In a game of chess, the Obama administration may appeal a federal judge’s second order ending the government’s six-month moratorium on some drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The government in effect is stalling for time as Interior Secretary Ken Salazar crafts a new moratorium that he hopes will pass the legal hurdles posed in the first one issued May 5. Fifth District Judge Martin Feldman Thursday rejected to stay his decision June 15 when he ruled the government failed to prove its case...

Besides my computer crashing and taking care of nasty business in my drug coverage caused by cutbacks in California’s Medicaid bankrupt system, I was effectively muzzled by weariness yesterday to file a column on Afghanistan. So a day late and many dollars short, I think what I began to write still holds true. Here’s the first part. By naming Army Gen. David H. Petraeus the new military commander in Afghanistan, Barack Obama is failing to take advantage of a crisis — his chief...

The frenzy whether Gen. Stanley McChrystal will resign, be fired or retained as commander of Afghanistan military forces for disparaging remarks about his civilian counterparts is misplaced. The focus should be on the foot soldiers carrying out the counterinsurgency mission with rules of engagement that are “handcuffing” their efforts to defeat the enemy. Indulge me for reprinting one paragraph from my column yesterday from the Rolling Stone article that I considered most revealing: At...

I needed a respite from talking generals and oil blowouts so what better than tell the story of an Arkansas detention officer who posed in the semi-nude for Playboy’s on-line gig? Jessie Lunderby, 21, was placed on administrative leave Sunday when her boss, sheriff Tim Helder of Washington County in Fayetteville, Ark., found out about it. He said wearing a pink bra and panties in a photo shoot as Playboy’s on-line “June 7th Cyber Girl of the Week” violated department policy. “It’s...

The Obama administration said Tuesday it would immediately appeal a ruling by a federal judge who upheld a challenge by Big Oil against a moratorium that shutdown deepwater offshore drilling for six months. District Judge Martin Feldman in New Orleans said he granted the preliminary restraining order because the government assumed erroneously that because one rig failed, all companies and rigs doing deepwater drilling pose an imminent danger. President Obama issued the moratorium shortly after the...

What amazes me is that a magazine article not scheduled to be published until Friday has created a foreign policy crisis that undermines the direction the U.S. has taken in Afghanistan. I’m talking about the Rolling Stone article leaked in advance to the Associated Press and other media outlets that the top commander in Afghanistan is displeased with the president and U.S. diplomats who he and his aids believe are undermining his plan to win over the hearts and minds of the Afghan people. Gen....

Ah, the best made plans of mice and men. I’m referring to a story in the Los Angeles Times Monday. It is a case of political correctness that has turned and bitten the mayor and city council on the butt. Just a tiny bite, mind you. The Los Angeles City Council by an overwhelming majority had voted to suspend business ties with companies in Arizona because of that state’s anti-illegal immigrant law. There were a few exemptions because of contractual obligations. But, by and large, the...

I won’t mince words. The feigned outrage that CEO Tony Hayward went sailing one day after he was removed from daily operations of the BP blowout disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is childish and misplaced. What’s he supposed to do? Take a BBC camera crew into the Church of England and show his repentance? Would that make the BP bashers feel better? The guy is toast. Rapping him for taking his son to watch his boat sail in a major yachting race is spooning marmalade on that burnt slice. The...

The Los Angeles Lakers are throwing themselves a victory parade Monday morning for winning the NBA championship, promised to pay for the costs and regretted the expected violence after Thursday’s win, a reaction a psychologist called a spike in male testosterone. What? That’s right, male testosterone. Like you, my reactions mimic Jon Stewart of Comedy Central’s Daily Show. Hoodlums would be a more apt description. Police are still assessing the post-game damage. No one was killed,...

Man, this is a tough day for us wordsmiths. Kathy Gil, a colleague of mine, admonishes us for referring to the Gulf of Mexico disaster as an oil “spill.” The New York Times yawns from an historical perspective, the Gulf of Mexico disaster may not be America’s worst as we are told by our president. And, Robin Koerner, publisher of a website that translates foreign news into English, suggests the stuff we write may be read but not reproduced because our youth cranked out by our education...

Take it from me, the big news Friday from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is not BP CEO Tony Hayward removed from disaster responsibilities but scientists reporting the gusher contains about 40% methane that could turn Gulf waters into an ecological dead zone for fish and plant life. John Kessler, a Texas A&M oceanographer, reports oil deposits his team has examined potentially could suffocate marine life into “dead zones” where oxygen is so depleted that nothing lives. Typical oil...

Now that I have had a day to absorb and assimilate the House committee drilling of BP CEO Tony Hayward, some impressions people of higher intelligence may not have reached. Bart Stupak. Joe Barton. James Quinn. First, Mr. Stupak. He chaired the committee and asked probing, specific questions of which most the BP big wig either dodged or stonewalled. I haven’t seen a prosecutor that tough since the fictional one in “Anatomy of a Murder.” “We had really hoped by giving you information...

File this under Mexicans are Stupid and Gullible Department in the minds of white politicians. In California, Republican governor candidate Meg Whitman is releasing a new Spanish language television ad. Translated, it beckons, in part: “Meg Whitman is a different kind of candidate. She is a business leader ready to fix Sacramento, ready to create more jobs and better schools in California. She respects our community. She is the Republican who opposes the Arizona law and opposed Prop. 187. She...

Rap. Rap. Rap. Attention class. Let’s get something straight in this era of 24/7 news. Grownups say stupid things. Two examples. BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said he was sorry the Deepwater Horizons oil spill damaged the livelihoods of the “small people” on the Gulf coast. Then he said he was sorry that his choice of words were “clumsily” expressed. Class, give the guy a break. English is his second language, if not the third, fourth or fifth. So, lighten up. Example...

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday in a Florida eminent domain case that beachfront property owners not be compensated when the government improves the shoreline to restore beach erosion. The court’s 8-0 verdict is a setback for eminent domain advocates and likely to draw the wrath of property rights groups across the nation. In this case, the government added sand to the private beaches making those sections public and thereby depriving private beachfront owners exclusive rights and access...

Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s “Hardball,” launched what the network called a documentary Wednesday night on the Tea Party, militia groups and the other various and sundry extremes purporting to be the base of the Republican Party. Except for one segment on a housewife explaining how she stumbled into forming a Tea Party in her neighborhood, the one-hour show was dominated by videos of the crackpot element of America’s right seen through the lens of a moderate to liberal...

BP says the $20 billion check is in the mail. Let’s hope it doesn’t bounce. As critical as I have been on President Obama for too many misguided efforts in micromanaging America’s worst environmental disaster, on the $20 billion + escrow account, he hit a home run or in terms of his favorite sport, a game-winning three-point basket from half court. Using the full powers of the federal government, Obama without a legal leg to stand on, bullied the giant energy company into compliance...

Has it occurred to anyone but me that political polling in America no longer can be considered a cottage industry and that these vultures can crunch the numbers and phrase the questions to produce answers their clients desire. I mean politicians can’t go to the bathroom without taking a poll. I exaggerate, of course. But it is getting close to that. As a student of political behavior, I consider polls as a ballplayer throwing blades of grass in the air to figure which way the wind is blowing...

President Barack Obama in a nationally televised speech Tuesday night on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill accused BP of “recklessness.” We knew that. “We will make BP pay,” he said. How much, he didn’t say. He announced still another presidential commission. He called it the Gulf Coast Restoration Plan. It will be headed by former Mississippi Gov. Ray Mabus working in conjunction with local states, towns, fishermen and conservationists. He was vague on details but any restoration...

Earthquakes are as common in California as tornadoes are in the Midwest. I have experienced both, and if I had my druthers, would prefer a temblor. I was born and raised in California and spent many years living on top of the San Andreas fault which means 200 miles on either side. Monday night within 10 seconds of getting into bed, I was rocked gently by Mom Nature from what I learned Tuesday morning was a 5.7 magnitude earthquake geologists said was centered about 60 miles south of my two-story...

How fragile our leaders are was visibly demonstrated Tuesday morning in a Senate hearing when Gen. David Petraeus collapsed. He returned 20 minutes later. Here’s the initial account and a video of the incident. Petraeus is the commander of U.S central command. He was testifying on the war in Afghanistan.

Here’s what I don’t want to hear from President Obama in his Tuesday night address to the nation on the BP oil spill, the worst accidental environmental disaster in U.S. history. That is, the government will “leave the Gulf Coast in better shape than it was before.” That’s poppycock, Mr. President, in all due respect. I don’t believe it. Shrimp and oyster fisherman don’t believe it. Even the U.S. geological experts don’t believe it and will prove it...

To the legions of online and cable television critics claiming child abuse that Laurence and Marianne Sunderland allowed their 16-year-old daughter Abby to sail alone around the world, I say get a life and mind your own store. Abby Sunderland was better prepared to circumnavigate the oceans than Magellan. I was going to use the analogy of Tiger Woods father telling his son at age 16 he had to stop playing golf because, well, you know, but thought better of it. The fact is those decisions are made...

Every political nook and cranny can be found a wing-nut so allow me to join MSNBC’s First Read and YouTube in introducing Rick Barber, a Tea Party Republican in Alabama who wants to take arms against his country. In a TV campaign ad, Barber is seen railing about President Obama and the new health reform law which he deplores to the point of rebellion that the Internal Revenue Service will force everyone to buy health insurance. Except he says it in a manner of which only the video does justice. The...

Cooler heads may be prevailing in Tehran as semi-official news reports say Iran’s Society for the Defense of the Palestinian Nation announced one ship loaded with humanitarian aid for Gaza departed Sunday and another is scheduled to leave Friday. It is in stark contrast to the bellicose threats two weeks ago the Revolutionary Guard’s navy was awaiting word from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to escort cargo ships and break Israel’s blockade delivering goods directly to Gaza...