[Written stream of conscious] Interesting article in the LA times (link below) by Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger "Foreign Flagging of Offshore Rigs Skirts US Safety Rules":

Call me crazy but isn't it a dangerous thing to do given our terrorist climate to have foreign construction of an oil rig ESPECIALLY in the Pacific Islands i.e. the impoverished Marshall Islands and in South Korea (Next to N. Korea!)? The further something is to US construction by a US company or on US land then the more easily one could get in to subvert it. Please tell me I'm being paranoid!! Has anyone thought of one person or a few outside the country being able to subvert a process like this?

I DON'T LIKE it. It has NOTHING to do with Obama whom I supported and worked for although I was totally against his allowing DEEP off shore drilling in the first place. Honestly, this is like an attack on our country. It's almost like 9/11 and maybe possibly worse in that if one looks at how many states already it is impacting including Florida the oil leak is HUGE. IF this rotten oil goes up the loop then lets say we in even New England Cape Cod COULD conceivably be affected. I am starting to get worried. Beyond that I am devastated for my countrymen in LA, Alabama, MI and Florida where my relatives live and the unbelievable nauseating horror to the animals not to mention the ruination of the Gulf ecosystem. This is an UNSPEAKABLE crime which is never ending and I am not even sure this rig they are building to cap it will do the job. God forbid what if the blow out explodes again and it does the same thing?

This is simply utterly CATASTROPHIC and it goes back to this damn construction of EVERYTHING known to our country overseas. HORRIBLE. EVERYTHING I buy is cheap crap made in China or some other god forsaken place. I HATE IT. I TOTALLY hate it and I consider myself at the liberal end of the political spectrum. Our ENTIRE country and the way we do business has GOT to be brought back to our own people so we can see, inspect and know who the hell has control of what. I just bought a pair of earrings from simple gold studs ... MADE IN CHINA naturally ... the backs fell off in about 14 seconds and I've lost the earrings. I buy a shirt it looks cheap and needs ironing every second, buy a cover for my bed and it frays in a month. My point: there is NO US quality control except by business which wants to get away cheap and manufactures everything in countries which pay for cheap labor and no benefits. Corporations do not care about us. ESPECIALLY after 9/11 it is criminal that this country has little control over what comes into this country or how it is made and can be subverted with ease.

I am angry at how this country does business now ESPECIALLY as far as manufacturing is concerned. NAFTA and GATT have proven to be simply horrible and unfair for the US worker. It has driven US corporations out with no taxes to pay in foreign lands. It is risky as well especially in this dangerous age.

We need American goods, made on American soil with American workers so we can supervise who is making them, supervise the construction of things and have control over who/what comes in and goes out and REFORM NAFTA AND GATT. This Gulf leak is simply UNFORGIVABLE and everything is tied in to everything else! Our economics, climate change, horrific oil leak, a Congress bought off and ad infinitum hearings that go nowhere! People need to go to jail and FAST for this unspeakable thing! Here is the article:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-oil-inspection-20100615,0,3043517,full.story