BP Spill Containment

After 109 days of trying those involved in bringing the BP well under control and sealing it off, it's time to breathe a little easier again. Meanwhile, I would expect the BP folks and other oil industry people have begun to review everything that has happened with an eye toward preventing such a disaster from happening again. As a former worker in the industry, I am still interested in getting answers to a few questions like where did all the oil go? how much oil was sucked up and brought to shore for refining? how much was burned off? how much came to shore? how much remains (a) in the water column and (b) on the bottom? how much damage was really done to the shoreline? to the fishing grounds? Hopefully, answers to these and other relevant questions will be forthcoming.

Elections

Many primary elections lie immediately ahead, a few have already surprised people. The vote by Missourians in opposition to Obamacare is certainly one, and it points the way the country as a whole feels at the moment. Those feelings are not likely to change unless something drastic happens that puts current office holders in a better light.


Obama continues to make comments that are damaging to his political image and thus the image of his party. The most recent example is the proposed building of a mosque two blocks north of the former site of the Twin Towers brought down by Muslim extremists on 9/11. None of his statements have shown any concern for propiety in the matter and the feelings of those who lost family members in the catastrophe. His comments also add fuel to the fire over his personal religious beliefs. Many believe he is a Muslim, not a Christian as he once claimed to be. Everything in his past points in the direction of Islam.


Under our Constitution, everyone has the right to worship or not as we see fit. That includes Muslims. That is not the issue in the current 9/11 gound zero case. The issue is people's feelings and Obama knows it.


From my current vantage point, I see the Republicans re-taking the House of Representatives this November, but not the Senate. They will take enough seats in the Senate, however, to safely defend against anything the Democrats might put up requiring a 60-vote majority. It would please me no end if the Republicans could take the Senate because then the path would be clear for them to begin repealing Obamacare and other mis-directed legislation passed by the current Congress and the one in place in the closing months of the Bush administration.