We Have Seen The Enemy

The BP Oil Spill is a tragedy. I know what you're thinking. Yeah, no shit sherlock! Just hear me out as to the context of what I mean.

I assume all of us have certain quotes or observations we've come across over the course of our lives that just stick with us for some reason. They aren't necessarily the most eloquent quotes or astute observations but, nevertheless, for some reason, they remain active in your brain. One such observation for me was, I think, made in George Carlin's Brain Droppings (published back in 1997)... I'm not even 100% sure about that because it has stayed with me for over 10 years now.

Anyway, Mr. Carlin, ever the commentator on language, observed that modern society has misunderstood what makes something a "tragedy". A plane crash, in his observation, was not a tragedy. Death and destruction from an earthquake or hurricane or tornado also not tragedies. His argument was that, in the classic sense, the word tragedy refers to a specific kind of art form - developed (I think) by the Greek playwrights in the centuries before the birth of Christ - where the protagonist inadvertently brings about their own downfall because of their own actions and/or (flawed) character traits. I checked an online dictionary and it does still have this as the primary definition:

A drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances.

So, excepting that real life is obviously not a drama or literary work, I contend that it is the weakness of the American people that has led to the circumstances that brought about the oil spill. It seemed for a little while there that I was not hearing anyone else voice this opinion but then I watched Dylan Ratigan on Tuesday and he unleashed this rant which is better than what I would have come up with:

"Regardless of all the fingerpointing, when it comes down to it, we all...share responsibility for what is unfolding in our country - not just in the past eight weeks but over years here. And the past eight weeks being the most obvious example of it. Regulators who do everything but regulate... in fact, seek to accomodate in the hopes of getting a high paying job when they leave the government. Politicians who choose policy based on what's popular and don't provide any leadership to do what is necessary to end our dependence on fossil fuel - specifically foreign energy or dangerously obtained energy (deep water drilling). Ultimately, it comes down to us (being) so focused on our short-term gains and indulgences... don't pay a lot at the pump. Avoid a lot of the real cost of energy because we refuse to actually see what we stand to lose in the long term in order to enjoy the pleasures of the moment... that cheap gas." -- Dylan Ratigan (6/15/10)

So, that echoes my take. It is wrong to just yell and scream at BP and allow ones self (no matter how tempting) to lose sight of the context of their actions. They and other oil companies are drilling off our coasts because we permit it. The people of the Louisiana elected politicians that aggressively pursue off-shore drilling... even in the face of this disaster (see here or here or here). Ditto for Mississippi.

So while I acknowledge it's unreasonable to expect all of us to transform ourselves into Ed Begley, Jr. It is still a truism that we should only expect change if we demand change. Otherwise, we should expect to remain our own worst enemy and we will see more classic tragedies in the decades to come.


Note: To give credit where is due, I should say that the cartoon was borrowed from The Atlanta Journal Constitution and was found online here.

James Carville vs. Fareed Zakaria

As I do most every week, I tuned into Fareed Zakaria GPS this past Sunday. Fareed opened his show with his take on the media coverage of the BP Oil Spill that I thought was more or less perfect (in that it echoed what I have thought along... yay me!)

After returning to the Furriners office with the intention of putting up a link to a YouTube clip of Fareed, I found out that James Carville had blasted Fareed earlier in the week in response to Fareed's column in Newsweek. With all due respect to Mr. Carville, he does not seem to be thinking completely rationally on this topic. I certainly appreciate his passion and I think it is overall a very positive thing that he is screaming to anyone who will listen that more needs to be done to help the Gulf Coast - but Fareed, as is usual, is a tremendous voice of reason on an emotional topic.

Here are links to the relevant clips if you're interested:

Carville Blasts Zakaria (originally aired on June 10th)

Fareed's Take (aired on June 13th)

And here is one example of at least one news show "properly" covering the BP Oil Spill:

What We've Learned

BP Is Not Too Big To Fail

I know a lot about a little and I know a little about a lot of things but I don't know a lot about everything.

That is a quote from American Idiot and conservative icon Samuel Wurzelbacher (aka Joe The Plumber). He is stupid. The quote, in my opinion, at the risk of alienating our progressive readers is actually not stupid. It probably describes most of us walking around killing time on this planet.

I am one of those people. I am not an expert on many things. For me, the list consists of the diet of anteaters and quotes from The Big Lebowski. That is about it. (This is an admission that should come as good news if your favorite NBA team happens to draft Patrick Patterson.)

So keep in mind that I am not an expert on BP and/or it's place in the national or global economy. However, I have an opinion and a blog so here goes:

There seems to be speculation amongst reputable media outlets that BP may be Too Big To Fail. I call bullshit on that. This is much different from the financial services industry. The difference primarily being systemic risk (the interconnectedness of that industry). It basically turned the financial services industry into a row of dominoes where the failure of AIG or Citigroup would have started a chain reaction where otherwise healthy financial institutions could've collapsed. I don't see that as the case with BP. If BP were to fail, Exxon and Shell and Chevron and the others would just gobble up their market share, employees would change employers but most presumably would still have jobs, etc.

True, if the BP stock price went to zero, there would some people who would see devastating loss to their retirement portfolio. So be it. That is the risk you take when you invest your money! If you did not want to assume some risk, keep your money in a low yield savings account (or other essentially risk free investments). Moreover, and I have admitted I am not an expert, even I know that the first rule of investing is to diversify! Furthermore, as I believe my co-blogger has pointed out, the shareholders of BP have long been reaping benefits of their inattention to safety so it is only fair that they "take the hit" when those business practices result in disaster.

I began this post with a quote. I will end it with a quote:

"Given the nature of all this new shit... this could be a lot more, uhhhh, complex... I mean it's not just, it might not be just such a simple.... you know?" --- The Dude

I know, Dude. Well said.

Government take over?

Much has been made recently about the so called "government take over" of the banks and GM. While I don't like that this is tax payer money for private businesses, I certainly understand the logic behind it and happen to agree with the course taken.

Similarly there are many people now concerned about the oil spill and calling for more government action maybe even a....government take over. I would like to point out that you can not be against the take over in the first instance and for it in the second. You have to pick a side here, or brandish yourself a hypocrite. I assume that BP is doing everything it can to stop the well because A) every gallon in the ocean is a gallon less for the to sell and B) a massive oil spill is not good publicity. But I also believe that the government can help out. We could put a few thousand people to work and charge BP for the cost of the clean up. Now that is my idea of a bailout.

Deep Fried Pelican

I was recently perusing an article regarding Mary Landrieu's staunch support of off shore drilling and someone commented with:

Mary Landrieu would deep-fry the last Brown Pelican if it would bring her a buck.

I thought it quite funny, definitely sad, and most likely true.

In last nights Rachel Maddow Show, a clip was played where Mary Landrieu said:

"The record will show that from 1947 until 2009, 175,813 barrels have been spilled out of the 16 billion produced."

I guess I don't know the full context of what exactly she is talking about because unless she is referring to some very specific subset of drilling, that is entirely inaccurate.

The Christian Science Monitor posted a good article indicating that:

Q: How much oil is spilled into the ocean every year?

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, 1.3 million gallons (4.9 million liters) of petroleum are spilled into U.S. waters from vessels and pipelines in a typical year. A major oil spill could easily double that amount.

Between 1971 and 2000, the U.S. Coast Guard identified more than 250,000 oil spills in U.S. waters, according to a 2002 report from the U.S. Department of the Interior Minerals Management Service.

Approximately 1.7 billion gallons (6.4 billion liters) of oil were lost as a result of tanker incidents from 1970 to 2009, according to International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation Limited, which collects data on oil spills from tankers and other sources.

Rachel Does Not Know Rush

If you're reading this blog, you probably think that Rush Limbaugh is a huge tool. (Actually, statistically speaking, if you're reading this blog, you're probably related to me because, truthfully, we're not yet competitive with The Huffington Post or DailyKos or even FireDogLake - despite their conspicuous lack of Derek Anderson coverage).

What you may not know is that Rush Limbaugh is worse than the worst. I was watching The Rachel Maddow Show last night and she did a segment on the lasting environmental damage expected in the gulf from last month's oil spill. She said this:

"Even the worst apologists for this disaster admit that once that delicate fecund land has been sludged, there's not much to say about the future of that land in any of our lifetimes."

She was, in part, basing that conclusion on these articles:

CBC News: Exxon Valdez Oil Still Found in Alaskan Ducks
and
AP: Gulf Spill Prompts Alaskans to Revisit Exxon Valdez Days

A sobering assessment from Dr. Maddow.

Or you could believe Rush Limbaugh who said this on April 29:

"The ocean will take care of this on it's own...it's natural...even places that have been devestated by oil slicks like, uh,... Prince William Sound. The place in pristine now."

We believe his assessment came from a joint report from Exxon, Palin, and HisOwnFatAss.