If you're old enough, some of you can remember.....
Where's Waldo?
The first Where's Waldo? books were published in 1987, a children's series in which the little buggers were supposed to find the pictured Waldo in a collage like this one....
It would keep the kids occupied for just long enough that you could watch an hour long show like DALLAS or MOONLIGHTING and not be interrupted. Where's Waldo? became so popular in the late 1980's that there had to be spinoffs and knockoffs. One of my favorites was Where's Dan Quayle?. I actually gave this one to my nephew when he was three years old. I don't think my sister-in-law was pleased.
In more recent years, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has had an entire line of products that asked the question, Where's Bobby?, included is the tote bag pictured below.
As of now Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie doesn't have any books or a line of accessories named after him. But the governor who left on a Florida vacation just hours before a blizzard crippled New Jersey for days- and while his lieutenant governor is also vacationing, leaving Senate President Steve Sweeney, a rival and a Democrat, to cope with the situation- he has something more high tech in the dubious honors department.
Chris Christie is now featured in a new website; Where's Chris Christie?, courtesy of our friends at Progressive Change Campaign Committee. And the question is answered....he's just about anywhere BUT in the state of New Jersey. In the last three months Gov. Christie could be found in Florida, New Mexico, California, Massachusetts, Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Connecticut, and Delaware. I probably left a couple of states out, but he'll be there in 2011, you can count on it.
Where's Chris Christie? Coming to your town....soon. Unless you live in the Garden State.
Indeed Mrs. Palin...."How is it workin' out for ya?"
And for Michael Steele....Rudy Guliani...John McCain....and to Republican Governors Bobby Jindal (LA), Haley Barbour (MS), Bob Riley (AL), and newly minted independent Charlie Crist of Florida- are you still in favor of letting Big Oil use the Gulf of Mexico as their own personal cash register? The worst ecological disaster in more than 20 years, an oil spill 130 miles long and 70 miles wide has reached the coast line of Louisiana, and the first oil covered animals have been seen on shore. We can expect an area stretching from near New Orleans to Pensacola to be affected.
BP's platform exploded last week, 50 miles in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers and sending the giant oil slick on a collision course with an area of the country called by some "The Redneck Riviera". The irony of the oil slick hitting and possibly devastating one of the most Republican areas of the country, states whose leaders (and many citizens) drank the GOP "Drill Baby Drill" Kool-Aide are about to find out....pardon the expression....an inconvenient truth. That is, offshore drilling has risks and unintended consequences- and in yet another tragic case greed won out over safety, and now an ecosystem is threatened with collapse by this spill. Some species may never recover, the wetlands may be polluted forever, and people who made a living from harvesting the Gulf and in tourism could find the extinction of their way of life by the time the weekend is over.
But where are THEY now? The "Drill Baby Drill Cheerleaders" have been strangely silent. That is, with the exception of Boss Limbaugh. Yes, Rush has a bizarre theory that President Obama had a hand in the creation of the oil spill. I won't even bother to try to explain it- his twisted "logic" makes my brain hurt.
A week or so ago I wasn't focused on offshore drilling. After all, the President proposed expanding offshore drilling earlier in the month. But that wouldn't be in by backyard. It would be in the Gulf, and along the Atlantic Coast off of Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. No need to worry in New Jersey.
And then came the BP-Gulf Disaster of 2010. And the reality set in that here in the Northeast we would not be immune to any potential oil spills that could occur in the South. Imagine this- an oil spill like the one in the Gulf is the size of New Jersey. What if a spill off the Virginia coast of that size were to hit New Jersey? The state's second largest industry, tourism, would vanish overnight- and the impact would be felt in Delaware, Maryland, New York, and possibly Pennsylvania.
We use the term "teaching moment" a lot, so it seems. The spill in the Gulf was the hardest of lessons. And the after the full impact is felt, we all need to ask...."Now what?".
Click here for a very well written blog entry on the oil spill and the "Drill Baby Drill" crowd by WABC TV's Bill Ritter.
Remember those wonderful days of yesteryear- 2008 to be exact- when "Tea Party" was something little girls did with their dolls and "birther" was just bad English? There was a new mantra being heard throughout Red State America and in the Presidential campaign.
Check the videos to refresh your memory.
Drill Baby Drill!
And drill they did. Oil companies continued to tell America, and the world, of the relative safety and efficiency of offshore oil drilling. We were (and still are) a nation way too dependent on foreign oil and weak on alternative sources of energy. And one of the reasons Barack Obama got the votes of environmentalists was his opposition to expansion of offshore drilling during the presidential campaign.
But something happened during the early part of 2010. The President caved. He decided out of the blue to allow and expand offshore drilling. That's right- he adopted the position of John McCain and Sarah Palin- he wanted to allow offshore drilling in a move that seemed to be designed to score political points with more conservative and independent voters.
And most progressive bloggers gave Barack a pass.....because we like him. Its that simple.
I'm as guilty as the next guy. But the 24 hour news networks, the guys who were supposed to be asking tough questions to the administration about this move, did anything but. Nobody seemed to ask if this decision would present even more dangers to the environment. The political angle was played backwards and sideways, with no thought given to any long term effects.
Click below to see an incredible montage from MSNBC and CNN about the President's decision. I think FOX was busy that day covering a Tea Party somewhere. Video fromThe Huffington Post.
Sometime tonight a massive oil spill will hit the Louisiana coast on or about the Mississippi River's delta. Its estimated that a broken well that exploded last week is spewing 5,000 barrels of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico. BP's Deepwater Horizon was drilling in 5,000 feet of water 40 miles offshore last week when it blew up, with eleven crew members missing and presumed dead. Attempts to burn off the oil haven't been entirely successful, nor have any attempts to close the well. Its estimated that as many as 4.2 million gallons of crude oil could spill into the Gulf of Mexico.
And as I type this, the spill is about three miles from the coast of Louisiana. The governor of Louisiana is Republican Bobby Jindal- his state is facing an environmental disaster of epic proportions that will greatly cripple the shrimp and oyster industry, perhaps kill thousands of fish, pelicans, and various shore birds. Neighboring Mississippi and its resort beaches in Biloxi maybe effected as well. Its governor is Haley Barbour, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee.
I wonder if Governors Jindal and Barbour will be chanting Drill Baby Drill at any GOP functions anytime soon?
President Obama has said BP will pick up the tab for the cleanup of the spill. BP can cough up the dough, but they can't alleviate the cost- fisherman, sportsmen, and the tourist industry of the Gulf Coast will be suffering even more in these tough economic times.
It seems the President's decision to expand offshore drilling was more of a political one than an attempt to change our dependency on foreign oil. President Obama pulled an old political maneuver- co-opt the ideas of your opponents to take a few arrows out of their quiver. This week there was to be legislation proposed on climate change, a a bipartisan bill worked on for months by Senators John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, and Lindsey Graham. The legislation had the potential for more green jobs and could create new alternative sources of energy. But the uproar over the Arizona "Show Me Your Papers" Law meant the Climate Bill would be put on a backburner in favor immigration reform legislation. And the Climate Bill was never more necessary as it is now, for energy and for jobs.
Its time for the Obama administration to take another look at expansion of offshore drilling. Maybe the impending disaster in Louisiana is the canary in a coal mine, the wakeup call that will alert the administration and all of our citizens that any expansion of new drilling has to be re-examined. The real cost may outweigh any potential benefits.
In closing, take a look at the following memo from Washington DC.
WASHINGTON D.C. — The Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) announced today that the 2010 Annual Industry SAFE Awards Luncheon scheduled for May 3, 2010 at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston, Texas has been postponed.
The ongoing situation with the Transocean Deepwater Horizon drilling accident has caused the MMS to dedicate considerable resources to the successful resolution of this event, which will conflict with holding this ceremony next week.
The MMS will announce how the agency will proceed with the 2010 SAFE Award program during the next several weeks. The MMS apologizes for any inconvenience and thanks the organizers of the OTC for their understanding of our current situation.
