There is a character in the movie The Godfather, Part II. His name is Pat Geary. He's a fictional U.S. senator from Nevada. And he is in the hip pocket of the Corleone crime family.During a congressional hearing investigating the head of the mafia, the corrupt politician apologizes to Michael Corleone (the godfather) and defends the Corleone family and all Italian immigrants. The other politicians, not knowing of his association with Corleone, look at Sen. Geary with a degree of bewilderment. Michael Corleone, played by Al Pacino, sits across from the panel with a subtle but satisfied look on his face.
Geary did his part. He spoke on behalf of a known liar and criminal.
Today, real life in Washington imitated fiction as Rep. Joe Barton, a Republican from Texas, spoke up in defense of BP. He apologized to company CEO, Tony Hayward, for what he called a "shakedown" that the oil officials received in the White House on Wednesday. It was truly a stunning moment in American politics. It was as if Barton was Geary and Hayward was Corleone.Later in the afternoon, Barton had to issue an apology for the apology. It was clear that someone in the Republican Party had gotten to him during a recess. But what is also clear is that this is how many Republicans feel. They want no government interference. They want big companies to do as they please, without penalties. Barton's only mistake was in speaking his mind.
You can bet there are plenty of right-wingers who dislike President Obama -- who orchestrated the request for the $20 billion BP cleanup fund -- so much that they would defend Lucifer before inflicting pain on a large corporation. It's just the way modern-day Republicans roll, particularly Tea Party types who are in the ironic position of having to defend something British (BP).If Sen. Jim Bunning's (R) recent attack on folks desperately seeking jobs isn't revealing enough, Barton's antics today should paint a clear picture of what festers in the dark hearts of many right-wing extremists. The Tea Party isn't what it appears to be. These aren't patriots anymore than Sean Hannity is about country first. These Rush Limbaugh followers believe in a survival of the fittest approach to building a society. If brown pelicans can't survive a little oil, tough. If a fisherman loses his job because of a toxic spill, too bad.
I might add that Democrats aren't a whole lot better, but at least they seem to be able to tell the difference between victims and criminals.
Here's the kicker to what happened today. Rep. Barton, as it turns out, is a former oil insider who rakes in more campaign contributions from big oil than anyone else in Congress. He sold out his country in attacking the president today. He sold out residents in the Gulf states. Barton is essentially the Pat Geary character in The Godfather, Part II. He should be reprimanded and investigated for his comments today.
A former colleague of mine at USA Today died the other day after a long illness. He wasn't a close buddy, but he was a "friend" on Facebook. Because I don't work at the newspaper anymore, I learned of his passing through the social networking site.Since his death, people have been writing messages to him on his Facebook wall. The key phrase is "to him." There are dozens of short notes, many assuming he has already settled in behind a computer in heaven, reading his messages. Writing short blurbs on Facebook is now one of the ways we express our feelings for dead friends.
I am not going to write on his Facebook wall. However, as with the deaths of most friends or acquaintances, his passing gives me reason to pause and to reflect on my own life, career and interactions with former colleagues.
Don Collins was one of the nice guys in an otherwise hectic and often stressed-out newsroom. Sort of a gentle giant type of a man, with a competent, dignified approach to his work in the sports department. In a business that often gets muddied by impossible deadlines, unchecked egos and not-so-hidden insecurities, Don was simply a respectful, decent fellow. That may not sound like high praise, but in the pressure cooker of the newspaper business, lesser men and women often lose their humanity, even if it's just temporarily. To the best of my knowledge, Don never fell into that trap.
If there is a heaven, I pray that it doesn't have Wi-Fi. I hope all of my former colleagues who have passed on, including Don, can disconnect from the Internet and not worry about being accessible 24/7. They've earned the right to unplug, kick back and ignore their in-boxes.
The new Meadowlands Stadium, home of the New York Giants and Jets, cost about $1.5 billion to build.British Petroleum will set aside $20 billion for the restoration of the Gulf of Mexico, which it is currently destroying, and for the folks impacted by the oil catastrophe.So for $20 billion, or the cost of about 13 football stadiums, BP will satisfy President Obama's demand made in a meeting today with company executives.Why do I feel BP got off easy?If one fisherman, who invested $100,000 in a boat and who was clearing $50,000 in profits each year, lost his job because fish in the Gulf of Mexico won't be suitable for harvesting for the next 10 years, that means that single fisherman will be out a minimum of $600,000. Does that fisherman get reimbursed from the BP fund? If so, how many thousands of fishermen will have similar claims?Now take the mom-and-pop beach restaurant that cleared enough for the family to barely get by in good times, and figure that its profits sink 50 percent for several years as a result of the spill. Think this business will survive? And if not, how much was the business worth and will BP fully compensate its owners?How about the boardwalk snow cone shop and t-shirt stand owners? Do they get paid? Does the local parks department get reimbursed for hiring 100 new employees to help with the cleanup? What about the scuba equipment or dolphin-watching businesses? A drop in tourism will surely impact those folks. Maybe even send them into bankruptcy.
If a hurricane hits the region this summer, then what? The BP fund could be exhausted by September. Will the oil giants open their wallets wider to the folks on the Gulf Coast?
You can see how this can add up and how many people might not be fairly compensated by BP. Even before a single marsh is decontaminated or new sand is paid for and brought in to restore a beach, BP's obligations will be massive. Will $20 billion cover what needs to be done over the next decade or two? Will BP pay oil rig workers while there is a moratorium on deep-water drilling? One of BP's top officials said his company will pay employees impacted by the moratorium. Does that include non-BP employees?
There are medical costs to consider. People are going to get sick working on the cleanup.
What happens if oil-friendly Republicans return to power? I am guessing they won't be as hard on BP and could ease the financial pain for the company by reducing the payout.
We're not talking football stadiums here. We're talking human lives and livelihoods, as well as an ongoing ecological disaster that gets bigger by the hour. Cleaning the water and wildlife-breeding grounds alone will probably cost more than Obama got BP to cough up. There is a domino effect to all of this, one that may not even be understood for decades. I don't know how Obama and BP arrived at a specific figure this early in the game. They say it's not capped, but does anyone expect BP to double or triple the fund over time?
While $20 billion sounds like a lot, it really falls short of what this giant oil company owes America and residents of the Gulf states. It is a sum that might sound good politically in the moment, but in reality, it's not going to get the job done. I applaud Obama for finally doing something tangible and saving taxpayers from at least some portion of the funding that it will take to clean up this mess, but I am afraid it is too little too late.
A few other related comments...
What is it about the moratorium on deep-water drilling that people don't get? It seems like slam-dunk logic to stop doing whatever it is that led to the accident until we have a better understanding of what went wrong. I credit Obama for this action. Yet, there are people, even in the Gulf states, who say that jobs are more important than the potential dangers that might result from risky drilling.
As someone who profoundly and personally understands the need for jobs, I am not willing to sacrifice the planet for them. Nor am I willing to let child pornographers run Internet businesses because we need more folks on a payroll. I am not in favor of drug lords expanding their empires because street pushers need an income. And I am not in favor of sketchy oil companies possibly blowing up more rigs because people need the work.
I understand the fear of losing one's job, but it's no excuse for not comprehending the bigger issue at hand. Those jobs will return, but it's going to take a little time and some precautionary studies before that can happen. Just as certain commercial planes are grounded when a defect is discovered, these rigs are going to have to sit idle for awhile.
President Obama's speech Tuesday night left me flat. I don't know how he plans on restoring the Gulf of Mexico to pre-oil spill conditions, but it was one of several lofty claims he made. The future of the region seems to be more in the hands of Mother Nature, in my humble opinion. As human beings we can help the healing process, but this disaster is so large that it will take more than BP's money or Obama's rhetoric to make it right. His speech gave no details of how or when the flow will stop. And while he is correct that we need to get off of our oil dependency, he shouldn't have spent half the speech on that issue.
Incredibly, there are people who still think regulations are bad things. They see no link between the government not having enough oversight and BP's dangerous actions that led to this disaster. What will it take for these extremists, mostly on the far right, to understand that corporations need boundaries? Just as society needs laws and police to help maintain relative order, risky businesses must play by the rules and be accountable to a more impartial authorities than just shareholders. Oil companies need to be watched. So do nuclear power plant operators. Would you like to fly on a commercial airliner that follows no rules or have your tap water unregulated? Would you like to work for a company where your retirement account isn't safe?
This is a vacuum tube. In England, it's called a valve. It has nothing to do with cleaning the carpet.
Regardless of what you call this electronic device, it helps power guitar amplifiers in a way that professional musicians prefer over modern, solid-state components.The tube glows. It gets scorching hot. There are usually several tubes in each amplifier. Tube-based amps are extremely heavy and expensive compared to their cool-running, lean, solid-state cousins. The tubes are glass and very delicate. They need to be replaced every so often. Most parts in a solid-state amp last for as long as a person might own the unit.So why is it that the more technically advanced amplifiers haven't replaced these tube dinosaurs yet? Well, despite solid state amps having been around and refined for a few decades, the older tube amps simply sound better. Even with all of the drawbacks, the tubes produce a warmer, more musical sound.There was a time when the average home stereo also contained these types of tubes. But those days are long gone, although there are still tube stereos available for astronomical prices. For playing back records, CDs or over-the-air radio broadcasts, modern transistors work better than tubes for the average listener. Yet, for musicians powering their electric guitars, ancient tube technology remains the preferred choice among pros and some amateurs such as myself.Why am I telling you this?With all of the technological advances coming at us at the speed of light, it's sometimes good to reflect on old technologies that still do the best job. Just because it's new doesn't mean it's better.
Oil officials have been talking a lot about the advancements that make drilling safer than ever. Yet, the worst accident in the history of off-shore drilling just occurred and apparently can't be stopped by any technological wizardry.The other day, it was discovered that iPads could be easily breached by hackers. Apple scrambled to make the fix, but one has to wonder how this could have happened.I still can't hear people as well on my cellphone as I can over a land line in my house.So while it's factual that many modern inventions are far better than earlier versions, it is also true that change for the sake of change isn't always a good or workable thing. Change might be marketable, but it doesn't make it better, which explains why tube amps have survived.I read a lot of news online and for some reason see far more mistakes, mostly typos, on my screen than I ever did in newsprint. Is reading news online more convenient? Most of the time, yes. But so far the trade off seems to be sloppier editing. Many long-time editors swear that it is easier to catch typos on paper than it is on a monitor. I tend to agree. I don't know why this phenomenon exists, but it does.My four-year-old Jeep has power windows. Now that technology has been around a long time. You would think all the bugs would have been worked out by now. Yet, two of my windows have collapsed and broken because of a faulty motor mechanism. A third window is about to go. I don't like power windows, but that's a standard feature in most cars nowadays. Rolling up the windows with a crank has never struck me as overly taxing. It is also a highly reliable system compared with power windows. If one of my old cars with hand-cranked windows would have gone into a lake, I could have still rolled down a window even after the electronics were short-circuited by the water.In college, a roommate of mine had a hot dog zapper. This revolutionary appliance was suppose to electrocute the meat until it was cooked. Sounds yummy, huh? You would have to put each end of the hot dog onto a metal stud. Then it was just a matter of hitting the switch and waiting about 60 seconds. Well, the hot dogs tasted like crap and I never saw one of these cookers again. To my taste buds, a frank cooked on a charcoal grill is still the best technology for the task.Some cars actually got better gas mileage 25 years ago than they do now. Some approached 50 mpg. To get that kind of mileage these days, you'd need to move up to a pricey hybrid. With all of the advancements in cars, why can't engineers improve upon fuel efficiency? Why are advertisement campaigns bragging about cars that get 28 mpg? It's all an illusion. A sales pitch.
This is not to say that I am anti-gadgets or stuck in past technologies. I like my digital TV. I think it's cool that some people still have the vision to invent things that improve our quality of life -- things that work. I have no desire to go back to IBM typewriters -- the ones with the little metal ball with the letters on it.But with all of these advancements in the last 10 years, we also seem to take a step backwards at times. Perhaps this particular type of oil spill wouldn't have happened a couple decades ago. Maybe the rush of today's society and the illusion that everything new is better, safer, more efficient is making our world more dangerous. Identity theft is off the charts and medical care is on the decline, according to most people old enough to remember when doctors made house calls and had something called bed-side manners.As long as vacuum tubes are sold and telephone land lines still exist, I won't be rushing to get the latest digital amplifier or smart phone -- not because I am old or stubborn -- but because tubes and land lines still sound the better than trendy alternatives.
Even if I was a soccer fan, I don't think I could watch the World Cup in South Africa, at least not with the volume up on the television. I have tuned in to two matches so far and couldn't take the droning noise for more than 10 minutes. It sounded like locusts or a hornets' nest. It is a torturous and almost constant sound. Read about what is causing this noise and why it isn't likely to stop. Click here.
There is a character in the movie The Godfather, Part II. His name is Pat Geary. He's a fictional U.S. senator from Nevada. And he is in the hip pocket of the Corleone crime family.
