To the people who think Obama should magically stop the oil leak

Here's a little something:

In Holland there is a story about how they stopped a leak

ONCE THERE WAS a little Dutch boy who discovered a leak in the levy.

What should he do? From a single leak, a terrible breach might grow. The whole country could be flooded, and everyone he knew would drown.

So he did the only thing he could think of. He stuck his finger in the levy, and the leak stopped.

Of course, now he was stuck. He couldn’t move, because as soon as he did, the leak would start again.

So he stood there for quite some time. He was rather tired, and his finger felt a bit numb from the effort of holding back the North Sea, but he knew he was doing his duty.

At last the Burgomaster happened to pass by.

“Young man,” he said with a certain amount of sternness, “why are you poking your finger in the levy?”

“I am stopping a leak,” the boy explained. “I saw the levy leaking, so I stuck my finger in the hole.”

“Heroic boy!” the Burgomaster exclaimed. “You shall be rewarded! Meanwhile, keep your finger there while I call the Burghers together.”

So the Burgomaster called a meeting of the Burghers, and they agreed that the boy had heroically saved Holland.

“And now,” the Burgomaster asked, “what shall we do about the leak?”

“It seems to me,” one of the Burghers replied, “that private enterprise has already found an admirable solution to the problem. The boy has stuck his finger in the levy, and the leak has stopped. You might describe it as voluntary self-regulation. There is no need for expensive government action.”

So the Burghers voted to award the boy a Certificate of Good Citizenship, which the Burgomaster was delighted to be able to present to him the next day.

“Thank you,” the boy said politely, “but I still have my finger in this levy.”

“And we appreciate that,” the Burgomaster replied. “I may confidently speak for the whole Council of Burghers in saying that your heroic action is universally admired.”

So the boy stood there with his finger in the levy for a few more days.

It was not long, however, before another leak sprang in the levy, a little bit farther down the way.

“What shall we do?” the Burgomaster asked the Burghers. “There is another leak.”

“As private enterprise has so admirably solved the previous problem,” one of the Burghers responded, “the solution to this new leak is obvious. We need only persuade another heroic boy to stick his finger in it.”

So they went into the local school and found another boy who, after much persuasion, was willing to stick his finger in the levy.

It was, however, only a few days later that two more leaks appeared. This time it was much harder to persuade boys to stick their fingers in the holes; and when, a week later, half a dozen more leaks appeared, no volunteers were to be found.

“What shall we do?” the Burgomaster asked the Council. “Private enterprise seems no longer to be adequate. We may have to repair the levy itself this time.”

“Nonsense,” said one of the Burghers. “The solution that worked before will work again. We must simply force private enterprise into action.”

So the Council visited the school and dragged a number of young boys by the ears to the levy, where they were forced to plug the leaks with their fingers.

But the levy, which was old and poorly maintained, continued to spring new leaks here and there, so that it was all the Burghers could do to find more boys to plug up the leaks with their fingers. At last the Burghers compelled every little boy in the Low Countries to stick his finger in a hole. All economic activity came to a halt, as it is well known that young boys are the leading consumers of skates and cheese, on which the economy of Holland depended at that time.

“What shall we do?” the Burgomaster asked the Council. “We have run out of heroic little boys. At this rate, we may have to plug the leaks with our own fingers.”

“That would be moderately inconvenient,” one of the Burghers remarked.

So the Council voted to remove the North Sea by digging a new seabed somewhere in Germany; and they voted themselves a number of solid gold spades, befitting their dignity, for the purpose. And if you go to suburban Wilhelmshaven right now, and look into the field to your right as you drive westward on the Friedenstrasse, you will see a number of Dutch burghers very busy with their spades, trying to dig a new bed for the North Sea. It is lucky for them that the people of Wilhelmshaven have mistaken the burghers for a party of archaeologists looking for ancient Saxon remains, which has allowed them to continue the work uninterrupted.





http://drboli.wordpress.com/2009/03/06/the-little-dutch-boy-who-saved-holland/

But if they've got a magic trick they'd like to try, go for it. God knows we've not a moment to lose.

I guess other governments of other countries aren't either?

Another Govt. helped the US? 1776? eom

and Katrina
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_response_to_Hurricane_Katrina
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/dis_hur_kat_int_aid_res-hurricane-katrina-international-aid-response

And a great deal of experience in underwater operations of a wide variety.

You really think there is no one in the US Navy who knows anything about oil drilling?

http://telstarlogistics.typepad.com/telstarlogistics/2007/07/star-sighting-a.html

Woods Hole operates the U.S. Navy-owned Deep Submergence Vehicle Alvin for the national oceanographic community. Built in 1964 as the world’s first deep-ocean submersible, Alvin has made more than 4,200 dives. It can reach nearly 63 percent of the global ocean floor.

The sub's most famous exploits include locating a lost hydrogen bomb in the Mediterranean Sea in 1966, exploring the first known hydrothermal vent sites in the 1970s, and surveying the wreck of RMS Titanic in 1986.

Alvin carries two scientists and a pilot as deep as 4,500 meters (about three miles) and each dive lasts six to ten hours. Using six reversible thrusters, Alvin can hover, maneuver in rugged topography, or rest on the sea floor. Diving and surfacing is done by simple gravity and buoyancy—water ballast and expendable steel weights sink the sub, and that extra weight is dropped when the researchers need to rise back up to the surface.

so....

I don't understand what you mean by that. Are you saying the military is present in the Gulf or are you saying they're down at the site of the leak?

Government is part of the problem, not the solution.

You tell em, Rosa!



http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://www.diemer.ca/Docs/Diemer-WhyRosaLuxemburg.htm&usg=__kh3db8wkTFSc5xaiqLNkmObefp8=&h=338&w=472&sz=79&hl=en&start=28&sig2=-wHksLBG4FkyX8MeZBcXbA&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=jvoYonosO2nWHM:&tbnh=92&tbnw=129&prev=/images%3Fq%3Drosa%2Bluxemburg%26start%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Den%26ndsp%3D20%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=cfL3S873KYT6lweXrcW_Cg

Point is the government IS doing everything it can.

What I see is a month long failure on the part of BP, and disinformation being peddled that the government MUST have known to be false.

Doing "everything"?

I think not.

Mr Cheney

I support expanded government action in this case, including the imposition of martial law, if necessary.

Not exactly "Cheney" policies (your pro-BP position is actually closer, y'know, to Dick's line of thinking)....

to work one mile below the ocean in pressures that crush submarines. I don't know many in the government or coast guard who have the expertise in that area - let alone with oil exploding outward.

is this RW media newspeak?

RW new media speak generally protects wealthy corporate interests. BP has been allowed to forbid any organizations who are not 'their own contractors' from participating in any cleanup efforts or animal rescue efforts. The Coast Guard is acting as their security force to keep non BP sanctioned groups away from the effort.

Instead, the government is letting BP direct the operations and their main concerns are protecting their profits and limiting their liability. Instead of honest appraisal we are getting a BP PR handjob meant to obscure the extent of the damage and limit their liability. Letting non BP sanctioned groups in to participate in the effort risks the truth coming out and the lid coming off their PR campaign.

No one is looking for a bloody magic wand. But what you've pointed out damn sure isn't what we need either. I guess we're not supposed to point that because the current government has a D after their name.

As simple as it may seem, the law prevents the government from just taking over, Allen said. After the 1989 Valdez spill in Alaska, Congress dictated that oil companies be responsible for dealing with major accidents — including paying for all cleanup — with oversight by federal agencies according to MSNBC today.

However, it isn't about laws, its about having something to stop it and they don't seem to be able to.

As I've already stated elsewhere, oversight means more than standing by watching whatever BP decides to do and using government personnel to enforce BP's decisions.

Being "responsible for dealing with major accidents — including paying for all cleanup..." does not mean they get left in charge. It means they provide the resources needed and they pay for them, not that they make all the decisions and the government rubberstamps them.

operating under BP rules.

How could anyone do anything with so many heads up his ass??

Well -- points for being new. But not for much else.

Let's tell a cutesy story to deflect from the FACT that our President is allowing the perpetrators cover up evidence and destroy our ecology for over a MONTH now.

Yeah -- that's the ticket. :puke:

...don't point fingers at others.

Soon he's gonna include himself in that.
He might even say "No one ever imagined..."

it is easy for you to say but proof please?

and its possible effects everyday and lack of media coverage is plenty evidence that certain people don't want this talked about in both political gangs.

We all started off at worse case scenario 1000 barrels a day. Now there is a floating plume of frozen oil melting and heading to the surface.

From the beginning, the potential impacts have been downplayed by both BP and the US government.

Of course, when the truth comes out, it will be we never could have possibly anticipated this.

The cover-up is not in not acknowledging something is going on, it has been for the past years quite effective to downplay the possible impacts and pretend to be surprised when they are realized.

BP and the Government both know how bad this is, they aren't being forthcoming right now...and they won't be till after people's lives are ruined and they have covered their asses as best as possible.

Remember at most 8% unemployment a year ago. It is a non-partisan pattern, and it has grown tiring.

;-)

I think the offending oil is the deepest?

Five Worst Blowouts Volume Released

1. Sedco 135F and the IXTOC-1 Well
In 1979, the IXTOC-1 blowout flowed uncontrollably in the Bahia de Campeche, Mexico until it was capped 9 months later. 3,500,000 barrels
2. Ekofisk Bravo Platform
Phillips Petroleum's Ekofisk B platform experienced an 8-day oil and gas blowout in 1977 during a production well workover. 202,381 barrels
3. Funiwa No. 5 Well
Oil from the 1980 Funiwa 5 blowout polluted the Niger Delta for 2 weeks, followed by fire and the eventual bridging of the well. 200,000 barrels
4. Hasbah Platform Well 6
Drilled in 1980 by the Ron Tappmeyer jack-up, exploratory well No. 6 blew out in the Persian Gulf for 8 days and cost the lives of 19 men. 100,000 barrels
5. Union Oil Platform Alpha Well A-21
The 1969 Union Oil Platform A blowout lasted 11 days but continued leaking oil into the Santa Barbara Channel for months afterwards. 80,000 barrels

http://www.oilrigdisasters.co.uk/

The question in the above exchange was evidence of the coverup not the speed at which it is being capped. And the exponentially low estimates of the amount of spewing oil is evidence of a coverup.

Could it go much longer...yes and as with my example of the veneral disease, it might leak oil for our entire lifetime who knows at those ocean depths.

aren't you people better organized?

LOL!

I'm CRITICIZING your thread, not agreeing with it.

this kind of mccarthyism is never good for free discourse. However, you do get points for being more creative about it.

In fact get yourself elected President and then declare yourself the Decider so that everyone has to obey you.

Then if the leak doesn't stop, you can take responsibility.

you guys are a laugh riot.

and we now know it's exponentially more than that. I think it was a lie meant to downplay and coverup the extent of the catastrophe. And it leads me to the conclusion, they are very likely covering up other facts inconvenient for them.

It's not dissent when you go out of your way to find everything to be purposeful.

Is this some government corporate conspiracy to let the leak keep leaking?

If you go down there with the intention of helping out, you will be told that BP contractors are taking care of everything and go away. Foxes should not be repairing the chicken coop. It's going to take all the resources of this nation and others who want to help out. BP cannot do it alone because they will try to cover things up. Right now they are trying to control the message by not letting news media look for themselves at what is being done. Apparently BP runs the USA not the President and Congress. That's all I have to say.

on this one. Coast Guard told CBS reporters that the CG was operating under authorization of BP, and to get off the coast or be arrested. BP is in charge.

Get daily updates on the BP Oil Spill Disaster - click here to sign up for eBoom's RSS feed.

CBS has footage of their reporters being turned away from a public beach in Louisiana where they were filming oil washing up on shore.

"This is BP's rules, it's not ours," someone aboard the boat said. Coast Guard officials told CBS that they're looking into it.

According to Mother Nature Network's Karl Burkhart, his contacts in Louisiana have given him unconfirmed reports of equipment being turned away or confiscated.


UPDATE: the unified command center for the Deepwater Disaster has issued a statement saying that," Neither BP nor the U.S. Coast Guard, who are responding to the spill, have any rules in place that would prohibit media access to impacted areas and we were disappointed to hear of this incident." But added that, "The only time anyone would be asked to move from an area would be if there were safety concerns, or they were interfering with response

http://www.energyboom.com/policy/bp-and-coast-gaurd-blocking-media-public-beaches


Their PR statement does not change the facts of what happened or the fact that a member of the Coast Guard was following BP directives.

Is the little dutch boy the new Pony?

"Obama won the election, so shut up!"

you could call the Pentagon and ask them how they are doing down there at the oil rig.

Which has its own issues.

I know that. What is going on right now is posturing for the dumb in the population. I've outlined what I want below.

"Knowledge is capital," after all.

Right? :thumbsup:

:rofl:

As long as Obama keeps screwing the pooch, there'll be DUers around to say the dog was asking for it.

It appears the defenders of "pragmatism" or as others call it, doing what Bush would do but giving a nice speech first, are shitting their pants over the gulf spill.

You can pretend unemployment is improving by playing with statistics and calling people lazy, hard to deny oil on beaches.

nice try though...

but are thinking it..

because you are unable or unwilling to engage in discussion.

It will take 90 days or a Nuclear warhead to stop the oil leak. Everything else is just posturing on the part of BP and the government to the sheeple.

I want to know who was responsible so they are punished severely and publicly, what new steps will be taken so this doesn't happen off the coastal area of another state, and how we are going to clean up after this fucking disaster of an oil well leaking into the gulf of Mexico at a bad rate for 90 days.

so they must know what went wrong.

Doesn't mean they can fix it.

If I fuck someone with herpes without a condom and find out I have herpes. I know what I did wrong, doesn't mean I can cure my herpes.

Think in those analogies.

Just because someone or an entity knows what they did wrong with irresponsible behavior, doesn't mean they can fix it.

But it's a convenient strawman.

As the equivalent of wanting a "magic pony."

Same old line.

Every time.

Fuck ponies.

Aw, never gonna happen. I'll take the unicorn.

Why are they ordering the Coast Guard around? We're a month out now from the explosion..the devastation continues.

Obama has done absolutely nothing but talk. If anything he's seemed almost ambivalent towards this disaster. I knew he wasn't exactly an environmentally friendly president... Salazer's appointment only confirmed that, but this is going too far..

it'll do you a world of good:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/19/bp-coast-guard-officers-b_n_581779.html

:) The spin is thick in this OP.

paid per post i'm guessing.

They clearly have more interest in trying to use the oil and lay groundwork for lawsuit defense than in stopping the leak.

Meanwhile, BaraCorp Obama does nothing substantial, either to hold BP accountable OR to stop the leak.

the dangers of methane. Windpower is so much better.

Now!

as thinking Obama can wave his hand and make it right.

If you're going to post dumbass excuses for failure, 1) make them original and 2) make them marginally interesting.

Unrec, tired of the stfu threads.

And that is saying a lot.

"NO WE CAN'T!"


Pitiful.