Lots of good sound bites from English citizens lamenting the loss of their fundamental rights over the past 20 years or so in this year old video. This looks like the British version of the American Tea Parties. Mostly this is about the Brits being able to own guns and go on their fox hunts apparently. But I wonder if a movement is underway to reclaim some liberties they were willing to give up to the government. Probably not.
New York Times writer Paul Krugman is probably beside himself with grief as countries around the world are finally starting to get the message that spending your way to riches is simply not working. Kenseyian economics is crap. To the average person it makes no sense. But governments love to spend and they embraced the debt and deficit model as gospel. Krugman lead the choir here in the U.S. The guy actually thinks we didn’t spend enough. And I can hear his argument now, that the recovery failed because we didn’t spend enough.
Anyway, Germany told Obama they wouldn’t be spending any more after he asked the G20 to amp up the spending. Britain is the latest country that has decided to reign in the public spending. Gateway Pundit via the Wall Street Journal reports:
George Osborne presented the U.K. government’s emergency budget yesterday, with spending cuts and consumption-tax hikes intended to shrink public borrowing to 1.1% of GDP by 2016, down from 10.1% of GDP this year. Nearly 80% of that retrenchment comes as spending cuts rather than tax increases. The Chancellor of the Exchequer’s cuts are, on balance, good news for the British economy. Even more welcome, though, is that Mr. Osborne’s budget is the latest to depart from the short-lived Keynesian consensus that government can spend its way back to prosperity.
I hope this is the return to fiscal conservatism. Unfortunately the liberal, free spending government of the U.S. clearly do not share the same view. But after November I think maybe it will.
In related news, George Soros thinks that Germany will cause the Euro to collapse because of their budget saving policy. Think maybe he has something to gain if European governments spend more? I don’t know but the fact that the governments are no longer spending themselves into oblivion has to be counter-active to whatever agenda he has. The liberal progressive is well known for his meddling in world governments and economies.
CNBC also reports that Europe Austerity Makes America Look Socialist:
As the world’s 20 most powerful politicians prepare to jet out for talks in Toronto, the debate over whether to turn off the taps on stimulus spending continues to rage.
In the red corner (or should that be the left corner?), America and the Obama administration, claiming the stimulus cash they threw at the economy since the last G20 meeting in London is the key reason for falling unemployment and the relative health of the US economy.
In the blue corner, Europe. German chancellor Angela Merkel, French president Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron claim only austerity can save us from a bond market – induced crisis in the wake of the Greek debt crisis.
“We must demonstrate a commitment to reducing long-term deficits, but not at the price of short-term growth. Without growth now, deficits will rise further and undermine future growth,” Larry Summers and Tim Geithner said in an open letter to the Wall Street Journal Wednesday.
On the other side of the pond, UK Chancellor George Osborne said that his emergency budget, that took the knife to welfare spending, will rebuild the economy.
“Our policy is to raise the ruins of an economy built on debt a new, balanced economy where we save, invest and export,” Osborne said.
2008 showed the potency of government policy but that is now changing, Charles MacKinnon, chief investment officer at Thurleigh Investment Managers, told CNBC.
“2010 is the year when we discover the limits of government power,” MacKinnon said. “The sovereign debt crisis stemming from Greece shows that the markets no longer have a blind faith that governments have the tools or the wherewithal to solve economic problems.”
Our government essentially confiscated $20 billion from BP for compensation to those that have been harmed by the oil leak in the Gulf. I tried to understand that and really just went along with it because to speak out against it made you some sort of insensitive jerk to those in the Gulf whose livelihood has been trashed.
But I always wondered how we would feel if Hugo Chavez confiscated billions from one of our preeminent companies after a huge accident. I’m sure many, besides Sean Penn, would be cussing that a tyrannical monster was sticking it to the U.S. We would be livid that the rule of law was not followed. Why do we not share the same outrage? Thomas Sewell in IBD asks “Is U.S. Now On Slippery Slope To Tyranny?”
In our times, American democracy is being dismantled, piece by piece, before our very eyes by the current administration in Washington, and few people seem to be concerned about it.
The president’s poll numbers are going down because increasing numbers of people disagree with particular policies of his, but the damage being done to the fundamental structure of this nation goes far beyond particular counterproductive policies.
Just where in the Constitution of the United States does it say that a president has the authority to extract vast sums of money from a private enterprise and distribute it as he sees fit to whomever he deems worthy of compensation? Nowhere.
And yet that is precisely what is happening with a $20 billion fund to be provided by BP to compensate people harmed by their oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Many among the public and in the media may think that the issue is simply whether BP’s oil spill has damaged many people, who ought to be compensated.
But our government is supposed to be “a government of laws and not of men.”
If our laws and our institutions determine that BP ought to pay $20 billion — or $50 billion or $100 billion — then so be it.
But the Constitution says that private property is not to be confiscated by the government without “due process of law.”
Technically, it has not been confiscated by Barack Obama, but that is a distinction without a difference.
With vastly expanded powers of government available at the discretion of politicians and bureaucrats, private individuals and organizations can be forced into accepting the imposition of powers that were never granted to the government by the Constitution.
If you believe that the end justifies the means, then you don’t believe in constitutional government.
Guess Obama is going to have to find another way to destroy the oil drilling industry. FoxNews reports that a federal judge blocked Obama’s efforts to stop drilling in the Gulf for 6 months. The judge single-handily saved tens of thousands of jobs. This is good news for the country and the Gulf states. Score one for the capitalists and free markets.
My children are homeschooled. By all measurable accounts they score as well or better than most government educated kids. I would never send my kids to government schools. The U.S. education system is a failure. I would prefer my kids learn from like minded, value oriented homeschool tutorial teachers than from a failed system. Why? Consider this article found in the The Patriot Brief via Arnold Ahlert:
“Consider that New York just its standard for passing sixth grade reading and math tests to the following: on the reading test, 20 correct answers out of 39 questions gets one a passing grade; on the sixth grade math test, 20 out of 49 does the trick. In other words, getting a grade of 51% on the reading test and 41% on the math test gets you promoted to the seventh grade. … Public school education in New York — and elsewhere — has become an overt fraud. … What are the those in charge thinking? First and foremost, about themselves. They realize that their ‘business model’ — a system which has made the genuine education of children and genuine accountability of teachers utterly meaningless — is an ongoing failure. How do you fix failure? In the real world, failure is fixed by adopting no-nonsense standards — and getting rid of employees incapable of meeting them. In the world of unionized pubic schools, failure is ‘fixed’ simply by changing the definition of the word. In other words, failure equals success because ‘we say so.’ And why do we say so? Because we are politicians beholden to the unions. … And make no mistake: this is a fraud made possible because the Democrat Party is its chief enabler. Over the last twenty years, the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teacher’s union, has given ninety-seven percent of its campaign contributions to Democratic candidates. In return, Democrats have opposed everything which threatens the unions’ status quo: school choice, ending tenure, instituting merit pay, charter schools, standardized tests and anything else which would allow Americans to clearly understand what a joke public school education has become.”
The politically correct world that our teachers ply their trade is not one that I want my children exposed to. The real world does not accept failure. I want my kids to know there is a meritocracy in life. That striving for first is okay. That if you fail, then you have failed and must do better. Like he says: “…what a joke public school education has become.” My children deserve better.
I found this excellent article by Milton Eastabrook, a worker in the off-shore drilling industry. Clearly the man is a patriot. He loves his family, his job and his country. What he writes below should be an important read for all Americans but in particular those in Washington that wants to shut down this industry. Eastabrook cuts through all the BS. He lets you know exactly what offshore drilling means to him and our country and the hypocrisy we see among the nation’s elite when it comes to the energy we consume and the energy men like Eastabrook produce.
Ultra-Deepwater Drill Crews Are Not the Issue Mr. Obama
I am dependent on Ultra-Deepwater Drilling for my income. The shutdown of Ultra-Deepwater Drilling is an unfair attack on the petroleum industry. British Petroleum Americas (B.P.) failure to perform their drilling operation in a safe manner is your issue. We as an industry are aware of the many B.P. failures on the Transocean Deepwater Horizon. The 11 Men that lost their lives are our brothers. Unsafe well practices by B.P. must be investigated. The root cause is a failure to resolve a poor primary cement job. B.P. had knowledge that the primary cement job had failed; their continued operation was unsafe. As the operator the men on the Deepwater Horizon trusted that B.P. would work safe. Federal government shares cause for allowing B.P. to continue to operate in the United States. B.P. has numerous safety failures and violation of Federal and industry standards.
As Ultra-Deepwater Drillers we demand safety at our work sites. Exploration Drilling is dangerous work. Each day we confront danger by using safe work practices. These work practices are a standard for our industry that we as workers demand. Government only steps in when they can make profit from our labor. Government safety standards require bribes by corporate raiders who also steal our labor.
When we die in helicopters there are no memorials. When we burn to death there is no green peace outrage. If we drown in frigid waters there is no Presidential visit with our families. When we lose a leg, arm, hand or foot government does not shut down for a single second. Media does not visit men that cannot stand straight because of failed backs from the heavy lifting required in our jobs. We shut down operations when someone is hurt. We perform safety stand downs to prove our work can continue forward safely. We pre task each operation to ensure safety. We observe each other as a natural part of our work to keep each other safe. Government does not keep me or my workmates safe we do it because we care about each other. We know what a wife goes through when a husband is lost. We have raised children of lost work mates. We are brothers. We are Teams of men that provide oil and gas to America.
Oil field workers hear the garbage of those who don’t have a clue what our families deal with each day. When we miss the first steps of our children do you care? When we leave women to take care of a household by their selves do you care? Our loved ones die and we are on a rig hundreds of miles away do you care? Hurricanes enter the gulf and we are stuck offshore do you care? When we see friends burn to death do you care? When we are clear that a company has killed our fellow workers do you care?
Environmentalists, Politicians and Corporate fat cats have never produced one single barrel of oil. You regulate my labor. You tax my labor. You steal the blood of good men Standards for my labor require me to pass test (urine test, breath test, HUET) before I am allowed on the job site. Yet you give my dollars to those who are never tested. You feed America our bloods labor. What can any of you produce that is of value to this nation? Each of you is a parasite on the backs of Americans and workers. You fly around the globe on jets fueled by our labor. You drive your armed motorcades on fuel that we provide you. Your natural gas heaters are fueled with our blood. When you talk about alternative energy you slap our face for all we have given you. You are Al Gore whining pigs at a plastic trough that we provided you. You are Hollywood millionaires that don’t provide anything of value. Scream about clean energy while driving and flying around the globe.
Each person in government that allowed the President to shut down Ultra-Deepwater Exploration failed working men in women. B.P. will never meet the needs of our families. Lawyers with law firms will turn this case into a class action law suit that will line their pockets. Blood money paid for by Oil Workers. We have just given 11 brothers to the effort of providing a nation with oil and gas. Politicians now repay us with unemployment. I am a proud American Oil Worker. I am not proud of the thieves that are destructing the American Oil Workers way of life. Shame on Politicians and those you work with.
When you shut down our work you only bring pain to the innocent. You need to understand we are not union workers with a hand out. We have invented and built an industry that provides America with tools for independence. Oil Workers understand pain, we learn from every mistake that spills a drop of our blood. When you hurt one of us; we will bring pain to your political dream world. Wake up Washington when you shut down our rigs you solve nothing. You are creating a burden on hard working men and women. We will not allow your destruction of our work efforts. Your lies about caring for our safety are wasted words. We know more about safety then the corporate giant B.P. Your efforts should be to control B.P. and their created oil spill. While America screams at the environmental cost, remember your liability. Not one Oil Worker gave B.P. permission to drill. Not one Oil Worker overlooked the B.P. failures of the past. The men on the Deepwater Horizon knew something was wrong. Failed negative test were a clear indication that the drilling fluid should not be displaced. B.P. knew they failed to bump their cement plug on the casing cement job. It should be investigated how much they over displaced the cement. B.P. made the decision not run a cement bond log. Each of you must look at real facts Blow Out Preventers are well named; they are not Blow Out Stoppers. Follow safety practices that don’t allow blow-outs. B.P. allowed this blow-out to take place.
Stopping the blow out in deep water is the lesson we are all watching. How did B.P. fail to turn back with key indications that the well was flowing? All the signs were given; concerns were raised by members of the Horizon crews. B.P. acted with an arrogant disregard for human life and safety. B.P. deserves punishment for their disregard. We have already started implementing testing to verify we will not have another Horizon incident. We have cried at the loss of our brothers. Shame is not ours. America may hate us and what we do; because we are painted as bad men. After 20 years of success the speculation that we are men with no concern for our environment is out of line. We are not the millionaire C.E.O.’s that we work for. We are men with families that trust us to earn a living at a dangerous job. Each hitch offshore we work to return all crew members to their loved ones. Every man that does this work cares about his nation. Your failure to allow us to make America energy independent is recorded for history to judge. You have sold out your nation; not the Ultra-Deepwater Drill Crews.
Trust that we will not stand-by idle as you destroy our work. We are not some union wimps that rely on government assistance. You keep us out of work for 6 months; watch the power that will join the Tea Party Movement. We are men that shaped and built this industry with blood and sweat. We will engineer a massive shut down of your permit to wreck lives. Someone should investigate who is making profit on this spill. Check the ties to the Obama Administration. One word- NALCO
Milton Estabrooks
05/29/2010
The Associated Press wants you to know that Tony Hayward has taken a break from overseeing BP’s effort at stopping the well leak by going back to England to attend a yachting race. Apparently one of his boats is competing. Headline on Yahoo proclaims “As oil spews in Gulf, BP chief at UK yacht race”.
Judging Hayward, the AP reported:
In a statement, BP described Hayward’s day off as “a rare moment of private time” and said that “no matter where he is, he is always in touch with what is happening within BP” and can direct recovery operations if required. That is likely to be a hard sell in Gulf states struggling to deal with the up to 120 million gallons of oil that have escaped from a blown-out undersea well.
Of course, Obama took time out to go to a baseball game last night. This from a man who said, “We will not rest until this well is shut, the environment is repaired and the cleanup is complete.”
Gateway Pundit reported via Washington Post,
After hunkering down for several weeks to deal with the oil spill, President Obama finally made it out of the house for some fun – and showed up at the Nationals game on Friday night.
Awesome. I’m glad everyone involved has their priorities in check. I’m surprised Obama has had time fussing about with the oil leak since he’s had so many parties, games, VIP meet and greet and concerts to attend.
The Christian Science Monitor reported via the AP yesterday:
BP CEO Tony Hayward says the reservoir that feeds the gushing well in the Gulf of Mexico probably still holds about 2 billion gallons of oil.
Appearing before a House subcommittee, Hayward estimated that the reservoir tapped by the out-of-control well holds at least 50 million barrels of oil. At 42 gallons per barrel, that’s 2.1 billion gallons.
According to government estimates of daily flow figures, anywhere from 73.5 million to 126 million gallons gushed from the breached wellhead — whether into the water or captured.
That means the reservoir likely holds 94 to 97 percent of its oil. At the current flow rate, it would take from two to nearly four years for all the oil to leak from the field if it can’t be stopped.
I’m not surprised but it is still astonishing to actually read the estimates and realize the horrible potential for unbelievable disaster.
I think I have to stop reading news blogs. I can’t take it anymore. The absolute incompetence and complete stupidity being demonstrated by the Administration and Coast Guard is going to be my undoing. Do these people actually want to stop the oil from reaching our shores or is it more important to follow some dipshit bureaucratic handbook? Gateway Pundit reports from ABCNews that Governor Jindal’s crude sucking barges have been ordered shut down by the feds. Get this:
Eight days ago, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal ordered barges to begin vacuuming crude oil out of his state’s oil-soaked waters. Today, against the governor’s wishes, those barges sat idle, even as more oil flowed toward the Louisiana shore.
“It’s the most frustrating thing,” the Republican governor said today in Buras, La. “Literally, yesterday morning we found out that they were halting all of these barges.”
Sixteen barges sat stationary today, although they were sucking up thousands of gallons of BP’s oil as recently as Tuesday. Workers in hazmat suits and gas masks pumped the oil out of the Louisiana waters and into steel tanks. It was a homegrown idea that seemed to be effective at collecting the thick gunk.
“These barges work. You’ve seen them work. You’ve seen them suck oil out of the water,” said Jindal.
So why stop now?
“The Coast Guard came and shut them down,” Jindal said. “You got men on the barges in the oil, and they have been told by the Coast Guard, ‘Cease and desist. Stop sucking up that oil.’”
A Coast Guard representative told ABC News today that it shares the same goal as the governor.
“We are all in this together. The enemy is the oil,” said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Dan Lauer.
But the Coast Guard ordered the stoppage because of reasons that Jindal found frustrating. The Coast Guard needed to confirm that there were fire extinguishers and life vests on board, and then it had trouble contacting the people who built the barges.
Fire extinguishers and life vests. Are you freaking kidding me? Is anyone in the impereial federal government operating with more than half of a brain. I sit here literally seething.
Man people. Lay off this man. Using what is probably his third or fourth language to describe his meeting with the Obama administration, BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg told reporters he cares about the “small people” living along the Gulf coast. He clearly meant “the folks”. He was not trying to be arrogant. When you asshats learn a few languages and get grilled by a hostile bunch of reporters in a foreign country, using maybe your third or fourth language to describe a meeting with the head of state, and you get everything right when talking, then maybe you can criticize this person’s word utilization. Until then, STFU.
Update: Bart Stupak can suck it. I am beyond thrilled that this dishonorable man is not running for office. He piled on the public verbal execution of BP CEO Tony Hayward by slamming the Chairman:
Stupak also ridiculed BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg for his remark outside the White House on Wednesday that the energy giant cared about the “small people.”
You’re an idiot Stupak. How many languages do you speak?
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