We're All About to Die Down Here

"The President of the United States could've come down here, he could've been involved with the families of these 11 people" who died on the rig after an explosion, Carville said on ABC's Good Morning America. "He could be commandeering tankers and making BP bring tankers in and clean this up. They could be deploying people to the coast right now. He could be with the Corps of Engineers and the Coast Guard...doing something about these regulations. These people are crying, they're begging for something down here, and it just looks like he's not involved in this."

"Man, you got to get down here and take control of this! Put somebody in charge of this thing and get this moving! We're about to die down here!"

Brownie, Your Doin' A Heck of A Job!

If we even needed an example of just how bad government bureaucracies are at handling a complex crisis, one need look no further than the oil spill disaster now befalling the marshes and wetlands on Louisiana. The inaction, waffling, internal debate and inaction on the part of the Federal Government, fully in charge of the clean-up and protection of our coasts, makes Michael Brown, Bush's oft vilified FEMA head, look like an administrative genius.

Our Federal Government couldn't possibly do any worse, because they are generally doing nothing but actually stopping the efforts of state and local governments. This is a disaster of inaction and incompetence.

The Army Corps of Engineers is unwilling to make a decision on how and where to deploy oil skimming beams or how and where to build sand berms to stop the oil flow. Each hour of indecision is killing the fragile gulf coast.

This situation of so bizarrely stupid that local parishes are actually commandeering and deploying hundreds of Federally chartered boats and putting them to work in fighting the spill. No one is Washington is willing to make a decision.

Perhaps the greatest irony is the failure of the major news networks or the cable news networks to even give anything more than marginal coverage to the spill itself. While they are covering the infighting in the House and Senate and the daily battles between BP and the Obama Administration, what is missing is the very real human drama unfolding on the coast. No shows or anchors have been deployed to the coast.

The best coverage I've found is on National Public Radio. Be sure to listen to these reports and tune into NPR each day until the networks wake up from their politically induced coma:

• Officials Scrutinize BP's Ability To Close Oil Leak


• BP Hard To Pin Down On Oil Spill Claims


• Frustration Grows Over Gulf Oil Spill

I do also want to compliment The Huffington Post for their excellent coverage of the environmental disaster.

CNBC Rick Santelli, The Last American Hero

I can't quite figure out why 90% of the reporters and analysts on television can't or won't ask the really tough questions.

Thank god Rick Santelli doesn't suffer from this disease. Santelli teed off on Rep. Paul Kanjorski’s (D-PA) claim that Democrats’ couldn’t reform Fannie & Freddie in their financial regulation bill because it was “too complicated.”

SANTELLI: “It’s too complicated? You think taxpayers that go to work to pay the money you are subsidizing, it will end up a half a trillion, do you think they think complicated is an excuse?”



Our Members of Congress and our President SERIOUSLY DON'T GET IT. Just read my next post immediately below (or click this link, if you as reading this as a single entry in my blog) to see the real consequences of their inaction.

The "D" Word

"Actions speak louder than words."

People may not be saying the "D" word, but they sure are acting like "Depression" was on the horizon. All over the world people are buying gold at a pace never before seen in history. Gold prices hit an all-time high and demand is simply exploding. Bullion dealers cannot meet the demand. Gold coins are scarce to non-existent in dealer's showrooms. The raw price of gold surged to the highest level since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 amid volatile financial markets in Europe.

Spot gold in London has jumped to above $1,230 a troy ounce, surpassing the previous record set in December last year.

As an investment Gold has been, well, golden. Gold prices are up almost 26 per cent since the beginning of the year.

The London Financial Times reported today, "In Frankfurt, gold sellers said that demand late last week was three to four times normal levels. The spike appears to reflect concerns in Germany about the potential inflationary impact of the European Central Bank’s decision to buy up eurozone government bonds in the wake of the Greek debt crisis."

Almost since the dawn of mankind, gold has been considered a safe haven in times of economic or political turmoil. It can always be traded in any country or region of the world. It is easy to transport and easy to hide.

The Financial Times goes on to report, "Global investors, led by the US, last year bought a record 228.5 tonnes of gold in the form of bullion coins, up from 77.4 tonnes in 2000, according to GFMS, the London-based precious metals consultancy."

In the United States, as states, cities and school districts continue to slash budgets and lay off workers, the economic downturn is likely to continue. If Europe collapse, all bets are off. World wide "Depression" is an absolute certainty.