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(Note: On Wednesday, the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix released a statement saying that tissue pathology revealed that a primary brain tumor known as a glioblastoma, an aggressive type of cancer, was associated with Senator McCain’s blood clot. The statement added that the tissue of concern was completely resected during last Friday’s procedure, and the Senator and his family are reviewing further treatment options, which may include a combination of chemotherapy and radiation. The statement went on to say that “the Senator’s doctors say he is recovering from his surgery ‘amazingly well’ and his underlying health is excellent.” It is unclear...

The night he locked up the Democratic presidential nomination, Barack Obama predicted that generations hence, people would look back on the historic day as "the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal." At the time, his words reeked of hubris. Today, they look positively delusional. President Obama can't stop the oil leak in the Gulf, but he can and should be held accountable for the inept government response to cleaning it up and mitigating its worst effects on the shoreline. And you can bet that if George W. Bush were in...

As the deepening crisis of the catastrophic Gulf oil disaster continues to unfold, several oil spill stories of major importance have been virtually ignored. Even the conservative media have refused by and large to cover these stories. Conservative Examiner was among the first to break these stories, yet to this day not a single major media outlet has been willing to report them, not even Fox News or conservative talk radio. These stories are explosive, conclusive, factually verified, and of utmost importance to understanding what is truly happening in the Gulf and the scenario that led to it. First, on...

Some old laws still serve a good purpose, but many others no longer do, or never did. One of the latter is the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, also known as the Jones Act. It was passed after we had just shipped vast numbers of soldiers and quantities of war material to Europe and back. Politicians were gripped by the idea that the country needed a strong merchant marine and assumed that a protectionist law was needed to accomplish that objective. As Daniel Pearson explains the Jones Act in this Cato piece, “Its stated purpose was to maintain a strong...

"Once again U.S. Senator John McCain [R-AZ] has his crosshairs set on the Jones Act with an amendment he intends to attach to a proposed energy bill that would eliminate the U.S. build requirement for tankers involved in U.S. coastwise trade."

Liberal MEP Marietje Schaake flagged on Wednesday (14 January) a proposal by US Senator John McCain to repeal the 'Jones Act'. McCain proposed an amendment for the full repeal of the Jones Act, which he considers “an antiquated law that has for too long hindered free trade, made US industry less competitive, and raised prices for American consumers.” The 1920 federal law requires every ship transporting goods or person between US ports to be made in the US, and sail under a US flag, to be US-owned and crewed at least 75% by US citizens. …

Recent slowdowns at West Coast ports, the result of ongoing labor disputes, are jeopardizing the more than $2 trillion in cargo that pass though these ports each year. The slowdowns are not the only way U.S. maritime shipping unions are holding back the American economy. Most Americans have not heard of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, also known as the Jones Act, but this piece of antiquated legislation increases costs for American consumers and discourages domestic business investment. The Jones Act is a federal statute that requires all goods transported by water between U.S. ports to be carried on...

The Northeastern U.S. is struggling to keep the heat on during this year’s frigid winter which has caused a propane shortage, but a union-supported federal law is preventing abundant domestic propane supplies from getting to where consumers need it the most. The 94-year-old Jones Act has prevented Northeasterners from getting cheap, abundant propane from Texas, instead forcing them to pay more than $100 a metric ton for propane from Europe — 4,000 miles away. The Jones Act makes it illegal for non-U.S. ships from transporting goods between U.S. ports, and is backed by labor unions, shipyards and shipowners. The law’s...

Gasoline costs in the U.S. could fall as much as 30 cents a gallon if lawmakers would repeal a controversial shipping law, industry experts say. The longstanding Jones Act—a section of The Merchant Marine Act of 1920—which requires any ship that carries goods or commodities in U.S. waters be American made, owned, operated and carry a U.S. flag, is being highlighted by one oil CEO as a reason behind the high price of gasoline in the U.S. and particularly in Florida.

An ice-breaking Russian tanker won an exemption from U.S. maritime law on Friday allowing it to deliver fuel to the isolated Alaska city of Nome... The U.S. Department of Homeland Security granted a Jones Act waiver to the Russian ship, the Renda, which is scheduled to deliver diesel fuel and gasoline to the Alaska city of 3,600 people... Senator Mark Begich said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano responded to pleas for a Jones Act exception to help alleviate what could be a serious winter fuel shortage. ... Nome, which has no outside road connections and relies on marine vessels or...

John Kerry was busted for trying to evade high Massachusetts taxes for his new luxury yacht by berthing it in Newport, RI - very far from any of his residences, and surely a tax cheating ploy by this tax & spend Democratic sanctimonious hypocrite. The part of this story that people seem to have missed, comes when his Chief of Staff, David Wade denied that the old poodle was berthing his boat out of state to avoid paying his own taxes to his own tax-ridden state. “The boat was designed by and purchased from a company in Rhode Island, and...

Is 70 the Gulf Coast's lucky number? That's how many days since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that it took President Obama to accept foreign help in cleaning up the Gulf mess. Finally, on Tuesday, the State Department said it will accept assistance from some of the 27 countries and six international organizations that have offered to combat the spill. It was a grudging acceptance -- fewer than half the offers will be taken up -- and that's a curious reluctance from a president who allegedly wants to make international cooperation his hallmark. Not to mention someone who professed such...

Wow, This was very good. Mainly talking about the Oil spill; this speech could have been 2012 already. It started to warmed up around the 4:00 mark to till the end. "It's not my responsibly, it's not George Bushes responsibility, it's His responsibility, He asked for the Job" "President Obama... You asked for the job, So Buck up or stay in the Truck!" " They said the best way to incentivized small businesses is for the government to hit us with more mandates, taxes, red tape and penalties..... And I'm the idiot?". "What I would do? I would have 'kicked...

How U.S. labour and environmental rules blocked Dutch spill-cleanup technology Some are attuned to the possibility of looming catastrophe and know how to head it off. Others are unprepared for risk and even unable to get their priorities straight when risk turns to reality. The Dutch fall into the first group. Three days after the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico began on April 20, the Netherlands offered the U.S. government ships equipped to handle a major spill, one much larger than the BP spill that then appeared to be underway. “Our system can handle 400 cubic metres...

U.S. Sen. John McCain has introduced legislation to repeal a 90-year-old maritime law that requires vessels transporting goods between states to have been built in the United States, be crewed and owned by U.S. citizens and fly the U.S. flag. The law, known as the Jones Act, has been criticized recently for allegedly hampering foreign ships offering assistance in the cleanup of the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Taiwanese-owned, Liberian-flagged ship dubbed the "A Whale" stands 10 stories high, stretches 1,115 feet in length and has a nearly 200-foot beam. It displaces more water than an aircraft carrier. Built in South Korea as a supertanker for transporting oil and iron ore, the six-month-old vessel was refitted in the wake of the BP oil spill with 12, 16-foot-long intake vents on the sides of its bow designed to skim oil off surface waters. The vessel's billionaire owner, Nobu Su, the CEO of Taiwanese shipping company TMT Group, said the ship would float across the Gulf "like a lawn...

Within 48 hours after President Obama issued the six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling, the George Soros-backed Brazilian oil company, Petrobras, contacted a large New Orleans company, Laborde Marine, which services the deep-water drilling market. The company was seeking to lease all its vessels. “If the moratorium on deep-water drilling is not lifted, 33 semi-submersible rigs and/or drill ships affected will simply go to other countries where they will be well received, such as Brazil,” Cliffe F. Laborde and J. Peter Laborde, Jr. wrote in a June 4 letter to their Louisiana Senators. Could this be merely a happy coincidence for...

President Obama has repeatedly said his Administration is doing everything in its power to expedite the oil clean-up and mitigate the damage. But in the two weeks immediately after the spill, 13 foreign governments reached out and offered their assistance. The U.S. response? Thanks, but no thanks. Or at least that's how Geert Visser, consul general for the Netherlands in Houston, described the U.S. answer. The State Department phrased it slightly differently: "While there is no need right now that the U.S. cannot meet, the U.S. Coast Guard is assessing these offers of assistance to see if there will be...

Recent news stories have suggested that foreign skimming vessels are not able to work on the Deepwater Horizon spill cleanup because of the Jones Act. These reports are incorrect, says the Offshore Marine Service Association (OMSA). OMSA points out that the Jones Act does not apply and therefore does not prevent foreign vessels from working on oil skimming operations in waters beyond a state's three-mile limit. In fact, a number of foreign vessels have been working at the scene for some time. For skimming activities within any state's three-mile limit, longstanding and established law says that any such work, including...

WASHINGTON -- Some 28 foreign countries and international organizations have offered help in responding to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, but the bulk of those overtures remain "under consideration," according to a tally posted on the U.S. State Department's website. On May 10, for example, the United Arab Emirates offered to send oil skimmers, dispersant and containment boom, along with human and technical support, the website says. As of Friday, no decision had been made on any of those propositions, the site indicates. Also pending for more than a month are offers of containment boom and skimmers from the...