Does anybody have any idea, at all, why the Coast Guard would issue a cease and desist order to ships trying to suck up the oil out of the Gulf of Mexico? What could they be possibly thinking? Does anybody really buy for one minute their explanation that they were concerned that there might not be adequate life jackets and fire extinguishers on board the ships, and that they just could not seem to get into contact with the barge's owners in order to verify that they were properly equipped?
Or could it be because somebody in the White House or otherwise connected with the Administration does not want to give Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal-who happens to be the one who arranged for the barges-any opportunity to get any credit for his efforts, politically speaking?
This is starting to look to me like this is a crisis not in the making, but in the planning. What other reason could there be for such a boneheaded order? In fact, where are the aircraft carriers? Is the Gulf of Mexico not big enough for them. It seems to me aircraft carriers, which are probably much bigger than the typical barges ordered by Jindal, could suck a lot more of this oil up in a relatively quicker period of time.
Maybe too damn quickly.
But hey, let's hold out some hope. Maybe, eventually, Obama will call out the Navy with three or four destroyers, maybe even more, and maybe even some nuclear submarines along with them and, working together, they'll make short work of these spills. Maybe the Army Corps of Engineers will work in tandem with BP engineers and scientists to come up with a way to finally plug that damn leak.
In fact, I have every degree of faith possible that this whole problem will be solved by, oh, say late October at the latest.
And at the earliest.
