An un-fucking-believable disaster.. Underwater spewing oil, as David Brooks pointed out, is the imagine of the year. Carol Browner, Energy and Climate Change Advisor to the President, confirmed on today's program that this is in fact the worst environmental disaster in the nation's history. And to top it off, or not, the top kill method of stopping the spewing didn't work.
But what is really disconcerting is that the majority of the American people are still in favor of offshore drilling, despite this catastrophe, which makes an interview like we saw today with Robert Dudley, the managing director of BP, a joke, another opportunity to tell half-truths, another chance to claim plausible deniability. Mr. Dudley called this an unusual failure, and couldn't/didn't give a straight answer on whether the industry misled the government with regard to safety. Even from this microcosmic blogachair in the sea of internet opinion, this column knows that proper safety procedures were not followed on the rig. There's too much information out there to verify this. And yet, Mr. Dudley can sit there and defend the aloof Tony Hayward, the Head of BP, for the good job he's doing since the outset of the crisis.
E.J. Dionne, on today's panel, said he kept reflecting on a question that David Gregory continued to return to, which was why hadn't everyone involved with the operation of the rig prepare for a worst case scenario type of situation in the event that an 'unusual failure' would happen. Then, of course, come the questions about to what degree the oil industry is cozy with the government, did they mislead the government, etc. But this is all show; we already know the answers and hence, there was no initiative, interest, or incentive to consider safety over profit, ever.
Now, they are going for containment, they can't stop it, and relief wells won't be done until August. There are two 'mystery' numbers that this column keeps dwelling. One of those numbers is about the amount oil that is spewing out of the well each day. Mr. Dudley didn't seem to know or didn't want to answer. The number of 5,000 barrels per day. Well, there are 42 gallons in a barrel so that's 210,000 galloons a day, and given the facts of history, when things like this occur, you know that is a low-ball estimate. The President said it is both enraging and heartbreaking. That first number was the enraging. For the heartbreaking, the second 'mystery' number is how many people... and living things for that matter... are permanently affected? Untold millions. We'll never know these true numbers.
So when? When do we open our eyes to the fact that this country has a heroin type addiction to oil and needs to seriously start a transition? Oil causes two wars; oil kills our environment; oil dictates our and the world's economy.
________
Immigration, with respect to Mexican border, is like our own little Israel-Palestinian conflict. Suspiciousness exists on all sides; money, guns, and drugs cross back and forth; a high body count keeps growing in the wake of a drug war; compassion is an obtuse echo in soundboard; and troops are mobile and on the ready. Talk of a solution goes on and on, around and around, and nothing really happens to fix the situation until a law passes that favors a far-right ideology. And what we really need is a solid two state solution.
We've never been in the habit of lavishing praise on Mr. Gregory, but this was a great interview for him. The Players involved, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) vs. former Congressman, currently running for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate from Arizona, J.D. Hayworth, are two central voices in this national debate. Mr. Gregory addressed the complexities of the issue, talked about the practicality of the law vs. the theory, and pushed for deeper explanations.
Above we said that Mr. Hayworth is a central voice on this issue, and that does not bode well for Senator McCain who is defending against Mr. Hayworth's challenge. This is a central issue in Arizona and the incumbent doesn't own it. Mr. McCain once supported comprehensive immigration reform, which Mr. Hayworth on today's program called that a euphemism for amnesty. He continued that it is a matter of national security and the 1,200 National Guardsmen headed to the border was not enough. Mr. Gutierrez, on the other hand, called that deployment sound bite driven politics. Senator McCain wants 6,000 troops. Mr. McCain, like Senators Joe Lieberman and Arlen Spector, never puts anything above protecting his own job, power, and influence in the worst pandering sort of way, compromising all principal. But troops aren't the answer, they can be part of a solution, but definitely not the answer.
We agree with Mr. Gutierrez's central point that you have to cut off the magnet of jobs that motivate people to come here illegally. However, his answer wasn't comprehensive enough in that he didn't address the issue of drugs and guns, images which do not provoke sympathy for the more compassionate side of the issue. Not to mention that Mr. Gutierrez's cause right now is a losing battle right now. Sixty-one percent of the country are in favor of the steps that the state of Arizona has taken. Mr. Gutierrez said it's a national problem and can not be looked just through the lens of Arizona. Nice statement but that's what everyone's doing.
No comments:
Post a Comment