Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig - Obama Meets the Families of the Dead Workers

The Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig didn't just drench birds and beaches with foul-smelling oil, it killed eleven men.  President Obama now is going to meet their families.  Dare I say it?  It's about time. 

Empathy is not President Obama's strong point.  People mocked former President Clinton for his ability to feel the pain of the electorate.  But at least he understood the importance of disaster recovery and made placing professionals in FEMA a priority.  Whenever there was a large disaster, he was on top of it and everyone could see that.  Former President George Bush gave a very good impression of someone who only cared if something affected him or someone on his golf course.  But then he cared a lot.  President Obama never gives that feeling off at all.  Actually, it's part of a President's job to be empathetic.  We all look to our leader to understand what we are going through as a way to endure the suffering.  We need to feel that the people making the decisions know what we need and how much we need it.

None of which we got from President Obama.

So finally President Obama is going to meet the families of the dead men from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig to make sympathetic noises at them.  I guess it will do some good.  However the true tale is told in how long it took him to get there to begin with.  Weeks.  That's because there is so much more to do that is more important.

This crisis wasn't a priority for President Obama until he started to be severely criticized for his handling of it. When the new head of Minerals Management refuses to say there are plumes of oil underneath the surface of the water in the Gulf of Mexico, we all know who it is that she doesn't want to anger.  President Obama.  And tells you where the Administration's true priorities lie.

Oil Spill, Dead Birds and Shrimp

Learn more about how BP is helping!  Just enter "oil spill" into a search engine and their PR flacks will direct you to wonderful lies about how well BP is handling the crisis.  Of course, they have the right to do this.  It's just one more sleazy, misleading thing they have done related to destroying our environment. 

 

Check out Slate.com for a story of two ways to get fired from a job with BP to clean up the spilled oil.  One is to be an illegal alien.  The other is to bring your own protective gear and breathing masks that have not been given to by BP.

 

So, in the context of the ongoing sleazy behavior and callous comments by the idiot BP CEO, the latest attempt by BP to manage public opinion looks even worse than it would for another company.

 

If the vapors from the spilled oil are dangerous, perhaps the entire Board of Directors should be made to go to the damaged area themselves and remain there until it is all cleaned up.

"An NPR Investigation Shows" ...

The oil spill in the Gulf has done more than cause the U.S. voter to rethink "Drill Baby, Drill." It has allowed public radio's NPR to slide into the ranks of major news outlets in the United States.

NPR's ascendancy dovetails with the widespread firing of seasoned reporters in major newspapers across the nation. NPR has the resources to actually investigate, as well as report. And this oil spill crisis has shown that.

The information that oil rig workers were held for nineteen hours, before being allowed to see their families, and asked to sign liability release documents came from an NPR report. Critical information, that.

So all the worry about the Fox echo chamber are a little misplaced. There is now a strong voice on the left. Hooray.

The Space-Based Solar Power Breakthrough

The Space-Based Solar Power Breakthrough Press Conference was fascinating, not so much for the technology breakthrough but that in this time of global energy crisis, this time where hurricanes driven by global warming have claimed another American city, that only the Discovery Channel is doing something about the situation.

Where is the leadership of the U.S. Government?

NASA hasn't been interested in space-based solar power for a decade. The only United States government agency which has done anything to further the development of this unlimited clean power is the Nation Security Space Office at the Department of Defense over a year a ago.

Discovery Channel paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to demonstrate a solar-powered wireless power transmission using a solid-state phased array transmitter between Maui and Hawaii and Airborne, a distance of 148 kilometers. That's almost 100times further than a major 1970's power transmission performed by NASA.

In this time where billions of dollars are made by oil companies and billions of US taxpayer dollars are used to bail out greedy speculative brokerage firms, why is a media company the only one funding environmentally friendly energy production research?

Thank you, Discovery Channel for having the vision to fund this important research.

Thank you, John C. Mankins, the Chief operating Officer of Managed Energy Technologies, LLC and President of the Space Power Association for performing this important research. John Mankins has always been a shining star of Inspiration, Integrity and Vision in the space development field.


Space Solar Power Press Conference - September 12, 2008 - (71 minutes - http://www.nss.org/news/releases/pc20080912.html

Audio, photos, and summary from press conference October 10, 2007 - http://www.nss.org/news/releases/pc20071010.html

National Security Space Office Space-Based Solar Power As an Opportunity for Strategic Security

Space Based Solar Power - Alternative Energy Solution -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiU9MibyBJ0

United States as the Next OPEC

Energy independence! Technology exists to harvest the unimpeded solar rays from the Moon and send them to Earth for the use of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!! A demonstration will be given tomorrow at the National Press Club. Details below.

Then we can stop fighting these oil wars.

"John C. Mankins, former manager of NASA's Exploration Systems Research and Technology Program, and one of the foremost experts on space solar power, will announce on Friday a milestone demonstration of the critical technology enabling SSP: long-distance, solar-powered wireless power transmission." The official announcement will be Friday, September 12, 2008.

When:
Friday, September 12, 2008 at 9:30am

Where:
National Press Club, Lisagor Room
529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor
Washington, DC 20045
202-662-7500

Who:
John C. Mankins, COO of Managed Energy Technologies LLC
Mark Hopkins, Senior Vice President, National Space Society

Hosted by:
National Space Society

Please RSVP to:
Katherine Brick
katherine.brick@nss.org
(202) 429-1600

McCain and the Oil Wars

Presidential candidate McCain promises to end U.S. dependence on Middle Eastern oil "so we never have to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East." The implication is that once we are energy-independent they can all kill each other for all we care. (The Arabs. Not Israel.) And it's an appealing thought. Without oil, the United States would never have defended Kuwait and Saudi Arabia against Saddam Hussein. As much as Osama bin Laden hates Western influences in his country, let's see how much he likes complete indifference.

With the United States relying on other means of fueling our vehicles and our economy, it would be a welcome relief to not care about placating religious crazies in Saudi Arabia. After all, we have enough of them here.

My position has always been that the excessive focus on Israel by other Middle Eastern nations is only to distract its citizenry from internal conflicts that would otherwise lead to civil war. And let's face it, none of them want the Palestinians.

Biofuel Blowback in Brazil

Lula, the leader of Brazil, has really done a lot to promote the use of ethanol and now Brazil is a major exporter of biofuels.

His South American neighbors, exporters of oil, are not so pleased. It is interesting to look at their arguments because if biofuels really take off here in the U.S., these are the kinds of things that oil companies will also say:

• Biofuels cause starvation
• Biofuels cause global warming and kill much-needed forests
• Biofuels raise food prices.

Biofuel opponents are actually saying that people will starve because of biofuels. That's funny. And a signal of how desperate oil companies are to maintain the status quo.

Implications of a Fuel Cell Car

So Iceland has created a fuel cell car. At $8 for a gallon of gas, Icelanders must be very happy.

Supposing, in the next ten years, this technology is adopted throughout the world. The demand for gasoline is radically and dramatically reduced. Are we going to continue caring about the Middle East in quite the same way? Of course not.

And if the demand for oil is reduced, then the riches of the Arab and Persian nations will also be reduced. So the money sent to radical Islamist groups will also be reduced, as will their ability to cause trouble elsewhere in the world.

Another nation affected would be Russia. Russia is basing its current bout of hegemony on its supply of oil. Witness the threats to cut off the heat to its neighbors last winter. I always predicted that the Russian resurgence would be short-lived. Now they can focus their efforts on fighting Canada for ice flows.

A fuel cell car - imagine! I'm dying to get a new car myself, but my husband and my sister prudently are talking me out of it. One way to inspire myself to patience would be dreams of a fuel cell car THAT DOESN'T USE GASOLINE!! With leather interiors, of course. I wouldn't get a car without leather interiors.

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As an aside, you can usually click on the title of a post to see an article related to my rant.

Predictions for the 21st Century

Econo-Girl is relisting her predictions at the end of this post for reference.

In my family's little German village of Bad Kissingen in 1899, a group of people became convinced that the world would end in 1900. So they gave away their possessions and walked to the top of the mountain, waiting for the inevitable. And waited. And waited.

You can guess the ending.

In a sense, those doomsayers were right, though. The world was ending, but just the world as they knew it.

We are in a similar situation now. We can't see what will happen next. We think the world will end. It won't. It just will be inexplicably and unpredictably different. I don't think its horrible that the Western world is forced to turn to alternative fuels quickly. There is no other way they would do it. Venezuela and Brazil will be in ascendancy and the U.S. will have to change how we deal with them. Not horrible, just different. Russia will be like a nasty old man whose time on the stage is ending. There will be a brief blip from oil and space technology, but it won't last. Every nation in the Middle East will be forced to confront the internal struggles it masks by fighting one another. It may or may not be violent.

Taken in another light, these are not horrible things. Just things to adapt to.

PREDICTIONS:

Centrufigal forces within Islam are now unstoppable, and every nation is going to be affected.

Europe and the U.S. will find fuel efficiency and alternative fuels to be fascinating very soon, and worthy of their attention and resources like never before. It will be amazing how quickly alternative fuels become cost-effective.

Russia will see its interests rise again. The immediate demand for oil will have them strutting around again like the old days. Maybe then Putin will smile. Europe will not be as calm the next time Putin throws a tantrum.

Venezuela will become even more insufferable. Brazil will join them.

The trade embargo against Cuba will be lifted.

Israel will have to confront its own problems and grapple with a potential civil war. The religious right will not be a winner in that one.

The political force that is modern Islam is a powerful one. Now let's watch them use that power to kill each other.

Russia, Belarus and Oil

Russia is accusing Belarus of diverting some of the oil flowing through its pipelines. It seems that the pressure in the oil pipeline going through Belarus had dropped noticeably. Russia is blaming Belarus for this because they think Belarus is siphoning off oil from the pipeline going through their country.

Germany and Poland are reliant on Russia's oil as well as other European countries, so this is a big deal. The Polish Economy Ministry assured everyone publicly that Poland had enough reserves right now and there was no need for worry.

The keyword here is PANIC. There needs not to be a PANIC about OIL in EUROPE. It is that panic that Russia is playing with.

So what can be done? What would really happen if Russia cut its oil supplies to Europe? Would they honestly sit by and let thousands of people freeze to death? Perhaps. One thing that would definitely happen is that Europe would find an alternative to oil as fast as possible. Russia would become an international pariah. I doubt Putin really cares about that. He just misses seeing the fear in their eyes.