The Oily Politics of the Gay Bay

There's nothing quite like getting to observe San Francisco Bay politics up close as I have the last couple of days. I arrived in the area north of SF in the midst of a nasty oil spill after a Chinese cargo ship scraped the Oakland/San Francisco Bay Bridge and put 58,000 gallons of heavy bunker fuel oil into the wicked currents of the Bay. Within a short time the spill had spread far and wide (the Chinese just can't catch a break).

Being the eco-whacky area that this is, people were literally falling out of their Prius's trying to volunteer to clean up the mess, and some were actually being arrested because they refused to accept the official's explanation that it's dangerous for untrained volunteers to handle this highly toxic product. So what did the officials do? They took a truly Gay Bay approach.

On the news last night we saw a couple of dozen folks all gussied up in moonsuits and two layers of rubber gloves working Ocean Beach. How noble, you may say. Except for one thing - there was no oil on Ocean Beach, at least not in quantities that would make any difference. The officials didn't even bother to close it. The only oil that showed up there was in the form of tiny drops, smaller than a dime, that were very widely scattered.

My daughter was watching with me and she looked at that scene and said "why do they need all those people in moonsuits if there's no oil there? That seems kind of stupid".

I'm so proud. I've raised her right.

There were also numerous stories about the various groups trying to save the seabirds. Now, I like seabirds and I'm glad they're around, but are we running out of the things? Is it really necessary to spend thousands and thousands of dollars to put these birds through all kinds of scrubbing, manhandling and force feeding just so we can turn them loose to complete their 7 or 8 year lifespan? If we did to humans what these do-gooders are doing to these birds, the Dems would call it torture. Waterboarding is a gentler procedure.

I was especially fortunate that the entire Bay area Congressional delegation was in town, including San Fran Nan herself. During a press conference, and in typical Gay Bay style, she blasted the Coast Guard because they didn't get a warning out to everyone as fast as she thought they should have. They were a little busy in the early hours of the spill trying to get resources to corral the thing, but that wasn't good enough for the gathered Dems. Pelosi actually said that the Coast Guard didn't act fast enough to tell everyone that "the Bay wasn't safe for children or other living things". That's not leadership, that's a bumper sticker.

She also opined, in a later news story, on her latest effort to lose the war in Iraq. She actually said that "if there was progress there'd be a reason to stay, but there has been no progress." The reporter actually had to try and help dig her out of that hole by asking if she was referring to political progress (as opposed to actually stopping the fighting).

I guess they don't get the papers in D.C. because everybody, and I mean everybody including the most lefty of the lefty press has been reporting on the dramatic decline in violence in Iraq. The front page story in USA Today this morning was about the significant reduction in roadside bombs thanks to the hard work of our troops and the locals who have been turning in the bomb factories. The president will slam that bill right back at her, assuming it ever gets out of the Senate.

That wasn't all the craziness going on up here. Just down the coast is UC Santa Cruz, the home of the Banana Slugs (yes, that's their mascot). A group of students who look like they just stepped off the time machine from the 60's are holed up in a redwood tree protesting an expansion of the school's facilities which are to include a new biolab. They're setting up a little nutjob city under the tree to protect the protesters from "the man". How retro.

After my weekly radio interview on KHND this morning I'm heading back south. It's crazy in Southern California too, but nothing like this.