President Obama to address the nation on the BP Oil Spill - Page 2

That plus the fact that there was never a chance that BP wouldnt do it anyway.

Just caught snippets and whatnot from the morning news on FOX. It's not my house, nor my television.

Look, I don't see anything wrong with talking about energy initiative and reform. I think that's a very important thing we need to seriously look at to avoid this happening again. Y'know, long term picture. So those smarmy Republican pundit bastards and shove it, but I agree on the rather uninspiring statements on plugging the whole/working in the Gulf. God. Backbone man, backbone!

But now it's coming from the other side as well.

They need to be told what to think, unfortunatly they're getting cross talk from their pundits so they're mostly silent on the issue. As soon as there is a chance to call someone a racist or stupid though, they'll be posting in droves.

Projection, thy name is Snaieke.

>_______>

Keep dreaming, sugar tits.

You flirt!

Basically, people want the problem fixed and as long as it's not all tidy and done with, they're going to want his and other's heads on a stick. They want action, not talk. And yet, they want him to be doing more in terms of being vocal, speeches and all that. (I've been complicit in this as well in this thread).

He's really in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" spot. THIS is why being President has to be the shittiest job ever. Realistically, the guy only has so much control/input/etc.

He says he's going to get experts on it (I'm paraphrasing there, obviously), and he's criticized for not taking a stand personally. As if he's also an oil drilling expert. He takes it all on himself, and he's criticized for, "well what the fuck do you know? Let an expert in there! We need people with know-how, not a community organizer!"

He makes a speech and it's, "what a bunch of bullshit! It's all talk, do something!"

If he stays more quiet and just does things behind the scenes, he's lambasted for not making enough speeches.

I've been bearing witness to this irrational anger down here something fierce the last couple of days after/during/before his visit. He doesn't come here and everyone did/would whine forever about how he neglected the area and how he really needs to get down here.

He show's up and THEN it's all, "fuck off. You can 'keep the change,' socialist!" or "oh, like his visit is going to do anything."

People are pissed and looking for a scapegoat, or multiple scapegoats if they can manage. He has his share of the responsibility to be sure, I'm not exactly talking about that.

I just mean the whole thing of people just waiting to pounce on the guy whichever step he makes.

Also: why is THIS page of all pages the one where I'm inundated with fucking hairlip banner ads?

Because they're coming from the future via tachyon transmission. Those are Louisiana kids 2099, born a year after the spill was finally stopped...by aliens.

I realize that hindsight is 20/20, but if Obama's gonna be blamed with anything about this he's gotta take the fall for allowing something like this to happen.

He was the one who told us time and time again that lobbyists will have little say so in his administration, yet the whole process of giving BP this deep water license just smells of special interest lobbying. MMS's role, the lack of research done on the effects, the sheer lack of governmental oversight, the complete ignorance of BP's contingency plans, etc. This list goes on and on.

He doesn't deserve as much blame for the aftermath, but this whole process of how BP got a hold of this license is really sickening to me.

I can't reply in earnest to this thread yet because Rachel Maddow doesn't come on MSNBC until late afternoon

I'm not going to apologize for Obama because I'm beyond pissed off about how this whole ungodly debacle is playing out, but the regulatory dysfunction can't be laid at his feet. That is 100% Bush and Cheney, entrenched civil servants and the laissez faire political philosophy that the right, corporate democrats and misled masses have been parroting at the direction of these gigantic multinational corporations making unprecedented riches the "smaller" and less powerful government becomes.

Obama is screwing the pooch in a lot of ways, but the mechanisms that led to the spill are only marginally one of them. Before the gusher exploded, you have to remember the mindset and the corporate-funded attacks that have been thrown at him at even the suggestion that government should actually have a function where big multinational corporations are concerned.

Now, it's a different story. Now, I think the people by and large are finally getting it through their skulls that government does and SHOULD have a function. The people are behind him if he takes bold steps. He needs to act and act now. The jury's still out on if he will but so far no soap.

Yeah, I don't buy it. Sure, you can blame Bush and Cheney all you want, but as soon as Obama steps in the office he has/had every opportunity to clean house at MMS and at Interior. This is stuff he doesn't need Congressional approval for. He doesn't need Republicans or Blue Dogs. He can and should have done something. He should have had a detailed oil drilling policy from the get-go. As far as I'm concerned it seems as if he took the Bush-Cheney template and hoped for the best.

I'm just as sickened as you are, but would we be having this conversation if the Deepwater Horizon hadn't blown? I know where I would stand, but up to this point most of Obama's critics have attacked him for things he hasn't done, much less things he had. I think Salazar has got to go, and the entire MMS -- if they're even fire-able -- but prior to this happening, with the TREMENDOUS amount of power Big Oil throws around, any attempt to do the right thing vis a vis MMS would have been met with a Frank Luntz-fuled Freedomworks-led death panel attack the likes of which haven't been seen since last Summer.

You can't deny that that's true.

I believe the rig is some years old, and was built when Bush was in office, with licenses granted by Bush's version of the MMS according to rules supported by the business-friendly, corrupt Bush Administration, which was well known to be on the take.

Much about the Bush Administration is sickening to me as well.

<golf clap>

I was very hopeful when the President was elected, but that hope was tempered with concern for what would come to pass. He was young and inexperienced. The other choice was no choice at all. I didn't think things would turn so quickly on Obama in the media. I thought it might take a while, but with one terrible disaster his greatest support has begun to crumble away.

We're two years out from the next Presidental election, but I'm already hearing that there may be challengers on the Democratic side of things. I can't handle a Republican back in so soon, but four more years of this President will not go down well.

Oh come on -- that's fucking ridiculous. That's some serious 20/20 hindsight. I know everything's rosey in the world right now, but remember, when Obama took office America was facing many, many challenges that had to be addressed immediately. I'm sure auditing the drilling policy was down somewhere around the middle of the list, right after health care and making sure America's economy didn't melt down.

And really, this is a perfect example why we shouldn't elect nihilistic clowns that hate government (yet do everything in their power to get elected). These agencies get staffed with fellow zealots and their influence is like a hidden time bomb. When you're least expecting it, it'll explode and fuck everything up. Elect competent people and, hopefully, you'll get experts with knowledge in the federal agencies. Elect assholes you'd like to have a beer with, and you get horse lawyers in charge of FEMA.

Rand Paul is the only right winger with the integrity to stand by his convictions. He's completely wrong--that the government should just leave BP to do whatever it will--but at least he's consistent. It grosses me out to see the pro big business/laissez faire capitalism/drill baby drill phonies go on TV and take the same position as an anti-big business pro-efficient government lefty like myself just to be able to take jabs at Obama.

Did you all read that Rolling Stone piece? I haven't finished it yet, but what I'd gotten to seemed to imply that Obama began to dismantle/fix the MMS but essentially stopped half-way in. Or at least, the guy he put in charge did.

That's the impression I got from the article as well. It does indeed make the case that simply blaming the usual suspects (Bush/Cheney/free market fasco-racists/etc) is a bit naive. It's like Obama came into the picture talking a good game but not even trying to follow through.

Just because Dad didn't make it all better his first year in doesn't mean you can't still blame Bush/Cheney/free market fiasco. I was shaking with rage after reading the Rolling Stone piece, a lot of it directed at Obama, but that does not negate the fact that Reagan's "the eight scariest words in the English language are 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help'" and Bush/Cheney's wrecking crew of deregulation and cronyism didn't lead directly, powerfully and precisely to this moment.

I have to stress that a) I haven't finished the article, and b) a LOT of it right off the bat smelled of exaggeration. I'm not saying the guy's lying or whatever.

But any article or piece of "journalism" that throws out sensationalist accusations of "...while they were flying to coke parties" etc. sends up a red flag to me.

And the fact that he glosses over those things like they're just common everyday knowledge with no back up or sources makes me wonder.

Whatever culpability Obama might have, I don't think there's ANY question about that. Those fucking cretins definitely set the tone.

Believe it or not, there actually were sex & meth parties between the oil executives and MMS people. It was and probably is still a cesspool. But one thing we have to remember about Cheney's parting acts was that he entrenched all levels of government with very hard-to-fire civil servants that were and continue to be his lackeys.

I'd agree with you if this was a topic that just randomly popped up and had no play during the campaign. This wasn't one of those topics. Offshore drilling was talked heavily by both Obama and McCain, esp. Palin.

This was a serious issue prior to the spill itself, so Obama has no excuse in getting people in MMS and Interior who would take on the oil companies and prevent things like this from happening. Sure Bush and Cheney deserve a big chunk of the blame, but Obama's President now. He had the opportunity to change the culture. He failed. His fault.

I read the entire piece, it does make Obama look bad but here's the thing. You can't blame Obama for the rig exploding. It was going to happen anyways. Even if there was some sweeping form of overhaul or regulation there was no way to stop the failures that occurred. BP screwed a big pooch, they pay the price. There is a lot of talk about the contingency plan that BP filed and how it was shit.. but here's the bigger question that no one appears to have been asking (or at least that I can find..). What does the contingency plans look like for the other 3,500 drilling rigs and platforms, (79 of them that are deepwater wells)?

Obama's failures have occurred AFTER the explosion in reacting to the crisis.

Actually there was a good article in the Globe about how most of the companies that fall under the 'Big Oil' Banner all sub-contract their Health and Safety stuff out to the same companie, all of which who have, pretty much the same safety responce plans

I give up.

I guess he should have had Easy Reader take a pass it.

Fuck people. Just fuck 'em.

I guess he needs to give his daughters some crayons and a poster board and have them draw up a diagram for the rest of the country.

Also, he talks like a fag and his shit's all retarded.

Can someone clear up this question I keep hearing in the media about Obama's Consitutional ability to compel BP to create this twenty billion dollar fund?

Would this be considered a negotiation rather than just a strong arm tactic?

He can't compel them to do anything.

All I know is BP is filfilling every stereotype of a bad megacorp, from top to bottom. It's almost as if Oliver Stone is their PR guy.

Yeah, it's almost enough to make a person think the Free Market can't solve all of society's problems!

Along those lines, apparently the term the GOP prefers is Slush Fund. So please, adjust your posts and thinking accordingly.

I bet it's all going to Acorn anyway.

If you're Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), it's not a tragedy that 11 people and thousands if not millions of animals have been killed through BP's criminal negligence. It's not a tragedy that fragile American wetlands and beaches have been treated like a cesspool by BP and taken away from future generations by BP. It's not a tragedy that the economies of all the gulf states have been destroyed through BP's criminal negligence. It's not a tragedy that people's businesses have been wrecked by BP and then those same people have to go hat in hand and beg BP for work cleaning up a mess that had nothing to do with the people of the Gulf. It's not a tragedy that Exxon only had to pay about 1/10th of the original court-ordered damages to Alaska for the Exxon Valdez disaster.

Joe Barton doesn't have any problem with that. But when the President does something that favors the country and its citizens over a multi-national corporation that knows it can easily get out of any and all liability later on down the line, that's a tragedy. What an unbelievable douche. I hope Texans throw him out of office.

You keep hoping. He'll keep slobbering on BP's cock, swallowing and asking for seconds. Then see who comes up ahead.

Hint, sadly it won't be you.

True.

Meanwhile: Nice to know who can be so blatantly bought out by BP, but at least they're honest about where they stand.

I've been watching C-SPAN all day and people are FURIOUS at Republicans and Heyward. Only one guy I've heard on air say he felt sorry for Heyward and attacked the Obama administration.

One thing I've noticed is that people that called in were very angry about Republicans attacking the Obama administration during the hearing.

So Obama should have told BP how to run their business in regards to the spill, but he's wrong for demanding they pay reparations for the damage caused by it. Got it.

Limbaugh appears to be running with the "shakedown" meme. Palin's rushing to call this an opportunistic way for the President to shove "cap & tax" "down our throats." The marching orders have evidently been issued from Big Oil.

Maybe it's me being overly optimistic, but I think they're going to lose this one the way they lost the Schiavo narrative. Even Boehner (who, to be charitable, is as dumb as a dead rat) is backing away from this bullshit.

http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/06/...ee-membership/

Representative Jeff Miller (R-FL) asks Barton to step down from committee.

No, you're right on this one. The smart ones are starting to reign in the BP supporters here. While Bachman and Barton may be "right" (no pun intended0 in the argument of what the govt can/should do NO ONE in America is on BP's side in all of this. Even the biggest conservatives are watching the nonstop flow of oil, BP's inability to do anything, and saying fuck BP. I'll be shocked if we don't see the majority of GOPers get the hell away from Barton and co. But hey, maybe I'm wrong and they want to piss away more votes.

The new memes appear to be that Obama refused international offers for equipment and aid and that he didn't waive the Jones Act preventing int'l ships from the Gulf, both untrue.

From the US Dept. of State official site

That's good, but that dumb motherfucker is only doing it because of his constituency. If he wasn't in Florida, he might be singing a different tune. Still, glad he knows that he does, in fact, have to draw a line somewhere.

So Barton is saying that making BP pay for their own mess and provide victim relief is a "tragedy in the first proportion", Bachman says BP is being "fleeced" Limbaugh has the bald-faced temerity to call it a fucking "bailout" for chrissake and others are calling it a "shakedown".

How the fuck are ordinary people not lynching these fuckers by now?!?! Jesus tap-dancing christ, I'm an aussie and I want to march on their offices with a pitchfork in one hand and flaming torch in the other, and yet this is being seen as politics as usual???!? How are these people not being forced to resign in absolute disgrace???

I'm sorry guys but your system is really looking from here as if it's just inextricably broken, so fucking bought and sold as to essentially be farcical - real throw your hands in the air type stuff. It's truly beyond belief and utterly heart-breaking in so many ways.