The Oil Spill

The largest environmental disaster in U.S. history and it's business as usual for most involved, finger pointing. As failed solution after failed solution continues to fail in bringing about a stop to the leak, Obama, (in an attempt to appear more competent than his administration actually is), seems more interested in demonizing BP than working with them to stop the leak.

Dick Morris launched an all out assault on Obama's incompetence regarding the oil spill etc.

"America is watching the president alternate between wringing his hands in helplessness and pointing his finger in blame when he should be solving the most pressing environmental problem America has faced in the past 50 years. We are watching generations of environmental protection swept away as marshes, fisheries, vacation spots, recreational beaches, wetlands, hatcheries and sanctuaries fall prey to the oil spill invasion. And, all the while, the president acts like a spectator, interrupting his basketball games only to excoriate BP for its failure to contain the spill."

There's more, here's the whole story.

Of course Robert Reich over at the Huffington Post is calling for Obama to take over BP. Yeah, great idea, after all we all know that everything the government runs works out great, like welfare, low income housing programs, bailout and stimulus packages, cash for clunkers, the post office, the RMV etc. You'll also see some of the more phosisticated, elitist thinking leftist, (and yes I misspelled sophisticated on purpose), making fun of Sarah Palin for blaming environmentalist.

“Extreme deep water drilling is not the preferred choice to meet our country’s energy needs, but your protests and lawsuits and lies about onshore and shallow water drilling have locked up safer areas. It’s catching up with you. The tragic, unprecedented deep water Gulf oil spill proves it.” - Sarah Palin

While her critics attack as usual, even if you aren't a big fan of Sarah Palin there's no denying that she has a point. The policies practiced in the US at the behest of environmental idiots who push through nonsense, causing more dangerous tactics to be utilized, in order to appease the misguided ideas of global warming alarmist and other such environmental phonies.

For example, we can't drill more in ANWR, (Alaska National Wildlife Refuge), even though we would only need to drill in a relatively small area and wildlife would practically not even be affected. We can't drill in more shallow water and are forced to drill a mile under the surface in deep waters in order to get the oil.

Here's what's wrong with not increasing drilling on land. Suppose you have an oil rig on land and a pipe burst from an explosion, in other words apply the BP gulf disaster situation to land instead of deep water.

First of all it would be easy to access and fix because actual disaster crews and other people could go right to the area and contain and fix the rig, plug the pipeline, and whatever else they'd have to do but in any case it wouldn't be that difficult.

Secondly, all of the oil that leaks from such a disaster would land on dry ground and just begin to go back into the ground, not such a big deal since that's where it's being taken out of anyway. In light of this gulf disaster "drill, baby, drill", at least on land, is sounding better than ever.

What about drilling where the water isn't so deep? That may sound scary to some but think about it for a second. If the water isn't so deep than it wouldn't be so hard to send a crew of people and technology to the source of the spill and work to contain it. Most of the oil spilled in such a case would be closer to shore and therefore carried mostly onto the same shoreline. I may be oversimplifying this since I'm of course no expert on drilling for oil, but I'd rather see one beach area in trouble from a spill that's easier to reach than an oil spill spreading all throughout the gulf and affecting several states.

Don't think I'm giving BP a pass on the situation with this post either. BP's response to the spill has been almost as big of a joke as the Obama administration's. While the record on deep sea drilling is impressive.

"This is unprecedented. We've had more than 30,000 oil wells drilled in the Gulf of Mexico off our four states -- Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama -- in the last 50 years. And this is the first time there's ever been something like this, after more than 30,000 wells." - Haley Barbour

50 years, 30,000 wells, 1 major catastrophe...Show me a government program with such an impressive record. However, oil companies like BP should have more of a hope for the best, plan for the worst mentality when it comes to deep sea drilling.

The ideas coming out of BP have been laughable at best, to the point where now we are taking the idea of stuffing the pipe with golf balls and tires in an attempt to stop the leak seriously. They are currently working on the lower marine riser package containment operation. Here are BP's details on the program. Hopefully this one works. If it doesn't then you have to wonder what they'll try next.

So if you want to point the finger of blame at someone then there's plenty of blame to go around. BP, Obama (the largest receiver of BP campaign money in the '08 election cycle), Bush, environmentalist, special interest, politics as usual in Washington, and lobbying of course.

One solution, make lobbying illegal. If politicians weren't controlled by money from corporations in the form of lobbying maybe Washington D.C. (District of Corruption), could actually get some things done for the good of the country, instead of for the good of their own special interests.

With the way Washington currently works nobody wins. Instead of the country working together to solve our problems we just treat every problem as an excuse to point the finger at others. Whether it's politicians vs companies, Republican's vs Democrat's, black vs. white, etc. Sometimes the finger has to be pointed into a mirror. Beyond that it's time that the people of this country see problems for what they are and work together to solve the problems we face.

This is America, and a United States can accomplish anything when we work more at solving problems and less at pointing fingers. This oil spill is just another example of a problem that should've been avoided, and after the fact could damn sure be solved if there weren't such a desire to score a political point with a pointed finger. Under that type of system we all lose in the end.