Obama's speech: There's a pipe spewing a gazillion gobs of oil into the gulf, so let's build more windmills

Obama's speech: There's a pipe spewing a gazillion gobs of oil into the gulf, so let's build more windmills

Gobs of oil are hitting the Gulf by the thongs... er, I mean, throngs! Seriously though, if you can get past the hilarious picture, it's an awesome article.

BP to Fight Federal Government Over Liability

It appears that BP is expected to fight the federal government's demands for BP to pay all costs, both direct and indirect, stemming from the Gulf oil spill.  Without going off on too much of a tangent, suffice it to say that BP and other companies associated with the rig most certainly are responsible for the costs associated with cleaning up the spill, rehabilitating the damage, and all "legitimate claims," as BP's CEO Tony Hayward has himself has stated.

However, it's those "indirect" costs which are of concern.  Specifically, the government is demanding that BP pay unspecified (and ever-increasing) millions of dollars in lost wages for oil rig workers occurring as a result of the government's moratorium on deep-water offshore drilling.  Not that I harbor any secret fondness for BP, but why should BP pay lost wages resulting from a government-imposed moratorium?  The White House's rationale is of course that BP caused the disaster which led to the moratorium.  And of course this rationale is utter nonsense.  There could be any number of arguments made using this rationale for endless things for which BP "should" be responsible.  The fact of the matter is BP didn't impose the moratorium; the government did, so the government should be responsible for the lost wages, if anyone.  More importantly, though, the moratorium itself is disastrously absurd; it will obviously cause lost wages, not to mention significantly and negatively affect our crude oil supply and force the country to rely even more heavily (and dangerously) on foreign oil.  Yes, great idea ye infinitely wise federal government.  Let's completely end drilling in our own country where we literally have billions of barrels available, and instead rely even more heavily on foreign oil which has none of the environmental protections that we do, and thus indirectly fund hostile regimes and possibly even terrorism.

Finally, there's the small matter of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, whereby BP can only be held responsible for the direct costs of the clean-up and couldn't be held responsible for lost wages of oil workers.  Oh yeah, forgot about that one.  The Obama Administration has no legal authority to demand BP pay indiscriminant and unspecified (potentially endless) indirect costs.  That act was put in place specifically to prevent this from happening.  Hey people, have we forgotten that we actually need BP to remain solvent so they can actually pay the legitimate claims and get this mess cleaned up?

All that's to say, let's try focusing not so much on a witch-hunt and making this a fairy tale about the evils of greedy capitalism, and more on actually stopping the leak, cleaning up the spill, and making sure this never happens again.
 

Gaza Flotilla Group's Ties to Terrorism and the UN

Please click the link in the title and read the full story.  Fox News seems to be the only major news organization doing any serious reporting on this.  Why is CNN not reporting the flotilla's known links to terrorist organizations? The IHH (the "charity" sponsoring the last flotilla) openly supports Hamas, whose charter expressly calls for the destruction of Israel, and the CIA and Israeli intelligence have also linked it to Al Qaeda. Why is it not being reported that the IHH operates freely and without restriction as part of the UN's NGO branch? Why is it not being reported that the flotilla's expressed intention was not to provide humanitarian assistance, but to specifically breach the 100% internationally legal naval blockade and incite exactly the response they got from Israel. Why is it not being reported that at least one of the "activists" aboard the ship wrote a letter declaring he was ready to martyr himself?


We have to ask ourselves, why are the so-called Western "democracies" of the world denouncing Israel, the only other Western-style democracy in the Middle-East, conveniently overlooking the reasons behind the incident, as well as the evidence which clearly and unequivocally shows the "activists" on board weren't peaceful at all.  They attacked the commandos with steel pipes, chairs, rocks, firebombs, etc., and even threw one commando overboard before a single Israeli shot was fired.  If these activists were so peaceful, why did none of this occur on any of the other ships in the floatilla and not just the one which was sponsored by a terrorist funding - *ahem* - I mean, charity organization.  Does Israel not have a right to defend itself when attacked?  Was not the naval blockade recognized as legal under existing international law?  Was not the blockade jointly enforced by Egypt as well?  Did not Israel offer to deliver all humanitarian supplies itself after first screening the cargo?  Would not we do exactly the same thing, if not react even more severely, under the same circumstances?


What's wrong with us?