Americans want fundamental overhaul of energy policies, but don't ask them to pay more for gas

First off, not exactly a profile in American courage:

Overwhelmingly, Americans think the nation needs a fundamental overhaul of its energy policies, and most expect alternative forms to replace oil as a major source within 25 years. Yet a majority are unwilling to pay higher gasoline prices to help develop new fuel sources.

Secondly, people may say they won't put up with higher gas prices, but when gas hit $4.00 a gallon people weren't happy, but they didn't exactly rise up in protest either. Read the rest of this post...

Why the Gulf Coast well probably won't be blown up

I just wanted to add my two cents to John's great catch this morning, the New York Times article calling for the well to be blown up — as in permanently closed down.

The reason this probably won't happen is implied by the first paragraph of the article John quotes (my emphasis):

TONY HAYWARD, the chief executive of BP, made an astounding admission before Congress last week: after nearly two months of failure, the company and the Coast Guard have no further plans to plug the Macondo oil well leaking into the Gulf. Instead, the goal is merely to contain the leak until a relief well comes online, a process that could take months.

In an earlier article I had some snarky fun calling the goo (the oil) at the bottom of the Deepwater Horizon well-head "money." But I was also serious at the same time. This stuff isn't oil to BP, it's money; and there's only one thing that makes sense to the unhuman persons our courts have enshrined as our equals — making money. This goal is in fact written into corporate law; corps exist for one reason only, to create and aggrandize shareholder value — and they can be sued if they deviate from that obligation. Sued.

If corporations are "persons" (as we know them legally to be), their personality can best be described as pathologically monomaniacal. I mean that literally, clinically, almost dispassionately. Imagine living in a town in which your most powerful fellow citizens — people in position to own the city council — are literally driven only to make money. Not to care about humans; not to better the world; not to prevent starvation when it happens on their front step; not to save kittens from coyotes; not to do any act that doesn't have a dollar at the end of it; not to . . . feel.

These are the beasts we share our century with.

More on this in a bit — now back to BP. It can accurately be said that what BP sees at the bottom of that well is money, a ton of it. They bought it (well, bribed the toaster-oven crowd at the MMS for it — I mean, paid out hard pennies-on-the-dollar for the royalty rights to it), they own it, and they want it.

They will fight tooth and nail to keep it. They will call in all their chips, issue corporate-PAC threat after threat, draw "lines" on toaster ovens as long as your arm, and stock their lobbying firms with even cuter (sorry, more effective) advocates of their interests. They will purchase judges, juries, and elected officials to get it. They're richer than God ($360 billion revenue in 2008) and they will not stop.

And if I'm right in this analysis — they will succeed. How can they not? Pour yourself a Pinot, folks, and let's watch together. Any bets on whether that well stays "live" no matter how much it vomits into the ocean? (My money's on money to win by forty-seven lengths.)

Gaius Read the rest of this post...

Geithner says TARP monies are being repaid

I still maintain that it's not terribly clear what choice we had at the time. Wall Street was melting down. People forget that. The same way they forget how bad things were at the beginning of last year, and thus why we needed a stimulus package. From the NYT:

Mr. Geithner told a watchdog panel that banks had repaid about 75 percent of the bailout money they received, and the government’s investments in those banks had brought taxpayers $21 billion.

The oversight panel was created by Congress to oversee the Treasury Department’s $700 billion financial bailout program, created at the height of the financial crisis in the fall of 2008. The panel has been critical of the program, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

TARP “has helped restore financial stability at a much lower cost than anticipated,” Mr. Geithner said in his testimony. “We have already recovered more than half of total disbursements under the program. And TARP investments have generated $24 billion in additional revenue for taxpayers.”

Read the rest of this post...

Another GOP House member calls Obama 'arrogant' for setting up BP escrow fund

And the hits just keep on coming. This will help ensure that the Barton "apology" story doesn't die any time soon. Read the rest of this post...

Gen. McChrystal has reportedly offering his resignation

1. Will Obama accept it? Unlikely.
2. When will Gates be offering his? It's not likely McChrystal wasn't following the lead of his boss, who hasn't exactly been following the President's orders for a while now.

UPDATE from Joe @ 6:04 PM: A few minutes ago, Obama was asked if he was going to fire McChrystal. Here's the transcript:

Q Mr. President, are you going to fire Mr. McChrystal?

THE PRESIDENT: General McChrystal is on his way here and I am going to meet with him. Secretary Gates will be meeting with him, as well. I think it’s clear that the article in which he and his team appeared showed a poor -- showed poor judgment. And -- but I also want to make sure that I talk to him directly before I make any final decisions.

All right. Let me -- actually, let me make one last point about this. Even as General McChrystal is on his way here, I want everybody to keep in mind what our central focus is, and that is success in making sure that al Qaeda and its affiliates cannot attack the United States and its allies. And we’ve got young men and women there who are making enormous sacrifices, families back home who are making enormous sacrifices. And so whatever decision that I make with respect to General McChrystal or any other aspect of Afghan policy is determined entirely on how I can make sure that we have a strategy that justifies the enormous courage and sacrifice that those men and women are making over there, and that ultimately makes this country safer. I know Secretary Gates feels the exact same way.

Who cares what Secretary Gates thinks? Why does that matter? It sounds apologetic. Gates works for Obama, not the other way around. Read the rest of this post...

Utah Supreme Court validates use of e-signatures for elections

Very interesting. Read the rest of this post...

NYT Op ed: Time to blow up the well

Christopher Brownfield in the NYT:

This means more than simply “blowing it up”: it means drilling a hole parallel to the leaking well and lowering charges to form an explosive column.

Upon detonating several tons of explosives, a pressure wave of hundreds of thousands of pounds per square inch would spread outward in the same way that light spreads from a tubular fluorescent bulb, evenly and far. Such a sidelong explosion would implode the oil well upstream of the leak by crushing it under a layer of impermeable rock, much as stepping on a garden hose stops the stream of water.

It’s true that the primary blast of a conventional explosion is less effective underwater than on land because of the intense back-pressure that muffles the shock wave. But as a submariner who studied the detonation of torpedoes, I learned that an underwater explosion also creates rapid follow-on shockwaves. In this case, the expansion and collapse of explosive gases inside the hole would act like a hydraulic jackhammer, further pulverizing the rock.

Read the rest of this post...

McChrystal had hand in Tillman 'friendly fire' lie

From Ben Smith:

The mother of the slain football player and Army Ranger Pat Tillman sought to warn President Obama against making General Stanley McChrystal his commander in Afghanistan.

Mary Tillman said in an unpublished interview this year that she wrote to Obama and called Senators and members of Congress seeking to block McChrystal's appointment when she learned that he was under consideration for the post.

She called the lack of deliberation leading to his appointment "disgusting" in the interview, given before today's Rolling Stone article spurred intense tension between the general and the White House. An audio recording of the interview was provided to POLITICO by the interviewer, who asked to remain anonymous.

McChrystal has been accused of involvement in covering up of the fact that Tillman had been shot by his own comrades, having approved a citation for a posthumous medal that attributed his death to "enemy fire," though the general also penned a memo warning the White House against describing the circumstance of Tillman's death for fear of future embarrassment.

An official investigation blamed McChrystal for “inaccurate and misleading assertions” in the formal recommendation of Tillman for a Silver Star.

Read the rest of this post...

Justice Dept to file suit against Arizona immigration law next week

At first blush, this is great. But what worries me is that the Latinos are being played the same way the gays have been played. Rather than pass comprehensive immigration reform this year, as promised, the administration is weighing in on a high-profile case that, heinous as it is, only affects one state. It's an easy to way score points on immigration without doing the heavy lifting of trying to pass real national reform. Had the administration gotten real reform passed, this suit would be welcomed. But without national reform, the suit is a sorry substitute. Read the rest of this post...

Limbaugh blasts GOP for backing off criticism of BP escrow account

The leader of the Republican party has spoken. The round of apologies can't be far behind. From CNN:

Conservative talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh is taking aim at Republican leaders for rushing to demand Texas Rep. Joe Barton retract his controversial apology to BP CEO Tony Hayward during last week's congressional hearing.

On his radio show Monday, Limbaugh suggested the GOP leadership likely agrees with Barton's sentiments, but are driven by recent national polls which suggest the majority of Americans support President Barack Obama's push for BP to set aside $20 billion for future liability claims.

"It was a shakedown pure and simple," said Limbaugh, echoing the words for which Barton later apologized. "And somebody had the audacity to call it what it was and now everybody's running for the hills."

Read the rest of this post...

Why the Deepwater Horizon rig may have blown up

Not "why didn't the blowout preventer work?" Why did the rig explode? For a possible answer, check out the great graphic below. I find it fascinating, if nothing else, from a how-things-work perspective.

The drawing shows the construction of the Deepwater Horizon drill shaft (the hole into the ocean floor) and riser (the pipe from the hole to the rig). It also shows how the various concentric layers of the hole itself were drilled and were sealed (or not sealed). The source of the artwork, by the way, is Halliburton and the Times-Picayune (h/t bmaz at FireDogLake).

To read it:

• Start with the vertical sketch at the far left of the graphic. Note the oil rig at the top, then the riser (the pipe down through the water), then at 5321 feet, the start of the sea floor, the sediment and rock. All the way at the bottom of the drawing, three miles below sea level, is the money (sorry, the goo).
  
  
• Next look at the middle part of the drawing. It shows, top to bottom, the concentric — and increasingly smaller — holes that were drilled in the earth to get to the goo. At the bottom of the hole is the plug they put in prior to leaving the site, which they were about to do. Note also that the inner pipe is tapered. That turns out to be another indication of BP's haste to move on.
  
  Keep in mind that this was a drilling operation, not an extraction job. The Deepwater Horizon was there to make a hole and seal it for later. The extraction crew could then come by anytime in a production rig, remove the plug at the bottom, and pump the money (sorry, goo) out of the hole.
  
  
• Now that you're oriented to the picture's contents, read down the text at the right side of the drawing, starting at the top. It will explain how the concentric holes were drilled, cased, and sealed from each other with line hangers, so there were no gaps.
  
  When you get to the bottom, linger. Note that in their haste to move the rig, they failed to put a line hanger (a seal) between the last two casing layers, the innermost ones. Oops.
  
  
• Finally, imagine what would happen if natural gas, under pressure, got into that gap at the bottom. Just picture it — as the graphic says, it's a straight shot to the top.
  
  Now glance at the top-left corner of the graphic again — at the Deepwater Horizon rig itself sitting on top of that pipe. Imagine the explosion if the rising and expanding gas burst into the rig from below — and found anything making a spark.

We've known for a week now that natural gas "kicks" were causing problems at the well.

If the failure to seal the casing at the bottom occurred to save money, as recent reports indicate, that's criminal negligence and manslaughter. And if BP were human (sorry, were a human), that human would be looking at San Quentin or Sing Sing.

So, how do you put a Corp in Sing Sing? Can you even convict one in Mr. Robert's Neighborhood? Just wondering.

Yours in good engineering,

GP

(By the way, for you nostalgia fans, BP used to be AMOCO of Indiana back in the good old days. You know, when our oil companies used to rip off other people.) Read the rest of this post...

Gen. McChrystal summoned back to DC following Rolling Stone article

Afghanistan is a mess. The war doesn't seem to be going well. Think about it. When was the last time we heard good news coming from that war zone?

Instead, we've got drama involving our top general, Stanley McChrystal. He's been ordered back to DC after an explosive interview with Rolling Stone. (The article hasn't been posted yet, but a pdf has been posted here.) The first line of the piece is:

General Stanley McChrystal, Obama’s top commander in Afghanistan, has seized control of the war by never taking his eye off the real enemy: The wimps in the White House.

I read the article and you never hear McChrystal actually use that terminology. But, it's implied.

This is going to be a test of Obama's leadership. McChrystal has already been warned, according to Rolling Stone:

Last fall, during the question-and-answer session following a speech he gave in London, McChrystal dismissed the counterterrorism strategy being advocated by Vice President Joe Biden as “shortsighted,” saying it would lead to a state of “Chaos-istan.” The re marks earned him a smackdown from the president himself, who summoned the general to a terse private meeting aboard Air Force One. The message to McChrystal seemed clear: Shut the f--- up, and keep a lower profile.

The General didn't shut up. And, he's not keeping a lower profile. In fact, the McChrystal team, in front of the reporter, continued to mock Biden:

Then, unable to help themselves, he and his staff imagine the general dismissing the vice president with a good one-liner.

“Are you asking about Vice President Biden?” McChrystal says with a laugh. “Who’s that?”

“Biden?” suggests a top adviser. “Did you say: Bite Me?”

Obama can't have a publicly insubordinate General. He can't. Obama's going to have to channel Harry Truman here.

McChrystal has apologized for the interview, but that's not enough. He's been ordered back to Washington:

President Obama recalled the top U.S. general in the Afghanistan War, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, following a magazine interview in which McChrystal criticized several top U.S. officials and said he felt betrayed by his diplomatic partner, Ambassador Karl Eikenberry.

In a profile by Rolling Stone entitled "Runaway General," McChrystal is characterized as an outsider who did not relate well with the administration, and as a military leader who was "disappointed" with his first meeting with the president.

After news of the comments sent shockwaves through political and military circles from D.C. to Afghanistan, McChrystal quickly issued an apology for his "bad judgment."

The President is meeting with Secretary Gates this afternoon. No doubt, this blow up is on the agenda. It's a test for the President.

NOTE FROM JOHN: The President is going to talk to his insubordinate Secretary of Defense about his insubordinate General. Just let that one sink in.

Why should anyone be surprised by what McChrystal is saying? I'm sure Gates says the same thing. The entire military got the message when McChrystal pulled this crap last time, and got away with it. And they really got the message when Gates pulled this crap this time, on Obama over the effort to repeal DADT, again and again and again. And the President did nothing to stand up to his own subordinate.

Barack Obama caves. It's what he does and who he is. He does it on military issues. He did it on the stimulus when the fate of the nation was at stake. He did it on health care reform, his supposed most important issue of his presidency.

I hate to say it, as I supported the man in the primaries, and still would like to see him succeed (for all of our sakes), but the President has this thing about getting rolled, and then not fighting back. And I seriously doubt Joe and I are the only ones who have taken note.

As we have said time and again, the President's mistakes don't happen in a vacuum. They reverberate. They define who he is to his enemies. And they come back to haunt him, and us. Read the rest of this post...

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

At 3:15 PM, the President has a meeting with Secretary Gates. They've got a lot to discuss, particularly General McChrystal. The leader of our forces in Afghanistan and his aides did an interview with Rolling Stone that has caused a major scandal because they criticized members of the Obama administation. More on that shortly. It's the story that has DC buzzing today.

After meeting with Gates, Obama will be attending a reception with LGBT leaders from around the country. I'm sure he'll give the same speech he always gives at LGBT gatherings. My guess is we won't hear anything about DOMA. That's been dropped. Also, I'd like to hear Obama explain when the discharges under DADT will end. Of course, he can't tell us that because, even if the compromise passes, DADT isn't repealed. Plus, under the compromise concocted by CAP and White House staffers, Gates has as much power as the President on ending the discharges.

There are runoffs today for several races in South Carolina and for the Democratic Senate nomination in North Carolina. It's primary day in Utah. Keep an eye on the Democratic primary for the U.S. House seat held by Jim Matheson. He's getting a fierce challenge from a real Democrat, Claudia Wright.

Meanwhile, oil keeps gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. Read the rest of this post...