The National Hustle

Since the British Petroleum (BP) well erupted at the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig on April 20th, roughly 800,000 gallons of oil has been spilling into the Gulf of Mexico on a daily basis. While BP has been making limited progress in slowing the leak, they have estimated that the well will not be capped until August, at the earliest. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen has now estimated that the disaster cleanup could take years, but we can only speculate on the long-term damage to the sensitive Gulf marshes and the likely collapse of the local marine population. Rest assured we will be feeling the reverberations of this catastrophe for decades to come. One just has to look at the environmental and social impact on the Prince William Sound area 20 years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill to get a glimpse of the exponential future repercussions of the worst oil spill in United States history.

If you are like me and have been following BP’s self-inflicted soap opera over the past 49 days, you are frustrated and angry. You are frustrated over BP’s risky business practices and their inability to plan for the potential consequences of such behavior (hastily strung together stoppage techniques like “The Box” and “Top Kill” do not count as a disaster plan). Surely you are also frustrated over the widespread corruption and incompetence at the Minerals Management Service, which is supposed to act on behalf of the American people and is “responsible for inspection and oversight of energy companies to ensure they are following the law and protecting the safety of their workers and the environment.” Unfortunately, having a good mission statement doesn’t stop oil spill disasters. And finally, if you are like me, you feel angry at your inability to make any meaningful impact on this disaster. Fortunately, both you and I would be wrong to think we are completely helpless. Continue reading

Earlier this week, Sarah and I walked out to the bridge (Golden Gate, of course) and on our way back I looked at the City before me and started thinking about how dense a population sits on this 7-mile-by-7-mile square.  I thought, “Since we in SF depend on resources to be brought in and wastes to be shipped out, if we were cut off from the world around us, how many people could reasonably subsist in the City?”  Sarah indulged me and we agreed the number would be something south of the current one million inhabitants.

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Health care.  Say the words and they naturally incite deep-seeded emotions.  Whether through personal experience or those of loved ones, we have all had some interaction with the system.  So, it should be no surprise that when large, sweeping change to the American healthcare system is on the table, both positive and negative feelings will erupt, including hope, fear, and hate.

With so much apparently at stake, members of Congress have headed back to their constituents to explain the contents of the bill and hear about their hopes and fears of the plan.  Unfortunately, meaningful dialogue has been impeded by an organized “shouting down” of congressional Democrats at these town hall-style meetings.  While I am all for protesting and public displays of dissent, meaningful debate is clearly not the intent of these groups (Note: I use the term “groups” here, not “mobs”, which I feel is being inaccurately used as a Democratic talking point to build support for the healthcare bill) and it’s unfortunate questions can’t be answered in the forum.  These individuals come to the meetings with the impression that they know all they need to know about the proposed reforms.  Principally, they believe this bill will result in a single-payer system and ultimately, is just more big government intrusion into the lives of citizens.

But who’s informing and organizing these groups?  Clearly, this can’t be a random gathering of concerned citizens, right?  Last night, Chris Matthews had on a representative from FreedomWorks, the principal group behind these shouting-sessions:

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