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talkpoliticsNearly 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/
---
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.
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/
---
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.
(no subject)
Date: 4/5/10 02:28 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 4/5/10 02:39 (UTC)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.
(no subject)
Date: 4/5/10 02:54 (UTC)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.
(no subject)
Date: 4/5/10 02:56 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 4/5/10 03:21 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 4/5/10 03:29 (UTC)Blame works like that. It has a shotgun effect. Your guy is in the barrel so expect it. Whether he is responsible for the incident is not the issue. The response always will be. And any response can be critiqued to hell.
(no subject)
Date: 4/5/10 03:48 (UTC)wait. you know how this works...
(no subject)
Date: 4/5/10 03:58 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 4/5/10 04:00 (UTC)Obama basically did what he could. Get the best people on it that he can, Coast Guard, Military, Civilian, and then put the onus on BP to do something about it.
No matter how many Obama beach pictures are posted on the internets, he is completely unable to actually do much of anything about the situation (Ok, maybe Putin could swim down there...).
The righties that are jumping on Obama's initial response are ignoring the fact that even if Obama had jumped up and down alot on day one, and brought the entire US Government into focus on this problem, the same amount of oil would still be floating towards shore right now. This is not like Katrina. There was a HELL of alot of support that could have been usefully provided in the early days that would have made a real difference to the overall results, but wasn't. In this case, the Government simply doesn't have the tools required to do the job, and are dangerously dependent on Private Industry to fix their booboo.
Obama is at risk, though. This thing isn't as ugly as it's going to get. Cross your fingers that this dome solution works, because if we have three months more of this, the gulf coast is going to be close to dead. If BP fails, then Obama could get blamed.
(no subject)
Date: 4/5/10 04:13 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 4/5/10 04:16 (UTC)That's not a well-constructed argument. You could say the same for Katrina: rather than a blow-out preventer, it was the levees not working.
The question is WHY didn't they work. Levees = U.S. Army Corps of Engineers constructed, local levee board maintained
As for the blow-out preventer, I haven't been following the story closely, but I'd assume BP is in charge of constructing it, while the government is in charge of regulating its use.
I heard that media matters responded to the "Obama's Katrina" meme. I'll find the link...
http://mediamatters.org/research/201004300053
It seems to center on the speed of the administration's response - which was the main criticism of the Bush Administration. But also, there was ineptitude, i.e. no one could've foreseen this, the response is going well when it wasn't, etc. Again, I haven't followed this closely enough to see if comparisons in ineptitude can be made.
(no subject)
Date: 4/5/10 04:34 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 4/5/10 04:36 (UTC)Such as?
Coast Guard? Naval support? Those were there. FEMA is not a rapid response force and are meant to help recovery. They failed in that regard but the shear magnitude of Katrina was the reason why people needed to be airlifted out.
(no subject)
Date: 4/5/10 04:42 (UTC)Three-Mile Island: Citizen, this was simply a perfect storm, we could not have predicted this.
Exxon-Valdez: The chances of this occurring were far too remote to justify the cost of double-hulled construction.
Katrina: Sure, sure we knew it would happen sometime, but now? No one could have foreseen this!
Horizon oil-rig spill: The chances of this occurring were far too remote for any sort of reaction to be sufficient.
The only thing I take out of this is the continued belief that the world is run by idiots.
(no subject)
Date: 4/5/10 04:43 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 4/5/10 04:46 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 4/5/10 05:00 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 4/5/10 05:01 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 4/5/10 05:02 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 4/5/10 05:13 (UTC)http://www.alternet.org/story/24871/
(no subject)
Date: 4/5/10 05:15 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 4/5/10 05:18 (UTC)FTW
Date: 4/5/10 05:37 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 4/5/10 05:56 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 4/5/10 06:24 (UTC)