Don't you just love the leadership of our administration? They pontificate, bloviate, speechify and posture. They tour the coast and overfly the slick. They make appearances, express outrage, show their macho ass-kicking side and in the end demonstrate that they are both ineffective and incompetent.
Here's a mid-level functionary in the Kabuki, a one-star Coast Guard bureaucrat, expressing the mandate that came to him from the firmament above. He's got to "do something." He's got to show "sense of urgency." He's got to display control. So, what does he do?
I'll Give You 48 Hours to Get Out of Town, Black Bart!
Can this dumbo not discern that BP is hemorraging money every day that this goes on? Can he not recognize that this disaster is going to cause the collapse of the company, the loss of tens of thousands of jobs, the escalation of the costs of oil globally? Is it naive to assume that BP has every motivation already to apply all of the resources it can muster to end the issue as soon as possible? BP isn't dragging their feet because this is fun for them.
What's the admiral going to do if BP says we can't bring more assets to bear because you and your minions are in the way?
Why isn't the Coast Guard putting pressure on the bureaucracy to waive the Jones Act?
Best Containment Vessels in the World Stand By
The vilified Bush administration did it almost immediately after Katrina, why can't the Bamster Bunch?
Could we have used an additional 90,000 feet of boom a day with deliveries starting the day after agreement?
Boom Available In Maine But Bureaucrats Booted It
Let's see 90k feet per day for the last 23 days would equal over 392 MILES of boom delivered by now. I'm betting that the company in Maine is non-union and the Bamster puppetmasters won't approve of it.
2 comments:
Two points:
1) BP is in the oil production business, not in the disaster clean up business. BP can respond in a limited fashion only.
2) The consensus among the people I've talked to is that the problem is our leadership--we have professional politicians who don't know thing one about anything except getting elected.
Analysis:
Take a look at the Messiah. Does he know how an airfoil works? Could he explain the differences between axial and centrifugal turbojet engines? Could he comment intelligently on the process of refining oil? Does he know anything about Hyman Rickover's decision making processes in the development of the nuclear submarine, and could he contrast the successes of Rickover's program against the failures of the Soviet program? Does the Messiah understand the details of Churchill's analysis during the 1930s of the Nazi's real motives? Does the Messiah understand the political movement driving Cromwell's success in the English Civil War, as well as the reasons behind the failure to create and maintain Republican government after Cromwell's death? By the same token, does he understand the reasons behind the success of Locke and William of Orange in 1688?
There is only one way to cultivate leadership, and that is to advance people up through the ranks. This process begins with training in the hard sciences, mathematics, engineering, transportation, materials, chemicals, mining, medicine, electricity, aerospace, military science, education.... It begins with teaching young people about the rewards of discipline, focused creativity, and realistic, exuberant and healthy enthusiasm. As TR said, we need to keep our heads in the stars and our feet on the ground.
We need people who can lead from the front; that is, we need people who have career experience in a wide range of roles--beginning at the bottom. We need people with experience as boots on the ground, department leaders, company leaders, and so on all the way up. And at ALL these levels these people should have experience taking responsibility and making their OWN decisions in tough situations.
If you need evidence that Affirmative Action, law schools and business schools produce idiots, here it is!
So the Messiah is ready to kick some butt? This could be pretty interesting.
According to Coast Guard Lt. Cdr. Chris O’Neill, Dutch-owned and other high volume skimmers do not meet “the operational requirements of the Unified Area Command . . . I have heard no discussion of [Jones Act] waivers.” Ditto from retired Admiral Thad Allen, National Incident Commander. Meanwhile, R. Adm. James A. Watson told BP that “, , , every method must be made to speed up the process.” He then gave BP 48 hours to revise a spill plan that the company updated just two days earlier. And to prove that the Administration’s incompetence retains considerable depth, Interior Sec Ken Salazar had a Saturday pep rally to show the media that he had “ . . . rallied volunteers and employees.” Meanwhile, the surface spill widens, and the economic and environmental devastation unfolds into an unprecedented, worst-case scenario.
Those who have read ‘Fighter Pilot: The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds’ and other accounts of the Vietnam war [by Raz and others, all of which are great Father’s Day gifts] may see some similarities. For years and years Russian freighters transited into Haiphong harbor with SAMs and other war material, all without any interference from the Administrations of LBJ or RMN, and all off limits. Criminal restrictions on our aviators and ground forces extended for years a war in which our military was never defeated, but which cost tens of thousands of unnecessary lives.
No failing of the Messiah can be as great as the efforts of the two above-named administrations to hinder our own troops in Southeast Asia. Those forces in every branch of service were undefeated in battle; the only failures were the civilian leaders at home. But now, we see that the level of incompetence of the Messiah and his minions rival that of LBJ and Robert Strange McNamara. And the Novembers of 2010/12 are a long way away.
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