** HB 1388 PASSED **
Whether you are an Obama fan, or not, EVERYONE IN THE U.S. needs
to know....
Something happened... H.R. 1388 was passed, **behind our backs**.
You may want to read about it... It wasn’t mentioned on the
news... just went by on the ticker tape at the bottom of the CNN
screen.
Obama funds $20M in tax payer dollars to immigrate Hamas Refugees to
the USA . This is the news that didn't make the headlines...
By executive order, President Barack Obama has ordered the
expenditure of $20.3 million in "migration assistance" to the
Palestinian refugees and "conflict victims" in Gaza
The "presidential determination," which allows hundreds of thousands
of Palestinians with ties to Hamas to resettle in the United States
, was signed and appears in the Federal Register.
Few on Capitol Hill, or in the media, took note that the order
provides a free ticket replete with housing and food allowances to
individuals who have displayed their overwhelming support to the
Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the parliamentary election of
January 2006.
Now we learn that he is allowing thousands of Palestinian refugees to
move to, and live in, the US at American taxpayer expense.
These important, and insightful, issues are being "lost" in the
blinding bail-outs and "stimulation" packages.
Doubtful? To verify this for yourself: **www.thefederalregister.com/d.p/2009-02-04-E9-2488*
[http://www.thefederalregister.com/d.p/2009-02-04-E9-2488]
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Saturday, June 12, 2010
The Consequence of Inaction
Turtles...
It’s getting so I almost feel like crying as I watch the news coverage of the oil spill. OK, I did cry. This morning as they discussed how the oil affects the sea turtle’s entire digestive track (ulcers, kidney problems, liver), they cut away to a picture of a little logger head being hand fed in a kiddy pool by volunteers. At the end of the rehabilitation process there’s a problem though: They don’t know where to release the turtles because the shifting mass of petroleum in the ocean could end up anywhere.
I started thinking about that and reminisced about how quickly the ocean flows and moves. Ironically, this was because of something that happened while spear fishing outside a jetty near Gulf Shores, AL with my buddy Turtle. No kidding. We played hockey together growing up, and we all called him Turtle. I never did actually figure out why because he’d been on skates since he was two years old and he was fast as lightning. Anyway, Turtle and I had worked our way along some bottom structure, eventually moving with the current 200 yards or so away from the boat. It was early September and there were jellyfish around, but we were focused on finding something to shoot at, so we weren’t really paying attention to the gelatinous invertebrates that were suddenly everywhere. Everywhere! We were enveloped in 10’s of thousands of jellyfish.
We decided that heading back to the boat was still the best option. The beach by the jetty was at least 400 yards further away. We were snorkeling and our lungs were good so we were able hold our breath as we twisted and gyrated our way through the 3-D maze of dangling stingers. At first it was like an immersive video game as we tried to “get skinny” and use only our flippers with dolphin like kicks to propel our forward motion. However, by the time we got half way back to the anchored boat it became apparent that more than a video game was at stake. Turtle and I had both been lambasted with the stinging tentacles a dozen or so times, and the dolphin kick proved not to be the most effective form of achieving forward motion as we were swimming into the teeth of the shifting current. Accordingly, we changed our strategy. It seemed the less time we spent in the water, the better. We swam freestyle on the surface as fast as we could. I remember thinking, “How many times can we get stung before getting to toxic load and having our throats swell shut?”
After getting safely back to the boat we both clambered up onto the transom deck and jumped inside. Turtle looked like someone had beaten him mercilessly over his entire body with a piece of wet string soaked in Drano. After assessing my outcome it was clear the neither of us could count the number of stings to declare a decisive winner in that contest, so we just hauled it up the Inter-coastal to a dock side bar, scored a couple drafts and some meat tenderizer and vinegar from the kitchen and slathered it all over ourselves (the vinegar counteracts the toxins). Another frosty ale or two helped ease the sting, and we returned back to the rented beach house in time for dinner with nothing but a story. The red streaks left by the stings had faded and we had no cell phone camera to document that we both looked like hell when we got out of that water.
The Gulf is an amazing place. I have prowled the back waters of Apalachicola, caught huge red fish in the pass at St. George’s island and nailed bluefish while watching the sun rise outside the inlet at Perdido Pass. I watched the spectacle of the tarpon run at Boca Grande, and chased sharks and barracuda across the Keys’ flats.
But, as I watched the news this morning, while running images of the wonderful times I’ve had there through the back head, I was just so sad. Admittedly, I well up pretty easily for an old hockey player with a tattoo. In fact, I was once watching ET at the theater with a tight end form University of Kentucky and a running back from Grand Valley state. ET died, and I was flat out sniffling and worried those guys would give my crap about it forever until I looked up to see both of them wiping their own eyes. So, maybe I am overly sensitive, but I guess it just really hit me for the first time that we are totally screwing this up. Those same shifting ocean currents that wrapped Turtle and I in jellyfish one afternoon are now carrying a toxic cloud underneath the petroleum cesspool at the surface and no one knows what the outcome will be. No one knows what will happen when the tar laden amoeba moves over those flats in the Keys. If you run your boat aground on those same flats the Florida Fish and Game folks write you fairly hefty ticket for screwing up the fragile ecosystem that exists on the shallow bottom. How much is the ticket for running a cloud of toxic oil particulates over the entire flats and potentially killing everything?
I am deeply saddened by what I am watching unfold as we deal with more bad data regarding the true scope of this challenge. I work with some great process people and defense sector engineers, and not being able tell the difference between flow rates of 8-12,000 barrels a day 40,000 is, well, in a word implausible. Hello: We’ve all been lied to! So as it’s becoming crystal clear that either the “experts” in charge were about 400% off calculating flow rates for that ruptured pipe, it also becomes obvious that we as a nation are in cloudy and uncharted waters.
In an effort to make this diatribe an impassioned plea for action, I will attempt to temper my frustration with things like the fact that BP’s CEO is spending as much, almost dollar for dollar, on PR as he has given back to the people of the Gulf whose lives have been put and hold and likely changed forever. Yeah, I know. Amazing isn’t it? That fact makes it nearly impossible to not think about what I would do given the chance to apply some of the things I learned studying the martial arts if locked in an elevator alone with that worm…Sorry, again I digress. But here’s what truly enrages me as a citizen: I have seen more of BP CEO Tony Hayward’s mug doing suck up media campaigns than I’ve seen of our president. It’s almost as if his “handlers” have said, “Stay low, don’t get out in front of this thing…it’s a sticky issue.” Well pardon the easy metaphor here too, but it’s turning into a bit of a sticky issue for millions of people, birds, fish, reefs, estuaries, rivers, regional economies, etc.
And now we find history does indeed have a flair for irony, at least as far a politics is concerned. Many of the leaders of the current administration, who will ultimately be held accountable for their inactions in the wake of this spill, were plastered on the news in the days following Katrina casting blame on the Bush administration for failing to act. Here’s another news flash: There were certainly lessons learned from some of the catastrophic failures that made Katrina a massive tragedy. But President Bush and the teams under his charge had decision windows that were open for only a few hours. Mr., President, as I pen this communication it’s now day 54. You’re teams’ decision window has been open quite a bit longer than the one FEMA had to work within as Katrina was rushing headlong into New Orleans.
Prepare Now Please…
I have had the pleasure of meeting retired General Colin Powell, and I try to read or listen to whatever he says. I think he’s just a darned genius. I walked through the living room a couple weeks ago and caught a few minutes of an interview with him. I think it was Meet the Press, and he was asked if we should involve the military in the cleanup effort. In typical Colin Powell fashion he answered the question by outlining the circumstances in which the military could apply things that they do extremely well. He then expounded about how proficient they are with logistics, and that “if” those types of skills were needed then deploying military assets to assist with the problem made sense. I guarantee he knew how many thousands feet of oil absorbent boom material were sitting in inventory in the gulf region at that very moment, and was purposely eluding to the fact that connecting that inventory with the 1,000’s of fisherman crying out to be engaged to do something to help might actually constitute a logistical issue. Again, “Hello?”
As a nation, we can move military personnel and equipment faster than any other. Our military has some of the best logisticians in the world. But, as the relief efforts to earthquake ravaged Haiti illustrated, it still takes days and even weeks to get the supply chains set up. I submit that when we look back upon Colin Powell’s remarks, we will see that there were many points along the way where the current administration, and again forgive the easy metaphor, ‘left 300 school buses parked to be flooded instead of using them to usher hurricane victims out of harm’s way’. I’m just an IT guy with a process background, but shouldn’t we have that absorbent boom at the docks in the hands of the fisherman who are not getting paid with a plan to deploy it?
And again, maybe it’s just me and I’m missing it completely. But, is it wrong that I see more sound bites of the idiot who’s company didn’t have a contingency plan in place for this than I do of our country’s president out in front, leading the charge? This, Mr. President will define your service to this country as Commander in Chief. Given that fact, I was appalled to hear you telling Matt Lauer the other morning on GMA that you were, “…waiting to see whose butt to kick.” If you wife was being assaulted by three men would you wait to see who ended up on top first to engage? News flash: The Gulf is being assaulted.
I am deeply saddened now, but I will be angry later. I told a friend last night that I can count on one hand the number of times I have filled my tank at an Exxon station in the two decades since the Valdez. And that was usually late at night when I was forced to because I ran low on the highway and the only other choice was Citgo. OK, I have my own petroleum political hierarchy, but BP is now on that list. I will never forget seeing that blithering worm of a CEO telling me he will “…make it right” while paying more for the airtime than he his company put forward to help the people of the Gulf region. Prior to the last few weeks I filled up at a BP station about 50 times per annum. I and my $2,500 a year in BP sales are now gone. There will be tens, if not hundreds of thousands more like me who will vote with their wallets in the months and years to come. In November it will likely happen again on another front, and the politicians who roared the loudest after Katrina will stand to see that anyone can be guilty of failing to take action.
The ocean currents that got Turtle and I torn up by those jelly fish are always moving. We don’t really know where, but we sit woefully unprepared and seemingly clueless (8,000 barrels a day or 40,000…Really?).
This is shaping up to be a catastrophe like one we have never known as a nation. Our Chernobyl if you will, except that we are in the process of ‘nuking’ one of the most beautiful areas in the world instead of a few small towns and some Russian prairies. The Gulf is a majestic and wonderful place, and yet we as sit on the edge of ruining it for what could be decades, the face I keep seeing on my TV is that of the nerd who’s company didn’t even it see it coming.
President Obama, at this moment I don’t really give crap about what goes on in the West Bank of the Gaza strip. In the spirit of cooperation, I’ll even stop short of researching the news clips where you and members of your current administration stood behind your respective podiums and lambasted the Bush administration for negligence in its handling of the Katrina tragedy to post on YouTube®. But, with all due respect, might I ask that you go ahead and engage more fully in the oil spill problem solving process. Figuring out “whose butt to kick” seems like non-value add at the moment. If there is not a heightened sense of urgency and steadfast resolve from the top of our “organization” forthcoming soon, this little petroleum problem may define more than your presidency. It may well define a generation.
How about it? Let’s get going on the whole “Do everything we possibly can right now strategy”, because I'm not seeing it. We can sell corner lots with BP stations to pay for it when the worst is behind us. But, a continued failure to act will be even more than unforgivable if the “worst case scenarios” end up being another contingency we didn’t plan for.
It’s getting so I almost feel like crying as I watch the news coverage of the oil spill. OK, I did cry. This morning as they discussed how the oil affects the sea turtle’s entire digestive track (ulcers, kidney problems, liver), they cut away to a picture of a little logger head being hand fed in a kiddy pool by volunteers. At the end of the rehabilitation process there’s a problem though: They don’t know where to release the turtles because the shifting mass of petroleum in the ocean could end up anywhere.
I started thinking about that and reminisced about how quickly the ocean flows and moves. Ironically, this was because of something that happened while spear fishing outside a jetty near Gulf Shores, AL with my buddy Turtle. No kidding. We played hockey together growing up, and we all called him Turtle. I never did actually figure out why because he’d been on skates since he was two years old and he was fast as lightning. Anyway, Turtle and I had worked our way along some bottom structure, eventually moving with the current 200 yards or so away from the boat. It was early September and there were jellyfish around, but we were focused on finding something to shoot at, so we weren’t really paying attention to the gelatinous invertebrates that were suddenly everywhere. Everywhere! We were enveloped in 10’s of thousands of jellyfish.
We decided that heading back to the boat was still the best option. The beach by the jetty was at least 400 yards further away. We were snorkeling and our lungs were good so we were able hold our breath as we twisted and gyrated our way through the 3-D maze of dangling stingers. At first it was like an immersive video game as we tried to “get skinny” and use only our flippers with dolphin like kicks to propel our forward motion. However, by the time we got half way back to the anchored boat it became apparent that more than a video game was at stake. Turtle and I had both been lambasted with the stinging tentacles a dozen or so times, and the dolphin kick proved not to be the most effective form of achieving forward motion as we were swimming into the teeth of the shifting current. Accordingly, we changed our strategy. It seemed the less time we spent in the water, the better. We swam freestyle on the surface as fast as we could. I remember thinking, “How many times can we get stung before getting to toxic load and having our throats swell shut?”
After getting safely back to the boat we both clambered up onto the transom deck and jumped inside. Turtle looked like someone had beaten him mercilessly over his entire body with a piece of wet string soaked in Drano. After assessing my outcome it was clear the neither of us could count the number of stings to declare a decisive winner in that contest, so we just hauled it up the Inter-coastal to a dock side bar, scored a couple drafts and some meat tenderizer and vinegar from the kitchen and slathered it all over ourselves (the vinegar counteracts the toxins). Another frosty ale or two helped ease the sting, and we returned back to the rented beach house in time for dinner with nothing but a story. The red streaks left by the stings had faded and we had no cell phone camera to document that we both looked like hell when we got out of that water.
The Gulf is an amazing place. I have prowled the back waters of Apalachicola, caught huge red fish in the pass at St. George’s island and nailed bluefish while watching the sun rise outside the inlet at Perdido Pass. I watched the spectacle of the tarpon run at Boca Grande, and chased sharks and barracuda across the Keys’ flats.
But, as I watched the news this morning, while running images of the wonderful times I’ve had there through the back head, I was just so sad. Admittedly, I well up pretty easily for an old hockey player with a tattoo. In fact, I was once watching ET at the theater with a tight end form University of Kentucky and a running back from Grand Valley state. ET died, and I was flat out sniffling and worried those guys would give my crap about it forever until I looked up to see both of them wiping their own eyes. So, maybe I am overly sensitive, but I guess it just really hit me for the first time that we are totally screwing this up. Those same shifting ocean currents that wrapped Turtle and I in jellyfish one afternoon are now carrying a toxic cloud underneath the petroleum cesspool at the surface and no one knows what the outcome will be. No one knows what will happen when the tar laden amoeba moves over those flats in the Keys. If you run your boat aground on those same flats the Florida Fish and Game folks write you fairly hefty ticket for screwing up the fragile ecosystem that exists on the shallow bottom. How much is the ticket for running a cloud of toxic oil particulates over the entire flats and potentially killing everything?
I am deeply saddened by what I am watching unfold as we deal with more bad data regarding the true scope of this challenge. I work with some great process people and defense sector engineers, and not being able tell the difference between flow rates of 8-12,000 barrels a day 40,000 is, well, in a word implausible. Hello: We’ve all been lied to! So as it’s becoming crystal clear that either the “experts” in charge were about 400% off calculating flow rates for that ruptured pipe, it also becomes obvious that we as a nation are in cloudy and uncharted waters.
In an effort to make this diatribe an impassioned plea for action, I will attempt to temper my frustration with things like the fact that BP’s CEO is spending as much, almost dollar for dollar, on PR as he has given back to the people of the Gulf whose lives have been put and hold and likely changed forever. Yeah, I know. Amazing isn’t it? That fact makes it nearly impossible to not think about what I would do given the chance to apply some of the things I learned studying the martial arts if locked in an elevator alone with that worm…Sorry, again I digress. But here’s what truly enrages me as a citizen: I have seen more of BP CEO Tony Hayward’s mug doing suck up media campaigns than I’ve seen of our president. It’s almost as if his “handlers” have said, “Stay low, don’t get out in front of this thing…it’s a sticky issue.” Well pardon the easy metaphor here too, but it’s turning into a bit of a sticky issue for millions of people, birds, fish, reefs, estuaries, rivers, regional economies, etc.
And now we find history does indeed have a flair for irony, at least as far a politics is concerned. Many of the leaders of the current administration, who will ultimately be held accountable for their inactions in the wake of this spill, were plastered on the news in the days following Katrina casting blame on the Bush administration for failing to act. Here’s another news flash: There were certainly lessons learned from some of the catastrophic failures that made Katrina a massive tragedy. But President Bush and the teams under his charge had decision windows that were open for only a few hours. Mr., President, as I pen this communication it’s now day 54. You’re teams’ decision window has been open quite a bit longer than the one FEMA had to work within as Katrina was rushing headlong into New Orleans.
Prepare Now Please…
I have had the pleasure of meeting retired General Colin Powell, and I try to read or listen to whatever he says. I think he’s just a darned genius. I walked through the living room a couple weeks ago and caught a few minutes of an interview with him. I think it was Meet the Press, and he was asked if we should involve the military in the cleanup effort. In typical Colin Powell fashion he answered the question by outlining the circumstances in which the military could apply things that they do extremely well. He then expounded about how proficient they are with logistics, and that “if” those types of skills were needed then deploying military assets to assist with the problem made sense. I guarantee he knew how many thousands feet of oil absorbent boom material were sitting in inventory in the gulf region at that very moment, and was purposely eluding to the fact that connecting that inventory with the 1,000’s of fisherman crying out to be engaged to do something to help might actually constitute a logistical issue. Again, “Hello?”
As a nation, we can move military personnel and equipment faster than any other. Our military has some of the best logisticians in the world. But, as the relief efforts to earthquake ravaged Haiti illustrated, it still takes days and even weeks to get the supply chains set up. I submit that when we look back upon Colin Powell’s remarks, we will see that there were many points along the way where the current administration, and again forgive the easy metaphor, ‘left 300 school buses parked to be flooded instead of using them to usher hurricane victims out of harm’s way’. I’m just an IT guy with a process background, but shouldn’t we have that absorbent boom at the docks in the hands of the fisherman who are not getting paid with a plan to deploy it?
And again, maybe it’s just me and I’m missing it completely. But, is it wrong that I see more sound bites of the idiot who’s company didn’t have a contingency plan in place for this than I do of our country’s president out in front, leading the charge? This, Mr. President will define your service to this country as Commander in Chief. Given that fact, I was appalled to hear you telling Matt Lauer the other morning on GMA that you were, “…waiting to see whose butt to kick.” If you wife was being assaulted by three men would you wait to see who ended up on top first to engage? News flash: The Gulf is being assaulted.
I am deeply saddened now, but I will be angry later. I told a friend last night that I can count on one hand the number of times I have filled my tank at an Exxon station in the two decades since the Valdez. And that was usually late at night when I was forced to because I ran low on the highway and the only other choice was Citgo. OK, I have my own petroleum political hierarchy, but BP is now on that list. I will never forget seeing that blithering worm of a CEO telling me he will “…make it right” while paying more for the airtime than he his company put forward to help the people of the Gulf region. Prior to the last few weeks I filled up at a BP station about 50 times per annum. I and my $2,500 a year in BP sales are now gone. There will be tens, if not hundreds of thousands more like me who will vote with their wallets in the months and years to come. In November it will likely happen again on another front, and the politicians who roared the loudest after Katrina will stand to see that anyone can be guilty of failing to take action.
The ocean currents that got Turtle and I torn up by those jelly fish are always moving. We don’t really know where, but we sit woefully unprepared and seemingly clueless (8,000 barrels a day or 40,000…Really?).
This is shaping up to be a catastrophe like one we have never known as a nation. Our Chernobyl if you will, except that we are in the process of ‘nuking’ one of the most beautiful areas in the world instead of a few small towns and some Russian prairies. The Gulf is a majestic and wonderful place, and yet we as sit on the edge of ruining it for what could be decades, the face I keep seeing on my TV is that of the nerd who’s company didn’t even it see it coming.
President Obama, at this moment I don’t really give crap about what goes on in the West Bank of the Gaza strip. In the spirit of cooperation, I’ll even stop short of researching the news clips where you and members of your current administration stood behind your respective podiums and lambasted the Bush administration for negligence in its handling of the Katrina tragedy to post on YouTube®. But, with all due respect, might I ask that you go ahead and engage more fully in the oil spill problem solving process. Figuring out “whose butt to kick” seems like non-value add at the moment. If there is not a heightened sense of urgency and steadfast resolve from the top of our “organization” forthcoming soon, this little petroleum problem may define more than your presidency. It may well define a generation.
How about it? Let’s get going on the whole “Do everything we possibly can right now strategy”, because I'm not seeing it. We can sell corner lots with BP stations to pay for it when the worst is behind us. But, a continued failure to act will be even more than unforgivable if the “worst case scenarios” end up being another contingency we didn’t plan for.
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