Start collecting the oil, STUPID!!!

Obama is thinking about the oil spill ... and what he can do ... and what the government should do ... and what BP can do ... and he's right on top of BP's efforts ... and he's mad as hell ... and he's ordered them to stop the spill ... and blah, blah, blah!

SO, why isn't he and the government doing something about collecting the oil that's already out in the gulf and floating around and waiting to be collected???

NO, I am not making a request here for more or bigger government or more or better government oversight. I am not being hypocritical. We NEED to do what we can NOW to collect the oil and we NEED to send BP the bill!

I am saying is that there is a tremendous amount of oil freely floating about in the Gulf and all our federal, state and local governments and private citizens should be trying to collect the already escaped oil instead of simply thinking about the problem!!

Just to be clear, that was meant as a dig against our president who says he's thinking about the problem when he wakes up in the morning and before he goes to sleep at night. He didn't mention it, but, ... does the spill elude him during the day? But I digress.

Ahem, ... if President Obama is thinking about the spill so much, why hasn't he thought about collecting the freely floating oil? Why hasn't he ordered resources to collect the millions of gallons of free floating oil that that everyone says is the biggest natural disaster in the history of the U.S.?

Let me proffer a couple of suggestions why he's not.

Remember when Rahm Emanuel said never waste a good crisis? Perhaps, just perhaps, the President and his cabal are letting this go so they can press their agenda AGAINST more drilling and FOR Cap and Trade. Letting the oil spread while he puts on a public face of concern and outrage nicely dovetails with President Obama's Hopey, Changey thing that got him elected. Yeah, that's pretty evil idea; but, it could be true. And the rational for it being true is this could be the crisis that wakes the American people up to a green agenda, off our dependence for foreign oil and stops us from sending billions to countries that don't like us. Admirable goals that Saul Alinsky would say justify any action or, in this case, inaction to achieve.

Don't believe President Obama is that scheming? That manipulative? The President, through Robert Gibbs, has already denied this, so it simply cannot be true. I say this facetiously and I point this out because, well, this is written and you can't see the incredulity on my face.

Well then, what's left? Me personally, if he's not leveraging the opportunity, then it's simple. President Obama's thinking skills are simply too limited to come up with the idea. Bluntly, he's too intellectually challenged! Yeah, that's it!! Just like the schmucks at BP, Deepwater Horizon and Halliburton that erred so spectacularly in thinking that they could and should ignore a couple small problems with the well in the first place, President Obama has mismanaged his response.

Neither is very palatable.

Regardless, please contact your elected officials and tell them to get off their duffs and start implementing strategies to collect the oil!!

I'll be keeping an eye on the beaches near me. Please, if you have some time or the opportunity arises, why not adopt a segment of beach or shoreline like others adopt a segment highway to make and keep our country clean. To you who do, I offer my sincerest thanks.

St Petersburg Times Apologizes?

I applaud the St. Petersburg Times for commending bloggers (see editorial "The role of bloggers," published 26 February 2005) and admitting the media’s credibility problem; but wonder at its sincerity when far more column inches were dedicated to the suggestion that journalism and mainstream media (MSM) have been victimized! It was incredibly irresponsible of Eason Jordan to suggest that US troops where “deliberately targeting” (read murdering) journalists and I commend those who published Jordan’s own words to bring about his resignation. And lets be truthful, James Guckert was not a journalistic victim, he didn’t exaggerate or deceive anyone. Liberal bloggers condemned him for agreeing with the President and being gay! The true victims are MSM readers who have endured the unfettered rants, screeds and vitamins (this is an obscure reference to Robyn Blumner whose St Pete Times column is advertised as "vitamins for the mind") of deposed MSM elitists like Eason Jordan or Howell Raines. In a society of majority rule, bloggers seem to be successful when their message resonates with the views of mainstream society (MSS). Long live MSS!

Spin Winds

I hate spin. I thought it would end with the election cycle, but it continues almost unabated. My rant is not against the O’Reily styled art of bloviating; how could it when after all what is a blog if not a web publisher’s idiosyncratic discourse on an issue du jour? Spin as now practiced is not a gentle persuasion but deceit plain and simple. Merriam (I prefer first names…) defines deceit as the act of deceiving, deceiving as the “inflected form of the root verb deceive” and to deceive is “to cause to accept as true or valid what is false or invalid.” Someone I know and care about (I say this not to advertise the fact, but to suggest a foundation for my concern) recently told me that the situation in Iraq is worst than we thought because “more soldiers have already died in Iraq than the first five years of Vietnam!” Thinking positively, I wondered if the facts supported his warning that the Iraq was on an accelerated pace of deterioration towards a Vietnam like quagmire that would ensnarl another generation and claim thousands more casualties. But US soldiers weren’t fighting in Vietnam during those early years. Their mission then was observation and education. We sent advisors to review the situation the French had created, stimulated and deserted.We provided consultants for training, logistics and strategic purposes. Our troops did NOT enter into combat with the North Vietnamese. My friend had tried emphasizing his point by equating apples to oranges and pointing the obfuscated results at the object of his ill will. When questioned about the differences between the activities in Vietnam and the Iraq he acknowledged saying that it was a difference without a distinction! So what was he trying to accomplish? What was the point of suggesting more casualties and dehumanizing events a la Senator John Kerry’s self-promoting, harsh, excoriating testimony of soldier’s atrocities? I suspect that he was trying to persuade me that President Bush, Sectrtary Rumsfeld and others in the Bush administration were fraudulently pursing war with Iraq and to promote a more altruistic agenda. Unfortunately, his deception was so transparent and his goal to incite was so badly focused that his inspiration was successful at evoking repugnancy; but not his intended victim. No I was offended by him, by his logic and the willingness of others who heard his patently biased statement to accept it as truth and support for their personal animosity and malignancy. His spin had become a hurricane of deception. And therein lies my angst. I want discourse, I want to hear alternate views, I want to share ideas and I will accept the ideas of others where logic and veracity compels such results. But we can’t lose the truth or perspective when we debate, as both are integral necessities for persuasion. So, here I am, offering my own little contrivance and I wonder have I attempted my own deception or offered a bit of introspection?