Worry That Gulf Oil Spreading Into Major Current
May 17th, 2010
Daily NewsAP - Jeffrey Collins and Jason Dearen,
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning

Tube siphons some oil gushing into Gulf; new worry that spill oozing into major sea current

NEW ORLEANS  -- BP said Monday it was siphoning more than one-fifth of the oil that has been spewing into the Gulf for almost a month, as worries escalated that the ooze may reach a major ocean current that could carry it through the Florida Keys and up the East Coast.

BP PLC chief operating officer Doug Suttles said Monday on NBC's "Today" that a mile-long tube was funneling a little more than 1,000 barrels -- 42,000 gallons -- of crude a day from a blown well into a tanker ship. The company and the U.S. Coast Guard have estimated about 5,000 barrels -- 210,000 gallons -- have been spewing out each day. Engineers finally got the contraption working on Sunday after weeks of failed solutions -- however, millions of gallons of oil are already in the Gulf of Mexico.

Crews will slowly ramp up how much oil the tube collects over the next few days. They need to move slowly because they don't want too much frigid seawater entering the pipe, which could combine with gases to form the same ice-like crystals that doomed the previous containment effort.

As engineers worked to get a better handle on the spill, a researcher told The Associated Press that computer models show the oil may have already seeped into a powerful water stream known as the loop current, which could propel it into the Atlantic Ocean. A boat is being sent later this week to collect samples and learn more.

"This can't be passed off as 'it's not going to be a problem,'" said William Hogarth, dean of the University of South Florida's College of Marine Science. "This is a very sensitive area. We are concerned with what happens in the Florida Keys."

BP PLC engineers remotely guiding robot submersibles had worked since Friday to place the tube into a 21-inch pipe nearly a mile below the sea. Crews got it working after several setbacks.

BP failed in several previous attempts to stop the leak, trying in vain to activate emergency valves and lowering a 100-ton container that got clogged with icy crystals. They have used chemicals to disperse the oil. Tar balls have been sporadically washing up on beaches in several states, including Mississippi where at least 60 have been found. But so far, oil has not washed ashore in great quantities.

Hogarth said a computer model shows oil has already entered the loop current, while a second shows the oil is 3 miles from it -- still dangerously close. The models are based on weather, ocean current and spill data from the U.S. Navy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, among other sources.

Hogarth said it's still too early to know what specific amounts of oil will make it to Florida, or what damage it might do to the sensitive Keys or beaches on Florida's Atlantic coast. He said claims by BP that the oil would be less damaging to the Keys after traveling over hundreds of miles from the spill site were not mollifying.

Damage is already done, with the only remaining question being how much more is to come, said Paul Montagna, from the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University.

"Obviously the quicker they plug this the better, but they are already having a tremendous effect on the environment," he said. "In the end, we have to figure out how much is actually pouring into the Gulf."

BP had previously said the tube, if successful, was expected to collect most of the oil gushing from the well. Officials still hope to collect most of it when the tube is working at full capacity.

Two setbacks over the weekend illustrate how delicate the effort is. Early Sunday, hours before a steady connection was made, engineers were able to suck a small amount of oil to the tanker, but the tube was dislodged. The previous day, equipment used to insert the tube into the gushing pipe at the ocean floor had to be hauled to the surface for readjustment.

The first chance to choke off the flow for good should come in about a week. Engineers plan to shoot heavy mud into the crippled blowout preventer on top of the well, then permanently entomb the leak in concrete. If that doesn't work, crews also can shoot golf balls and knotted rope into the nooks and crannies of the device to plug it, Wells said.

The final choice to end the leak is a relief well, but it is more than two months from completion.

Top officials in President Barack Obama's administration cautioned that the tube "is not a solution."

"We will not rest until BP permanently seals the wellhead, the spill is cleaned up, and the communities and natural resources of the Gulf Coast are restored and made whole," Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said in a joint statement.

Meanwhile, scientists warned of the effects of the oil that has already leaked into the Gulf. Researchers said miles-long underwater plumes of oil discovered in recent days could poison and suffocate sea life across the food chain, with damage that could endure for a decade or more.

Researchers have found more underwater plumes of oil than they can count from the well, said Samantha Joye, a professor of marine sciences at the University of Georgia.

The hazards of the plume are twofold. Joye said the oil itself can prove toxic to fish, while vast amounts of oxygen are also being sucked from the water by microbes that eat oil. Dispersants used to fight the oil are also food for the microbes, speeding up the oxygen depletion.

"So, first you have oily water that may be toxic to certain organisms and also the oxygen issue, so there are two problems here," said Joye, who's working with the scientists who discovered the plumes in a recent boat expedition. "This can interrupt the food chain at the lowest level, and will trickle up and certainly impact organisms higher. Whales, dolphins and tuna all depend on lower depths to survive."

Oil has been spewing since the rig Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20, killing 11 people and sinking two days later. The government shortly afterward estimated the spill at 210,000 gallons a day, a figure that has since been questioned by some scientists who fear it could be far more. BP executives have stood by the estimate while acknowledging there's no way to know for sure.

Steve Shepard, who chairs the Gulf Coast group of the Sierra Club in Mississippi, said the solution by BP to siphon some of the oil is "hopefully the beginning of the end of this leak."

He, like others, is worried that much more than the estimate is leaking and that the long-term damage is hard to measure.

"We have a lot to be worried about," he said. "We are in uncharted territory."

Collins reported from Hammond. Associated Press Writers Michael Kunzelman in New Orleans, Shelia Byrd in Jackson, Miss., and Christine Armario in Miami contributed to this report.

Will America be the Next Greece?
May 17th, 2010
Daily NewsStar Parker WND
Categories: Commentary;Contemporary Issues

Look at what is going on in Greece and you'll understand what is driving the grass-roots uprising taking place across our country.

It's perfectly clear that big-government, welfare-state policies drove Greece into bankruptcy and that the path on which our own Democrat-controlled government has put our nation mirrors where Greece and other European welfare states have gone.

As much as those on the left want to portray tea partiers as right-wing nut cases, or as racists, truth is these are rational, clear-thinking Americans who see our beloved nation being wrecked. They are serving as an early warning system that the things Americans hold most dear are in danger.

Government spending accounts for 50 percent of Greece's national output, and taxes take 40 percent of it. Debt exceeds 100 percent of GDP. One-third of everyone employed in Greece works for the government.

Now they can't pay the interest on their massive debt – and violence has hit the streets as Greeks discover that on the other end of what they thought were entitlements are empty government promises.

Just a few years ago, American debt was about 35 percent of our GDP. Now it's double that, and projections show it approaching 100 percent in just a few years.

President Obama's budget calls for $3.83 trillion in spending in 2011. Ten years ago the federal budget was $1.86 trillion.

A year and half ago our newly elected president sold the American public the idea that an almost trillion-dollar stimulus was needed to keep unemployment from going over 8 percent. Today unemployment hovers at slightly below 10 percent.

There's a debate going on about whether it's accurate to call our president a socialist.

Here's what I say.

Socialism has three key characteristics, all of which I believe he buys into.

First, socialism disdains private property as sacred. Any doubt where our president stands on this? As former Council of Economic Advisors head Greg Mankiw notes regarding the health-care bill, the prime motive was not "health per se but … redistribution of income."

Recent data from the Tax Foundation make this clear. Families in the upper 1 percent of income will pay an average of $52,000 more in taxes, and families in the bottom 50 percent will get an average of $1,000 in benefits.

Second, socialism puts faith in government social engineering. Just think government health care, government takeovers of banks and car companies, and cap-and-trade.

And third, socialism is godless, secular religion. It sees human redemption in government planning. I'll get nasty letters by saying our president also signs on to this. But consider the facts. He endorses abortion, including partial-birth abortion, and the legitimacy of sexual behavior that traditional religion abhors. He believe in the redemptive possibilities of government planning, and, going beyond tolerating all religions, he presents them all as equally legitimate.

Trouble in the Holy Land
May 17th, 2010
Daily NewsWND
Categories: Today's Headlines;Peace Process

Obama threatens to 'impose' Palestinian state

Warns White House can force solution 'Israelis won't appreciate'

NEW YORK – If Israel and the Palestinians fail to reach an agreement to create a Palestinian state, the Obama administration will look into imposing a solution on the parties, a senior Palestinian Authority negotiator told WND.

The negotiator, speaking by telephone from Ramallah, said the PA agreed to resume direct talks with Israel earlier this week only after a U.S. pledge to ensure against any new Jewish construction in eastern Jerusalem and the strategic West Bank.

The PA negotiator told WND the Obama administration told the Palestinians if a deal is ultimately not reached with Israel the U.S. will consider imposing a solution "that the Israelis won't appreciate."

Further, the PA negotiator said recent meetings between the Obama administration and the Palestinians revealed the White House is on board a Palestinian threat to unilaterally ask the United Nations to recognize a Palestinian state outside of negotiations with Israel.

The PA negotiator said the U.S. wanted for now to stress negotiations between the parties, but that if an agreement is not reached the U.S. would not veto a U.N. Security Council resolution to unilaterally create a Palestinian state.

Earlier this week, Obama urged PA President Mahmoud Abbas in a telephone conversation to engage in direct talks with Israel, the White House announced.

A White House statement said the two "discussed the need for both parties to negotiate seriously and in good faith, and to move from proximity talks to direct negotiations as soon as possible in order to reach an agreement on permanent status issues."

The report came after the PA announced last Sunday it was ready to resume indirect negotiations with Israel, brokered by Obama's Mideast envoy, George Mitchell.

PA to Israelis: Go Back to Europe
May 17th, 2010
Daily NewsArutz Sheva - Maayana Miskin
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel;Anti-Israel

As Palestinian Authority officials agree to indirect "proximity" peace talks with Israel, PA television sends a different message. A broadcast that was repeated twice last week called on Israelis to “return” to Europe and Ethiopia, so that PA Arabs can “return” to Israeli cities such as Akko (Acre), Haifa and Jerusalem.

The speaker suggested that Israelis go to “your original homeland,” listing Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Russia and Ethiopia as possible options. He did not mention the many countries in the Arab world from which Jews fled to Israel, such as Syria, Egypt, or Iraq.

PA TV is owned and controlled by the Palestinian Authority.

Besides portraying Israeli Jews – most of whom were born in Israel – as foreigners, the broadcast also backs the “right of return.” The PA, along with much of the Arab world, demands that Israel allow millions of Arabs born abroad to “return” to the Israeli cities from which their grandparents or great grandparents fled during the War of Independence in 1948.

The broadcast was picked up and translated by Palestinian Media Watch, which noted that this is far from the first time the PA has broadcast material portraying Israelis as foreigners who “stole” the land. In February, a PA children's program told Israeli Arab children that they are “part of occupied Palestine.”

In a recent interview with OpEdNews reporter Joan Brunwasser, PMW director Itamar Marcus warned that the incitement in PA media is more indicative of the PA's intentions than its statements given to the foreign press. “We feel that if there is to be peace, it has to start with children," Marcus said. "Therefore, what children are being taught in schools and what they are learning from music videos and children's media are a better indicator of the real beliefs and goals of the leaders, and will also determine if we have peace in the next generation."

Israel: Two - State Solution Doesn't Address Core Problem
May 17th, 2010
Daily NewsIsrael Today
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel;Peace Process

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon on Sunday said the United States and the international community are going about making peace between Israel and the Arabs all wrong by focusing almost solely on the establishment of a Palestinian state.

In remarks to The Jerusalem Post on the eve of US envoy George Mitchell's arrival, Ayalon noted that the current US-brokered indirect peace talks seem to have the singular goal of bringing into being a new Arab state on ancient Jewish lands, which Washington and the world thinks will magically make the conflict disappear.

But the birth of a Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip will not result in a "lasting peace," insisted Ayalon. At least not if it is not accompanied by true reconciliation.

"What is needed is reconciliation based on co-existence," Ayalon explained.

The original land-for-peace process ostensibly laid the groundwork for reconciliation and co-existence alongside security and land concessions. But the Palestinians have for nearly two decades ignored or outright refused to honor their commitments to end incitement against Israel and the Jews.

Because of its impatience over brining the peace process to a successful close, Washington has brushed aside these Palestinian violations, or worse, written them off as a justifiable response to alleged Israel provocations.

Ayalon's warning echoed the words of former US President John F. Kennedy when he told the UN General Assembly amid escalating tension with the Soviet Union:

"But peace does not rest in charters and covenants alone. It lies in the hearts and minds of all people. And if it is cast out there, then no act, no pact, no treaty, no organization can hope to preserve it without the support and the wholehearted commitment of all people. So let us not rest all our hopes on parchment and on paper; let us strive to build peace, a desire for peace, a willingness to work for peace, in the hearts and minds of all our people."

Drill to Simulate Massive Rocket Attack
May 17th, 2010
Daily NewsJpost
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel;War

68 local authorities to take part in five-day exercise next week

A national war drill will be held at the end of the month to test the country’s responses to a scenario of hundreds of rockets being fired on the home front.

The annual exercise, Turning Point 4, will take place May 23-27, and will be managed jointly by the National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) and the IDF Home Front Command. The Israel Police, Magen David Adom, government offices and local authorities will all be involved.

The ability of local authorities to deal with large-scale rocket attacks will form the centerpiece of the exercise, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna’i said during a press conference at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv on Sunday.

“After the Second Lebanon War, we concluded that the ultimate responsibility rests with the local authorities,” he said. “If you seek peace, prepare for war.”

The minister stressed that the exercise was an annual and routine affair that was not linked in any way to fears of looming war. He added that messages of assurance “have been sent where they needed to be sent” to allay any tensions that could be caused by the exercise.

Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan, commander of the Home Front Command, said an unprecedented number of local authorities, 68, would participate in the drill, which will include field simulations to test emergency responses.

On Wednesday, May 26, an air raid siren will sound across the country, and citizens will be asked to head for safe areas or bomb shelters as part of the exercise.

“In addition, there will be several sirens in local councils during the exercise,” Golan said.

In 2009, 50 percent of the population took an active role in the drill during the siren, Golan said, adding that he hoped “even more would respond this year.”

The Home Front Command has asked citizens to “enter safe zones chosen ahead of time when the siren sounds.” Detailed instructions on how to select a safe zone are available on the Home Front Command Web site.

The Home Front Command will also practice taking over the distribution of gas masks – a task now managed by the Israel Postal Company – to ensure rapid distribution during a time of conflict.

Eight cities – Tirat Hacarmel, Safed, Yokneam, Rishon Lezion, Petah Tikva, Holon and Tel Aviv – will see gas mask distribution centers opened by the Home Front Command for a day during the drill, and local residents will be able to collect masks.

Ze’ev Zuk Ram, Head of NEMA, said the exercise would test the ability of government ministries to coordinate responses with regional councils. Responding to a question by a journalist, Ram added that Arab regional councils would play as active a role as the remainder of councils.

The government will test its ability to keep basic infrastructure like electricity, water and transportation running during the exercise, as well as the manufacture of basic necessities.

Vilna’i said the drill was aimed at preparing the country for a full-scale conflict, adding that Operation Cast Lead in Gaza last year “was not a war, but a limited operation which affected one region and a small percentage of the population.”