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Sunday, June 27, 2010

IDIOTIC DESTRUCTION BY DESIGN

SHERMAN FREDERICK: Incompetence catches Obama

Can't fake leadership
SHERMAN FREDERICK


Make it official: Everything Barack Obama touches turns to mush. Not only because he wants to screw up everything, but because he's also simply in over his head as president of the United States.

He is the quintessential wrong guy at the wrong time, and the events of last week provided another exclamation point to that sentence. (Not that he would be the right person at any time!)


Rolling Stone magazine published a story revealing the inner workings of Obama's hand-picked general in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal. And those inner workings were not pretty. McChrystal and his HQ advisers were disrespectful in the extreme to just about everyone -- our allies (expletive-gay French), Obama (disengaged), Vice President Joe Biden (you mean Bite Me?), Sen. John McCain (not helpful).

Team McChrystal as portrayed in the article also exhibited a brand of immaturity that even the staunchest of McChrystal supporters could defend only as "locker-room talk." That's putting it mildly. Most would call the Rolling Stone account of those in charge of our war in Afghanistan as borderline scary -- one-third frat house, one-third personality cult worship and one-third "Apocalypse Now."

When the piece hit the stands, the president summoned McChrystal to the White House. The general resigned and was replaced. The president was right to do so.

But don't mistake that for leadership in what otherwise remains a debacle that exposes once again the failure of this president to perform the big tasks the American people need him to do -- in this case, the prosecution of the war on terror. (Ignoring his Moslem mindsets NOT wanting to prosecute this war against his own allies and beliefs).

Let's hit a few of the other low points.

The economy. We're all painfully aware of the president's performance here. He's made the deficit spending of the last few George W. Bush years look downright amateurish. He's added $2 trillion to the national debt, presided over a period of dreadful unemployment and a housing crisis of epic proportions with no end in sight.

When the nation needed a leader in the wake of the Gulf oil spill, President Obama failed to rise to the occasion. He said he cared deeply when the cameras were rolling, but almost immediately after jetting away from the misery in the Gulf, our president could be seen golfing, vacationing and entertaining at the White House, sending a decidedly mixed signal.

In a story on a Wall Street Journal poll that showed Americans are less confident in the president's leadership than at any point in his presidency, reporters interviewed James Ciarmataro, a 23-year-old stay-at-home dad from Macomb, Mich.

Ciarmataro put it just right: He said it was difficult to relate to Obama, because the president is "eating steak dinners at the White House and playing golf" while the country is suffering. (Note: add to this attitude that he insists on very special meat steaks which cost the White House (really cost us)  around $120 PER POUND)!

In other words, leadership can't be faked for long.

If the Gulf doesn't prove it for you, then consider the president's first official act as president -- the signing of an executive order to close the prison facility at Guantanamo Bay.

With the stroke of a pen, he looked the part of a leader, fulfilling a campaign promise. But now, some 17 months later, Gitmo remains open. Why?

Because leadership is more than looking the part. It's hard work. It's resolve. It's sacrifice. It is making things happen. (AND ENOUGH - NOT ZERO - ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE)

As we now find, looking the part on economic recovery, Gulf oil spill relief or even something as relatively simple as closing one detention facility doesn't actually fix the economy, plug the hole or solve the sticky problem of indefinite detention of enemy combatants in the war on terror.

President Obama is long on talking about these things but short on the skills to get them done.

(And appoints weird radicals with no experience other than ideology on how to destroy America.  On his NEW  "oil spill" committee he has a bunch of idealogues but NO oil industry experienced members. Possibly one weak one)!

Now, last week, we find these same flaws are in play with the lives of our soldiers in the war in Afghanistan. The general he chose to execute his strategy required removal not because the president was engaged enough to see it coming, but because of a Rolling Stone article.

It's one thing to take decisive action when publicly humiliated. But it's quite another to effectively prosecute a war.

That takes leadership, which sadly remains a quality we've not seen from this president yet.

COMMENT:  All we've seen is Destruction by Design!

Obama is so intensely focused on digging a hole into which to sink America that he cannot see he is at the bottom of the same sinkhole which is rapidly filling with water and will drown him!

Or as someone else put it, his moronic  bull-in-a-china-shop trashing of all things American fails to see or recognize the large amount of nitro-glycerine he is about to kick and blow himself into smithereens.

Sounds a bit like the "Hojatieh" (search at this site) Islamic Iran President, Ahmadi-Nejad desire to destroy humanity to attract the 12th Imam "redeemer" by getting his attention through the misery and bloodshed created. Which is loonier?

Saturday, June 26, 2010

BIONIC CAT!

LONDON (AFP) – A cat which lost both back paws after a traumatic accident involving a combine harvester has regained a spring in its step after being fitted with prosthetic limbs.

In a groundbreaking surgery carried out by Noel Fitzpatrick, a Surrey-based veterinary surgeon, the custom-made implants "peg" the ankle to Oscar's foot and mimic the way in which deer antler bone grows through skin.

The prosthetic legs, called intraosseous transcutaneous amputation prosthetics (Itaps) were developed by a team from University College London, led by Professor Gordon Blunn.

"The real revolution with Oscar is [that] we have put a piece of metal and a flange into which skin grows into an extremely tight bone," Fitzpatrick said of the operation which took place last November.

"We have managed to get the bone and skin to grow into the implant and we have developed an 'exoprosthesis' that allows this implant to work as a see-saw on the bottom of an animal's limbs to give him effectively normal gait," he added.

The veterinary surgical team took three hours to insert the pegs by drilling into one of the cat's ankle bones in each of the back legs.

The Itap technology has already been used to create a prosthetic for a woman who lost her arm in the July 2005 London bombings.

Oscar's recovery will feature as part of a six-part BBC One documentary series, The Bionic Vet, starting later this month

Monday, June 21, 2010

GULF OIL LEAK EXPERT UPDATE

Behind  the scene update  -

CHECK THE GRAPHIC and Video AT THE END

Monday, June 21, 2010


Gents,


Am still going back and forth to Dallas keeping my toe in the oil business. However, fortunately, I am working on a deepwater project in offshore Ghana and will not be sticking my toe into the Gulf of Mexico. Thus, I will still miss the Thursday luncheons for the foreseeable future.


I know many of you are curious as to what is going on in the Gulf, as I am sure you are aware the politicians and press are not well informed and have no interest to be well informed. I have attached a MS Word file with a sketch of the two relief wells which are being drilled as fast as they can to "kill" the blowout well - Macondo #1.

 
It is a good status of the two wells, one of which is closing in on the blowout. When I finish my Dallas gig, I will do a lunch presentation on the incident.


Also, let me share some statistics and personal thoughts which can put this well into perspective.


a. The U.S. has more than 525,000 producing oil wells in the country. With about 5 million barrels per day produced in the U.S., this means that the average well in the U.S. produces less than 10 barrels per day and included in that average are prolific wells in Alaska and the Gulf which are capable of producing much more.


I would bet the median oil rate of a U.S. well is less than 3 barrels per day. More than 31% of the oil wells in the U.S. according to the DOE produce less than one barrel per day!


b. With the Macondo well belching an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 barrels per day means the Macondo well is capable of flowing more than 4,000 to 5,000 average wells in the U.S!


Is there no surprise that fields like this one are the prize being sought after by the industry which cannot drill in shallow waters or much of anywhere in the U.S. anymore? This one well produces about 1% of the entire U.S. production rate and is most likely the most productive well in the country!


And probably one of the most productive wells in the world. It is too bad that this field will most likely never be produced following shutting and abandoning the Macondo #1 blowout.


c. The only way the Macondo well can be stopped is by intersecting the well with the relief wells being drilled now. If the "junk shot" or "top kill" method would have stopped the flow or the blowout preventer finally closed, the pressured oil would have just ruptured the shallow geological formations and oil would have been coming up in geysers all over the place for miles and then the only way to stop the flow would have been to allow the reservoir to deplete. And this could have been years! Thus, it is a "good" thing that the "top kill" failed.


ALAN NOTE: Read the above paragraph AGAIN - carefully!


"pressured oil would have just ruptured the shallow geological formations"


What is omitted from this scenario is reportedly the feared possibility of this vast "oil" reserve being connected to an EVEN VASTER poisonous Methane gas "bubble" rupturing through with enough content to poison and kill MILLIONS of Gulf coastal States!


This has received passing mention but not reported fully. Apparently not much we can do about it except prepare to die.


 d. This next statistic is not to bash our president; but to put things into perspective: When Air Force One is in the air, it consumes jet fuel (which incidentally comes from the Gulf of Mexico) at the rate of 5 gallons per mile as indicated in data released by the govt.


 And anywhere the pres goes, there are at least two jets of equal size carrying his cars, golf carts, secret service, guests, press, etc. If you make the calculations, this means that when the president takes a junket in Air Force One, he and his entourage are consuming the entire oil production of approximate 450 average oil wells in the U.S.!


e. Tony Hayward, the beaten down CEO of BP, is a friend of mine who I worked with on our project in Colombia in 1994-1997. He was the Exploration Manager for BP's Bogota office. He has a phD in geoscience with highest honors and has more 28 years experience in technical and management positions with BP, which is a heck of a lot more applicable to his job than community organizing.


It would be impossible for him to know the level of detail of what happened on that rig; and Rep. Waxman's questioning just revealed the U.S. government's requirement to place personal blame and focus on something other than the administrations failings on a number of fronts. I contend that the pollution in the Gulf is horrific; but the Gulf will recover.


However, the government's overreach into the oil industry as a result of the incident will do more harm to the country in the long run. Waxman et. al. will deal more harm to the country which will never be cleaned up.


My advice to Tony Hayward when he met with the congressional panel, and his other public appearances, would have been to have a good speech writer and use a teleprompter. That way he could have kept his foot out of his mouth and look more like a competent chief executive.


f. The blowout was clearly caused by human error and an unintentional accident and combination of unforeseen failures of protective devises which all have levels of redundancy. It is very analogous to the loss of the space shuttle Challenger which was destroyed because of seal failure of the solid fuel rocket booster.


When that happened, in spite of engineer in Morton Thiokol (manufacturer of the solid fuel booster) pleading to stop the launch following freezing weather at the launch pad; I did not see the head of NASA butchered in front of Congress and asked to jump on a sword.


BP has assured everybody that all legitimate claims will be honored; but I heard today that a homeowner was asking reimbursement for loss of home value as surely his failure to sell his home is the fault of BP.


Am sure the hookers in New Orleans will charge BP for the loss of income from the rig workers who will be unemployed for six months.


How much of the $20 billion will go to ACORN? Will be interesting to follow this money trail........




Thursday, June 17, 2010

FEDS' RED TAPE PREVENT OIL CLEAN UP. BECAUSE IT WAS A LOCAL EFFORT AND WORKED?

Eight days ago, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal ordered barges to begin vacuuming crude oil out of his state's oil-soaked waters. Today, against the governor's wishes, those barges sat idle, even as more oil flowed toward the Louisiana shore.

Louisiana Governor Jindal frustrated over decision-making red tape. "It's the most frustrating thing," the Republican governor said today in Buras, La. "Literally, yesterday morning we found out that they were halting all of these barges."

Watch "World News" for David Muir's report from Louisiana tonight.

Sixteen barges sat stationary today, although they were sucking up thousands of gallons of BP's oil as recently as Tuesday. Workers in hazmat suits and gas masks pumped the oil out of the Louisiana waters and into steel tanks. It was a homegrown idea that seemed to be effective at collecting the thick gunk.

"These barges work. You've seen them work. You've seen them suck oil out of the water," said Jindal.

Coast Guard Orders Barges to Stop
So why stop now?

"The Coast Guard came and shut them down," Jindal said. "You got men on the barges in the oil, and they have been told by the Coast Guard, 'Cease and desist. Stop sucking up that oil.'"

A Coast Guard representative told ABC News today that it shares the same goal as the governor.

"We are all in this together. The enemy is the oil," said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Dan Lauer.

But the Coast Guard ordered the stoppage because of reasons that Jindal found frustrating. The Coast Guard needed to confirm that there were fire extinguishers and life vests on board, and then it had trouble contacting the people who built the barges.

WHAT BLITHERING MINDLESS, RED TAPE . SUCK UP THE OIL WHILE YOU SEARCH FOR WHO BUILT THE DARN THINGS. OR WAS THIS ANOTHER UNION INFLUENCED POWER PLAY ACTION?


Louisiana Governor Couldn't Overrule Coast Guard

The governor said he didn't have the authority to overrule the Coast Guard's decision, though he said he tried to reach the OBAMA White House to raise his concerns.

"They promised us they were going to get it done as quickly as possible," he said. But "every time you talk to someone different at the Coast Guard, you get a different answer."

(Intentional sabotage could not have been more destructive/delaying of the successfully WORKING  efforts to deal with the disaster)

After Jindal strenuously made his case, the barges finally got the go-ahead today to return to the Gulf and get back to work, after more than 24 hours of sitting idle.

MEANWHILE

Thursday, June 10, 2010

INSIDUOUS INFILTRATION OF RADICAL MOSLEMS

Ohio Treasurer's Muslim CFO Amer Ahmad hands out contracts, state jobs to fellow Islamic extremists

Jawa Report ^ | 6-10-2010 | Barbarossa


Several articles have appeared in the past week in the Ohio media concerning accusations against the Ohio Treasurer's CFO and deputy treasurer, Amer Ahmad, that he has handed out no-bid contracts and state jobs to Islamic extremist friends associated with the terror-tied Noor Islamic Cultural Center, where he and his family attend.

The story began with the Dayton Daily news, who reported:

Boston-based State Street Bank won work worth $1.27 million from Ohio Treasurer Kevin Boyce’s office this year after hiring a lobbyist with personal connections to Boyce’s deputy treasurer.

State Street Bank was the low bidder on a subcontract to be the custodial bank for global assets at three of Ohio’s five public pension systems — a job that entails keeping track of more than $23.6 billion in assets.

No laws were broken and Boyce’s office makes a solid business case why State Street got the work. But just two days before proposals were due, the bank hired an immigration attorney with little experience in banking or lobbying to lobby for the contract.

In fact, Noure Alo’s only lobbying contract is with State Street, according to records filed with the Joint Legislative Ethics Commission.

Alo, who lives in Dublin outside Columbus, also appears to have ties to Amer Ahmad, Boyce’s deputy treasurer.

To say that they have ties is an understatement. Noure Alo was the registering attorney for Ahmad's consulting corporation, Five River Partners LLC. Both attend the Noor center mosque, and Alo is actively involved in Ahmad's service organization, Salam Corps.

As both the Dayton Daily News and Cleveland Plain Dealer have reported, State Street won the no-bid contract to manage $23.6 billion in state assets just days after hiring immigration attorney Alo as a lobbyist. State Street is Alo's only lobbying client registered with the state of Ohio. State Street is currently facing a lawsuit filed by the state of California for defrauding it of $56.6 million - a lawsuit that had already been filed before the state of Ohio awarded the no-bid contract to State Street (who just happened to hire Noure Alo two days before the RFI deadline).

As the late Billy Mays would say, but wait, there's more!

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported on Sunday that Noure Alo's wife, Walaa Waeda, was hired by Ohio Treasurer Kevin Boyce as an assistant for a job that was never posted, only announced at Ahmad and Alo's mosque, and she the only candidate who applied and was interviewed:

Ahmad said his wife belongs to the same professional organization as Alo, and he met him through her. They also have been involved in the same community service activities and attend the same mosque.

In 2008, Alo filed business organization papers with the secretary of state on behalf of Ahmad and his wife. The company, Five Rivers Partners LLC, is related to consulting services Ahmad’s wife performs, he said.

Boyce hired Alo’s wife in late December to fill a sudden opening in his office. Ahmad said the job, which pays $37,500 a year, was not posted. He announced the opening at his mosque and Alo’s wife, Waeda, responded. She was the only job candidate interviewed, Ahmad said.

Ohio state jobs openings only announced at a terror-tied mosque? Not quite sure how that is legal.

We'll have more on the sudden rise of Noure Alo as a financial industry lobbyist in the coming days.




Amer Ahmad



http://crcc.usc.edu/initiatives/amcli/amer-ahmad.html


Noor Islamic Cultural Center


http://www.foxnews.com/us/2009/08/31/attorney-targets-alleged-terror-ties-case-runaway-girl/


Dayton Daily news, who reported:


http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/politics/bank-hired-lobbyist-with-boyce-aide-ties-just-days-before-landing-state-contract-722105.html


Noure Alo

http://www.harrisonalo.com/Bio/NoureAlo.asp


registering attorney

http://www2.sos.state.oh.us/reports/rwservlet?imgc&Din=200828300828


manage $23.6 billion in state assets

http://www.tos.ohio.gov/ForBusiness/Default.aspx?Section=Global%20Custody%20Services

lobbying client

http://www2.jlec-olig.state.oh.us/olac/Reports/ViewAgent.aspx?id=4090


defrauding it of $56.6 million



http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/business/21street.html?_r=1

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported on Sunday


http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2010/06/ohio_treasurer_picks_bank_faci.html