Well, tonight’s oval office speech should be interesting for a number of reasons…

1. Will there be a US flag visible? Right now the comments I’m hearing are 50-50…

2. Is the 6 month moratorium on drilling going to stick? If it does, will the US effectively concede drilling rights to the Gulf? The offshore rigs are very expensive and a limited number are available world wide; at least a couple have already been re-routed to Brazil, rather than sit idle waiting for ‘maybe’ approval in the Gulf. China and other countries are already drilling deep wells in the Gulf, and surely will continue/expand that drilling, regardless of what we do. If the rigs go elsewhere, it may literally be 10 years before new ones will be available/off contract to return. Also, by stopping all drilling, the administration has put thousands out of work in the Gulf states, but have you seen any coverage of that???

3. Cap and Trade- I’m betting you’re going to hear yet another push for this crap and tax plan tonight… One can only wonder what are they thinking! If you cut our domestic drilling, and force more coal plants (since it will be a cold day in Hell before a nuclear plant gets environmental approval), and then tax the hell out of the carbon footprint; our domestic power costs will go through the roof. Also, NO other country is voluntarily signing on to the crap and tax scheme… This, along with the unsustainable spending WILL drive us to a third world economy…

4. Alternative energy- Bet there will be a BIG push for this, but there IS a small problem… There are currently NO real alternatives, much less ethanol (the cost of the petroleum required to produce it exceeds the amount of ethanol produced); Nuclear (see above), Wind everybody is doing the NIMBY thing, and the econazis are suing most of the successful windfarms for killing birds (see San Bernadino, CA). Another ‘little’ issue is who is going to pay for the development of alternate energy? I heard a radio bit this morning saying the administration should “require” the oil companies to pay for development. Does this mean nationalization of the oil companies? They already spend billions a year in R&D, but the commentator said they should have to ‘match’ funds on oil/gas research with funds on alternatives…

5. What will be the latest excuse on the Gulf? The reality is the ONLY sure way to stop the leak is to drill a pilot well into the original well and cap it that way. That takes time (Aug/Sept if no hurricanes), and BP is already doing that. Should BP pay for the damage? Hell yes! But I find it interesting that they have been stopped from using dispersant (too toxic? Are they more toxic than the OIL???), have not been allowed to bring in the Dutch sweeper ships; and LA, MS, FL have had problems getting approvals for sand barriers off the coast, apparently because there were “issues” with the environmental approvals for putting SAND ON A BEACH!!! WTF???

Personally I think tonight’s speech will be like that train wreck you see coming, you don’t really want to watch, but the horrified fascination with it keeps you glued to the scene…

REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER, vote these congresscritters out and lets start over, it sure as hell can’t get any worse!!!