More dangerous than the Exxon Valdez, more damaging than Katrina. In its first large test of Emergency Response, the Obama Administration left the Gulf Coast to fend for itself. What the hell tho, right? It is a shame and it is a growing scandal. The ineffectiveness of government action will kill the fishing towns and industries that make Louisiana the No.2 producer of seafood in America. We can just start calling the ghost towns already starting to form on the Gulf Coast “Obama Villages.”
Eleven days ago, oil began to leak from the oil rig in deep Louisiana waters. And eight days later, the vaunted Obama administration finally sprang into action. What was the hurry, right? I mean, there only so many different species of wildlife on the coast that the place is like a zoo. And endangering the habitat for many of these species will only end in extinction. So what’s the big deal?
It’s Louisiana. What kind of electoral votes is Obama going to get from Louisiana, right?
I just want it shown this puts the lie to the Obama apologists chant that nothing is this administrations fault and it’s all about who came before. If we were in a Republican administration, we would all be rightly admonishing the government for not acting quicker. And if the Republican administration had gone EIGHT DAYS without acting, they would be called Environmental Criminals. In fact, Obama would be blaming this on the Republicans and proclaiming himself champion of environmentalist wackos everywhere if he hadn’t come out with the first moderate proposal of his administration and recommended studying offshore drilling a couple of weeks ago.
Think that’s dead, now? Duh. What a stupid, cynical world we live in. That we let environmentalists put so much red tape and court action on domestic land drilling is the biggest reason we rely so heavily on off shore. That’s just stupid. We have over 2.5 trillion barrels of oil right here in the United States. That’s nearly twice as much as all the known oil reserves worldwide. We have NO OIL SHORTAGE. What we have is a shortage of willpower, and a shortage of ability to tell ENVIRONMENTALIST WACKOS that Peak Oil is nothing but a childs scary bedtime story (its abiotic folks). We have a duty to provide oil as the engine of democracy and modern industrial success and not be led around by the nose by utopian delusionals trying to get the rest of us to follow some luddite screed.
Domestic oil production, more refineries, stop the Green profiteering and make America independent. The Exxon Valdez eventually spilled 250,000 gallons of oil into the ocean. This oil rig is doing it at the rate of 5,000 gallons a day, without a sign of abating. Every tree hugger owes a duty to go down and help clean up the mess their actions helped create by preventing companies from deriving energy from the land.
Nice try, too bad it just AIN’T TRUE!
From Media Matters;
Limbaugh falsely claimed Obama waited eight days to deal with Gulf oil spill
April 30, 2010 5:42 pm
Rush Limbaugh falsely claimed that President Obama “waited eight days” to respond to the Gulf oil spill. In fact, the White House immediately dispatched federal officials and the Coast Guard to work on the response to the spill.
Limbaugh falsely claims that “Obama didn’t jump on this ASAP”
Limbaugh: Obama “waited eight days” to respond to spill. On the April 30 edition of his radio show, Limbaugh stated: “The problem here is that Obama didn’t jump on this ASAP. He waited eight days, folks. There is no excuse for this. None.” [Premiere Radio Networks’ The Rush Limbaugh Show, 4/30/10]
White House immediately dispatched officials, Coast Guard to work on response
April 20: Oil rig explosion. An April 21 ABCNews.com article reported, “An overnight explosion in the Gulf of Mexico rocked the Deepwater Horizon oil rig off the Louisiana coast, sending spectacular bursts of flame into the sky. The fires were still raging today.”
April 21: Deputy Secretary of Interior, Coast Guard dispatched to region. An April 22 White House statement noted that following a briefing with President Obama, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen, Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, EPA Deputy Administrator Bob Perciasepe, and FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, “Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Hayes was dispatched to the region yesterday to assist with coordination and response.” The Coast Guard announced that four units were responding to the fire, with additional units en route.
Search and rescue efforts begin for 11 missing. An initial focus of the response was the search for 11 missing crewmembers. The search was called off April 23.
CNN.com: “The U.S. Coast Guard launched a major search effort.” An April 22 CNN.com article reported:
The U.S. Coast Guard launched a major search effort Wednesday for 11 people missing after a “catastrophic” explosion aboard an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico engulfed the drilling platform in flames.
Another 17 people were injured — three critically — in the blast aboard the Deepwater Horizon, which occurred about 10 p.m. Tuesday. The rig was about 52 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana, said Coast Guard Senior Chief Petty Officer Mike O’Berry. As of late afternoon Wednesday as many as six firefighting vessels were working to contain the massive fire caused by the explosion.
“It obviously was a catastrophic event,” O’Berry said.
BP confirms U.S. Coast Guard was “leading the emergency response.” In an April 21 press release, British Petroluem stated that it was “working closely with Transocean and the U.S. Coast Guard, which is leading the emergency response, and had been offering its help — including logistical support.” A separate April 21 press release from drilling contractor Transocean also stated: “Transocean’s Emergency and Family Response Teams are working with the U.S. Coast Guard and lease operator BP Exploration & Production, Inc. to care for all rig personnel and search for missing rig personnel.”
April 23: Coast Guard “focused on mitigating the impact of the product currently in the water.” On April 23, the Coast Guard stated:
The Department of the Interior, MMS [the U.S. Minerals Management Service], and the Coast Guard continue to support the efforts of the responsible parties to secure all potential sources of pollution. Both federal agencies have technical teams in place overseeing the proposals by BP and Transocean to completely secure the well. Until that has occurred and all parties are confident the risk of additional spill is removed, a high readiness posture to respond will remain in place.
Although the oil appears to have stopped flowing from the well head, Coast Guard, BP, Transocean, and MMS remain focused on mitigating the impact of the product currently in the water and preparing for a worst-case scenario in the event the seal does not hold. Visual feed from deployed remotely operated vehicles with sonar capability is continually monitored in an effort to look for any crude oil which still has the potential to emanate from the subsurface well.
“From what we have observed yesterday and through the night, we are not seeing any signs of release of crude in the subsurface area. However we remain in a ‘ready to respond’ mode and are working in a collaborative effort with BP, the responsible party, to prepare for a worst-case scenario,” Landry stated early Friday morning.
Axelrod: “We had the Coast Guard on the scene almost immediately” and “the deputy secretary of the Interior was on the ground the next day.” White House adviser David Axelrod discussed the administration’s response to the oil spill during an appearance on the April 30 edition of ABC’s Good Morning America. He stated:
AXELROD: This is always the case in Washington, that whenever something like this happens, the political speculation sets in. But the truth of the matter is that we had the Coast Guard on the scene almost immediately after this accident, the deputy secretary of the Interior was on the ground the next day, and we’ve been coordinating closely with the local authorities and with the responsible party, BP, down there to deal with this from the very beginning. I’m not concerned about that. What I’m concerned about is that we do every single thing we can to remediate this problem, to stop the flow — and that’s what’s going on.
Storms delayed cleanup efforts. An April 25 Associated Press article reported, “Stormy weather delayed weekend efforts to mop up leaking oil from a damaged well after the explosion and sinking of a massive rig off Louisiana’s Gulf Coast that left 11 workers missing and presumed dead.” AP further reported:
The bad weather began rolling in Friday as strong winds, clouds and rain interrupted efforts to contain the spill. Coast Guard Petty Officer John Edwards said he was uncertain when weather conditions would improve enough for cleanup to resume. So far, he said, crews have retrieved about 1,052 barrels of oily water.
Spill reportedly more severe than administration officials were led to believe
AP: “BP assured the government the plume was manageable, not catastrophic.” An April 30 Associated Press article reported: “For days, as an oil spill spread in the Gulf of Mexico, BP assured the government the plume was manageable, not catastrophic. Federal authorities were content to let the company handle the mess while keeping an eye on the operation.” The article continued: “But then government scientists realized the leak was five times larger than they had been led to believe, and days of lulling statistics and reassuring words gave way Thursday to an all-hands-on-deck emergency response. Now questions are sure to be raised about a self-policing system that trusted a commercial operator to take care of its own mishap even as it grew into a menace imperiling Gulf Coast nature and livelihoods from Florida to Texas.”
Napolitano: “Today I will be designating that this is a spill of national significance” after “BP alerted us to additional oil leaking.” In an April 29 press briefing, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano stated:
Last night BP alerted us to additional oil leaking from their deep underwater well. They are working, with our support, to estimate the size of this breach.
As has just been mentioned, the President has urged, out of an abundance of caution and mindful of new and evolving information, that we must position resources to continue to confront this spill.
That being said, we have been anticipating and planning, and today I will be designating that this is a spill of national significance. What that means is that we can now draw down assets from across the country, other coastal areas, by way of example; that we will have a centralized communications because the spill is now crossing different regions.
In addition to the command center that we have operational in Robert, Louisiana, we are opening a second command center in Mobile, Alabama, for the BP spill.
As was mentioned, as well as part of our oversight of the response, I will be going to the Gulf Coast tomorrow along with Secretary Salazar and EPA Administrator Jackson to inspect ongoing operations. We remain focused on continued oversight. We’ll be taking a very close look at efforts underway, particularly to minimize the environmental risks in the area affected by the leaking oil.
We’ll be meeting with other federal, state and local officials deployed to the area and helping in the response effort, and we will be meeting again with BP officials to discuss cleanup planning and operations.
As the President and the law have made clear, BP is the responsible party and is required to fund the costs of the response and cleanup operations. But our visit to Louisiana and the affected areas tomorrow will also help inform our investigation into the causes of this explosion which left 11 workers missing, three critically injured in addition to the ongoing oil spill.
In his post on Egypt and Israel, Crowley criticizes what he calls the “Government Run Media”.
In this post he uses David Gregory and his “own” comment to support his point.
Psychotic much? You can’t have it both ways.
Well, if it isn’t Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter, both coming over to play…
Well, let’s use one of the Left’s favorite doyennes of unfunny, Bill Maher, to make the point. At least some on the left “get it”.
To Bill Maher, nothing is sacred. And while he spent most of his career proving that by supporting those on his side of the aisle, last night he took some time to criticize public officials he has vocally supported, including the recently-deceased Ted Kennedy. Maher is “really mad” at the way the Obama administration has handled the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and refused to let go Kennedy’s resistance to wind energy just because he was no longer alive.
In particular, it seems a quote from President Obama a few weeks ago assuring that most oil exploration is environmentally sound enraged Maher the most, reading the quote and noting that “if I was quoting George Bush, this crowd would be laughing in hysterics.” Maher is not alone in his outrage towards the administration on the oil spill, or his comparison of Obama to Bush (the NYT published an editorial yesterday suggesting the federal government’s delay has worsened the situation), but concern and outrage at Maher’s level from the left side of the aisle has not been common.
No, but it will get there.
Click here to see video
Now, children, go outside and play in traffic.
FILE THIS UNDER;
IT TAKES A REAL DICK…
Fom the DailyKos;
BP Oil Platform Spill Disaster is CHENEY’S Fault
Fri Apr 30, 2010 at 03:29:50 PM PDT
Mike Papantonio, an environmental lawyer on the Ed Show just now: An ‘acoustic switch’ would have prevented this catastrophe – it’s a failsafe that shuts the flow of oil off at the source – they cost only about half a million dollars each, and are required in off-shore drilling platforms in most of the world…except for the United States. This was one of the new deregulations devised by Dick Cheney during his secret meetings with the oil industry at the beginning of Bush’s first term.
(Will try to post Ed Show clip when it becomes available.)
From ABC News;
BP Fought Safety Measures at Deepwater Oil Rigs
Owner of Louisiana Oil Well Objected to System That Would Have Shut Off Spill
By MATTHEW MOSK, BRIAN ROSS and RHONDA SCHWARTZ
Apr. 30, 2010 —
BP, the company that owned the Louisiana oil rig that exploded last week, spent years battling federal regulators over how many layers of safeguards would be needed to prevent a deepwater well from this type of accident.
One area of immediate concern, industry experts said, was the lack of a remote system that would have allowed workers to clamp shut Deepwater Horizon’s wellhead so it would not continue to gush oil. The rig is now spilling 210,000 gallons of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico.
In a letter sent last year to the Department of the Interior, BP objected to what it called “extensive, prescriptive regulations” proposed in new rules to toughen safety standards. “We believe industry’s current safety and environmental statistics demonstrate that the voluntary programs&continue to be very successful.”
That was one in a series of clashes between the industry and federal regulators that began during the Clinton administration. In 2000, the federal agency that oversaw oil rig safety issued a safety alert that called added layers of backup “an essential component of a deepwater drilling system.” The agency said operators were expected to have multiple layers of protection to prevent a spill.
But according to aides to Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat who has followed offshore drilling issues for years, the industry aggressively lobbied against an additional layer of protection known as an “acoustic system,” saying it was too costly. In a March 2003 report, the agency reversed course, and said that layer of protection was no longer needed.
“There was a big debate under the Bush administration whether or not to require additional oil drilling safeguards but [federal regulators] decided not to require any additional mandatory safeguards, believing the industry would be motivated to do it themselves,” Carl Pope, Chairman of the Sierra Club told ABC News.
#1: Media matters is worse than the left wing sycophant media that Terry’s referencing. Why don’t you add Michael Moore to your list of experts?
It’s also scary to think that Big Sis (Napolitano for you, #1) has her fingers in this after the mess she made of the “secure” border. These people are even more worthless than the skanks that Clinton appointed.
I LOVE THE POST OF COMMI ANOSTER taken from media matters and the daily kooks , all you missing is msnbc , huffington post and you got the whole far , far , left enchalada .
“Maher is “really mad” at the way the Obama administration has handled the Gulf of Mexico oil spill”
You obviously didn’t listen to Maher carefully. He said absolutely nothing in that clip about the administration’s response to the spill. Rather, it’s all about Obama’s flip-flopping on the issue off-shore drilling. And while he’s at it, Maher also takes on the whole idea of “drill baby drill”.
The administration’s logistical response to the BP spill and its position on off-shore drilling are 2 separate matters. But nice try at conflating the two and attempting to make it look like Maher was criticizing both.
Of course, Holder has sent some of his minions down there already, so the Messiah responded quickly with what he knows best — retaliation. They’re still saying it’s on BP, but no one mentions it was the environazis that forced these wells into deep water.
So where our deep salvage assets? We know the Navy has the equipment to investigate the hole. Not a word so far.
It’s amazes me that the right wing anti federal regulations, Hummer driving, “drill baby drill” chanting loons are now blaming an accident like this on Obama. It takes a special kind of ignorance to even posts something so outrageous.
I love Ted Kennedy, but his moronic protection of his precious sailing grounds against the win farms a few years bas was terrible. If that is what Bill Marher was referring to he was correct to do so.
Sorry anon, you need to read. R-E-A-D as well as listen. Thats what books are for. Try it.
“In particular, it seems a quote from President Obama a few weeks ago assuring that most oil exploration is environmentally sound enraged Maher the most, reading the quote and noting that “if I was quoting George Bush, this crowd would be laughing in hysterics.” Maher is not alone in his outrage towards the administration on the oil spill, or his comparison of Obama to Bush (the NYT published an editorial yesterday suggesting the federal government’s delay has worsened the situation), ”
That was MY point as well as the point of the article I linked to with the video.
Thanks tho! Keep trying!
BP has a track record of not following even the safety standards that many of oil companies follow.
BP/ Arco in California is always the low price leader, now we know the price of that.
Rush must be taking those pills again, he probally just did not hear of anything until eight days later.
Short of personally going to the rig with a scoop, I do not know what else could have been done.
Perhaps following safety standard to begin with would have helped.
Boycott BP?
Jim is right. BP has a truly awful record on safety. Usually companies that don’t care about safety also don’t care about maintenance.
Trying to use this accident to advance the GOP is nothing but shameful.
Obama appears to be doing what he can but the weather is a problem.
Terry you truly jumped the shark with this post.
Sorry Crowley, I read every word and nothing in that video, and nothing you wrote, shows Maher enraged at the administration’s response to the spill. Just because you wrote “Maher is not alone in his outrage towards the administration on the oil spill…” doesn’t mean that’s what Maher said. He didn’t say that. He merely used the occasion of the spill to call Obama on his inconsistency on the issue of offshore drilling.
Terry jump the shark? That’s tantamount to saying Terry sat down at the computer keyboard. Shark jumping is what the man lives for.
Except for that great video of soldiers dancing to Lady Gaga yesterday, Crowley – thanks for that!
http://orangejuiceblog.com/2010/05/telephone-remake/
More deception from the darkness. AleisTer Crowley- who do you serve?
Here’s a video link to anonster’s post
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f13_1272805929