COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Monday, May 24, 2010

BP Oil Spill - Day 34



Is there anyone competent to at least stop the leak?

It is encouraging that Obama is putting together a commisssion to investigate, the reaction of a lawyer as oppossed to a leader who can take charge and bring the resources of industry and the US military to bear on this disaster.

Did you see the pictures of the Army Corps of Engineers and the massing of National Guard units to build protective barriers?

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UPDATE: GULF OIL SPILL
12:00 AM CDT on Monday, May 24, 2010
Dallas News

Developments Sunday in the oil spill from BP's blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico:

OIL CREEPING IN: Oil from the slick was pushing at least 12 miles into Louisiana's marshes, and two major pelican rookeries were coated in crude. Wildlife officials tried to rescue oil-soaked pelicans but suspended the attempt after spooking the birds.

CONTAINMENT EFFORTS: BP said a tube inserted into the leaking well pipe – its only successful effort so far at curtailing the spill – was siphoning less oil this weekend than it had earlier in the week. But the company had said the amount would vary widely from day to day.

NEXT TRY: BP said it will begin Tuesday at the earliest another effort to stop the leak: shooting heavy mud, and then cement, into the blown well.

BERM WORK BEGINS: Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said the state has begun work on a chain of berms, reinforced with containment booms, that would skirt the state's coastline. They would be made with sandbags and sand hauled in; the Army Corps of Engineers also is considering a broader plan that would use dredging to build sand berms across more of the barrier islands.

PROMISES: Saying that promises of more supplies frequently fell through, Jindal said he was going to send members of the Louisiana National Guard and Wildlife and Fisheries agents to monitor the oil and even to locate boom and other response supplies, which he and other officials said were available but sitting unused.




25 comments:

  1. GOP Gov. Bobby Jindal says Louisiana is working on a chain of sand berms in hopes of stopping the oil still 50 miles off the coast. He says the state is not waiting for federal approval to begin building the sand barriers.

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has not granted Louisiana's request for an emergency permit for the plan. The Coast Guard has yet to make a decision about it, the New York Times reports.

    " We continue to push for the approval of our sand berm plan, our dredging plan, but in the meantime we are doing everything we can," Jindal said Sunday in Venice, La. "We're not done when they cap the leak. We're not done when they get all the oil out of the water. We're only gonna be done when they restored our wetlands, our fisheries, our estuaries back to their healthy pre-spill status."

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers also is considering a broader plan that would use dredging to build sand berms across more of the barrier islands, the Associated Press reports.

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  3. It's a WAR on that oil!

    "We're not done when they cap the leak. We're not done when they get all the oil out of the water. We're only gonna be done when they restored our wetlands, our fisheries, our estuaries back to their healthy pre-spill status."

    The only way to protect those wetlands, stop drilling beyond our technological capacity to cap the leaks that are bound to occur.

    It's the only way fully ensure our Environmental Security.

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  4. We must quickly mobilize our military to end the threat from foreign drilling platforms in the Caribe.

    The threat to our environmental and economic security is just to great, to tolerate.

    Go Green, Baby, Go Green!

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  5. I guess that the "Natural Cleansing Action" of the Gulf of Mexico, it just is not enough to get 'er done.

    Who is going to tell Governor Jindal that the oil washing up onto his wildlife preserves is totally "natural"?

    That nature will clean up, after BP.

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  6. I read that nature would, clean up.

    I read it here, at the Elephant Bar.
    So, it must be someone's perception of the truth.

    Or was that entire thread just partisan political backwash, a stalking horse?

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  7. Nature will clean it up. It is a matter of degree.
    It was reported for days that the leak was 50,000 gallons per day. That is the contents of a large suburban swimming pool.

    Looking at the live photo of that 20 inch pipe, it is obvious that it is more likely to be 50,000 gallons per hour.

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  9. Will you tell Mr Jindal that nature will handle his State's economic troubles that are a direct result of the Deep Horizon, Deuce?

    Is that really where we want to be standing, as the battle royal over energy policy commences?

    I'd like to think not.

    Quit fighting a rear guard action.
    Move, decisively, into the opposition's rear and wreck political havoc, there.

    Winning the day, for the best interests of the United States.

    Go Green, Baby, Go Green!

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  10. "...a leader who can take charge and bring the resources of industry and the US military to bear on this disaster."

    Do you *really* want the response federalized?

    Or are you just expressing a more general frustration that at 34 days and counting, the well-head on the Gulf floor's still spewing and surface oil is still finding its way inland?

    Last night, I brought up the political hazard of a government takeover of remediation efforts, which seems obvious enough.

    But as a practical, technical matter, would you be more comfortable with FedGov declaring no confidence in private industry endeavors and, in Salazar's ill-chosen words, "pushing BP out of the way"? Would it be more satisfactory having the WH honcho all aspects of the response?

    Contractual agreements leave BP in the driver's seat. Should it be different?

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  12. Deep Horizon is/was a technological "Bridge to Far".

    It is beyond our capacity to work that deep, efficiently, when things do not go "according to plan".

    Whether BP has misreported the amount of oil leaking, not really a matter of concern, for the moment.

    That there is a leak and after 36 days, it may still be leaking, proof that the deep ocean drilling technology currently available is not up to the task of protecting our shores from environmental disaster.

    Don't try to fight that,
    ride it to victory.

    Embrace the "Green Solution", then beat Obamerica over the head and shoulders with it, repeatedly.

    They'd be left standing with the oil companies and the Wahhabi.

    Conservation and farming.
    It is what we do best.

    Nothing is more Middle American.

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  13. Let those in pay of the Wahhabi tell US why we should not add 250 million acres of economic greenery to our landscape.

    Let them tell US why we should not replace 30% of our gasoline with an almost carbon neutral alternative.

    Let them tell US why we should NOT build distilleries that are energetically self-sufficient.

    Better to have an energy policy debate starting there, not with Gaia and her ability to bail out deep ocean oil exploitation.

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  14. A morning funny, from rumproast.com:

    I’m not going to link to anything—it’s everywhere—but, Christ, between the apocryphal Web stories about the Soviets sealing their leaky oil wells with tactical nukes and the folks demanding that Obama mobilize the total resources of the US Department of Shit-That-Only-Works-in-Movies-Where-Morgan-Freeman-Is-President, I’m beginning to wonder if there’s any point in writing about energy and science for a living.

    [...]

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  15. "That there is a leak and after 36 days, it may still be leaking, proof that..."

    We are neither omnipotent nor omniscient.

    And for a Librarian, you sure are conspicuously fond of Sweeping Government Actions and Grand Federal Schemes.

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  16. Sometimes, trish, reality overcomes ideology.

    We would be breaking no new ground in Federal involvement, to declare a "War on Oil".

    No indeed.

    No new auditors or investigators needed.

    Just tax breaks and holidays. Conservative stuff, now.

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  17. I am glad you agree, though, trish.

    The Deep Horizon episode does indeed prove we are not omnipotent.

    That there is a gap to far, for our current technology to bridge.

    My point, exactly.

    Indeed, it'd be my contention that a move to ethanol, produced domestically, could well lessen the power of the Leviathan.

    A downgrading of the military could be achieved. There would be little need for US power projection into Africa, Middle East and Asia to protect our energy lifelines.
    Not if our energy lifelines were internalized.

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  18. The long term Librarian goal achieved, if it all fell into place.

    Which is unlikely, in the extreme.

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  19. "The long term Librarian goal achieved, if it all fell into place."

    Beginning with the federal banning of drilling in the Gulf? Proceeding with a government action plan to ethanol-ize the United States?

    Someone is a little unfamiliar with Librarian principals.

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  20. Not principles, trish, goals.

    The Goals will not be obtained through use of the principles.

    All revolutionaries know that.

    The tools that already exist must be harnessed to achieve the goal of dispersed political and economic power.
    That this could be achieved through the use of Federal power, the only way it could possibly happen.

    Which is one reason that the Federals of all stripes oppose the very idea of ethanol exploitation, let alone the implementation of it.

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  21. The Goal of a true desert Librarian, is to bring power as close to the electorate as possible.

    To limit the power of the central authority, as much as possible.

    That power being both economic and political.

    If using the power of the Federal Socialists to obtain that Librarian Goal is required, or even possible, the opportunity should be exploited, for the greater good.

    Seems to me.

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  22. If limiting the deep ocean exploitation can be leveraged into Green Solutions, all the better.

    Because deep ocean exploitation, at least by US, will be ending.

    Take that as a given, go from that starting point and then take a walk on the sunny side.

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  23. "Not principles, trish, goals."

    So fundamental principals which are libertarian, have to be sacrificed in pursuit of ostensibly libertarian goals?

    My. Oh, my.

    Both the (Ayn) Randian and the Federal Socialist in me say, "Federal Socialist windfall."

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  24. Could be that, trish, it could be that.

    But as Rand Paul exemplifies, ideological Librarianism, goes nowhere in the modern communications environment.

    Never has, never will.

    It does not motivate with obvious self-interest and constituent payback.

    Almost by definition.

    No sense going down with that ship, not when a viable alternative presents itself.

    Go Green, Baby, Go Green!

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  25. When even small government conservatism has been routed, it is not time for a Librarian to wallow in misery and despair.

    No, it is time to eye the prize and change course.

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