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Alan Abelson, RIP
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A Further Perspective
Our Caudillo President
We’re still a constitutional republic, right?
As I write this on Monday night, there are rumors around that BP will agree to President Barack Obama’s demand that the oil giant “voluntarily” put about $30 billion into a fund to be administered by the government to compensate victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster.
Now, no one disputes that this is a real disaster and that BP acted irresponsibly in commissioning Trans-Ocean and Halliburton to drill for oil in waters so deep that if a failure occurred there would be no way to fix it — at least until major damage had been done. BP, Trans-Ocean, and Halliburton, as well as the individuals involved, have much to answer for.
But the action of the President in demanding this immense transfer of the stockholders’ wealth without any legislation or court decision is extremely worrisome.
We live in a Constitutional Republic. The President’s job under the Constitution is to enforce the laws made by the elected Congress. His job is not to create new laws and enforce them all by himself. His job is as magistrate under the Constitution, not as Caudillo. He is not the law. He is supposed to enforce what Congress decides.
The BP behavior is reminiscent of how, immediately after assuming office, Mr. Obama, with no Congressional authority or administrative allowance, simply made a phone call to fire the head of GM. When I called the White House press office to ask under what law or regulation Mr. Obama was acting, I was told he did not need a law. If the government put a lot of money into GM, it could call the shots at GM, I was told. But under what authority, I asked. “None needed,” was the final answer.
Without any new legislation, President Obama has used returned TARP money as a political slush fund to prop up favorite industries. This is the same problem: serious executive action without legislative authority.
The same goes for Mr. Obama’s demand that BP pay the lost wages of oil and gas workers suspended from work because of the moratorium on Gulf of Mexico underseas drilling. There simply was no legislation allowing this kind of specific demand. Mr. Obama’s demand was in the nature of a threat, more than a Constitutional act.
Of course, every President tries “jawboning” to restrain steel company price increases or something similar. But to create specific enactments and actions without any authority — now Mr. Obama’s specialty — is so at odds with the law of the land that it terrifies me. These are not the acts of a teacher on Constitutional law. These are the acts of a big city boss or a third world dictator. If you want to know why business has pulled in its horns and hunkered down, and why people at tea parties and elsewhere are scared, look no further than Barack “I Am The Law” Obama.
Is there anyone in Congress to stop him? Is there anyone in a black robe to stop him? Or is everyone already too scared to challenge the Duce in the White House?
About the Author
Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer living in Beverly Hills and Malibu. He writes “Ben Stein’s Diary” for every issue of The American Spectator.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (531) | Leave a comment
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Michael Zak | 6.16.10 @ 6:38AM
See http://biggovernment.com/mzak/.....and-benito for more about Barack Obama and Benito Mussolini.
texican| 6.17.10 @ 2:19AM
Uhhh, somebody ring up Ben and tell him that Transocean was the drilling contractor and did what BP ordered them to do. As well, Halliburton was the cement contractor and also did what BP ordered them to do.
This thing is BP's booger.
Geoffrey Britain| 6.17.10 @ 3:54AM
"This thing is BP's booger. "
Not quite. The administration approved BP's permit to drill in 5 mile deep waters. Congress has banned drilling in much shallower waters and on land. Environmentalists have pressured Congress for decades to ban drilling and forced it off-shore.
Then there's the corrupt government practices of allowing BP and the industry to get a pass on safety equipment.
Then there's the Feds unconscionable delay in addressing containment of the oil spill and the environmental damage.
The truth of the matter is that the government and environmental lobby share as much, if not more blame for this disaster, as BP does.
Sun| 6.17.10 @ 4:20PM
Geoffrey Britain - you could not be more ignorant. Actually there is a good chance you are an idiot, not just somebody who is unaware, but chooses a non-logical path full of falsehoods.
Moron
imwthhym| 6.17.10 @ 6:48PM
Sun why not have some substance in your comments when you disagree with some one. there is plenty of evidence that all parties involved never thought out of the box when it came to answers for deep water deasters. they are all responsible!
Chris Ashton| 6.17.10 @ 9:34PM
Sun - you write with all the eloquence of a left winger.
Musket-eer| 6.17.10 @ 10:31PM
Ditto, Chris Ashton. They've become very easy to spot.
lou| 6.19.10 @ 5:57PM
Sun, if anyone is a idiot here, it has to be you. To start name-calling without dealing with the issues and points raied is always the sign of a moron. Moron.
Zel | 6.21.10 @ 5:26PM
The Left denies any responsibility for anything and typically responds with adolescent name-calling.
lam master| 6.22.10 @ 12:16PM
Sun, you are the ignorant one here!Geoffrey has the facts! The truth is always hard to swallow!
Millicent| 6.18.10 @ 2:06PM
They were turned down on drilling in shallow waters because the people that live in the area didn't want it there..This is what I am understanding from all the stink about the drilling..
Hank| 6.18.10 @ 5:17PM
I think this is all a sham with BP and the admistration and Here it goes again this failure was made so they could condem all the offshore drilling some conspiroucy ( sp )
Hal Scoggins| 7.1.10 @ 1:43PM
It's my understanding that the State of Louisiana and BP had agreed on drilling in 500ft of water, but the Feds insisted that they drill in 5000ft. Not sure if "the people that live in the area" were ever in on the decision. If so, it would be a first.
Gene Moser| 6.18.10 @ 2:22PM
Uh - the well was drilled in water that was just shy of being one mile deep. It then drilled five miles into the earth's crust. IIRC, any place in the ocean that is five miles deep is in the bottom of trench, not on the abyssal plane.
The "corrup government" you cite is the former administration - Dick Cheney to be specific.
Had Mr. Obama stepped in at once, you complaint would be "The government won't let private industry do what it knows how to do."
rimbaud| 6.19.10 @ 1:01PM
"Of course, every President tries "jawboning" to restrain steel company price increases or something similar."
Not every action requires a law, or government intervantion. That's the power of negotiation for voluntary cooperation toward a common, win-win objective. Win for BP: concerns are allayed that, when it stops making business sense for BP to continue spending money on the project, it will just cash in its chips and go home. BP gets to demonstrate its commitment to doing right by those damaged by the spill.Win for the public: There will be enough money, administered by an independent party, to pay claims of damages. In the long run, BP's decisions are good for all but those of its investors interested in short term gains.
William Miron| 6.23.10 @ 8:21PM
Right on the mark Geoffrey Britain, right on!
Avanti| 6.17.10 @ 12:33PM
The Obama in action. On occassion the dictator, bully, despot (call them what you like) does something you agree with. Defending him when that happens only sets you up for being on the other side later.
He is an attorney but has less respect for due process and the rule of law than anyone in public office.
Had I been castigated by this government the way BP has been I would have said see you in court.
Musket-eer| 6.17.10 @ 10:34PM
I am surprised that he didn't say to them, "see you in court." Makes me wonder if it's not all for show. How can you trust any of them anymore.
Wendy| 6.21.10 @ 2:12PM
That has nothing to do with Obama shaking down BP. That is not in his job description to act like a dictator
Kitten Mitten| 6.17.10 @ 5:56AM
Don't bother to ring him up. It doesn't matter what BP did or what the President may do. Ben does NOT like Obama. Why? Well, he's the wrong color, you see.
SSK| 6.17.10 @ 7:03AM
Why is it that when someone has a legitimate gripe against the President for his policies, a person can't disagree with him without being called a racist? Ben doesn't like Obama because he's taking our country down the slippery slope of socialism. Replace Obama with a white person, and that person holds the exact same policies as Obama, and Ben would be just as critical of the white guy. It has nothing to do with skin color. Kitten Mitten, you are a MORON!
Kitten Mitten| 6.17.10 @ 5:57PM
Takes one to know one, ya dough-head! LOL!
Rmm| 6.17.10 @ 7:54PM
Grow up.
My twelve year-old presents better argument than what you bring.
Jack Herman| 6.17.10 @ 10:04PM
My twelve year-old presents better argument than LIBERALS. (Fixed it for you.)
Nobammy Bin Lyin| 6.18.10 @ 10:52PM
Takes one to know one? So you ADMIT you're a moron? Wow. And here I thought you liberal dingbats were all pathological liars like your president and here you go and tell the truth. Now I'm really confused!
Gene Moser| 6.18.10 @ 2:23PM
SSK - Can you define "socialism" without looking it up? Oh - excuse me, can you define "socialism" correctly - that is the way it's been defined for the past one hundred years without looking it up?
I'll bet you can't.
Betsy Potter| 6.18.10 @ 7:21PM
Gene Moser....can you recite the enumerated powers? Bet you can't.
Ralph Wiggum| 6.17.10 @ 7:18AM
Yes kitten mitten half the country hates black men. That means the other half must hate white men. Only problem now is that the polls show that 60% of the country now hate black men. So I guess that means that 60% now love white men. Did I meet your racist expectations? Liberals always are judging people by the color of their skin. Sick and twisted is what you are!
SDN| 6.17.10 @ 7:41AM
Kitten Mitten,
Where did you get your info concerning Ben being a racist? Sounds to me like you have been drinking the kool-aid. USE SOME COMMON SENSE, you brain washed moron. You must be one of those people sitting back hoping for a handout. Do you want the government controlling every aspect of your life? Well it is heading in that direction unless we take back our country. There seems to be too many uneducated people like you that think Mr. Obama is the Messiah. Wanna talk racist? We all know that a big majority of blacks only voted for him because he is black. Is that not being racist?
Kitten Mitten| 6.17.10 @ 5:59PM
IOW, "I doth protest too much." It's OK...you don't like THOSE PEOPLE either. Frankly, I'd have more respect for you and your fellow Birchers if you'd just come right out and admit it. Moron. LOL!
Jack Herman| 6.17.10 @ 10:06PM
Time for your medication Martini.
48boomer| 6.17.10 @ 7:41AM
Did we just read the same article? What an ignorant response....but, I am sure YOU are the RIGHT color.
evelkyn| 6.17.10 @ 7:51AM
color shouldn't matter, it takes brains and experience to do what is right. and to do what the Constitution says, not what "the man" thinks he can do!
Kathleen Wilson| 6.17.10 @ 8:22AM
Kitten Mitten
OMG Get a life this as nothing to do with the color of his skin but the length of time he has sat on his throne in his castle on the hill and not done a damn thing about anything. We need a leader and he is not one.
Jenn| 6.17.10 @ 8:44AM
I am so sick of the "playing of the race card." Drives me crazy!
Colin Foy| 6.19.10 @ 10:46PM
Jenn: I'm in full agreement with you. It's gotten tawdry, especially when the very people who cannot form a cognitive thought or look at an individual without peering through the spectrum of "race" accuse everyone who else of being a racist. Here's what I did, I became a card carrying misanthrope! It allows you to hate everyone with great equanimity. Cheers!
bongofury| 6.17.10 @ 8:52AM
oh boy! you've done it now.thrown truth into the face of a herd of 'baggers/klan folk! they will scalp and hang you!.........don't you realize these folks are fine upstanding, white christian, patriot, constitutionalist? They are intent upon takin 'Merika back form the black commie boogieman!!
48boomer| 6.17.10 @ 9:12AM
Now...now... Bongofury. Relax. Just go into a quiet corner and play your drum. The fine upstanding patriotic white christian bagger klan folks will pay their taxes to your boogieman so you can get your promised goodies.
Dannyboy| 6.17.10 @ 10:55AM
You’re smart, with your clichéd stereotypes and mimicry.
Kitten Mitten| 6.17.10 @ 6:01PM
Wait! You forgot: "Communist Muslim." Oh, and "Kenyan!" Take a stroll through Free Republic some time (if you can stand it), particularly the "caption this photo of Michelle Obama," and these pinheads are revealed in all their pristine glory.
JH| 6.17.10 @ 9:15AM
How tragic and sad that is the only thing you see. We're not the shallow racists you want to pin on us. Color is not the issue but arrogance is...
A Boortz Clone| 6.17.10 @ 9:20AM
Jeeez....Kitten, you're a MORON. On so many levels.
Kitten Mitten| 6.17.10 @ 6:03PM
And you're a _RACIST_ MORON! So there! LOL!
RobM1981| 6.17.10 @ 9:47AM
I'm glad this bothers you. I hope it burrows under your skin like a chigger, and drives you battier than you already are.
The only people I see criticizing Barack Obama for being black are uber-liberals, like John Stewart - but since you're a liberal yourself, you'll give him a pass.
You are a fool. And a bigot, btw.
Dannyboy| 6.17.10 @ 10:38AM
Congrats, Kitten Mitten, you are irrelevant. With one statement, you took away the ability for anyone to take you seriously.
Kitten Mitten| 6.17.10 @ 6:04PM
Given the collective IQ and morality of the Freepers here, I take that as a complement and consider it an advantage. LOL!
OingoBoingo| 6.19.10 @ 10:43AM
Kitten, not only have you lost your mittens, but you have lost marbles, too. IT IS NOT RACISM TO DISAGREE WITH AN IDEOLOGUE. Let me describe myself for you: I have multiple advanced degrees and an IQ that has been tested around 145. According to what I have read, that is higher than your president. I have read many history books and probably have forgotten more about history than you ever learned. Socialism, Communism, Fascism and all the other isms your president loves have NEVER been a successful method of governing. I will pray for you, since you appear to be one of the most narrow-minded people on this site.
Paevo| 6.17.10 @ 10:59AM
Spoken like a true leftist! Hysterics over reasoned argument...
dave| 6.17.10 @ 11:44AM
Jerk! Obama is not a bad black President. He is simply a bad President. To reduce the argument to the color of his skin is to show an inability to think past your nose.
Karen Halverson| 6.17.10 @ 3:12PM
O is neither black nor white.
Nels| 6.18.10 @ 12:04AM
Obama is mostly white. The color is not the issue. His political insanity is!!
Jack Kinch(1uncle)| 6.17.10 @ 12:47PM
THE only reason Nomobama, the Kenyan, was elected is because he is black. He is unqualified, incompetent and illegal. Sometimes we agree with a judge or the Prez. overstepping their/his authority when we like the result. We should look beyond that issue and consider the end result. Like, for instance, using our taxes to spend on special interest groups, using the commerce or general welfare clause as reason to do any political thing they think will keep them in office or simply refusing to obey the law and not protect our border for political reasons.
Kitten Mitten| 6.17.10 @ 6:05PM
Nah...no racism here...not a bit! LOL!
sans| 6.17.10 @ 6:50PM
Of course, morons like you don't even grasp the concept that Obama was elected In Spite of the fact he was black. And the people that voted for him were tired of the lies, deceptions and total bullshit of Republicans and right wing whackos.
chiming| 6.19.10 @ 11:00AM
"THE only reason Nomobama, the Kenyan, was elected is because he is black. He is unqualified, incompetent and illegal." Jack Kinch you are a fool. Way to just add fuel to the fire and make all conservatives look like a bunch of backwoods, racist hicks. We all aren't like you sir. When you state your opinion as though it were fact, it makes it impossible to take you seriously.
WendyG| 6.17.10 @ 12:49PM
The race card. What a bore.
Renee Dunn| 6.17.10 @ 2:14PM
Why pray tell does every single Obama supporter scream COLOR the minute he or she doesn't agree with someone else's opinion. Even if Obama was Purple he has made serious error and needs to remedy the solution and stop acting as a dictator!
chuck| 6.17.10 @ 8:24PM
I'm so confused here. Obama is half black, half white, so as a rascist, do I hate the black half, and love the white half? And what about his kids? The baby-momma's all black, I think? So does that make the children 3/4 black and 1/4 white? So do I just 3/4 hate them? Or should I just like 1/4 love them? Someone help me please, I'm sooooo confused!
Musket-eer| 6.17.10 @ 10:35PM
Sounds like you've been drinking the "kool-aid." Is this a patent argument for you liberals? Can't you come up with anything more substantive than race?
Kathy from Kansas| 6.18.10 @ 2:50AM
He's the wrong color, all right: RED!!!!
(i.e., Communist)
Millicent| 6.18.10 @ 2:12PM
You are totally wrong about this!! I don't care if he is black white, purple or pink with yellow polka-dots. I don't like him and what he's doing to our Country and if you don't wake up soon and fight for our Country, you will become a Muslim or die because you are a Christian.
Betsy Potter| 6.18.10 @ 7:09PM
KM....that is a typical liberal brain dead insult. It shows where your mind is, not Ben Stein's. A Marxist is a Marxist, and the color is red.
tejano jack| 6.19.10 @ 1:42AM
As usual, Mr. Stein cuts through the emotional fog of an issue and sees the long-term
Constitutional consequences of political imprudence and folly. What has happened to
adherence to the Constitution? It is not a document from which one can selectively
cherry-pick or ignore as it suits one's whims. It applies to all in all cases and for all time.
I hear and see both liberals and conservatives applauding Obama's shakedown of BP,
and with BP transferring assets, it might prove the only way to protect Gulf environs'
chances for timely compensation, but Obama's rapid fire extra-constitutional actions
are frightening. I would rather see the Gulf of Mexico turned into a sludge pond than
see the Constitution destroyed.
Chris54| 6.19.10 @ 2:51PM
"I would rather see the Gulf of Mexico turned into a sludge pond than see the Constitution destroyed"
Sorry, but some of us value the planet and our existence above that of any piece of paper created by man.
american me| 6.20.10 @ 10:05AM
I could not agree with you more, tejano.
Desludging the Gulf will be a lot easier than pasting back a Constitution that's been stuffed in the shredder.
It's unfortunate there are so many who care not one wit for it.
jejano jack| 6.19.10 @ 2:00AM
P.S.
Kitten Mitten:
If my Mother or the "Second Coming" were doing what Obama is doing, I'd kick their butts out of office T.J.
chets1girl| 6.20.10 @ 9:25AM
I don't like Obama either and he could be purple, as far as I'm concerned. I don't like him because he is the puppet of Progressive radicals who want to change America into some quasi-Marxist, Socialist society. I don't like him because he is an anti-American President, who goes around the globe with apologies about the U.S. and her policies. I don't like him because he is incompetent and had NO right even running for an office he is unqualified to fill. I don't like him because he has not surrounded himself with knowledgeable people who could assist him in his job. No! His staff of czars are the most inexperienced surrounding a President in over 100 years. They, like him, have no real-world business experience and it is showing by their ineptitude. I don't like King O because he misrepresented himself to the mindless minions who drank the KoolAid and voted him into office. Just ask the folks who stood in line waiting for their "Obama money."
Mike Cook| 6.22.10 @ 2:05PM
Kitten Mitten, why is it that the "Race Card" is being played by you. Ben Stein is not a bigot nor is he prejudiced toward people of color. Read some of his opinions, don't listen to the haters of the world.
William Miron| 6.23.10 @ 8:22PM
Not really Kitten Mitten, Obama is way off base and Ben is Correct we should be afraid!
tejano jack| 6.19.10 @ 1:17AM
As usual, Mr. Stein cuts through the emotional fog of an issue and sees the long-term
Constitutional consequences of political imprudence and folly. What has happened to
adherence to the Constitution? It is not a document from which one can selectively
cherry-pick or ignore as it suits one's whims. It applies to all in all cases and for all time.
I hear and see both liberals and conservatives applauding Obama's shakedown of BP,
and with BP transferring assets, it might prove the only way to protect Gulf environs'
chances for timely compensation, but Obama's rapid fire extra-constitutional actions
are frightening. I would rather see the Gulf of Mexico turned into a sludge pond than
see the Constitution destroyed.
tejano jack| 6.19.10 @ 1:34AM
As usual, Mr. Stein cuts through the emotional fog of an issue and sees the long-term
Constitutional consequences of political imprudence and folly. What has happened to
adherence to the Constitution? It is not a document from which one can selectively
cherry-pick or ignore as it suits one's whims. It applies to all in all cases and for all time.
I hear and see both liberals and conservatives applauding Obama's shakedown of BP,
and with BP transferring assets, it might prove the only way to protect Gulf environs'
chances for timely compensation, but Obama's rapid fire extra-constitutional actions
are frightening. I would rather see the Gulf of Mexico turned into a sludge pond than
see the Constitution destroyed.
mickeymat| 6.16.10 @ 6:46AM
Someone yesterday wrote a comment on one of the press sites that basically said, "Leave it to Obama to be so off base in his response to the oil spill as to make people feel sorry for BP." I agree.
jon| 6.16.10 @ 3:07PM
It is not oil in the water that portends disatser for the big O; it's the tea!
lisa | 6.16.10 @ 5:22PM
LOVE IT !! I wish I was have as smart as you Jon..
mind if I use that ?LOL
Perfect..
oh.. "Tea anyone ? "
jon| 6.17.10 @ 7:26AM
consider it yours to use, Lisa ;)
I appreciate your comments, but really, I do not consider myself that smart. Example: I wish I did not have to wonder everyday whether this mess of an administration (along with a very large mass of clueless people who believe in it) will actually be the downfall of our great country and freedom itself throughout the world, or if enough people have awoken to turn it around. It would be nice to not have to worry about that every day, but I do because I have two young children that I love very much.
I do think that the Tea Party movement is our best hope as it seems to bind us Patriots together with love and a noble purpose. For instance, I like you already, and I don't even know you :)
Have a great day!!
Ben | 6.17.10 @ 9:52AM
I dunno, Lisa...sounds like Jon may have lifted it from "King Kong."
"Oh, no, it wasn't the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast."
Modernized, it reads:
On no. It wasn't the oil spill. It was tea killed the barack (beast). ;-)
Christopher Holland| 6.16.10 @ 10:17PM
When I was a kid, oil was called Texas tea.
ben| 6.17.10 @ 9:55AM
Then, you were a kid when the "Beverly Hillbillies" was on? "Texas tea" is mentioned in the theme song (Oil that is...black gold...Texas tea) :-)
Robert Elliott| 6.17.10 @ 5:47PM
Not Texas tea, you guys, it's Texas "T". Meaning that oil is the "T" in Texas.
Purpleguy| 6.16.10 @ 8:52PM
Apparently the author is completely ignorant of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 and subsequent Amendments to it...
http://wildlifelaw.unm.edu/fedbook/oilpollu.html
From the Oil Pollution Act content : "The President or the authorized representative of the government shall act on behalf of the public, Indian tribe, or foreign country as trustee of natural resources to present a claim for and to recover natural resources damages."
Instead of ranting about about the Big Bad Government and the Big Bad Black Man in charge of it "Is there anyone in Congress to stop him? Is there anyone in a black robe to stop him? Or is everyone already too scared to challenge the Duce in the White House?" --- maybe a little fact checking would lend credibility to your arguments. You can get off your high horse ... I for one is glad that the President's actions speak louder than his words in this case, and all Gulf residents can breathe a little easier thanks to the diligence and concern shown by our President for their welfare and the natural resources of the United States.
It is not just $20 Billion in escrow that he extracted from BP. There is more to come into the fund, as the 20 BB is a down payment for the rest. BP is making $100 Million immediately available to families of the victims of the blast. BP is also foregoing dividend payments for 3 quarters to pay for all of this.
Thank You Mr. President ... you can put your Tea Bags to bed now...
tj| 6.16.10 @ 9:43PM
Purpleguy,
If indeed there is a law for presenting claims, then by all means, one should be filed. But the magic words are "present claims". Perhaps it means to file a court claim, which would be proper. The current POTUS has a history of being Judge, Jury and Hangman. Taken by itself, you may have a point. I do not believe you have a point/
reverendjim| 6.16.10 @ 10:03PM
Purpleguy, you lost me on the "big bad black man" comment. Is the author a racist? I didn't pick this up from his comments. Maybe you should stick to the subject and put away the racial paranoia if you have any intention, in the future, of making a point or influencing people.
Karen | 6.16.10 @ 10:18PM
Thanks reverendjim for asking that question. I was wondering that myself as I never read that in the article either. The article didn't need revising and editing. It was fine the way Stein wrote it.
Purpleguy| 6.17.10 @ 11:24AM
And you think that is because we are so WAY past racism in this country? Is that your point? Really?
Musket-eer| 6.17.10 @ 10:42PM
The white people for the most part are past racism, but the black people aren't. They are the ones keeping it alive. . . along with the government because the government is capitalizing on it.
Gippersmom| 6.18.10 @ 6:27PM
Thank you Musket-eer, well said! I am sick to death of being called racist because I hate socialism. I have friends who have African ancestry and have agreed with this sentiment. I am from Ohio and I supported Ken Blackwell. I support Clarence Thomas, if he would run for President he would have 100% of my backing! I love to read Thomas Sowell. Oh, that's right, I forgot, they are all "Uncle Toms" because they aren't socialists.
reverendjim| 6.17.10 @ 10:53PM
My point, really, is that the author did not show any sign of a racial bias against Obama. Therefore, your "big bad black man" comment makes no sense unless it's viewed through a paranoid, race bating lense which, it appears, is how you look at the world. If you want to influence people, don't make stupid comments that have nothing to do with the article in question. Stay focused, purpleguy.
Karen | 6.16.10 @ 10:19PM
You're kidding, right purpleguy?
Musket-eer| 6.17.10 @ 10:43PM
Karen, he's brain dead.
Christopher Holland| 6.16.10 @ 10:21PM
A liberal is somebody who is always happy to give away other people's property. Can I have your name and address so that the next time the government needs money, they can seize your property without compensation? It it is good enough for BP shareholders to have their property expropriated regardless of the law then it is good enough for you too.
joe| 6.17.10 @ 1:44AM
A conservative does the same thing hiding behind hidden agendas, can we say Bush and the elusive WMD!
JCfromDC| 6.17.10 @ 11:34AM
WMD? Now thats a stretch! What does/did WMD have to do with BP's mess? They were given a green light by OUR gov't to do that risky drill
scotchieguy| 6.17.10 @ 2:18AM
I think it is "a liberal is someone who is generous w/ other people's money." I like this as much as Thatcher's "the prob. w/ socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money."
Bonnie | 6.17.10 @ 12:09PM
What a wonderful quote from dear Mrs. Thatcher. Sounds like a great jumping off point for a blog.
Purpleguy| 6.17.10 @ 11:23AM
Hey, they invested in a rotten company that was mismanaged ... so they lose their shirts ... and your point is ? People have to be responsible for their own decisions - you support a bad actor, you get burned. You must be held accountable for your actions - you foul the Gulf, you pay. Anything else is someone else coming to your rescue and saving your ass. Period, end of story. That is the conservative principle.
Yahootie| 6.17.10 @ 2:43PM
... does this logic if individual responsibility extend to those who are union members, supporting agreements that inevitably have lead to the destruction of the companies that they work for? Tough break... you should have seen it coming? Is the standard you have a consistent one or one that you pull from the teeth of the "hatted rabbit" whenever it suits you?
There is plenty of blame to go around here but what concerns me most is that my President is concerned about spinning the tragedy's square peg into the round peg hole of promoting a socialist agenda. Look at his actions, they speak for themselves.
You bring up the OPA of 1990; bravo! As I see it, it is in existing law that the President "shall" use all lawful means to "clean up the spill." Even James Carville would agree that he has been derelict in lawful duty!
It is truly saddening to see a president, the one from my generation, apply the solutions that we were taught. As the song goes... "send lawyers, guns and money!" That is what passes for leadership with this administration. Very sad indeed!
sans| 6.17.10 @ 6:54PM
Nobody owns property when it comes to the land. It is artificial laws that put this into place after carpetbaggers like you stole it from the original inhabitants and it still is not 'owned' by anybody. And when it comes to national security and emergency, the good of the country overrides the greed of BP - and regardless of how much you jump up and down with your canned and programmed bullshit, it doesn't change that
Sylia| 6.18.10 @ 3:30PM
Sans, if nobody owns the land then how can it be stolen? Stealing implies the removal of said thing from its lawful possessor. Regardless of how much you jump up and down with your dogmatic indoctrinated screeds, it doesn't change that Q.E.D false premises and faulty logic = poor argument.
Betsy Potter| 6.18.10 @ 7:18PM
Sans....You need to move to Russia or North Korea. The system you describe is alive and well there. There are courts for a reason. Obama acts like a union or ACORN activist. He is supposed to be protecting and defending the Constitution...oops. Maybe you and Obama should read it.
Musket-eer| 6.17.10 @ 10:44PM
Point well taken but there is a large balance of people that are going to boil to death with the frog because they don't believe their fearless leader would do that to them, just us.
maryp| 6.16.10 @ 10:22PM
This post is guilty of Race Baiting
soljerblue| 6.16.10 @ 10:41PM
posted by purpleguy:
"...all Gulf residents can breathe a little easier thanks to the diligence and concern shown by our President for their welfare and the natural resources of the United States."
I don't know how close to the Gulf you live, purpleguy, or how much attention you've been paying, but opinion down here -- and I live in Alabama -- is very disenchanted with "il Duce" in DC. Opinions run the gamut from "too little, too late" to "making a bad situation worse" to "just another photo op for Obama" to "his response is worse than Bush after Katrina" I figure you need to look beyond WH talking points.
Purpleguy| 6.17.10 @ 12:28PM
You didn't vote for him anyway ... why should anyone care? Clean it up yourselves, if you're that ungrateful for what he has done and continues to do. Y'all have gotten paid by the oil industry for years .. you knew the hazards, didn't ya? Did your Governors plan for anything, except screaming and moaning "Do something! " Just like New Orleans knew the levies were bad for 40 years, you knew too about the dangers of oil spillage.
I'm sorry for your loss, and fervently pray that all that can be done will be enough to fix it all, but biting the hand that's feeding you doesn't sound very smart to me.
BTW - How's the coast recovered after Bush supposedly "took care of his boys" down there? You better hope that Obama is more hope and can make changes than Bush could/did.
Ozark Mountin Man| 6.17.10 @ 2:11PM
Purple Guy, Don't you and your liberal buddies, think its about time to stop blaming Bush for everything that happens. Your prodical son, has been in office long enough to stop blaming everybody else and take up the burden of his own short comings.
sans| 6.17.10 @ 6:57PM
For sure. And I don't want any of those whiners coming to my state California ready to trash it with their frigging bullshit ideas. Just keep your greedy little hands and asses away from our coast and choke on the oil coming up on your beaches. I just feel sorry for the innocent wildlife that has to suffer because of f**cking idiots who crap in their own beds and don't know enough to change the sheets.
Convet| 6.16.10 @ 11:00PM
Mad ravings from a head-banging fister.
Ann | 6.16.10 @ 11:45PM
You haven't found it out yet, but you're one of THEM
JmsA| 6.17.10 @ 12:13AM
Purpleturd wrote in part: "I for one is glad that the President's actions speak louder than his words in this case, and all Gulf residents can breathe a little easier thanks to the diligence and concern shown by our President for their welfare and the natural resources of the United States."
Here are a few things the President could have done, but didn't, as well some things he shouldn't have done:
He should have accepted the offer of assistance by the Dutch government shortly after the platform accident, including that of skimming booms and plans to create barriers to protect the wetlands.
He should have also suspended the Jones Act, as Bush did following hurricane Katrina, to allow foreign vessels into American waters to assist recovery efforts, and avoid having to transfer equipment onto American flagged ships.
He should have temporarily suspended FEMA bidding and contracting rules, as Bush also did following Katrina, to facilitate and expedite the assignment of contracts to expedite recovery efforts.
He should have allowed gulf state governors, as Governor Bobby Jindal repeatedly requested only to be ignored by the White House, to immediately begin dredging to create barrier islands.
He should have spoken with BP's CEO soon after the incident, not sixty days later, to gauge BP's response and better ascertain what if any federal intervention was and would be required.
He should not have imposed a blanket deep water drilling moratorium, which no doubt will have a further crippling effect on the gulf communities, including the loss of at least 20,000 jobs.
He should have consulted real experts, not movie directors (whatever came of that?) regarding how to fix the problem, instead of trying to figure out whose "ass to kick."
He should not have distracted BP by threatening legal action against it. After all, they, not the government, appear to be the only ones capable of somewhat dealing with the problem.
He should have been more focused instead of playing so much golf, taking so many vacations, and attending west coast fund raisers.
He should have not wasted time trying to blame the accident on Bush, when in fact MMS, under his control, had been focused on developing far from viable green technologies, while planning to award a prize for safety to BP, from whom, by the way, he received more political campaign contributions than any other politician. He should have instead directed the agency to focus on enforcement of drilling safety guidelines, in light of BP's history of mishaps.
In other words, not withstanding the pretty and lofty rhetoric from the besotted Purpleturd, this President has not done anything, except grandstand, blame others, and pass the buck.
He should also stop giving speeches, which will not cap the leak or mitigate the unfolding ecologic, economic and human disaster, in another crass "no crisis should go to waste" attempt to impose unpopular Cap and Trade legislation.
And finally, he should not lie to the American people about the lack of domestic oil deposits, resulting in the need for deep ocean drilling.
As always, 11/02/2010
Purpleguy| 6.17.10 @ 1:05AM
Woulda/coulda/shoulda ... contrary to your laundry lists of 20/20 hindsight, what he has done today is nothing short of miraculous.
Maybe you don't care whether the Gulf region is cleaned, recoverded, wildlife saved and people made whole again, but I sure do. (And, besides, with all those 10's of 100o's of people out of work, why are they sitting around just complaining? Talk about the Governors. Why wait for the Feds? It's your coast, your cities, your lives. Be a conservative and take care of yourselves damn it! )
Now back to the oil spill ... Our President got BP to agree .. without coercion or relying on legal means. He's something isn't he? And, since they will not control the fund, but a 3rd party does, BP will have nothing to say about claims - who gets paid, how much they get paid, when, nothing. The government is NOT paying for this, and you're not happy about that? Really?
And, I don't care how our President does it, he's doing it! I think you have to PROVE extortion, don't you, not throw wild ass comments around like bricks.
I am so proud of our President ... he has passed healthcare after 100 years of everyone trying, and he helped save us from another Great Depression.
And now he's convinced a Big Oil Giant to bend to the take care of the little guy and held them accountable and made them responsible for their bad actions.
And, you think that's bad? Really? I know y'all think this is payback for the focus on the incompetent Bush during Katrina, but this IS a little different. The Feds had all the experience they needed to help in a Hurricane disaster, and didn't, but as you can see, no one on EARTH has the experience for handling this one quickly. In addition, a conservative that doesn't like holding someone responsible for their actions and making them stand up and pay for their mistakes? Are you f'king serious? Or maybe your not really a conservative, is that it? Are you a corporatist too?
jbcratchet| 6.17.10 @ 1:17AM
Spoken like a true script-reading, non-thinking, skin-pigment-worshipping liberal pig. Look at the FACTS that were just explained to your ignorant @$$ in the post above.
Liberals shouldnt be allowed to breed......we end up with this kind of person..... Constipation of the brain and diahhrea of the mouth.
Purpleguy| 6.17.10 @ 11:09AM
Guess we know where you stand, huh? No facts of your own, just suck off someone else's tit, huh?
sans| 6.17.10 @ 6:59PM
Look in the mirror asswipe and you'll see who should not be allowed to breed. Your narcissism overrides anything of value coming out of your pea brain. If brains were chocolate, yours would be the size of an M&M, so shove it up your ignorant a$$.
SamTheCat| 6.17.10 @ 1:39AM
Interesting, purple one. You really DON'T care about cleaning up the mess-- or how much of it actually could have been prevented with swift executive action (see JmsA's list); the only thing you're focused on and gleeful about is punishing BP. Yes, if they were negligent, they ought to pay up, but that's the only part you see as though the point of the whole exercise is wreaking vengeance not solving, or preventing, the actual problems.
The ships may be late but, boy, are those trains running on time.
Purpleguy| 6.17.10 @ 11:14AM
So, you don't think people should protect themselves? They shouldn't stand up and band together to fend of what is obviously going to foul their shores? Really? Wait for someone else to help you and only bitch and moan until they do?
Blame the Feds all you want, but it was BP's lack of risk management and the Feds lack of oversight that allowed this to happen. But once it happened, you just sit back and scream "somebody do something", "somebody do something" ? ... yep, there's that rugged individualism. Bunch of pansies, if you ask me.
And, now the President is doing something that no one has EVER done before. EVER. And, you moan about that too.
If my house is on fire, I'm not going to sit back and watch it burn until the Fire Department shows up - Are you?
Tim| 6.17.10 @ 5:07PM
You are absolutely right there Purp...first thing you have written that makes any sense. The President is indeed doing something that no one has EVER done before...assumed the mantle of Dictator of The United States of America..what an accomplishment!
Purpleguy| 6.17.10 @ 1:43AM
I rant, therefore I am relevant.
JmsA| 6.17.10 @ 1:47AM
Purpleturd, once again you provide nothing but rhetorical nonsense. I'm going to start referring to you as Der kleine Goebbels. I'm surprised you're not working at the White House or at MSDNC--or are you?
Last night I was watching a study group gathered by pollster Frank Luntz. He referred to this particular group of people as the most ornery he had ever had. Not playing very close attention to it, as I was actually working at the time, I dismissed the group as just, though rightfully so, a disgruntled bunch from Louisiana, only to then realize they were actually from one of the bluest states, California, my home state. It was then to my great surprise, that I noticed the vast majority of this group, save for a couple of misguided souls, who reminded me of you, insisted on ridiculing themselves by defending the indefensible performance, or I should say the lack thereof by the One. The rest of the group, it goes without saying, were hardly approving of the One's performance, including his latest speech, which even the liberal media deadpanned. So try as you might, you're not fooling anyone, and in fact are demonstrating ad nauseam what a dutiful little crank you are, while unwittingly reinforcing the obvious: that only besotted ones like you believe this president to be doing anything worthwhile, while only 42% of the country as a whole somewhat approve of his job performance, and 57% dissaprove. I guess the speech, not to mention his performance in the gulf is not all you claim it to be. Simply put, not withstanding the unfolding disaster in the gulf, the One's doings would be very apt fodder for Saturday Night Live. As always, 11/02/2010
SDN| 6.17.10 @ 9:18AM
You can bet this 42% that approves of Mr. Presidents performance is in the same percentage that is getting a government handout. Makes alot of sense doesn't it?
Purpleguy| 6.17.10 @ 11:18AM
Nope - I don't get any government or any other kind of handouts, and I don't work for the government either.
Purpleguy| 6.17.10 @ 11:19AM
Let me guess, "Frank Luntz on Fox News" ? Am I right? Hahaha... .yeah that's so believable and unbiased.
Betty| 6.17.10 @ 7:51AM
Doesn't it concern you that the so called 3rd party is an obama czar which means he doles out the money to whomever obama says to? I can't wait until reality sets in on your hero and all his "fixes" hit you in your wallet. Then we'll see how great he is.
JmsA| 6.17.10 @ 9:45AM
No, Betty, he's not concerned, for he's too deeply invested both ideologically and emotionally. Thank you for your posting.
Purpleguy| 6.17.10 @ 11:17AM
Your so-called "czar" was appointed by George Bush to oversee the 9/11 Victims fund disbursement, honey.
Granny| 6.17.10 @ 9:42AM
Prupleguy., I know of a nice "rest home" you can move into. You obviously are looking through a haze. you are so besotted with THE ONE you cannot see what's so. JmsA does. Sitting around trying to figure out whose a$$ to kick is NOT leadership.
Musket-eer| 6.17.10 @ 10:54PM
Granny, unless the leader is kicking his own @$$. . . and I would pay good money to see that!!
thtrgal| 6.17.10 @ 2:47PM
Responsibility for ones actions? I keep reading that from Purpleguy...really? Welfare, Illegal immigrants, hand-outs from Obama to everyone who believes like he does - in Socialism. Katrina - everyone knew what was coming, were told to evacuate, they didn't and it's Bush's fault????
Karen H| 6.17.10 @ 3:23PM
To purpleguy...If Mayor Ray Nagin had taken the advise given him from DC a week prior to Katrina, he would have used all those hundreds of school buses that later were under water, and loaded up all those people who didn't have a way out of that mess, the end scenario would have been a lot different. But no he along with every other liberal in LA still like to put all the blame on Bush.
J Noble Dagget| 6.17.10 @ 9:54PM
I win! I spotted the looney.
joe| 6.17.10 @ 1:58AM
Maybe he should have not wasted time using the bathroom until the "big Republican take over" happens in November when we return to this "perfect" world under the Tea BAGS.
MarylandRes| 6.17.10 @ 9:04AM
Wow JmsA......I couldn't have said it better. I for o ne believe asking the Feds to fix this leak is like asking the mailman to fix my roof. He has neither the experience nor the equipment to get the job done.
Nels Hollo| 6.17.10 @ 1:07AM
To Purpleguy; Your " empty suit" President is intent to Obamaize "communize" and Islamize America! He won't let a crisis like this go to waste in his goals! Looks like you are one of his helpers.
John Aytche| 6.17.10 @ 1:08AM
Lets just hope the money makes it to the people who are suffering the most... and not to pad some politician's pet project or slush fund.
McGeorge Thigpen | 6.17.10 @ 2:16AM
If I recall correctly, that's the same act that limits British Petroleum's liability to about $75 million. Should we stick to that as well? If I were the CEO of BP, that's exactly what I'd tell Mr. Obama and then sell my American holdings. Pip-pip Cheerio!
NRA1776| 6.17.10 @ 2:33AM
Black Man, tea bags .... you are ignorant.
bongofury| 6.17.10 @ 8:59AM
.........oh boy .you are gonna really get it now!........presenting actual facts to the herd.................um um !...look out! they are getting their hoods and robes out as you read this.......
Paevo| 6.17.10 @ 11:03AM
P-guy, I think even you'll agree that "present[ing] a claim" is not at all equivalent to demanding $20 billion in advance...
Tim| 6.17.10 @ 4:52PM
Purp..you and the Prez sure are generous with other peoples money. Your use of the word "extracted" is pretty close...tho I would think "extorted" would be a better term. There are/were already laws in place to hold BP accountable...but what do laws matter to this president? It was Obama himself that ordered the shutting down of ALL drilling due to this event...so are BP and it's share holders responsible for putting thousands out of work...and for paying them too? Or does this rightly fall on the shoulders of the man you seem to think can do no wrong?
Millicent| 6.18.10 @ 2:21PM
If he is so diligent on this oil thing, why did he sit on his pompas butt for over 40 days and do nothing?? Was he waiting the 40 days & 40 nights thinking the flood would fix things?? Gee I forgot, he is Muslim and God doesn't exist.
Lucius Vorenus| 6.16.10 @ 6:53AM
None of this insanity makes any sense at all until you finally realize [and reconcile yourself to the fact] that these nihilists are getting exactly what they want - the destruction of the United States of America.
Then it all starts to make sense.
Brian Mc| 6.16.10 @ 7:15AM
Lucius,
Yes, I too wish that the left would take their hatred, shame, guilt, vengefulness, immaturity, vile greed, deceit, propaganda, submissiveness, race-baiting, class conflict, hedonism, self-righteousness, atheism, vindictiveness, relativistic mind-sets somewhere else...France, maybe?
Due to their narcisstic nature, I don't believe that most of them, who vote for what THEY want rather than for what they truly need, realize the damage their comrades at the top are causing.
Dave_citizen| 6.16.10 @ 9:56AM
Well said. Some of them are so tangled up in abstract thoughts they have lost contact with reality; the rest are apparently without thought.
wyn| 6.16.10 @ 10:18AM
I've been reading Andrew McCarthy's The Grand Jihad. My purpose was to discover how he could pair Islam and Leftism. Without going into the book, what I got out of the first few chapters was confirmation that the Left/Alinskyites/Progressives share a failing that all ideologies share: a craving for perfection on Earth. They believe things just 'ought to be'. When they aren't, when people go and do things their own way - they fall apart. They have no plan beyond their ideology. That is the problem with Obama and his crew. Hence the dictatorial stance. What else is left to him but the big stick?
Lucius Vorenus| 6.16.10 @ 10:38AM
Their ideology is nihilism.
The perfection they crave is Death.
uhuh| 6.16.10 @ 12:57PM
obama is an undeclared muslim
his agenda is to gut America
he is doing great
goes well beyond usual left garbage and mental masturbation
Gnomus| 6.16.10 @ 3:36PM
Much of this criticism is valid. Yours is not, as evidenced by your first sentence. You have not even criticized -- just leveled an unsubstantiated charge that has nothing to do with the subject at hand.
friarjack| 6.16.10 @ 4:09PM
Gnomus, you're a ass. Obama has no direct knowledge of the business world. He has never managed a person in any industry, never written a pay check, nor written a performance review........he has NO first hand knowledge of business. He will fail as a President, and you will fail as his follower. Political people do not understand much of anything outside their office doors........and that includes all the advisors. They collect votes, but not corporate dividends.
jbcratchet| 6.17.10 @ 1:21AM
I believe yourself and Lucious are arriving at the same American terminal (pun intended) , just by different tracks.
You are both correct, and anyone who CANNOT see the damge inflicted and intended by the left in their endless naked romp through the perriwinkle (shudder), if they cannot see that damage, then they are ONE of the naked.
bongofury| 6.17.10 @ 9:02AM
nice delusion ya got goin there!......is it original? or just you practicing your "parroting" before you go to your next 'Bagger rally?
Ron| 6.17.10 @ 9:41AM
bongofury - you're too funny. Are you out on a comedy tour?
Fed | 6.17.10 @ 9:47AM
Bong - keep smoking it. I am a fan of legalizing it as well. Then, you can get it easier and cheaper. Smoke more in your abode and live the rest of your life in delirium.
Fran| 6.16.10 @ 12:00PM
Great insight, the "Ought to be"-ists is perfect.
What else CAN they do but use their stick. We sit in horrified frozen acknowledgement of the Big Problem, what to do, what to do.
randall22000| 6.16.10 @ 4:10PM
Fran, we are doing it and the rising of the people started last year with the Tea Party movement. All of us need to get involved in our community, as I have, and work hard in our off time to volunteer to push the movement forward. If all of us who oppose Mao Bama's lurch toward dictatorship and socialism do something beside stand by in horror and complain, then it is our fault when we lose our freedoms under our constitution. God bless America!!
jbcratchet| 6.17.10 @ 1:27AM
now if the conservative wing of the Republican Party would get their $#!t together and adopt a Tea Party type of platform, absorbing the philosophy as being formerly their own, there would be a stampede of elephants in Congress and not of RINOs in Kongres.
nick mascoli| 6.16.10 @ 8:44PM
you said it right. concisely and to the point. all the lefties should read this and think.Maybe with some thought , they may be able to see the damage OBAMA and his kind are doing....
wyn| 6.16.10 @ 10:11AM
France? Please not France!
How about Chad?
Fran| 6.16.10 @ 12:03PM
Chad would be nice!
Gary| 6.16.10 @ 6:50PM
China! Send them to live under the crap they would devise for us to live under.
Karen| 6.16.10 @ 10:11PM
No, no, no! I really think that Kenya would be perfect.
Christopher Holland| 6.16.10 @ 10:25PM
At least France has all those cheeses, and the roads are lined with trees so the occupying army can march in the shade.
Gigi| 6.17.10 @ 1:38PM
Cheese and tree lined roads sounds way too nice!
PolishKnight| 6.16.10 @ 12:55PM
Hello Brian,
I posed that very question to a liberal woman I was chatting with on a bus. "Why not just move to a place that represents your values such as France?" and then she got this slippery look on her face and said: "America is my home, I love it here!"
Liar, liar, pants on fire!
Two possibilities occur to me:
1) Miss Love-America-but-hate-it loves hating America. It absolves her of personal responsibility for her beliefs. If she was actually in France, then she'd be forced to confront whether the system there really works as she thinks it should.
2) She can't cut it in France and she knows it. In a country filled with non-bathing leftists, competition for sweet government desk jobs is fierce.
maryp| 6.16.10 @ 10:31PM
In France you dont need a desk job. You can live great on the social system. Germany also. The current excuse for a Presidnt Sarkozy isnt even French. But he is in the Capitalist party. I hear they are changing to the socialist party. Guess they will follow Greece downt the slippery slope.
Pun Intended
Petronius| 6.16.10 @ 2:50PM
That will never happen so long as middle class whites in the U.S. have assets worth taking.
Purpleguy| 6.16.10 @ 8:55PM
Boring - same arguments in the 1930's and the 1950's ... while you enjoy the fruits of all struggles to progress in this country.
I'm sure if you thought about it, you could make a nice little list of all the things that others don't like about your kind... so what?
jbcratchet| 6.17.10 @ 1:32AM
didnt take long for a leftist to begin with the subject-changing and the empty arguments about the past. Purpleguy, YOU are living in the past...the 60s were HALF A CENTURY AGO.
now that I have vented properly, please cite examples and your sources as to how you KNOW the 30s and 50s were exactly as you say. My money says you are just running your mouth and have fatal flaws in any "examples" you have.
but i challenge you to back up your silly nonsense with REAL information like you were first explained with. a REAL man would accept the challenge, but i think you will just whine and throw a tantrum.
Purpleguy| 6.17.10 @ 12:21PM
Go lookup Father Coglin and Joe McCarthy for the 30's and the 50's fear mongering... more recently, go lookup Pat Buchanan's rant in the 1992 Republican Convention. Today, look to Glenn Beck, Michelle Malkin, Michelle Bachman and Sarah PalinSame - all the same arguments, and all still boring. I guess the conservative movement just keeps telling lies and fear mongering until some tipping point number of poor schmucks believes the lies and votes for ya ... but they always come back to reality ... and it's not Beckistani's reality.
Nick| 6.17.10 @ 11:13PM
It's Father COUGHLIN, ignoramus.
And he was a lefty, like you.
Millicent| 6.18.10 @ 2:23PM
I don't think France would have him...I say ship the whole Administration into Outer Space and he can rule the way he wants there.
Alan Brooks| 6.16.10 @ 8:26AM
I don't get it: if America has become (such preceded Obama's administration) as amoral as you say "it" [we] has, doesn't America deserve to be destroyed?
No to obama| 6.16.10 @ 8:51AM
When a patient gets an ooozing sore does the doctor kill him?
Get lost Alan. Take your hatred of America over to the HufPo
Alan Brooks| 6.16.10 @ 9:01AM
"When a patient gets an ooozing sore does the doctor kill him?"
We're talking God, aren't we? AS is not an anti-religious, or anti-God site. We can write such things here.
mzk1| 6.16.10 @ 3:01PM
Good to post after Talmud class. Several places in Ezekiel - God does not want the sinner to die, but to repent. In the meantime, we try to keep him alive so he may change his mind.
Musket-eer| 6.17.10 @ 11:07PM
How did you get God out of that? You are one of the oozing sores. Once we can heal all the oozing sores, then we'll be healthy again.
Alan Brooks| 6.16.10 @ 8:55AM
... with one side of your mouths you say 'America has become hopelessly corrupted'; the other side says 'if we can get the right people, our people, in power then we can climb out of it'.
Make up your minds.
what do I think?: social progress is finished. Now it's scientific progress.
Dan Hirsch| 6.16.10 @ 10:01AM
Scientific progress, Alan?
So is it your belief that some "scientist" should be in charge and tell us all what to do?
Sort of like the global warming "scientists" who agreed among themselves that global warming is "settled science?" Global warming is neither settled nor science. Too little data, too many variables. No one can foretell.
Back to your big in-charge scientist, Alan: There once was a country with science supposedly in charge, you may remember the CCCP. Americans remember it as the totalitarian Soviet Union that murder millions upon millions of its citizens in the name of "progress."
Alan, I call you an unrepentent communist. You have freedom to speak your drivel, and thankfully, I have the right to call it what it is!
If you find this offensive, good. Maybe, it is the beginning of your self awareness. If on the other hand you are offended because you think you are not a communist, then sir, you are a USEFUL IDIOT.
Be still! Let the grownups talk.
Alan Brooks| 6.16.10 @ 11:11AM
"So is it your belief that some 'scientist' should be in charge and tell us all what to do? "
I don't say I like what the future will show us, that is your mistake above; conservatism is merely attempting to pursue virtue-- not attaining it.
You don't know that in science no one is in charge? there is no God in science, DNA plays the tune and we dance to it. God just rolls the dice, shall we say.
And, if I am a useful idiot for the Communists, then perhaps you are a useful idiot for the GOP?
Your anger stems from guilt at your offering America second or third rate candidates for public office-- knowing that you got what you deserve hurts, deep down it hurts bad.
It might eat you up someday.
Ray| 6.16.10 @ 12:16PM
"there is no God in science, DNA plays the tune and we dance to it." So, what you're telling us is that you've replaced God with a physical molecule and call this progress, yet you are still relying on something that really beyond our immediate control in our daily lives, right? Well, how is any different than religious theology?
Even religious theology say that, yes, with the proper application of force, sometimes we can bend God to conform to our our will (fulfilling a prayer, also know as a "miracle") just as we can, with the proper application of force, bend that DNA molecule to conform to our will. All other times, it's in charge of us, just like God. So, you're replaced God with DNA, which doesn't really change anything, does it?
Alan Brooks| 6.16.10 @ 12:50PM
"So, you're replaced God with DNA, which doesn't really change anything, does it?"
Hell no, Ray.
Alan Brooks| 6.16.10 @ 1:02PM
...you gain the world, but lose your soul.
George F.| 6.16.10 @ 2:46PM
After reading your comments, I have come to the conclusion that your "Self" is fractured. Do you know what you really believe and do you understand what the actual results would be if what you propose happens?
I think not.
Alan Brooks| 6.16.10 @ 2:51PM
I did not propose scientific takeover, I said social progress-- as we know it-- is finished, and science is on the ascendant.
jbcratchet| 6.17.10 @ 1:35AM
isnt that the exact same thing? "Science on the ascendant"....please.
It has also been shown that science is proving the bibilcal stories correct.
J. Aberburg| 6.16.10 @ 2:52PM
You're a piece of work, aren't you. Fascinating! So ignorant and yet so arrogant. Not the sharpest knife in the drawer but quite the amateur "philosopher". Ha ha!
J. Aberburg| 6.16.10 @ 2:53PM
You're a piece of work, aren't you. Fascinating! So ignorant and yet so arrogant. Not the sharpest knife in the drawer but quite the amateur "philosopher". Ha ha!
Alan Brooks| 6.16.10 @ 3:00PM
Not the sharpest knife in the drawer but quite the amateur "philosopher".
You might be right. But AS has dozens of those who are not the sharpest crayons in the box-- and dishonest libertarians as well. Like, maybe... you? and your ha ha.
ho ho.
Alan Brooks| 6.16.10 @ 3:06PM
btw, you have to post twice, Aberburg?
mzk1| 6.16.10 @ 3:06PM
Yes, but then it doesn't MATTER whether we are virtuous or not. In fact, according to that way of thinking, there is no difference between the destruction of all life on Earth and the end of the ICM 360 line of computers. If you really believed that we are all robots, you wouldn't be trying to convince us of it.
Anyway, please don't say "science" when you mean "atheism" or "deism". Science cannot prove anythign about religion, because religion is taken out of the equation to start with. It's simple circular reasoning.
Alan Brooks| 6.16.10 @ 3:10PM
"If you really believed that we are all robots, you wouldn't be trying to convince us of it"
I did not write that, you lying scum. You people are far more dishonest than Obama.
mzk1| 6.16.10 @ 3:22PM
"You people"? Lying scum? I don't see anything I wrote to deserve that. If I misunderstood you, all you have to do is correct me. This is known as civil idscourse.
Charles Newman| 6.16.10 @ 3:53PM
It is impossible for anyone to be MORE dishonest than Obama. The best you can hope for is a tie.
Purpleguy| 6.16.10 @ 9:01PM
I'd put President Barack Hussein Obama up against that lying stack of shit, Dick Cheney and his sidekick Clown-in-Chief anyday ... btw where is the s.o.s lately. Can't come out of his undisclosed location for fear of reprisals with his giveaways to the Oil Industry? Instead the suck job sends his idiot daughter out to do the dirty work?
Deninor| 6.16.10 @ 10:27PM
B.H.O. cannot speak in complete sentences without a teleprompter. he's an empty suit with no answers to any of the questions. Empty rhetoric is not the same as deeds. Nor is it leadership. His incompetence, inexperience, arrogance will do him in. Every time he opens his mouth he sinks lower in ratings.
Even the loony left media is beginning to turn on him. Even I didn't think it would come this soon into Jimma' Carter's second term.
soljerblue| 6.16.10 @ 10:53PM
I think we need to keep purpleguy around as a perfect example of the vile nastiness of the tolerant "progressive" mind. The verbal vomitus that passes for reasoned debate on the Left.
Convet| 6.16.10 @ 11:02PM
True to form for a liberal speaking tolerance? My grandson has more intelligence and civility than you, Purple People-Beater!
Purpleguy| 6.17.10 @ 12:15PM
This site has taught me well, you countenance no weak kneed bleeding heart pansies on this site, and so you get what you deserve. Here's hoping you teach your grandson better!
Convet| 6.16.10 @ 11:02PM
True to form for a liberal speaking tolerance? My grandson has more intelligence and civility than you, Purple People-Beater!
Tim| 6.17.10 @ 5:28PM
Time to put the sharp objects down Purp...be a good little boy and go stand in the corner...
jbcratchet| 6.17.10 @ 1:36AM
i agree with you.
Obama IS dishonest.....in the most severe, liberal, narcissistic, self-deified way possible.
Ron| 6.17.10 @ 9:48AM
Brooks, did you just admit that Obama is dishonest?
Ray| 6.16.10 @ 12:08PM
"social progress is finished" No, the only time social progress can ever be finished is when that society itself is gone. Like humanity itself as long as a society exists it can, and should, progress. Unless, of course, the society is oppressed by the very government that supports it.
You see, we, as a society, still have to contend with murders, rapes, assaults, robberies, war, ect. There is plenty of room for social progress.
Alan Brooks| 6.16.10 @ 12:11PM
Ah, there are laws of history.
Ray| 6.16.10 @ 12:31PM
Ah, laws just change every day, as does "history." Some laws are added and some are removed, just as some "history" is added and some is removed from our social memories. We, as a society, still suffer the ills of those members who DON'T CARE about others and who BREAK those laws. So, society can still advance, still learn to treat each other with respect and equality, until those laws, and the history that necessitated them, is no longer needed, correct?
You see, making a law, no matter how many time that law has been made in history, doesn't change society, the way people interact with each other. It only highlights the changes that are needed.
Alan Brooks| 6.16.10 @ 12:54PM
"So, society can still advance, still learn to treat each other with respect and equality, until those laws, and the history that necessitated them, is no longer needed, correct?"
That remains to be seen; there have been times where it appeared things were improving, but such was not the case. Like, say, 1913.
Alan Brooks| 6.16.10 @ 12:59PM
... or, say, Sept. 10th, 2001.
There's not always a happy ending, the handsome prince doesn't always take the lovely princess to a castle where they live happily ever after. Sometimes they both get cloved in twain.
Ray| 6.16.10 @ 1:25PM
Alan, ththose are all perfect examples as to HOW societies are evolveing. You do realise thatm in the society of the people who perp[artated 9/11, even THIER actions are illegal, right?
Well, Alan, how many Americans, who have similar laws, fly plans into building for the express purpose of killing innocent civilians? I can think of only one.
The 9/11 perpetrators, on the other hand, number in the dozens, if not hundreds.
Add to this the huge number of people in their society who CELEBRATE this type of illegal actions and compare that to the numbers of people who calibrate the same illegal activities when it occurs to other people, even when illegal actions are perpetrated by members of our own society. Did you see thousands of Americans dancing in the streets when, say, Spain suffered a bombing of their trains? No? Why is that, I wonder?
So, who's society has progressed farther with similar laws? Ours or theirs? Yes, we have the random individual who needs to progress socially, but we sill have the ability TO progress until no one will do things that they know to be wrong.
So, Alan, tell me again how our social progress has reached it's zenith?
jbcratchet| 6.17.10 @ 1:41AM
and what does all this "society" upper-crust, ceiling inspecting talk have to do with the fact that Obama is a self-deified dictator, a legend in his own warped mind?
Liberals, stick to the point, and stop changing things to fit your sad small mindedness.
Conservatives, dont let them bait you into abstract cross-sectioned arguments about "sociiiiiietal development"..... give em the FACTS and watch them bleed where your foot meets their donkey (pun intended)
Ray| 6.16.10 @ 1:13PM
Or, how about legalized slavery, Alan, has that remained unchanged as well, or has society itself changed it's collective mind about how we should view the forced labor of others?
How about not giving women the right to vote, or hold property? How about that, Alan?
You see, we ARE socially evolving, and it's not because of the laws, it's because we view things differently as a society.
Petronius| 6.16.10 @ 2:55PM
The first thing women voters gave to American Men was Prohibition.
BA Cyclone| 6.16.10 @ 3:27PM
Leftists believe the "right person" can Lord the government over us to acheive the perfect world by perfect government.
Rightists believe the "right person" will finally get people to understand that government is an imperfect entity led by imperfect people. The only way to cancel out these imperfections is to let millions of people make the best decisions they can for themselves, and the best ones shall win the day. Recognizing the perfect decisions cannot be imposed from On High is enlightenment.
Leftists believe in the power of government over people. Rightists believe in the power of liberty.
bongofury| 6.17.10 @ 9:10AM
.....so using your logic, the 8 years of the past administration that we just experienced,was the results of the power of liberty?
maryp| 6.16.10 @ 10:35PM
Sadly Alan,
So much of what passes for science is theory. GW is just one example. Look at the science of medicene. Its trial and error. Now we have all these studies coming out saying "Ohh that was wrong we dont tell people that anymore"
Evolution of species is a theory; not hard science. Evolution of the planet - theory
Science is the new religion.
Ray| 6.16.10 @ 1:08PM
"I don't get it: if America has become (such preceded Obama's administration) as amoral as you say "it" [we] has, doesn't America deserve to be destroyed? "
Fear not, Alan, for We, the People will protect ourselves from the excesses, the amorality of any government, group, or individual. We can not, and will not, deserve to be destroyed do to the actions if a few, even if that "few" is our own government.
We will survive. Just as we have for over 200 years. Things will change, just as they have for over 200 years. We will prevail, just as we have for over 200 years.
Alan Brooks| 6.16.10 @ 1:20PM
"or has society itself changed it's collective mind about how we should view the forced labor of others?"
But so many wizards at AS think The COMMUNISTS, represented by the evil smiling negro-Cobra from Chicago, are going to destroy us all. What CAN we do to put these poor offended, starving and homeless wretches at ease in their own minds?
Ray| 6.16.10 @ 1:42PM
Alan, Communism IS the forced labor of others! I don't think we're heading there as a country, but Communism is a social REGRESSION, not a progression. People should be afraid of this country regressing into Communism, or any other type of oppressive government. It's a valid fear, one we need to be cognitive of, because it has happen several times to several democracies in just our own lifetime.
I can see how Obama, who acts like a dictator, a regressive social policy if ever the is one, appears to be a threat, but his time is limited in Government and we, as a country, will still remain, will be able to undue any damages, if any, he makes to the social structure of our country, but only if we refuse to allow someone, it matters not who that someone is, to regress us to a earlier, failed form of society like Communism.
Ray| 6.16.10 @ 2:09PM
As for "putting them at easy?" Well, time will do that, just as it had for all of those people who were so afraid that Bush was going to turn America into the next Nazi Germany.
You do remember all of the claims that we're losing our rights, don't you? You do remember the accusations of illegal "wiretapping" of American civilians that were head from the the other end of the politic spectrum, didn't you? Even in supposedly "objective" news sources like the NYT, right? The fears of the suspension of rights for us by such websites as the Daily Kos all because of Bushitler, right?
That wasn't that long ago, Alan. Those were all baseless claims made out of ignorance and fear. Did any of those fears come to fruition? Did any of the predictions of Bush suspending the Constitution and remaining in office past his second term come true? No, of course they didn't.
So, time soothed their unfounded fears, didn't it, Alan? Just as it always does, doesn't it, Alan?
Libertyman13| 6.16.10 @ 2:47PM
Those programs continue. Conservative cowardice and utter terror in the face of liberty and the rule of law, backed up by screams of "soft on terror!" and other such drivel, trick the soft-brained into thinking that such blatant assaults on our liberty are "necessary." There is nothing baseless about Bush's unprecedented assault on our Constitution. He is responsible for the largest expansion of government police power in the history of our nation. While nobody really thought Bush would take us to fascism, those who love liberty were terrified at the ease at which it was sheared away from us. This is a battle of precedent, a slippery slope.
I am just confused how so many conservatives see tyranny in a center-right health care reform bill, or trying to take guns away from suspected terrorists, or enacting a bailout that indisputably and objectively prevented a massive crash in our financial system. But when it comes to trying suspected terrorists in military commissions, stripping people of due process, expanding criminal law to apply to previously innocent acts, extracting confessions with torture, etc., all the small government concerns simply disappear--in fact, if you disagree with this, you're a traitorous Muslim-lover of some sort.
It just mystifies me that conservatives think that its more tyrannical to have SMALL amounts of regulation of economic activity than to lock someone up, torture a confession out of them, and then throw away the key. The very thought process here is Orwellian.
maryp| 6.16.10 @ 10:44PM
There is nothing Orwellian about it.
The people being tortured are considered enemy combatants. Of course now the Patriot Act has turned on American citizens now considered domestic terrorists for things such as RonPaul bumber stickers, returning vets, attending church.
The Patriot Act is an infringement on our civil liberties, and was not needed to protect us from terrorism.
The regulation of economic activity by the current administration is unprecedented. BHO has taken powers not given to him by the Constitution.
Libertyman13| 6.16.10 @ 2:48PM
Those programs continue. Conservative cowardice and utter terror in the face of liberty and the rule of law, backed up by screams of "soft on terror!" and other such drivel, trick the soft-brained into thinking that such blatant assaults on our liberty are "necessary." There is nothing baseless about Bush's unprecedented assault on our Constitution. He is responsible for the largest expansion of government police power in the history of our nation. While nobody really thought Bush would take us to fascism, those who love liberty were terrified at the ease at which it was sheared away from us. This is a battle of precedent, a slippery slope.
I am just confused how so many conservatives see tyranny in a center-right health care reform bill, or trying to take guns away from suspected terrorists, or enacting a bailout that indisputably and objectively prevented a massive crash in our financial system. But when it comes to trying suspected terrorists in military commissions, stripping people of due process, expanding criminal law to apply to previously innocent acts, extracting confessions with torture, etc., all the small government concerns simply disappear--in fact, if you disagree with this, you're a traitorous Muslim-lover of some sort.
It just mystifies me that conservatives think that its more tyrannical to have SMALL amounts of regulation of economic activity than to lock someone up, torture a confession out of them, and then throw away the key. The very thought process here is Orwellian.
Alan Brooks| 6.16.10 @ 2:49PM
Ray, you are attempting to trick others with crypto-libertarianism,
libertarianism leads to organized crime domination. You are no better than a communist.
Alan Brooks| 6.16.10 @ 2:57PM
"So, time soothed their unfounded fears, didn't it, Alan? Just as it always does, doesn't it, Alan?"
Ray, man, I must say I do not like you Ray, man, or trust you Ray, man. Libertyman13 makes more sense than you man;
Ray, you devious libertopian.
Don Carlson| 6.16.10 @ 3:50PM
Oh, good! Now there are two oozing sores.
Mark in Idaho| 6.16.10 @ 2:39PM
Interesting observation - the "deserve to be destroyed" comment. Based on your antecedent comments, I take it you remove God from the equation here. How is it that something can "deserve" such a fate due to its actions, if there is no God? No God, no judge. No standard to compare the actions of a person to.
Without God, there is no standard, of course. It is the DNA thing - natural selection has programmed the species to do what? Propagate the species, of course. In that event, there is no justification for destroying the country, or the members of the species. That would be terribly illogical and irrational.
Our current problems stem from failure to recognize God for what He is. He is not replaceable - He is a real Being, and not a concept. That being the case, our failure is the failure to live up to what He has intended for our species. Our current leader, Mr. Obama, does not recognize God, and pretends that he is god, since he is the most powerful being on the planet (if there is no God).
I think God is laughing at him. I do not expect him to succeed in what he is attempting to do, but to fail miserably. If he humbled himself before God, and asked Him for His help and mercy, I think we as a nation would benefit from it.
This oil spill is a minor thing in the scheme of things. Mr. Obama is, on the other hand, potentially a major disaster. That is how I see him.
Libertyman13| 6.16.10 @ 2:51PM
Uh, couldn't we fashion societal rules and laws which would do such things as punish criminals without recourse to God? Pretty sure other societies have done so.
You really think Obama thinks he's God? That is so ridiculous I can't believe I'm trying to talk sense into you. Please pinpoint one example of what you're talking about. A single example. I usually find that the request for factual proof stops the emotion and authoritarian-based conservative dead in their tracks.
bongofury| 6.17.10 @ 9:20AM
..........your continuing to present to much common sense logic and reality, only serves to irritate the herd,and confuse them ,as it conflicts with their programed delusions
Karen| 6.16.10 @ 10:13PM
No, it is in need of redemption. Not destruction.
Christopher Holland| 6.16.10 @ 10:27PM
No, not all of it - just the part where you live
ENOUGH ROPE| 6.16.10 @ 12:59PM
Obama, The Smiling Cobra.
old white guy| 6.16.10 @ 2:12PM
you folks do have the second amendment.
ryan| 6.16.10 @ 3:14PM
The destruction of YOUR greedy, viscious, dishonest incompatent, obese, stupid and lying America, yeah, that will be destroyed!
Cinncinatus| 6.16.10 @ 3:41PM
Ben and you are right on the mark. Obama is a narcissistic fascist who "will not tolerate" principled opposition. What a kick-ass jackass! The scary thing is, he seems to be getting away with successive unconstituional Executive Branch actions like this extortion of BP shareholder value, especially for economic damages caused by the ill-conceived and unwarranted moratorium on off-shore drilling. I hope some CEO or Governor will challenge the ban in federal court as the arbitrary and capricious abuse of power it clearly is.
Purpleguy| 6.16.10 @ 9:03PM
Apparently the author is completely ignorant of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 and subsequent Amendments to it...
http://wildlifelaw.unm.edu/fedbook/oilpollu.html
From the Oil Pollution Act content : "The President or the authorized representative of the government shall act on behalf of the public, Indian tribe, or foreign country as trustee of natural resources to present a claim for and to recover natural resources damages." Go look it up and learn something. Don't believe the pap the right wing media types dish... they lie to manipulate you.
Instead of ranting about about the Big Bad Government and the Big Bad Black Man in charge of it "Is there anyone in Congress to stop him? Is there anyone in a black robe to stop him? Or is everyone already too scared to challenge the Duce in the White House?" --- maybe a little fact checking would lend credibility to the author's arguments.
Get off your high horse ... I for one am glad that the President's actions speak louder than his words in this case, and all Gulf residents can breathe a little easier thanks to the diligence and concern shown by our President for their welfare and the natural resources of the United States.
It is not just $20 Billion in escrow that he extracted from BP. There is more to come into the fund, as the 20 BB is a down payment for the rest. BP is making $100 Million immediately available to families of the victims of the blast. BP is also foregoing dividend payments for 3 quarters to pay for all of this.
Karen| 6.16.10 @ 10:16PM
And it scares me to death what he really has it earmarked for. I don't think it will end up in the hands of those who need reparations from this catastophic oil spill.
maryp| 6.16.10 @ 10:58PM
maybe this is why he has been dragging his feet on giving permission to move forward on the cleanup. The bigger the mess the bigger the check from BP.
Regardless of the finaancial situation the cleanup should have started same day as the spill. No excuse for the delay
greg locke| 6.16.10 @ 11:07PM
If you would read the entire Act you so gleefully quote, Mr. Purple, you'd also see that it sets a $75 million limit on BP's liability. So Mr. Obama's demand that BP escrow $20 billion or more is exactly as Mr. Stein opines--governmental extortion not authorized by any act of Congress.
Purpleguy| 6.17.10 @ 12:53AM
Hey, Mr. Lockie ... Maybe you don't care how the Gulf is cleaned up, restored, wildlife saved, and people made whole again... but I do.
First of all, BP is not contesting this ... ergo the legal liability limit is moot, null and void for all practical purposes. Our President got them to agree .. without coercion or relying on legal means. He's something isn't he? And, since they will not control the fund, but a 3rd party does, BP will have nothing to say about claims - who gets paid, how much they get paid, when, nothing.
And, I don't care how our President does it, he's doing it! I think you have to PROVE extortion, don't you, not throw wild ass comments around like bricks.
I am so proud of our President ... he has passed healthcare after 100 years of trying, and he helped save us from another Great Depression.
And now he's convinced a Big Oil Giant to bend to the take care of the little guy and held them accountable and made them responsible for their bad actions.
And, you think that's bad? Really? A conservative doesn't like holding someone responsible for their actions and making them stand up and pay for their mistakes? Are you fucking serious? Or maybe your not really a conservative, is that it? Are you a corporatist too?
NRA1776| 6.17.10 @ 2:52AM
Purple, are you high?
Greg Locke| 6.17.10 @ 10:17AM
Mr. Purple, your most recent rant has no relationship to your original argument that Mr. Stein's piece was flawed because OPA 90 gave Mr. Obama authority to force BP to escrow $20 billion in cleanup money. I demonstrated why your position was incorrect, and in return you accuse me of not wanting the spill cleaned up. I'm not sure how you reached that conclusion from my post.
I assume from the tone of your posts that you screamed bloody murder about Mr. Bush's response to 9/11. No doubt you argued then that he acted outside the scope of his authority as set out in the constitution. The same arguments can now be made about Mr. Obama. It is only because you approve of the outcome of Mr. Obama's extraconstitutional acts that you praise him. I guess that's your right, but it seems a tad hypocritical to me.
I find it funny that you think Mr. Obama's personal powers of persuasion are what caused BP to agree in this case to pay more than the liability cap. Even you, with your ranting potty mouth, could have "persuaded" BP in this case, if you had the full power of the US government at your disposal. Have you ever been on the receiving end of a federal investigation, Mr. Purple? The federal government already has awesome power to bend people to its will, and under both Mr. Bush and Mr. Obama now seems to be doing so in illegitimate ways. I read Mr. Stein's piece as objecting to the blatant abuse of power being exercised by Mr. Obama. From that you have no basis to deduce what we believe should be done about the spill. Perhaps you could benefit from the study of logic, rhetoric and argument.
Purpleguy| 6.17.10 @ 12:12PM
I guess you are either unable to read or maybe lack comprehension... in response to your pointing to the legal limit and that the President extorted BP, I said :
"First of all, BP is not contesting this ... ergo the legal liability limit is moot, null and void for all practical purposes. Our President got them to agree .. without coercion or relying on legal means."
" And, I don't care how our President does it, he's doing it! I think you have to PROVE extortion, don't you, not throw wild ass comments around like bricks. "
Now, what part of those sentences do you not understand?
I also never said it was his "personal powers of persuasion"... what I said is that he "got BP to agree" .... how he did I neither posited nor care how he did it. Do you really care how he's gotten them to be responsible and to be held accountable?
Oh, and about Bush - if he had gotten Osama Bin Laden and shut down Al Qaeda, I wouldn't care how HE did that either... except he shouldn't have broken our laws. Which he did and Obama has not. There's the diff. Or do you not understand that either?
Greg Locke| 6.17.10 @ 11:23PM
Oh, I'm so sorry Mr. Purple. I did not realize that your pronouncement on BP's intentions, and the complex law of waiver and mootness, were the final word on the subject. Perhaps your hero Mr. Obama will appoint you as his next syncophant to serve on the Supreme Court.
I hate to put words in your mouth, so I'll ask a couple of questions. Is there a use of federal power which you believe to be extraconstitutional? Do you believe that there is an exercise of federal power that is illegitmate even if the ends are "proper?" If so what limits are there, and what is their source? Has Mr Obama, at least arguably exceeded those limits? If not, why not? Let's start with these and then continue our conversation after i get those answers.
Occam's Tool| 6.16.10 @ 4:00PM
Yes, treason is an explanation.
JF| 6.16.10 @ 5:06PM
I have to agree with you, and altho' the concept sounds wacky, I think that Obama's inaction to date was purposeful. Let the Gulf be destroyed by "Big Oil," and then let Savior Elect Obama destroy "Big Oil," to the cheers of the mindless throng that put him in office. The economies and quality of life in Florida, Alabama, Louisiana are merely collateral damage to a regime that believes the ends always justify the means.
Purpleguy| 6.16.10 @ 9:05PM
That's just as stupid as people believing that GW Bush arranged the attack on 9/11 or knew about it ahead of time and did nothing. How dumb can people be? Do you believe that one too? God Help Us.
Nick| 6.17.10 @ 11:56AM
"How dumb can people be?"
Why don't you ask your lefty kook friends, PurpleJackass?
They're the ones who believe and promote that garbage.
SB Smith| 6.16.10 @ 5:14PM
You're dead on, Lucius. The nihilists already have the attitude "Never let a crisis go to waste." ...and they're milking the spill for all it's worth.
I am also appalled that BP allowed the idiot in the oval office to get them to set aside the 20 billion.
obama is USING BP for his own agenda. Doesn't BP understand that as a company headquartered OUTside the US that obama has no legal right to tell them to do Anything ?
And re: the w/holding of the dividends....obama doesn't care that 40% of BP's shareholders are US citizens. I was already disgusted beyond description with obama and couldn't stand the sight of him before the spill happened. How I feel now isn't repeatable here.
Carol| 6.16.10 @ 7:00AM
Hey Ben,
When I watch you on Saturday mornings and you agree with Obama's actions, you scare me. Obama is trying to make this a 3rd world country and when you agree with him, you are abedding him.
Until the admitted Muslim Marxist is impeached, we aren't a Republic.
IMPEACHMENT SOON TO COME! IF NOT BY THE GOP, THEN BY THE MASSES.
buckeyeman| 6.16.10 @ 10:20AM
"abedding him"?????? Not the graphic I needed this morning although it might inspire Barry to write another poem, perhaps entitled "Ben".
Try "abetting" him. But seriously, Carol, your sentiment is right on. I'm completely bumfuzzled (Sp.?) when some of my favorite commentators go of on the "let's be fair to Obama" jag.
buckeyeman| 6.16.10 @ 10:25AM
It sucks so bad when you make fun of someone else's spelling and then commit a typo yourself. That's go "off" on.
Alan Brooks| 6.16.10 @ 12:09PM
"abedding" must be a reference to Monica Lewinsky.
Libertyman13| 6.16.10 @ 2:54PM
Wow, you've certainly removed yourself pretty far from reality. Let me guess, you also think he's ineligible for the Presidency because he was born in Kenya.
I would LOVE to see one fact cited in your absurd claims that Obama is a Marxist or a Muslim, or that he's trying to make this a 3rd world country. Just one.
Alan Brooks| 6.16.10 @ 3:03PM
These people are rightwingnuts, not even rightwingers.
Mike| 6.16.10 @ 3:33PM
Are you serious? I doubt it! Obama has admitted his Marxist views in many interviews and his own writings. Where have you been? As to his Muslim roots, he regularly quotes from the Koran, with the Muslim accent and refers to it as holy. As well, he has surrounded himself with Marxists and Muslims now and throughout his life. Get real! The evidence is all around you, but like most liberal fools, you continue to refuse to acknowledge it. Reality check...Obama is a Muslim and a Marxist bent on destroying this country, and left unchecked, he would become one of the worst tyrants in history. You are either like Obama in your ideology, or as someone else noted, you are a useful idiot. I won't waste my time pointing you to links because if you truly wanted the facts, they are easy to find.
Purpleguy| 6.16.10 @ 9:09PM
"Peace be upon you " --- ruh roh, I must be a Muslim now .. huh, peanut brain? How retarded can the electorate become? A little too much Beck talk, I suspect.
bongofury| 6.17.10 @ 9:33AM
..............I...I....I just can't believe it! You have mentioned the most "holy and high", the all knowing ,(praise be to him!) BECK!! (all hail), in the same context with retarded......you will now be castrated and branded as unworthy of truth, and alas, Faux news and reruns 24/7 for the rest of your days.............I tried to warn you......this is just so sad! you will always be in my prayers.......be strong!!
JC| 6.16.10 @ 3:43PM
He is not a Marxist, a socialist, and he was born of the Muslim religion. However, he is a fascist! Fascists seek to organize a nation on corporatist perspectives, values, and systems such as the political system and the economy. Fascist governments forbid and suppress openness and opposition to the fascist state and the fascist movement. They identify violence and war as actions that create national regeneration, spirit and vitality. Socialist want own everything while fascist want to control and run everything example: GM, banks etc.
Purpleguy| 6.16.10 @ 9:14PM
Let's see, when you remove regulations on industry, you are helping Corporations ... when you ignore regulations or defund the regulatory oversight bodies, you help Corporations. When you give subsidies to Insurance Companies (Medicare Advantage) , you help Corporations. When you give amnesty to 3 Million Illegals and do not stop the flow of illegals into the country by giving stiff fines to companies (Republican Presidents) you help Corporations. When you defend BP in Congress (Republicans) you help Corporations ... Hmmmm, so over the last 30 years - just WHO is helping the Corporations and are Corporatists? You might want to check your facts, if you even give a shit.
Convet| 6.16.10 @ 11:07PM
When you've "commandeered" all corporate wealth they'll be coming for you ignoramus. You'll pay for my healthcare, social security and my taxes. Enjoy yourself; it's a bumpy ride!
Purpleguy| 6.17.10 @ 12:44AM
Stay on point, little one. We were discussing who's a corporatist ... nothing about corporate money dearie ...
Oh, and you will pay for mine too... so coolio... !
bongofury| 6.17.10 @ 9:40AM
............this is way over the top just plain ,too much "truth and facts"........you will now be asked to remove yourself from the herd sandbox as no one wants to continue having you here.......also no cookies and milk before nap time........sorry! Yous just gotta learn that you can't go round confusing the herd and their delusions with truth and facts..........ok?
Appleby| 6.16.10 @ 7:14AM
Can no one rid us of this meddlesome priest?
Alan Brooks| 6.16.10 @ 8:59AM
but you know Becket was called pestilent.
Cabermon| 6.16.10 @ 3:27PM
Alan, it's "meddlesome" in the play and movie, not "pestilent". And since I don't believe that there exists a transcript of the original 1170 AD conversation, I'll stick with it.
BTW, yesterday marked the 795th anniversary of the signing (under duress) of the Magna Carta by King John, Henry II's pestilent son, and as inept a leader and greedy usurper of power as BHO.
Petronius| 6.16.10 @ 10:58PM
Sad to say only a few clauses of that sacred document remain in force owing to the butchery of subsequent Crowns and Law Lords.
And if all the unconstitutional laws enacted by government at all levels in this country were duly repealed every weenie would run for the Canadian border.
Ret. Marine| 6.16.10 @ 7:53AM
and you finally awoke from your self-induced slumber Ben, what happened to your pals of the media, did they tire of slobbering over the "won" they have been waiting for? Yes there many questions that remain unanswered. Of course more than 53% of the idiots must first reconize that piece of paper called the Constitution in order to put 2 and 2 together but as it stands it somehow equates to 5 to these idiots and they are the ones who put this pretender-n-theif in our house. Go peddle your ignorance to those who put him there not us, we knew already what a traitor looks like.
Libertyman13| 6.16.10 @ 2:55PM
Please cite one single violation of the Constitution that Obama has committed. I can think of some, but they're all "anti-terror" stuff so you guys would probably cheer him on for that.
Purpleguy| 6.16.10 @ 9:18PM
Exactly! But they won't, they don't deal in facts .. they're a bunch of pansies that "feel" they don't like Obama for unknown reasons.
NRA1776| 6.17.10 @ 2:56AM
Let me guess .... because he is BLACK!
Convet| 6.16.10 @ 11:10PM
How about failure to protect our borders? How about violations of Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution? Or violations of the 9th and 10th Amendment klown.
Purpleguy| 6.17.10 @ 12:41AM
Once again, facts don't matter, do they.
Illegal immigration just didn't appear this year ... Reagan and even before him let illegals into the country.. so you can't pin that crap on Obama.
Article 1, Section 8 - you mean this: "To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof." You know the powers of Congress, you ditz. How can Obama violate that Article that pertains to Congress? Sad...
You'll have to explain how YOU think he violated the Amendments .. or is it what YOU really think or are you a dittohead? In either case, please explain your wild accusations .. if you can.
Curly Smith| 6.16.10 @ 7:56AM
If I were the head of BP, I'd consider taking Obama up on his "offer" provided my liability from the spill was limited to the $30 billion. Otherwise, it does no good whatsoever for me to fund another Obama "slush fund" and have an "independent" authority make payments to the Chicago Boys and Girls Club for damages suffered as a result of the spill. Tell me again... why is Blagojevich on trial?
Purpleguyt| 6.16.10 @ 9:19PM
Get with the program, dude. Apparently the author is completely ignorant of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 and subsequent Amendments to it...
http://wildlifelaw.unm.edu/fedbook/oilpollu.html
From the Oil Pollution Act content : "The President or the authorized representative of the government shall act on behalf of the public, Indian tribe, or foreign country as trustee of natural resources to present a claim for and to recover natural resources damages."
Instead of ranting about about the Big Bad Government and the Big Bad Black Man in charge of it "Is there anyone in Congress to stop him? Is there anyone in a black robe to stop him? Or is everyone already too scared to challenge the Duce in the White House?" --- maybe a little fact checking would lend credibility to your arguments. You can get off your high horse ... I for one is glad that the President's actions speak louder than his words in this case, and all Gulf residents can breathe a little easier thanks to the diligence and concern shown by our President for their welfare and the natural resources of the United States.
It is not just $20 Billion in escrow that he extracted from BP. There is more to come into the fund, as the 20 BB is a down payment for the rest. BP is making $100 Million immediately available to families of the victims of the blast. BP is also foregoing dividend payments for 3 quarters to pay for all of this.
Jim O'Brien| 6.16.10 @ 8:03AM
Obama lied when he took the oath of office, when he swore to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States". He and his attorney general Eric Holder have nothing but contempt for the rule of law. They think the Constitution should be trashed, so they act accordingly. Obama's intent is to destroy our form of government, and our freedom.
Purpleguy| 6.16.10 @ 9:19PM
Proof please? Otherwise put that garbage back where it came from - out of your a...
Louis Jenkins| 6.16.10 @ 8:20AM
"oil in waters so deep that if a failure occurred there would be no way to fix it -- "
Well, I'm still waiting for the Pretender n Chief to dive down to the leak and fix it. He can do everything else why not that? Nov. 2nd draws nigh.
Purpleguy| 6.16.10 @ 9:20PM
And, what bubble-headed ninny of a President approved of this Deep Water drilling, hmmm? Remember him?
maryp| 6.16.10 @ 11:03PM
Deep water drilling is not a problem. It is being done all over the world. Oil well kick sometimes in drilling.
From all data gathered to date this is the largest well ever found on American territory. Also the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 established a budget for research into containment of well spill. That was 20 years ago. Why arent we hearing the money spent on that is helping us today
Purpleguy| 6.17.10 @ 12:30AM
Yep, that dereggy kinda thingy, that was a good move on Reagan, Bush I and II, and Clinton's part,, wasn't it. Looking the Gulf of Oil and Financial disaster and Miners dying by the dozens ... How's that dereggy thingy workin' out fer ya? Good thing the government was asleep at the switch, huh? Go learn something about taking care of a country...
Go read this and then open your mouth...
http://www.epa.gov/lawsregs/laws/opa.html
Convet| 6.16.10 @ 11:12PM
How about obumbler?
John Navratil| 6.16.10 @ 8:33AM
Mr. Stein,
Is this not the logical end for a government which has ignored the Constitution when writing legislation since FDR? Even today we see legislation being crafted to regulate how money can be spent on elections despite a recent rebuff by the Supreme Court. All the while the proposal to state, in each piece of legislation, where the Constitution provides authority for that legislation goes nowhere.
After decades of running roughshod over the states with the Commerce Clause, is it mysterious that the Executive branch should now do the same to commerce?
Ray| 6.16.10 @ 12:49PM
"Is this not the logical end for a government which has ignored the Constitution when writing legislation since FDR?"
FDR? I would say that it's been going on since Woodrow Wilson!
Purpleguy| 6.16.10 @ 9:46PM
See my next comment - it's much, much longer .. .the longing y'all have for following the Constitution never was ... it's a fantasy, made up romanticizing of a prior time.
Purpleguy| 6.16.10 @ 9:45PM
Oh, my, no ... the Constitution has been ignored from almost the start ... George Washington had no Constitutional powers to quell the Whiskey Rebellion, yet he did. John Adams had no Constitutional power to enact the Alien and Sedition Acts, and yet he did. Thomas Jefferson had no Constitutional powers to buy the Louisiana purchase and yet HE did. That's Presidents # 1, 2 and 3 all guilty.... Andrew Jackson had no Constitutional powers to shut down the Bank of the United States, and yet he did. Abraham Lincoln had no Constitutional powers to war with the South, and yet he did. Woodrow Wilson had no Constitutional powers to enact the Sedition Acts of 1918, and yet he did. FDR had no Constitutional powers to seize all the gold from ordinary Americans, and yet he did. Harry Truman had no Constitutional powers to seize the Steel Mills and induct steelworkers into the Army, and yet he did. Dwight Eisenhower had no Constitutional powers to create the Interstate Highway System, and yet he did. And, it goes on and on and on.
So you see, if you are American, you should know these things before you start spouting about the Constitution. We have been ignoring the Constitution for expediency for over 200 years. Did Sarah "I can see Russia from my house" Palin know that? Did you ? Betcha not!
maryp| 6.16.10 @ 11:05PM
We are no longer reading your posts because you spew ignorance.
Purpleguy| 6.17.10 @ 12:24AM
Facts don't matter do they? Obama could solve every world problem, and you still wouldn't care, would you? You are the worst kind of American, Un-American! You don't even know your own history, Constitution, or Presidents.... be gone, damn spot!
Raisin| 6.17.10 @ 9:59AM
Purpleguy, please put down the crack pipe.
Purpleguy| 6.17.10 @ 11:36AM
If you don't believe me, go look it up ... it's all out there. Our precious Constitution, and don't get me wrong, it is, has been ignored when it was expedient since the beginning of the country.
Purpleguy| 6.17.10 @ 12:25AM
Oh, I have ... are you a Tea Bagger? Is that why you're interested? No response on our history's facts? Don't like the truth in your face do you? Can't fight back with facts, huh, Chuckles?
NRA1776| 6.17.10 @ 3:00AM
Purple, you are obsessed by tea bagging, time to step out of the closet.
Purpleguy| 6.17.10 @ 11:34AM
Why don't you go shoot your way out of the oil spill?
Nick| 6.17.10 @ 11:53AM
Are you done perfoming "Lewinski duty" under O'Bama's desk already, PurpleJackass?
Nick| 6.16.10 @ 11:41PM
PurpleJackass,
You know nothing about American history or politics.
You think John Marshall was the first chief justice of the Supreme Court.
You also think that sitting Virginia governors can run for re-election.
And, you don't know the difference between the words "precedent" and "precedence."
You are a liberal. Which means you hate God and America.
Steve M. | 6.16.10 @ 8:48AM
This seems rather an odd complaint from a guy who's still proud of having worked for Richard Nixon.
Scott| 6.16.10 @ 9:10AM
Steve - REALLY? Look at what Nixon accomplished (end of Vietnam, China, etc.). Yes, the administration accomplished what the Dems could not and was hated and chased from office, not by an illegal act, but the knowledge or cover-up of an illegal act.
How many illegal acts has Obama actually committed? The answer: MANY
Please wake up...
Libertyman13| 6.16.10 @ 2:56PM
Such as?
Brianna | 6.18.10 @ 2:58PM
It's a safe bet that if Nixon hadn't been impeached, we would have won Vietnam. It was Ford's bungling of Nixon's work in bringing that conflict to a conclusion that lost it for us.
Purpleguy| 6.16.10 @ 9:48PM
Proof please?
"was hated and chased from office, not by an illegal act, but the knowledge or cover-up of an illegal act. " - oh, that's so much better .. Really? Really?
David Jack Smith | 6.16.10 @ 8:50AM
"Or is everyone already too scared to challenge the Duce in the White House? "
He's more like il Dunce.
John Navratil| 6.16.10 @ 11:54AM
Know your enemy. This man is not a dunce. Jimmy Carter was a dunce who became anti-American. This man is anti-American and smart and dangerous.
He is a visionary with a coterie of unelected followers who are now appointees and "czars" (the word means king - and they serve the emperor) and furtively implement his agenda over an increasing irrelevant opposition in Congress.
Yashmak| 6.16.10 @ 2:38PM
You may be overestimating him. This 'coterie' you refer to are (for the most part) proving to be rather incompetent. . .just plaing not up to the job. That he handpicked them reflects a certain lack of smarts, as the responsibility for their mismanagement is increasingly landing square on his doorstep.
Moreover, he has largely lost the enthusiastic support of his greatest proponents, the hard-left, over his failure to follow through on many of his promises to them, and his insistence on continuation (if not expansion) of many Bush policies.
By the time the next Presidential election comes around, the Dems may not have the option of running him again, if they wish to hold the White House. It's not circumstances doing this to him, it is his own poor decision making (or lack of decision making) that is doing it. That's not smart. That's not ready for prime-time.
John Navratil| 6.16.10 @ 5:30PM
I hope you are right, but the bureaucracies headed by his underlings are busy every day. The President is ruling by executive order at an unprecedented level, the EPA is promulgating CO2 rules, corporate statism, extra-legal arm-twisting as described in this article, using repaid TARP funds as a slush fund, all employment growth achieved through government hiring, etc. And, just how "independent" will the managers of any BP funds be? The elections can be acknowledged to be lost without impacting this.
I am not so sanguine.
Chuck Hafemann| 6.16.10 @ 9:08AM
Not to worry. I have it on good authority that the Obama mandated BP escrow fund will not be run by government. Instead, Obama has selected the community organization group Acorn to be the unbiased, independent, non-governmental organization to administer the billions of BP shareholders' $$.
Purpleguy| 6.16.10 @ 9:50PM
Wrong, Bubba ... it's the same lawyer that oversaw the disbursements from the 9/11 fund for the victims established under Baby Bush... !
Jack in TX| 6.16.10 @ 9:15AM
If there was ever a reason to fund space exploration and prioritize it, it is here. We need a planet to which conservatives/libertarians can escape or the socialist-progressives can go to build their "Utopia."
Ray| 6.16.10 @ 12:51PM
That's been suggested before. Just google Douglas Adams and the "b" ark.
Purpleguy| 6.16.10 @ 9:52PM
OMG... I almost fell on the floor laughing ... perhaps we can point them toward a black hole... the closer you get to a black hole, the more time slows down ... maybe they might have a chance in a much, much slower world...? Whatcha think?
Purpleguy| 6.17.10 @ 12:21AM
What a magnificent, well thought out response ... go have another beer and drag her in the bedroom...
NRA1776| 6.17.10 @ 3:02AM
There you go again, it's all about the color.
Petronius| 6.16.10 @ 11:10PM
The progressives will never leave on their own. Every parasite needs a host.
Brianna | 6.18.10 @ 3:00PM
They might; remember, they don't consider themselves to be parasites. They think the Right are the parasites for leeching on the great goodies provided by the benevolent government without adequately contributing to or acknowledging those "benefits"
Anthony| 6.16.10 @ 9:21AM
Our weekly Malibu wack-a-mole is 1/2 right. Hey Ben, quit with the BP/ Halliburton recklessness b.s. until the facts are in, ok?
As far as drilling 30 miles off shore and a mile deep, ask your favorite lefty enviro-nut job why this policy is in place. I don't see the Chinese, Russians, Cubans, or other thug nations, the least bit concened about future disasters, do you Ben?
If BP was being run by anybody with balls, he'd tell Obama to stick his slush fund up his Alinsky ... Or, better yet, see you in court, bro.
Purpleguy| 6.16.10 @ 9:53PM
That ship has sailed, Chuckie .. BP has agreed to all our President's demands... but leave it to the right wing nuts to stick up for BP, showing yourselves for the corporatists that y'all are !!
Convet| 6.16.10 @ 11:17PM
No soup for you purple COMMIE!
Purpleguy| 6.17.10 @ 12:20AM
And your point is?
Ole Sarge| 6.16.10 @ 9:46AM
But what Militia is "the one" the leader of?
Well maybe the "purple shirted" SEIU or the blue shirted TSA?
What about that "Organizing for America" group?
How many people even know what the "caudillo" is? We are so ignorant about our our history, let alone anything else that happened on this continent.
Purpleguy| 6.16.10 @ 9:55PM
On your second paragraph, I can completely agree. Too many on here are completely ignorant but insist on opening mouth before engaging brain and proving to the world what fools they are ... !
Convet| 6.16.10 @ 11:18PM
Pot calling kettle black. Try pulling the mote out of your eye COMMIE!
John Krieg| 6.16.10 @ 9:51AM
Great article by Ben Stein. The comparison to Il Duce is piquant. Obama is as pompous and silly as
Benito and then some.
Purpleguy| 6.16.10 @ 9:57PM
Another know-nothing low-information voter ... Ben Stein is wrong and an idiot ... Get with the program, dude. Apparently the author (and this site) is completely ignorant of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 and subsequent Amendments to it...
http://wildlifelaw.unm.edu/fedbook/oilpollu.html
From the Oil Pollution Act content : "The President or the authorized representative of the government shall act on behalf of the public, Indian tribe, or foreign country as trustee of natural resources to present a claim for and to recover natural resources damages."
Instead of ranting about about the Big Bad Government and the Big Bad Black Man in charge of it "Is there anyone in Congress to stop him? Is there anyone in a black robe to stop him? Or is everyone already too scared to challenge the Duce in the White House?" --- maybe a little fact checking would lend credibility to the arguments. You can get off your high horse ... I for one am glad that the President's actions speak louder than his words in this case, and all Gulf residents can breathe a little easier thanks to the diligence and concern shown by our President for their welfare and the natural resources of the United States.
It is not just $20 Billion in escrow that he extracted from BP. There is more to come into the fund, as the 20 BB is a down payment for the rest. BP is making $100 Million immediately available to families of the victims of the blast. BP is also foregoing dividend payments for 3 quarters to pay for all of this.
Steve Zell| 6.16.10 @ 10:15AM
While most people can agree that BP should pay for cleanup costs and to compensate damages to the fishing and shrimping industries, Obama's idea to force BP to pay for lost wages of oil and gas workers due to the moratorium on drilling imposed by Obama is flat-out dictatorial.
What will he do next, order Toyota to pay lost wages of workers at bankrupt GM and Chrysler, because a few of their cars had stuck gas pedals?
Earth to Obama: the other oil companies in the Gulf didn't do anything wrong! Let them keep drilling and pay their own workers!!!
Purpleguy| 6.16.10 @ 9:59PM
Maybe they can have a contest? Which oil company can blow up a well deeper than BP and get more bad publicity to endear them to the public? What a great idea when NO ONE knows how to stop a leaking well 5000 feet down. Now you know why conservatives aren't in power.
Campy| 6.16.10 @ 10:29AM
I know, I know... it's from Newsweek, but would welcome learned opinions from those who might know more about this:
Why Obama Needs a Healthy BP
I first reported last Thursday that Democrats in Congress would propose that BP establish an independently administered trust fund to pay claims in the gulf. Now they and President Obama are filling in the details of the proposal, but no one seems to be focusing on the real reason why this idea has gotten such traction: to give BP (and Obama) the leeway it needs to pay a scheduled $10 billion dividend to shareholders on June 21. The administration needs to be able to point to the escrow account to give itself (and BP) political cover against the outrage likely to ensue in America from the dividend payment.
Obama and BP are locked in a deadly, messy transatlantic dance. The U.S., deeply in debt and facing a voter rebellion over that fact, needs as many billions as it can siphon from London-based BP to pay for the cleanup of the Gulf of Mexico. The cleanup could cost tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade.
But Obama, who told Politico on Friday that the spill "echoes 9/11" because of the way it will shape policy for years to come, doesn't want to unduly weaken, let alone destroy, the company for that very reason. Its stock price already battered, its market value down nearly 50 percent since the accident, BP would face yet another pummeling if it refused (or said it was unable) to pay the dividend, which, after all, is based on profits made before the April spill.
Calls are rising to force BP to forgo the dividend. But the idea is not only risky, it's almost certainly unenforceable in the U.S., either by statute or court action. So Obama needs BP officials to voluntarily agree to the independently administered fund—essentially getting the company to promise to empty one pocket even as it lines another.
And if BP refuses? The president can threaten to ban BP from operating in the gulf and to attach BP assets in the U.S. (all those gas stations and wells). Or he can promise not to mention Robert Green.
Howard Fineman
Newsweek/The Gaggle June 14, 2010
John Navratil| 6.16.10 @ 10:51AM
A few observations...
(1) Those BP stations are independently owned.
(2) When one assumes the risk of playing the game, one looks to the rules. The rules were $75 million capped liability. It might be wrong; I might need changing. If doesn't need changing after the game has begun (shades of election 2000 or Franken/Coleman).
(3) What if BP decides that $20bn, $30bn, $100bn is simply too much and prefers to take its ball and go home -- that is pay the $75 million and say "sue me"? What then?
The solution to the problem requires BP.
Campy| 6.16.10 @ 11:08AM
Thanks, John N.,
Per #3, I also wondered last week as to why this admin. would want to bully BP into potential bankruptcy. Who then would continue to try to solve and clean up the mess?
Oil sludge doesn't respond to demand, rhetoric and posture.
Purpleguy| 6.16.10 @ 10:04PM
The deal is done, that ship has sailed...
I for one am glad that the President's actions speak louder than his words in this case, and all Gulf residents can breathe a little easier thanks to the diligence and concern shown by our President for their welfare and the natural resources of the United States.
It is not just $20 Billion in escrow that he extracted from BP. There is more to come into the fund, as the 20 BB is a down payment for the rest. BP is making $100 Million immediately available to families of the victims of the blast. BP is also foregoing dividend payments for 3 quarters to pay for all of this. And the same lawyer that disbursed the 9/11 victim's fund is in charge of this escrow account. It's a done deal, now you can all be proud of your President....! Thank You, Mr. President!
Purpleguy| 6.17.10 @ 1:48AM
How can anyone doubt the president, he graduated from Harvard, did the BP CEO?
To serve the president is the greates honor an American cictizen can do. I hope they collect his feces in jar so that future generations can study it.
SDN| 6.17.10 @ 9:34AM
You have definitely drunk the Koolaid! Grapeflavored. Obviously you don't have anything to do. I guess you are in that 42% that approve of Obama's job performance. I guess you are sitting at home waiting on that government check. That does explain alot. Government is not the solution to our problems.
Purpleguy| 6.17.10 @ 11:32AM
That moron you are answering is not me... the coward can't use his own name, so he's using mine.
"Government is not the solution to our problems. " You are exactly right. Fix it yourself, don't just sit there. If hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast residents just got involved, how much better could this be?
zack| 6.16.10 @ 2:50PM
USA Today actually had a great article yesterday by Jonathan Turley on how we no longer have rule of law in the US. I couldn't believe it was in USA Today!
http://www.usatoday.com/news/o.....5_ST_N.htm
My company http://www.pathtoasia.com/employment/ helps Americans move to Asia for jobs and prosperity. Sign up for a free consultation and trial.
Anonymous| 6.16.10 @ 10:41AM
This president thinks he's God.
Eric| 6.16.10 @ 10:52AM
I agree. We just had eight years with an administration that thought it was above the rule of law. It was not right then and it is not right when Obama does it!
Rick| 6.16.10 @ 10:59AM
Obama's stalling was deliberate. He's building mob support for Cap and Tax, the final keystone in the control of every aspect of our lives. By controlling and rationing energy use, and nationalizing oil, coal and nuclear, the Democrats will have succeeded in transforming America into part of the international totalitarian marxist regime. Obama has no concern for the mounting anger, he's using it to build mob violence against oil corporations. Rahm Emanuel has scripted every word and every scene in the Obama Show.
John Navratil| 6.16.10 @ 11:05AM
Absolutely! November might not come soon enough.
Libertyman13| 6.16.10 @ 2:59PM
HAHAHAHA you guys crack me up! Let me guess: you don't think legislated morality is control over your life. You probably think the government should be able to legislate who you sleep with. And you think that cap and tax is totalitarian marxism? You guys need a political science course, or at least a dictionary!!!
John Navratil| 6.16.10 @ 5:49PM
Non-sequitor, Libertyman13!
Every law is in some way control over your life. Ask Juran Van der Sloot, Rod Blagoyovich or the police office when next you get a ticket. Where there are more than two people, there will be limits to behaviour. One can only feel free when one doesn't see the bars.
For what it's worth, I don't care with whom you sleep. The only people I care about in that regard are my wife and me. That said, you can keep your genitalia and your cap and tax away from me.
On to the political science lesson. Marxism contemplates a decay of Capitalism into a dictatorship of the proletariat followed by the utopian classless society. Totalitarianism contemplates the absolute control by the state. Totalitarian Marxism is an oxymoron. (See said dictionary).
John Navratil| 6.16.10 @ 6:39PM
Libertyman13,
Left unaddressed in my last post was the answer to the implied question "why is Cap-and-Tax an entry to totalitarianism?".
It is because energy is as absolute requirement for wealth creation. It began with agrarian economies harnessing the sun and using labor to make tools. Fire brought smelting. Iron production moved from England to the colonies to harvest the forests which had been stripped from England, only to return to England and coal. Hydrocarbons (coal, initially) brought efficient transportation and the Industrial Age. Oil, and its energy density, made transportation even more efficient and "See the U.S.A. in your Chevrolet".
We have become dependent on energy. One cannot feed a city of millions without transportation from far-away farms. One cannot pump water or process sewerage, either. Strip all this away and you reduce people to the level of sub-Saharan Africa. No more Google.
THAT IS THE ELEMENT OF CONTROL! No one wants that and the people will make accomodations to ensure the water and lights stay on at home. A tax (only a dollar a day) is reasonable. Then it's two. Then buses are subsidized (as in Europe) and gasoline is $7 per gallon. Not so bad! A reasonable compromise for "energy efficiency" and "climate change". And then there are the odd/even driving days. So what? Think the bureaucrats can't get too picayune? Consider the Amish are now being pushed by the EPA to manage their manure -- which they would not need to do if they used tractors.
All of this transfers what had been individual decisions into bureaucratic regulation (think TSA). It stifles innovation, restricts wealth creation and creates a class of subservient sheep. Do you think a government which can take over GM can't tell you which energy use you have is subject to a special tax of some relief? Should a favored industry be rewarded while another is penalized?
It's easy when one controls the one ingredient required for all wealth creation.
Mimi| 6.16.10 @ 11:29AM
Thanks Ben: ......." Is there anyone in Congress to stop him....Or is everyone too scared to challenge the 'DUCE IN THE WHITE HOUSE' ? The black " ROBES" are on the case!(ie HC). .......There will be NO Cap and Trade! The"O" keeps wanting more and more money for WHAT? To go into the seive to be WASTED? All this will bring us, our children our grand-children, and even our great grand-children to BONDAGE, carrying a giant bundle on their backs!.... Of DEBT! ...Is it "Retribution" in his demoniac inspired mind? Or as some say " MARKED INCOMPETENCE ". We have said: We've lost trust in this president"...WE'll fix it Nov. 2, 2010 and in 2012. Can we wait another day? The words " IMPEACH " are all on the "NET" today.......Worrisome!!!!!
Wayne| 6.16.10 @ 11:31AM
Ben, I am shocked! Absolutely shocked. You have this exactly right. I am afraid few will listen. Hopefully, the voters will wake up in time to reverse the damage Obama does before it is entirely too late. If only the media could end their love affair with this man.
Dixie Pixie| 6.16.10 @ 11:36AM
Kudos to you Mr. Stein
Your analysis was both taut and penetrating.
The post was far more useful than the”Is a Wonderful Life” travelog you have been writing lately.
For example, I did not know Obama does not have the statutory authority to create a compensation fund. I just assumed he already had the authority or could get it from a compliant Congress. Thank you for pointing out Obama's actions in this matter are outside the Laws of the USA.
After watching Obama's speech last night, I came to the conclusion that Obama is simply not capable of performing the duties of the Office of the Presidency. He showed last night he simply does not know what to do as a President or how to do it. Obama is simply not Presidential timber.
God help us one and all for we have a incompetent at the helm of the ship of state.
NeilBJ| 6.16.10 @ 11:38AM
Ben Stein asks by what authority does Obama order BP to set aside $30 billion to aid the victims of the oil spill.
There is an action that could be taken, but it appears that BP is going to acquiesce to Obama's demands. That action is a Quo Warrato action.
A Quo Warranto action asks an office holder by what authority do you hold the office that you now occupy? Of course this action really questions Obama's Constitutional eligibility to be President.
If he is not Constitutionally eligible to be President (and I believe he is not, by virtue of his British citizenship at birth), he doesn't even come close to having the authority to order BP around.
Brendan G. King| 6.16.10 @ 11:53AM
I would take El Caudillo over the currant fraud in the White House any day. General Franco defeated the Communist attempt to take over Spain thus is hated by the mainstream press and the rest of
the left. But is forever a hero for those of us who know the truth.
Olb Bob| 6.16.10 @ 12:20PM
Great Article. Even if Obama left office today and his programs were immediately revoked, he would nevertheless leave our constitutional republic much diminshed. Obama has shown that when a president leads a see no evil majority party and enjoys a say no evil media and a supine Justice Department, he can do just about anything he damn well pleases. How many of us, knowing that no support would be coming from congress or the media, would really refuse a demand from the President that we do this or that if the price of refusal would be governmental scrutiny of your business or affairs?
Ken| 6.16.10 @ 12:39PM
"without any legislation or court decision is extremely worrisome"
Does Ben Stein truly not know that most lawsuits in this country are settled without needing to go to court? Why is he worried that the President and BP might resolve this dispute voluntarily? Lawyers aren't making enough money?
Clearly Stein is as ignorant of law as he is of science:
"I was thinking to myself the last time any of my relatives saw scientists telling them what to do they were telling them to go to the showers to get gassed -- That’s where science leads you. -- Science leads you to killing people." -Ben Stein in an interview on the Trinity Broadcasting System.
Ray| 6.16.10 @ 2:36PM
"Does Ben Stein truly not know that most lawsuits in this country are settled without needing to go to court?"
Does Ken realize that the parties involved sigh a a legal agreement on a case by case basis and that no on can force someone to participate in a non-judicial arbitration of civil liability cases.
Obama is claiming that he has the authority to force BP to enter into a non-judicial arbitration for it's civil liability cases, ALL of the cases, regardless BP would agree to it or not. That is NOT within his power as President. NO ONE has the power to do that.
Ken| 6.16.10 @ 4:40PM
"Does Ken realize that the parties involved 'sign' a a legal agreement on a case by case basis and that no 'one' can force someone to participate in a non-judicial arbitration of civil liability cases '?'"
Yes.
"Obama is claiming that he has the authority to force BP to enter into a non-judicial arbitration for it's civil liability cases, ALL of the cases, regardless BP would agree to it or not."
No, he is not.
JoeW| 6.16.10 @ 1:22PM
Thankyou, Ben, for the use of the word Caudillo. It is a new word for me, so I had to look it up. It seems an entirely appropriate descriptive of this current President. His hired militia are the unions, especially the government unions. He's got a huge patronage network and isn't afraid to use it in front of all the world. His policies derive from the use of crises, real or not (mostly NOT!), to convey ostensibly populist mores. Of course, none of this would be possible without the abject consideration of the media. With a willing media, and an intellectually lazy population, this man is certainly the most dangerous consitutional law professor our coountry has ever seen!
Dawn| 6.16.10 @ 2:31PM
Liberalism is a mental disorder....
Willard| 6.16.10 @ 9:53PM
caused by a virus?
Mike| 6.16.10 @ 2:36PM
You know what, Obama is a proto-fascist thug. He has broken every promise he made and flaunts the US constitution at every turn.
Of course he can do all of that because Bush and Cheney paved the way for 8 years, flaunting the Constitution even worse.
Only an idiotic boob like Ben Stein would make this into a left-right, Democrat Republican thing.
Where was Ben and The American Spectator for 8 years when the Republicans were destroying habeas corpus, openly advocating torture and invading sovereign nations who did nothing to the US? Oh, that's right, you were standing by quietly, afraid to get your cheerleader outfits dirty.
Serves a hypocrite like you right that most of the commenters here that a re glad-handing him are also birthers and other idiots who by the "socialist" schtick.
Obama can violate the constitution because Bush showed him how and set the precedent. That you didn't seem to mind Bush doing it betrays you as a hypocrite, spouting this not for a love of liberty, but in order to wedge YOUR team into power so THEY can violate the Constitution.
Arbitrary power is only bad when someone other than the Republicans does it, I suppose.
Libertyman13| 6.16.10 @ 3:07PM
Your logic has no place here. This is clearly a forum for wild conjecture, unsupported speculation, and self-contradiction. Begone!
Quickone| 6.16.10 @ 3:51PM
How would an obvious Liberal(with a very capital L)
be able to recognize, let alone know the meaning of, logic?
Russell| 6.16.10 @ 2:42PM
So your argument is that the Chief Executive of the United States lacks the power to negotiate the payment of damages by one of the largest tortfeasors in the history of the country for the benefit of its injured citizens? Really? Or is just that it's Obama?
John Navratil| 6.16.10 @ 6:46PM
I thought that's what court were for.
It's interesting that the courts have dismissed all the "birther" suits because the plaintiffs have had no standing, but yet you think Obama can intervene. What standing does he have? How does the executive usurp the Judiciary?
dave b| 6.16.10 @ 2:42PM
Ben's a bright enough guy, but has he been out of the country since the 1790's. President's have been extending executive power since Washington took his first oath, and some of the nation's more important decisions have come from this tradition. The last administration went as far as to try to formalize the idea of essentially unrestricted presidential authority, especially where national security was at stake. VP Cheney has reiterated this view as recently as the past few months. This doesn't mean that Stein isn't onto something, it just means that this isn't exactly a "man bites dog" headline. Wings of both conservatives and liberals have lamented this concentration of power but neither party, when its guy is in office, wants to be the one to pull the plug. Gingrich's attempt to rule the country through the Congress in 1994 was reckless and led not only to his own downfall, but the discrediting of the idea that Congress is really relevant anymore. The sad fact is that most voters would just as soon have a more streamlined and efficient government centered on a doctrine of strong but still limited executive authority. This don't make it right, but it does make it be the reality. So, no Mussolini comparisons (this is just bizarre to anyone who actually knows anything about BM) and no "the liberals hate our country and are trying to destroy it" (this is just infantile). The issues Stein raises are too important to miss because we're too busy trying to blame others for this situation. Everyone of us who ever voted for a Republican for president is as guilty as anyone who voted for the other party. There has yet to be - probably since Coolidge - a president or presidential candidate who wasn't ready to extend the powers of the presidency at the expense of the other branches.
Leo Palm Harbor| 6.16.10 @ 2:45PM
Ben
We lived with the peanut king after the man who would be king and now we have the Court Jester.
Please deliever me from these fools before they destroy this country. If this a sample of our best and brightest I'ed settle for a little second best and a little dimmer.
dennis| 6.16.10 @ 2:49PM
reason leaves . us at most times. waiting for the truth gets tiresome. are we living in the end times when lies are the truth?. maybe so, lies have been thrown about for centuries. will time tell? yes indeed. i do not care what person is in the whitehouse.these are the days and someone has to start to speak. i do not want to do it but am compelled to do so. it is close. THE LORD ABOVE WANTS YOU TO BE SAFE. HE cares for you. if you think for 1 minute i like doing this you are wrong
Zack | 6.16.10 @ 2:49PM
This is truly a frightening development - a return to the totalitarian tactics of a different era that I thought died out after the Supreme Court rebuffed Truman's illegal seizure of the steel works. Still, it's become increasingly clear that the rule of law only applies to those without political influence. The banks, unions and wealthy corporate interests that curry favor with the Dems and GOP are above the law. I fear for America.
My company http://www.pathtoasia.com/employment/ helps Americans move to Asia for jobs and prosperity. Sign up for a free consultation and trial.
Deepwater Dave| 6.16.10 @ 2:51PM
While I agree with Mr. Stein's main thesis that Obama is playing the Caudillo, I have to take issue with his statement that "...BP acted irresponsibly in commissioning Trans-Ocean and Halliburton to drill for oil in waters so deep that if a failure occurred there would be no way to fix it -- at least until major damage had been done. " Poppycock. The major oil companies and their contractors like TransOcean and Halliburton (and many others) have drilled more than 2000 wells around the world in deep water without incident until now. The technology is sound, the process and systems work, and we benefit from the energy they produce. In this case, a series of errors and misjudgments by BP's "company men" on the Deepwater Horizon rig, who controlled every aspect of the drilling process, led to the disaster. As for the President's antics in the aftermath, he embodies Rahm Emmanuel's axiom that a politician should never let a good disaster go to waste.
Jim from "Up North"| 6.16.10 @ 3:21PM
The major oil companies may have 2,000 "Deep-Water" wells around the world, but, as we're learning, either none of them have the capacity to "cap" their well when an "accident" occurs, or they've paid off those who are supposedly responsible for ensuring that they do.
Perhaps you would prefer if BP had simply said "Sorry, Mate" and gone away...
BP just happened to be the unlucky company whose number came up-and the President has managed to secure somewhat more than $30 Million.
I'm sure that a BP shareholder would be ashamed to accept what is, in effect a "blood money dividend"....or maybe not...
Joe Heathen| 6.16.10 @ 3:01PM
So, Ben, tell us about Francisco Franco and Dick Cheney. Why would Cheney consider a meeting with presidents of US petroleum companies so important as to be a national security secret? Has commerce become a matter requiring secrecy?
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Further, you state: "We live in a Constitutional Republic. The President's job under the Constitution is to enforce the laws made by the elected Congress. His job is not to create new laws and enforce them all by himself."
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So tell us about warrantless wiretapping, Ben. I can't find that provision in the Constitution.
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You're very entertaining as an advertising shill but you lack significant credibility as an editorialist because of your inability to validate your positions by covering ALL aspects of any one topic you pursue.
John Navratil| 6.16.10 @ 6:53PM
"Why would Cheney consider a meeting with presidents of US petroleum companies so important as to be a national security secret?" - Not a national security secret, just a secret. A President doesn't make law, just policy. Having Congress sitting in White House meetings is a violation of separation of powers.
"Has commerce become a matter requiring secrecy?" If you are a law maker - no. It would be more interesting to hear you ask if a President who can nationalize a business has such a privilege. Bush didn't nationalize anything.
"So tell us about warrantless wiretapping, Ben. I can't find that provision in the Constitution." - Look at the Congressionally create FISA court.
methuselah| 6.16.10 @ 3:12PM
" drilled more than 2000 wells around the world in deep water without incident until now."
Utter and complete horseshit.
Ralph Averill| 6.16.10 @ 3:17PM
What is the Constitutional problem? BP doesn't have to pay a cent if it doesn't want to, presidential orders be damned. Let them go to court, (Lord knows they've got the lawyers,) to stop the US gov't. from seizing their assets. Of course, they will be creating a PR problem bigger than the one they have now, but so what? Obama is playing the PR game, and he's holding all the cards.
By the way, Mr. Stein, where were you when Geoge W. Bush threw the Constitution into the garbage after 9/11?
Cleavetoo| 6.16.10 @ 3:20PM
Ben Stein continues to represent the large number of supposedly intelligent people who refuse to acknowledge factual evidence before exposing the uneducated masses to their decidedly irresponsible innocuous thought processes. In his article Our Caudillo President, he wonders aloud how the President has any authority to ask BP to set aside any money for this clean up/damage effort. I guess he's never heard of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, created during the Bush 41 Administration, which among other things, sets out that, "...Any party violating this law(i.e. an oil spill) is liable for removal costs and damages." Of course, Obama could have used the courts to compel BP to set aside this money immediately. However the courts might have taken months and possibly years in appeals and court dates, time which the Red State residents of LA and AL and MS don't have despite their typical banter against "government handouts." They're screaming for any handouts they can get at this point just to keep the lights on at home. So, rather than go through the plurality of court dates and attorneys, etc, the President simply asked, not forced, BP to do the right thing and BP agreed, of course in their own best interests, it was the best idea. How this is troublesome, I'm not sure, but maybe in the mind of a rich republican like Stein, who likely owns BP stock and won't get his next dividend payment on time there is cause for concern.
As for GM, when you own in excess of 60% of a company, like the government does, you get to make some decisions about who runs that company. Now whether or not we should own 60% of GM is a different conversation altogether. But as a major shareholder, I would suspect that Mr. Stein would expect to have some say about who's running the company in which he invests....particularly when that person has practically run the company into the ground for lack of foresight and management acumen.
Leo Palm Harbor| 6.16.10 @ 4:03PM
Yeah its better to twist arms that use the system
considering its only BP and who knows they may try and hide so we wouldn't be able to find them when it came time to pay the piper.
and lets not forget that Progressive catch all " Its Bush's fault and, and yeah, Chaney did it too!
Please deliever me from wanna be's
Cleavetoo| 6.16.10 @ 4:38PM
Again, BP is legally responsible for paying for the damage and clean up. In the meantime, people are hurting and BP can't process the claims of people that are hurting fast enough to protect small businesses (which I heard conservatives believe are the backbone of the economy) from collapse. So, in this case, you'd rather the President not do anything and allow the Justice Department to take years (the way it did for the Valdez spill) to collect for these people? You'd rather have that process and criticize the President for acting in the best interest of Americans than supporting the small businesses and citizens of the Gulf States?
Jim| 6.16.10 @ 3:22PM
Mr Stien,
One disagreement with this column, the oil companies drill where the US government allows it via a lease. If the government permits drilling in 1,000 feet of water rather than 5,000 feet, BP and the others will put rigs in shallow water (or even better on land). The US government, and to a certain extent the environmentalists, are as culpable as BP, Trans-Ocean, & Halliburton.
Cleavetoo| 6.16.10 @ 4:32PM
Oh, so you'd rather spills like this happen say, 50 miles off shore where the damage to land and beaches could happen within a few hours rather than a few months. Good logic there.
Robert| 6.17.10 @ 5:38AM
The point is that leaks in such locations could be capped very quickly as opposed to leaks almost a mile down. Maybe you hadn't thought of that though.
Gabe| 6.16.10 @ 3:29PM
Jim, great point. While BP bears blame for the fact they cut corners which reducted safety the govt bears blame for not allowing drilling closer to shore which for self-explanatory reasons is much safer.
This president has never directly broke the law but what he has done is threaten, cajole and downright blackmail to get his way and he did no different with BP. This president began life as a community organizer and he has not stopped. Attack, destroy, scare, do whatever it takes this president will do to get what he wants.
Cleavetoo| 6.16.10 @ 4:41PM
What threats? Under the OPA, BP is already liable for these damages. Think of this as a settlement. They decided to forego the legal processes and handle this with common sense rather than pay a bunch of attorneys to oversee what will eventually happen anyway. There's no conspiracy here. This is just being properly (at least this part of it) handled by both sides to the benefit of the affected people in the Gulf States.
Robert| 6.17.10 @ 5:47AM
Fortunately most of the time America is not governed by what you deem "common sense" but rather by those statutes codified into law under the processes laid down by the Constitution. What you may deem as common sense may be deemed by others as nonsense. The problem occurs when the President goes beyond his constitutional restrictions and starts mandating rather than enforcing law which has gone through Congress. This particular situation involving compensation is not some sort of emergency where executive fiat becomes the rule. That I would surmise is Steins point.
Jim O'Brien| 6.16.10 @ 3:34PM
Latest news: The federal government says it can't defend an 80 mile stretch of Arizona land along the border with Mexico. Declares area off limits to American citizens. We can send hundreds of thousands of troops to fight around the world, but we can't defend 80 miles of our own border from drug gangs and infiltration? Obama should resign now.
Robert Founder | 6.16.10 @ 3:34PM
Obama as our Fuhrer has been a long time brewing. The American Republic has been steadily moving towards a police state for at least a hundred years.
The cause is, it has systematically stripped all other traditional sectors of society of their power and autonomy. The Family, the Church, Employers and the Individual have all been reduced to Serfs long before Obama became President.
Our Congress has become a whipped dog long before Obama. Our ruin started, and has been carried out by, the deteriorating character of our ordinary citizen.
For openers he is killing his kids with birth control, like it is going out of style, and is so money hungry that he will sell his few remaining children into slavery to feed his ever growing love of money, which as the Bible says, "is the root of ALL evil.
We cannot regain the freedoms of our past Republic without restoring the power of the Family, (including its children) the power of the Church over its congregants, and the power of the Employer over his employees.
These three are at the heart of any healthy society. We can't get Obama Government off our backs until we restore the power of these other institutions to their role of regulating individual and societal conduct. RobertFounder@Gmail.Com
www.ConservativeVictory.WordPress.Com
Scott Warren| 6.16.10 @ 3:38PM
I ask you Mr. Stein, under what law or regulation is Mr. Obama was acting in demanding that BP contributes to an escrow fund for the victims of the Gulf oil spill?
Cleavetoo| 6.16.10 @ 4:44PM
...Scott, that would be the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. Which makes BP liable for these damages in Civil and possibly Criminal Court. Rather than wait for all of that to play out and have the people of the Gulf States suffer (the way the Alaskans did for 20 year) BP has decided to do the right thing and step up. Again, this was just a request. BP had every right to say no and go through the legal channels afforded them by the OPA.
Marc Jeric| 6.16.10 @ 3:46PM
Never let a big crisis go to waste! Abu Hussein al-Nairobi (or whichever Kenyan hellhole this Muslim was born in) is using the BP accident to nationalize the oil & gas industry, coal mines, electricity companies, aluminum smelters, and other producers and consumers of energy via the global warming hoax.
HorizonScanner| 6.16.10 @ 4:03PM
Marx conceived the "Laws of History" in which Brooks believes. We don't believe in Marx. We believe in the Constitution. The Federalist Papers discuss the "Laws of History" which were employed to conceive the American Republic. Time passed. De Toqueville evaluated our Republic and found it to be a land of liberty. Then, the Marxian revolutionary, Grasci, read De Toqueville (from prison due to his criminal political activities in Italy) and saw that the Marxist Revolution could not succeed if the American Republic existed. He agreed with the French philosopher that the American people enjoyed LIBERTY. This liberty would have to be destroyed. But, how to achieve this end, since America is not a kingdom or dictatorship. Grasci developed the idea of a "Long March" through the institutions that his students like Alinsky implemented. Our ZeroKing, Juan Peron MaoBama, is the consummation of this "Long March". As Alan Keyes said in Pittsburgh at the first Tea Party: "Obama is a radical Communist. He will destroy this country, unless we stop him." That's the deal, fellow Patriots. As Erik Erickson said at the FreedomWorks training sessions: "In November, we must CRUSH the DemKrats." And I say that after CRUSHING them, we never, again, compromise with them. We move onward to the RESTORATION.
Alan| 6.16.10 @ 4:12PM
The very start of this essay underscores the defective mentality inhabiting our executive and legislative branch. The term "...victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster.” will conjure any manner of connotations which go with this phony status. Nobody can accurately measure this damage and how much may have been self inflicted in an ill-advised reaction to the spill itself. Further, does $30 billion begin to measure the damage wrought on the gulf economy since the 0bama administration’s failed bailout policies? So, 0bama will use this slush fund to repair the damage he has caused already and blame BP in the process for causing damage already caused. Such a devious process before us as by fiat the ruler of the republic does as he pleases.
JeffT| 6.16.10 @ 4:13PM
Oil companies can't even, excuse the expression, BURP, without government approval. If this disaster is anyone's fault, it's the government's for forcing oil companies out into the deep water. A leak like this on a rig closer to the shore would have already been capped. End of story.
Dwight Mann| 6.16.10 @ 4:16PM
Wow, as a new member, I am impressed with your insight Mr. Stein!
Get rid of the illegal alien POTUS Fauxbama. . .
Mike| 6.16.10 @ 4:21PM
Study the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Federalist Papers, and the Anti-Federalist Papers. Teach your children well. As long as we're armed, there is a limit to the madness. Prepare to fight tyranny, if needed. Readiness is a deterrent.
Ken | 6.16.10 @ 4:33PM
Mr. Stein, this president could care less what you, I or anyone else that visits this site thinks regarding how he carries out his duties. Just like any other crisis, real or imagined, they will simply use this incident to shove through more of the far Left policies that they hope will bring this country to its knees. He didn't sit in Rev. Wright's church for 20 years without soaking up some of that hatred of America, and frankly, he hasn't even hidden that hatred very well since taking office.
Mojo Risin| 6.16.10 @ 4:39PM
First thing that comes to mind is that the BP bucks will be directed into SEIU/ACORN coffers and a whole new cadre of union members will be created. Obama must GO!!!
sans| 6.16.10 @ 4:56PM
I'm wondering if you were throwing this out when Bush was violating the Constitution. And in a national emergency such as this, the president has every right to take whatever steps necessary to protect our country. If this were truly a dictatorship, then the mother fuckers at BP would have been beheaded and BP would have been dismantled. So shut the hell up and be thankful that you have other stocks in your portfolio.
Anon| 6.16.10 @ 5:09PM
I am just curious as to why everyone is throwing blame at a person (Obama) who is acting in exactly the expected manner of a power-hungry politician? Instead, question why is BP rolling over instead of fighting? The politician is acting like a politician, trying to gain more control, but the company is not acting like a company and protecting its interests. "Who is the guiltiest man in the room?"
loupgarous| 6.16.10 @ 5:12PM
Dead on, Mr. Stein. We were promised "transparency," we got a shell game, a massive three-card monte scam in which Wall Street, GM and the President's other favorite companies are the shills and the taxpayer's the mark - who winds up losing massively.
We should have known this would happen with a Chicago slick in the White House. The problem is that "we" includes a lot of gullible pigeons who still think Obama will give them largesse that they or their kids (and grandkids) won't be stuck with a massive bill for. They may be tempted to stay in the three-card monte game for another Presidential term.
shirley jean dobler| 6.16.10 @ 5:26PM
President Obama has not just declared a moratorium on deep sea oil wells but on all drilling including natural gas on land where problems can be swiftly remedied. He is punishing companies and workers in the energy field who have not caused any problems. He is punishing We the People and everyone involved in keeping this nation running, cooking, keeping warm and a host of other activities for what? Would it be to push his Crime Inc. cap and tax us to the stone age carbon trading scheme and the liberal Orwellian power agenda so he and his partners in crime can get stinking rich off of our backs. At some point I really believe they have more than enough power and have made more than enough money.
Is he completely insensitive, incompetent, criminal or insane? Does anyone remember the Woody Allen movie "Bananas"? I am beginning to wonder when President Obama is going to require everyone to wear their underwear outside their clothes.
Rather than worry about modifying the "peons" behavior he should be worrying about modifying his.
sans| 6.16.10 @ 6:35PM
He is not punishing 'We the people" - friggin' greedy bastards like the neocons on this site will never understand why BP deserves to go out of business and their CEO's should be in prison. I'm sorry if your stocks lost money but that's too goddamn bad for you.
sans| 6.16.10 @ 6:37PM
And as an add-on to my own comment, perhaps you all should learn to make an honest living, not unearned wealth from the destruction of the earth and its people. I'm not happy with Obama's actions in this event - he should have acted sooner and come down harder then - but you greedbags make me sick.
John Navratil| 6.16.10 @ 7:00PM
Did you brush you teeth this morning? If so, you used a plastic handled device (oil). Where did you get the electricity to post this?
sans| 6.16.10 @ 10:54PM
Typical nonsense response. And where did you get the brains to post at all? Obviously, you have brushed with too much carcinogenic products and it shows.
John Navratil| 6.17.10 @ 9:22AM
I marvel at your erudition!
Nick| 6.16.10 @ 11:30PM
Sans,
"[...] but you greedbags make me sick."
I hope we make you so sick, that you end up on one of ObamaCare's death-panels, you betcha'!
sans| 6.17.10 @ 12:25AM
I love smelling napalm in the morning and especially if it landed on you and people like you. Then I would feel a lot better - you betcha!
Robert| 6.17.10 @ 6:06AM
Because violence is a good substitute for rational thought when you are a statist worshipping lemming. Isn't that right Sans?
sans inner thoughts| 6.17.10 @ 6:10AM
Sh*t! F*ck! I hope you get beheaded and napalmed and waterboarded you corporatist capitalist greedy pig! Then I would feel better!
sans| 6.17.10 @ 7:04PM
I don't know. Look in the mirror and you tell you you borderline lemming.
Nick| 6.17.10 @ 10:25AM
Sans,
Napalm is made from gasoline. Which is made from OIL!
You are an enemy of the Earth!
I think I'll fry up some bald eagle for breakfast, before I go out and club some baby seals!
sans| 6.17.10 @ 7:05PM
LOL. Well at least that is deductive reasoning. Kudus for you.
Robert| 6.17.10 @ 6:14AM
Does a greedy government run by nanny state technocrats that confiscate more of your wealth in order to finance more harmful social programs also make you sick?
Robert| 6.17.10 @ 6:02AM
BP is run by people. Not "neocons". Those people will suffer as a result of BPs established culpability in this accident. BPs obligation should be measured by it's responsibility and nothing more, including your rabid irrational hatred of capitalism you freak.
sans| 6.17.10 @ 7:06PM
Sticks and stones...well you know you little impotent boy.
J.P.BOSWELL| 6.16.10 @ 5:28PM
IS THERE ANYBODY IN THE CONGRESS OR HAVE THEY ALL ABDICATED THEIR RESOPNSIBILITIES AND GONE HOME ???
DO NOT ANY OF THEM OBJECT TO THIS CLOWN'S FOLLY ?
J.P.BOSWELL| 6.16.10 @ 5:32PM
IS THERE ANYBODY IN THE CONGRESS OR HAVE THEY ALL ABDICATED THEIR DUTIES AND GONE HOME. DO NOT ANY OF THEM OBJECT TO THIS CLOWNS FOLLY ?
Red Bubba| 6.16.10 @ 5:40PM
0's "demand" is noting more than political performance art. BP surely decided on day one that they would have to set aside some cash to pay claims. Now 0 is supposed to look like a leader for telling them what to do?
anon| 6.16.10 @ 5:52PM
We are blaming Obama because he is a useless fool and he is the President of our country.
Obama is not obsolved of his duty to America because he is a dishonest politcian.
Is a Rapist not guilty of his crime whether the victim fights or not?
BP's fight or not fight is not in my business as I they do not represent me. Obama is the President of the United States. Leading and handing out protest signs are 2 different things. Obama has NO leadership skills NONE.
onbeingright| 6.16.10 @ 5:53PM
Obama has and always will govern by the rule of Emmanuel:" Every Crisis Presents an Opportunity".
onbeingright| 6.16.10 @ 5:59PM
Red Bubba
Are you aware that BP has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars settling over 25,000 cases with a stipulation that if the recipient is dissatisfied it can go to an independent arbitrator?
So I ask everyone, the only reason O is doing this is for another political grandstand. What BP did was abhorrent but no one can claim that they are acting irresponsibly.
One other thing. Morons all over the country will not fill up at BP stations anymore. People, these are independently owned and most do not even use BP products. So the only people you are hurting are your local small businesmen. Get a clue!
JT Davenport| 6.16.10 @ 6:24PM
This is EXACTLY what I predicted and OBAMA seems to be the REBORN personage of EXACTLY who I said he was , none other than ...
IL DUCE himself.
Some of you might ask yourselves " What does this guy mean ? "
Well, it's simple really. OBAMA wants to RULE just like IL DUCE wanted. OBAMA thinks HE and only HE has the right answers, just like IL DUCE.
OBAMA WILL SUBVERT OUR LAWS AND, IF WE'RE NOT VERY CAREFULL, HE WILL SEIZE CONTROL OF THE NATION BY MARTIAL LAW AND WE WILL NO LONGER BE FREE.
HE ADVOCATED GETTING RID OF PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF FIREARMS. HE HAS ALSO ADVOCATED THE REMOVAL OF THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH. BOTH OF THESE
ARE " RIGHTS " GUARANTEED BY THE CONSTITUTION OF THIS NATION BUT, OBAMA DOESN'T WANT US TO HAVE THEM.
Why, you might ask. Again this is very simple.
It's because like his father before him, OBAMA IS A COMMUNIST, A SOCIALIST, A LIBERAL AND, A PROGRESSIVE.
We don't know ALL of the PEOPLE who gave money to OBAMA'S campaign. Shucks, WE don't even know for sure IF he was REALLY born in the U.S. His GRANDMOTHER said SHE was there when HE was BORN and, that OBAMA was BORN in KENYA !
Take a good look at ALL of the people he has associated with in the past. The REVEREND WRIGHT, WILLIAM AYERS, GEORGE SOROS and MANY others, ALL of which ARE COMMUNISTS, some openly, some not.
I AM CALLING FOR OBAMA'S IMMEDIATE IMPEACHMENT AND FOR THE REMOVAL OF ALL OF HIS ADMINISTRATION FROM OFFICE.
Further, I am calling for the removal of ALL laws which he has ramrodded through Congress. Further, I am also DEMANDING that those who voted our nation into this severe DEBT be FORCED to repay the debt instead of the nation or, it's citizens !---------- with respect, JT D
JT Davenport| 6.16.10 @ 6:33PM
OK, gentlemen and Ladies, it was none other than THOMAS JEFFERSON who said this ...
" WHEN GOVERNMENT BECOMES UNJUST, IT IS THE OBLIGATION OF THE CITIZENS TO RESIST ! " ---------------------------------- JT D ---
Kingofthenet| 6.16.10 @ 7:48PM
I think Ben has lost his mind! On what planet does a President who tries and protect his citizens from some company denying/ slowing damage payments, declaring Bankruptcy, hiding money NOT get credit? Could you IMAGINE the uproar of Mr Stein, if the President 'left it to BP' and they went broke and no one got paid?
Patriot| 6.16.10 @ 8:47PM
King of the Net,
You use teh classic Obama/community organizer tactic of sarcasm, to try to silence your opponents. Obama has done zero to help in this crisis. First,he wanted a crisis, so he could use it as an excuse to shut doen offshore drilling and to push for his Cap and Rape our Wallets energy plan. Second, he sat on his hands for weeks, when the leak first started, doing nothing. Now, what does he do? he blames everyone else, bullies a legitimate company (owned by shareholders, ako private citizens), and behaves like the little bully that he is, the man who has done more to harm our country than any 12 Osama Bin Ladens could ever do.
Kingofthenet| 6.16.10 @ 10:17PM
I see Patriot, you want the American Taxpayers, and NOT BP(A Foreign Company) to pay for this. BooHoo Big Bad Obama Bullies a fine upstanding Company like BP, I guess we know who YOU like to defend and it's not all the hurt people in the Gulf. Maybe you ARE a Patriot...A BRITISH one.
Catherine West| 6.16.10 @ 8:21PM
Mr. Stein, It is so refreshing to have someone put the question so many of the ethical and religious belief's of our founders hold to be true as well as 1-2 million or more of the 3.5 million population of Americans.
If it is fear that puts BP on such a conforming, bend over backwards stance to support this man who defines law by his own words and actions without regard for the truth or even for the final evidence of cause - which isn't in yet. One could wish BP's leadership spoke with Tony Blair before making their decision.
The BOP is suppose to be evidence for trial according to the BP CEO. There is much more to the BP spill than meets the eye especially if the two apparent facts are kept in mind: 1) The shear size of the Natural Gas and crude. Natural gas is roughly compared to the size of QualComm Stadium here in San Diego with the crude much, much, much more huge than the gas. Even to a casual newspaper reader, the effect of this much oil and gas on the world market especially the Arab Nations, is marked! Meaning exactly what you may think this means because reported evidence which was quickly hushed up after making it briefly to Face book! 2) The fact that there has not been one BPO collar failure in more than 2000 drilling sites - even some as deep as the BP site - in More Than 20 years! So there is reason for BP to go to court.
It is equally important to ask why BP caved? Especially to the WhiteHouse-Emmanuel-Obama Gang which operates sans ethics, principles, definitions but considerable manufactured opinion and judging especially in Kangaroo Courts! Lies, mis-information, absent information, use of words which conjure up visual effects not relevant to the truth or reality of ObamaCare, GW/Carbon-chips, irresponsible use of taxpayer money and continued spending with another, today, discussion of spending for jobs - the other 4 bills have failed to produce, not supporting US Federal Code as applied by a Sovereign State. So if the facts don't fit --- change them -- represents the standard of performance of this administration. Why BP would submit to such a mentality is beyond a lot of us!?
I suppose I continue to be "Radical" but this man who calls himself President is not a leader and must rely on above tactics to accomplish any bill or act. I believe he has long since passed the point of no return; and that even if put to a vote in Congress which looses because of number of lemmings v. National principles; that it is much better than silence as this man continues to dissolve the United States of America's "...endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable Rights,.....Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.." as well as financially, in Constitutional America and therefore in the Declaration of Independence. This man totally disregards both documents in his autobiography, as dated and written by a bunch of old men who didn't believe in what they were writing - which he probably Did Learn In American Public Schools!
Patriot| 6.16.10 @ 8:42PM
The question asked is, basically, is there anyone who will stop Obama. The response is that, if no one does – and very soon – we will lose America forever. This is not a simple matter of a politician who has stepped a little farther out of bounds that most do. Every action of Barack Obama indicates that he has every intention of destroying all that has made America unique for 220 years. He despises our free market, hate our Constitution and the rights it grants us, loathes our Christian heritage, and wants, to a level that I would say is maniacal, to be our dictator. In fact, if someone does not stop him and stop his very solidly, BEFORE election in November, we will lose America and soon be the most miserable people on earth, a people who had the greatest freedom and society and heritage ever and lost it all. Why must this be done before the election. Two reasons. One is that Obama and his allies, or should I say comrades, are working like crazy to make sure his people get reelected. What will the $20B from BP Oil be used for? Much of it will wind up in the hands of his union supporters, to be used on campaign commercials and so on for his loyal CongressStooges. They hav no intention of losing Congress and will go to lengths that America has never imagined happening here, to prevent it. Two, it is 4 months before the election. And Adolf Obama will bully, lie, blackmail, and everything else, to get more power for himself during that 4 months, in case he does lose too many seats in Congress, in November, to easily continue his Marxist takeover of America. So, Americans, stop him now, or resign ourselves to a life of serfdom, concentration camps, total control of every aspect of our lives, and worse.
Purpleguy| 6.16.10 @ 8:50PM
"His job is not to create new laws and enforce them all by himself. His job is as magistrate under the Constitution, not as Caudillo. He is not the law. He is supposed to enforce what Congress decides" - Apparently the author is completely ignorant of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 and subsequent Amendments to it...
http://wildlifelaw.unm.edu/fedbook/oilpollu.html
From the Oil Pollution Act content : "The President or the authorized representative of the government shall act on behalf of the public, Indian tribe, or foreign country as trustee of natural resources to present a claim for and to recover natural resources damages."
Instead of ranting about about the Big Bad Government and the Big Bad Black Man in charge of it "Is there anyone in Congress to stop him? Is there anyone in a black robe to stop him? Or is everyone already too scared to challenge the Duce in the White House?" --- maybe a little fact checking would lend credibility to your arguments. You can get off your high horse ... I for one is glad that the President's actions speak louder than his words in this case, and all Gulf residents can breathe a little easier thanks to the diligence and concern shown by our President for their welfare and the natural resources of the United States.
It is not just $20 Billion in escrow that he extracted from BP. There is more to come into the fund, as the 20 BB is a down payment for the rest. BP is making $100 Million immediately available to families of the victims of the blast. BP is also foregoing dividend payments for 3 quarters to pay for all of this.
Ben Stein is an idiot.
Campy| 6.16.10 @ 9:55PM
Jesus Holy Mary Mother of God...
Give it a rest, Purp. You and Cleave are screaming, not discussing, with your xerox-posts. Or are you one and the same?
Robert| 6.17.10 @ 6:16AM
Husband and domestic partner maybe?
Larry| 6.16.10 @ 10:10PM
Well, I've usually ignored the posts subsequent to an article because the more of them I read the more "tired head" I get. I should've done the same here. But I can't resist.
Purpleguy, you obviously haven't read the Act, as I have. You forgot the definition of a "claim" under the Act: "'claim' means a request, made in writing for a sum certain, for compensation for damages or removal costs resulting from an incident. . . "
I haven't seen nor heard of any written claim presented by Obama to BP as of this particular moment. Particularly since the "damages to natural resources" have yet to be established. This statute doesn't give him any right to establish claims on behalf of other private individuals for other types of damages or removal costs incurred. Further, Congress hasn't done anything yet to readjust the liability cap with regard to damages, which is currently $75 million (the $30 billion is just a "down payment?"). Finally, Obama is only the "trustee" for "natural resources damages," not for any other damages or removal costs which the government may incur. So stop carping on, because it is you who are the idiot. The President currently has no legal basis on which to make a demand on BP to submit $30 billion into any fund on behalf of all "victims" of this disaster. Being a lawyer, and knowing what the law is, your disingenuous exercise is quite frankly disgusting and reveals you to be the crank liberal everyone else in this post accuses you of being. Try dealing with facts sometime instead of half-truths.
Kingofthenet| 6.16.10 @ 10:23PM
The President needs no 'Legal Authority' to ASK ANYONE to Do ANYTHING. BP did this on their own. Obama doesn't need authority to fire GM's boss, he asked him to resign and he did, it's not like the President started a Proxy Petition.
Purpleguy| 6.17.10 @ 11:27AM
Exactly! Legality only enters into this when the party being asked for something does not comply and decides to fight the request or demand. It isn't the legal court that is compelling these adherence to requests... it is the Court of Public Opinion.
sans| 6.16.10 @ 10:58PM
The president has every right to do whatever it takes in a national emergency, whether you like it or not - as he would in a war. I don't care what the fuck you are - you obviously have no understanding of what is involved here. So take your legal double talk BS and shove it up your neocon ass.
Convet| 6.16.10 @ 11:21PM
Brainless and intolerant "R" us?
sans| 6.17.10 @ 12:22AM
Yes. And that is Ms. brainless and intolerant to you a-wipe.
Red Neck| 6.17.10 @ 2:26AM
Wonder how much Madam will like Obama's kind of "lawlessness" (rools? we don't need no stinkin rools) when it turns around and bites her in the derriere, as it always does on socialist suckers.
Robert| 6.17.10 @ 6:19AM
Constitution 101 right there. That sans is truly a brilliant scholar. And a gentleman I might add.
sans brains| 6.17.10 @ 6:36AM
I'm smart. I'm smart. I'm smart. I sure told those evil neocon rethuglikkkans a thing or to. Yep sure did. Dropped the f bomb. Told em to f off. Talked about beheading those BP execs and napalming some neocon scum while I went on and on about constatooshonal stuff like how this oil spill is a national emergency just like a war! Man I'm da shizznit fo sho!
Purpleguy| 6.17.10 @ 11:29AM
Exactly ... did any one care how we defeated Hitler in WWII... of course not. All means necessary .. and while this isn't an all out actual war, in a way it is. All means necessary. Thank You Mr. President.
Petronius| 6.16.10 @ 11:38PM
Try telling that to the roughnecks and rig operators with other companies who have lost their jobs by Obama's diktat. I hope you run into one of these guys.
sans| 6.17.10 @ 12:21AM
Too bad! Just because something can be done doesn't mean it should be done. All jobs are at risk. Let them retrain like others have when things change. There are no guarantees - for them - or anyone - so that is a poor lame ass excuse.
sans inner thoughts| 6.17.10 @ 6:24AM
And besides it is a national emergency and stuff! Just like a war! So Obama should be able it put all those greedy environment destroying rig people out of work. Besides the stimulus has created millions of jobs. I saw Obama read that fact off the TelePrompTer just the other day. There should be plenty of jobs available!
sans| 6.17.10 @ 7:03PM
F*** off.
Stavros36| 6.18.10 @ 12:08AM
My goodness but you're tough. We can tell from all the really tough cursing. Oooooh! You benefit from oil just like the rest of us but talk nonsense about beheading execs, and heaven forbid there should be any wells near to you, special one. Tell you what, we could solve this problem by immediately beginning construction on new nuclear plants, but I'm sure you wouldn't like that either.
Douglas W. Cooper| 6.16.10 @ 11:40PM
The power to do good is also the power to do evil. Neither government nor business is populated by particularly virtuous people. The less centralization of power, the less opportunity for large-scale abuses of power.
The Bush-whackers and Obama-bashers should agree that we need to protect the rule of law, as a necessary but not sufficient condition for our prospering.
The current concentration of power among liberal Democrats threatens to corrupt our system, and decent citizens should be critical of this.
"Bush did it, too" does not equal "it's appropriate."
Yosemeti Sam| 6.17.10 @ 1:35AM
BHO - don't need no stinking Constitutional badges!
He got Democrat-party-sanctioned 3 monkey-like burros to do his biddings. See no evil ....
scotchieguy| 6.17.10 @ 2:12AM
What you are missing is the lead executives of BP "agreed" to a $20 bil. settlement. It may look like O forced it on them, but more likely, BP is getting the last laugh here, since they have to know this spill will result in billions more in damages than that mere $20 bil. As always, follow the money. Which candidate did BP give the most in campaign money? Why are they currently "beyond" petroleum? They are not idiots--they know everything is changing re. energy, and they simply want to be the first to get the benefits from anything crazy O rams through.
This is something that has always confused me--why are so few unaware of the symbiotic relationship betw/ industry and gov't? The industries WANT the FEDS to regulate them, thereby keeping out more efficient and cheaper competition...just follow the money, and it all becomes clear...
John S.| 6.18.10 @ 8:30AM
Not, in fact, a settlement. What BP agreed to was to escrow money for cleanup/removal. Under law, BP is required to pay for all removal and cleanup costs.
However, under law the maximum damage liability (the cost above and beyond the cost of cleanup and removal) that BP can be required to pay is 75 million.
So long as the escrowed funds are used solely for cleanup and removal, no law has been broken, and so long as all unspent funds are returned to BP, again, no problem.
If the account is tapped for liability damage payments, then that might be a different issue.
Deportemall| 6.17.10 @ 2:37AM
Stein revealed himself to be nothing more than a useful idiot by contributing $2,300 to Franken's fraudulent campaign.
Luis Gonzalez| 6.17.10 @ 2:56AM
The danger to America is not Barack Obama, but as we can plainly see by the posts on this thread, the true danger to America is a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president.
The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America . Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.
Tenn Slim| 6.17.10 @ 8:44AM
Agree 100%
bt
BUT, there is a generation coming along that will not be flimmed flammed. Hope springs eternal.
end
Semper FI
WE WILL PREVAIL
Karen H| 6.17.10 @ 3:36PM
I agree, and would like to add one more thing before signing off this blog. Only ONE THING will save America, and it is not the democrats nor the republicans, nor the tea party. IT IS an awakening to God Almighty. Honoring HIM and a healthy fear of HIM, will take us a lot farther to a restoration of the values America once held. GOD BLESS OUR COUNTRY! COUNTRY...BLESS OUR GOD.
Beryl Straits| 6.17.10 @ 3:15AM
This article is just racist - O-bow-Mao is a jigaboo and hence should be affirmatively allowed to undertake any action he wants.
By the way anyone notice "Michelle" has an adam's apple and huge arms and hands?
Squirrelena| 6.17.10 @ 5:13AM
I don't have a problem with BP having established a trust fund for the "little people" of the Gulf Coast, (I am one of the residents here), for re-imbursing for losses of business and personal property. My problem is the fact that our "spend every thing in sight government" will be the ones to disburse the funds. Any one care to guess how many czars this will take, not to mention their out-rageous salaries, (to no doubt come from the top) before any of the "little people" get anything?
aitcherman| 6.17.10 @ 6:55AM
Understandably, questions about Obama's legitamacy as president refuse to go away.
Generally speaking, refusal to answer a question, such as ( Can you prove that you were born in the USA.), which could easily be done by providing physical evidence of same, might be considered to imply that such evidence is nonexistent.
Of course, an alternative explanation might be that the person being questioned is so arrogant and self-important that he considers himself to be far above the common herd and no one has the right to question his antecedents.
His actions and words have given ample evidence for this alternative, which still does not negate the accuracy of the first explanation, but does go far to reveal his inner character.
I can think of no other believable explanation for his refusal than the two aforementioned and yet the main stream liberal press continues to fawn over Obama while his activities are always in opposition to the long term interests of the American people.
Robert| 6.17.10 @ 7:10AM
The reason is a third that you didn't mentionmy friend. Namely that conspiratorial nonsense about Obama's citizenship is used to make his opposition look like freakazoids and nuts. It is purely a political means in order to marginalize opposition to his agenda. Don't fall for it or allow others to. It merely plays into Obamas hands.
sans| 6.17.10 @ 7:00PM
The fact that you are still carping on this shows what a sociopathic sicko you are.
Tenn Slim| 6.17.10 @ 8:41AM
Opine
Reason nobody stands up and says, NO MORE, is that the very Constitution we adhere to, prohibits such action. UNelect, then UNdo the damage, then NEVER EVER let it happen again.
bt
We bought into a Socialist, pure and simple. We have never had the reality of such a Government thrust so boldly upon us, in all of our history. This Socialistic Experience should forever leave such a distaste that we will shy away from even the thought of ever having to live thru this again.
end
Semper Fi
WE WILL PREVAIL
sans| 6.17.10 @ 7:01PM
The only place you will prevail is the psyche ward where you and your ilk should be confined to.
Trish the Dish| 6.17.10 @ 11:26AM
WAKE UP AMERICA! In all your ramblings no one has touched on the subject of..... environmentalist terrorist. This could be sabotage. The Anointed One had just finished declaring an opening of off shore drilling (to get support for his "cap and trade"), and then this happens. I also find it unsusual that there are that many deep water oil platforms and this is the first!!! And how convenient, it affects the coast of the United States?
WendyG| 6.17.10 @ 12:50PM
Great editorial Ben. I posted it at Twitter and Facebook.
Nate | 6.17.10 @ 2:15PM
Well said Ben. Thank you for standing up for Law & Order as well as the spirit of the Constitution. As Joe Barton knows it is certainly not the popular thing to do. Our system of laws and due process is the heart and soul of America's greatness and should not be overlooked based on political pressure even if it happens to be a horrific oil spill. Either law is law or there is no law.
harrystc| 6.17.10 @ 2:48PM
Why is it that Ben STein did not object when the last President took unprecedented steps of locking up American citizens as enemy combatants, of wiretapping Americans within the USA, of premtively invading Iraq? A strong president, it was reasoned then, was necessary for our defense. WHy is this different. Indeed, the President has the authority to nationalize BP, as Truman did with the entire steel industry.
If his authority is the art of pursausion, all the better for Obama and the citizens of the USA.
John S| 6.18.10 @ 8:24AM
Well, for starters, because you are mistaken.
Those steps are not, in fact, unprecedented. Check your history, especially World War II.
As for being "American Citizens", you reference is ambiguous, but it is undeniably legal to lock up a person who is suspected of and charged with treason, which is exactly the crime that American's who fight on the side of the enemy are guilty of.
The imprisonment of prisoners of war is another precedent, though admittedly fairly new in history . . . losers used to get executed, if they didn't run away first. I suspect you're more comfortable, as am I, with the much more humane solution of putting them into the Guantanamo facility.
Lastly, there is a difference between a war, and an industrial accident. Frankly, that ought to be obvious, but from your posting, it does not appear to be so.
Viva1070| 6.17.10 @ 6:09PM
I've long thought Barack reminded me of Benito Mussolini...glad to see someone else make the 'Il Duce' comparison.
shipley130| 6.17.10 @ 10:51PM
I'm think more like Hitler. Promises of health care and nationalizing private companies. All Nazi flair.
JC| 6.17.10 @ 6:12PM
Currently the US is under control of a leader who is not a leader, Party Bosses, and a Congress and Senate more concerned with their return to office and their status -they breath the rarified air- than they are the US. The only solution I have always been against is term limits. Then a limited election period similar to Europe, the elimination of a two party system Jefferson warned against, and the repeal of the 17th ammendmendt. Can we get this done? Well, is it our country or the governments? Currently it is deffinetely not our country unless we take it back. I think currently it belongs to Chicago!
Bill| 6.17.10 @ 7:02PM
The governor that asked to build and for help to build sand islands to block the oil was the only politician that showed any leadership in this whole thing (with the exception of Sarah Palin who told thst governor to quit waiting on the Pseudo President and take care of the problem.) (Does she qualify as a politician still?...Probably.) The only two politicians who were real leaders in this whole thing were Republicans ! True to form the Democrates just set there causing problems expecting others to fix the messes they set-up and approved. That's the problem coming to a job with no real experience or work ethic. That's why I quit being a Southern Democrate.... no real thinkers with real work ethic in leadership. Just lazy "wait on me" ethics. "Where's my hand-out" and "what can I do with your money " thinking doesn't fix anything in a tight spot.
Jack| 6.17.10 @ 7:30PM
Look at the way liberal baiters change the focus of the topic! Several people have shown that liberal ideology is not based on fact but emotion. They always find the person to blame rather than have a common sense solution to try to resolve a problem. Lets just point a finger at someone.. that always works. BLAME GAME!
Muriel| 6.17.10 @ 10:12PM
You ask if there is anyone to contain the president? Where were they when it came to
vetting the candidate for the presidency? He & the first lady were proud flag burners. How different are flag burners from any ole plain traitors? Neither any flag burner or anyone who plants a foreign flag on American soil can claims
to have any favorable intentions toward America.
America still did not vote in a dictator. Both Congress and the Supreme Court appear to be initimidated. MID TERM ELECTIONS WILL CHANGE THE AIR IN AMERICA. OUT WITH THE INCUMBENTS. THIS IS A CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN. Sit tight and vote right. Vote
in representatives of the people. representatives who will insist on reading before passing laws and only pass those with the best interest of NOT MEXICO, MID EASTERN COUNTRIES, BUT
AMERICA in mind. Our vote will be the footprint on the backsides of those who have failed Americans. Words of the Constitution: The United States shall guarantee to every State of the Union a REPUBLICAN FORM OF GOVERNMENT, and shall protect each of them against INVASION. I interpret these words to mean that any gov official who fails to support this can and must be removed from office. The U.S. does not accept a dictator or any sly distortion of the laws of America. I believe in the redblooded American will to keep this Nation a REPUBLIC. The VOICE OF AMERICA WILL NOT BE SILENCED.
shipley130| 6.17.10 @ 10:50PM
All these progressive/liberal/commies will go down with the sinking ship named Obama. The only problem is that we normal Americans are on that sinking ship, too.
deborahthecynic| 6.18.10 @ 1:13AM
I am waiting to see what the reconstituted ACORN has renamed itself as it will no doubt become the administrator of the BP slush fund
John S.| 6.18.10 @ 8:13AM
A few facts to offset the leftist lies: The maximum damage liability under law for any oil spill is 75 million dollars. Any attempt to change that cap and then apply it to this spill would be a post facto law, or a bill of attainder, and as such illegal under the Constitution.
Which the President, as a supposed Constitutional scholar, should know.
To demand billions is, in fact, tyrannical behavior typical of the kind of Imperial Presidency that leftists screamed about during President Bush's term, but are suddenly very supportive now that a Democrat is playing dictator.
Ginger| 6.18.10 @ 12:52PM
The lack of response to clean up this disaster by the Obama administration is criminal! BP is obviously culpable BUT it's the POT's responsibility to take charge when something like this happens. Barack knows how to give a speech but he's totally lacking in being a leader. WHY has he turned down help from other countries & from non-union workers???? He's been on it "since day one"????? Where's the proof? Talk is cheap Barack when you do NOTHING!!! This is the most insane thing I've ever seen. They argue about money while the Gulf dies. May God hold them accountable is my prayer.
Marianne| 6.19.10 @ 2:51PM
My heart breaks when I see the pictures and hear the devastating reports on television. With the magnificent birds drowning in oil, so many fish already gone, and others now fleeing for their lives in vain, it is impossible for me to contain my ongoing rage. Where is the help being offered from around the world?? WHY, oh why, is it being ignored? I am absolutely mystified that so many - including the on-site, hard-working Governor Bobby Jindal! - from around the world have said they are able to help, but we still do not see them! Where are they??! They could send people, and myriads of supertankers and ships that could help suck up that oil!! We also know there are many simple, non-technical methods of absorbing the oil when it reaches the surface of the water, and importantly, crucially, before it spreads and affects that great ecosystem!! What is wrong, that this administration, and Obama as the President, are turning blind eyes to the incredibly generous aid being offered?? Indeed, this is not a Republican or Democratic crisis, and our great Gulf will eventually die if this does not stop soon. While we wait for the phenomenal leak to be fixed, the shrimp will die, the fisherman and shrimpers will no longer have work, entire traditions and industries will disappear, and the expanses of wetlands and most of the magnificent wildlife living there, will die. Many will die insufferable deaths. How terribly, terribly sad. What a monumental loss, what a tragedy has already occurred, and now is being allowed to continue. I pray that this terrible damage can at some time be reversed, that BP, Transocean, and Halliburton will be held responsible for this, and that the President also be held accountable: for his incredible, irresponsible non-response, denial of help from around the world, and lack of leadership during this time of environmental crisis. Indeed, may God hold him, and them, fully accountable. May our beautiful Gulf of Mexico survive.
Ginger| 6.18.10 @ 1:25PM
Oops! *I meant POTUS obviously.
Steve Perry| 6.18.10 @ 3:10PM
http://www.boston.com/news/nat.....s_of_laws/
Is there a difference?
Roy| 6.18.10 @ 4:18PM
It would be nice if Rep Barton hadn't cast it as an "apology" to BP, because the more important point is: Of course BP has to pay. But how much, and to whom, is in no way, in no shape, anything that Barack Obama has thing one to say about under the actual Constitution of the United States, a Constitution which BTW is the only reason anybody should pay any attention to anything he says.
That's up to judges and juries to decide, applying existing tort law, not what they feel like.
BP probably thinks by doing this they are going to buy some protection against further arbitrary extractions. Lol! This $20 billion will be hurled into the toilet and the feds will immediately be back for more. When they are..who's going to want to be seen as "defending" BP?
Ricksfaith| 6.18.10 @ 6:22PM
Black or white, that bastard of a President and the rest of his cronies and zionist jew buddies have stolen us blind and have been for 40+ years and the rest of you don't have a damned clue. The country is headed down the rat hole and all you butts can do is run your mouths--just like the only thing that SOB in office is qualified enough to do. If we don't quit this squabblig amongst ourselves and get together then all I can say is that bend over as far as you can and kiss your smart littles a***s goodby. If you are the smart generationlike you all pretend to be, then start acting like it and step up to the plate. We're in trouble folks and this ain't no vidio game where you can hit the restat button if it all goes south. Can any of you honestly understand this?
Al| 6.19.10 @ 9:52AM
Texican: The "Nuremberg Defense" (i.e, just following orders) has been tried many times, and just doesn't hold water (pun intended). Courts are now very clear about that. Furthermore, experts in a particular field are held to a much higher standard of responsibility than amateurs, and rightly so. Mr. Stein is correct that BP commissioned the drilling, but they ALL have lots to answer for.
Re: racism -- Lighten up everyone (OMG, Another pun)! Kitten Mitten et al are having a great deal of fun at your expense. You're all taking her comments very seriously, when clearly, no one should.
shukov| 6.19.10 @ 4:00PM
People do not like Obama because he is a thug not because he is black. We need to put a stop to these crooked fools.
Michael Steib| 6.19.10 @ 10:53PM
Are you indicating that Obama is doing the kind of thing you mention more than other presidents?
These complaints seem like the same old concerns we have had before Obama came along.
Simon| 6.20.10 @ 2:05AM
Kitten Mitten,
Are you saying that Obama is not a Kenyan Communist America-hating Muslim?
freebird| 6.20.10 @ 9:31PM
While people argue on blogs, instead of faxing, calling, organizing, leafleting,marching, this COMMUNIST SYMPATHIZER WHITE HATING ADOLESCENT and his ARROGANT BRAVE NEW WORLD CRONIES are violating all our laws , all common sense, and all rules of decent and correct behavior.
FOR WHATEVER reason they are doing it we have to stop them.
We need good reforms but not like this.
Stop arguing and agree on this point, then go out there and at least put flyers around.
We are not in a situation of "Politics as Usual". We have real revolutionaries and fanatics who have no problem stirring up civil unrest and setting Americans against each other.
They are without morals and are not the "real thing" when it comes to reform.
Wake up America ~~listen to your gut instinct telling you something is VERY WRONG in this administration............
Fred| 6.21.10 @ 9:22AM
I read about 30 comments at the beginning and all I can add is with all the nasty comments toward one another, its no wonder this country will not recover and can look forward to a nasty financial collapse. I will not even bother to comment on the article itself. It isn't worth it.
Scott| 6.21.10 @ 8:28PM
If anyone wants to see "who's to blame" they only need look in a mirror. The entire world's economy is driven on energy and a large part of that energy comes from oil. Look around and start adding up all the plastic you see...mostly made from oil.
Our grandparents used up the "easy" oil, our parents used up most of the shallow offshore oil and we demand more every time we buy anything. I say "anything" because if you bought it, it was transported by truck , plane or train, processed with heat or made from something that was. There isn't much that doesn't fit.
That considered, oiling the Gulf (bad as it is) is a pretty low price for everything we have. The industry has been drilling offshore for over 60 years and this is the worst. If you have a clue as to the hazards involved, this actually shows a pretty careful and environmentally concious industry, for all their bad reputation.
Now, What are we going to do about it? I am certain that even without one iota of additional governmental interference (which is a foregone conclusion) every offshore company already knows that they can't ever let this happen to them.
Be aware that all of the changes, voluntary or induced, will be paid by us the consumers. Let's make sure we only get good, effective changes. We don't need any more knee jerk reactions from regulators and legislators who don't have a clue on the effects of their rules and don't have to be concerned with the costs.
It was these same governmental regulators that sold the lease, approved the permit and were waiting on the royalties.
If any industrial company had done such a thing, the one that owned the property would be held liable.
It's the governments property that the oil is coming from. The government holds all the control cards, makes none of the investment's but expects the private company to accept all of the blame!
Anthony| 6.22.10 @ 7:45AM
People, of course Obama supporters will play the race card. The reason is simple: his supporters cannot conceive of anyone opposing his "progressive" policies on the merits alone, therefore, you must have an ulterior motive. Calling someone a racist is far easier that thinking through the issues. A racist may be marginalized and their opinions discounted, rational arguments must be met with rational counter-arguments.
The sad truth is that the opinions of people like 'Kitten Mitten' are driven by their ignorance of the issues at stake. We should pity 'Kitten Mitten', not call him or her names.
Jsmith| 6.22.10 @ 10:10AM
Excellent article, Mr Stein. I saw a summary in PatriotPost's "The Brief" and came to read the rest. I was not disappointed (except by a few of the posts that are nothing more than sophomoric name calling). Thank you for an apt comparison!
Dave| 6.24.10 @ 3:06PM
Ask those two Gen. Macs what the definition of Caudillo President is. Might find a Harry + a Barry to fit it !
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INSECTAUTHORITY| 7.27.10 @ 9:04PM
It’s my guess that the November election will be a landslide for the Republicans. The newly elected Congressman will not be sworn-in until January 2011.
Immediately after the election, the lameduck Democrats will try to ram through an Immigration Reform bill that will include a path for illegal aliens to become citizens before the 2012 election… otherwise, the Repulicans will have the majority in, at minimum, the House, possibly the Senate and will not pass a bill to shortcut the citizenship process.
Instead of focusing on job creation, reducing the deficit, national security, earning respect among the world’s leaders… You know, the stuff that American presidents are supposed to do; Obama is devoting all of his time in trying to ensure that he gets reelected in 2012… So he can continue with his liberal progressive agenda of... making all of us govt slaves that Soros and his Islam brethren are paying him good money to do.
We're all getting this crook's number!!!
Insectauthority| 7.27.10 @ 9:09PM
Now, any person or organization that disagrees with the Obama Administration MUST be racist !! Never mind that no one in the Obama Administration knows what they’re doing. That everything that this administration has done is failing. That nothing has been more important than job creation and the economy… Obama’s only focus his first year in office was passing the Healthcare Bill… and he, Reid, and Pelosi gamed the Constitution in order to ram it through Congress… It’s obvious now that Obama is a Muslim supporter… he refused to have his picture taken with the Israel’s Prime Minister, yet was falling all over the Palestian leader… and if you don’t think he was deliberately sending a message to his Muslim brothers… get your head out of the sand.
Conservatives, liberals… people of all races and religions… put our differences aside for awhile and look at everything that’s happening now in the world. My God, the Iranians, in collusion with Chavez, are building a nuclear weapon. Islam extremists killed 1000s of Americans on 9/11, and the nation of Islam is trying to build a 13 story mosque over the ashes of slain Americans, historically, a deliberate symbol of dominance, and our subservience to the nation of Islam (our president is silent). Thanks to Obama, America has no respect in the world. Countries bent on killing Americans are running all over Obama. Because Obama will do nothing about it. Unemployment is at an all time high, and Obama recently stated that unemployment will remain above 9% next year also… And this administration is doing NOTHING to stimulate job creation, in fact everything Obama has done is killing job creation in this country. While Bush added 2.5 trillion to the deficit, Obama has already added over 2 trillion, and at minimum, will heap another 4.9 trillion to the deficit by 2016… and is still spending. Our country has never been weaker economically and militarily.
And what’s Obama doing? He’s so intimidated by the mere possibility that a chubby, bespectacled newscaster named Beck, MIGHT run a story on a woman that supposedly made a racial statement in an NAACP speech video, that Obama ordered her immediate termination, and public disgrace… without even seeing the complete video that would have proven her innocence.
People… now be honest, not to me or anybody else, but to yourself… Is that the kind of man you want running our country? If that’s the example of how this administration handles an insignificant event… What would Obama do if about a "real" issue, like an attack by a nuclear-armed Iran?
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