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	Who is really to blame for the American Gulf oil crisis? UPDATED: June 28
	If you are expecting an article here to make you feel good forget it. Buckle yourself up and get ready to take your lumps America.

	06/20/2010

	Paper By: Howard Taylor


	Oil cleanup operation in the Gulf of Mexico. photo - ABC News We can all agree on one thing and that is the situation in the Gulf is as bad and probably worse than the crisis this country and the people who live in the Gulf have faced since hurricane Katrina. Looking back on the damage Katrina did it is a wonder how the Gulf has bounced back. Things really seemed in the distant past for the most part. Now we have a disaster that makes Katrina pale in comparison. I don't mean to sound inconsiderate of the tremendous lose of life from Katrina because it certainly was much greater but the damage this oil crisis is doing will take many years to get past. I think these people who are estimating 5 years don't know Jack. This is going to take 15-20 years to fix and that is only what we can see. Life in the region will be changed far longer than that. This crisis has done serious damage to our planet. I think that just as bad as the crisis itself is the spin job Obama and Co. are putting on this whole thing in an effort to divert blame to BP. Yes BP ran the operation and had certain responsibilities that they may not have kept but the bottom line is BP did what the U.S. government let them do. It is as simple as that. Follow me here: a married couple with two teenage boys decides to take a vacation. Well in advance of the vacation they tell the boys they will be gone for three weeks in June. They map out their plan to leave the boys with food, money and a list of contacts in case they need anything else. The parents leave for vacation. What do you think is going to happen back at the house while the parents are away? How many of you think there is just no way these two boys are going to have at least one party? Imagine that party - drinking, drugs, under age sex and who knows what else. How many of you think the parents bare no responsibility for what happens at this party? If you say none you are a terrible parent. Any responsible person knows full well how irresponsible these parents would be to allow this scenario to play out. Any parent with any sense would make sure someone not only watched the house and dropped by periodically but also that the boys knew this would happen. Deep Water Horizon oil platform Deep Water Horizon oil platform Now lets look at what has happened in the Gulf. The U.S. government imposed drilling restrictions on BP and BP accepted. At that point the U.S. government went on vacation. As is perfectly obvious at this point there was too much at stake to assume all the rules would be followed. The U.S. government had a vital responsibility to maintain a constant presense and make sure the process was followed. The bottom line is had the U.S. government done their due dillegence this would not have played out the way it did. Children will do what ever you let them do. Just because the children did it doesn't mean the parents bare no responsibility. My apoligies to BP for the analogy. I am sure you are all seasoned professionals. This conversation cannot continue without saying BP may have made mistakes in their handling of the crisis. Let me ask you - when have we ever faced something like this? When has any one faced something like this? Do you really expect perfect performance? If you do you probably beat your one-year-old for wetting himself. Be realistic. BP doesn't want this any more than we do. This is totally new ground. We need time to make mistakes and learn. Now we have Obama and Co. spinning all the blame on BP when the responsible thing to do would be to admit the government's role in all this and then help BP pull the rope in same direction to get this fixed. Instead all Obama and Co. have done is take advanatge of your trust and ignorance. The responsible thing to do would be to get this fixed and sort the money out later. The patient is dying on a gurney and we have doctors arguing over insurance. True leadership shows in a crisis. This is not leadership. The media is playing it's part too. I have yet to see anyone in the press take my stance here including FOX. In a nutshell Obama has played the media like a cheap violin and they in turn have all of you storming BP with torches and pitchforks yelling "kill the monster!" This is the biggest fool's parade I have ever seen in my life and you are all grand marshalls. Don't get me wrong here - I am not blaming Obama and Co. for the disaster. I am only criticizing their response and the lack of action on the part of the government in the areas of preventive enforcement. To be sure the breakdown here goes back years and years. It is a miracle this kind of thing hasn't happened before now. My bet is there is another ticking time bomb out there right now some where in the world of ocean drilling. I have always considered the British people and their government among the most trustworthy of all our friends. I am embarrassed by the shame Obama has heaped on the people of the United States for orchestrating this hate campaign. Damage has been done to one of our dearest partners in this world. We have a mess to cleanup in the water and we have a mess to clean up with our neighbor. Before I leave you I would like to point our responsibility in this mess - yes - you and I. The war on drugs runs an ad campiagn that basically says if you don't buy drugs there won't be a market for them. The idea is that if there is no market for drugs then the problems associated with them go away. I would agree with some of that. The same thing holds true here - if we don't buy oil they won't pump it. What is it going to take for you people to realize that the internal combustion engine (ICE) as used for daily local commuter service has to go away? How much more of the planet do we need to destroy? How many people have to die? How many animals have to die? How many habitats have to be destroyed? We are approaching an era where we literally have to move people to different geographical areas for their safety. Sound far fetched? This has already happened with chemical spills. No one is suggesting we totally divest ourselves of ICEs. We will need them for vehicles that move large or heavy loads such as trains, ships, planes and other forms of public transportation. As long as we buy the cars 'Detroit' makes we will continue to destroy our planet. What is the answer? Stop buying new cars. If you need a car buy a used one. This will force the auto makers to produce electric cars. It is as simple as that - STOP BUYING NEW CARS. Take responsibility for your planet. Think about what you are doing to your children's children's children's future. You are sacrificing what they might have for what you can have now. That is immature, short sighted and selfish. A whale loses it's life as a result of the Exxon Valdez disaster. Shame on us all - we have learned no lessons. What a terrible waste of magnificent life. If you don't get emotional over this tragic photo then there is something wrong with you. This isn't a dead Starling - one of billions. It is one of just a few thousand. Even more important than that it is a creature with advanced intelligence. This whale is a sentient being - far better than most humans. If you were in the middle of the ocean and this grand creature happened upon you the last thing on it's mind would be to harm you. If anything it might actually give you a ride. The death of this whale is worse than that of any human. I sold my car almost five years ago and have for the most part walked or rode my bicycle to work and to the grocery store. It is true there have been bad weather days where I got a ride but I have reduced my carbon foot print as much as possible when it comes to ICEs. I have used public transportation as much as possible. The immediate result of this for me has been thousands of extra dollars for disposable income. I have saved over $6,000 in fuel costs alone. Vehicle maintenance probably comes to at least $2,000. Knock off another $2,000 for insurance. Where are we? - looks like around $10,000. Do you think that is chump change? If you had $10,000 in your hand right now would you throw it out the window? I thought not. I am in a different position than most of you. I have no family so my time is all mine. If it takes me ten extra hours a week to get my errands done then I am the one who pays the price and believe me I do spend extra time getting to and fro. People with families have soccer and such. Your answer is electric vehicles. The market is starting to buzz with them. Check out these links: These companies are building real cars on a fraction of the budget and a fraction of the experience the big auto companies have. It is shameful how incompetent the leadership of the major auto companies is. The boobs who run the major auto companies couldn't produce and market children's party balloons without killing some one, something or destroying something precious. They should all resign - they are just robber barons. The list goes on and on. There are alternatives if you are willing to take advantage of them. Every dollar you spend on gas is at least 80 cents you deprive your kids of and the figure is probably closer to 90 cents. These cars run on .... nothing. The range of some of these cars is approaching hundreds of miles between charges. It makes no sense not to use them. Oh wait a minute ... I forgot about one small detail. Americans are selfish fat-assed grimey pigs who need their luxury cars. Americans need to show the neighbors how much money they have. If you are so hell bent on showing people how much money you have give it to me and I'll knock on their door and tell them you gave it to me. It goes beyond that. Americans are so vain they have to show people they don't even know how much they have. One word - petty. Look at the rest of the world. They don't carry on as we do. They use public transportation. They embrace smaller cars. They maintain the family unit and care for the elders in their 'clan.' For all the good America does we are destroying this planet. We set a very bad example. But hey ... we can change. We are the best at change. We are the best at adapting. There is time - a little. All it takes is the attitude of a winner. Do you understand what the attitude of a winner is? When a loser is faced with odds the first things that come out of their mouths are excuses for failure. 'We can't do this because of X, Y and Z!' A winner breaks those problems down and says 'We can solve X this way and solve Y this way.' Maybe we can't reach our goal of Z but we can come close. The loser solved none of the problems that would have taken them to their goals. The winner might miss their goal but most of the time they catch it on the way down. We started out with a serious article on the American Gulf crisis and ended with a pep talk. Please don't let your age and sagging gut keep you from getting off your butt and doing the right thing. When you leave this world you are going to occupy a parcel of land that takes up about 100 square feet. You owe us for that spot. Pay us back by leaving the world a better place. UPDATE: June 28* Do you still think the auto companies are making a serious move to clean automoblies? Think again. GM has announced they are hiring several hundred people to build new internal combustion engines in Buffalo New York at the Tonawanda plant. The auto makers have no intention of doing what is right. All they care about is making money no matter the cost to the environment. These are rich industrialists who live in posh surroundings. They never see or experience the damage their product does to the planet. They simply don't care. Their attitude is that they will be dead before the time comes to really pay the price for all this. They don't care. They are investing $425 million in this project. How far do you think that money would go toward producing electric cars? All the way. That is all it would take given the readily available technologies at hand. They are in bed with the politicians and big oil. If you will put off that new car purchase for a year I guarantee you there will an affordable electric car rolling off an assembly line for you that will cost about 3 cents/mile to operate as oppossed to the 25-30 cents/mile you are spending now. If you stop buying new cars there won't be enough government money to bail them out in an attempt to wait you out. After 30 days of no new car sales all the doors on the auto plants will close and will not open until engineering has designed the vehicles and retooled the plants. Within eight months the auto workers will be back at it doing what is right. All you young people who thought it would be so cool to vote Obama into office can show the rest of us just how smart you really are by not buying new cars. You are the primary new car market these days. If just half of you can put off that new car purchase for a year we can force the auto makers to do this right. We can kill the internal combustion engine as it is used for commuter traffic. How many of you think Obama's 'Cash for Clunkers' program was a good idea? If you have your hand up you have been fooled. The CFC program was a well orchestrated scheme to destroy our supply of used cars and used car parts. One of the stipulations of CFC was that the cars turned in must be destroyed. The other was that a new car must be purchased. Did you know that a lot of the new cars purchased were foriegn cars? How does money going over seas stimulate the American economy? Let me spell it out for you - I-T D-O-E-S N-O-T. The only thing that is going to stop the auto makers from producing ICEs is if you stop buying new cars. Then and only then will they produce a product that is good for us all. Then and only then will most of the drilling stop and the ocean life can have their habitat back, the people who make a living from the ocean can have their livelihood back and we can get back to our beaches and vacations and just sleep better at night knowing we have stopped screwing things up with oil. STOP BUYING NEW CARS. * An interesting story: Put four gorillas in a cage with no food. After five days they wake up and see a banana hanging from the ceiling and an 18' step ladder. One of the gorillas starts to climb the ladder to get the banana but as soon as he touches the ladder freezing cold water sprays down from the ceiling until he gets off the ladder. When the water stops and the pandemonium fades he tries again but the water sprays down once again and every time any gorilla tries to climb the ladder to get the banana. Now replace one of the gorillas with a new gorilla. After a while the new gorilla gets hungry and decides to climb the ladder to get the banana but before he can touch the ladder the other gorillas beat the hell out of him. Every time the new gorilla attempts to climb the ladder the other gorillas beat the snot out of him. The new gorilla doesn't know why but he learns not to touch the ladder. Eventually you replace all the original gorillas with new gorillas and they all experience the same treatment when attempting to touch the ladder. Do you know where we have arrived? All of the gorillas know not to touch the ladder but none of them know why. All they know is this is the way it has always been. This is the way we operate in our society. It is always the same old same old and for that we have cars that run the same way they always have. The makers of these new electric cars took the beating and climbed the ladder and you know what happened? They got the banana and ate it.