Posts from — June 2010

The Miami Herald reports that U.S. approves drilling plans without study

WASHINGTON — Despite President Barack Obama’s promises of better safeguards for offshore drilling, federal regulators continue to approve plans for oil companies to drill in the Gulf of Mexico with minimal or no environmental analysis.

The Department of Interior’s Minerals Management Service has signed off on at least five new offshore drilling projects since June 2, when the agency’s acting director announced tougher safety regulations for drilling in the Gulf, a McClatchy review of public records has discovered.

Three of the projects were approved with waivers exempting them from detailed studies of their environmental impact — the same waiver the MMS granted to BP for the ill-fated well that’s been fouling the Gulf with crude for two months.

It is time for Ken Salazar to discover the joys of family life back in Colorado, because he doesn’t seem to understand that people are upset about the lack of oversight on offshore wells. Replacing the head of the Minerals Management Service obviously wasn’t the answer, so we need a Secretary of the Interior who finds the answer. At a minimum we need to find someone who understands what a “six-month moratorium” means.

The heads of the major oil companies have already admitted the obvious, that none of them has the resources to deal with a run-away well, so wells shouldn’t even be in the pipeline until those resources are available.

MSNBC reports that U.S. buys Russian choppers for Afghan military

WASHINGTON – The U.S. government is snapping up Russian-made helicopters to form the core of Afghanistan’s fledgling air force, a strategy that is drawing flak from members of Congress who want to force the Afghans to fly American choppers instead.

In a turnabout from the Cold War, when the CIA gave Stinger missiles to Afghan rebels to shoot down Soviet helicopters, the Pentagon has spent $648 million to buy or refurbish 31 Russian Mi-17 transport helicopters for the Afghan National Army Air Corps. The Defense Department is seeking to buy 10 more of the Mi-17s next year, and had planned to buy dozens more over the next decade.

OK, the Mi-17 is an upgraded export version of the Soviet Mi-8 “Hip” and it is the standard helicopter in that area. All of the Central Asian nations fly it, the Indians and Pakistanis fly it, and the 6^th Special Operations Squadron at Hurlburt Field, just down the road from me flies them [it was very weird the first time I saw one down here]. They are cheap, tough, easy to fix, and familiar to everyone in that area. They are also specifically designed to fly in the dusty, mountainous conditions found in Central Asia, which can’t be said of US manufactured helicopters.

US defense contractors manufacture and sell the most sophisticated aircraft in the world, but the Afghan Army Air Corps needs something they know how to fly and know how to fix, or we are going to be stuck there another decade. They don’t need Formula One, they need pick-ups with no options.

Group D:

Germany 0-1 Serbia
Ghana 1-1 Australia

Group E:

Netherlands 1-0 Japan
Cameroon 1-2 Denmark

At this point the Netherlands are the only one of the teams I watch who are in good shape to make it to the knock-out, with Switzerland close behind.

Team	Group	Points	Matches				Goals
			Played	Won	Tied	Lost	For	Against	Difference
	C	2	2	0	2	0	3	3	0
	C	2	2	0	2	0	1	1	0
	D	3	2	1	0	1	4	1	3
	D	1	2	0	1	1	1	5	-4
	E	6	2	2	0	0	3	0	3
	H	3	1	1	0	0	1	0	1

In Group C:

Slovenia 2-2 US
England 0-0 Algeria

In Group D:

Germany 0-1 Serbia

The US was asleep in the first half, but came back. What would have been the winner for the US was disallowed. It wasn’t clear why, but it was disallowed.

England didn’t ever wake up against Algeria, but they had better because Slovenia can taste the knock out round.

Germany paid the price of not respecting their opponent, and this Cup is definitely getting weird.

Team	Group	Points	Matches				Goals
			Played	Won	Tied	Lost	For	Against	Difference
	C	2	2	0	2	0	3	3	0
	C	2	2	0	2	0	1	1	0
	D	3	2	1	0	1	4	1	3
	D	0	1	0	0	1	0	4	-4
	E	3	1	1	0	0	2	0	2
	H	3	1	1	0	0	1	0	1

My Congresscritter, Jefferson Beauregard “Oily” Miller of Chumuckla, really ticked off a lot of people in 2006, when he voted to lift the ban on off-shore drilling. If the Democratic Party of Florida had had any money, that would have been the end of his career.

He is nearly invisible in Congress and feels comfortable enough with voters in the first district of Florida to occasionally do something for the whacko base, like putting up a sign in his office proclaiming his friendship with South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson , the dillweed who yelled “You lie!” during a Presidential speech to a joint session of Congress.

The background is to give you an idea of how dangerous coastal Republicans think Joe Barton’s apology to BP was to their reelection chances, dangerous enough for “Oily” Miller to attack Barton:

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller called Thursday for fellow Republican Joe Barton of Texas to step down from his leadership position on the House Energy and Commerce Committee after Barton apologized to BP chief Tony Hayward.

“I am shocked by Congressman Joe Barton’s reprehensible comments,” Miller said in a statement. “Mr. Barton’s remarks are out of touch with this tragedy, and I feel his comments call into question his judgment and ability to serve in a leadership position on the Energy and Commerce Committee. He should step down as ranking member of the committee.”

Miller, a Chumuckla Republican, joined Obama adminstration officials and House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio condemning the comments.

Miller isn’t interested in being hoisted upon his derrick or to become a “Gulf Gull” with tar and feathers.

Miller isn’t eligible for a Captain Louis Renault Award, despite the use of “shocked”, because Miller probably was shocked – by the local backlash, not Barton.

Fight – Flight – Play?

Ehrr?

[Editor: Pita again. With everyone else asleep or out of reach he paused to consider the choices. Thunderstorms have had the cats in hiding all day.]

Friday Ark

Beachfoxx has a blog on Weather Underground that is obviously centered on the local beach. She has a photo of the eastern end of Okaloosa Island [you have to scroll down a bit] that must have been taken from the dunes behind the beach. That is the sand and water that makes this area worth a visit.

There are a lot of pictures on the blog, but the more recent ones are not nice.

Via Ellroon, a picture in the Guardian, that the local tourist agencies hope no one sees:

Wave breaking at Orange Beach, Alabama

Orange
Black
Sleek and symmetrical
Fatal beauty.

… and the water is unhealthy according to the Local Puppy Trainer:

Okaloosa County Public Safety Director Dino Villani announced the Destin Pass would be closed Wednesday at 7 p.m. and Coast Guard booms would be deployed across the pass and at the Destin Bridge.

The time was chosen because that’s when the tide is high and water from the gulf is moving into the pass.
…

After a new wave of larger tar balls hit Okaloosa Island Wednesday, the county health department advised people to stay out of the water, according to a press release.

People are urged to avoid all contact with the water on Okaloosa Island from Eglin property to the eastern boundary of Beasley Park, the Okaloosa County Health Department release reads. “No wading, swimming, or entering the water.”

People are urged to avoid contact with tar and dead or dying fish. People seeing animals in need of rescue are asked to call 311, option 0.

People are also asked to not fish in oiled waters and avoid harvesting fish that have oily residue or a petroleum odor. People also should not boat through patches oil sheen and tar balls.

The local boats that are part of BP’s Vessel of Opportunity program had to leave their docks and anchor in the Gulf so they wouldn’t be blocked in if they were called to work.

Fortunately the county had already installed a back-up system, because the “official Unified Command” response was late and lacking. Apparently no one learned that centralized control was a bad idea, even after its greatest proponent, the Soviet Union, failed.

McClatchy reports that GOP’s Barton apologizes to BP, accuses Obama of ‘shakedown’

WASHINGTON — A day after top BP officials met with President Barack Obama at the White House and agreed to set up a $20 billion compensation fund, Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas called the money a “shakedown” of the company and apologized for the president’s action.

Barton, the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce committee, told BP CEO Tony Hayward Thursday morning that he was sorry about what the president had done. The money is a “slush fund,” Barton said, and “unprecedented in our nation’s history.”

“I do not want to live in a country where anything a citizen or corporation does something that is … wrong is subject to some sort of political pressure, that again, in my words, amounts to a shakedown,” said Barton.

In case there was any doubt about Joe Barton’s interests, he is concerned that the government might require him to put money in escrow if the gas well he owns part of should blow out. Obviously the $100K/year he makes from natural gas is more important than the “small people” on the Gulf Coast.

If there were anything approaching ethics in Congress, Barton wouldn’t be assigned to a committee with such an obvious conflict of interest, but IOKIYAR.

It would be easier if we required Congresscritters to wear team jerseys, Red for Republicans and Blue for Democrats, with the logos of their corporate sponsors on them.

In the second round of Group play –

Group A:

South Africa 0-3 Uruguay
France 0-2 Mexico

Group B:

Argentina 4-1 Republic of Korea
Greece 2-1 Nigeria

France has a problem and may not make out of the Group. The Mexico side showed why they are in the Cup,

In a single cartoon Joel Pett efficiently explains Obama’s thought processes.

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein

This is the anniversary of her death and the pain is very real which is why I waited until the end of the day to post this. In spite of a lot of time, effort, and money by a lot of progressives, liberals, and generally sane people, there has been no improvement in the conditions in this country.

When do things start to improve?

Well, after the comments of BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg I believe that any hard feelings toward Britain have been re-routed to Sweden. I certainly hope there are no plans for him to come down to the Gulf Coast.

Of course there are politicians down here who would be happy to see him: Coastal legislators seek end to drilling ban

More than a dozen lawmakers from Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas said at a press conference the ban could cost the region thousands of jobs. They plan to meet with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Wednesday to discuss the issue.

But the prize has to go to the governor of Mississippi, Haley Barbour, who believes that instead of putting $20 billion in a fund to reimburse those who have been injured by the spill, the money would be better used to drill more wells.

So the other big oil corporations went to Congress to explain why they are so much more trustworthy than BP, and those nasty Congresscritters ask hard questions: BP rivals struggle to explain why plans look so similar.

They look similar because they reference an expert who has been dead for several years and they want to protect the non-existent walruses in the Gulf of Mexico.