Just a Little Technical Expertise – Please?

So the President has chosen his select panel to discuss and determine the causes of the BP oil spill; the cause and reforms need to be addressed, studied, and corrected to ensure that this sort of incident is handled correctly in the future. In the past, presidents have chosen panels that sufficiently represented public issues as well as technical issues. In the 80’s there were a sufficient number of technical experts on the panel that reviewed the Challenger explosion, and in the 70’s there were a substantial number of experts with nuclear knowledge that investigated the Three Mile Island incident. Now it is President Obama’s Turn to appoint a panel to investigate the current Gulf Oil Crisis.

As this is dealing with a huge technical, engineering and environmental crisis, it would only be natural to expect a list filled with industry experts, deep-water engineering authorities, as well as environmental specialists. Well, getting one out of the three of these is doing pretty good for this White House. Let’s take a short look at this panel of seven and see what expertise they bring to the table.

Co-Chair William Reilly is first up; he comes to the committee a career bureaucrat serving in many governmental capacities in various Republican administrations such as President George H. W. Bush’s EPA Secretary. He has a law degree from Harvard and is currently on the board of directors of many companies and organizations including DuPont and ConocoPhillips. He has a pedigree and some name recognition, but it appears he has no real world technical expertise on this subject.

Co-Chair Bob Graham is a former congressman from Florida and governor of said state; not only is he a career politician, but he is the son of a career politician also. Like Mr. Reilly he has a law degree from Harvard and sits on the board of many organizations; however, Mr. Graham has also been appointed by congress to serve on the Federal Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. He must be extremely talented to serve on two such important committees at the same time. But alas, it appears that Mr. Graham has no real world expertise in the offshore oil industry either – Strike Two.

Frances Beinecke is a career environmentalist who has already made her position on this issue painfully obvious via her blogs as President of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). As a graduate of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and her blogs describing her distain for the “abuse” of energy by Americans, it is difficult to see how Ms. Beinecke can even enter into the discussion in an impartial manner needed to make a clear decision on a matter so delicate to the nation’s future. On the Bright side, she did get to room with Sigourney Weaver in college!

Donald Boesch is currently the head of the University of Maryland’s Center for Environmental Science. Unlike the first three members of this panel, Mr. Boesch was educated in a non-ivy league environment. A Tulane undergrad, Boesch got his PhD at William & Mary concentrating in Biological Oceanography. Dr. Boesch has chaired numerous committees and panels on Climate Change issues – a definite plus in the Obama Administration. If there is a score to be kept so far we would be at 1 bureaucrat, 1 politician, and 2 environmentalists (zero technical expertise, but who’s counting).

Terry Garcia is the fifth member of the panel and the third law school grad (from George Washington University this time – Sorry Ivy League). He is currently the Vice President for Mission Programs at the National Geographic Society. Prior to that, he served in the Clinton Administration as Assistant Secretary of Commerce and as a Deputy Administrator of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Mr. Garcia gives the panel a second bureaucrat and third lawyer, but still no technical or engineering expert.

The sixth Member of the panel is Dr. Cherry Murray. She is the current Dean of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Science, finally someone with some Engineering knowledge; however, upon a closer look we see that Dr. Cherry is a Physicist who is well known for her scientific accomplishments using light scattering. Now, I am sure Dr. Cherry’s work in light scattering is important and I will not belittle her work. What would be nice though is to know what light scattering has to do with offshore drilling. Dr. Cherry is also currently serving as the President of the American Physical Society and is the Chair of the Division of Engineering and Physical Science of the National Research Council. Just makes a person wonder where Dr. Cherry will find the time to meet all her obligations.

The last Member of the panel, and the individual who makes you wonder the most about her credentials on a panel investigating offshore drilling, is Frances Ulmer. Ulmer holds a law degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and in a former Legislator and Lt. Governor of the state of Alaska. Currently she is the Chancellor of the University of Alaska-Anchorage and is considered an expert in the field of election reform. Chancellor Ulmer did serve on the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission, so that must qualify her somehow to sit on a panel trying to figure out the cause and how to correct the causes of what may be the worst oil-related disaster in history.

These are the seven members of the panel chosen by the President to investigate the cause of and the reforms necessary to ensure that such an accident as the current Gulf Oil Crisis can be avoided in the future. Environmentalists, Lawyers, Bureaucrats, and career politicians; a perfect assembly to head a policy making group to create a propaganda driven global warming strategy, but hardly the group to identify and correct any issue involving a crisis of the sort that currently faces the country. But then again, what else could we expect?

Can’t Wait for the Results,
Bill

Arizona, Nice First Step – But…

Okay, first off let me say that I am a red-headed, freckled, white American. Now, after making that statement let me move on to say that I am not entirely sure the new legislation passed in Arizona should, or will, stand the litmus test of racial profiling, whatever that is.

With all that said, I think it is important to congratulate Arizona for taking a first step. President Obama ran for office and took office with the promise that he would address and get legislation passed that would take care of the illegal immigration issue. Now Arizona has called him on it. Yesterday in a Rose Garden citizenship ceremony for several service members, the President took this opportunity to praise these service members, who met the legal immigration requirements, by berating Arizona for calling his bluff – the Immigration one (not the Guantanamo bluff, or the transparency bluff, or the lobbyist bluff, or … Oh, but I digress).

The President said that the Federal Government (basically…HIM) has failed to act responsibly on the illegal immigration issue, but that does not give individual states the rights to act irresponsibly. Not I’m not an English professor, but aren’t both those irresponsible? Anyway, Arizona is anything but acting irresponsibly. Maybe a little hastily and not very tactfully, but they are taking responsibility for their border with Mexico, even if the Federal Government won’t.

Neighboring New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson said Arizona’s law would cause all sorts of problems with Mexico. AHEM…HELLO, first off, the border region with Mexico really is a crisis situation, probably the only time during the Obama Administration this term should be used that it hasn’t. People are being murdered at alarming rates all along the Mexican border and recently a rancher deep inside Arizona was executed in an across the border raid by Mexican assassins, ASSASSINS!

What else needs to happen to make the call for action more obvious? Well here you go, Arizona has one of the, if not the, highest rates of kidnapping in the WORLD; not America but the world and it’s coming from Mexico. This is no longer about illegal immigrants coming over the border to work and make a better life for themselves; it is now about hardcore organized crime threatening to take over the border region and the Mexican government powerless to do anything about it and the government in Washington being unwilling to do anything about it.

Arizona’s new law, no matter how it is carried out or ruled on by the courts, may not be a solid legal action, but it is an important first step. A first step that had to be taken to get the federal government off their collective rears and force them take notice, take action, and to finally take care of the problem.

Where’s my ID?
Bill

Terrorist Trials in New York City – REALLY?

Attorney General Eric Holder has announced that the government will move five of the terrorists (and that is what they are) to stand trial in the U.S. Federal Court in New York. I guess the question that must be asked is WHY? Didn’t the congress devise a method to specifically try these barbarians in a military court back in 2006 and 2007? Don’t wait on the translation, the answer is YES. And yes, Barak Obama was in attendance for that debate and supported the legislation that created this approved method for bringing these terrorists to justice through the aforementioned military courts.

Now the Obama Administration has fundamentally usurped that legislation by telling the American public that they are bringing these cowards to New York for a show trial that is going to do nothing other than glorify these five terrorists to their cultist followers the world over - NICE. So let’s look at some of the facts of this ignorant maneuver and let’s just see what the possible outcome(s) this act of lunacy will have.

First, think about the security involved and who are we keeping safe; them from us, us from them, them from other prisoners, them from their own, them from……never mind, you get the point. We have no idea who is protecting whom from what, or why. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) was supportive, but wanted to make sure that New York law enforcement would get reimbursed for the expense of providing protection for these incarcerated animals.

So let’s get this straight, they are currently under some of the strictest, most secure incarceration in the world, but instead of leaving them there, we are going to bring them into the U.S., where they will have enhanced rights under the law. Then we will have to pay more money for the protection/incarceration that they already have. Just not good head work on the expense of this process.

Second, in a military court they would be tried in a manner that would limit many of the rights they will have in the U.S. Court System. And before it gets asked, no they should not have the same rights as a U.S. Citizen. They will also have access to information that we have on them, their co-conspirators, and on their operations. If and when that information gets out, the terrorists all over the world will also have that information.

I can already hear those little brains a-whirlin’ in some of you, but if you don’t think that sort of information transfer will happen then remember this, it was during the trial of the “Blind Sheik,” that Al Qaeda got a hold of the observed terrorist list that was found during discovery and placed into evidence in that trial. With that information terrorists worldwide began to move to positions that would allow them more security. Funny how that works…isn’t it. These trials will also allow the opportunity to air our dirty laundry in public and allow these terrorists to get even more of their propaganda out.

Lastly, according to today’s paper, the Attorney General’s office has put out some talking points on this issue and one of them that struck me as completely ignorant is that since this was a “crime” against mostly civilians on American soil, then it should be tried in the civilian courts and not in a military courts whereas the USS Cole attackers should be tried in a military court. Makes you wonder about how the Attorney General’s office missed the fact that the Pentagon was also hit that day as well. I wonder what would have happened had the terrorist managed to hit the Capital or the White House, would those have been targets warranting trial in a military court or would you see that on a civilian court?

These terrorists were military combatants caught on a battlefield and as such they should be tried in a military court. But if the terrorists use the logic from the Attorney General’s office, terrorists will now reconsider striking military and government targets and start considering more domestic terrorism against civilian targets in America. That way they will receive a trial in an American civilian court – oh that’s genius!!!!

In the end, this is a bad idea and one most American people recognize as such. It is a choice for which Attorney General Eric Holder better prepare himself. President Obama is going to take some heat for this, but he will wiggle his way out of it and leave Attorney General Holder…uh…"holding" the bag.

See what I did there?
Bill

Healthcare’s First Simple Step

First off let me say that, while I believe we have a foundation in healthcare that is the envy of the world, I know and understand fully that we need to reform our country’s healthcare system. Most of the problems that contribute to the healthcare problems in this country are external factors that cause the cost to rise yearly if not daily. I have written some on those in the past, you can go back and read that later.

With that said, I think we need to look at healthcare reform as a series of small provable steps instead of one big leap of faith based in hype and predictions from a government that has a history of missing the mark on their own estimations.

During his most recent speech before a joint session of Congress, President Obama made the claim that we could pay for a large part of his new healthcare plan by reducing waste and inefficiencies in Medicare and Medicaid.

I think the President might be on to something, but don’t make this a part of one overall health plan. Make this first step the first healthcare reform bill introduced. Create a plan and bill that would do just what President Obama suggested; reduce the waste and inefficiencies of the existing government run healthcare programs in America.

If, and once, this is done, then these programs will not be in the red as they are now and you will have the money to expand benefits and make medical care more affordable. The government will finally be shown to be effective and we will have a better idea of where to go to take the next step in making America’s healthcare system truly the finest in the world.

It all starts with one simple step.

Good Health to All,
Bill

Harry Reid and the Menacing Media.

In a news conference Thursday, Senator Harry Reid, the leading Democrat in the Senate, blamed the media for setting a timetable on the healthcare bill. He said that it was the media’s fault and responsibility for setting an artificial timetable.

REALLY?

Here’s a look at the timetable for the speaking going on by Harry and his friends on this healthcare issue.

June 2, 2009 – President Obama – “This Window Between Now And The August Recess, I Think, Is Going To Be The Make-Or-Break Period.”

July 5, 2009 – Representative Steny Hoyer (D-MD) – “We’re going to pass significant reform … before the August recess in the House of Representatives.”

July 12, 2009 – Vice-President Biden – “We must and we will enact reform by the end of August, and we can’t wait.”

July 12, 2009 – Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) – “We Expect the House and Senate to have passed bill, yes.” In response to a question if the healthcare bill would pass by the August recess.

July 13, 2009 – Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) – “We’re still on schedule…we have plans to vote for this legislature before we leave for the August recess.”

July 14, 2009 – Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) – “Before we leave here…We’re going to complete the legislation we have dealing with healthcare.’ When asked if they would get it done before the August Recess.

July 20, 2009 – President Obama – “I’ve told Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, you know, that it is critical that we see serious forward motion before people leave.” When asked if he could make congress give us a bill before the August recess.

July 21, 2009 – Senator Harry Reid – We must keep our eyes on the prize. The prize is healthcare reform. My desire is to get is done this work period, and I’m going to continue pushing to see everything – to do everything I can to get it done this work period.”

Yeah, it’s easy to see where the media set the timetable for Congress. I mean, what with the reporting of what they all said, how can it not be the media’s fault for setting the timetable.

Speaking of media driven timetables, anyone see the Solunar Tables?
Bill