Have I Got A Deal For You !

Well, it seems the White House successfully twisted the arm of the BP executives, forcing them to cough up 20 BILLION DOLLARS over the next 4 years to "mediate" the effects of the oil spill on the businesses affected. That's 5 billion $$ a year. Not an insurmountable amount for a large company like BP.

But it's a LOT of money. Money the company loses, money that won't be used for exploration and production. Money that won't be returned on the shareholders' investment.

I also think the media has played a very large role in keeping tourists from visiting their normal haunts at the beach, further adversely impacting the coastal economies. What is their share?

How about the government's responsibility to inspect the drilling rigs offshore, and enforce existing regulations, that they absolutely failed to do? What is their share?

Other companies will be liable as well, since this was a joint project. The legal eagles will fight that battle.

I don't object to BP posting such an "escrow" amount to be distributed to those truly impacted by the spill. There are many families and small business people who are devastated by the effects of this accident. It remains to be seen how these funds will be REALLY distributed, and how much of them will be absorbed by the "overhead" and "expenses" of paying them out.

If our experiences with the Katrina relief funds administration are any example, it will be rife with fraud, waste, and mismanagement. Even the 9/11 funds distributed by Kenneth Feinberg, currently known as Obama's"pay-czar", had these problems. And, that was less than half of the amount he's going to be in charge of this time.

You don't think there are not already schemes afoot to grab some of this "free money", do you?

Of course there are! Loot always draws crooks. This will be no different.

Sure, we caught and prosecuted lot's of people for stealing Katrina money that didn't deserve it, or need it....they were just crooks. But, the money was most always not recovered, or very little was.

What I object to is the President of our country shaking down a private company for money. That's the appearance of this, no matter how the Administration tries to "spin" it. It smacks of "The Chicago Deal", and gangsterism. It looks really bad. I don't believe the Constitution gives the Executive Branch this kind of power.

I realize we don't have a lot of facts. We are not privy to the behind-the-scenes workings of a deal like this....and it was a deal, worked out beforehand, that much is obvious. You don't really think that such a quick sale was made around a table at the WH, do you?

This "conference" with the BP execs at the WH was strictly for show. BP had surely decided, on advice from their legal and financial teams, what needed to be done. After all, the $75 million dollar cap on spills is the law. I think BP is making an aggressive move to show their willingness to cooperate and do the right thing.

The wrong thing, is for an American President and our government to make Hugo Chavez-like moves to force a private company to give the government what amounts to a huge political tool(the money) to solidify it's position and shore up its crashing popularity with the American public. This isn't a banana republic, Mr. President....it's the USA. You aren't doing yourself or your administration any favors by acting like a dictator.

More facts will emerge in the coming days and weeks. It will be interesting to see how this develops.

Will this turn into a free-for-all feeding frenzy that will devour BP, and drive oil production completely out of the US? It very easily could. Politicians are not known for being farsighted. They can rarely see beyond the next election, if that far.

As for the argument that this disaster will drive the rapid development and implementation of "green" and "renewable" technologies to replace "evil oil", we all know that it will take decades to do anything even approaching such a level of use and adaptation. It has to be practical, and actually work. We are only in the infancy of developing and utilizing such technology.

We are going to need that "evil oil" for some time to come. Even if we had the "green" technology ready to go right now, cheap, efficient, and practical, we will still need petroleum for many of our industrial feed stocks. Where do you think plastic comes from, huh? And thousands of other products you use every day.

Then there's the latest federal commission created by our Glorious Leader. Filled with eviros and an anti-oil leader, Fran Beinecke, President of the Natural Resources Defense Council. She isn't just suspicious about drilling, she outright opposes it.--Fox News

Composed of academic and environmental advocates with ZERO experience and knowledge of the oil industry, this body is charged with ensuring that a disaster like the one we have underway in the Gulf never happens again. They all espouse a similar ideology – one that is opposed to drilling and oil.

And these geniuses are going to decide what to recommend our national policy on oil production should be?

I think someone should ClearTheirBrainZ, except they haven't used them in so long they may be hard to spot.

My guess, is that they will spend lots of our money(that we don't have), eat at many fine restaurants(all while discussing the Public's business, of course), and jet around on government aircraft. I say, we give them a budget and a timeline for completion....just like in the real world. It would be interesting to see if they could perform.

I doubt it. How about you?

Your comments, please.

Mr. Fix-It Has The Answer

Senator Frank Lautenberg, D-NJ, has introduced a bill that would REQUIRE oil companies to drill relief wells at all new drilling sites offshore. Pre-emptive drilling, he calls it.

What a crock! Another know-nothing thinks he has the solution to something that might happen. Where exactly did Sen. L. get his engineering degree in sub-sea geology? Has he years of experience in this highly technical field?

Nope.

But that doesn't stop him, and others of his ilk from taking any opportunity to get their mugs on the news. Just political posturing, expulsion of more hot air from small minds.

Not only would this plan be very costly, not just to the oil producers, but the consumers(us), but it would INCREASE the risks of a blowout, since multiple wells would be drilled into unknown geological formations. That's the reason they call them "discovery wells", Senator.....not just to find out if the deposits are present, but to learn about the geologic structure they are penetrating. What do you think they do with those core samples, huh? Use them for fishing weights? What do you think they use the samples they examine while drilling the wells? Your answer, Senator?

That's what I thought. You know less about this field than the guy who delivers your heating oil.

Passing laws to fix engineering problems is just plain stupid. You can't legislate engineering.

Demanding that companies try your inane ideas without any data to support such a position means you aren't using your head, except to hold your ears apart. Logic, reason, testing, the scientific method....ever hear of it?

I don't pretend to have the solutions to any of this, I'm no engineer. But, many of YOU are. Many of you are working hard to mediate the impact of this event and are working on practical solutions. Keep it up. We are a smart, innovative bunch here in America. Show us your stuff, boys.

The Obama administration's idea to create an "escrow" account administered by a "third party"(government cronies) is a really bad idea. It would just disappear into the bank accounts of lawyers and other slush-fund pigs. I hope BP is smart enough to realize that.

ClearYourBrainZ !

Science and engineering will cap this well, and what is learned from this accident will be applied

across the industry. Rational thought, logic, and hard work cannot be replaced by words on a piece of paper. Yes, we have a big mess in the Gulf. It will be cleaned up.

What about the ships, mostly foreign flagged, who dump their wastes overboard near our coasts?

That needs to be addressed as well. We have laws in place for this. Enforce them. We might look at requiring any vessel who comes here to be equipped with waste recovery/retention systems, and make them keep a log of it. Surprise inspections would be a good way to keep them honest.

Just some thoughts.

Remember.....reality won't be affected by blustering and posturing. Only hard work and logical

thought, calm assessment of the facts, and methodical experimentation will produce results.

We should be about it.

Your comments, please.

He Said, They Said--Say What?

White House energy adviser Carol Browner on Friday rejected accusations from a panel of experts who claim the administration misrepresented their views to justify a six-month ban on offshore drilling in response to the BP oil rig disaster.

"A blanket moratorium is not the answer," they wrote in a letter claiming Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar's report "misrepresents" their position. "A blanket moratorium will have the indirect effect of harming thousands of workers and further impact state and local economies suffering from the spill. We do not believe that punishing the innocent is the right thing to do. We encourage the secretary of interior to overcome emotion with logic," the experts, picked by the National Academy of Engineering, wrote. --Fox News

Lawmakers in the Gulf Coast region are saying the same thing, arguing against the moratorium imposed by the Obama administration.

Salazar has acknowledged that the moratorium was his decision, not theirs(the expert panel). Browner argued that the administration did nothing wrong.

Why did they(the administration) bother to consult the experts? Anyone know? To cover their butts?

Back to the show....

So, our illustrious Secretary has decreed that we shall not drill, pump, maintain, or explore. I'm sure that will solve everything, aren't you?

Let's just put tens of thousands more Americans out of work, shall we? That will make everything better, won't it?

What our "officials" are really doing is frantically trying to cover their butts after being caught with their pants down. Nothing makes an august functionary more angry than being tagged out for not doing their job. Look at Salazar now, "rallying the troops" down on the Gulf(at our expense, flown there by private Air Force jet, complete with 5-star service. You didn't think he was staying at the Motel 6, did you?).

Let us ClearOurBrainZ !

What are the facts?

The MMS failed to do their job. Witness the recent abrupt departure of the head of MMS. Who ya gonna call?

BP and the other companies involved dropped the ball big-time. They certainly didn't want this spill to happen, but somewhere, someone cut some corners. Now their chickens have come home to roost. You can bet that heads will roll, those who weren't barbecued in the explosion and fire on the doomed rig. A whole sequence of bad or poorly-considered decisions were made, snowballing into disaster.

The government is more in the way than assisting in the efforts to stop the leak and clean up the mess. Mostly they are just churning the water with rhetoric and demands, while being capable of actually doing little to solve the problem. Not just at the Federal level, but at the state and local level as well. Lot's of hot air, but not much accomplished. Unless, of course, you count the political grandstanding and sound bite opportunities they are indulging in at every opportunity.

Remember, the best people aren't in government, just the politically connected ones. The real talent works in the private sector, where the money is. We don't need over-rated government clerks and bean counters trying to tell engineers how to solve a problem. Oversight? Sure. Keeps them(industry) honest. Control? Nope. We need to make a profit to stay in business. The government is only good at loosing money. And wasting it.

Who ya gonna call? Even the Coast Guard admiral said the same on more than one occasion. He really made the "journalist" who asked that question look like an idiot, didn't he? I'll be he made some enemies in the press that day. They(the media) don't like it, either, when THEY get tagged as idiots, even though many of them obviously are.

BP is not liable, or should not be, for losses incurred because the Obama administration decided to kill all offshore drilling, the exact opposite of what their own experts recommended. The experts DID NOT recommend that. The Secretary of the Interior did, most likely at his boss's direction. It is ludicrous to expect BP to pay for losses they did not cause, but were caused by the stupid actions of our government. This kind of blame game politics is what we have come to expect from this administration. They are incapable of rational thought and actions. THEIR OWN EXPERTS told them NOT to shut down everything, but "Father Knows Best!", so they disregarded the information and advice they themselves asked for. Now we will all pay for their stupidity.

Your comments, please.

Disconnecting the BrainZ

TH5CS6JS38DZ

BP's oil spill in the Gulf region continues to dominate the news.

Knee-jerk reactions and wild-eyed hyperbole continue on all fronts. From the demand by Sen. Robert Menendez to raise the federal Oil Pollution Act of 1990 damage liability cap from $75 million to $10 billion, to the feeding frenzy of the lawyers gorging on the well-chummed waters in the Gulf and surrounding areas, hysteria and strident calls to "do something" abound.

The line of folks standing with their hands out, wanting BP to compensate them(give them money) stretches beyond the event horizon. Everyone wants a piece of the action. Demands by many to "do something" are shouted at every opportunity.

The trouble is, "doing something" without getting the facts, and carefully considering the effects of any actions taken, is a recipe for failure.

The fact is, BP doesn't have a bottomless wallet. They can't pay everyone who makes a demand without performing due diligence to ensure the claims are valid and just. They have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders to insure that the company survives and moves beyond this event.

They also owe the public the task of ensuring that future risks of environmental damage are minimized in the future. I think they have done a good job so far, being responsible and doing their best to mitigate the damage. It's a complex engineering problem, as well as a severe blow to their reputation as a respected company. They have a lot of work to do.

That will take a long time. Exxon is still dealing with their spill in Alaska, and that was 20 years ago.

Of course, that doesn't faze any politician bent on maximizing the exposure he/she can get by spouting off at the mouth. The media gleefully pours gasoline on the fire.

Many in the media, especially in the coverage of the spill in the Gulf, have become actors rather than reporters. The story yesterday of the intrepid, brave journalist swimming in the spill with just the top of his head showing was really funny. What was this supposed to accomplish, besides showing us how stupid he was to be swanning around in a toxic sludge?

That was acting, Sir, not journalism.

I'll bet he sues BP if he gets ill. What do you think?

On our southern border:

The furor continues over the death of the young man on the border in El Paso, TX.

The killing of the Mexican by U.S. authorities — the second in less than two weeks — has exposed the distrust and rage of the Mexicans. They believe this was an act of murder.

Chihuahua state Gov. Jose Reyes Baeza blamed the two killings on racism fueled by Arizona's law.

"We believe that this killing, the second in recent days in the border between the two countries, is due to xenophobia and racism, derived from the approval of Arizona's anti-immigration law," Reyes said.--Fox News

The race card is played again....isn't it getting a bit worn?

We almost had an act of war occur regarding this incident:

Shortly after the boy was shot, Mexican soldiers arrived at the scene and pointed their guns at the Border Patrol agents across the riverbank while bystanders screamed insults and hurled rocks and firecrackers, FBI spokeswoman Andrea Simmons said. She said the agents were forced to withdraw.

"It pretty quickly got very intense over on the Mexican side," she said, adding that FBI agents showed up later and resumed the investigation, even as Mexican authorities pointed guns at them from across the river.--Fox News MSNBC

To the rescue, ride the noble heroes in the White Hats:

Amnesty International has joined the ranks of those criticizing the U.S. Border Patrol, calling for a "full, impartial and transparent investigation" into a shooting this week that left a 14-year-old Mexican boy dead.--CNN

Isn't that special? Of course, AI long ago lost any credibility they might have once had, having degenerated into a self-serving pig trough of big salaries and perks for their "workers". Where does their funding come from? How "transparent" are they?

Too many questions, but few answers.

ClearYourBrainz !

Try to ignore the "noise" coming from the media, and get the facts. It won't be easy. We are mostly spoon-fed what the media wants us to hear, and what will boost their readership/viewership. We should try, however.

Ignore the loudmouths with the small brains. They are too numerous already. Hopefully they won't reproduce too much.

Look at the data, consider the consequences of any actions we might take. Face reality.

No shouting. Calm analysis of the facts. That will produce the optimum results.

Your comments, please.

TH5CS6JS38DZ

Quality Entertainment: Watching the Bug Zapper

Here in the South, it's the rainy season of Spring. The mosquitoes are fierce and plentiful. Watching them swarm to the bug zapper on my patio, it occurred to me that people can be just like mosquitoes. They swarm around an issue and fling themselves into oblivion on the electrified screen of opinion.

I'm no more immune to this human frailty than anyone else. It's easy to let your emotions run away with you when strong feelings propel you into opening your mouth before using your brain. We all do it, some more than others. The trick is to realize what's happening. With that said, keep reading, ha, ha.

News and opinion sources today are full of examples. Many are busy beating themselves on the brick wall of opinion, yet little real thought and reason is readily apparent. There's a lot of shouting going on about various issues and events. All kinds of "advocates", "experts", and government "officials" are stepping into the bullring, but not much work is being accomplished.

For example:

The BP oil spill recovery effort. The following excerpt is a good example of our vaunted leaders "taking the situation in hand". (cough, cough)

"Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano were to lead a Senate delegation to the region on Monday to fly over affected areas and keep an eye on the response."--Fox News

Isn't that an efficient use of our resources! What leadership we are lucky to have!

(This is called "irony" for those of you who are visiting from the tinfoil hat society.)

Spending a small fortune of our tax dollars on a sound bite, they are doing nothing but butt-covering and posturing. These folks have been shown up to be clueless and ineffective leaders of their respective organizations. What is going to be accomplished by such an action? Pressuring BP? Coming up with a brilliant engineering solution to stop the leak? Don't hold your breath over that one, they don't have the know-how. What they do know how to do is waste time and money in futile trips and hot air. Reality and common sense seems to elude them, or is purposely ignored in the pursuit of their own agenda. Pretty stupid, but also very human.

Just as foolish, is the alarmist promotion of the severity of this spill by some of the media, with a lot of wild speculation everywhere about what "will" or "might" happen as a consequence of this action.

The most apparent, real consequence so far is that 11 men lost their lives, and lots of oil will need to be cleaned up. All the rest is "the sky is falling" malarkey. "Trash science" is running rampant. Show us the data! Not your opinion, we've got more of that than we need.

If you think the press is out in force on this spill, you are right. However, they are far outnumbered by the legal profession members swarming in for what they see as an easy kill. Follow the money. Right behind them are the various environmental and other groups swooping in like buzzards to line their pockets, riding the issues to pump up their fundraising. All sorts of human buzzards are circling.

Time to ClearOurBrainZ !

Reality check: We will continue to need that oil for the foreseeable future. Sure, we are moving away from oil as our primary energy engine, but it will take decades to get there. Even then, we will require petroleum for many of our industrial feed stocks. The amount of oil coming out of that well is proof, undeniable proof, that vast reserves are there in the deep water. We have to learn to tap them without making a big mess. We learn how by doing it, applying tested engineering skills to the problems, and trying new techniques. We will do it wrong before we do it right. That's called the learning curve. You have to test your theories and prototypes to see what works and what doesn't.

Whining about your failures accomplishes nothing. You clean up the mess and try again until you

succeed.The relief wells, being drilled as we speak, will tap that huge reservoir of petroleum. The income BP generates from this will more than pay for the cleanup and recovery efforts, even a hefty profit. And, the industry will have learned what not to do, and what is practical within the realm of current engineering technology.

Yes, the spill is bad. Very bad. Moaning about it won't fix anything. Hard work, innovation, and research will. Get out of the way and let those folks do their job. They're very good at it.

Your comments, please.