Slavery in Brazil

This morning on Catholic radio I was listening to a report about slavery in Brazil. Workers are lured by promises of jobs, but after they arrive in remote agricultural areas thousands of miles from home and family, they are told they have to pay off their transportation debt.

It occurred to me that before our President offered their President Dilma Rousseff (a Marxist in her youth, and daughter of a Bulgarian Communist) money for off shore, deep ocean drilling for oil and gas (which we then will purchase from them) he should have inquired about this problem. When I checked it on the internet, our own State Department which has an anti-trafficking section reported both sex slavery of women, boys and girls as well as labor slavery:

Brazil is a source country for men, women, girls, and boys trafficked within the country and transnationally for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation, as well as a source country for men and boys trafficked internally for forced labor. The Brazilian Federal Police estimate that 250,000 to 400,000 children are exploited in domestic prostitution, in resort and tourist areas, along highways, and in Amazonian mining brothels. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009

In his speech to the Brazilian people on March 20, 2011, he praised their diversity, the beauty of their country and our similar backgrounds, but failed to note that slavery hasn't ended in Brazil since it is documented both by the U.S. State Department and the Roman Catholic Church, two of the most powerful organizations in the world.

When you think about it, the journeys of the United States of America and Brazil began in similar ways. Our lands are rich with God’s creation, home to ancient and indigenous peoples. From overseas, the Americas were discovered by men who sought a New World, and settled by pioneers who pushed westward, across vast frontiers. We became colonies claimed by distant crowns, but soon declared our independence. We then welcomed waves of immigrants to our shores, and eventually after a long struggle, we cleansed the stain of slavery from our land. Transcript

So even if we ignore the idiocy and hypocrisy of sending our industry south to Brazil and the fact that if there is an accident similar to the one he dithered about in May, we still are doing business with a slave holding country with a Marxist president!

Video on lack of leadership

The hasty firing of Shirley Sherrod shows the WH can move quickly when it wants to.

Obama's not stupid, so is he incompetent or are we paranoid?

In writing about the Gulf oil spill at Hot Air, Steven De Beste ponders two possibilities:“The sane answer: they’re blithering incompetents. The paranoid answer: they’re doing it on purpose.” The comments coming in say the readers are going for the paranoid answer, because no one anywhere is as incompetent as Barack Obama. Here’s a good response and I think I agree with her, having noted a number of these things in the last 70 days or so, but with less salty language.

Steven, I have always respected you and admired you ever since I discovered your blog but I have to disagree with you concerning the Gulf Oil Disaster.

Ask yourself just how stupid, clueless and incompetent one has to be to refuse permission for the governors to build sand berms to block the oil getting ashore because those berms “might damage the environment”.

Ask yourself just how stupid, clueless and incompetent one has to halt skimmers from going out because the Coast Guard has to make sure everyone has a life vest and there are fire extinguishers on board. We aren’t talking about people in a Bass boat going out for a day’s fishing, we are talking commercial vessels and those are things that the CG inspects all commercial craft for every freaking year.

Ask yourself just how stupid, clueless and incompetent one has to allow BP to use Corexit as a dispersant. Why not just use Agent Orange or Plutonium as a dispersant fercrissakes! And where is all the “concern about the effect on the environment” that the Obama regime is showing by blocking the sand berms. Corexit is one hell of alot more damaging to the environment then a freaking sand berm.

Ask yourself just how stupid, clueless and incompetent one has to do what we have seen the Obama regime pull over the last week which is basically shut down all non government reporting and observing of this disaster and threatening those who do not comply with felony charges. Hell, even that Obamafellating jerk Anderson Cooper can figure out that something is really wrong with that.

Sorry, hun, but if it walks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck it is a freaking duck-not a hampster. The actions, words and deeds of the Obama regime concerning GOD are not the acts of stupid, clueless and incompetent people. There is an agenda behind it, then just haven’t let it slip out to someone who might leak it like they did concerning the border and the Arizona immigration law. They blatantly admitted that they will not enforce federal law and will try to destroy Arizona and other states immigration laws because they want to push their amnesty agenda. If I were to venture a guess they want to use this to ram through crap ‘n tax, shake down BP for money for their slush fund because they won’t get another “stimulus” package out of the legislative branch and they want to nationalize the oil companies. All one has to do to see that one working is to take a look at what they are doing to the refineries in Texas-so far the government has taken over 3 of them IIRC and more takeovers are on the way. 1/3 of the petroleum refining capacity is in Texas-do you really want those refineries controlled by Maxine Waters and the Obama regime. If you do I hope you enjoy paying 3 to 4 times more for everything that you buy/use because that is what is coming (just take a look around at everything you own that is made out of plastic and then triple the cost to manufacture it). BTW-we don’t have transporter technology yet so just about everything you use comes in via truck and $10/gal for gasoline will put a bit of a crimp in your “lifestyle”.  Nahanni on July 6, 2010

Where is it safer to have a blow out--on land or 5,000 ft under water

Who pushed BP off shore into deep water (5,000 ft depth) and gave them the permit to drill after reviewing their plan? Who benefits from their taxes? Who are their employees? Who uses their oil? What pension funds (outside Britain) are paying dividends to investors and retirees? And couldn't they do the same, much safer and cheaper on land? Yes.

"Whether more exploration on federal lands would make the U.S. energy independent is debatable, but more onshore development would certainly be safer. In early June there was a blowout in western Pennsylvania. Did you see it on the nightly news? No, because it was capped in 16 hours. The Texas Railroad Commission, the state agency that regulates oil and gas production there, recorded 102 blowouts of oil and gas wells since the start of 2006, resulting in 10 fires, 12 injuries, and two deaths. None of those made the nightly news either. The largest oil spill on Alaska's North Slope in 2006 was from a pipeline leak. It dumped only 6,357 barrels and had no disastrous impacts."

Terry Anderson: Why it's safer to drill in the backyard

And by the way, just how do you feel about windmills off your coast or on your prairie vista in your line of vision, or a nuclear plant next to your river? How long before "alternative" energy sources will be able to handle this summer's heat?

Obepa vs. Jindal and the people of the Gulf states

We have a White House out of control that ignores the Constitution--both the original one and the "living" one filled with modifications, case law and regulations. Therefore, Bobby Jindal and other Gulf state governors should just ignore the feds (EPA, HHS, DoE, MMS, Coast Guard, etc.) and do what they can to save their people and the economy. Obama is the one who put this oil spill in military terms, brought on by government regulations and sloppy oversite. It's on his watch, and it's his guys who approved BPs plans. Jindal's going to have to have the balls of a McCrystal, and go against Obama's plan to destroy us in this energy war also. What's the worst that could happen? Fines? That would have to be cheaper than closing down his economy for years as the oil industry moves to Brazil on our tax dollar. ObEPA and ObFEMA will be no help with payouts that will be years too late to save those businesses in the leisure, construction and fishery industries.

BP plans reads like fiction? Who approved the plan? The government.

Wrong addresses, phone numbers, species names, officials' names. I encounter that it seems with every report I read on-line whether government, private or non-profit. Who was suppose to check the figures? We must have thousands of employees making big bucks at the EPA, FEMA and MMS. Are there no fact checkers?

“BP PLC's 582-page regional spill plan for the Gulf, and its 52-page, site-specific plan for the Deepwater Horizon rig, are riddled with omissions and glaring errors, according to an Associated Press analysis that details how BP officials have pretty much been making it up as they go along. The lengthy plans approved by the federal government last year before BP drilled its ill-fated well vastly understate the dangers posed by an uncontrolled leak and vastly overstate the company's preparedness to deal with one.”

The federal government's clutch of regulatory agencies are the sister agencies of those which manage education, epidemics, national parks, homeless shelters, food purity, etc. The bigger the agency like EPA or HHS the more likely the failure. And yet, we're moving to bigger and bigger, more and more government. Why do we think that people who can't handle a huge job, could do better if we just gave them a humongous job?

Columbus Dispatch story

Day Fifty seven--Obama's been there since day one

It's day 57. "The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of the Interior, the Department of Homeland Security, and the White House, as well as the Coast Guard, have been putting out confusing and contradictory statements since the disaster began." Morning Bell. This White House didn't create the 2010 mess, but our Federal government laid the ground work many years ago by pushing the drilling into unsafe, deep waters and into untested technology. This was not the first choice of the oil companies, nor the Gulf states. The government set a $75 million limit on liability years ago after the Exxon Alaska spill, so with that kind of permission, the drilling way off shore began. We could have had help immediately with the effects of the spill and saved thousands of livelihoods, but Obama wouldn't set aside the Jones Act because of union pressures. Now almost 3 months later at the urging of other governors of Gulf states, he's considering a waiver. Perhaps Obama is trying to beat his record of last summer where he dawdled and fumbled for 90 days over troop requests for Afghanistan? After all, didn't he call this a war? He can win this war to destroy more of the economy if he just drags it out long enough. If he can cause BP to go bankrupt, he can ruin many pension plans along with all the businesses along the coast.

If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there

I think that's a good paraphrase of Obama's speech on the oil spill. Even the left stream media is totally confused trying to parse this mess. Has he changed speech writers? Puppet masters? String makers? Teleprompter companies?

"It’s safe to say Chris Matthews has lost that tingly feeling down his thigh. It took only seconds after President Obama concluded his Oval Office address for Matthews and co-host Keith Olbermann to rip into the President for what they perceived as a lack of leadership and direction, and, especially in Matthews’ case, and over-reliance on meritocracy."

Obama is clearly a CPA--Cloward, Priven, Alinksy.

BP to pay for its mistakes, and also Obama's. Why?

Do you get the feeling that Obama has no desire to have this problem fixed because it works unbelieveably well in his plan?

Obama on BP: I want to know “whose ass to kick”

He might start with the federal agencies, and there's an alphabet soup bowl full of them. I'd start with MMS. Maybe there's been too much ass kissing, and Fox dissing in the White House. Obama's response to everything is always the wagging finger, the angry look, or flashing eyes. He's very unpresidential in that way. It doesn't build any confidence that he knows what he's doing. Call another commission. Threaten to fire someone whose business he doesn't own (yet). Whatever: this shows that big tenacled government doesn't respond well to really big problems. It's snarled in red tape and is preventing clean up and protection of the gulf states. If you've had a car wreck, maybe you need to get the injured to the hospital before you call the CEOs of the auto company to the White House for a tongue lashing. Today it's a mechanical/technology failure, but where will the leadership and coordinated response come from if it were a volcano, or an unidentified bacterial epidemic, or a nuclear plant failure, or collapse of the internet?

Hot Air » Obama on BP: I want to know “whose ass to kick”

Spill reveals Obama's lack of executive experience | Washington Examiner

In Gulf, It Was Unclear Who Was in Charge of Rig - NYTimes.com

Operational mistakes

Obama and why the other Gulf has worsened

"Not wanting to attach the President's identity to an inevitable disaster is understandable as a political response, but not as one of a true leader. President Obama, who was nearly omnipresent during his first six months in office as the official spokesman for every matter from health care to the location of future Olympic games to the competence of the Cambridge, Massachusetts police department, had little to say in the first several weeks that oil flowed freely into the Gulf of Mexico. Some would say that criticizing the President for being too public earlier and too inaccessible later shows inconsistency. In actuality, such criticism rightly recognizes that the President has no concept of when his leadership is most needed."

More on this at Music City Oracle

BP's negligence plus the government incompetence equals a case for global warming?

"On Wednesday President Obama faced the reality that he and those sharing his agenda and beliefs cannot make their "global warming" case, that after billions of taxpayer dollars trying to make it stronger they only find themselves in a deeper hole of public resistance. So he lapsed into saying that a company's negligence and governmental incompetence finally, somehow, provide that elusive reason to cede lifestyle decisions great and small to the state, through a scheme that is according to all parties climatically meaningless. But that's ok, the issue's not "global warming" anymore.

You see, the public aren't buying "global warming", so the issue is no longer the issue. It never was anyway. The issue is whatever might work. So far, the Senate's global warming bill has been called "not an environment bill" by Sen. John Kerry, who instead says it's a jobs bill, and a national security bill. Yeah, that's it."

There's a ton of money in cap and trade--all the big players in government, the banks they've been bailing out, Fanny and Fred--they're all invested in making "green" work and can make millions if they pull it off. Don't let them con you.

The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : And Bob's Your Uncle

When Do They Tune Out?

"So an oil spill that he had as much ability to prevent as George W. Bush did to stop Katrina from hitting shore has snared the president, who oversold himself and the power of government. But the Joe Sestak scandal may be worse. For one thing, it’s a White House–made mess, not a natural disaster."

Commentary » Blog Archive » When Do They Tune Out?

I started tuning Obama out during the 2008 campaign, reached for the remote as he looked down his nose at us and our country and wagged his finger, promising us more taxes and higher energy bills, and of course, transparency and honesty in government. His transparency has come in strange ways. He's still a thin skinned, narcissist, Chicago thug, and nothing he's said since July 2008 has changed what he wrote in his books, said in his speeches, or the friends and associates with whom he surrounded himself. He is what he is.

He Was Supposed to Be Competent

No Peggy. That's not why he was elected. Everyone, even his strongest supporters, knew his resume, and competence in anything wasn't on it. Even you were swooning during the campaign because he wasn't George Bush.

Noonan names three political disasters and then ponders whether he can possibly survive. His sycophant supporters and his props in the media won't bat an eyelash.

"There was the tearing and unnecessary war over his health-care proposal and its cost.

There was his day-to-day indifference to the views and hopes of the majority of voters regarding illegal immigration.

And now the past almost 40 days of dodging and dithering in the face of an environmental calamity. I don't see how you politically survive this."

You just watch, Peggy. It will all be George Bush's fault. Obama wanted a failed, weakened United States, and by gum, he's going to get one!

Peggy Noonan: He Was Supposed to Be Competent - WSJ.com

Obama ‘Hasn’t Conveyed That He Really Cares’ About Oil Spill

And how many days without a press conference? That surprised me. The man is on TV constantly. And after all the press did for him he doesn't even take them to the dance.

"I look at it from the position of a journalist, and what I see is that, you know what, the messaging is just wrong. He's just not been fully engaged. He just hasn't conveyed that he really cares about this issue, and that he's not off to the side watching."

Breitbart.tv » NPR’s Williams: Obama ‘Hasn’t Conveyed That He Really Cares’ About Oil Spill

Jindal has a plan; so does Obama

The difference in the two plans is the men's character, patriotism, and world view. Bobby Jindal is a state governor, a loyal American first,who knows he is supposed to protect the people who elected him. Barack Obama is the president of all of us who believes he is a "world citizen" first, and he gives the bird to the people on the left who elected him and his backsides to those who didn't.

Obama's plan is to dawdle, form commissions, and speechify until the gulf states are so damaged they'll have no choice but to take more handouts from the federal government. Hopefully, if his plan is successful, taxes on energy will soar, so that he'll then have even more reasons to point to "green" technology to pay off all his cronies.

Bobby Jindal for President, and the sooner the better.

Jefferson officials fully support Jindal's plan to build barrier islands against oil spill NOLA.com

Deepwater Horizon record was exemplary--MMS

Out of 2,896 days of operation, Deep Water Horizon received 6 citations, and none of those were very serious according to Minerals Management Service (MMS). The Deepwater Horizon's record was so exemplary, according to MMS officials, that the rig was never on inspectors' informal "watch list" for problem rigs. But now there are charges and counter charges, and Associated Press who probably doesn't have anyone on staff who knows anything about these rigs, is asking a lot of questions and posing lots of possibilities. But whereever it goes, it always comes back to the responsibility of MMS and the Coast Guard, i.e., the federal government, and the fact that almost nothing was done by this administration for 9 days. The World Socialist Website see it all as BP and Transocean's fault, because how could it blame the Obama government when it doesn't believe there should even be a private oil industry? Unless it was the government of George W. Bush and a hurricane, and then the federal, not the state and local governments, are completely to blame. That too is the socialist way. . .

MMS declined to send a witness to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s hearing Monday on the federal response to the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said. I don't understand how the government can force automobile company CEOs and bank managers to show up to be grilled, and their own guys get to duck out!

Federal Inspections on Deepwater Horizon Not as Claimed - AOL News

On Oil, Mining and Banking Media Favor Regulation, Barely Notice Failures of Regulators | NewsBusters.org

Obama doesn't point fingers at government or environmentalists

If you Google, "blame environmentalists for oil spill" you'll get a bunch of articles, essays, blogs, and whiners on the left bad mouthing Rush Limbaugh (as though he had an elected office or owned an oil company) and someone I've never heard of, for suggesting that there would be no deep water drilling if it weren't for the environmentalists. Oh, are they outraged. But they really don't have a good answer, because it's true. Nor does Obama, whose government agencies handle all the safety and regulation of this very risky (but rarely failing) operation. He, the master of the blame game, continues to blame every thing and everyone except his own administration.

They used to drill for natural gas in Ohio and oil in Pennsylvania. No deep water spills then. Maybe if they'd listened to Sarah Palin . . .?

The Gulf oil spill blame game - How the World Works - Salon.com

Limbaugh, Environmentalists Square Off on Who is to Blame for Oil Leak - ABC News

US agency admits lax enforcement of oil drilling

Let's ignore for a moment that we have a government regulatory agency watchdog (MMS) that is supposed to be keeping this method safe, and that we (humans) would be much safer if the drilling were on land, the fact remains we are still dependent on oil. It is the left that is keeping us unsafe. Their only aim is to destroy the industry, the faster the better. And it's working. Obama needs to stop wagging his finger at others and man up. It's absurd for him to complain about others passing blame when all he does is blame Bush for everything.

US agency admits lax enforcement of oil drilling - Yahoo! News