Day: May 12, 2010

The Ballet Of An Oil Spill

I would suspect that just about everyone in the US has heard about the massive oil spill threatening the Gulf Coast…..the people are angry and are demanding restitution, they are demanding that the company makes everything whole again….but is that a realistic hope?  And so the Ballet begins!

There have been some that suggest that the Obama Admin may have been at fault for the disaster, not as deeply involved as BP, but still should share some of the blame as an accomplice…..

A May 11, 2009 legal brief written on behalf of Obama’s secretary of the interior, Ken Salazar, requested that the Washington, DC federal court of appeals overturn or amend an earlier decision blocking new drilling in the Gulf of Mexico’s outer continental shelf. The petition referred specifically in several instances to site “206”—the same area where the Deepwater Horizon would explode in a blowout less than one year later.

“Salazar approved BP’s exploration plan without any environmental analysis on April 6, 2009, knowing that the lease could get struck down by an active lawsuit,” said Kieran Suckling of the Center for Biological Diversity. “When it was struck down 11 days later, he went back to court to get the BP exploration drilling (and other areas) removed from the vacature. His success in this legal maneuver allowed BP’s exploration drilling to take place, resulting in the April 20, 2010 catastrophic disaster.”

Even since the explosion on the rig, the Obama administration has continued to grant “categorical exemptions” for deep sea oil drilling—27 in all, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.

If this research done by Tom Eley of wsws.org is true then Obama and the boyz are and should be blamed for this disaster, or at least held accountable…the way they keep saying that BP will be held accountable.

Now the CEOs of BP, Halliburton and Transocean are on the Hill testifying at what happened and what is to be done.  But the game got to the inevitable point of blame.

BP America President Lamar McKay stressed the failure of the blowout preventer owned by rig operator Transocean. “The systems are intended to fail-close and be fail-safe,” McKay said. “Sadly and for reasons we do not yet understand, in this case, they were not.”

But Transocean chief executive Steven Newman said the blowout preventers “were clearly not the root cause of the explosion.” He said they might have been damaged by debris made of cement and steel casing material blown upward because of other failures.

Halliburton’s Tim Probert also tried to deflect blame, saying, “We understand that the drilling contractor . . . proceeded to displace the riser with seawater prior to the planned placement of the final cement plug.” That plug was designed to keep the oil and gas in the well, a final step before pulling the drilling rig away from the well. Probert said that the final cement plug was never set.   (Thanx to WaPo for the excerpts)

This was a predictable thing….NO one is to blame, especially those with an interest on the rig.  The media will run amok with the hearing transcripts; they will show the CEOs in the most unflattering light, but I would bet my last dollar that the report from the Center of Biological Diversity will get little to no play in the media……..any bets?

BP IS too blame….Transocean IS to blame…..Halliburton IS to blame…..and yes politicians are too blame, especially the Obama Admin……I am sure there will be a plausible explanation to why the Admin pushed deep sea drilling without the proper documentation…….but I want them all to take RESPONSIBILITY for the disaster that they alone have created.

You Really Want A Middle East Peace?

Inkwell Institute

International Group

Middle East Desk

First of all, I do not think that anyone in this conflict wants it to end or maybe no one has an idea that will suit both sides.

How many years has the idea of “peace” been pursued?  How many times has the hope of “peace” been dashed?  Does anyone have an idea of how to promote and then establish a lasting peace?

First of all, the “war” or “conflict” or whatever one chooses to call the situation has been going on for 60 years and it is now an institution  It has become such a tradition that absolutely NO one knows how to break the change of events.

I recently read an article in the Haaretz newspaper and Haggai Alon made some excellent points….like:

Gaza is Israel’s big problem. Because of the political, security and civic failure of the disengagement, the road to a solution of the problem of Gaza runs through Ramallah and Jerusalem. In Ramallah, it is in the hands of one man – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. But Benjamin Netanyahu’s government refuses to accept that fact. So Abbas is preparing a surprise for it in the form of a “no-partner” declaration.

Gaza is the fuel for the anti-Israel struggle. It is the symbol of that struggle throughout the Arab and Muslim world, even among those who live in Western countries. And it is up to us to uproot the anti-Israel cells the flourish there. Gaza’s hunger is the fuel of the struggle. We must dry up this fuel. It is not a tool for getting Gilad Shalit back, or for toppling Hamas.

Any one that has half a brain or has spent time wondering what the Hell is going on in the ME, knows that Gaza is the fuel for the anti-Israel fire……..and as put in the excerpts above…there can be NO peace without a solution to the Gaza problem….no matter how much talking and negotiating goes on…if Gaza is still the way it is today….there will be NO peace.

So what is the answer?

First of all, the need is to recognize Hamas for what it is….yes it can be called a terrorist organization….but beyond that….they were elected by the people of Gaza to represent them…….Hamas needs to show good faith that they are truly a representative of the people and call off all terror attacks…then Israel needs to show that they have the best interest of the Palestinian people in mind and restore ALL humanitarian aid to the area….next the world nations need to guarantee to help the area economically once Israel and Hamas show that they are adults and actually care about the people.

Since the conflict has become an institution and the only way to break the hold of the hatred is to have ALL parties behave as adults and not spoiled children.  As it stands today, the conflict is more about hatred than the plight of the Palestinians or the safety of the Israelis.