...and our fearless president is sending some underlings who have to report back to him in 30 days on what can be done to prevent it from happening in the future.

You'd think he'd at least want to fly over and take a look himself. But alas, there are tee times....

Redd wrote on Apr 30^th, 2010 at 3:03pm:

I'm not sure if he drinks tea or not. I KNOW he plays golf. A LOT of it.

Charlie wrote on Apr 30^th, 2010 at 4:50pm:

So he does even less.

Brew wrote on Apr 30^th, 2010 at 2:37pm:


He's flying there today or tomorrow. Read the news and cut back on the brewskis.

Quote:

Please notice when it was written vs. when he decided to fly there. Almost as though I was advising him.

Or do you not have a well-developed sense of time?

Quote:

    Pretty sophomoric reply as usual.

             Potter

I can vouch for that.  I tired to get Bill to sample some Kentucky bourbon when he was here and he just looked at me with that hang-dog look in his eyes.   

Bottom line, getting this well under control is going to take all available resources...public and private. And it should.

The Fed's take on the royalties, to me, justifies an active partnership in bringing all assets to solve the problem.

I recently read an article that some Senators want to include reductions to the royalties to the States in the proposed new energy legislation. "Their is no justification for using these national resources to provide benefits only for a few coastal states and their citizens." Needless to say the Senators are from inland states. 

When I was young, I worked in the oil fields on drilling platforms and pipe laying barges. When I flew out I looked down upon the land ravaged by canals dug by the oil industry. I looked down on the marshes scared by lumber companies that, after the Civil War, extracted virgin cypress timber justified by the spoils of war. Canals were carved into the forest and smaller arteries were cut radially outward and the lumber was dragged to the floating mills at the center.

In the morning, in the reflected sunlight, it looked like thousands of dandelions laid flat across the land. 

And now this. The forests are gone, the land is sinking, the coast is disappearing and the seafood industry, depending on the damage, may disappear.

Sometimes I feel that we have given enough and paid too high a price. Drill elsewhere for a while.

Freeze your shrimp for future special meals and for those investors...buy BP.

Steve G

Sunset on Louisianne by Zachary Richard

When I was young and full of dreams,
My whole life in front of me.
But things are not always the way they seem,
Some things will always change.

My papa’d been a trapper living hand to mouth,
But when I made shop foreman, I had it all figured out,
I thanked god each and everyday
When the industry came to town.

Chorus:
Sunset on Louisianne,
The sun going down on the promised,
I’ve given you everything I can,
I’ve got nothing left to lose.

Married a girl from Pauché Briide,
Raised a family of Cajun kids,
Nobody did no better than we did,
But things can always change.

My sister lost her baby premature,
And my papa got the sickness that got no cure,
And what they told us about it at the plant,
We could not be sure.

Chorus
Bridge:
Smokestacks burning on the river,
From New Orleans to Baton Rouge.
How can I go on believing
When the won’t tell me the truth.

I take my grand son fishing down at Camanida Bay,
I hope some of this beauty will last,
But, lord, it’s changing so damn fast,
Each and every day.

I love the river and I love the swamp,
The snowy egret and the old bull frog,
But they’re harder to find one and all
Since the industry came to town.