Monday, June 14, 2010
Barker's Newsbites: Monday, June 14, 2010
Obama's "Plan B" on... well... everything...
Hey... seriously, guys... those of you in your late 40's, early 50's... remember riding in the car with your dad driving and this song playing on the radio? I do! A great song for traveling in an old 60's or early 70's Caddy, Lincoln, Buick... those big old American cars...
I miss America...
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http://www.breitbart.tv/congressman-assaults-student-on-washington-sidewalk/
* THIS IS AMAZING! I JUST GOOGLED "NEWS" ON DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSMAN BOB ETHERIDGE AND THERE'S NOTHING ABOUT HIM HAVING BEEN ARRESTED - NOTHING ABOUT THE ASSAULT AT ALL! HOW COULD THIS BE...???
http://preview.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-13/fannie-freddie-fix-expands-to-160-billion-with-worst-case-at-1-trillion.html
The cost of "fixing" Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage companies that last year bought or guaranteed three-quarters of all U.S. home loans, will be at least $160 billion and could grow to as much as $1 trillion after the biggest bailout in American history.
* I PUT THE WORD "FIXED" IN QUOTATION MARKS BECAUSE FANNIE AND FREDDIE CAN'T BE "FIXED." ALL THE GOVERNMENT IS DOING IS REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH FROM YOU AND ME TO DEADBEATS AND IDIOTS. (OH, YEAH... WITH HUGE SALARIES AND GOLD-PLATED BENEFITS GOING - COURTESY OF THE TAXPAYER - TO THE MOVERS AND SHAKERS AT FREDDIE AND FANNIE.)
Fannie and Freddie, now 80% owned by U.S. taxpayers...
* DID ANYONE - BUSH, OBAMA, REPUBLICANS, DEMOCRATS - ASK YOU IF YOU WANTED TO "BUY" THESE COMPANIES...??? (*SMIRK*)
Fannie and Freddie...already have drawn $145 billion from an unlimited line of government credit... “It is the mother of all bailouts,” said Edward Pinto, a former chief credit officer at Fannie Mae, who is now a consultant to the mortgage-finance industry.
(*HEADACHE*)
Millions of bad loans issued during the housing bubble remain on their books, and delinquencies continue to rise.
(*MIGRAINE HEADACHE*)
The Congressional Budget Office calculated in August 2009 that the companies would need $389 billion in federal subsidies through 2019... The White House’s Office of Management and Budget estimated in February that aid could total as little as $160 billion if the economy strengthens.
(*SMIRK*)
Barclays Capital Inc. analysts put the price tag as high as $500 billion in a December report on mortgage-backed securities, assuming home prices decline another 20% and default rates triple.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/you_re_losing_your_plan_O2H1EFmYlHSoQmqp48uDHI
[HHS Secretary Kathleen] Sebelius means to dictate what your insurance plan must look like almost from day one, no matter how you get your coverage.
Late last week saw the first leaks of the administration's draft regulations for implementing the ObamaCare law - and everything is playing out just as the critics warned.
The 3,000-odd pages of legislation left most of the really important, controversial policy decisions to the regulations that government agencies were told to issue once the bill passed. Now that those regs are starting to take shape, it's clear that the Obama team is using its new power to exert tight control over the payment and delivery of all formerly "private" health insurance.
[Commissar... er... Secretary Sebelius is] starting off by applying new regs to health plans offered by large employers - even though these costly rules were supposedly only going to apply to plans sold in the state insurance "exchanges" that don't get created until 2014. This twist is spelled out in an 83-page draft of a new regulation that leaked late last week. [D]raft regs envision more than half of all policies having to change within three years - an unmistakable break with President's Obama's oft-repeated promise, "If people like their insurance, they will be able to keep it."
(*SMIRK*)
Ultimately, these rules force consumers to buy one of just four health policies - which vary mostly only by trading off higher co-payments for lower premiums, while offering essentially the same actual benefits. In arguing for passage of the law, ObamaCare's defenders claimed the rules were aimed at health plans sold in the "exchanges." Oops: Now Sebelius is applying them to employer plans. Eventually, this would force all but the very wealthiest Americans into a single government-designed insurance scheme.
[Sebelius claims] that the new law gives her authority to review and even set the rates on health policies sold in private markets, a role previously left to state insurance regulators.
The ObamaCare bills were written to paper over an intellectual divide between White House economists and HHS policy wonks. Some economists wanted genuine competition to take root in the new federally managed insurance "exchanges." The HHS crew favored a one-sized government plan with tight federal regulation over benefits.
The law itself didn't explicitly side with either school - but it did leave the writing of the implementing regs to those same HHS wonks.
(*SNICKER*)
Washington insiders refer to this HHS team as "true believers" -- a group of earnest, left-leaning activists who've long favored a single nationalized health plan. They are massaging the law's vagueness to give themselves the tight federal control over health care that will bring their vision into practice.
Critics warned that the Obama bill meant a federal takeover of health care, with Washington bureaucrats making core decisions about medical care. With ObamaCare taking shape, that's exactly what consumers are getting. Saying "we told you so" is no consolation to those who took the president at his word.
http://article.nationalreview.com/436123/the-other-national-debt/kevin-williamson
If [our federal, state and local] governments did follow normal accounting practices, taking account of future liabilities today instead of pretending they don’t exist, then the national debt numbers we talk about would be worse - far worse, dreadfully worse - than that monster $14 trillion (and ratcheting upward!) figure we throw around.
Beyond the official federal debt, there is another $2.5 trillion or so in state and local debt, according to Federal Reserve figures.
[Oh, and don't forget] the pension payments owed to government workers.
So how much would the states have to book to fully fund those liabilities? Drop in another $3 trillion.
* LET'S SEE... $14 TRILLION PLUS $2.5 TRILLION PLUS $3 TRILLION... WE'RE NOW AT $19.5 TRILLION. (*SIGH*)
The debt numbers [really] start to get really hairy when you add in liabilities under Social Security and Medicare... Start with the entitlements and those numbers get run for the hills ugly in a hurry: a combined $106 trillion in liabilities for Social Security and Medicare, or more than five times the total federal, state, and local debt we’ve totaled up so far.
(In real terms, what that means is that we’d need $106 trillion in real, investable capital, earning 6 percent a year, on hand, today, to meet the obligations we have under those entitlement programs. For perspective, that’s about twice the total private net worth of the United States - little more, in fact.)
Suffice it to say, we’re a bit short of that $106 trillion. In fact, we’re exactly $106 trillion short, since the total value of the Social Security “trust fund” is less than the value of the change you’ve got rattling around behind your couch cushions, its precise worth being: $0.00.
* WE'VE EXPLAINED THIS... AGAIN AND AGAIN WE'VE EXPLAINED THIS... THERE IS NO FRIGG'N "TRUST FUND!" THE MONEY'S BEEN SPENT! IT DOESN'T EXIST! ALL THERE IS IS A PILE OF IOU'S... UNFUNDED LIABILITIES... (*SIGH*)
There’s more, of course. Much more. Besides those monthly pension checks, the states are on the hook for retirees’ health care and other benefits, to the tune of another $1 trillion. And, depending on how you account for it, another half a trillion or so (conservatively estimated) in liabilities related to the government’s guarantee of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and securities supported under the bailouts. Now, these aren’t perfect numbers, but that’s the rough picture: Call it $130 trillion or so, or just under ten times the official national debt.
Putting Nancy Pelosi in a smaller jet isn’t going to make that go away.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704463504575301301851187386.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_newyork
Since his January inauguration, [Gov. Chris] Christie [of NJ] has cut state spending.
He has mounted a campaign that helped persuade voters to reject more than half of local school budgets.
And he appears close to getting the Legislature to approve much of his budget for next year, which relies on more cuts instead of tax increases to fill the state's projected $10.7 billion deficit, which is among the largest in the nation. (The state had a $32.2 billion budget last year.) [The last year of Democrat Jon Corzine's term... when NJ had a Democratic governor as well as a Democratic legislature. Coincidence...??? I think not.]
Meanwhile, the number of voters who disapprove of his performance has doubled, jumping from 21% to 42%.
* WHICH TELLS YOU HOW SCREWED WE ARE. THERE IS A SUBSTANTIAL BASE OF UNRECONSTRUCTED LIBERALS OUT THERE WHO DON'T UNDERSTAND ECONOMICS AND WHO WILL CONTINUE TO SUPPORT POLICIES DETRIMENTAL TO FREEDOM, LIBERTY, AND THE FUTURE AMERICA OUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN WILL INHERIT.
Mr. Christie's job approval ratings have slipped by eight points since the end of February, to 44% in May...
* SEE! 44%-42%! THE QUESTION THE MEDIA WON'T PURSUE IS THIS: WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THOSE WHO DISAPPROVE OF CHRISTIE'S POLICIES ARE NET "TAKERS" IN TERMS OF WEALTH TRANSFERS...??? IN OTHER WORDS, HOW MUCH "REPRESENTATION WITHOUT TAXATION" IS THERE TO SKEW RESULTS AT THE BALLOT BOX...??? IN OTHER WORDS, HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE OUT THERE VOTING TO TAKE YOUR MONEY AND GIVE IT TO... er... THEMSELVES...?!?!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704324304575306350633479166.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_markets
Crude futures traded near four-week highs on hopes that a strengthening economic recovery would boost demand.
* NOW, FOLKS... ASK YOURSELVES... WHY SHOULD HIGHER PRICES AT THE PUMP FOR YOU AND ME AND HIGHER PROFITS FOR SAUDI ARABIA, CHAVEZ'S VENEZULA, AND THE LIKE BE LOOKED UPON AS "HOPEFUL" SIGNS OF "ECONOMIC RECOVERY...???"
* SERIOUSLY, FOLKS... WE'RE LIVING IN WONDERLAND.
Crude prices rose during most of last week, buoyed by positive Chinese data...
* AGAIN. PRAY TELL. WHY IS THIS "GOOD" FOR AMERICA AND AMERICANS...?!?! THIS IS ORWELLIAN!
Tony Rosado, a broker with GA Global Markets in New York, said oil prices would likely head toward $80 a barrel during the week for the first time since early May. ... "Obviously there's a lot of geopolitical factors that have a lot of people concerned," he said. "But the market is expecting the news to be good this week."
* AGAIN, FOLKS... IF WHAT'S "GOOD" FOR THE MARKET IS BAD FOR YOU AND ME... (*SHRUG*)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704269204575270802154485456.html
New Jersey officials recently celebrated the selection of the new stadium in the Meadowlands sports complex as the site of the 2014 Super Bowl. Absent from the festivities was any sense of the burden the complex has become for taxpayers.
Nearly 40 years ago the Garden State borrowed $302 million to begin constructing the Meadowlands. The goal was to pay off the bonds in 25 years. Although the project initially went according to plan, politicians couldn't resist continually refinancing the bonds, siphoning revenues from the complex into the state budget, and using the good credit rating of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition authority to borrow for other, unsuccessful building schemes.
Today, the authority that runs the Meadowlands is in hock for $830 million, which it can't pay back. The state, facing its own cavernous budget deficits, has had to assume interest payments - about $100 million this year on bonds that still stretch for decades.
* AND THIS IS JUST ONE EXAMPLE IN ONE STATE... (*SIGH*)
State and local borrowing as a percentage of the country's GDP has risen to an all-time high of 22% in 2010 from 15%, with projections that it will reach 24% by 2012. [O]utstanding debt has soared to $2.2 trillion today from $1.4 trillion in 2000. Even more disconcerting is what the borrowing now often finances. One favorite scheme for muni debt is giant and risky development projects.
* HMM... AND I WONDER WHO MAKES MONEY ON "DEVELOPMENT...???" YA THINK... er... "DEVELOPERS...?!?!" (DEVELOPERS WHO ARE VERY, VERY GENEROUS WITH POLITICAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS...???)
California's redevelopment regime is an object lesson. Starting in the 1950s, the state gave localities the right to create public agencies, funded by increases in property taxes, which can issue debt to finance redevelopment. A whopping 380 such entities now exist. They collect 10% of all property taxes - nearly $6 billion annually - and they have amassed $29 billion in debt never approved by voters for projects ranging from sports facilities to concert venues to retail malls, museums and convention centers.
* I KNOW... I KNOW... YOUR EYES ARE GLAZING OVER. BOTTOM LINE... THE POLITICIANS ARE DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY.
In 2000, Massachusetts moved to make the entity that runs Boston area mass transit, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, financially independent. As part of the plan the authority was supposed to gradually pay down some $5.6 billion in debt and use cash from operations to finance capital projects. Instead, the agency deferred payments on its debt, put off capital projects, and borrowed more money, so that it now owes $8.5 billion. Today, the authority is paying a staggering $500 million yearly in debt service, forcing it to neglect maintenance, shelve expansion plans, and cut service. Even so, last year the agency needed a $160 million bailout from taxpayers to close a budget deficit.
* AND SO IT GOES, FOLKS... (*SIGH*)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704575304575297130299281828.html
For 97 years the 12 regional banks of the Federal Reserve system have operated relatively free of political interference from Washington. The looming financial "reform" bill threatens that independence, not least through an effort to impose new presidential appointees at the regional banks.
* JUST AS AN ASIDE, THE FED DOES NEED TO HAVE ITS POWERS CURTAILED... THE THING IS, THOUGH, THAT'S NOT WHAT THIS LEGISLATION DOES. IT SIMPLY SHIFTS POWER TO THE PRESIDENT.
The biggest underreported threat comes from Subtitle I, Section 1801 of the House financial reform bill titled "Inclusion of Minorities and Women; Diversity in Agency Workforce." Sponsored by California Democrat Maxine Waters, the provision requires each federal financial agency, the Fed Board of Governors and the 12 regional Fed banks to "establish an Office of Minority and Women Inclusion."
* OH... MY... FRIGG'N... GOD... (*MASSIVE, DEBILITATING MIGRAINE HEADACHE*)
* AND BTW... JUST THINK ABOUT IT... MAXINE WATERS IS A MEMBER OF CONGRESS. IF THAT DOESN'T TELL YOU ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT HOW BROKEN OUR POLITICAL SYSTEM IS THEN NOTHING WILL!
Ms. Waters and the [Democrat-controlled] House...want to put a network of operatives at the highest level of government who are responsible for making sure that regulators put the hiring of, and lending to, minorities at the top of their priority list.
* YEP. YOU'RE READING CORRECTLY. THE PLAN IS TO TAKE THE POLICIES WHICH IN LARGE PART CAUSED OUR ECONOMIC MELTDOWN AND... er... DOUBLE DOWN.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/13/AR2010061303329.html
Bad news from Afghanistan came in a steady stream last week... At least 23 NATO soldiers were killed; a U.S. helicopter was shot down; a suicide bomber killed dozens at a Kandahar wedding.
It is the good fortune of the Obama administration that these stories aren't getting much attention.
* AND AS WITH MOST THINGS, WHAT'S "GOOD FORTUNE" FOR THE OBAMA ADMINISTRAION IS "BAD FORTUNE" FOR THE REST OF US.
The White House hasn't had to do much defending of its Afghan policy since President Obama announced it in December. While that's a welcome change from the poisonous polarization of the Bush-era Iraq debate, it is also lamentable in one important way: Not many people are noticing the growing problems in the president's surge strategy.
* SO IN OTHER WORDS, NO, IT'S NOT A "WELCOME CHANGE." (*SMIRK*) (*SNICKER*) WHAT THE AUTHOR IS POINTING OUT - WHETHER HE MEANS TO OR NOT - IS THAT THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA'S FAVORITISM TOWARDS OBAMA IS DIRECTLY LINKED TO ACCEPTENCE AND/OR IGNORANCE OF A FAILING FOREIGN POLICY THAT IS GETTING AMERICANS KILLED AND MAIMED IN EVER GROWING NUMBERS.
* READ THE FULL STORY.
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/06/14/morning-bell-the-government-bailouts-must-end/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell
[As you know, over the weekend - on a Saturday - President Obama] requested another $50 billion in deficit spending earmarked for bailing-out state and local governments.
The Government Union Bailout: $23 billion of the President’s additional $50 billion in spending would supposedly go to keep teachers in the classroom. This new spending would be in addition to the nearly $100 billion appropriated to the Department of Education by the President’s $862 billion stimulus bill, of which $34.7 billion in education funds remains unspent.
* YEP! YOU'RE READING THAT CORRECTLY! ...OF WHICH $34.7 BILLION OF PREVIOUSLY APPROVED SPENDING REMAINS UNSPENT!!!
Meanwhile, over the past decade student enrollment has increased only 6% while the number of teachers in the classroom has risen 15.8%.
* SEE HOW CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING, FOLKS... SEE HOW ACTUALLY KNOWING THINGS - KNOWING THE FACTS - CAN PREVENT YOU FROM SIMPLY BUYING THE SKEWED PRO-SPENDING, PRO-TAXING, PRO-INCREASING THE SIZE OF GOVERNMENT MAINSTREAM MEDIA REPORTING HOOK, LINE, AND SINKER? (*SMILE*)
More federal funding is unlikely to increase student achievement and will not provide a long-term solution to states’ budget shortfalls.
* BUT IT DOES ALLOW DEMOCRATS TO PAY OFF THEIR UNION ALLIES USING YOUR MONEY AND MINE! (*GRITTING MY TEETH*)
Another bailout from Washington could even exacerbate states’ fiscal problems by creating disincentives for states to tackle out-of-control spending and make real education reforms. (*NOD*)
The Medicaid Bailout: $25 billion of the President’s latest spending spree is set to bail-out state Medicaid programs. This would be the fourth time this decade that Congress has bailed-out state Medicaid programs. The cycle is all too familiar. Between 1990 and 2007, Medicaid spending more than quadrupled from $69 billion to $316 billion. Because of these constant bailouts, states have avoided dealing with their mismanagement of the program. More money from Washington will guarantee one thing: states will continue to spend far in excess of what they can afford, and Congress will treat the federal taxpayers like an ATM machine to cover the shortfalls.
* MOVING ON...
The Obamacare Bailout: The President’s signature legislative accomplishment is just barely three months old, but it already is in need of a $400 billion bailout.
(*ROLLING MY EYES*)
In an interview with Politico Sunday, the President said of Obamacare: “I strongly believe that the health care bill was the right thing to do … I think it’s going to help us bend the cost curve in ways that will actually help us deal with the deficit, not add to it.” But just one day earlier during his weekly radio address, the President pleaded with Congress to pass a temporary fix in Medicare reimbursement rates for doctors: “Now, I realize that simply kicking these cuts down the road another year is not a long-term solution to this problem. I’m absolutely willing to take the difficult steps necessary to lower the cost of Medicare and put our budget on a more fiscally sustainable path. But I’m not willing to do that by punishing hard-working physicians or the millions of Americans who count on Medicare. That’s just wrong. And that’s why in the short-term, Congress must act to prevent this pay cut to doctors.”
So which is it?
Did Obamacare “bend the cost curve” in ways that will help the deficit, or is Medicare still on a fiscally unsustainable path?
(*SMIRK*) I THINK YOU KNOW THE ANSWER, FOLKS... (*SNICKER*)
The reality is that Obamacare’s deficit reduction claims were always a complete fraud, and the President’s pitch for a doc fix exposes that fact.
* AND LET ME ASK YOU... ARE ABC, CBS, NBC, AND THE REST OF THE LIBERAL MEDIA EXPOSING THIS...??? (*SMIRK*) HOW MUCH FOCUS HAS THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA PLACED ON THIS...??? HMM...??? (*SHAKING MY HEAD IN DISGUST*)
http://www.forbes.com/2010/06/11/education-economics-business-opinions-columnists-john-tamny.html
A chart in last Sunday's New York Post revealed that only 35% of Americans could name even one member of the U.S. Supreme Court...
* HEY! I HAVE AN IDEA! MAKE "BARKER'S NEWSBITES" REQUIRED DAILY READING FOR EVERY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT IN AMERICA!
(*SNORT*) (*CHUCKLE*)
* SERIOUSLY, FOLKS... A WELFARE STATE "DEMOCRACY" IS UNSUSTAINABLE; IT'S A RECIPE FOR DISASTER! THE FOUNDERS KNEW THIS - WHICH IS WHY THEY GAVE US A CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC. THE PROBLEM IS... THE USA IS NO LONGER A CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS OUT OF CONTROL. THE PEOPLE'S LIBERTIES ARE UNDER DAILY ASSAULT.
http://etheridge.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=190412
U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-Lillington, NC) released the following statement on the...video which appeared on the internet today:
“I have seen the video posted on several blogs. I deeply and profoundly regret my reaction and I apologize to all involved. Throughout my many years of service to the people of North Carolina, I have always tried to treat people from all viewpoints with respect. No matter how intrusive and partisan our politics can become, this does not justify a poor response. I have and I will always work to promote a civil public discourse.”
* YOU ASSAULTED SOMEONE, CONGRESSMAN! YOU PHYSICALLY ASSAULTED SOMEONE! IT WAS CAUGHT ON CAMARA! IF YOU'RE NOT ARRESTED - FORMALLY CHARGED WITH ASSAULT - BY THE TIME THIS DAY IS OUT THEN WE'LL KNOW WITHOUT A SHADOW OF A DOUBT THAT THERE IS NO EQUAL JUSTICE LEFT IN OBAMA'S AMERICA.
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1996441,00.html
[F]acing the possibility that oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill could arrive on its reefs and beaches in the coming weeks, many in the Florida Keys are once again angry about perceived fools and bureaucrats.
"We cannot wait. We have to be prepared," says Dan Robey, whose website KeysSpill.com has gathered 4,000 volunteers, including 300 boat captains, who have offered to help before and after any potential arrival of oil.
A group called Adopt a Mangrove is assigning kayakers their own mangroves to clean if oil comes. Volunteers are monitoring shores throughout the islands for signs of oil.
The Florida Keys Environmental Coalition formed to connect boat captains, scientists, environmental activists and various agencies.
Local boat captain George Bellenger and others set up a series of town-hall meetings at Sippin' Internet Café on Eaton Street, the last of which was attended by both Coast Guard and BP reps. In May, Bellenger had heard through word of mouth ("the coconut telegraph," as it's known here) about a closed meeting between city officials and BP representatives and others. He and a few others showed up to complain about the lack of preparation and left with a promise that BP would pay $10,000 to fund hazardous-materials training for 100 people. It was, says Bellenger, one of the "two good things" that has happened with BP. The other: a towboat operator out of Big Pine Key was recently hired to be a sentry boat, keeping an eye out for approaching oil to the west of the Keys.
The Hazwoper haz-mat training that is a pre-requisite for handling oil spills can cost hundreds of dollars per person (although KeysSpill.com has arranged a discounted online course for $69). Florida Keys Community College offered a sold-out bird-cleaning course this past weekend, giving Keys residents practice on dead seabirds. But that course cost $150 per person and was not paid for by BP.
* JEEZUS FRIGG'N CHRIST... JUST WAVE THE FRIGG'N FEES! AND IF THAT'S NOT VIABLE, THEN HAVE THE FEDS GUARANTEE REIMBURSEMENT AND IN TURN THEY CAN DEAL WITH BP LATER!
Advance planning would benefit BP as well: the Keys' coral-reef ecosystem is unique and would require a different approach than the coastal marshes and beaches to the north. For example, chemical dispersants, already controversial in the northern Gulf, would be far too toxic for the coral, says Dave Hallac, supervisory biologist at the Dry Tortugas and Everglades national parks. Additional worries about the potential impact that unwitting contractors could have on the Dry Tortugas National Park caused the park service to "pre-negotiate" with the Coast Guard to insure that there would be park service advisers working with the contractors.
* To be continued...
* CONTINUING... (Part 2 of 2)
The generic cleanup plans that existed before the spill will have to be reimagined as well. "The contingency plan we have with the Coast Guard is for the event of a tanker spill," says Rice. "I asked [the Coast Guard] directly, 'Do you have a contingency plan for oil at depth?' They don't."
* JEEZUS FRIGG'N CHRIST... (*SHAKING MY HEAD IN DISBELIEF AND DISGUST*)
Rice is pushing his own solution that might help protect the most sensitive reefs and mangrove plants from oil beneath the surface: curtains of air bubbles from perforated air hoses laid on the seabed. "It would at least deflect the smaller tar balls and push the oil up the surface," he says.
How receptive would the Unified Command be to trying out a clever hack like this from a local scientist? How much help would they accept from the captains who know the backcountry currents and channels best? If oil comes to the Keys, residents warn, BP had better be ready to work with them. "I just talked with BP yesterday," says Rice. "I told them flat out, 'If you come down here and start doing what you've done in Louisiana, you're going to have a revolt. They'll shut down U.S. 1. You won't be able to bring any of your contractors in or out.' " Key West's isolation may not protect it from the coming oil, but perhaps its independent streak will.
BP (and the Deepwater Horizon's Unified Command, which BP runs with the Coast Guard and other agencies) has so far insisted on complete control of the cleanup operations. A BP spokesman told TIME that the only appropriate way for interested boat captains to become involved would be to register with the Unified Command's Vessels of Opportunity program. Never mind that according to BP's numbers, only a third of the 7,200 boats "under contract" through the program are in active service.
Robey says captains in the Keys haven't even been able to register. "It's a joke, a total joke," he says. "Our people have called them for over a month. They don't return phone calls."
Locals want to start preparing now, even though it's unclear how much oil will arrive and in what form — sheen, plume, tar ball or all three. And BP and the Coast Guard won't start really organizing, or funding, a response yet. "The general feeling is that BP has been reluctant to support advanced preparation," says Laura Fox, owner of Danger Charters in Key West. "The Coast Guard's big party line is that until oil is imminent - within 72 hours - nothing is going to be done. That's not enough time to protect the 180 miles or more of shoreline that we have in the Keys."
* THE COAST GUARD FOLLOWS OBAMA'S ORDERS. OBAMA'S AMERICA IS THE LAND OF THE BIG PARTY LINE. (*SIGH*)
* KEY WEST IS "MY AMERICA."
* WHICH AMERICA DO YOU WHO IS READING THIS LOOK UP TO...???
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/article/bp-oil-spill-gov-bobby-jindal-orders-national/story?id=10914348
Eight weeks into the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of the Mexico, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has told the National Guard that there's no time left to wait for BP, so they're taking matters into their own hands. In Fort Jackson, La., Jindal has ordered the Guard to start building barrier walls right in the middle of the ocean. The barriers, built nine miles off shore, are intended to keep the oil from reaching the coast by filling the gaps between barrier islands. Today, huge Blackhawk and Chinook helicopters lined up in the air, dropping sandbags one by one into the sea.
* TOO BAD JINDAL ISN'T PRESIDENT; JINDAL'S BEEN ON TOP OF THINGS ALL ALONG.
* OBAMA ON THE OTHER HAND... http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/06/14/gal.obama.gulf.jpg (*SMIRK*)
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/55_146/news/47263-1.html?type=aggregate_friendly
Last fall, Speaker Nancy Pelosi moved her district office into the new federal building in San Francisco. The move quadrupled the rent she pays, and her new $18,736 monthly bill is almost double the next-highest rental paid by a Member of the House.
The next highest monthly office rent belongs to Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), who occupies an office in a federal building in Manhattan’s trendy SoHo neighborhood for just under $10,600. Rep. José Serrano (D-NY) paid $10,350 a month last year for an office in the Bronx, but he recently moved into a new building where the first month’s rent was only $9,583, his spokesman said Friday.
Democratic Reps. Doris Matsui (Sacramento), Stephen Lynch (Boston) and Diane Watson (Los Angeles) all pay $9,000 to $10,000 a month for district offices.
http://cbs3.com/local/military.philadelphia.report.2.1750594.html
A nonprofit group says that up to 90% of young Philadelphians are ineligible for military service because of criminal records, obesity or lack of education.
Pennsylvania-based Mission: Readiness released its report Monday. It says 1 million Pennsylvanians are ineligible for the same reasons. (Mission: Readiness is made up of more than 150 retired generals and admirals.)
Nationally, the Department of Defense estimates that 75% of young adults are disqualified from military service.
* JEEZUS F--KING CHRIST...
* AGAIN, FOLKS - NOT THE ONION! NOT A SNL SKIT! THIS IS THE NEWS - AMERICA IN THE AGE OF OBAMA.
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