Obama's BP -- from Rantings from Florida (blog)

in celebration of Obama publicly "taking responsibility" for the oil spill response, here an interesting piece by a Florida writer/blogger...


Obama's BP
http://rantingsfromflorida.blogspot.com/



(snip)

For too long, nuts on the right were the only loud voices being heard on the spill. When conservative blogs aren't completely minimizing the oil spill's devestation, they have dubbied this Obama's Katrina. I find such labels laughable and futile, as they both remind people of a screw-up by your guy and juxtapose events so specific and devastating that the comparison is at best imperfect. This is very different from Katrina other than geographic proximity. The spill is a man-made disaster. The response was deemed the responsibility of a private company, so the federal government was not just slow but absent. The impact of this will be economic and environmental, with no direct consequence as bad as the loss of life in a major American city but with effects which will linger for years.

This is not Obama's Katrina. This is Obama's BP. And unless there is a major turnaround, people for years will reference it as one of the major screw-ups by the White House.

The problem has been that BP was allowed to dictate remediation efforts, and they have different interests in mind than the public good. Even now, the company is trying to find alternatives to a top kill. I don't know why such a maneuver wasn't the first thing done, but I have my suspicions. The company would prefer a way to contain the oil, to keep a flow going while stopping the spillage. From a corporate point-of-view, this makes sense. Why destroy this resource if you don't have to completely kill flow? But we are far, far beyond the point where that mindset is acceptable.

(snip)

____________________________

interesting take on the top kill, too.

this guy is a awesome writer, and a known quantity around these parts.

"even now, the company is trying to find alternatives to a top kill."

Looks like a known quantity alright.

In your zeal to absolve Obama of the smallest misstep.

The worst enemy of the Obama haters.

You are so funny. :rofl:

I guess they have not kept up with current events, for instance the fact that the US government does not possess the technology to clean up a spill of this magnitude - therefore what good would it have done to butt BP out of the way?

So the government could stand there and blink at the problem?

Our government needs to be in charge of all matters that affect the lives and livelihoods of Americans, and not let a corrupt, soulless corporation have complete command. The government should have immediately sent experts there to at least prevent BP from destroying or removing any evidence. The Gulf Disaster is a crime scene and should be treated as such.

But I get your point. If you take complete charge of anything then you can get blamed for everything thereafter. But we should have at least monitored every move BP made. I wouldn't let one of them out of my sight. You can't trust corporations.

BP isn't the only company that can fix this problem. There are experts around the world who could have been pulled in and used to at least stand beside BP thugs to make sure everything is done in our best interests and not the corporations best interests. By letting them have complete control is a huge mistake.

Hell, I have seen one story where BP is ordering our coast guard to prevent people from taking pictures of oil floating on the water. The Coast Guard should be telling BP what and what not to do at the direction of the president.

Tell that to this person who may be an engineer with expertise in the matter,
but most likely not.

I love the way folks think they know even what they don't really know.
Guess that it makes them feel smart, when the question should be
are they are actually correct, or are they just pulling shit out of their ass
in order to make judgements?

Building that huge containment dome was a real smart thing to do. :think:

I never knew we had so many...

My father in law IS an actual engineer. He said this was a near impossible leak to stop. And top kill can make things worse if not properly done.

Thank you for posting this.

The flow is costing more at the moment than any amount of oil recovered is offsetting. The relief well can suck all the oil out of there they want without the added cost and damage to their stock prices. There is no gain for BP to not stop this as quickly as possible. Again, there is no gain for BP to not stop this as quickly as possible. Now, if you wanted to say they're lying about the rate of flow, or used disspersants to hide the damage under the gulf, that I may listen to. You see, logically both of those make sense since they'd actually help BP out. Letting the oil spill out is nothing but damaging to BP.

The lack of logic applied by some is amazing.

This isn't Obama's anything, it's a huge screw up BP got caught with for being in a hurry. Road kill anyone?

vis a vis the spill.


that's just the bottom line. you gotta learn to deal with it.

I've never heard him so unsure. He knows he is in deep.

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You've been proven to be wrong time and again. Don't make me do it again.

And you can take your 'gleeful' comment and stick it.

I happen to disagree with you most of the time. Today is no different.

I am not cheerful. So stick it.

Put up, jaxx, or move along.

I must have hit a nerve.

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That's the kind of crap that makes my blood boil. And by the way, it's no spill, it was a blowout.....big and ugly. And Obama isn't looking like the owner of the mess, but some would like it to be that way. Legacy my ass!

But the federal government's lack of oversight and their response to this oil gusher has been downright pathetic and a big FAIL.

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Obama's BP? Huh uh.

politicize this shit don't even have the decency to wait till a proper assessment is made after-the-fact to determine, by utilizing all of the information available, what really happened, didn't happen, etc....

In otherwords, those who are interested in utilizing this catastrophe for political ends,
and don't really give a shit about much else, and would enjoy seeing things get much worse,
before they get better.

Most are called Republicans and Corporate media pieces of shit.

call it like it is...:D

:hi:

Unfortunately, Obama's mortal political enemies are not limited to the RW.

Aren't you taking a political angle on this? Why do you care? Do you give a shit about anything else except how this is hurting Obama, if it is?

Is this situation hurting Obama, in your view?

1. I'm concerned about the Gulf, and stopping this leak first of all above all else.
I want it to stop as soon as possible, and I want minimum damage to the affected area,
as my hopes are always for the best for this country and for the world, no matter who is in office.....which is not what can be said about many people.

2. I'm concerned of how the President's enemies are portraying this spill, even when they don't know shit...because of how that might affect the November elections, and by estension the policies that will pass during this President's term, and by extension the future of this country, and for that matter, the future of the world and that of my children. I'm not interested in weakening this President's effectiveness to continue to get things done, and I'm not interested in allowing the media and their republican Tea party to have any wins on their books....cause I'm a Democrat, and a sane one at that.

3. I'm concerned that this President is consistently portrayed as less than, and that his accomplishments are minimized because as an African-American, I see that shit coming from many fronts, and I fear that if this President in unfairly judged not for what he accomplishes, but for what he doesn't accomplish (after 30 years of consistent fuck ups), I fear that this will depress many voters for an entire generation; folks who will simply say...."fuck it! Even when we get someone in there that can make a difference, the only gratitude shown is a foot up an ass".

For years I have volunteered in many ways in getting Black voters to the polls, and I want to feel successful not just in one election of getting this done, but with all elections. I want especially the Black youth to feel vested in this country, and I don't want the fucked up cynical media and the gullible public to be allowed to turn them off.

In fact, you can say that I've come to an uneasy decision; I'd rather this President serve one term and do a great job at it, than to allow assholes who ain't accomplish shit in their entire lives to be able to deride everything this President does because they feel entitled to criticize just cause they can. People who aren't part of the solution are oftentime part of the problem.

Like my husband said....."you see how this country has been going for the last 30 years? And now that we could really make shit happen, they want to fuck this up too, cause that's what they know damn well how to do".

I'm starting to think that's true.

I campaigned for Obama. And talked to lots of old people who voted for the first time for Obama. Until now, his response to this crisis was cool, it seemed to me, so I let him have it. I have a keen awareness of what's coming, and I daresay it was keener the Obama's.

We do have many enemies that want us and him to totally fail. I saw him failing at this and said so. You must understand that, as I also understand that Obama is now getting up to speed.

He can fix this, he alone has the real power to make the changes needed. That, too me, and lots of other DUers, is what we know and wanted to be done. It looks like he's moving and he's moving because we made him move. Which should make everyone feel better, all the way around, eh?

Obama is listening. He hears us.

If anyone here thinks DUers for the most part want to see Obama fail, then they do not see the forest for the trees. I hope you understand that?

and I can respect that, cause it is true that I have fired off some pretty choice letters to the White House myself, although I don't make it my job to publicly order him on how to do his job as he is doing it, simply because I don't have the hubris to convince myself that I know better. Don't worry, I have already tried this in the car, driving from the passenger side, and it doesn't work, i.e., the car doesn't always go in the exact direction and at the exact speed I'm wanting....and yet I still get to where I'm going....so sometimes that exercise of thinking that the driver should just "know" exactly what I'm anticipating is exercise for my mind,
but little else beyond being a distraction for me.

I do think that there are folks here who simply want to burn the whole fucking house down,
and beyond that, they don't really give a shit about what we should be caring about.
In fact, they are usually the first ones to accuse others of "hero worship" and shit like that...
cause they can't make the connection between the President's success being this country's success,
cause that's not what they are interested in; the fact that we have a good President
who really does want the best for this country, and is doing an admirable job trying to get her done.
I root for that success, not try to find the imperfection in all that is done. And I'm being patient, cause I learned that is the only way to keep one's sanity and wits about them (Bush taught me that).

So yeah, we are talking about an imperfect human, no matter....and I don't think he's ever claimed otherwise; of having all of the answers; since few Presidents have ever been perfect, which is why there is no reason to assign that this one should have accomplished everything perfectly in record time; wasn't gonna happen even under the best of circumstances.

Or at least like we somehow are in some way responsible for said office being occupied by Obama. I think that's pretty cool, cuz we never felt that way before. So it is almost like the president is a reflection of ourselves.

But he is not.

Then too there is this awful feeling that the world as we know is in rapid decline... going off a cliff, even. And we don't see the turn away from that cliff that we all hope and worked for. It is a bit scary. Obama seemed to grok this going off the cliff feeling: he has alluded to it a few times. But we are still on course for the cliff.

Along comes now this major environmental disaster and the people hate the idea that the government is taking a back seat position to BP. Maybe today's speech will help alleviate some of that feeling but it will need to be followed up with actions as we venture into this unknown, but foreseen paradox.

These are interesting times, and while we all have to personally live these times, we needn't be taking the political actions personally. Or the name calling. Obama said today it doesn't bother him, why should it bother us?

Peace, FrenchieCat, I know your heart is in the right place.