Gas Prices, China, India, and The Failure To Plan Strategically

Are you ticked off about high gasoline prices? It is quite possible that you have not seen anything yet:

- The St. Petersburg Times recently published some gasoline information from the Energy Information Administration (from 2009, the last year data is available):

• China consumed about 8.32 million barrels of oil a day in 2009.
• To feed this demand, it produced 3.99 million barrels a day and imported 4.23 million barrels a day.
• In 2011, 40% of the year over year demand growth for oil will be caused by China.
• This translates into an additional 600,000 barrels a day in Chinese oil consumption vs. the U.S., whose consumption will rise only 130,000 barrels. In other words, the growth in oil usage in China will be almost five times the growth in U.S. usage.
• At his rate, a rough estimate would say that within 20 years or so, Chinese demand for oil will be comparable to the United States demand.

In all likelihood this last point would never happen since the suppliers of oil would have trouble keeping up with the growing demand. When supply is constrained and demand keeps going up, the only lever left to change is price which could soar.

- China is not the only potential driver of sky high oil prices. The Indian car company, Tata, has big plans for its extremely low end, basic car, the Nano. Costing only $2,500, it is no where close to a luxury car. However, given the growing affluence of many Indians and the fact that auto ownership is only about 10 cars per 1,000 people (compared to the United States where auto ownership is about 750 cars per 1,000 people), the low penetration of ownership combined with wealth growth and the right price point all point to explosive growth in demand for oil in one of the world's most populated nations.

This should have the same effect as with China. Much higher demand, limited supplies means price pressure.

- Oil is not the only energy challenge. According to a Newsweek article from 2007, as reported by Fareed Zakara, and cited in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government":

• China and India will build 800 new coal burning plants by 2012.
• These new plants will burn nine hundred million tons of coal every year.
• This burning will dump an additional 2.5 billion of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere on an annual basis.
• According to the article, if all of the countries that signed the original Kyoto Global warming treaty lived up their commitments, which few if any did, the reduction from the treaty would reduce carbon dioxide production by only 483 tons, roughly on fifth of what China and India will dump into the atmosphere just from their incremental coal plants.

Since America gets a lot of its electricity from coal plants, if you dramatically increase demand elsewhere in the world, the likelihood of price increases in this country are very high.

Not good news. No matter how much we curtail demand here in the U.S., it is unlikely that the overall demand for energy or the environmental impact will be much reduced, given the powerful economic growth around the world. Unless something is done, $4.00 a gallon will seem like the good old days.

But nothing is being done:

• The President wants to get one million all electric cars on the nation's roads by 2015. But that would represent less than one percent of all cars being used.
• The President wants to end run Congress since he did not get his way on cap and trade, by using the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases. However, it makes no sense to damage the U.S. economy with onerous and expensive regulation when the real future energy and pollution hogs/culprits are India and China. Thus, not only would the EPA regulation increase energy costs for everyone but it would have no significant environment impact, given the growth in greenhouse gases elsewhere.
• Congress keeps increasing the average auto fuel economy targets but ensures that the targets do not take effect for years and years to come in order to not endanger their re-election chances.
• The President and others have this pipe dream of building out a high speed rail system for the country but that is all it is, a pipe dream. First, the vast majority of drivers in this country do not need high speed rail to get to work or play. Second, we have over 100 years invested in our auto infrastructure, it would take decades to replace it with any kind of rail system. Third, given the financial fiasco that is Amtrak, there is no reason to believe that a high speed rail system run by the Federal government would be anything but a financial loser.

We should be much further ahead, strategically, in this area. Lord knows we have had enough warning since the oil embargo shocks happened almost forty years ago. In that time, the political class has done nothing to prepare the country for this crises. Oil and coal are the major components of our energy mix and that energy mix has increasingly been dependent on foreign oil sources, sources that are now in higher demand from China and India. What makes us think that our politicians can do any better in the next forty years, we have had no indication that they know how to think strategically and as a result, we are that much more closer of coveting $4.00 a gallon of gas.

What is needed is a whole new paradigm of thinking in this area. We need breakthrough thinking, not the tiny incremental thinking our political class has delivered in this area, if at all. Rather than centralized energy sources, maybe we need to look at decentralized energy generation and storage. The Internet is a thing of beauty because it is so decentralized, maybe that is the model we should be looking at as opposed to massive, centralized coal power plants. Maybe we should be looking at local solar and wind, not massive solar or wind fields.

Maybe what we need is a massive emphasis, a Manhattan style focus, to find a way to make cars several times more efficient which would strategically utilize existing infrastructure. This would pre-empt the need for totally new infrastructure, e.g. high speed rail, that is unlikely to be cost efficient, utilized, and profitable.

Maybe what we need is a break through approach to burning coal since coal is not going away, given the demand for cheap electricity in China and India.

However, what we really need is to get the politicians and embedded industry lobbyists out of the equation. Their lack of success in this area precludes giving them many more chances.

Three steps in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government," Steps 23, 24, and 25 would be the processes needed to get started and would address the issues discussed above. We need to think entirely differently than we have ever as it relates to energy. Why? Because with the rise of China and India, the world is entirely different than it has ever been before. By not changing our approach and way of thinking, we are actually moving backwards vs. the rest of the world. However, our political class is entirely the same as it was in during the 1970s oil crises, ineffective, self serving, and unable to think strategically.




Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at http://www.loathemygovernment.com/. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect



freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:


http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment.com

How Well Would Have The American Political Class Handled The Chilean Mine Crisis?

The rescuing of the 33 Chilean miners, who had been trapped thousands of feet underground for the past two months or so, was certainly the feel good story of the year so far. Kudos to the miners, their families, and everyone involved in this dramatic and extremely difficult rescue. According to an October 15, 2010 article, there had never been another situation where the rescuers had to drill so far down to reach trapped miners, never mind the fact that at the onset of the crisis, no one even knew whether they were alive or where they were located. Nevertheless, the rescue mission was a success.

As I read the article, I was struck by a number of things: 

1. Within days after the crisis began, the Chilean President appointed an engineer, Andre Sougarrett, to be in charge of getting the miners out alive. In other words, there was a clear cut leader from the start of the rescue, a leader who had the expertise to do the job.
2. Sougarrett immediately flew to the mine where he quickly eliminated the "nest of confusion" that awaited him on his arrival. He quickly put a team together to start the process. In other words, he got the effort focused properly and right away.
3. They drove into the mine and assessed where the cave in had occurred and determined that drilling through the debris might cause another cave-in, leading them to conclude that the only safe way to get to the miners was to drill a new shaft. In other words, they assessed the situation and worked out contingency plans.
4. In addition to looking at maps, they talked to those  miners that had gotten out of the mine before the cave-in in order to more accurately determine where the survivors below the cave in might be located. Also, the Chilean President had asked for help from anyone around the world who had the expertise to help in the rescue. In other words, they quickly utilized all possible resources that were available to them.
5. Once the men were found alive, Sougarrett started three more drill holes called Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C. Why three plans? According to the article, Sougarrett said: "The only way to minimize risks is to have alternatives." In other words, more contingency planning.
6. Sougarrett talked to the miners every day, first using phones and then via a video link. He talked to them about what they were doing and accepted the advice and suggestions from the miners themselves. In other words, he was open to all possible answers.

 Now compare this approach with the way the American political class handled the Gulf Oil Spill:

1. Clear cut leadership - there was never anyone one person who had clear cut responsibility and authority to coordinate the oil spill situation. Parties involved in getting the oil spill under control included President Obama, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, the Coast Guard, the EPA, BP, state government officials, etc. but as always with our political class, everyone was in charge but no one was responsible.
2. Got the effort focused properly and right away - was there ever any focus to the Gulf spill situation? Seems like the events just kind of happened randomly with no one in charge and very little direction or focus on how to stop the leak. Seems like days and weeks went by with no one developing a plan of attack for ending the crisis.
3. Assessed the situation and worked out contingency plans - it was pretty clear from the start of the Gulf crisis that neither BP, the government, or our politicians had any contingency plans for stopping or plugging the leak. They were making up the process haphazardly as they went along. It was clear that the Interior Department had not required anyone, inside or outside of government, to have a well thought out and executable contingency plan process to stem the flow of oil into the Gulf. Attempts to stop the leak were all linear, i.e. try something and if that did not work, stop and try to think up a new approach. There was no parallel action plans (like Sougarrett's Plans A, B, and C), simply because no one in the political class and specific government agencies had taken the time and effort to develop them. Weeks and weeks after the spill began, the government started talking to a movie director, James Cameron, to see what help he might provide, based on his experience of filming underwater. Seriously, you are clueless when a movie director becomes your subject matter expert. And even if Cameron was helpful, why did it take so long to bring him in for a discussion? Again, grasping for straws in belatedly turning to a Hollywood director because they had not contingency plans.
4. Quickly utilized all resources available to them - there were numerous reports that President Obama turned down offers of help from some European countries who had expertise in dealing with and cleaning up spills in the deep waters of Scandinavia. It is still unknown why these offers of help were refused, international expertise was essential in the Chilean coal mine rescue.
5. More contingency planning - besides lacking an contingency planning for plugging the leak, there were no contingency plans for capturing the oil once it was into the Gulf's waters. When states asked for permission to do their own clean ups they had to wait weeks to get an answer back from the government. In the meantime, oil slicks and the such started fouling the states' beaches.

Besides the above article's points, consider the following observations:

• The Chilean rescue mission looked to be seamless, at least to the outside world. You did not see the bickering like we saw between the states' politicians and the Federal political class and bureaucrats in the oil spill crisis, bickering that probably delayed the clean up effort and the plugging the well effort.
• The rescue mission seems to have taken into account not only the physical well being of the miners but also their mental well being of the miners and their families waiting for them above. We seem to forget that 11 oil rig employees were killed when the BP rig exploded, I never got the feeling that the government or political class gave those that died or their family members the proper respect and support, they were to busy covering up their shortcomings or grappling with the fact that they never put together a contingency plan.
• Everyone in Chile seemed to be laser focused on getting the miners out alive.  I did not see or hear of any bickering of who was at fault and who was to blame during the rescue process. The focus was on the task at hand, sorting out blame for the cave in could wait. Compare that to our political class, that was holding Congressional hearings and diverting attention from the immediate tasks at hand, plugging the well and cleaning up the oil. Instead, BP personnel were called to Washington hearings to testify while the oil was still flowing out of the busted well. Do not think for a minute that facing accusing politicians and facing the possiblity of criminal charges did not divert attention and focus from the immediate needs to handle the oil spill. The hearings to sort out blame could have waited, I guess the political grandstanding could not.
• Everyone in Chile seemed to be genuinely supportive of the rescue mission. In the United States, it seemed our politicians and voters were more concerned in determining what impact the spill would have on the November elections rather than pulling together to stop the flow of oil and clean up the oil that had gotten into the Gulf.
• I also got the feeling that the Chilean President Sebastian Pinera was fully engaged in the rescue process while allowing the experts to do their jobs. I never got the feeling that President Obama took that same type of approach, to me he seemed to treat the oil spill as a distraction. Since the President took two vacations during the crisis, played seven rounds of golf, and took two cross country trips soley to campaign for California Democrats, these actions may account for my feeling that he was not fully engaged in an event that killed 11 Americans and affected the lives of millions of others.

I applaud the entire Chilean relief effort. It was blessed with able leadership and organization, was quickly implemented, it was well planned out, it considered and acted on all contingencies, and it considered the human needs including the mental well being of the trapped miners. Our political class reaction to the oil spill was not well led or organized, the effort was long and drawn out,  it was not planned out at all,  had not considered any contingency planning ahead of time or during the crisis, and disrespected the workers who perished in the explosion.

Fortunately for the miners, they did not work in an American mine, especially this time of year, a year of mid term elections. Our politicians would have left them in order to go home and campaign for their re-election, possibly getting back to the hypothetical trapped miners during their lame duck session after the elections.


Our new book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Visti these other sites for freedom:
 
www.cato.org
www.robertringer.com
www.realpolichick.blogspot.com
www.reason.com
www.flipcongress2010.com
 

Screwed Up Government Priorities, Case #2 - "Meanwhile, oil continues to spew into the Gulf.."

Yesterday we discussed the first in a series of posts regarding how screwed up our government's priorities are. We saw that while the political class spends almost $16 billion a year in local earmarks for their local states and districts and to generate campaign funds for their re-election, the same political class spends only about $2 billion a year on cancer research, a set of diseases that kill hundreds of thousands of Americans every year. How screwed up is that priority: better to get re-elected then save American lives.

Meanwhile, oil continues to spew into the Gulf...

Today we will look at a second set of screwed up priorities, namely the whole situation with the BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf Of Mexico. As an upfront disclaimer, let me state that I find the actions of BP leading up to, during, and after the explosion on their oil rig to be shortsighted, despicable, and inadequate. They took short cuts and probably violated a number of Federal safety statues and laws. Over 60 days later they still have not plugged the leak and really have no other plan in place to stop it for at least another couple of months. They should be held accountable for the damage and safety violations to the fullest extent of current law.

Meanwhile, oil continues to spew into the Gulf...

Unfortunately, over the past week or so, the political class has gotten itself and their egos involved in the process. A White House meeting was held with Obama and his staff and the Chairman and CEO of BP. CEO Tony Hayward later went over to get beat up at Congressional hearings by Congress people that probably had no idea of what they were talking about except that it made them feel good in front of the cameras. And, there is no doubt that Hayward probably deserved some of the beat down since it is obvious that under his watch, BP was not prepared for what happened. However, rather than beat up the head of the cleanup, could we have not waited a little while to crucify him in public? Would not his time have been better spent working on the problem, the continuing spill, rather than jetting to DC? There is plenty of time to get a pound of flesh after the hole is plugged.

Meanwhile, the oil continues to spew into the Gulf...

Anyway, Mr. Hayward is not the only one who should be crucified because of this disaster. What about Interior Secretary Salazar. I would like to get him on the stand and ask him the following questions:

• Mr. Secretary, the Associated Press has reported that an internal investigation has uncovered at least one of your employees responsible for oil rig safety has admitted that he used crystal meth and may have been under the influence the next day at work and that others have admitted to being users of illegal drugs. Did that have anything to do with safety laxity on your watch?
• Mr. Secretary, the Associated Press has reported that an internal investigation has uncovered numerous occurrences where your employees received hunting and fishing trips and other gifts from the same companies that your department was supposed to be regulating and inspecting. Did that have anything to do with safety laxity on your watch?
• Mr. Secretary, the Associated Press has reported that an internal investigation has uncovered numerous occurrences where your inspectors were actively inspecting oil company sites for safety at the same time they were negotiating for jobs at those very companies. Did that have anything to do with safety laxity on your watch?
• Mr. Secretary, an Associated Press report mentions a 2008 report by the Interior department's inspector general that "decried a culture of ethical failure" and conflicts of interest at the responsible Interior agency. Did this culture have anything to do with the safety laxity on your watch and how have you addressed this problem?
• Mr. Secretary, the Associated Press has reported that an internal investigation found that some local employees in your Lake Charles, La. office had a significant amount of pornography on their government computers. Did that have anything to do with safety laxity on your watch?
• Mr. Secretary, the Associated Press has reported that your department conducted sixteen fewer safety inspections at the BP oil rig than it should have. Did that have anything to do with the safety laxity on your watch?
• Mr.Secretary, the Associated Press has reported that safety regulation of the Gulf wells is so lax that "some key safety aspects on rigs are decided almost entirely by the companies doing the work." Did that have anything to do with the safety laxity on your watch?
• Mr. Secretary, the Associated Press has reported that the overall BP safety plan and the safety plan specifically for the rig that exploded never had a chance of being successful, even on paper, and was riddled with inaccuracies, falsehoods, and inadequate preparation for the disaster. Who is responsible for such a lousy plan and document and will there be repercussions for those responsible?

Meanwhile, oil continues to spew into the Gulf...

Secretary Salazar is not he only person I would want to grill as an American citizen. I would allow Congressman Henry Waxman and Senator Jeff Bingaman, the chairman in Congress who chair committees on energy, to be put on the stand together for the following questions:

• Gentlemen, given the myriad of failures discussed with Mr. Salazar above, how come your committees were so lax in their oversight of the energy safety issues on Gulf drilling rigs?
• Gentlemen, given that your committees are responsible for Gulf drilling rigs, have either of you ever been on an oil rig?
• Gentlemen, given that your committees are responsible for Gulf drilling rigs, are either of you familiar with the Federal safety regulations? I particularly address this to you, Mr. Waxman, since you have already admitted you have not read the entire Cap And Trade legislation even though you are a co-sponsor. Have either of you read the safety regulations of oil rigs?
• Gentlemen, according to a recent Washington Post article that was summarized in the June 25, 2010 issue of The Week magazine, there are currently only 62 inspectors assigned to oversee 4,000 oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, or about one inspector for every 64 wells or so while in 1985 there were 55 inspectors for about 400 oil rigs or about one inspector for every seven or eight rigs. Do you accept some of this responsibility for underfunding the need to have more inspectors?
• Gentlemen, Washington has been abuzz about energy and climate change legislation lately. Wouldn't it be wiser in the short term to worry about the continued leak than to focus on a long term energy/climate bill?

Meanwhile, oil continued to spill into the Gulf...

And finally, I would like to sit with President Obama and ask him a few questions:

• Mr. President, you have proclaimed that you and your administration are on top of the situation but since the spill began it has been reported that you traveled to California three times for political fundraisers, played at least seven rounds of golf, took two vacations, participated in several photo ops with athletic teams, and did not meet with Hayward until about the eighth week of the crisis. Is that your definition of being on top of the situation?
• Mr. President, Tony Hayward has taken a lot of heat this weekend because he took time off to attend a yacht race back in Europe. Should you have taken the same amount of heat for taking time off to go to a baseball game Friday night even though the oil leak continues?
• Mr. President, will you prosecute, fine, fire, or take an disciplinary action against government employees who failed in their assigned duties to oversee and regulate the drilling activities in the Gulf?
• Mr. President, why is it taking so long for local governments to get help and permission to stem the tide of oil that is washing over their shores? Why didn't the Army Corp. of Engineers have a contingency plan ready rather than deny permission for sand berms and other actions until they "studied" the implications? Shouldn't that study have been done prior to the disaster?
• Mr. President, why have you not asked for a waiver of the Jones Act so that willing countries can donate their equipment to help with the clean up? Could it be you want to delay the clean up and prolong the problem in order to get the legislation passed that you want?
• Rather than publicly browbeat the very people technically and logistically responsible for stopping the leak last week, would it have not been a better approach to lay off for just a little while and let them focus on stopping the leak and then bring them to Washington for your photo op and thrashing of BP, after the leak was stopped?

Meanwhile, oil continues to spew into the Gulf...

Let's face, this is a disaster of epic proportions. From BP's shortcuts to save a little money and time and flaunting of standard safety protocols to the inadequate Federal oversight and focus on not stopping the leak the leak at all costs, we have never seen anything so disgusting in our lives. And where are the government's priorities? Congressmen and women anxious to show their indignation on television when it was obvious most of them did not know what they a were talking about. Other politicians trying to get their favorite energy and environmental legislation passed while losing focus on the core problem: stop the darn leak. That should be the only priority right now. The TV grandstanding, the press conferences, the feigned indignation, working for passage of legislation, that can all wait under we stop the leak.

Meanwhile, oil continues to spew into the Gulf...

This is just another reason why term limits (Step 39 in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government") and ousting the incumbents in November is so important. Long time politicians get to comfortable in their positions and allow laxity to enter into their administering and governing. Regulations are passed but not enforced. Employees are hired but no trained or supervised properly. A crisis occurs and the political class looks at a way to leverage the disaster rather than fixing the disaster. Not only should the top management at BP be replaced but Salazar, Waxman, Bingaman, and all politicians sitting on the committees responsible for oversight of the Gulf drilling need to be removed from their committee and subcommittee posts (Step 34). In real life, if you screw up, there are consequences. Should be the same way in government. Allow an epic environmental disaster to occur on your watch, a disaster that was totally preventable, get removed from your committee post.

Meanwhile, oil continues to spew into the Gulf...



Our new book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Also visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.robertringer.com
/http://www.realpolichick.blogspot.com/

More BP and Government Screw Ups In The Gulf

Here we are over 50 days into the Gulf oil spill disaster and the incompetency of BP and Federal government continue to pile up. The most glaring problem, obviously, is the fact that neither BP or the government have figured out how to totally cap the well and stop the flow of crude into the waters of the Gulf. While disastrous, what is done is done. What is just as disastrous, is what is not being done to contain the damage.

Consider two articles from the the Tampa Tribune today, Sunday, June 13, 2010. The first was written by Richard Mullins and was titled "Helping Hands Tied On Oil Spill." Some of the highlights (or lowlights):

• According to Mr. Mullins, there does not appear to be any single organization, private sector, charitable, or government, coordinating donations and volunteers wanting to help out.
• As an example, the article cites Peter Demarie of Delaware who wants to contribute both money and his personal time to help out. He has spent days calling different entities and cannot find anyone who will accept his offers of help. He has called BP many times, the Coast Guard, local Gulf mayors, Greenpeace and others but no one can find any opportunity for him to help out.
• According to an expert, Jeff Capanigro, a crisis communications specialist in Tampa, the whole volunteer situation is a mess. And this mess is still in place more than 50 days after the well blew up. It is not like it just happened yesterday and the recovery effort has not yet begun, it should have begun over seven weeks ago.
• BP will only use trained personnel for the cleanup but training takes only four hours. The bigger problem is the lack of direction for people on how to volunteer for cleanup duty, partly because a lot of the cleanup work has been outsourced to contractors. Further complicating that situation is that in some states, by law, the subcontractors are required to only hire the unemployed or a local resident directly affected by the spill.

Consider another article, this one by Conn Carroll of the Heritage Foundation. He writes:

• Five weeks ago, officials from a Florida Gulf county, Escambia, asked for permission to use a sand skimmer which is a device pulled behind a tractor that collects tar and oil from the top three feet of sand. The officials have not heard back yet because they sent the request to the Unified Command Center in Alabama, the request was then reviewed by BP and then reviewed by the Federal government and then reviewed by the Army Corps Of Engineers and then reviewed by the Coast Guard.
• This sad tale of not being kept in the loop by many of the state, county, and local governments along the Gulf has apparently been repeated many times over the past weeks, according to Mr. Carroll.
• Thirteen countries have offered to help with the oil spill, many of whom are experienced in dealing with this type of disaster. The Obama administration has turned them all down.
• According to one Dutch newspaper, the European companies experienced in this type of disaster could clean up the Gulf in just four months while the Obama administration has estimated it will take the Federal government nine months by doing it themselves (and we all know how bad government estimates can be.)
• Even if the Obama administration wanted to use foreign resources to help in the cleanup, an old law on the books would prohibit such help unless the waiver portion of the law was put into effect, like it was done for the Katrina cleanup. So far, Obama and the Democrats controlling Congress have not moved to put the waiver in place. Thus, even if the administration should reverse itself and accept foreign help, more time would be lost waiting for the waiver to go into effect.

The list of incompetence goes on and on. Both BP and the Federal government still have no plan in place on how to deal with the destruction form the spill. Turning down help, from both Americans and foreign experts, makes no sense. This is further proof that the American political class is really not good at anything except getting themselves re-elected. The scary part is that this is a very tangible, a very identifiable problem and the government cannot even handle this one finite problem. You can imagine how poorly they handle the more nebulous, open ended issues like health care, public education failures, drug addiction, etc., problems that are much more wide spread and less clearly defined.

As I read the papers and other news sources, I still see no evidence that politicians sitting on Congressional committees responsible for all aspects of this disaster have visited the Gulf, except for those whose home districts and states are affected. Much like the military hospital embarrassment several years ago when returning wounded soldiers were forced to stay in very substandard military medical facilities, it does not appear that those Congressional representatives supposedly guiding both the Gulf activities or the hospital situation are really engaged in finding solutions, having never visited the Gulf since the spill disaster began or stepped inside an armed forces hospital before that crisis arose. Otherwise, maybe a Congressional committee by now would have stepped up and started coordinating recovery plans.

These Congressional members would be removed from their committee posts if Step 34 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" was in effect. Somebody in Congress needs to be held accountable, whether it is for the lack of contingency planning for the disaster, the lax oversight of the Federal employees in the Interior Department responsible for drilling safety, or the lack of emergency coordination after the spill.

One last note, also from Mr. Carroll's article. According to his research, as provided by the Center For Responsive Politics, President Obama "was the largest recipient of campaign contributions from BP and its employees over the past 20 years." Can you imagine if the preceding statement had "George Bush" as the subject of the sentence and not "President Obama." The Democrats and liberal mainstream press would have gone ballistic. However, Bush has not been the largest single recipient of BP-related campaign funds, Obama has. Proving my theory in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" that there really is no difference between Democrats and Republicans, the labels they choose may be different but they all belong to the exclusive club known as the American political class. And we all suffer because of it.


Our new book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Also visit the following sites for freedom:

www.cato.org
www.reason.com
www.robertringer.com
www.realpolichick.blogspot.com

"I Love It When A Plan Comes Together" - Words You Will Never Hear From BP or The Obama Adminstration

Given that a new movie about the television show "The A-Team" is coming out this summer, I thought it might be appropriate to recall this famous line ("I love it when a plan comes together.") from the TV show and apply it to the oil spill in the Gulf, which is now more than 50 days old. According to an Associated Press report from June 9, 2010 by Holdbrook Mohr, the BP contingency plan for dealing with a runaway well and oil spill did not quite come together:

• The contingency plan listed Professor Peter Lutz, a national wildlife expert, as a person to contact in case of a well disaster but..... he died in 2005.
• The contingency plan listed Professor Lutz's university as the University of Miami but.. the professor left the University of Miami almost 20 years ago.
• The contingency plan listed several names of Texas A&M professors who were marine life experts but.... their names and phone numbers were wrong.
• The contingency plan listed "sensitive biological resources" in the Gulf including walruses, sea otters, sea lions and seals but.... none of these species exist in the Gulf.
• The contingency plan stated that BP had the "capability to respond, to the maximum extent practicable, to a worst case discharge but.... that is obviously not the case as we are now in the eighth week and oil is still discharging and hitting the beaches in the Gulf.
• The contingency plan assumed that fish, animals, and birds would escape damage in a spill but.... that is obviously not the case if you follow the images from the Gulf.
• The contingency plan listed a company that BP uses for spill cleanups but.... the listed website for that company in the plan links to a defunct Japanese language website page.
• The contingency plan made no mention of the Gulf's Loop Current but... that current is expected, by all experts, to carry the remnants for the spill out into the Atlantic and possibly over to Europe.
• The contingency plan assumed that BP would be able to put together enough resources to block off the beaches but... within a few weeks of the spill, beaches were being fouled from Louisiana to Florida.
• The contingency plan and its underlying model estimated only a 21% chance that a spill would reach the Louisiana beaches within a month but.... those beaches were hit hard within nine days.
• The contingency plan did consider different orders of magnitude of the spill since they said they were planning for the worst case scenario but.... they could not handle this worst case scenario.
• The contingency plan states there would be no shortage of resources to fight a spill but.... there were not enough booms (floating lines of plastic to hold in oil on the surface); Alabama claims its beaches were fouled because of the limited number of booms that were deployed elsewhere.
• The contingency plan assumed that the booms would be properly deployed but.... out-of-state contractors hired by BP deployed the booms in the wrong places, relative to currents and tides, and those that were installed were not installed correctly.

It is obvious, that unlike the A-Team, BP had a contingency plan that did not come together and apparently had no chance of ever coming together, given how bad it was and how little it was thought through. One has to assume they never did a test run or a complete shakedown of the plan. Such a drill, if conducted properly, would have easily uncovered the above shortcomings.

The Obama administration, and the Washington political class, are no better than BP since they obviously did not have a plan either:

• according to the Associated Press report, this 582-page BP contingency plan was approved by the Federal government last year before BP started drilling this well.
• BP had a 52 page sub-contingency plan just for this specific well that was also approved in 2009. Note that both of these plans were approved on Obama's watch, Bush was no longer President.
• In a previous post and in other Associated Press reports, it was uncovered that those Federal employees responsible for regulating and oversight of the wells were very often provided hunting and fishing trips, parties, gifts, and employment which may account for the lax oversight and regulation that resulted in a 582-page contingency plan abomination.
• Given that the head of the Federal agency responsible for regulation and oversight in this area has already been removed from her job as has a high ranking Coast Guard officer in charge of the mission indicates a lack of planning and competence on the Federal government's part.
• It was reported today that President Obama has not even met the Chairman of BP face-to-face since the disaster started over 50 days ago. How can you say you have a plan and are on top of the situation, like Obama has said, if you have not met with your counterpart at BP?
• Following along that theme, since the disaster began, Obama has played six rounds of golf, has taken two vacations, has made three fund raising trips to California (he has only visited the Gulf three times which logically would say that fund raising is just as critical as the Gulf situation), has hosted a photo session with the New York Yankees, has hosted a photo session with the Duke University basketball team, has hosted a photo session with the United States' World Cup Team, and has played at least several games of basketball besides being interviewed about basketball by Marv Albert. While I understand that he has other concerns and priorities as President in addition to the Gulf oil spill, he cannot claim that he is ticked off and has been on top of the situation since day one when he allows his time to be taken up by these superficial other activities. Could he have at least canceled one round of golf to work out a plan with the chairman of BP?
• Congress is no better in being out in front of this situation. Senator Bill Nelson (Florida) and Senator Barbara Boxer (California) have asked that a criminal investigation be launched. The source of Nelson's information? The AP report listed above. Thus, Senators Nelson and Boxer, are you telling me that you get the big bucks as U.S Senators to sit back and react only after you read an AP report? Does not look like very good planning to me.
• While Obama has been to the Gulf only three times (Bush went to New Orleans four times within 18 days of Katrina), I have seen no reports of other Congressional members from outside of the Gulf states going on scene. I am assuming there are politicians, from outside the Gulf states, sitting on Congressional committees that are responsible for the whole situation, including drilling, energy, Department of The Interior, wildlife, etc. How can you plan for the clean up when you have not visited the disaster site?

Thus, both entities, the Federal government and BP, did not have any semblance of a plan that could have come together to prevent or mitigate the situation. Disgusting. This is a perfect example of why should no longer believe in the fallacy, and fund that fallacy with taxpayer dollars, that government is here to help you. The SEC (and a myriad of other Federal agencies) did not protect us from the biggest economic disaster since the Great Depression, the Interior Department and the Minerals Management Services did not protect us from this oil spill disaster, the Federal consumer safety organizations did not protect our kids from lead laced products and toys several years ago or cadmium laced products this year, the Federal automotive agencies did not protect us from fatal Toyota auto designs (89 dead Americans so far and counting), and no Federal agency has protected us from the flood of illicit drugs that comes across our unprotected borders.

Step 1 in "love My Country, Loathe My Government" would start the process of redefining government, downsizing it so that it finally gets something right by focusing on a much smaller set of higher priorities. Now, the Federal government focuses on nothing but gets involved in everything. As a result, it fails at everything while wasting TRILLIONS of taxpayer dollars. Step 34 would immediately eject all of those politicians sitting on any committee that was responsible for keeping us safe from drilling, they have failed miserably at that task. Step 39 would get rid of all of the current members of Washington since it would institute term limits. Given the above list of grievances and failures to protect us from disaster, it is apparent that long term politicians cannot do the job they are supposed to do. Lets get rid of them after one term, how much worse could it be?

I hope the A-Team movie has a happier ending than what we are experiencing today, both in the Gulf and in Washington. For once this summer and during this administration, I would like to see at least see one plan come together, even if it is only in the movie theater.

One last note: while I have referred to Bush above, I am not endorsing his reaction and effectiveness in the face of Katrina. It also was a disaster. For the most part, it is a waste of time to compare the two, Bush/Katrina and Obama/Oil Spill. Both were failures and saying one was better than another is no better than being queen of the pigs. You may be a queen but you are still a pig. Continuing to bring up the Bush presidency does nothing to solve our current problems.

Our new book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Federal Government Services - Overpaying For Underperformance

Lets quickly review some points listed in yesterday's post:

• many of the Federal employees responsible for the overseeing and regulation of offshore oil drilling were busy accepting and taking free fishing and hunting trips from the very companies they were supposed to be overseeing, were actively inspecting those companies' operations at the same time they were negotiating their employment contracts with those same companies, and some were actively involved in downloading pornography onto their government issued computers. Result: by far the biggest ecological disaster ever as a result of a faulty oil platform malfunction.
• many of the Federal employees responsible for overseeing and controlling the goings on in the financial market at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including some earning over $200,000 a year in salary, have been identified as prolific Internet searchers of pornography and downloading that pornography onto their government issued computers and other media once they had filled their hard drives to capacity with smut. Result: the biggest financial collapse and economic disaster since the Great Depression which was totally unforeseen by the SEC, whose job is to foresee this kind of financial market trouble.
• although they opened more than one investigation into faulty Toyota products, the Federal safety agencies that were responsible for such safety never went deeply into the problem until it got out of hand years later. Result: latest reports indicate that 89 Americans have died in Toyota vehicles that no government agency found unsafe until recently although there were safety issue red flags many, many years ago.
• although responsible for safeguarding Americans from faulty products, Federal safety agencies failed to flag imported children's products containing dangerous levels of lead until the market was awash with such products. Result: those lead based products were eventually pulled form the market but the same safety agencies failed to detect the fact that foreign manufacturers had replaced the lead with equally bad cadmium, again endangering those that might ingest the latest heavy metal from the products.

Not a pretty picture, certainly one of under performance relative to expectations of the American taxpayer. And to add insult to injury, consider the following facts from a short article in the June issue of Reason magazine, written by Katherine Mangu-Ward, that reviewed a March report in USA Today:

• Accountants, nurses, chemists, surveyers, cooks, clerks and janitors that work for the Federal government get paid substantially more than those that do the same jobs in the private sector.
• On average, the Federal worker earns $7,600 a year more than the private sector worker doing the same function. This comes out to about $145 per week.
• As examples of some of the more outrageous discrepancies: Federal broadcast technicians earn about $90,000 while private sector broadcast technicians earn about $49,000, Federal graphic designers earn about $71,000 while private sector designers earn about $47,000, and Federal dry cleaning workers earn about $33,000 while private sector workers earn about $20,000.
• According to the article, the average Federal worker in 2008 also got almost $41,000 worth of benefits compared to the $10,000 or so value of benefits that the private sector worker received.

I do not want to disparage all Federal workers. I am sure that most of them, at least those not searching the web for pornography, are trying to put in an honest day's work. However, you can see the discrepancy outlined in the title of this post. We, the American taxpayer, which includes all Federal employees, pay a very large sum of money to the government and the political class that operates the government and get very little back in return. Ecological disasters, financial disasters, safety disasters, etc. seem to be the normal mode of operation of the political class. We are taxed more and more for less and less in terms of value for our dollar.

That is why dumping all incumbents in the November elections becomes critical. The current set of politicians in Washington are not going to improve this high cost, low performance equation anytime soon. Otherwise, they would have addressed the issue already. After we dump the incumbents in November, the next step has to be the implementation of Step 39 in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" a priority and implement term limits so that those elected to office can spend their ENTIRE term looking to add value to our lives rather than spending the majority of their time making sure they get re-elected and not addressing the fundamental issue of high costs and low performance.

Our new book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Government Salaries - High Pay, Low Performance

Consider some of the known government screw ups that have recently made the headlines:

- While the financial markets and U.S. economy were imploding, dozens of employees, including top officials, at the government watchdog organization, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), were apparently preoccupied during business hours using their government issued computers to surf the Internet in order to download and view pornography.
- According to the Intelligence report of Parade Magazine on May 16, 2010, the General Accounting Office (GAO) submitted twenty bogus product designs to the Department of Energy (DOE) in order to see if the DOE would certify them as energy efficient. Certification as energy efficient gets a product the coveted Energy Star designation, allowing the company receiving the designation to market their products as energy efficient. One of the designs was billed as a room air cleaner and the design consisted of a feather duster taped to a space heater. Fifteen of the fake designs, including this one, received an Energy Star label.
- According to an article in The Week magazine from the May 21, 2010 issue, Mexico's biggest drug cartel had access to top secret United States drug enforcement information. When a top drug cartel member was apprehended, police found the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration papers. Apparently the drug cartels have infiltrated U.S. drug interdiction efforts via corruption by Mexican officials.
- And last, but certainly not, least, we are starting to find out how not only BP but several government agencies are to blame for the massive oil slick coming out of the runaway BP well. According to an article by Justin Pritchard of the Associated Press (AP):

• The Federal Minerals Management Service conducted at least sixteen fewer inspections of the runaway BP drilling rig than it should have.
• Other AP investigations have shown that the rig "was allowed to operate without certain safety documents required by the Minerals Management Service for the exact disaster scenario that occurred."
• The cutoff valve that failed has failed numerous times on other rigs since the time that regulators loosened their standards for the valve.
• The Mineral Management Services organization has suspiciously changed the inspection visit numbers related to the BP rig several times over the past month.
• Last year the Mineral Management Services organization cited the runaway BP rig "as an industry model for safety."

- In previous posts we have already covered, in extensive detail, the incompetence's of the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve Board, the FDIC, Housing and Urban Development, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Senate committees on housing and banking, House of Representatives committees on housing and banking, Federal Housing Authority, and other government agencies for their pitiful performance before and after the banking and housing crash.

Now, consider this low level of performance relative to some numbers that were published in the Tampa Tribune on May 16, 2010:

• The number of Federal employees taking home more than $100,000 in annual salary rose from 14% of the employee base to 19% in just 18 months.
• In 80% of professions where there is both a private industry and Federal government equivalent, the Federal government employee makes more money.
• The average value of benefits for a Federal employee is almost $41,000 while it is only $9,882 for a private industry worker.

Thus, not only are we getting far below satisfactory performance from our government agencies, we are paying them top, top dollars for this horrid performance. Government programs do not deliver what they are supposed to do, government agencies do not even follow their own processes and procedures, classified information leaks out easily, and the biggest economic crisis in eighty years goes undetected until it hits everyone in the face but we still pay top dollar for this incompetence.

As always, nobody in the political class is taking any responsibility for the bad performance. Obama and members of Congress are blaming the government workers involved in the oil slick in the Gulf, much like they do with other government shortcomings, it is never their fault.

"Love My Country, Loathe My Government" woulds address both of these issues. Step 1 would require a ground up, zero based approach to completely reviewing and fixing how government operations function, firing those that do not know how to serve their masters, the American taxpayer. Step 34 would hold those Congressional committee members responsible for such poor government performance and would remove them from their committee posts for severe sub par performances. For example, anyone sitting on the committees that oversaw the Minerals Management Service could possibly be removed for overseeing an agency that utterly failed in the case of the BP disaster.

It is only when people start losing their jobs will there be accountability driven down to all government employees. They are making enough money, accountability should finally become part of their job description.

Our new book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.