Barack Hussein! Why hasn't you stuck your finger in the hole yet?

[devil-ad-vocate.livejournal.com]

Nearly two weeks after the oil rig exploded, Obama appears at the site of a disaster not yet under control. Heckuva job, Mr. President.
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=532122

Rush Limbaugh, conservative pundits call Gulf Coast oil spill, 'Obama's Katrina'
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/05/03/2010-05-03_rush_limbaugh_conservative_pundits_call_gulf_oil_spill_obamas_katrina.html

Is Oil Spill President Obama's Katrina?
In the past few days, some of the focus has shifted to the White House and whether it sprang to action soon enough to make a difference. Some critics are calling this "Obama's Hurricane Katrina."
http://amfix.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/03/is-oil-spill-president-obamas-katrina/

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The three articles above are just a sampling of the current "Obama ain't sprung to action fast enuff" bullshit. This is a wonderful opportunity for the right-wing media, left-wing media, environmentalists, and a host of others to milk a story and bend it to their advantage.

Unfortunately, most of what I've heard in ALL the media - other than comments by people actually IN the oil business - is pure BS. BP is the only non-BS so far. They've accepted responsibility (but not blame) for this god-awful mess, and are doing everything they can to fix it.

This is the fault of a blow-out preventer not working. It was either faulty equipment, wasn't installed properly, or was trashed by tons of platform landing on it. Making the disaster political is asinine.

Comments

[sizequeen.livejournal.com]

BP is the only non-BS so far.

Bullshit. These fucknuts are trying to buy off fisherman for $5,000 and have then sign contracts that would prevent them from suing in the future.

And while they are now trying to clean up this epic disaster that will have ramiifications for years to come, what did they or didn't they do to prevent this from happening? From my understanding, they actively fought safety regulations:

BP, the company that owned the Louisiana oil rig that exploded last week, spent years battling federal regulators over how many layers of safeguards would be needed to prevent a deepwater well from this type of accident.


***

But according to aides to Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat who has followed offshore drilling issues for years, the industry aggressively lobbied against an additional layer of protection known as an “acoustic system,” saying it was too costly. In a March 2003 report, the agency reversed course, and said that layer of protection was no longer needed.


“There was a big debate under the Bush administration whether or not to require additional oil drilling safeguards but [federal regulators] decided not to require any additional mandatory safeguards, believing the industry would be motivated to do it themselves,” Carl Pope, Chairman of the Sierra Club told ABC News.

BP can go fuck itself. They don't get credit for doing the right thing after the fact.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Bullshit. These fucknuts are trying to buy off fisherman for $5,000 and have then sign contracts that would prevent them from suing in the future.

And this is bad because...?

I mean, it's an offer. No fisherman is forced to take it, and they might actually come out further ahead than they would in a class action.

BP can go fuck itself. They don't get credit for doing the right thing after the fact.

No, they get credit for doing the right thing before and after.

BP and BS

[frodomyhero.livejournal.com]

No, they get credit for doing the right thing before and after.-

Um. BP and Haleburtan ( you remember Dick Cheney's big interest in that ?) apparently have two real problems that weren't revealed , until it was stated in NPR out in the midwest on a talk show two nights ago. According to the show BP could have paid 1/5 million dollars and had a cap that could have been used to plug up the leak on the line. They didn't want to spend the money because they felt it was "virtually impossible" for a leak to occur. Then Haliburton was trying to put some kind of a new cap on it which trggered the explosion. I'm waiting to get more information on this story but it has been out there and it's food for thought. BP gets an F- for trying to do "the right thing"

Re: BP and BS

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

I'd be very skeptical of what you're hearing.

Re: BP and BS

[frodomyhero.livejournal.com]

I'm waiting for more information from NPR.

Re: BP and BS

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Your first problem.

Re: BP and BS

[frodomyhero.livejournal.com]

NPR? Oh, you don't believe in public opinion on radio. What do you believe in? Is that what you meant?

Re: BP and BS

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

I don't believe in public opinion on radio? No, that's not it - I don't generally trust NPR as an authoritative source alone.

Re: BP and BS

[frodomyhero.livejournal.com]

Every media has a slant, one must take what they wish from each of the slants. One must go with what they believe is right. Whether it swings from the right to the left and everything in between.

[devil-ad-vocate.livejournal.com]

BP has decided not to follow the advice of their lawyers - they have dropped the "no sue" requirement from the fishermen. I guess the BP public relations team trumped the legal team on that one.

[green-man-2010.livejournal.com]

From my understanding, they actively fought safety regulations:


I am not suprised...
"British Petroleum is not an ethical oil company - just the least UNethical one", to quote one activist I met recently. Seems to me like they were right.

One of the things I have against libertarianism is that it says that regulation isn't needed so much - incidents like these tell me that iis isn't used enough.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

Yep, this and Gold Man Sacks. Libertarianism, like communism, finds reality very inconvenient to pushing their ideological utopianism.

[dukexmachismo.livejournal.com]

Any ideology works until the bars close.

[reality-hammer.livejournal.com]

This incident is going to make BP review its current safety measure far more than any government regulation could or would.

And the ginormous price tag that will come with the clean up will make every other oil producer take note, too.

Anything the government does in the wake of this will be so much closing the barn door and blaming "big oil".