The American Spectator

Richard Baker| 6.1.10 @ 7:16AM

Eventually, the States are going to take charge of their own houses and ignore the Federal government as the Feds are, in the words of LTG Honore during Katrina, "Stuck on Stupid."

mames| 6.1.10 @ 4:50PM

we cannot forget that the Feds forced this deep well drilling which is unecessary and fraught with safety issues. Hell, its a mile down there, if it were only a couple thousand feet we could have fixed it by now. we must all0w the market to make these calls not a bunch of unelected leftist morons from the enviornmental proctological assoc. BOHICA

Lullaby's, Legends and Lies| 6.1.10 @ 7:21AM

Jeb: Major General Caldwell may have been in the first Aircraft leading the Military response to Katrina, but most of the soldiers of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, unfortunately had to drive all the way from FT Bragg, NC to New Orleans (all one thousand miles of it, in Humvees!!). I think that might have been a Public Relations move on Bush's part, so that the American People could see that the Army was well on it's way to Louisiana (you couldn't miss us on the road). But PR move or not, we definitely were on the way, as soon as we fixed this one truck here, that just broke down again, and we'll be right there!! Fortunately for us, we got to fly home about a month and a half later, instead of driving all the way back. Now this doesn't take away from point that you're trying to make here. This Administration has to stop talking about what they're going to make BP do, and about the next "big" plan on how to stop the well (that'll fail too), and "really" do something. No more excuses, just action!! If BP can't handle it, then fire them from running the cleanup job, and get someone in there who can do the job. May I suggest Major General Caldwell, and a few thousand Troops? But "Please", just don't make them drive there this time!!

wukong| 6.1.10 @ 3:28PM

Have you ever considered the possibility that driving may have been the quickest way to get the unit to La? The ready brigade has a world wide strategic mission and would unlikely be the brigade to respond to the Katrina situation. In order to deploy the ready brigade another brigade would have to be rigged and prepped for the strategic mission. To prepare the 3rd Brigade for air shipment would entail time and expense that would result in a delay. The next consideration would be the availability of suitable airfield within a reasonable distance from the impacted sites and the support necessary at those sites. By the time all of this was staffed thru Army and Air Force channels and carried out, boots on the ground would probably be in my estimation considerably quicker. From my vantage point as both a Military Airlift Command pilot and airline pilot nothing is truer than the old saying, "If you have time to spare go by air; if you must arrive, drive."

Lullaby's, Legends and Lies| 6.1.10 @ 6:07PM

They never consulted me back then (and they still don't consult me), so I couldn't tell you why we drove (although we were DRB at the time). I know a lot of stuff was flown down there, but maybe you're right, maybe it was just easier to drive than to fly. But it was a long drive I've got to tell you, and I drove every single mile of it, in the most uncomfortable Humvee ever!!

Appleby| 6.1.10 @ 7:32AM

Of course King Zero has been on it from Day One: kicking, screaming and blaming is all he knows how to do, becuse he is stuck in his sophomore year in college, where Grandma sent the cheques and all he had to do was March and Agitate.

Perhaps the only thing this debacle of an administration is going to accomplish is the final banishment of The Sixties. All those sixty-somethings who were still muttering that Yes They Could are now seeing what happens when their stupid ideas ARE tried. Maybe at last they will admit what we were telling them in 1968: This Dog Will Simply Not Hunt.

Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 6.1.10 @ 8:02AM

This article contains the assumption that the green crowd in the White House actually wants to see this problem solved. This crisis has been a boon to the environmentalists who hope no one will notice that that deep wells like the BP well were made necessary by years of incompetent government management and idiotic policies which prevent companies from getting to oil that is much easier to obtain.

Changing that policy is what the government should be moving all it's resources behind, but it's the right move, so it won't happen.

In the meantime the Obama administration continues to stall, milking the situation for all it's worth in terms of stopping off shore drilling, which at this moment in history is just another stupid thing to do. But it's been done, so stupid is as stupid does.

On your claims about Katrina they are not historically accurate. Don't get me wrong, Bush 43 was a liberal in many ways although he did a great job on fighting terrorism. But for the sake of accuracy, let's review the Katrina situation and the law and the facts.

Here is an article by Bob Williams from the Wall Street Journal:

The actions and inactions of Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin are a national disgrace due to their failure to implement the previously established evacuation plans of the state and city. Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin cannot claim that they were surprised by the extent of the damage and the need to evacuate so many people. Detailed written plans were already in place to evacuate more than a million people. The plans projected that 300,000 people would need transportation in the event of a hurricane like Katrina. If the plans had been implemented, thousands of lives would likely have been saved....

The city's evacuation plan states: "The city of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas." But even though the city has enough school and transit buses to evacuate 12,000 citizens per fleet run, the mayor did not use them. To compound the problem, the buses were not moved to high ground and were flooded. The plan also states that "special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves or who require specific lifesaving assistance. Additional personnel will be recruited to assist in evacuation procedures as needed." This was not done....

The federal government does not have the authority to intervene in a state emergency without the request of a governor. President Bush declared an emergency prior to Katrina hitting New Orleans, so the only action needed for federal assistance was for Gov. Blanco to request the specific type of assistance she needed. She failed to send a timely request for specific aid....

Unlike the governors of New York, Oklahoma and California in past disasters, Gov. Blanco failed to take charge of the situation and ensure that the state emergency operation facility was in constant contact with Mayor Nagin and FEMA. It is likely that thousands of people died because of the failure of Gov. Blanco to implement the state plan, which mentions the possible need to evacuate up to one million people.

jasjfarrell| 6.1.10 @ 8:05AM

The old saying still goes. "Lead, Follow or Get Out Of the Way".

Cuffs| 6.1.10 @ 2:17PM

Want government to move on this
oil crisis? Rudy Guilliani

Louis Jenkins| 6.1.10 @ 8:44AM

The bottom line: The Pretender n Chief doesn't want to see it cleared up. At least not yet. Too much good stuff yet to be made, at least by their calculations. They're going to reap benefits beyond Obama's imagination. Meanwhile, the public, who must drive, is going to suffer.

Bob Miller| 6.1.10 @ 9:11AM

Will this administration ever do the right thing in a competent manner? From their boss on down, they are ideologically warped and managerially inexperienced.

Ken (Old Texican)| 6.1.10 @ 9:21AM

Folks,
I keep asking the same question over and over as the months, and crises, go by.
"Is it incompetence, or is it their agenda?"

Or,
is it a combination of the two with a dash of "convenience" tossed in?

Jim Woodward| 6.1.10 @ 11:02AM

Ken,
Same question I've been asking.
After reading up on Cloward&Piven; and Alinsky, I've come down on AGENDA. I also believe they are grossly incompetent, hopefully so incompetent that the agenda fails. Only November will tell.

JS| 6.1.10 @ 12:59PM

I will put on my tinfoil hat and say agenda.

I think its their agenda for several reasons These include, their lack of response, the sending of SWAT teams to 'inspect' other rigs, the dreadfully slow permitting process for artificial sand berms to catch the oil...the list goes on and on. Jim alludes to Alinsky and I believe he's right. This adminstration is doing everything it can to create chaos and sow discord between different groups of people. Everything zero says you can expect the exact opposite. 'We are going to unite the country' eh, not so much. "We are going to be post partisan' eh, not so much. I could keep going to infintiy and beyond.

JP| 6.1.10 @ 10:24AM

The problem with New Orleans was as much due to local and state incompetence and corruption as it was lack of timely response from the WH. If Bush had acted with all dispatch, he would certainly have been accused of racism, fascism, etc... The dirty little secret is, there are plenty more "New Orleans" out there.

The issue with BP as I see it is the deep water wells themselves. There are many of them. And there are many wells that go even deeper than the one now leaking. Thier safety record speaks for themselves -this is the first serious leak of those wells in over 2 decades of service. But, it only takes one disaster to do the damage.

But, alas, we need the oil. And niether the Interior Department, nor Congress, nor the courts are about to allow oil companies to drill for oil in less dangerous spots.

It is almost impossible to cap these wells once the damage is done. For a variety of reasons no one had a problem with these wells since they were in the middle of nowhere. If Congress were to order these wells capped and closed down, we would be importing more oil from foreign source than ever. And it is nothing like $4.5o a gallon gas to get Americans irked (remember how the Pelosi and Reid camps joined Bush in his "Drill, Drill, Drill" mantra in 2008.

My thinking is, despite the political grandstanding, Congress and Obama will do nothing. Afterall, Alabama, Lousiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Florida are essientially Red States. If this occured off the coasts of California, Oregon or Washington, all of these wells would be closed by now.

Humphrey Dumfries| 6.1.10 @ 10:44AM

LOL: Janet Incompetano

RCV| 6.1.10 @ 12:16PM

Yes, the Obama administration did make mistakes with respect to the tragedy in the Gulf. the mistake was succumbing to the "drill-baby-drill" crowd's insistence that we have too many environmental regulations that impede offshore oil drilling, and believing the industry's assurances that they were prepared to handle any unlikely contingency. We will make sure the administration doesn't make the same mistake again.

JS| 6.1.10 @ 1:19PM

Environmental regulation is the reason we are dealing with this disaster right now. There is oil cloes to shore in shallow water, but the oil companies are not allowed to go after it because of enviro-nazis. This problem wouldn't have been a problem if the well would have been in shallow water. It would have been a minor spill that would have easily been cleaned up.

This is just like the housing bubble. Carter's fair housing act, expanded under Clinton, forced (with the help of ACORN blackmail) lenders to make risky loans to people who couldn't pay them back. Coupled with bad lending practices like lending 150% of the value of the house, the market was bound to crash eventually. Chris Dodd and slobbering Bwanny Fwank are responsible for the housing debacle. In both instances, too much government meddling cause both disasters. These are self inflicted wounds delivered on the people of this country by their 'benevolent' government.

RCV| 6.1.10 @ 1:48PM

Nonsense on both fronts. The housing bubble crash was decidedly NOT caused by loans to minorities and lower income folks. The private mortgage brokers who peddled those risky loans that led to the crash were motivated by pure profit and abetted by the loosening of regulatory oversight. And the same has happened on the environmental front. We're not going to fall for the nonsense of letting the oil companies rape the coast again with their assurances of expertise. The drive for short-term profit caused this problem not your mythical "eco-nazis", whatever the heck that means.

JP| 6.1.10 @ 3:37PM

Drill Baby Drill did not cause this. Most of these wells have been out there for decades. And you know as well as anyone that the federal government does not allow drilling on about 98% of federal land.

And no one pointed a gun a minorities to buy houses. But the federal government surely encouraged them. Fannie and Freddie underwrote 80% of the high risk mortgages, of which over 50% are in foreclosure. Without Fannie and Freddie, not even independent mortgage brokers would write these loans.

wukong| 6.1.10 @ 3:42PM

My God, the overwhelming bulk of the loans in default were made to "minorities and lower income folks." Every trail from this fact leads back to the CRA, Freddy and Fannie. It is obscene to lay the blame on the "peddlers" when the law required them to pursue these clients and F & F welcomed this nonsense with open arms.

RCV| 6.1.10 @ 4:08PM

That is just flatly untrue! If you'd like, you can cruise through the neighborhoods in Nevada, Arizona and California where the defaults are if you'd like to check it out for yourself.

Joe D| 6.1.10 @ 12:30PM

Jed Babbin - I would humbly disagree with your assessment of Katrina. The Lions share of the blame goes to Mayor Nagin and Gov't Blanco. I would say 60%. The state and national Guard (under the Gov't is the first responsers). She also held Bush at bay after several phone calls. The people should have left on there own as well. So they get an F and 10% for those who could go and did not. Finally, Brownie was incompetent and deserves and F along with Bush for 30% blame on getting this problem solved.

Finally, he is not doing anything I am sure for 3 things, he is incompentent, BP is big oil and he is getting mileage out of it and finally, the Gulf coast is full of Republicans who he does not what to help for the obvious.

loulou| 6.1.10 @ 12:52PM

I see no reason for the feds to jump in at the drop of a hat whenever there's a natural disaster. If the Katrina people weren't such dependent idiots who didn't have the energy to leave for higher ground, the levee break would have been just like the Midwest floods, the Nashville flood and the Mississippi Katrina damage.

Sometimes the feds do need to take charge but not for Katrina in New Orleans. Bush was mau-maued and panicked.

Nick| 6.1.10 @ 2:35PM

Joe D,

Everybody repeats the banality that Michael Brown was "incompetent", but they never explain why.

In 2004, the year before Katrina, FEMA competently handled FIVE hurricanes that hit Florida. Did "Brownie" become incompetent in just one year?

Most of what was reported about Katrina was false or hyped by hacks, like Shepard Smith and Jerry Rivers (a.k.a. Geraldo Rivera.)

While they were gettting their sensational shots, decrying the lack of food or shelter, and reporting lies about rapes and murders occuring in the Superdome; the Coast Guard was heroically saving THOUSANDS from their flooded homes and attics. This was the first priority, saving lives. Not food and shelter.

That jerk, Shep Smith, still brags about the lies he repeated. Don't believe what the media distorted during the Katrina rescue. Read this report from, of all papers, the L.A. Times:

http://articles.latimes.com/20.....a-rumors27

If you believe in federalism and subsidiarity, then the responsibility for the devastation belongs to the people of New Orleans.

It was N.O. city officials who allowed housing to be built below sea level for decades. While located in prime hurricane territory.

It was the city that passed the buck to the Army Corps of Engineers to build and maintain the levies, which were only rated to handle the storm surge from a Category Three hurricane.

It was the city of New Orlean's responsibilty to protect itself. Why didn't they take all the tax revenue they received from Mardis Gras and build super-levies that could've handled any surge?

I feel the same way about Katrina as I do about people who build huge houses on ocean front property and get hurricane insurance from the federal government. If you build in a flood or hurricane zone, and can't get insured, pay for the rebuild yourself. Or, don't build in the first place.

Louis Jenkins| 6.1.10 @ 3:01PM

And FEMA says, "Allow yourself three days before help will begins to arrive."

MoeBlotz| 6.1.10 @ 2:46PM

Nothing I read in the Constitution gives the Federal government responsibility to clean up after hurricanes and provide disaster relief. Federal regulations are preventing Governor Jindal from doing what he wants to slow the oily tide. Also,"Lead,follow,or get out of the way," is Lido Iacocca's Chrysler advertisement line circa 1985.

kirby1| 6.1.10 @ 5:03PM

I'd say a massive ecological, natural, or man-made disaster counts as a credible threat to our national security.

A few miles worth of oil slick can be just as efficient a blockade as an enemy navy, interfering with commercial shipping and military operations in and over the gulf.

Here's what really needs to happen. BP needs to admit that it's outgunned on this problem, and ask other oil companies to help out. BP and all the industries' oil experts can figure a way to stop the leak pronto, the navy can join the party if they have any Deep subs that can help.

In the meanwhile, local, state, and federal groups need to work on damage control, cleanup, and mitigation in a coordinated and somewhat efficient manner.

After all this is over, the other oil companies bill BP for helping out while the local and federal governments fine BP for gross negligence, property destruction, and stupidity.

Oh, and final question. Where are the hippies? When the Exxon Valdez spill occured, all the treehuggers flocked to Alaska to help. I hate hippies, but at least they stood by thier convictions and showed enough concern to scrub some oily seagulls.

Twenty years later, and the tie-dyed, volvo driving middle class yuppies who call themselves environmentalists are no where to be seen. God forbid they get their hands dirty doing any thing other then holding preprinted protest signs.

the only thing worse then a real hippie, is a pretend hippie.

Dixie Pixie| 6.1.10 @ 5:24PM

Has any one considered the most obvious explanation for Obama's detachment.

It is Regionalism pure and simple.

If you look at the personal of the Obama Administration you will find they have been hired from a small sub-strata of the Northeast Elite. As a group the Northeast Elite have always disdained the people of the Southeast and Gulf States as Barbarians and Moral Lepers.

The Northeast Elite consider the Gulf Oil Leak is a result of the Souths moral backwardness and shortsightedness. In short the Gulf States are getting what they deserved for supporting “Drill Baby Drill.

Also consider the South voted for McCain 2 to 1. So according to the ethics of Chicago politics the South should get nothing but faux concern.

Add it up and you will get the summation of typical Northeastern contempt for the South.
The reason for Obama's Olympian detachment for the Gulf Oil Leak is he really does not care what happens to the people of the Gulf States.

Marc Jeric| 6.2.10 @ 2:21AM

Abu Hussein al-Nairobi (guess whom I mean) and his AG Holder (the one who pardoned the Puertorican terrorists-murderers and who was Castro's lawyer in the Elian Gonzalez case and who hired 20 Gitmo-ACLU lawyers to help him try the 9/11 masterminds by a jury "of their peers" (peers - who are their peers - other jihadists?) - are preparing criminal indictment of British Petroleum in view of nationalization. So they do not have to wait for the globaloney warming hoax to work.

RCV| 6.2.10 @ 2:27PM

Its BRITSH Petroleum, dumbell. Only the Brits can nationalize it.

antidote| 6.2.10 @ 2:16PM

The only failure on the part of the federal government here is to properly REGULATE the oil industry. Oh how you people hate that word. Thanks to W, every fed regulatory agency has been run by former employees and lobbyists of the industries they are supposed to regulate. And then, of course, the oil company execs. got up in front of Congress and lied, lied, lied. No problem with deep water drilling, we have the technology, no problem, no accidents, we have the technology to take care of it.......I hope they are all indicted.
As for Louisiana, they agreed to offshore drilling (since 1947), received 1.5 billion a year in revenue, $300,ooo + jobs... they made a deal with the devil. Did they require the oil companies to set aside $$$$, equipment and anything else needed to clean up after a disaster. It happened in "79 in the gulf, 2009 in Australia, but they believed the oil companies when they said it would never happen again? Well they did so at their own peril......Sadly, the rest of the gulf states are going to suffer the consequences of Louisiana's poor choices.

JJ| 6.2.10 @ 11:47PM

The Obama administration approved the BP drilling without adequate safety precautions and no worst-case scenario plans.

Let me repeat that: The Obama administration let BP drill a mile down without a contingency plan for capping the well if it ever burst. BP got the green light, the fast track.

The Interior Department executive -- an Obama appointee -- who gave BP this deal resigned and ran away. But the TV networks, the major newspapers and the rest of the liberal media trying to protect Obama let this story drift off.

Even the conservative media fail to follow up on this.

In assessing if Obama is to blame even Fox News can't report that this administration is responsible for allowing an oil company with the worst safety record to drill a mile down without proper safety precautions. Why? Because Fox News, like the rest of us are drowning in liberal media talking points and slanted coverage by the AP (Associated Press).

The AP, which feeds almost every newsroom in the country, is a far left-wing liberal news slanting service as good as Pravda was for the Russians back in the old days.

If the Bush administration had give the green-light ... (do I have to go on here?)

And then there is the CLEAN-UP. WHAT CLEAN UP?

I ask any American, any TV reporter, anyone anywhere to tell me ONE THING the United States Federal Government is doing to CLEAN UP, TRAP, CONTAIN, PREVENT or SCOOP UP THE OIL. Show me the video on the news of that each night? It does not exist.

Where is the 'green technology' that can scoop up the oil?

Carville was right -- do something, try anything, make an effort -- just get the heck out there!

Instead our aloof, haughty, snotty, smirky, arrogant depressing President spent the day speaking badly about someone or something again ...

The only thing Barak Obama is good at is telling us American just how bad we are ... (oh, don't worry, if your category has not been demonized yet give it some time ... he'll get to you sooner or later ... all you bad people out there ... )

We are bailing out Greece, pissing on Arizona, dumping on Israel and blowing off the Gulf. Obamaworld.

dfj| 7.1.10 @ 4:48AM

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