Obama is furious over oil spill

[moreluck]

I just want to know when this will stop being called a "SPILL" and instead be called an act of gross negligence."

Yet, Obama awarded them a safety award.........just like his Nobel Peace Prize....undeserved.

Obama could've let Jindal do what he wanted to do when he asked to do it. We don't know what building the berms would've done had they been allowed immediately. Obama's stall tactics and moratorium on drilling shows he wants to destroy our ability to get our own oil and not rely on the middle east. He works for the middle east and his allegiance is to Islam!!

 

[tieguy]

 

[tonyexpress]

This fund is looking more and more of just a way for the government connected lawyers to make money. They also released that they do not want to disclose the salary these government connect lawyers are going to siphon off the fund.

I say stuff the lawyers in the hole, if that don't plug it nothing will!

 

[tonyexpress]

"OBAMA didnt act swiftly enough" <--- yet, not one person can actually say what he didnt do, or make a suggestion of something that could have need done. I am sure some idiot will say " he didnt used enough boats from the start" as if 1400 vessels werent enough on day one.

"OBAMA isnt doing what he needs to do" <--- yet, not one person from the right can explain what the right thing to do is.

I asked those on this board : "wheres the beef?" and not one poster can do it.

Have you read this thread? Why hasn't the President waived the Jones act? There have been many suggestions as to how this could've been handled better by the government and yet it's still being handled poorly!

Did BP ever say they would not pay or work on cleaning up this mess? It is in their best interest to do so, thousands of people, employees, shareholders etc. rely on them to be successful...If BP goes out of bus who's gonna pay? BP needs to take responsibility to see this through and plug it up and clean it up, period.

Do you think the over 10,000 independent station owners deserve to lose their businesses because of short sided thinking by some with their push to boycott their stations?

This part of the Country survives on the oil business...There is plenty of disgust with BP and there is even more with the governments botched handling of this.

Oh, and I've yet to hear any reason why Obama has not waived the Jones! This should've been done when it was offered two frigging months ago!

According to ForeignPolicy.com, within two weeks of the rig explosion the governments of Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and even the United Nations offered assistance. The response of the Obama State Department:
“While there is no need right now that the U.S. cannot meet, the U.S. Coast Guard is assessing these offers of assistance to see if there will be something which we will need in the near future.”

Similarly, De Standaard, a Dutch news site, reports that Belgian and Dutch dredgers possess technology to combat the gigantic spill in the Gulf. Two Belgian companies, DEME and De Nul, and their Dutch competitors are set up to handle the task in part because construction of ships required to undertake a large-scale cleanup would cost twice as much to build in the U.S.

Written into the Jones Act are provisions that allow for waivers in cases of national emergency or strategic interest. Even President Bush, in his less-than-stellar response to Hurricane Katrina, did not hesitate to waive the Jones Act in order speed up the distribution of oil and gasoline to areas where pipeline transmission systems were damaged or destroyed.

President Obama and the Jones act


Yet the Obama administration continues to floor flop and show no leadership on this issue. You'd of thought that when Obama went on his apology tour telling everyone how sorry he was that Bush created hate with the rest of the world that he would've used this oil spill disaster as an opportunity to welcome their help and show the world that we can work together to get this done...

 

[av8torntn]

AV8,

Seriously?

.

Yes.

Let's see we had BP paying claims. Now we get 5 billion dollars in a fund. We get six weeks for the government to hire attorneys, make a plan to administer the fund, and possibly start paying claims. We already have at least one politician claiming that some of the money should be used to pay for health care(I'm guessing they are already looking for a way to bail out that stupid health care law they just passed). Who knows what else they will use to try and justify taking some of this money. So on one side we had BP paying claims. On the "other side" we have the government and attorneys trying to figure out how to siphon off as much money as they can. In no possible way is this better unless you are a fan of big government and attorneys.

 

[Lue C Fur]

More govt red tape slowing down the cleanup effort. Who is in charge... EPA, U.S. Fish and Wildlife service, or the Coast Guard???

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/bp-oil-spill-gov-bobby-jindals-wishes-crude/story?id=10946379

Coast Guard Orders Barges to Stop

So why stop now?
"The Coast Guard came and shut them down," Jindal said. "You got men on the barges in the oil, and they have been told by the Coast Guard, 'Cease and desist. Stop sucking up that oil.'"
A Coast Guard representative told ABC News that it shares the same goal as the governor.
"We are all in this together. The enemy is the oil," said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Dan Lauer.

But the Coast Guard ordered the stoppage because of reasons that Jindal found frustrating. The Coast Guard needed to confirm that there were fire extinguishers and life vests on board, and then it had trouble contacting the people who built the barges.

 

[diesel96]

My Fox Friends keep repeating false suggestions that no international aid has been used in response to the Gulf oil spill because President Obama has not waived the Jones Act, even after White House press secretary Robert Gibbs informed them that this was not the case. Indeed, there are currently 15 foreign-flagged vessels in the Gulf responding to the spill -- each of which reportedly did not require Jones Act waivers....

The idea that Obama is mishandling the crisis and that its his fault is much too important to let the truth get in the way. Notice how this will continue to be repeated even after it has been debunked. Unfair and unbalanced!
Blaming Obama and criticizing his response is particularly important because this disaster is potentially way more damaging to conservative ideology and leadership.

This is clearly situation where trusting the corporate governance to be competent and to look out for the public interest has failed. It also gives us an example of how the public, through our government, ends up being responsible for private sector irresponsibility. If we are going to expect leadership from the government to fix the disaster, then government is also responsible to regulate to prevent the disaster.

Also the oil damage destroys the libertarian notion that ecological problems are really property losses and should be rectified through the courts as property losses. Some things can't be fixed during our lifetimes if ever.

They want to keep drilling the narrative (no pun intended) that government is always the problem, no matter what. Yea, they want to make Obama the bogeyman here to distract their audiences from the fact that industry can't regulate itself. Reagan was wrong the whole time and the financial disaster, the Virginia mining disaster, and this oil spill are all proof of that and Republicans know that, so they have to keep scapegoating our President to keep their audiences distracted from the fact.

 

[tieguy]

My Fox Friends keep repeating false suggestions

Since it appears you and backside are the only ones here consistently watching fox it should not be hard to figure out who you are talking about.

 

[av8torntn]

This is clearly situation where trusting the corporate governance to be competent and to look out for the public interest has failed. It also gives us an example of how the public, through our government, ends up being responsible for private sector irresponsibility. If we are going to expect leadership from the government to fix the disaster, then government is also responsible to regulate to prevent the disaster.

.

Actually it's just the opposite. This clearly shows the failure and incompetence of a large government. We have a government who hired a company to drill for oil on their land. The company had to drill exactly how the government wanted them to and also be subject to extreme over regulation. Step by step they had to do exactly what the government said to do. Once an accident(I'm guessing) happened and they spilled some oil in the water the government then puts up every roadblock they can to prevent efforts to minimize the damage. They even block their own states from protecting their own shorelines. They prevent other governments from even helping.
They stop the company from paying for damages so they can get their hands on the money. The government couldn't even decide how they would allow the company to act. It has been like watching a horrible nightmare unfold one week the government wants chemicals dumped into the ocean the next they decide that's worse than the oil. One week nobody can suck the oil up off the water the next week the government is claiming that is the best way to go. Every step of the way this company has done everything the government has asked of them and now in some magical way you wish to absolve the government of all responsibility. All I can say is wow. If anything this should be proof once and for all that our federal government is to large, to incompetent, to cumbersome, and just simply a bad idea.
Yes the government could have acted in more reasonable ways to prevent the damage this oil has caused. Yes it is possible if the government would have acted differently oil may have never reached shore. Yes if the government would have hired companies to drill on their land, or their shallow waters instead of in deep water this would have been capped by now. Yes you can lay all this at the feet of government over regulation. Yes the government should not be in the oil business no more than they should be in the transportation business, the education business, the retirement business, or the health care business. It is comical that as the government destroys all these markets you somehow want to blame private companies. I guess the blame game really is the only thing big government is capable of doing.

 

[trplnkl]

My Fox Friends keep repeating false suggestions that no international aid has been used in response to the Gulf oil spill because President Obama has not waived the Jones Act, even after White House press secretary Robert Gibbs informed them that this was not the case. Indeed, there are currently 15 foreign-flagged vessels in the Gulf responding to the spill -- each of which reportedly did not require Jones Act waivers....

Link please.

The idea that Obama is mishandling the crisis and that its his fault is much too important to let the truth get in the way. Notice how this will continue to be repeated even after it has been debunked. Unfair and unbalanced!
Debunked by Robert Gibbs? Yea boy that's someone I will put all my trust in.
Blaming Obama and criticizing his response is particularly important because this disaster is potentially way more damaging to conservative ideology and leadership.

This is clearly situation where trusting the corporate governance to be competent and to look out for the public interest has failed. It also gives us an example of how the public, through our government, ends up being responsible for private sector irresponsibility. If we are going to expect leadership from the government to fix the disaster, then government is also responsible to regulate to prevent the disaster.

Correct me if I'm wrong. (I know you'd love to anyway.) Isn't there supposed to be regular safety checks buy a government employee? Were there not missing required safety valves on that rig?
Also the oil damage destroys the libertarian notion that ecological problems are really property losses and should be rectified through the courts as property losses. Some things can't be fixed during our lifetimes if ever.

They want to keep drilling the narrative (no pun intended) that government is always the problem, no matter what. Yea, they want to make Obama the bogeyman here to distract their audiences from the fact that industry can't regulate itself. Reagan was wrong the whole time and the financial disaster, the Virginia mining disaster, and this oil spill are all proof of that and Republicans know that, so they have to keep scapegoating our President to keep their audiences distracted from the fact.

 

[Lue C Fur]

Did i hear Robert Gibbs name mentioned...

 

[The Other Side]

TONY,

the link you provided only further DEMONSTRATES how wrong the right wing blame machine is!

It clearly states what has been offered, and that offering would have done NOTHING for the oil clean up or prevention of this disaster.

Let me pull the exact quote out of your link:

"
Late Wednesday evening, the State Department emailed reporters identifying the 13 entities that had offered the U.S. oil spill assistance. They were the governments of Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United Nations.
"These offers include experts in various aspects of oil spill impacts, research and technical expertise, booms, chemical oil dispersants, oil pumps, skimmers, and wildlife treatment," the email read. "

Since day ONE, the OBAMA administration has used the best scientist, the best oil experts and every resource of the oil industry to find a solution to the oil disaster in the gulf.

The countries you mentioned only offered "TECHNICAL" assistance, not ships or crews. We have in this country plenty of agencies and companies to provide these services, the goverments position of "we will access our need for this assistance at some future time" is an accurate statement.

ALL the FOX friends here is "OBAMA TURNED DOWN HELP"...and the ball starts rolling from there.

As to the JONES act, how many times does this have to be explained to the FOX viewers....IT CANT BE WAIVED IN A BLANKET FASHION, the JONES ACT has to be waived on a SHIP BY SHIP basis.

TO DATE, NOT ONE SHIP has been offered to our goverment that required the JONES act to be waived.

Ask yourselves a question? If there are already thousands of ships in the gulf skimming, soaking, separating, laying boom or spraying toxic dispersant into the sea, and even if there was ONE SHIP that you could point to that could have helped if the JONES act was waived in that instance, what difference would it make compared to the tons of crude and toxins that are being spread into the sea each and every second?

If you think ONE ship would make that difference, then you dont know anything about the sea.

The FOX family of friends dont seem to understand they are all victims of propaganda. You can all hate OBAMA all you want, this goverment is doing all it can to figure out how they are going to stop this eco disaster from wiping out life in our gulf for decades.

The right wing can only focus on the mis-direction of a political machine trying to distract people from the truth. FOX floats the "trial balloons" of mis-information and you folks on this blog run with the ball with "semi-facts".

If there are hundreds of ships out there waiting to help, then I say bring them on, it wont stop the oil from spewing out the broken pipe, but it will help the surface of the sea.

There is nothing we can do for the sub-surface contamination. This is a death sentence for life in the gulf and those americans still foolish enough to eat anything that comes out of the gulf in the future.

TONY, you said: "There is plenty of disgust with BP and there is even more with the governments botched handling of this."

Really, spell it out for all of us, without repeating "obama failed to act"

We now know, by your posting that there are no ships offered or waiting for the jones act waiver, so how exactly did Obama Botch this oil accident?

Im waiting.

Peace.

 

[tonyexpress]

Yes the government should not be in the oil business no more than they should be in the transportation business, the education business, the retirement business, or the health care business.

It is comical that as the government destroys all these markets you somehow want to blame private companies. I guess the blame game really is the only thing big government is capable of doing.

Exactly!

Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn’t so. Reagan
​

 

[Babagounj]

Obama spill panel big on policy, not engineering

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein, Ap Science Writer – Sun Jun 20, 12:02 am ET
WASHINGTON – The panel appointed by President Barack Obama to investigate the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is short on technical expertise but long on talking publicly about "America's addiction to oil." One member has blogged about it regularly.
Only one of the seven commissioners, the dean of Harvard's engineering and applied sciences school, has a prominent engineering background — but it's in optics and physics. Another is an environmental scientist with expertise in coastal areas and the after-effects of oil spills. Both are praised by other scientists.
The five other commissioners are experts in policy and management.
The White House said the commission will focus on the government's "too cozy" relationship with the oil industry. A presidential spokesman said panel members will "consult the best minds and subject matter experts" as they do their work.
The commission has yet to meet, yet some panel members had made their views known.

 

[tonyexpress]

First of all my Fox watching poster I don't watch T.V. news except on a rare occasion. It seems that you get all your news there, you really should broaden your sources of information so that you have a balanced or should I say "Fair and Balanced" point of view. I get 85 to 90% of my information from the web; the rest is radio and different types of publications.

Since day ONE, the OBAMA administration has used the best scientist, the best oil experts and every resource of the oil industry to find a solution to the oil disaster in the gulf.

The countries you mentioned only offered "TECHNICAL" assistance, not ships or crews.


"OBAMA TURNED DOWN HELP".

Your last point, OTDH is correct! The rest is.....well, I'd rather not comment.

As you may or may not be aware there are several news sources (on the internet) that have covered this administration's failure to not only act in a timely manner but their refusal to accept help from other nations...

I'll give you some more info but will not demand a reply after you read some more facts...

Here's The Real Reason America Refused International Help On The Oil Spill and some of this you already know but try and get the full message this time because you mentioned that they were only offering technical advice...remember.​

Here is the real reason America refused international help on the oil spill​

Separately, a Dutch news site De Standaard also reported Belgian and Dutch dredgers have technology in-house to fight the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but the Act Jones forbids them to work in the U.S. ​

A Belgian group--DEME-- contends it can clean up the oil in three to four months with specialty vessel and equipment, rather than an estimated nine months if done only by the U.S. The article noted there are no more than 5 or 6 of those ships in the world and the top specialist players are the two Belgian companies- DEME and De Nul - and their Dutch competitors.​

You see...Obama our technologically hip president refused better tech because it would make him look less than cool..​

The U.S. does not have the similar technology and vessel to accomplish the cleanup task because those ships would cost twice as much to build in the U.S. than in the Far East. The article further criticizes this "great technological delay" is a direct consequence of the Jones Act.​

Whatever the rationale, and if De Standarrd's claim that the Jones Act forbids the European companies to help fight the spill is true, it is high time the U.S. government grant the Jones waiver, and let this be an international collaborative effort. ​

It's always better late than never...​

 

[klein]

If you get news from the web, you should know Canada, Holland, Norway, and even your hated Mexico is there.
All countries with Deep Sea Oil rigs. (they have the material and equipment).

The US always crys no one ever helps them out. And that is so wrong. Look closer at Katrina.
Look at the US forest fires, esspecially California.
If anyone should be crying we never get help - It's us up north. Don't think the US was here since 1812 !

But, yes, never needed.

 

[moreluck]

" While the president says he "will not settle for inaction," his failure to waive the Jones Act -- even if for the sole purpose of sending a message to our allies -- suggests he's not doing everything he can."
~Robert Bluey~

 

[Babagounj]

Florida Senator: Obama Told Me We Can’t Take Oil Skimmers From Other Parts of the Country Because They Might Need Them

“He said to me, some of these (2,000) skimmers from other places in the country we can’t take because they may need them for an oil spill” Senator LeMieux

 

[moreluck]

I saw Janine Garafalo on TV and she was asked for her opinion on Obama's oval office speech. She seemed disappointed by it and said that the 'praying part' wasn't about anything real. Up until now, B.O. could do no wrong in her eyes.

 

[Babagounj]

It is really sad when even his most loyal supporters stop drinking his brand of kool-aid.