TIMELINE: Obama golfs while Gulf burns

[boedicca]

Reading comprehension has never been your strong point: Here, let me try this again, from your quoted material:

Mr. Obama said he ordered Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to review what happened and report back within 30 days with "additional precautions and technologies" to prevent future accidents like this from happening again.

Obviously, if nobody STILL knows "what happened" following 30 days, a "report" on that part would be moot. In any event, he was asking Salazar to do a plan for handling FUTURE accidents like this.

Picky picky, fucking picky. You have never, ever been interested in anything but the blame game.

Reading comprehension certainly isn't yours. The criticism is about what is being done, or rather not being done, now to deal with the current situation - not that we don't have enough policy wonks looking at how to increase regulation of the industry.

A report due in 30 days to prevent future actions does not qualify as action to handle the current disaster.

 

[MaggieMae]

Or to help with the dredging and berms to protect the coast.

The oil spill itself is not Obama's fault. I reject that nonsensical standard that anything that bad happens is the fault of some Super Being President (despite Obama's promotion of himself as such).

But the federal response IS his responsibility. To date, it is woefully inadequate.

I can't defend either the EPA or the Corps of Engineers, except to say that the response time AGAIN undoubtedly takes longer than people would wish.

The EPA has set up a separate site to post a variety of information, including real time solutions to the damage the spill will ultimately cause. There is a Q&A which I invite you to read on this site. Again, this would be the same EPA that any president would rely upon for environmental response information and solutions:

EPA Response to BP Spill in the Gulf of Mexico | US EPA

And of course what you DON'T hear from the media is that there's no magic solution for protecting the wetlands, either. Here are a few reasons why:

Gulf Oil Spill: Cleaning Wetlands May Be Impossible, Scientists Say

Back in 1989, crews fighting the Exxon Valdez tanker spill – which unleashed almost 11 million gallons of oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound – used pressure hoses and rakes to clean the shores. The Gulf Coast is just too fragile for that: those tactics could blast apart the peat-like soils that hold the marshes together.

Hundreds of miles of bayous and man-made canals crisscross the coast's exterior, offering numerous entry points for the crude. Access is difficult and time-intensive, even in the best of circumstances.

"Just the compaction of humanity bringing equipment in, walking on them, will kill them," said David White, a wetlands ecologist from Loyola University in New Orleans.

 

[MaggieMae]

Or to help with the dredging and berms to protect the coast.

The oil spill itself is not Obama's fault. I reject that nonsensical standard that anything that bad happens is the fault of some Super Being President (despite Obama's promotion of himself as such).

But the federal response IS his responsibility. To date, it is woefully inadequate.

___



There could have been a state of emergency declared and a far greater effort to protect the shoreline.

Days and days went by and he said NOTHING.

Then he said the federal government was basically "watching" the situation.

Then he started to whine about Bush, BP, and saying we are running out of oil and need to go with different energy sources - none of which helped to protect the shoreline of course.

Now he is cursing at BP and sending down the AG so we can sue, while saying we need to have better regulations...disregarding that HIS adminstration failed to actually support the regulations already in place.

The guy says he accepts responsibility, and then points the finger at everyone but himself. He hasn't a clue, and unfortunately, too few individuals in the White House who have any of their own real world executive leadership qualities.

Here is what General Powell had to say...

____

Colin Powell on Oil Spill: Time for 'Comprehensive, Total Attack' on the Problem


The federal government's response to the BP oil spill "has to move quickly and move with -- to use my favorite expression -- decisive force to demonstrate that it's doing everything that it can," former Secretary of State Colin Powell told ABC News' Jake Tapper on "This Week."

Former secretary of state gives "This Week" a Memorial Day weekend exclusive.Though the president has been monitoring the oil spill from the very start, Powell said in a Sunday exclusive interview, "that impression was not conveyed to the American people. And the comprehensive speech he gave the other day, I think he would have been better served and the nation would have been better served if he'd given it a few weeks earlier."

The retired general would not say whether the government's response to the spill should be taken over by the military, but added, "Whether it's Army, Coast Guard, local forces, it is time for a comprehensive, total attack on this problem to protect the shoreline, to protect the livestock, to protect the wetlands, but most of all to give the people in that part of our country a sense of hope that this is going to be solved."


Colin Powell on Oil Spill: Time for 'Comprehensive, Total Attack' - ABC News

But I notice even Powell is full of rhetorical nothing and offers no concret solutions. There is ALWAYS someone to slap the blame on, but that doesn't get the actual SPILL to stop.

 

[MaggieMae]

Woman douses herself with 'oily substance' in front of White House

WOMAN "affixed" herself to a fence on the grounds of the White House today and then doused herself with an "oily substance".

Fox News Channel said, citing the US Secret Service, the incident was being treated as a hazardous materials situation, because of the unknown substance.

NBC said the Secret Service had shut down the northwest gate of the White House and HAZMAT teams were called out. NBC later said authorities had removed the woman from the fence.


Woman douses herself with 'oily substance' in front of White House | The Australian

Yeah, I'm so sure that helped. Good Lord, this country's got more weirdos than it can handle these days.

 

[MaggieMae]

Reading comprehension has never been your strong point: Here, let me try this again, from your quoted material:

Mr. Obama said he ordered Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to review what happened and report back within 30 days with "additional precautions and technologies" to prevent future accidents like this from happening again.

Obviously, if nobody STILL knows "what happened" following 30 days, a "report" on that part would be moot. In any event, he was asking Salazar to do a plan for handling FUTURE accidents like this.

Picky picky, fucking picky. You have never, ever been interested in anything but the blame game.

Reading comprehension certainly isn't yours. The criticism is about what is being done, or rather not being done, now to deal with the current situation - not that we don't have enough policy wonks looking at how to increase regulation of the industry.

A report due in 30 days to prevent future actions does not qualify as action to handle the current disaster.

He gave that order to Salazar on April 30th, when no one dreamed that the spill would not be contained quickly.

I know exactly what I read, and I know exactly how to interpret what I read.

 

[LibocalypseNow]

Like i said,if this guy had an (R) by his name the corrupt MSM and Democrat nutters would be screeching for Impeachment 24/7 over this shocking incompetence. All these Hopey Changeys defending this President really are incredibly disingenuous & hypocritical. This administration has become a real mess. Corruption and incompetence are rampant in this administration. Nice "Hope & Change." Yikes!

 

[VaYank5150]

Like i said,if this guy had an (R) by his name the corrupt MSM and Democrat nutters would be screeching for Impeachment 24/7 over this shocking incompetence. All these Hopey Changeys defending this President really are incredibly disingenuous & hypocritical. This administration has become a real mess. Corruption and incompetence are rampant in this administration. Nice "Hope & Change." Yikes!

Get your talking points late today, did you?

 

[HUGGY]

TIMELINE: Obama golfs while Gulf burns


Tell ya what... It's a clear crisp sunshine morning .....the sky is blue as can be...the dew has been kissin the greens all night long in anticipation....In at the clubhouse and HUGGY struts in clackin his spikey shoes all over the place and slips up to the counter an the guy at the computer says ..... SORRY HUGGY!! somebody called in an cancelled yo T-Time Huggy cuz there iz an oil spill.... I swear to GAAAWWWWDDDD!!!!! Somebody gonna get their goddamn ass kicked!!!

You fuckwits don't know a thing about golf. It is like this big natural meeting place where everybody has the same opportunity. You skill AND your honesty is on display for everyone to see.

I want MY president to conduct business on the golf course. It's alot more than just smackin a little ball around in the grass. Nobody is hiding behind a desk...Nobody gets to cop out , lie or pretend they can't take that call...

 

[LibocalypseNow]

Gulf/Golf? Hopey Changey must be confused. He thought they told him to get to the Golf. Probably a teleprompter glitch. Someone call Rahm to fetch him a new teleprompter. What a disaster.

 

[MaggieMae]

Like i said,if this guy had an (R) by his name the corrupt MSM and Democrat nutters would be screeching for Impeachment 24/7 over this shocking incompetence. All these Hopey Changeys defending this President really are incredibly disingenuous & hypocritical. This administration has become a real mess. Corruption and incompetence are rampant in this administration. Nice "Hope & Change." Yikes!

Get your talking points late today, did you?

His talking points are always the same. Like a broken record.

 

[beowolfe]

How one spends ones time is a good indicator of priorities and values:

April 22: The Deepwater Horizon drilling platform, which had been burning for two days, sinks into the gulf. President Obama, after speaking in New York about the significance of financial regulatory legislation, hosts an Earth Day celebration in the Rose Garden.

April 23: The U.S. Coastguard pronounces 11 Deepwater workers dead after traveling almost 2,000 miles throughout the gulf in search of their bodies. The president and First Lady Michelle Obama travel to North Carolina for a brief vacation, where they enjoy BBQ.

April 24: Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry announces that the Deepwater wellhead is spewing crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The president and first lady continue to enjoy their vacation in North Carolina.

(snip)


April 29: Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal declares a state of emergency, as the spill “now covers a 600-square-mile area” and “is about 16 miles off the state’s coast.” Obama delivers remarks in Washington on the importance of cybersecurity. Later in the day, he attends a FEMA meeting about hurricane preparedness.

May 1: The U.S. military lends BP two C-130 aircraft to release potentially dangerous chemical dispersants over the oil spill. Obama tells jokes at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner, including one about killing the Jonas Brothers using CIA drones.

May 2: Obama makes a quick trip to Louisiana to ”get a firsthand view of the recovery efforts.”

(snip)

May 9: The first tar balls wash up on Dauphin Island off the coast of Alabama. Obama delivers the commencement address at Virginia’s Hampton University.[Note: where he lectures graduates not to get their information from Ipods and Xboxes, which he claims he doesn't know how to use.]

May 12: Under pressure from journalists and government agencies, British Petroleum releases a short video of the wellhead, located one mile beneath the gulf surface. Using independent analysts, NPR determines from the video that at 50,000 barrels a day, the leak rate is 10 times higher than NOAA’s estimate and 50 times higher than BP’s early claim. Obama spends the morning with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai. After lunch, Obama retires to the Oval Office with his advisers.

(snip)

May 21: ABC News reports that in the course of one month, enough oil has spilled to “fill enough gallon milk jugs to stretch more than 11,300 miles. That’s more than the distance from New York to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and back.” Obama hosts the Pittsburgh Steelers at the White House. Also signs a presidential memorandum “outlining the next steps in his vision for cleaner, more efficient vehicles.”

May 22: Wildlife officials in Louisiana tell the Associated Press that they are considering setting the state’s fragile marshes on fire in an effort to staunch the contaminating effects of the oil. White House officials announce that they are beginning a multi-year renovation project for the north side of the White House. Obama delivers the commencement address at the Military Academy at West Point.

May 26: BP announced yet another plan for stopping the spill, a maneuver called “Top Kill” that involves pumping mud into the Deepwater wellhead in order to clog it. This same day, officials begin pulling fisherman off the gulf due to toxic oil fumes. Obama hosts the U.S. World Cup soccer team and the Duke men’s basketball team.

May 28: Obama makes only his second visit to a grief-stricken Louisiana before heading on vacation.

TIMELINE: Obama golfs while Gulf burns | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment


Obama has a great deal in common with Nero.

The gulf burned????

 

[beowolfe]

Like i said,if this guy had an (R) by his name the corrupt MSM and Democrat nutters would be screeching for Impeachment 24/7 over this shocking incompetence. All these Hopey Changeys defending this President really are incredibly disingenuous & hypocritical. This administration has become a real mess. Corruption and incompetence are rampant in this administration. Nice "Hope & Change." Yikes!

Actually, I've never known the media to call for any POTUS' impeachment..not even Nixon's or Clinton's. So, I doubt very much the media would be calling for his impeachment. Besides, as far as I can tell, there have been no 'high crimes and misdemeanors' as called for by the Constitution.

 

[oreo]

And one more stupid thread by a RW racist. Drill, baby, drill? Oh, yea, that was the slogan of RWers before the great spill of 2010 - now they blame the crisis on Obama.
Obama who hoped to move forward on a new green technology, stymed all the way by the R party, and the RW fools who echo their bull shit and spread propaganda.
You want to place blame, look to the OP, the R party, Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich, BP, Haliburton and the other companies who built and operated the offending well.
And consider the hubris of McConnell and the R leadership in the House, stoogies for big oil, they capped the oil cartels liability at $75 Million - chump change, big oil, big farma, big pharma spend that each month bribing members of Congress.

More liberal propaganda, BP spent more money getting Obama and Landrieu elected than any other candidates. Obama could have had shallow drilling or land drilling instead of forcing deep sea drilling. Obama could have appointed someone to take charge in the Gulf instead of some idiot telling us they have their shoe to the throat of BP. (Whatever the heck that meant)

It is time for Obama to act like a leader and put into action a plan. So far he is just enraged that it happened and has no clue on how to "just plug the hole."

Now-now--these are the actions of a community organizer--not a POTUS--who are typically "leaders". Obama is NOT a leader--he is a delegator--he is an assignor of job responsibilities--therefore, he plays golf, he goes to baseball games, he has fancy dinners and appointments with celebrities. That's what he considers his job.

It just goes to show that intellectual eggheads are really incapable of handeling crisis--because they have no leadership skills. Obama is a perfect example of that.

 

[jeffrockit]

Hey before the "accident" DWH got safety awards and phony inspections from the O admin.. He has been there from before day 1.

If you think a captive regulatory structure is unique to this administration, you're more foolish than ever could have imagined. The only difference is that this administration has an active interest in good government, while the previous administration promoted ineffective oversight.

The only active interest this administration has is growing the size of govt and the debt.

 

[jeffrockit]

And one more stupid thread by a RW racist. Drill, baby, drill? Oh, yea, that was the slogan of RWers before the great spill of 2010 - now they blame the crisis on Obama.
Obama who hoped to move forward on a new green technology, stymed all the way by the R party, and the RW fools who echo their bull shit and spread propaganda.
You want to place blame, look to the OP, the R party, Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich, BP, Haliburton and the other companies who built and operated the offending well.
And consider the hubris of McConnell and the R leadership in the House, stoogies for big oil, they capped the oil cartels liability at $75 Million - chump change, big oil, big farma, big pharma spend that each month bribing members of Congress.

Since you brought it up, this is how Obama deals with big pharma:
How the White House's Deal With Big Pharma Undermines Democracy | Robert Reich's Blog

The whole "drill baby drill" is to get us off dependence of oil from countries that hate us and some that would want nothing more than to destroy us. Drilling on our own land sounds like a great idea to me. We have to get off buying oil from OPEC. If we have the resources here, why not use them. This is one huge disaster but should not be the reason to stop us.
We can point fingers all day every day and it will never change the problems this government has. Both sides do terribly dirty deals that we are not aware of so I defend neither. Money and power is their only interest.

 

[LibocalypseNow]

Golf/Gulf? Obviously this President is very confused at this point. He should have focused on the Gulf rather than the Golf. How sad.