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Another disaster and lots of unanswered questions.Posted Tuesday, June 15, 2010, at 9:52 AM
An oil spill of epic proportions is encroaching upon our shores. I have lots of questions. First of all, why is a foreign entity allowed to drill for oil off our shores? Why are there emergency procedures for everything but not this? Why was help from other countries turned down by our president? Why did they lie about how much was actually spilling? (Not that it matters oil in the ocean is still oil) The list goes on & on and yet the oil continues to spill. We spend so much time and money on foreign disasters yet we don't prepare for a disaster such as this one. I just don't get it.
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Anything at all.
I was raised on the same farm on which my dad was born. My parents still live there today. I graduated from Eastwood High in 1987 and from Eastern Wyoming College with a degree in Criminal Justice in 1989. I married Randy 19 long years ago and we have 6 children ranging in age from 3 to 18 years old. I have worked numerous jobs from detassling as a teenager, a legal secretary in California, church secretary in Iowa to a daycare provider now. I love being outside and hate doing women stuff inside. I would rather mow the lawn than do dishes or change the tire on my van than sort socks. I am patriotic, opinionated and sometimes loud. I am also a great mom, good friend and I love to laugh - I did marry Randy. I believe in common sense versus reading a book by some "expert". I don't pretend to have all the answers but I am willing to ask the questions that others are afraid to ask and sometimes to my detriment say the things that others only think about saying. I try to avoid confrontation but sometimes it finds me and almost all the time it is necessary to stimulate communication.
Hot topics Another disaster and lots of unanswered questions.(16 ~ 2:25 PM, Jul 5)
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Why do we not drill for oil in shallow water? Why are we not tapping onshore resources? There were emergency procedures for this, but they didn't work. There are ways to deal with this, but our government is not allowing it. If we drilled in shallow water this would have been fixed in a day. If we drilled on shore better yet. The reason we drill out there is the same reason Ted Kennedy(who wanted alternative energy) stopped the wind farm from being built in his back yard.
Understand that you can't have everything. You can't be an economic super power without fossil fuels. You can't get fossil fuels without risk. If you want to have a scenic view you can't have oil rigs close to shore. If oil rigs are further out to sea you give up safety and security.
In most cases people who make the rules have no clue about the job or situation in which they are making rules. They live a land called Theory, which is often times in another universe than reality.
Why did all the problems with the oil in the Gulf happen? Let's see, shall we start with the Republican Congress that has consistently sided with big business, whether it is oil companies or Wall Street, or the gutting of the regulations for both of Wall Street and oil companies? The Republicans have always thought that the big companies would do the "right" thing and regulate themselves. Well, we can see how that worked out. If the Republican Congress and President Clinton had not repealed the Glass-Steagal Act, the financial disaster of the last several years may not have happened.
If President Bush had not gutted the agencies of any means to enforce the rules that where in place, perhaps the oil disaster(I refuse to call it a spill, a spill is a known quantity, this isn't) would not have happened.
People who try to put all the blame for this unfortunate situation in the Gulf on to President Obama, haven't been paying attention. He has been on this since the first day. I don't know what else these people expect him to do, unless they want him to go out in the water and use his "super" powers to plug the hole.
He has been working with every expert, from anywhere they can be found, whether in private or public life to try to find a solution. Instead of talking about what President Obama is not doing, why don't we talk about what we can do to help the people and wildlife in the areas affected?
It is much easier to point to President Obama and say that he is not doing every thing that can be done, than to look to ourselves and say what can I do to help.
Think about it.
Right now I think our esteemed President is using his being black as an excuse. I've been hearing rumblings about his complaining that he can't get to angry because America is afraid of an angry black man! I've heard it all now....America is afraid of an angry black man?!?!?!? That is almost as absurd as the loony left painting everone who voted against him as a racist!!! Don't even try and refute that one Dems, cuz I heard it myself on The Clinton News Network and other like news outlets. I am one Conservative who wants to see him get really but kicking MAD at BP for draging their buts on this. Don't even get me started on the Presidents own lethargy in responding to the growing oil spill. Grow a pair! Don't accept flimsey excuses and quick fixes.
It isn't the republicans that have us drilling oil in the middle of nowhere, it is the hippie commie scum. If we would have been drilling oil in 300 ft of water, which there is plenty there, we wouldn't have this problem. We would also have cheaper fuel. It wouldn't matter if the government agencies had 20 times the man power and money, they still couldn't solve or prevent a problem. They are the problem. If you don't believe me lets look at Enron, Worldcom, Bernie, Freddie, Fannie, AIG...What were government employees doing? Looking at porn. What were they doing when they were inspecting the rigs, looking at porn. Don't blame Bush or Clinton for this they are long gone. Obama could have changed this he had time and complete power, he didn't see a need. Obama has been slow on the draw, like always. He didn't create this disaster, but he sure hasn't help fix it. Nobody wanted this to happen, and nobody is glad that it did. Quit getting mad a BP, if you think they don't want to fix this you are nuts. We don't need our Commander in thief out there talking about kicking butts. We need him to try to solve the problem. However when you elect a man no experience in leadership this is to be expected. Grow up Obama, you can't blame anyone but yourself for your incompetence here.
Same old stuff, blame President Obama and not ask what you can do to help with the problem?
All I am reading are tired, old talking points from conservative people who did not vote for President Obama, don't think that the government should tell anyone what to do, but want the government to fix the problem. Hypocrisy much?
If you want the government to fix it, then the government has to be able to regulate it and the conservative representatives in Congress, both Representatives, Senators and Presidents have done every thing they can to stop any regulation of any of the issues that we as a country are now dealing with.
I haven't heard one idea of how individuals can help with the problems from this disaster. One easy way is to do everything you can to cut down on your energy use. Call your representatives in Congress, both houses and tell them to get on the stick to get some alternative energy sources going in this country. There are lots of ideas out there, from the engines being produced in Algona that run on ammonia, to the windmills that can make the ammonia for the engines to run, besides having leftover energy to sell to energy companies or use for the producers needs.
If you need more information on this and many more ideas, just look at Francis Thicke's website, he is running for Secretary of Agriculture for the Sate of Iowa and he is looking for and finding ideas right here in Iowa to help get our farmers and other population away from being so dependent on oil products.
The point is that there are alternatives to foreign oil, they are available right here in our state, and we need to be supporting these local companies and solutions for the future.
To spend our time beating on politicians and the President is a waste of time and energy that would be better used to look for the solutions I have talked about, and the many more I am sure are out there.
I have questions about why Obama is not accepting help from other nations (Britain for example, who has many interests in the Gulf of Mexico/Caribbean) and why other companies are not being held responsible.
Other companies?
Sure. Like Halliburton!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/30...
If there was any chance their cement work was faulty (and let's face it -- how could there not be) why aren't they involved in the cleanup, or, if they have fewer resources for that, why could they not get involved right now with a bail-out of fishermen and others who depend on the Gulf for their livelihoods?
50+ days and hadn't talked to a BP CEO!!! That's totally inexcusable. Dem s, Reps, and independents should me mad as H@## let alone the states this is affecting.
You can white-wash this all you want to but the bottom line is this Administration has failed to address the oil that is spilling into the ocean (not Oil Spill). All I here from them is talk with no action or plan.
THE BLAME GAME is always being played to cover up there ability to get the job done.
It's not really President Obama's or Bush's or the Repulican's or Democrat's fault-it's the lobbyists and bureaucrats in the Federal mineral agency (or whatever that little known entity is called) that were taking bribes in exchange for the companies to "self-regulate." It's not always a bad thing for companies to do this, but there should also be second-checks, which for here there were none, simply because the regulators were too busy taking cash and other bribes in exchange for basically not doing their jobs. Having BP (or whoever) fill out regulatory reports in pencil so the regulators could copy over it in pen, things of that nature. It has nothing to do with Republicans favoring things like cutting out unncecessary regulations from business or Democrats not responding soon enough to this disaster.
BP should be allowed to drill there because 1. It's international waters where the drilling is being done, and 2. they sell the greatest majority of that oil to the United States at the same price any of our oil companies would. It really makes no difference. In all likelihood, were it not BP, it would have been Exxon or Chevron or anyone else. The who and where they're based are all but entirely arbitrary points, and unimportant except in order to know who needs to organize and pay for the cleanup.
jlee...gotta say thanks. That was probably the best comment yet. I just can't believe with all the technology in this world that they can't figure out how to prevent something of this nature. It truly is sickening.
The problems I see with this is the safety standards of BP are (on record) very low and all they get is a fine and on their way they go. Maybe laws need to change and they have to shut down ALL production until said safety breach is fixed. THEN maybe BP would take their production procedures a little more seriously.
This is a very horrible tragedy that no one will ever take the blame for so why not quit pointing fingers and group together to save who/what we can while we can still do so.
I suggest those that have a problem with BP boycott their products, volunteer your vacation to the Gulf and help with whatever you can and pray for a faster recovery.
This is what happens when greed overcomes common sense and safety. In this business it should be practice to double check your I's are dotted and your T's are crossed.
You can have all the technology, all the planning and disasters still will happen. In fact when they happen they are usually worse because you think you have prevented anything from happening. In actuality we being human can only account for a few problems that have not occurred in the past.
You can't prevent everything. People are going to die, bad things are going to happen. At this point it doesn't even matter why or how? We just need to fix it. We may or may not have a clue how to do it. We just have to act on our best guess and work together to fix it. When it is over then we can analyze to why and the how. Don't waste our time pointing fingers at CEOs. They didn't inspect they platform and give themselves a safety award that was the government. It wasn't our idiot in command that inspected it, but it was him preventing some early efforts to deal with the problem.
It is BP's fault that this happened, I don't think they ever denied it. Accidents happen, it wasn't intentional, that is why it is called an accident. They should and will pay for the damage, so why the outrage with them. Where is the outrage at all the people in this country who don't take responsibility. We bail those people out. BP is going to pay for this, like they should. You should applaud that kind of responsibility. Short term this will have an impact, 100 years from now it will be like this never happened.
DWD, I have been very interested in your comments on this thread and agree in large part. What I worry about is what about all the people who depended upon the Gulf for their livelihood -- fishermen, etc.? They had no control over this. Do they deserve to have their livelihoods wiped out? I don't think paying for damage up to a cap of $20 or $50 billion is going to deter BP from playing fast and loose with safety standards, and I do not believe that amount of money will restore all the people in fishing, tourism and other coastal industries who will suffer.
What do you think should be done to make those people whole, who are suffering financially because of this through absolutely no fault of their own?
Just wanted to note (paraphrased from news I watched last week) that one reason many of the drilling operations have moved out to deep water in International waters is because in 1995 (Clinton was in office for those keeping score)legislation passed that lifted regulations and taxes in the deeper waters farther out. The US didn't want to regulate the water farther out anymore. So many oil companies moved out to these new areas to make more money, find more oil, and not be regulated by the US. It was suppose to be a 5 year change and in 2000 it was reapproved and and left taht way since.
So blameing any one administration is difficult when many regulations are signed then reapproved across other admins.
I hadto laugh at David Letterman. He said something about the President's speech being on then he paused &stated glad we could put this fiasco behind us now. I feel that way sometimes when they get up and talk.
Life happens. Is it right that if you die in an airplane your family can only collect $250,000, but if make 20k a year and a doctor screws up you can collect millions? BP should have to pay to clean up and help offset some losses for these industries. At some point BP's liability does need to be capped. They can't be expected to offset a fishermans salary 10 years from now if the fishing doesn't return. A couple of years of wages up front gives these people an opportunity to change gears if they have to. It is like helping the little family farmer stay in business because it has been in the family for 100 years, that doesn't play a role. If you are unable to be self supportive in a profession, time to find a new one.
I would love my profession to be playing baseball, I would love to do that everyday. I could do it everyday, but I couldn't feed my family or myself. Should someone else fund my life. I understand that it is not the fishermans fault, but helping the fisherman for lets say 5 years is all that should be required. If they haven't been able to transition by then, they aren't trying. Maybe they don't want to transition, I guess try to make a living at it then. If the fish don't come back, that is a risk you take.
BP should make this right, and they will. However they should not have to fund all these peoples lives forever. They should not be the new welfare department. At some point in time people should be expected to stand on their own again, maybe in a new profession or a new location. That is life. Think about how your grandparents would have dealt with this. They would have been lucky to get anything, been grateful for what they got, and got on with there life however they had to. They were the type of people would should all aspire to be, not the whining, crying, babies that sue because we spill hot coffee on ourselves.
I have to laugh at your 'Think about how your grandparents would have dealt with this' comment. My grandparents wouldn't have to deal with this because there wasn't the need for oil like there is now. My grandfather made his living at farming and livestock. They would get through it but then again they wouldn't have the expenses everyone nowadays do. Farmers didn't have a back up because big corporations weren't around to run the local farmer out of business like they do now. Family run businesses (such as some of these fishermen)shouldn't have to suffer to corporate America. As for Obama not digging them out of this mess, about darn time the government steps out and lets them deal with their own mistakes. We have to start doing to these companies what we do to our children. Let them learn the hard way and be held responsible for their own mess up!
The way our grandparents would have handled this is to put on their big boy&girl panties, throw on their boots, and go to where the problem is, and SOLVE the problem. Lots of blaming going on here for what was an accident. What good does it do to blame after the fact? I understand that there is a law that prohibits foreign countries from having their vessels help with the cleanup. I'm not so sure I want another country bringing a trojan horse to this mess. If the US is not capable of fixing this mess, then we had best fix the US.