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Local Rebel
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0 posted 2010-04-30 12:08 PM


To be filed in the "Monday-morning-quarterback" drawer:

quote:

The oil spill spreading across the Gulf of Mexico is sending ripples through Florida and national politics, giving Gov. Charlie Crist a reason to withdraw his support for offshore drilling.

After a 90-minute plane flight Tuesday above the spill, which was spreading in an 80-mile by 42-mile blob, Crist said, "Clearly it could be devastating to Florida if something like that were to occur. It's the last thing in the world I would want to see happen in our beautiful state.''

He said there is no question now that lawmakers should give up on the idea of drilling off Florida's coast this year and in coming years. He has said previously he would support drilling if it was far enough from shore, safe enough and clean enough. He said the spill is proof that's not possible.

"Clearly that one isn't far enough and that's about 50 to 60 miles out, it's clearly not clean enough after we saw what we saw today — that's horrific — and it certainly isn't safe enough. It's the opposite of safe," Crist said.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/water/article1090626.ece



Contrasted with Barry's Statement on April 2:

quote:

I don’t agree with the notion that we shouldn’t do anything. It turns out, by the way, that oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills. They are technologically very advanced. Even during Katrina, the spills didn’t come from the oil rigs, they came from the refineries onshore.
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2010/04/28/obama-katrina-spill/



The President's statement being factually challenged as Katrina caused 124 offshore spills.



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Balladeer
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1 posted 2010-04-30 12:29 PM


Crist is pretty much of a fool..not a big secret there. People knew that when he endorsed Obama's stimulus package. As much as you tried to paint me as a Crist supporter, you have never heard me say it. I said he would go independent, which he has just done. I also said he would win, which I believe he will do. He has a big following in Florida. It won't be my vote that gives him the victory.

Rubio is now on tv doing a little damage control, trying to appease the tea-baggers. He now states that he believes Arizona did the right thing. He doesn't believe it's the best solution, which would be the federal government doing something, but, since they aren't and have no immediate plans to do so, he understands Arizona actions. On tv, he even looked white, which he happens to be.

On another horizon, boycotters are targeting the Arizona Diamondbacks, even to the point of trying to convince people not to buy Daimondback caps or t-shirts. That should teach those nasty baseball players not to play for such an evil state.

Local Rebel
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2 posted 2010-04-30 12:58 PM


Where have I ever tried to paint you as a Crist supporter?
Balladeer
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3 posted 2010-04-30 01:06 AM


Well, I'm a tea party supporter which means I must be a racist and your comment on Florida voting for the white guy would seem to include all of us bigots.
Local Rebel
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4 posted 2010-04-30 01:12 AM


Paging Doctor Rorschach to the Alley please.
Bob K
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5 posted 2010-05-01 01:46 AM





     You might try checking out how much money in lost tourism dollars boycott of games in Arizona would cost the state, Mike, before you wax too sarcastic.  There are a lot of Latin Ballplayers, and many of them will not be thrilled to go to Camp in Arizona or to play there.    Sports brings a lot of money into that state.

     Check it out yourself; don't believe me.

Balladeer
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6 posted 2010-05-01 07:32 AM


Oh, I believe you, Bob. That's the way Chicago politics work...scare, incite, threaten and intimidate.

It's a question of whether or not one wants to do what's right, regardless of repercussions. There was a time people thought that way. Unfortunately it's a rarer occasion these days.

Local Rebel
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7 posted 2010-05-01 09:52 AM


Beg pardon gentlemen -- largest oil spill in history, the safety of off-shore drilling, America's oil addiction, alternative energy, Charlie Crist, Barack Obama's fretful position on offshore drilling, or even flip-flops in general could be considered the topic of this thread -- but, spill-over from immigration is not.


thanks

Grinch
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Whoville
8 posted 2010-05-01 10:24 AM



How bad do you think the oil spill will be LR?

From everything I’ve read it doesn’t look too good, to my mind America needs to brace itself for a disaster that’ll far exceed the Exxon Valdez spill.

.

Balladeer
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9 posted 2010-05-01 12:42 PM


It's going to be very bad, grinch, and affect a lot of industries and livelihoods.

LR, I agree. I have tried to coach Bob about staying on topic but to no avail.

Local Rebel
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10 posted 2010-05-01 06:24 PM


I'm no expert Grinch -- so I only know what I can learn from the media -- and the government and media have been depending upon BP to tell them how bad the situation is, and apparently BP has been sandbagging.

Current analysis though suggests this thing is going to be blowing wide open for about 3 months until a relief well can tap the pressure enough for them to shut off the spigot.

Sadly -- in 2003 there was an effort underway to regulate off-shore drilling -- requiring all off-shore wells to have such a relief well in place -- but, we all know who was in charge of all three branches of the federal government in 2003 and today we see the results.

Balladeer
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11 posted 2010-05-01 09:16 PM


BY all means, LR, don't pass up an opportunity to make things political.
Local Rebel
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12 posted 2010-05-01 10:26 PM




So then this thread wasn't political until it criticized Republicans?  

Balladeer
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13 posted 2010-05-01 11:18 PM


Is that why you started the thread, to make little political sarcasms? Oh, ok, then, by all means, continue if that's what floats your boat.
Bob K
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14 posted 2010-05-02 02:31 AM




     Well, we could get more political, but I think by and large Mike has a point.  That is, there's a lot of common ground we might explore and understand before it's actually necessary to quarrel.  If there's enough common ground, we might be able to delay the quarrel until another thread and learn stuff from each other as well.

     Not to say we can't learn from each other while fighting, but my experience is that it's simpler to learn while we're doing more sharing and cooperating sorts of stuff.  

     One thing I find here is that nobody seems to want the shores and the oceans really literally mucked up by oil spills.  Right and left wing folks seem to be fairly solidly in agreement about that, and unless we work at trying to lay blame for who made which mistake that actually caused this mess, we seem united in our disgust that it's here.

     I think that everybody might agree as well that we need increased sources of power over the next twenty years or so, simply to keep up with population growth.  It may well be true as well that if we want to increase any sort of manufacturing output, we'll need even more power resources to deal with any expansion with that as well.

     What kind of power do we need and where can we get it?

     If we are going to use oil for some part of that power, how should we go about getting it?

     Should we allow oil companies to drill in places where they cannot repair the damage they do quickly and with minimal harm to the people and biology in general of the environment that will be affected.  In this case, we look like we may be talking about the entire gulf coast of the United States and parts of Mexico; and that's if the damage is halted now.

     If we'd actually enforced the penalties imposed on the Exxon Valdez, for example, would we be having to deal with this issue now, or would the warning have been taken to heart by the oil industry?

     These are a series of questions that interest me.  I don't want to trip a political argument prematurely.  What I would like to do is to get as many ideas and thoughts down as we could get without going into the politics of any of them, and then try to talk about them as far as we can without politics.  I have no idea how possible that would be; but I think it would be very interesting to try.

     This is only a suggestion, of course, but I wanted to lay it out there because otherwise I'd be the only person who knew what I was thinking and the idea would go exactly no place.  At least this place, I'm able to give it a shot.

     It looks to me like this is one of those threads where such a choice might actually be possible, and I think the suggestion is worth a shot.

serenity blaze
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15 posted 2010-05-02 05:08 AM


...



...

I swore I wouldn't come back here, but I can smell the oil. It's that close.

The only reason I can smell the oil is that a front passed through, changing the direction of the winds; and that front stopped shoving the waft of the oil down the noses of my Gulf Coast neighbors.

Drill, baby, drill?

No, baby, let's not.

I still maintain that we should encourage alternative forms of energy--wind turbines, solar panels, and it occurs to me that we have one mighty force of natural energy in the Mississippi River...but? Tsk...

This is the kind of talk that gets me in trouble.

* * *

The first thing we did here was make calls to find out who was still working pipe. The second thing we did was watch the tides and weather...and now? We wait.

This directly effects our local economy, our health, and general attitude regarding hope and promise as we continue to bank on the only thing we've got--our homes, our land, and businesses.

I refer back to a previous argument regarding Global Warming. I still maintain we dismiss the semantics and start living our lives cleaner and more efficiently--as if our lives depended on it.

I live right here on the Mississippi River, and I watch those mighty currents--note the tides, the seasons, and I stand on the levees, watching in awe at the sheer power of that water...and I wonder why we can't find a way to utilize that and make it work for us, instead of trying to train a river intent on carving its own path through our dubious community plans.

When I think like this, I find myself more patriotic than most would believe, because call me naive, call me idealistic, but I honestly believe in the ingenuity of the people of the United States. I believe we can find another way.

I am not so naive as to believe that this will be done without a profit incentive, however. I actually believe that change will have to be legislated via tax cuts and of course, tax penalties for corporations unwilling to make the pricey changes without such incentives and demerits.

And yes, that all stinks of regulation.

The oil stinks too. I can smell it from my backyard. It's more than unsettling to know that I live in an area that was soaked in benzine and other carcinogens after many floods courtesy of many more storms; it's more than disheartening that after New Orleans rallied like a Superbowl Champion to maintain her culture to learn that we have even more on our plate than red beans and rice.

*sigh*

I said I wasn't coming back to The Alley.

I lied.

Why not? Everybody else does.

This stuff is everybody's business though.

Invest in "plantics". If you make money from that stock, send me a small percentage?

I'm going to bed.

Off to the crypt I creep...


Balladeer
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16 posted 2010-05-02 09:30 AM


Bob. I'm all for alternative energy to decrease our dependence on oil, be it wind, solar, shale, nuclear or hamsters. The problem was face now, however, deals with the current situation we are stuck with - oil - and what we need to do about it. We MUST come up with a way to defend our shorelines from oil spills. Obama has suspended oil drilling in the Gulf. That's fine but what about the other folks?

HAVANA—Cuban officials say that exploratory drilling to assess the potential for oil reserves in the Gulf of Mexico is likely to resume in the second quarter of this year, a sign that lower world oil prices have not derailed efforts by the Cuban government and its foreign corporate partners to keep moving toward offshore oil production.

Cuba believes it has major oil reserves in its waters. But the prospect of exploratory drilling—followed by likely future commercial drilling—in the Florida Straits has fired controversy in the United States, with the expectation that someday, foreign oil firms could be drilling as close as about 50 miles from parts of Florida.

The exploratory drilling will take place about 20 miles north of Havana and will be conducted by a consortium led by the Spanish oil firm Repsol, working with India's state-run Oil & Natural Gas Co. and Norway's StatoilHydro. Other exploratory drilling in the portion of the Gulf under Cuba's economic control is anticipated in 2010 and 2011.

Other firms that have, to varying degrees, partnered with the Cuban oil company in the hunt for oil either on or offshore hail from Venezuela, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, Canada, and Brazil. U.S. companies are barred from participating under regulations flowing from the 48-year-old American embargo of Cuba's economy. That widely criticized policy was intended to pressure Cuba's communist government to move toward democracy, but other countries oppose the U.S. isolation strategy toward Cuba and do business anyway.

Foreign firms have signed exploration and production agreements for 21 of the 59 blocks Cuba has created for its Gulf waters, where the biggest oil finds are believed to be located. An additional 23 blocks are said to be the subject of discussions with foreign companies.
http://www.usnews.com/news/energy /articles/2009/02/03/cuba-plans-new-offshore-drilling-in-search-for-big-oil-finds-in-the-gulf-of-mexico.html

What happens if one of THEIR oil rigs have an accident with THEIR oil heading for U.S. shores? We can't simply say, "It's your fault. Fix it." How could they have better resources to fix it than we do, which appear to be very little? There are over 4000 oil rigs out there and one has malfunctioned. Yes, that's a microscopic percentage but we are seeing what can happen with even that 1 of 4000 screwing up. Surely we must have someone with the ingenuity enough to come up with some kind of preventable solution, wouldn't you think??

Local Rebel
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17 posted 2010-05-02 09:37 AM


As I've pointed out numerous times -- we can be completely green in a relatively short period of time with existing technologies -- but even assuming that we don't need oil for fuel -- we need it for many other things -- plastics, medicines, etc..  so I don't envision a future that doesn't include pumping the stuff up out of the ground -- that said -- we regulate the hell out of it.  And what do we do about other nations?  The same thing we do about nuclear power and weapons -- it's called diplomacy.  We sign treaties.
Grinch
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Whoville
18 posted 2010-05-15 05:34 AM


Looking at the size and spread of the spill I can't believe it’s only leaking 5,000 barrels a day. BP have upped the estimate once already, they went from a 1,000 barrels a day to the current 5,000. Call me cynic but I fully expect that figure to be revised upwards, possibly by as much as ten times. That’ll equate to an Exxon Valdez size spill every week that it isn’t contained.

Yet Obama and Palin seem to be united in the idea that drilling should continue unabated, on its own, the fact that they seem to agree should be a warning sign to both sides of the political fence that something’s wrong with that idea.

.

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