The world, always an interesting place, has not disappointed for news in the last few weeks. Below are some thoughts on just a few recent events.
President Obama appeared this morning, the 87th day of the Gulf oil spill, to discuss the spill and BP’s relief efforts. According to the Heritage Foundation, today was the first time since June 22 that Obama had publicly acknowledged the spill’s existence. If you’re keeping score, that’s 24 days of publicly ignoring the spill’s existence, beginning 7 days after Obama used his first Oval Office address to tell us all what a tragedy this disaster was, and how its occurrence somehow meant that we needed to pay his government significantly more in taxes.I guess he was so busy in the intervening 24 days — nearly a month — looking for an “ass to kick,” he couldn’t find the time to mention the ongoing spill. Or maybe he was just too busy playing the latest of the 10 rounds of golf he’s enjoyed since the April 20 Deepwater Horizon disaster — nearly half the number of rounds his predecessor, George W. Bush,played in his entire 8 year tenure. If Nero earned permanent notoriety for fiddling while his Empire’s capital city burned, what should Obama face after playing round after round of golf while the greatest man-made environmental disaster in human history was going on?
Obama’s decision to finally acknowledge, for the first time in nearly a month, that oil is still spewing into the Gulf is a very good sign for BP’s current relief effort. His 24 days of silence on the topic suggest that there’s no way Obama would be talking oil spill now if he hadn’t been assured that there was some major ongoing, or imminent, improvement in the situation he could safely take credit for.And speaking of energy taxes and dependence, here’s something worth noting: even the backward (to say the least) Islamic “Republic” of Iran is taking significant steps to reduce its dependence on foreign fuel sources, upping its refining capacity in hopes of cutting gasoline imports by up to 75% in the next five years. Score one for the Persian state, which has shown itself, in at least one area, to be more truly “progressive” than the rigid ideologues currently attempting to lead America while permanently sojourning in energy independence fantasy land.
