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The Campaign Spectator
Talk Is Cheap
In his campaign remarks last night, the President of inaction called for action.
When the President gave his first address from the Oval Office Tuesday night, I was surprised the networks weren’t running a live feed of the Gulf oil spill in the corner of the screen.
Not only because they are almost always running that live feed, but because it would be a perfect image of what has been happening for almost 60 days now. Oil has been flowing out of a hole at the bottom of the sea at an astronomical rate, and the President has been talking. Just talking.
Even in his speech Tuesday night, he started by telling the American people what he had directed BP to do. But where is the action?
He said that there are 3,000 oil cleanup workers in four states and 1,000 ships — but he didn’t say that he sent them. He said there are over 17,000 National Guard troops there, but those are the National Guard troops belonging to the Gulf states (of which there are over 50,000 troops) and acting under their governors’ leadership. And nonetheless, where are the results of all this effort? Oil is spilling out at higher rates than ever before.
The President used this Oval Office speech to create more theatrics, which has characterized his presidency, when it should be about sound policy and executive action.
President Obama has tried to turn this oil spill into his September 11. Going so far as to analogize this catastrophe to the attack on our country in 2001. His Oval Office speech used war metaphors to talk about the spill and what we must do.
This is not war; this is something that a president should have been able to contain a month ago. And if you couldn’t contain it, he should have at least been able to clean up the oil on the surface as it accumulated. It is scary to think we have the strongest military in the world, but we can’t even use our ships and equipment to sop up oil.
It is clear that this President was a great candidate; but he is not a great president. In his speech last night he tried to remind the American public of how much they loved him way back when – he was like a toddler trying to regain his mother’s approval. “When I was a candidate for this office,” the President said — but how about now, when you are President?
The President, time after time again, tried to become Barack Obama the beloved candidate. He talked about future policy and said that we need a long-term Gulf restoration plan “ASAP.” No — we don’t need a long-term plan ASAP, we need to clean up the spill ASAP. Once again, this President is not governing, he is campaigning.
He also emphasized the importance of creating a commission to examine the cause of the spill to once again highlight the finger-pointing he has done from the beginning. Creating this commission should be the subject matter of a speech after the oil is contained. For now, STOP THE SPILL. Then worry about who started it.
The President told the American people that Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar had made cleaning up the corruption in his department a top priority. Then he announced that he and the Secretary are now going to replace management in the corrupt Mineral Management Service. It seems that had it been a top priority, it would have been seen to when the President took office a year and a half ago. Here was again the President was pretending to have a policy – he was campaigning.
The President concluded his speech by talking about future policies. Putting aside the fact that he is once again using this disaster to campaign for his agenda, he said, “The one approach I will not accept is inaction.”
Well, Mr. President, lead by example. Because the only approach to cleaning up the oil spill we have endured is inaction. It’s time to stop talking and start leading.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (116) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Russ Ferguson
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stumblebum| 6.16.10 @ 6:20AM
Ya gotta wonder…. who writes these terrible lies for The President? Or does he actually think them up all by himself? Just off the top of my head two whoppers I heard were: We said in WWII that we couldn’t make enough tanks and planes??
Oh yea, now I remember, it was that famous speech by FDR…. You know the one, “the only thing we have to fear is…. not being able to make enough tanks and planes!”
Or how about the Blessing of the Fleet by clergy from different religions??
Yea, yea, I remember now…. I especially like the part of the blessing when the Buddhist Monk, the Muslim Mullah, the Jewish Rabbi and the Protestant Minister all wave the sign of the cross in the air over the fishing boats as they then all proceed to throw Holy Water in the general direction of all of the gathered fishing fleet! It's always such a memorable spectable how could I ever forget that?
What a flippin’ liar this guy is! If he can’t tell us the truth about simple, historical facts…. then what else is he lying to us about??
Alan Brooks| 6.16.10 @ 8:40AM
So why-- if the GOP knew Obama's ways by the primaries almost two and years ago-- did they nominate McCain?
And BTW, did you hear that Bush's now famous daughter likes Obama's policies, if not Obama? that means she wants to run for POTUS herself so she positions herself as a centrist. The Bushes absolutely crave power.
Stephanie| 6.16.10 @ 8:41AM
Damn Brooks! Are you stuck on repeat?
Get a new line for heavens sake!
Alan Brooks| 6.16.10 @ 9:12AM
"Get a new line for heavens sake!"
Then get better candidates. You are the most thickheaded people around.
Dan Hirsch| 6.16.10 @ 10:11AM
Alan!
Which are you: unrepentant communist or useful idiot?
Amercan Spectators want to know!
coal carrier| 6.16.10 @ 10:26AM
And Obama or Clinton are the best that the democrates have to offer?
RCV| 6.19.10 @ 12:28AM
And McCain and Palin are the best the republicans have to offer?
JP| 6.16.10 @ 10:45AM
Alan,
Like the Clintons, the Bushes will always be with us? What was that line you used yesterday, about the dog returning to its vomit? So it was written, so it shall be ...
Stephanie| 6.16.10 @ 3:06PM
Good God Alan! You need to look in your democratic mirror!
JimE| 6.16.10 @ 7:13PM
Brooks is stuck on stupid and his head is stuck in obama's ass
ds80| 6.16.10 @ 10:25AM
Alan - did you know this President is black?
The above comment is about as relevant as yours.
Alan Brooks| 6.16.10 @ 11:54AM
"Which are you: unrepentant communist or useful idiot?"
Alright I confess! I'm a card-carrying member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). I operate a miniature GULAG in my back yard, and smoke marijuana grown in Cuba. I save the ashes from the draft card I burned in 1965 in a special gold ashtray.
Now you know.
Grzmlyk| 6.16.10 @ 3:16PM
One thing we know for sure:
You are yet another shrill, fungible, liberal fool, preternaturally puffed up with the pneumatic nothingness of your own self regard. You guys are all unintentional self parodies. You feed to bursting on your own egos, even as you are starved for the solid substance of reality.
You are bloated on the empty calories of moral vanity.
I'm sure you and Obama would get along famously, mutually masturbating each other's inconsequentiality heedless of reality.
You think you are enlightened and sooo smart - meanwhile, you fill your days by hanging out and throwing rocks.
I'd rather have you loitering on this site shooting blanks than have you out there, you know, being an activist for social justice.
chuck| 6.16.10 @ 8:35PM
Gee, I just that he was an ass. Thanks for the details!
JCfromDC| 6.17.10 @ 5:22PM
Grzmlyk!
Was that prosey prose intentional or just a bit of pithy wit? How long did it take for you to come up with all that? Mark Twain would be proud. You're a f-ing Genius! You should be made Poet Laureate of the US!
PolishKnight| 6.16.10 @ 1:19PM
"The Bushes absolutely crave power. "
Hahahaha! And so do you, Alan, so do you.
But like a soccer hooligan who dreams of fame and glory but can't achieve it, you can only express yourself by throwing beer bottles at the opposition. "Bush this!" "Bush that!"
Like with McCain, AND BUSH, it will probably be leftists sneaking into the open primaries to pull the lever for "moderate Republicans" that they can then hate as "extremists" after election in order to distract attention away from the lack of substance in their own policies. "Green jobs!" "Global warming!" "Diversity!" You know all of that is balderdash which is why you don't move to France. You secretly are thankful we're around to get gasoline to put into your hypocritemobile car to then put bumper stickers on saying: "Get rid of cars!"
Silly rabbit...
brutus6| 6.16.10 @ 3:33PM
I voted for Fred, not McCain. And why McCain got the nomination Polish Knight explains it very well.
As for the til-now less famous of the Bush twins, I'm reminded of a Mark Twain quote that goes something like, "When I was 19, my father was an idiot. When I was 29, I was amazed by how much my father had learned in just 10 years." With already 28 years under her belt it appears little Laura will be needing more than 10.
Andrew_M_Garland | 6.16.10 @ 4:09PM
Alan,
I didn't hear that about Bush's daughter. Can you supply a link?
I'm glad that the power-craving Bush is out of office, so we can have the leadership of the non-power-craving Obama and his 40 czars. (/sarc)
HSmith| 6.16.10 @ 11:36PM
We didn't nominate McCain. He was nominated by open primaries and by the MSM, who then turned on him and savaged him to elect "The One."
ENOUGH ROPE| 6.16.10 @ 1:05PM
Obama, The Smiling Cobra.
Rich Meade| 6.16.10 @ 1:06PM
What has he NOT lied about?
bliecollarbytes| 6.16.10 @ 9:19PM
Big Lies are easier to push than small ones.
I'm wondering if Obama has Anyone working for him that was in the oil industry in a meaningful fashion. I doubt it. It looks as though his liaison with BP consists of fellow travelers- socialists/communists- all haters of BigOil.
(not sure what at all Bush has to do with Obama's psychological problems though)
GreyLion| 6.16.10 @ 6:22AM
Did I see a "deer in the headlights" look on his pretty face last night or was it just function of lighting?
Ned| 6.16.10 @ 10:59AM
Nope - it was just the lighting... a deer at least KNOWS that it screwed up, and is going to get smacked for it... Obozo hasn't a clue...
JQPublic| 6.16.10 @ 11:33AM
Little children sometimes play tea party, house, doctor, etc. Obama's speech reminded me of a child playing "president".
Paul UK| 6.16.10 @ 6:36AM
We are growing very tired of the BP and Britain bashing here in the UK.
I have one question for your President - what did your country do about the far, far worse disaster of Bhopal? BP has never said that it will walk away from this but Union Carbide and the USA did just that after 25K PEOPLE died. We have had our own spills around the UK coast and oil disasters (Piper Alpha - 167 dead). We didn't go in for USA company and country bashing although it was American companies which caused those. This is hypocrisy in the extreme and the name of the USA here in the UK has taken another big nosedive. Obama is making enemies here in the UK - we play by the rules, the USA doesn't. The Gulf spill is nothing, absolutely nothing compared to the US inflicted Bhopal disaster.
Ret. Marine| 6.16.10 @ 7:16AM
If you think your anger is all alone, you are sorely mistaken. I have to wonder why you would come to this site and "dis" the action of a traitor in our country when you and your fellow blouts have sold your souls to the devil (islam shairah courts, tony blair) himself. If memory serves correctly the incident you are speaking of was quietly taken care of by the big business payoff between your traitors and our traitors. Don't be coming here and piss'n on our sorryass muslim leader until you clean up your own dirty backyard bloat. And quite frankly We the People don't give a rat's ass if the United States took a nosedive in your country now or in the past. Thank your lucky stars you are not speaking german or japanese and remember it was not because the moselman came to your aid in a time of need. P.S. The God fearn' among us here play by the rules and our laws, not the kenyan muslim pretender calling himself our president as last night clearly showed, and should have showed you too, he is above our laws and is getting closer to having his ass handed back to him in the form of a prison sentence. You got a problem bloat, take it to the socialist ruling party on your side of the pond. We have enough of a problem with ours at the moment, thank you very much.
Keith I| 6.16.10 @ 7:17AM
Paul UK
Sadly, you Brits now know the we have elected the enemy. Of course he has no problem vilifying you Brits. In his mind it was your country that spawned this fundamentally flawed country.
However, keep in mind that it was also European audiences that greated this pretender as the second coming. Don't think that this didn't influence a large precentage of the American electorate that had been convinced by our MSM that we were the laughing stock of the world because of that dimwit cowboy GWB (Miss him yet? I do!)
Hang in there Paul. After ObaMau drives BP into bankruptcy he will petition the World Bank to fund the retirements of the Brit pensioners that rely on that BP dividend to frickin' EAT.
It could be worse for you Brits.... You could be Israel.
Anthony| 6.16.10 @ 3:41PM
Amen Keith I. "And a darkness descented upon the earth". Our allies are running for the hills to make nice with thugs and dictators because with Obami in charge, THEY ARE ON THEIR OWN!!
Meanwhile, our enemies are grinning and sharpening the knife that they have waited decades for to stick into America.
Obami & friends will be watching, with smug smiles, for a "job well done"!!!
brewpop| 6.16.10 @ 7:20AM
Paul UK, there is a story over here about an advertising billboard in the Great State of Georgia that said something to the effect, "We the people of Georgia apologize to the citizens of the United States of America for putting a Georgia peanut farmer in the White House." I think the same thing could be said to the citizens of the UK about a community organizer from Chicago. Hang on. November is just around the corner. I think your Yank cousins will begin action to correct a huge error in judgment.
George N.| 6.16.10 @ 3:47PM
That sign is more than just a story. We saw it off of I-75 in GA while on our way to FL in 1980.
RCV| 6.19.10 @ 12:34AM
Ah yes, you proud Americans apologizing to a multinational corporation whose negligence and profit-over-safety philosophy have befouled our coast. You're a disgrace.
Appleby| 6.16.10 @ 7:21AM
Remind me who was President when Bhopal happened.
P.S. You people in Britain actually wrote to individual Americans in a manufactured campaign URGING us to vote for Obama. Be careful what you wish for! YOU thought you would destroy OUR country -- not realizing that every bullet you fire into the USA boomerangs back and hits you right in the back. How is that Rock Star thing working out for you? Ready to say Sorry yet?
buckeyeman| 6.16.10 @ 11:13AM
Two years ago, just before our presidential election, I visited London, Paris and Rome. The subways were full of gigantic Obama posters. IN EUROPE!! WTF???? Do you remember, Paul, how much in love with this monster the European press was? The same icy blood runs in the veins of anti-capitalist, Marxist wanna be dictators no matter what accent or language they speak with. Rant about the boy dictator if you want but don't dis our country.
Shamus| 6.16.10 @ 8:01AM
Sorry about the jerk that's in charge. I didn't vote for him, but enough of our dumber people did that he took over. If it's any consolation, he's causing us even more trouble than he's causing you.
Tim*| 6.16.10 @ 9:01AM
Hey Paul ,The Limey !
Ozero is payin' you Brits back for making Kenya A British Colony.
Ya Want Him Back , Come & Get Him ?
Roscoe| 6.16.10 @ 10:31AM
Pommie Paul, blame your own forebears. Had they done a more thorough job of things in Kenya, the drunkard fool that spawned this idiot might have perished in the mines there, instead of coming to Hawaii for his 60's procreation tour.
JP| 6.16.10 @ 10:53AM
Paul,
He's your President too! Remember his campaign rhetoric of 2008, and the gushing from the likes of the BBC and the Guardian. We Yanks have an excuse -our MSM serves as a third arm of the Obama regime. Fleet St being more independent should have seen right through him But in 2008 I heard a lot of moaning from the Euro Press wishing that Europeans could cast a vote for the Anointed One. Well you couldn't cast your vote, but you got him anyway. We in Fly-Over country (We Bitter Clingers) knew better. Now we all must suffer together. I sure hope you don't have any pension plans vested in BP.
Marc Jeric| 6.16.10 @ 5:33PM
This missive is a gross lie. Union Carbide had a contract to educate Indian operators within 3 years. They did that but insisted that safety inspectors still be Americans. The Indian government forcibly ejected those American safety inspectors and replaced them with the Indians. Within a week or two there was that massive accident with thousands dead. It is entirely 100% the fault of Indian government criminals.
chuck| 6.16.10 @ 8:43PM
Paul,
Please accept my sincere apology for this idiot that is bashing your country, even though it wasn 't my vote that put him there. The Brits, along with our fellow brothers the Aussies, have always had our backs, no matter where we were in the world. It is an absolute embarassment that this ass in the White House is trashing our best friend and ally.
JCfromDC| 6.17.10 @ 5:30PM
Whoa there, PaulUK... WE don't much like it either, especially when the"O" totally ignored your Foriegn Minister, when he came here early in this Admin, then went about bowing and scraping to every tinpot around the globe... and WE don't like it now, considering the Pentagon is BP's biggest customer here AND was one of Obama's biggset contributors. Can't argue with Bhopal tho'.
stumblebum| 6.16.10 @ 6:42AM
Oh, oh…. I just thought of another one! It was about the old factories being converted into solar turbine manufacturing plants?? Quick, someone tell the old factory workers in Pittsburgh and Detroit…. that THEY’RE ALL GOING BACK TO WORK!!
stumblebum| 6.16.10 @ 8:58AM
Sorry, what I meant to say was WIND turbine manufacturing plants!!
bob dobalina| 6.16.10 @ 11:53AM
no, "solar turbine" is right.
stumblebum| 7.6.10 @ 3:19AM
Thanks for that Bob, Ya Know, if George Bush Jr. had made a gaff like that the Godless, Liberal media would have been all over it!! Thanks for pointing that out Pal!! But just for a minute imagine that it were actually true -- if we actually did have a way of making Sun Powered -- Solar Turbines!! We should be so advanced.... and some day God Willing we might just be!!
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 6.16.10 @ 6:44AM
The Barrack Obama BP Oil Address
Four Muslims and 15 Islamofacists ago
I set forth upon this nation
hope, change and unleashed the hatred of Jeremiah Wright
in the belief
that government employees deserve a 50 billion dollar bail out
while I penalize and close down private business
creating more unemployment
and throw the elderly under the wheels of the health care bus
Now we are engaged in fighting a great oil spill
testing the endurance of the BP oil company to handle my
childish insults and insights
while 57 days into the event
the government sits idly by and does nothing
while I peddle tales of alternative energies which indicates
I have come to pull off another publicity stunt
hoping you won't notice
I haven't done anything
In a larger sense that's what I'm all about,
no substance just a lack of honor
The world will not take note nor remember what I say here tonight
because like all my other speeches it's meaningless gibberish
It is for us the politicians to receive massive campaign pay offs
and then pretend we have the resolve
to do something about anything
we don't
but I must pretend to take action so that donations to politicians from the politically elite behind the people's backs will not perish from
my next campaign cycle
chuck| 6.16.10 @ 8:49PM
That was beautiful. Brings a tear to my eye.
stephanie| 6.16.10 @ 6:58AM
Paul, I didn't know about these disasters and I apologize for the actions of t his dispicable president. He does NOT represent the majority of Americans as he is a disaster himself and making our great country one as well.
I plan to read up on these awful accidents.
RCV| 6.19.10 @ 12:40AM
Paul, he DOES indeed represent the majority of Americans, who elected him as President and are very glad we did so. As for the sorry excuses for Americans on this site who apologize to a multinational corporation whose negligence and greed have befouled our coast, I have only contempt for. If Exxon or any other American company had set off a gusher which despoiled the English coast, there would be no end to the howls in Britain.
martin j smith| 6.16.10 @ 7:48AM
As soon as I saw Obama sitting behind a desk I knew that this guy and or hishandlers were bad and made a major error. Th desk fortress to protect Obama from "the people". It is a way of saying: I am up here, you are down there. Once you have that its down hill all the way. That is all I needed to see. A serious mistake on their part but illuminating for us.
Michael L. Hauschild| 6.16.10 @ 8:20AM
Hey I got an idea, let’s take every nickel BP has put it in escrow and turn over its handling to a Chicago thug, a Marxist organizer, or a George Soros disciple bent on the destruction of capitalism, democracy and the USA. (Redundancy you say, oops my bad.)
FTM| 6.17.10 @ 5:26AM
My thought exactly.
You realize that this escrow account has the portential to be the greatest heist in history. President Obama has squandered nearly a trillion dollars in his "economic stimulus" which turned out to be a titanic political slush fund. Congress is getting all choked up in funding an additional fifty billion to refianace the slush fund. What to do... what to do. Then all of a sudden we gets an oil spill and Presiden Obama gets an additional 200 billion political slush fund.
I betcha one dollar out of twenty makes it to victims of the spill. The rest will be skimmed off, anybody wanna bet?
Ryan| 6.16.10 @ 8:34AM
My take on the whole deal.
First, BP is responsible for the spill. More and more is coming out that they did not follow the plans and procedures and due warnings on the drilling.
Second, the US government at least appears to have the plan and resources to enact a cleanup, and reacted far too slowly. BP was talking down the spill (and has been from the beginning, though they are cutting checks). They should have been on the ground discussing remediation and cleanup and prevention from day one, no matter what BP was telling them.
BP is responsible for funding the cleanup - NOT the American citizenry. No caps on liability.
John II| 6.16.10 @ 9:50AM
And third, crazed ideological environmentalism--made in the USA by fanatics who represent less than 15 percent of the population--forced the drilling unnecessarily in ridiculously deep water.
And don't even get me started on why we're not taking advantage of colossal OCS deposits and massive shale-oil deposits right here in the continental U.S. of A.
We could be energy independent within 10 years--but the crazies don't want that. They want us to be weak. They want us to be punished. They want us permanently under their chic thumbs. And right this very moment they're loving this disaster that they helped cause in the first place and are now deliberately prolonging to squeeze out ever ounce of political advantage.
crookedwren| 6.16.10 @ 10:09AM
Spot on.
Ryan| 6.16.10 @ 10:11AM
I don't disagree; I'm just posting more on the now than the whys and wherefors.
Petronius| 6.16.10 @ 10:52AM
J II
Add to it: the ecoparasites make their living by lawsuits. You want to drill for oil, dig coal, fell trees? The ecococksuckers want 15% off the top from all commerce in natural resources regardless of where the project is. Beats working for a living.
And the rest of us pay for all of it. How much of our utility bills go into the pockets of worthless hippies with law degrees? The cost is even higher on finished goods and groceries. When Steve Forbes tried to expose these people he got persecution for his efforts.
John II| 6.16.10 @ 12:20PM
Ecoparasites. Nice. Thanks. Always happy to welcome a new term to my private lexicon.
We need fewer lawyers in this culture, of course, but I wouldn't mind seeing an army of conservative leagle-eagles filing a few hundred thousand enterprising lawsuits against the ecoparasites for their treasonous efforts to destroy American prosperity and undermine national security.
Tina| 6.16.10 @ 10:23AM
It would seem our government is at least partly culpable as well - only 56 inspectors for over 35,000 wells to inspect every month? Seems impossible - what do you think?
"Government regulations say drilling rigs should be inspected every month.
(The Minerals Management Service (MMS), the government agency that conducts inspections, has been sharply criticized for its "cozy relationship" with the oil and gas industry.)
MMS has 56 inspectors in the Gulf of Mexico to oversee 3,500 production facilities that operate 35,591 wells, according to the Interior Department."
JP| 6.16.10 @ 11:41AM
And because of the President's agressive language, BP stocks are crashing towards junk status -thier corporate bond rating is also being downgraded. And as we speak, credit default insurance firms are pricing BP bankruptcy for the market. If BP goes bankrupt, all bets are off. Instead of partnering with BP to get this mess cleaned up, Obama is ensuring the destruction of one of the world's largest energy suppliers.
Jim O'Brien| 6.16.10 @ 8:35AM
Senator George LeMieux (R-FL) was on CNBC a few minutes ago. He said the Obama administration has turned down offers of assistance from 21 countries to help clean up the oil spill in the Gulf. He said there are 32 skimmer boats operating, when there could be and should be a few hundred of them. Obama has done virtually nothing except talk about the problem, which began with the accident in April.
Stephanie| 6.16.10 @ 8:48AM
My question Jim is, WHY? To what end?
John II| 6.16.10 @ 9:59AM
Stephanie, if your question is serious, recall what Al Gore said in the wake of Columbine: "This is a great political opportunity to push for stronger gun control."
The Obamanation LOVES crisis, okay? The creeps currently on top of the heap see the Gulf disaster as a political opportunity. That's all they're interested in--a chance to spin crisis for the cheap environmentalist aspect of their will to power.
Stephanie| 6.16.10 @ 3:11PM
Dead serious John II
I think I already knew the answer, but thank you for your response.
John II| 6.16.10 @ 9:25PM
Oh--okay. Sorry if I sounded a tad overwrought. I am 66 years old, and I still have trouble believing, exactly, that all this is happening to our country so suddenly and so insouciantly. All those warning signs from the past eighty years or so are suddenly coalescing. There was always the seemingly reasonable thought that America is flexible enough to gut it out, no matter how imbecile it leadership.
Can the American experiment survive? I guess we're going to find out, even before I'm safely dead.
crookedwren| 6.16.10 @ 10:18AM
TWO ENDS (which has really two allied results) JUSTIFY THESE MEANS:
CAP & TRADE (under which energy prices will -- in Obama's own words -- "necessarily skyrocket")
REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH
With the CCX, Gore, Goldman Sachs, and other pals of Obama stand to make several considerable fortunes.
As for the rest of us earning $30,000 a year or more, we're considered the wealthiest in the entire world. That wealth "needs" to be redistributed.
BP and the Brits just got their wealth "redistributed" into an escrow account -- or they will, once BP gets his phone call from the great and powerful Ozbama today.
If Obama had accepted help from 21 other nations, the thing might be stopped by now -- and would certainly be cleaner. Fewer animals would be dead. Drilling might be continuing in the US.
That's not what this man wants. That's not what the Progressives want.
And the EPA -- now free from even this Congress' interference -- now has unprecedented powers in these United States. They can control the CO2 in this country, for Heaven's sake -- AND TAX IT!!!
(And the colonists thought a tax on tea was an outrage.)
Dope and Chains| 6.16.10 @ 1:43PM
"BP and the Brits just got their wealth 'redistributed' into an escrow account -- or they will, once BP gets his phone call from the great and powerful Ozbama today."
Well I for one was certainly reassured by the speech. He promised he'll do to BP what those ambulance chasers in the TV ads promise to do to insurance companies: "Make them pay!" Doesn't a president who acts like a hustling shyster give you that warm, fuzzy feeling all over?
Jim O'Brien| 6.16.10 @ 2:35PM
I think Obama and his thugs are engaged in "crisis enhancement" whenever they see an opportunity to grab more power.
George N.| 6.16.10 @ 3:55PM
BHO dances to the tune of of his lefty backers, including the unions that would have a fit if he suspended the Jones Act, which he can do with a stroke of a pen. That piece of crap legislation says that only union crews and American made ships can operate between US ports.
Louis Jenkins| 6.16.10 @ 8:48AM
Talk, talk, talk. That's all the Pretender n Chief does. Where is the meat? He even so far as asked where is the adulation of the candidate? Well, big guy, you're in the hot seat now! Better put up or shut up.
Tom| 6.16.10 @ 8:50AM
It's the blame game. In the president's mind as soon as he has determined whom to blame it is the same as the problem being resolved.
For example:
If he were driving and had a flat tire he would pull over to the side of the road. He would determine whose fault it was - bad tire, road debris, etc. After guilt is established he would drive away on the flat tire because the problem is resolved - in his mind.
Anthony| 6.16.10 @ 8:56AM
You can sum up last night's speech, and Obama's political gamesmenship in three words:
WORDS, JUST WORDS.
Martin H. Petry | 6.16.10 @ 9:45AM
As long as the oil flows Obama and company sell the Corexit. They sold off shares of BP to buy the stocks at Corexit and now with the profits they'll buy back the lower valued shares of BP then fix the mess and prop BP up as a worldwide Community Player and then resell the shares when another riggs mysteriously blows up.
http://the-raw-deal.com/?p=2319
Follow the Money
Tim*| 6.16.10 @ 11:56AM
BP & Enron created Cap & Trade.
Follow The Money Trail .
hardcard| 6.16.10 @ 9:58AM
off subject: what happened to the blago trial in chiland???? just wondering in the silence.
Harry Flashman| 6.16.10 @ 10:40AM
As much as he likes to pretend that he is personally above the fray of partisan politics, remember that the current president is the leader of the Democratic party, and that the November election will largely be a national referendum on this man and his policies. Remember that the proven race baiter David Axelrod (reference his work on the 2003 re-election of Philadelphia Mayor John Street) was the master manipulator who cleverly sold his candidate as a "transformative" politician who would lead America into the "post-racial" future because it was "time" for a black president, with the clear message for whites that if you don't vote for him, then you're a racist. Remember how Bill Ayers was "just a guy that lives in my neighborhood" and a complete lack of recollection of any content from two decades of sermons from the pulpit of the hate-spewing Reverend Wright. Remember when the candidate's mask slipped for the merest moment in his brief encounter with "Joe the Plumber" with the admission that he wanted to "spread the wealth around." Remember the current president's repeated promises to hold open hearings on C-Span to allow the world to observe the progress of the bi-partisan work on his signature issue of health care "reform" and that the process would be free of any secret sweetheart deals. Remember his keeping General McChrystal waiting for a decision on the future of the war in Afghanistan while he flew off to Copenhagen with Oprah in a futile attempt to get the Olympics for Chicago. Remember the hundreds of billions of borrowed Chinese dollars for the "stimulus" which is all about juicy pork sandwiches for Democratic legislators and their allies. Remember that the Cambridge Police Department "acted stupidly." Remember the ongoing foreign policy tour of apology for American power and the repeated slights to our two main allies in this dangerous world, Great Britain and Israel. Remember the critical first month of oil pumping into the Gulph of Mexico while he did next to nothing. Remember that for all of his Oscar quality acting, he is a classic product of the Chicago machine, well versed and accomplished in the art of the Chicago way. Remember that November is fast approaching. Make sure that you vote.
John II| 6.16.10 @ 12:30PM
I'm not sure about the "Oscar quality" of the acting. Any half-decent director, with the benefit of unlimited takes, can tease a respectable performance out of a hamster. And don't forget what the Obamster looks and sounds like whenever the electronic cue-card short-circuits.
He's a dishonest man, without any significant talent or accomplishment and personable only to idiotized sensibilities. Long after he's gone to collect exorbitant speaker fees, we're still stuck with the degenerate culture that put him in office.
JCfromDC| 6.17.10 @ 6:04PM
“Politicians, with few honorable exceptions, have descended to the position of mere office seekers.” Political life, once the domain of statesmen, has become “merely the petty theater of events,
on which the fleeting generations of politicians play hide-and-go-seek, and then pass away and are forgotten.”
Raphael Semmes, Captain, C.S.S. Alabama (writing in 1851)
Slim Shady| 6.16.10 @ 8:26PM
Slavery reparations would have been cheaper than electing Obama.
Gern| 6.16.10 @ 12:08PM
Now that Obama is threatening to ban all off-shore drilling does that mean he will close all airports after the next plane crash? Fix the problem, don't appoint a committee to investigate. there are many brilliant minds that can fix the leak. They are too smart to work for the gov't.
JJ| 6.16.10 @ 12:46PM
Someone tell Barak Obama -- it's the CLEAN UP stupid !!
Show me the 1000 boats that are out there in the gulf sucking up the oil -- they do not exist.
Show me the federal workers who are cleaning up the oil -- they do not exist.
The President of the United States should have been in over-drive on Day 10 to do whatever it takes to soak up the oil before it gets to the beaches. Hire a few thousand people, boats, skimmers, booms -- get foreign help -- DO ANYTHING IT TAKES to get the oil out of the water. It's all about TRYING ... trying to save the beaches, the marshes, the birds and the fish. But nope, there's no real effort there. Instead the President is distracting the media with BP prosecution.
Capping the well is in the hands of God and BP. But we can at least try to stop the oil from destroying the Gulf of Mexico. Even if you suck it up with a damn straw fool!!
Obama should resign and we should have a coalition government: Hillary, Biden and McCain.
Ed| 6.16.10 @ 2:05PM
Heck of a job, Barry!
Oldefarte| 6.16.10 @ 2:11PM
His assets were/are his oratory ONLY. Translation, he's good at giving a speech, period. No doubt he received an A in Speech 101 at Princeton, which is not worth a plug nickle. The job of a President is similar to the CEO of a large corporation, and that is to ACT, not give speeches. A preacher can TALK, but a manager/administrator/President's actions are what matters most. Without his teleprompter, he's just another EMPTY SUIT!!!!!!
Paul UK| 6.16.10 @ 2:21PM
Well, I believe that I appear to have stirred up a hornet's nest with my post! I'm not quite sure where to start in reply, so here's a few points to be going on with:
We do not currently have a 'socialist' government, it's a Conservative dominated coalition with a few Liberal Democrats (the minority party in the UK).
People did not vote for Tony Blair as such - we do not have a President, we have an apolitical Queen as head of state. A Blair Esq. was our Prime Minister and headed the 'New' Labour semi socialist government elected in 1997. This party was finally removed from power last month (first hurrah!).
It is correct to surmise that the BBC/Guardian axis was/is responsible for a lot of trouble politically in the UK, but the BBC is now having to answer for many ill deeds and the Guardian would be bankrupt apart from money from the Leverhulme trust. It is this axis which has driven us leftwards and towards the (now failing) EUSSR (second hurrah!).
Your President is now becoming known as 'Barry O'Barmy' in the pubs and clubs of the leafy south. In the north, and in other regions such as Scotland, the myth about Obama holds true - so far. The British are slow to anger but that is undoubtedly now happening over this spill which set against the evils of the US company caused Bhopal is but nothing, truly nothing. It is fully recoverable and BP should be looking at its contactors, US companies Transocean and Haliburton to help fund it all. Is Barry going after them too? He doesn't appear to be doing so - at least from reports in our (non-Guardian, non-BBC) media. We've had our own US *provided* oil slicks in the past, we didn't make anything like this kind of fuss, we just knuckled down and sorted it out.
Best wishes from the sunny UK.
JP| 6.16.10 @ 4:50PM
And just think, the Anointed One now is diverting all of the dividends of BP to a Chicago style slush fund - some $20 billion. Barry O'Barmy just stole the pension money of your retirees and will redistribute it to his political pals in ACORN and the SEIU. And make no mistake, the $20 billion heist will not go to shrimp farmers or the people cleaning up the mess. Like TARP, this will be a slush fund. BP, like GM, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan all must pay up. The Anointed One could give a hoot for a retired granny living in Kent or the Midlands.He's got his dough.
Tim*| 6.16.10 @ 5:01PM
Bhopal & BP !
Similarities ?
Both India & The U. S. got rid of You Limeys.
Melvin| 6.16.10 @ 2:58PM
" 'Barry O'Barmy' " Paul your much, much to kind in calling him that. Millions of Americans have much more colorful adjectives to call him.
UK has it's political louts and we have ours. BP has unfortunately is the political demon of the day to advance a political agenda and extort money from.
Barrack Obama has learned from two of the best extortionists in the business, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. So it is of no surprise that 22 billion dollars has just been place in the Democratic National Committee's personal bank account.
Not all Americans are on the bashing the English. Heck Paul, about 60 percent of Americans who are bashing England couldn't even find England on a map if you pointed to it. These fools are just products of government run education and are mindless zombies who spout when the media tells them to spout.
I support my numbers by a recent study of 60% Philadelphia military age youth either have criminal records or are to illiterate to serve in the military.
dw| 6.16.10 @ 3:03PM
Since when did we run out of easier places to find the oil we need and will need for decades to come?
He lies and who believes it? His own left wings nut jobs.
Say it is so and so it will be. An alternative energy economy is decades away and wishful thinking will not change that. So in essence we have a man who tells and believes in fairy tales. Putting policies in place that will raise gas prices to unsustainable levels will hurt all of us but especially the very "poor" they claim to advocate for. If the price of a gallon of gas exceeds minimum wage how will these people cope. ( Not to mention heating oil, etc. ) Then we will have to subsidizes those people while at the same time revenue to the government will fall due to less consumption of gas and then congress will have to enact measures to replace that income and so the downward spiril will continue. The product of unintended consequence or in his case intended consequence results from incomplete and faulty programs inacted for political expedience and not from earnest, practical analysis. (he has already said as a result of his direction gas prices will necessarily sky rocket) Too bad too many people were too stupid to understand the disaster that statement represents.
JohnMilton| 6.16.10 @ 4:03PM
Crackberry could care less if the oil was spewing 10 years from now; Dictatorship of the Proletariat (and some more equal than others) is the ONLY thing on his menu. Goodbye, America.
rob mcmillan| 6.16.10 @ 4:06PM
THIS IS WHYi predict(in2012) that sarah palin will be as unelectable as b.obama will be reelectable--that is because the american people will have had a belly full of phenoms and will recognize the need for a technocrat who is capable managing and setting effective policy---GO MITCH DANIELS
Marc Jeric| 6.16.10 @ 5:36PM
Cao & trade hoax is the modern day Communist Manifesto.
George Collins| 6.16.10 @ 6:15PM
Obama better start lining up that job at the UN.
rdman| 6.16.10 @ 7:39PM
The irony Obami and his ilk face is that they unwittingly bring about what they most fear… REJECTION when their narcissism, exploitativeness, malice, deception, vindictiveness is realized by their worshippers and followers.
Obami and his ilk, who were so desirous of being affirmed are now exposed and despised as liars, subversive frauds and worse. So much of what their followers admired turned out to be false fronts, thin facades that are now collapsing, revealing Obami as an unethical, despotic, street thug.
More and more of his worshippers and followers are finally realizing that they were so seduced by the slick package that they did not realize that there is nothing in it… the package was the message.
Michael L. Hauschild| 6.16.10 @ 8:09PM
You think the Retired Marine is PO'd now wait till our Marxist in Chief allots some of the twenty billion in escrow to help Fidel clean up HIS beaches. Think I'm kidding, just watch.
quicksand| 6.16.10 @ 9:58PM
The Alan Brooks jab at young Barbara Bush "agreeing with Obama" is, as usual, as off-the-wall as he is. She did not say she agreed with Obama - she said she believed health care is a right. That is not saying we need this nightmare of a Health Care Bill or that she endorses it..
She is a 28 year old woman returned from East Africa where she has worked in a Children's Hospital and seen children in desperate need of medical attention. Her belief is that these children have a right to a healthy life.
Although Brooks predicted that Bush's daughter might be postioning herself as President some day - he could not bring himself to mention that when she graduated college she went to work in a Children's Hospital in East Africa. Contrast that with Chelsea Clinton toiling in a hedge fund operation on Wall Street, Hedge funds being just this side of being a pickpocket.
Bush was asked the question of a future in politics and stated that she had observed both her grandfather's and father's time in office and politics held no lure for her.
guesswork| 6.16.10 @ 10:05PM
alan brooks reminds me of the guy who knew 1,000 ways to make love to a woman. But he didn't know a woman.
random thought| 6.16.10 @ 10:07PM
TALK IS CHEAP - the reason for that is the supply so far exceeds the demand. Take note, alan brooks.
Philip Isett| 6.16.10 @ 11:09PM
And despite all this, Barack Hussein's popularity continues to stand in the mid 40s. This makes me agree with whoever it was above who said (more or less) that even if we get rid of this guy we are still the country in which approximately half of the voters are and will always remain fools eager to believe the Democrat snake oil merchants. Doom approaches.
Yosemeti Sam| 6.17.10 @ 1:08AM
Shucks, I have theoretical solutions for stopping the BP oil spewing - 'hole'.
The top-kill mud attempt - did not work.
Options:
Collect concrete wrecking balls and rain same upon the spewing oil 'hole'. They're biggins and
collectively they could pinch off the oil spewing
'hole'/tubing(s). Slowing the flow.
Or - rain steel ball bearings into the 'hole'/tubing to 'suffocate' it. Slowing the flow.
At least I've given it a suggestive try - for the wildlife!
FTM| 6.17.10 @ 7:46AM
Folks, this is a heist. President Obama and his administrative staff have pulled off the most valuable political crime in all of human history that did not involve the sacking of an enemy city and/or country.
Two hundred billion dollars which will be skimmed by political allies, incentive this and program that and initiave something else. Acres and acres of desks occupied by functionally useless government employees that do nothing and know nothing other than to push the little button next to the donkey. Pure political genius.
The actual victims of this disaster will actually end up with fractions of a penny on the dollar, if that. I can hear it all now, "Oh, well you should have applied for that program and the deadline was..." Or perhaps, well this office isn't responsible for the disbursement that you seek," and so on.
Eight out of ten people are too stupid to talk to. Honestly, I've been around registered Holstein dairy cattle that have more intelligent expressions on their faces. President Obama has pulled off the biggest cash value crime in all of human history and the sheep just stand there and watch.
Excellect.
FTM| 6.17.10 @ 8:24AM
Oops, sorry, twenty billion dollar heist.
Nick| 6.17.10 @ 10:08AM
FTM,
I'm sorry I didn't respond to you, a couple of weeks ago.
I misunderstood your point about Bubba the pervert and agree, for the most part, with your stance on the "just us" system.
My apologies, again, for not replying to your posts.
LJB| 6.17.10 @ 2:28PM
Obama is not a leader. He is a dictator and as an elitist he is only good at planning the plan of the plan. He is also lazy.
You see, a leader would have not pointed fingers like Obama did - a true leader would have said - "ok we've got a huge problem - now how do we fix it?" Then the leader would roll up his sleeves and get to work with all the neccessary brains and talent to fix the problem.
But we should know by now this POTUS is purposely destroying our country. When will he be impeached? Where is John Boehner?
JCfromDC| 6.17.10 @ 6:05PM
“Politicians, with few honorable exceptions, have descended to the position of mere office seekers.” Political life, once the domain of statesmen, has become “merely the petty theater of events,
on which the fleeting generations of politicians play hide-and-go-seek, and then pass away and are forgotten.”
Raphael Semmes, Captain, C.S.S. Alabama (writing in 1851)
sdfjk| 7.1.10 @ 5:07AM
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Louis Vttion handbags | 12.9.10 @ 2:05AM
Nick - Fascinating post. The space-time postulate is absolutely fascinating, though I admit I'm no Einstein and find it hard to get my brain around the concepts. I don't take the 6 days account literally so don't feel the need to search for a way to reconcile it with what we have come to know from science.
On evolution, my readings convince me of the soundness of the concept. Though I reject utterly his atheism, Richard Dawkins' books on evolution as a process are utterly persuasive. They're worth a read.
There are many leading scientists who are believers on a rational basis. One of my favorite is a fellow named Francis Collins, who headed the Human Genome Project. He has written two wonderful books, The Mind of God and The Language of God. In the first, he marvels at how the human brain developed the abstract mathematical reasoning capacity, which really serves no purpose --- except to understand the mathematical way God constructed the universe.
I believe that as God's creation unfolds, He provides humans the capacity and the means to understand more profoundly the wonder of what He has created. He is the author of the evolutionary process that made us into the creatures we have become.