Lessons of a"Tar Baby"

Anyone else ever notice how quickly the winds of journalism can shift? From the howl of a hurricane force squall, down to the almost undetectable mummer of a wisp of wind that brushes by so slightly, as to cause the question as to whether it even really happened at all.

Such seems to be the case these days as it concerns the gulf oil spill. The oil spill is still there and it continues to spew its noxious brew into the gulf daily, but we are hearing less and less news of it and even less of what is actually being done to stop it as each day passes. And the media is directly responsible for that placation of the American mind IMO. Their reporting has gone from the level of hurricane warning down to all but a collective murmur. And what they are reporting on the spill, centers more on the scientific aspects of the disaster than the emotional and economic realities that it is creating daily.

For the most part, the reporting of the spill now seems to center on the twenty billion that Obama strong armed out of BP (last week)
to go into escrow for the panhandle relief fund. That and the news of the Scandinavian born BP CEO, who was off yachting along the English coast over the past few days. While those on the gulf continued to languish in a no man's land of not knowing what will happen to them from one day to the next.

Mean while, the fact that our president decided to once again indulge himself in another round of golf on Saturday (round 39 of his administration for those counting) while the crisis continues to boil unabated, seems to have made only the most minimal notice on the breezes of mainstream media if at all.

Yet the oil has not been stopped. It continues to flow and now the main curiosity of America media seems not to be "if it's going to be stopped or when?" But rather how much oil continues to escape and whether the scientists involved in the estimations of the escaping oil, have been forth coming and honest in their evaluation of their reported figures from the beginning.

This disaster has turned into the ultimate political "catchy monkey..... shell game" of this century IMO. The Obama White House has spent the past two months trying to figure out how to parlay the crisis into a political victory for their socialist cap and trade and carbon taxation desires, while BP has tried to determine more so how to capture the oil as opposed to stopping it. While not really concerning themselves with the ultimate reality of what billions of gallons of oil will ultimately do to the Gulf of Mexico and the economy and lives of millions.

And somewhere in the middle of the corporate and political blame games and denials of responsibility, sits a nation held hostage by the goings on between BP and the government and those left in the lurch, not knowing from one day to the next how this is ultimately going to affect their local economy or their own personal lives for years and decades to come.

Make no mistake, 'Joe sixpack' (as the politicos like to refer to the average American) is becoming more and more anxious and more and more concerned about his future and that of his family over all of this waffling as each day passes.

As we speak, tar balls are beginning to roll onto the sugar white beaches of Navarro beach Florida and Destin and Panama City and points east all along the Florida panhandle. And as it stands? There appears to be little more than more finger pointing and pontificating from Washington as the oil continues to flow and the crisis deepens and more and more politicians and corporate leaders at BP try to distance themselves from all of it.

But what they are about to learn? Is that once you have been pulled into the gravity of a Tar Baby? It's not that easy at all to extricate one's self from the eventualities of the sticky mess. Perhaps Obama and the rest might invest some time in reading Uncle Remus tales and in particular, the travails of one Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby.

Sometimes there is a lot to be learned from a lowly rabbit.