's just the way it is in American politics. It will be up to the electorate to reward or punish this strategy. My bet is they will continue to reward it, and that Obama unemployment slip is on its way.
--------------------------------------------
B.P. is Britain's biggest tax payer. I wonder how they feel about losing this revenue source. B.P. is also the biggest dividend payor into the U.K.'s vast pension system and largest contributor to that nation's "Safety Net". The U.S. needs the U.K.'s support in Iraq, Afghanistan, the United Nations, and in any future conflict... Somebody should call up New York's Senator Schumer... he thinks B.P. should suspend its dividend...
Don't you just love unintended consequences?
Americans that are IN LOVE with Europe's safety net should keep in mind that most of the contributions for that in country's like Norway and the U.K. come from OIL REVENUES. No Oil revenues - NO SAFETY NET.
20 comments:
Some small points (don't want to offend "Anonymous" readers who hate me so much) ....
1) A lot of stuff these days is designed NOT to be repairable. China = disposable = buy more crap. You give a 10 year-old boy a chance to build a go kart from the ground up, and he's gonna do it (like I used to), and learn a lot in the process. But it is very hard to actually repair anything today yourself (vacuums, air conditioners, cars, etc.) You should see my treadmill when I had to replace the button-pad and the running belt. I had to tear that thing from limb to limb! I no longer have any plastic covering it.
2) Bush (and the US Corps of Engineers) were hugely to blame for the Katrina disaster and NON-response. Bush sat there on his thumbs hoping those awful black people would just conveniently go away and/or die. Obama can be accused of doing the same thing at the outset of the Gulf oil leak. But I don't think Bush and Obama are comparable in their disaster responses, except that both were too lazy.
3) Just as a side note, please remember Federal FEMA SUPPORTS the state disaster organizations. They don't do very much by themselves. Federal FEMA only has a few thousand employees scattered around the country (US EPA has more than twice as many). US FEMA has deep pockets, however.
4) While the taxing structure of the "Norweigian Miracle" has allowed Norway to build up a $500 billion government war chest from having 96% of oil revenues/taxes go to a special government fund, narrow-minded UK and Mexico have already spent their oil revenue/taxation money on stupid stuff, like baseball parks and beautiful government buildings.
BP is 40% UK owned, 40% US owned, 20% rest of world. That's a lotta love to spread around.
The RIG engineers probably had all sorts of blowout scenario backup plans. I'd be fairly certain the MBA's from BP said not to, cuts into profits too much.
Greed rules. It's what the money boyz do.
From Charles Hugh Smith blog ...
http://www.oftwominds.com/
blogjun10/
energy-practicalities06-10.html
James Cameron's help turned down by BP:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100603/en_nm/us_oil_spill_cameron
Dammit!:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/
nm/20100603/en_nm/
us_oil_spill_cameron
Interesting and well thought out comment Bur, with the exception of more Liberal race baiting crap about Bush "awful black people". There is nothing to note that G.W. Bush doesn't like black people, perhaps poor people would be a better generalization. G.W. appointed some truly unqualified people at times, I assume most President's do--since their is always a degree of "nominate your buddies or influence peddlers that helped you get elected". But G.W. did have a fairly diverse group of folks from different racial groups etc. and did have some "black" folks that he was close to C.Rice etc. Throwing in make believe comments based on assumptions based on your personal biases--takes away from your arguments.
-Meiyo
Yea.
So Bush is responsible for 'Bus' Nagin and Landry's inability to follow the disaster plan or do anything other than try to shift blame? Bush is responsible for the enviro-lawsuits that kept the Corps of Engineers from draining Lake Pontchartrain? Bush is responsible for the decades of graft where the money to reinforce the dikes instead went into pockets? Don't fart in my face and say it's perfume, bureaucrat.
I fix my own car (just replaced the brakes and got new discs, the old ones were too thin to turn), change the oil, fix the roof, etc.
Dear Anon:
Either register or use a nickname and stick with it.
I don't allow Anonymous commentary here anymore.
From David Strahan (UK energy writer) ..
"Oilmen tell me the US offshore has always been loosely regulated compared to world leaders Norway and, since the Piper Alpha disaster, the British North Sea. But now we discover the safety regime is not just slack but also profoundly corrupt. First hand testimony reveals drug-taking government inspectors from the Minerals Management Service routinely accepted gifts from operators, and allowed them to fill out their own safety reports in pencil to be inked over by officials later. It would make a Banana Republic blush, and means it is unlikely any rig in the Gulf of Mexico was working to higher standards than the Deepwater Horizon. In other words, this was an accident waiting to happen and it could have happened to anyone."
No reasonable person expects an evacuation in a few hours; however efforts should have been well underway within 72 hours. Instead professional first responders, e.g. firefighters, from around the country were who had volunteered were “in Atlanta undergoing days of training on cultural sensitivity and sexual harassment.” This is beyond SNAFU and deep into FUBAR territory. What this is telling me is FEMA has serious management issues.
Hey Dan,
We wouldn't want to offend anyone while dragging them to safety, now would we. This is quite the opposite of Bur's take on things. The Left's political correctness prevailed over common sense.
FEMA BEGGED the Louisiana and New Orleans to ask for help, so that they could LEGALLY do their job. Nothing was forthcoming until after the disaster. Same with the National Guard. Mr. Bush and FEMA were trying to do their best while still operating within the law. That is supposed to be what we do in this country. The National Guard were practically the only effective relief force, and couldn't be mustered until the Governor requested it. I'm glad that Mr. Bush operated within the law, but sorry for those who suffered for it. Please, Bur, don't let the facts interfere with your opinions.
There is already too much lawlessness in the operation of the Federal Government. I just returned from Europe, and saw customs grilling foreign visitors. They are all now fingerprinted on entry. Yet, the border to Mexico is so porous that thousands a day walk across. This encourages the drug and arms trade that is destroying Mexico, and also the kidnapping epidemic that has made Phoenix second only to Mexico City in this sort of crime. The Southwest is being taken over by Mexican gangs. The Fed and Treasury seem to have operated outside the law with their bailout tactics, to the detriment of trust in the financial system. There are plenty of other examples.
Beyond the unrealistic expectations is forming the expectation that the Federal government should do what ever it takes, regardless of the law.
These activities are the end of constitutional democracy and the start of tyranny.
Regards,
Coal Guy
Dan
There are SERIOUS management issues all OVER the Federal GOvernment, and perhaps it was SUPPOSED to be that way... still certain influential groups continue to peddle the "government is the solution" BS in a system constructed to make sure that the government NEVER operates terribly efficiently.
BTW... I dispute your 72 hour assertion. Nothing gets done on that large of a scale in 72 hours. Nothing. Katrina was on a scale of D-Day... and that took over 1 year.
Coal Guy:
I am overwhelmed. Thanks, I needed that.
I would really rather talk about oil. :) And Lord knows Carbon does his research.
But for those of you interested in a breakdown of how the government response to Katrina went, here's a CNN report on the aftermath ..
http://www.cnn.com/2006/
POLITICS/04/14/fema.ig/
index.html
One thing it does mention ...
"Comprehending the disaster: With the communications infrastructure destroyed, it took FEMA officials about three days after landfall to grasp the magnitude of the hurricane's destruction."
Begging LA and New Orleans? Doesn't sound like it to me. :)
Yep, Bur, That is one of the reasons why the Army was the most effective first responder. They didn't expect the cell phone network to survive a disaster. They understand disaster. Their job is to make them.
Every non-military agency from FEMA on down expected their phones to work. Duh!!! Paramilitary groups, like the N. O. Police, took the day off to loot,
If FEMA and the National Guard had been called in 3 Days before the disaster, the flooding would have been the same, but the human suffering and chaos would have been less in the short term.
Regards,
Coal Guy
I think we can both agree there was failure at many levels. If certain crappy levees would have held, the flooding would have been a lot less as well. I saw a PBS special on that a few years ago. :)
Yep, we're so tapped out funding give aways that there's nothing left for real work.
Regards,
Coal Guy
I didn’t say the refugees should all have been on air conditioned busses in 72 hours, just that the effort should be well under way within 72 hours. By that I mean hiring planes and sending out crews to reconnoiter the area; then, moving men and material along routes identified by the reconnaissance to areas identified by the reconnaissance and setting up aid stations. Then, over time the initial aid stations become supply depots as patrols and operations push out from there. I don’t expect miracles just some sign of competence, this isn’t rocket science. As Coal Guy pointed to, our military does this under fire as part of the three block war concept. Yet somehow after 20 years experience dealing with organized chaos those same noncoms can’t manage it in a civilian agency? BS, it’s senior management screwing it up.
While FEMA didn’t have cell towers they had access to instant support via RACES (HAM radio operators). Finally, while the military needed permission to move in, that doesn’t apply to FEMA; they are a civilian agency. They just froze up.
perhaps there will be NO SAFETY NET eventually, but before we get to that they are cutting child support, and not pensions. Children cant vote unfortunately, so they are low on the list of priorities. With declining birth rates and increasing numbers of retirees, who the hell is going to be able to pay the pensions anyway?
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