The American Spectator : The Oilers vs. The Stealers

Text Size

The Oilers vs. The Stealers

By George Neumayr on 6.17.10 @ 6:09AM

More confiscatory socialism from the White House.

Barack Obama’s soulful strolls along the stained beaches of Louisiana in recent days have looked about as authentic as the photographs of Richard Nixon walking San Clemente Beach in dress shoes. Ostensibly crouching down to investigate tar balls, Obama was more likely reviewing in his mind the shards of his presidency.

Even his tense apologists at MSNBC appear to be losing heart, comparing him to Jimmy Carter. Yes, Chris Matthews “went there.” Apparently, Matthews’ fabled Obama-induced restless leg syndrome has started up again, but this time as a kick rather than a tickle.

Matthews feels no thrill up it from Obama’s proud and repeated references to Energy Secretary Steven Chu as a “Nobel Prize-winning physicist.” Who cares? says Matthews; the boast is “ludicrous” and beside the point, since Chu didn’t win the prize for any clever methods to plug gushing wells.

The loyalty to such talking points among Obama administration officials would make the Bolsheviks proud. White House environmental adviser Carol Browner, appearing on Hardball before Obama’s Tuesday speech, paid the now-compulsory homage to Chu as a “Nobel Prize-winning scientist.” She insisted that he “has played a hugely important” role in the crisis and seemed peeved at Matthews’ Pavlovian anger about the matter.

Let’s not forget that Obama, for his part, is a Nobel Prize-winning politician. Still, the collective mental power of these two Nobel Prize winners has yet to fasten upon a solution, not even the temporary one of letting Nobel-respecting Scandinavians clean up the mess (the Dutch and Norway governments have reportedly offered their oil clean-up expertise to nonresponsive Obama administration officials).

Matthews’ flagging spirits pepped up a bit when he remembered that his documentary on “The Rise of the New Right” was set to appear on Wednesday evening. From his grave tone, one would think he had done a documentary on The Rise of the Third Reich. Matthews and his colleagues at MSNBC are still coming to terms with the sobering knowledge that America has more than one political party, and that someone, somewhere, at any given moment of the day in the hinterlands of America, might be speaking ill of liberalism.

It is inconceivable to Matthews that any responsible American could regard Obama as “tyrannical.” But Obama’s knee-jerk confiscatory socialism this week provided fresh proof of it. Obama now moves to mop up the Gulf spill with a shredded Constitution. His demand that BP essentially hand over a blank check to the U.S. government has all the legality of a car-jacking.

The Democrats don’t even bother to conceal the crassness of this demand, saying casually that they will manufacture the legal authority for the shakedown sometime in the future. Just seize the money, their attitude goes, and we’ll write the “legislation” to justify the theft later.

Were the British Empire that fought the War of 1812 still around, America might be looking at a War of 2012. Instead, a rattled BP appears willing to fork over much more money than it will owe, including money for “lost wages” due to the president’s own panicky moratorium. BP obviously invited all of this through its gross incompetence, but what if the same “lost wages” standard applied to the Obama administration? It, too, is busy destroying the “way of life” for workers in multiple industries, but in its case that’s not even an accident; it is a deliberate plan.

Which federal government office should coal and oil rig workers show up at to retrieve their lost wages once Obama’s energy laws crippling those industries pass? Obama offers these workers the consolation of a “clean energy” job in the future. That’s very thoughtful of him. These workers can look forward to the prospect of a job, or at the very least a generous interview opportunity for a job, at wind farms several states away from their homes maybe a decade from now.

Once again, the Obama administration illustrates that the greatest threat to the economy comes not from the environment but from environmentalists. Hurricanes and oil spills cost workers far fewer jobs than do the policies of trendy pantheism. Environmentalists are even a danger to each other, as the allegedly adulterous affair involving Al Gore and fellow enviro Laurie David (comedian Larry David’s ex-wife) comically suggested this week.

Gore’s nocturnal patterns have piqued the interest of TMZ.com, if not the Discovery Channel. But should questions persist, Gore could always fall back upon Larry David’s own defense against adultery charges in an old episode of his show Curb Your Enthusiasm, a defense some might find plausible in Gore’s case. I am not “cool” enough to have an affair, David’s character explains to his wife in the episode. You are right, she finally agrees. You wouldn’t be “good at it.”

About the Author

George Neumayr, a contributing editor to The American Spectator, is co-author, with Phyllis Schlafly, of the new book, No Higher Power: Obama’s War on Religious Freedom.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (108) | Leave a comment Leave a comment

Granny Jan| 6.17.10 @ 6:26AM

Best read so far of the day!

Eric Cartman| 6.17.10 @ 9:05AM

Tar balls. Thats what Obama has between his legs.

Hank| 6.17.10 @ 9:09AM

This Cartman character's comments are too coarse, too crude, and everything he writes lacks discrimination and sensibility.

AmSpec should censor him. He makes us all look like fools.

AMENBRO| 6.17.10 @ 10:28AM

HANK,,,Exactly how do you think everyday real American people are framing the raping of their lives and livelihoods sir? Is this some HOLLOWED GROUND of politness??

Obviously you do not read MASTER TYRELL's weekly CURRENT CRISIS nor ENEMY OF THE WEEK. Platitudes are not exactly being hurled at us by the liberal elites are they????????????

The TARBALLs are between Hussein's ears. Cartmans anatomy of choice was misplaced. Of course many of us feel the Presidents sits on his brain.

Cartman may be a plant. He may just be blunt to the point and like me could care less how crass or crude our opinions are elucidated in a country requiring we have the right to free speech.

Are you uintentionally SLEEPIN WITH THE ENEMY. Already they think we are fools by design .

Might as well ::::::::::::::::::::::::::

SOUND OFF LIKE WE GOT A PAIR, Hank, our hopeful comrade in FREEDOM & LIBERTY ARMS.

Hank| 6.17.10 @ 11:03AM

I prefer civil discourse.

So many of the posters here express themselves in the tone of screeching hyenas. And so many of them let their ignorance and bigotry taint their every remark.

There are a few commenters who express themselves in a quiet, rational manner. I wish more AmSpec readers would follow their examples.

Rudeness begets rudeness.

Miss Alabama| 6.17.10 @ 11:10AM

I am with you, Hank.

The rhetoric here so often has a sophomoric ring to it, and I find it abrasive. Ugly.

We need a blog for more intelligent, more cultivated fiscal conservatives. There are too many right-wing nuts on this site for my taste.

Troll Watch| 6.17.10 @ 11:48AM

Screeching hyena and sophomoric! That does it. No more Mr. Nice Guy here. It is war against Hank and Miss Alabama. Don't they know that rudeness begets rudeness? There is something outrageous with mindless trolls trying to take the high ground. Their whole purpose is insult. I wish we could get trolls that weren't so below average in intelligence.

Hank| 6.17.10 @ 12:13PM

So, as a reader of AmSpec, if you try to elevate the tone a little you are denounced as a Troll. Typical.

You must realize, Troll Watch, that there are many readers of this blog who have complained about its hysterical ranters on many occasions.

If you approve of emotional, name-calling, insulting language being used on this blog, I am not surprised that you would attack those of us who prefer civility over bully-boy styles of communication and label us Trolls.

Though fiscally conservative, we do not identify with the crude behavior of Tea Partiers.

A Real Republican| 6.17.10 @ 2:51PM

Crude behavior of Tea Partiers? As in most are crude? Do you have proof of such a blanket (and bigoted) indictment? Btw, I am not a Tea Party Member and I have not attended any such gatherings. I do wonder how you can call, correctly, for civility and proper discourse and then broad brush Tea Partiers.

AMENBRO| 6.17.10 @ 5:43PM

BLOW ME HANK

Alan Brooks| 6.17.10 @ 7:38PM

AMENBRO and several other posters have proven Hank, Darrell, Miss Alabama, and T. Goldenberg right, haven't they?

There are apparently too many coarse and contemptible AmSpec readers who can't keep their filthy mouths shut.

RC 1999| 6.17.10 @ 7:59PM

AMENBRO, this is the type of nasty response we would expect from you.

Take a look at your jevenile posts with all the caps and repetative exclamation points and question marks decorating your illiterate drivel.

You're a little junior high bully. Right?

Ken Roberts| 6.18.10 @ 4:26PM

Hank and Alabama gal if you do not like it here you are free to leave; we can get by with the out PC and the name calling . almost 100% of the time it is the left like yourselves that do the name calling or discrediting when you are up against it to prove a point.

Nick| 6.18.10 @ 9:51AM

Troll Watch,

Have you noticed that "Hank" and "Miss Alabama" always show up at the same time?

I think "Hank" might be a tranny!

Grzmlyk| 6.17.10 @ 12:22PM

Yes, Miss Alabama, whose name I have never seen on this blog before, please do deign to regale us all with your erudition and rarefied, elite, non-offensive ripostes.

However, I beg you, do not descend from your high horse; doubtless you can see the tops of the hoi polloi's heads from your elevated position.

By all means, regardless of how badly the institutions of our country are being gutted, looted, defiled and destroyed, let us never forget to keep our pinkie fingers extended as we sip our tea between tut tuts and tsks tsks about the loss of civility among country club republicans who really ought to focus on their golf games and handicaps.

And if you are ever assaulted by a liberal with demogogic smears and slanderous accusations, be sure to wear white gloves and arm yourself with a pithy bon mot.

That'll show 'em.

Campy| 6.17.10 @ 5:13PM

Hey Grz,

'Miss Alabama' has been on here occasionally, but she's neither the pageant winner nor a miss—at least in the conventional sense. Her contrivance overlooked that the real Miss Alabama 1957 died in 2004. Oopsie!

Darrell| 6.17.10 @ 1:12PM

Thanks, Hank and Miss. Agree.

Darrell| 6.17.10 @ 1:06PM

Some of these replies remind of the old SNL skit with Dan Akroyd and Jane Curtain. A parody of "Point-Counterpoint", Jane defended gov supported abortion. Dan replied "Jane, you ignorant misguided slut"..........

loulou| 6.17.10 @ 11:09AM

Hank has no sense of humor.
Carry on, Cartman.

Tatiana Goldenberg| 6.17.10 @ 11:15AM

If you find "tar balls" amusing, loulou, then your sense of humor is on the level of my 13-year-old son.

And I, for one, think Eric's remark is racist. Oh well, these words are wasted.

Troll Watch| 6.17.10 @ 11:51AM

Nobody cares what you think. You are a troll.

Melvin| 6.17.10 @ 11:51AM

I profusely apologizing for my heathen brethren, who are so unsophisticated, course, and so vulllllgur.
" We need a blog for more intelligent, more cultivated fiscal conservatives. " Yes, you are so absolutely correct. Its called, the Huffington Post. That is where most elitists hang out.
Also Tatiana Goldenberg, Cartman's post was not racist in nature, maybe bigoted but not racist because there was no statement that elluded to Cartman's race was superior over Obama's race.
Besides, "Racist" is an overly used term that has no meaning any more.

Tatiana Goldenberg| 6.17.10 @ 12:17PM

Not racist?

I beg to differ.

Saying that a black man has "tar balls between his legs" is racist and is, therefore, repulsive to me.

Tatiana Goldenberg| 6.17.10 @ 12:22PM

And I will continue to make comments when the occasion demands it.

I will comment even though I know I am wasting my breath on so many readers. But, I must admit, there are some readers who appreciate my remarks, and to you, dear readers, I say, "Mazeltov!"

JimE| 6.17.10 @ 7:30PM

Tatiana troll,
Tar balls would be a step up from what obama currently has.

tailgunner| 6.18.10 @ 5:51PM

'Noblesse oblige' becomes you.

Grzmlyk| 6.17.10 @ 1:24PM

Obama's black?

I thought his mother was white.

In any case, you must be a racist to classify him thus. I'm so unsullied of heart that I literally cannot tell people's ethnicities.

What I DO notice is all of the poor, defenseless victims of the evil, knuckle-dragging, dominant white culture (ok, I notice the whites but only because they're so bad you can smell them).

Of course, being color blind (except when it comes to evil white people), I miss out on the myriad treasure hunts you guardians of racial harmony engage in.

How fun it must be to mine the terrain assiduously, poring over every inch, looking desperately for any nugget you can find, and, when you find something that glitters - whether it's the real McCoy or just fool's gold - you can exclaim with self satisfied glee, "AHA! RACISM IS HERE! I FOUND RACISM! LOOK EVERYBODY! I'M OFFENDED! SEE HOW GOOD I AM? I'M OFFENDED FOR THE BLACK MAN AND THE BLACK RACE, WHO AFTER ALL, ARE BLACK (and we all know what that means)! I'M GOOD! I'M GOOD! I'M GOOD!

Wouldn't it be pretty to think so.

Melvin| 6.17.10 @ 1:28PM

I'm not going to let up that easy. Validate your opinion of racist. I know you know the meaning, and I also know that Cartman's post and no meaning to his race being superior to Obama's which would earn him the title of a, "Racist."
Calling someone a racist is a serious issue, and should not be thrown about like the media does.
So please validate your opinion with fact instead of an assumed inference or conclusion deduced by surmise or guesswork
Your guessing that Cartman is a racist, in fact that you have never met the man or has he come out and persnally told you that he was. Which is it?

Grzmlyk| 6.17.10 @ 1:39PM

Melvin, it is important for white liberals to level breathless charges of racism at the drop of the hat. You see, what they are doing is externalizing their own fears that they will be found out - the the tribalism that is the wellspring of racist thoughts lives in each and every of us, and they cannot live with that.

So they externalize it to YOU and then excoriate YOU, hoping they can expunge the ugliness in themselves.

The game that's afoot is assuaging our own white guild, and that's why the racism trade is alive and well in this country, and that's why people like Jesse Jackson have jobs, and that's why affirmative action exists, and that's why white liberals with hair-trigger racist sensibilities are the first to denegrate people like Clarence Thomas, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, DeRoy murdock, etc. for having the temerity of wandering off of the white guilt plantation.

Tom| 6.17.10 @ 1:52PM

I am open to an alternative to racism to explain Cartman's post if you have one.

gb45| 6.17.10 @ 2:21PM

Tom,

Like you, I, too, believe Cartman had racist intentions.
Just as "tar baby" is racial pejorative, "tar balls between his legs" would be a racial pejorative to a black man. But, just as Goldenberg says, "we're wasting our breath.

Clinton nee Publius | 6.17.10 @ 4:16PM

How about sophomoric humor? Some pretty thin-skinned people on this board. It seems to me there is a lot of distraction going on and that usually happens when someone strikes a vein of truth. In this case the author's allegations regarding the conduct of this administration stand unanswerable and that is because there is never an answer for actions such as this.

I well remember the hysterical discourse over the Bush presidency where there were movies and books calling for the man's murder and yet if someone disagrees with this administration it has to be racism.

Spare me. If I was a liberal I would be screaming about racism morning, noon and night. It's the only thing left that can be used to hold on to minority voters after 45 years of complete failure of liberal social welfare policies. The real question is when will the rest of American minorities realize they have been giving their vote to the liberal-progressive cause for 45 years and for 45 years the Democratic Party has promised them prosperity, but has delivered only indentured servitude. I think the Democratic Party knows full well that once Black America wakes up and realizes that, when they traded two-parent families for one-parent/government-supervised families, they set themselves up for cultural genocide at the hand of a conspiracy that has no more interest in their welfare than that of George W. Bush. This historical record shows this cannot be avoided and this is why we see the budding liberal love affair with the Hispanic bloc. They know the time is coming when Black America is going to go the same way that Asian, Irish, Italian and Catholic America went when they realized their economic emancipation was their own responsibility.

Racism is nice because it enforces voter discipline and changes the subject from the matter to which accountability would otherwise demand an answer. This makes it very handy for political debates with people who would rather prove who the better man is rather than what the actual results have been. This makes it easier for government to corrupt our economy, divide our people and profit from our misery.

If nothing else, we can only hope the change this administration brings is the understanding that racism is just an excuse to avoid accountability.

Tom| 6.17.10 @ 1:49PM

Yes, racist is over used. However, it is difficult to find a motivation other than racism in Cartman's post. What exactly was the point?

Grzmlyk| 6.17.10 @ 2:07PM

I don't know what's in his heart.

Frankly, I didn't pay any attention to the post when I first came upon it. But now a substantial swath of this dialogue has been hijacked by the racism police, and I maintain that these people secretly LOVE it when they come across racism because it allows them to preen.

The LAST thing many of these do-gooders want to see is racism forever abolished.

Whatever would they do with their moral vanity?

Melvin| 6.17.10 @ 2:24PM

The point is that Cartman's post was not racist in nature as defined by Merriem Webster. His post could be construed as bigoted in which it is more in line with.
The, "Racism" card should not be thrown like a grenade and hope it hits something.
Everyone who has posted that Cartman's post is racist is wrong and you have no fact to validate your opinion.
For one thing you have no opinion to judge Cartman because you don't know him, nor he hasn't admitted that he is a racist, and two, the only thing that your basing you misquided opinion on is that tarballs as defined by Wiktinary" A ball of tar or crude oil found on a beach."
So please tell me how in the hell do you arrive with the title racist?
Ok, Cartman's attempt ill at humor was based on Obama in having crude oil hanging between his legs. So how is this any different than the Left in their ill humor wishing for the assination of Bush?

Grzmlyk| 6.17.10 @ 2:41PM

Gee, isn't it odd that so many people have posted comments here - people who claim to be AmSpec regulars, but whose names I have never seen on this site before?

Could it be that marching orders came down from the Daily Kos that somewhere somebody had uttered a comment that might be construed as racist?

Or maybe they have race-sensitive filters on their computers and, whenever some comment is written across the Web that might - pant, pant - be construed as racist, they are down the pole and off to condemn the conflagration like dedicated firemen answering a four-alarm blaze.

Then again, a certain number of firemen actually start fires in order to make heroes of themselves, don't they?

Cartman is certainly guilty of making a crude comment. And it lacked wit, for sure. But for these libs to peer into his comments and see the heart of a racist?

But that's what they live for.

Tom| 6.18.10 @ 7:42AM

Because the Left did it it is ok? Frankly I expect more from conservatives.

Mike| 6.19.10 @ 9:48PM

Tom and the rest,

If it is difficult for you to find other motivation for this comment perhaps you should buy a newspaper or watch a news program on television.

Tar Balls are washing up on our southern shores partly because of the current administrations ineptitude. That is the first thing that came to my mind, but then again racism is not the first thing I look for like you folks of the perpetually offended.

Mike Johnston
SFC USA (RET)

loulou| 6.17.10 @ 4:09PM

Strange--I totally missed the racism you found in Cartmans funny post. I guess I'm not on a constant lookout for racist remarks.

AMENBRO| 6.17.10 @ 6:03PM

YES SIR now we gots us a DEBATE YAWL.

I'll tell ya what is racist. How the heck does a COMMUNITY ORGANIZER get to be a MILLIONAIRE????

Black Millionaires taking advantage of their own people in the name of EGALITARIANISM thats how. VALERIE JARRET GETTIN RICH THRU PUBLIC HOUSING. LETTING THE SAME HOUSING GO TO SHITE IN ANTICIP>A

JimE| 6.17.10 @ 7:26PM

Hank, you and miss alabama need to go back to groveling at obama's anus.

Jay Pitsby| 6.20.10 @ 8:52AM

DON'T FEED THE TROLLS!

ENOUGH ROPE| 6.17.10 @ 11:34AM

OBAMA , THE SMILING COBRA

Appleby| 6.17.10 @ 7:11AM

Even the hippie scum are beginning to realize that their fixes cannot work and are begging him to stop before they are completely undressed. I hope this keeps building until November.

Grzmlyk| 6.17.10 @ 9:42AM

Appleby, your point is well made, but there is a substantial portion of the left that will never, ever, ever realize their fixes cannot work.

I know. I live among them. Many still believe Obama is the Beneficent, Omniscient, Empathetic One.

They do not - and never will - recognize the sociopathic, narcissistic, puerile, vengeful, ignorant, clueless, vain, overmatched, petulant fool that resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

It is their eternal and unwavering dreams of implmenting totalitarian rule - the velvet glove of compassion hiding the iron fist of tyranny - that has brought America to her knees over the last century.

They will not stop until there's nothing left to destroy.

Richard Baker| 6.17.10 @ 7:38AM

Steven Chu was known for his research in cooling and trapping of atoms with laser light, which won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997. Wonderful achievement personally and I congratulate him for it. However, that research is a long way from the rough job that is the oil business. Just because one has a Ph.D. doesn't give one expertise or even understanding beyond one's field. Using his achievement as a way to stifle criticism is playground in its childishness.

Curly Smith| 6.17.10 @ 7:48AM

It's a shame really, Obama and his administration are just too qualified. They're simply too intensely intellectual to solve trivial day-to-day problems. Any other administration would be full of people with doctorates in "Underwater Basket Weaving" who could design a containment vessel in seconds. Only Obama would boldly go where no other administration has gone before by telling us that we don't know what our desired future looks like and that we don't know how to reach the future that we can't describe. Other administrations would have plans and procedures, Obama offers Hope and Change.

Obama should keep some of that Hope for himself because the oil-slicked tide is turning and Change is coming. And all because he's too qualified for the job...

Paevo| 6.17.10 @ 10:31AM

"Only Obama would boldly go where no other administration has gone before by telling us that we don't know what our desired future looks like and that we don't know how to reach the future that we can't describe. "

Actually, I think he was describing his own method of governance with that comment; i.e. walking blindly in the dark without a clue...

Mark MacInnis| 6.17.10 @ 8:10AM

Flash forward to March, 2012....Obama gives an address from the oval office..."I shall not seek...nor will I accept, my parties nomination for a 2nd term as your president. It is more important that I spend my time and energy, and that of my administration, on stopping the flow of oil which has been damaging our southern coastal areas since 2010....." Headlines the next day...(I can't resist) "It's O-ver!". Hey, a guy can dream, right? I have been on record with my friends, and with posts on this sight, since February of this year as saying that Obama will not be the Democratic nominee for the Presidency in 2012...looking more and more like it each day he flails around...

Tom| 6.17.10 @ 1:53PM

Frankly I hope he is the nominee because I think he'll be easy to beat.

Kingofthenet| 6.17.10 @ 5:21PM

Absolutely! Palin/Sharron Angle in 2012...Please,Please I say this as a Progressive.

davelnaf| 6.17.10 @ 8:28AM

If the Obama administration were a horse it would be flying, panicked down the street by now. But the Obama administration is not a horse. A horse at least would have the sense to get itself out of the burning stable.

We are comforted by the thought that relief from the Obama Disaster is on the way. But will the majority then do a Gov. Christie on the Federal Government? It is hoped that the survivors and the temporarily reprieved will have learned a lot by then.

Matt morehouse| 6.17.10 @ 9:06AM

Overconfidence is a greater threat to Republicans and Conservatives than BHO.

michigander_sandusky| 6.17.10 @ 9:18AM

Matt morehouse: Amen! 1 Cor. 10:12

Mimi| 6.17.10 @ 9:46AM

This country: We can not endure too much more of this Administration......The AMERICAN collected consciousness of " OUTRAGE " has notched-up as of late. The level of the take-over(ie) " NET ", the passing of " CAP&TRADE; " post Nov. elections...with a defeated majority in Congress....the lame-duck mimic of the TRICKSTER'S Health-care debacle!!! These attacks on our freedoms has reached a new HIGH. We the people are literally " CRYING-OUT ".....No, No No... My GOD, WHO HEARS ? ? ?

Louis Jenkins| 6.17.10 @ 10:20AM

We will be over this administration one day. Sooner or later, it is up to you and me. Barry has screwed things up worse than a Texas goat rodeo and it's nigh time to get the record straight. Vote this November and may God bless us.

Grzmlyk| 6.17.10 @ 11:13AM

Let's just hope the people we put in there don't immediately transmogrify into the cowards we vote out. Power has a way of doing that to you.

However, we are very close to the precipice and are about to plunge over the cliff, and when that happens, everything will change - to what, god only knows. It may happen next year or it may take three or four years, but happen it will.

The die is cast.

And history will show that Obama was the tipping point. Of course I don't advocate violence, but I draw some consolation in pondering Mussolini's fate. Which concluded at a gas station, as I recall.

Unfortunately, it was the communists who got to Mussolini.

Let's hope a Winston Churchill or Margaret Thatcher or Ronald Reagan emerges between here and the edge.

Otherwise, in 20 years America will be a caliphate.

John II| 6.17.10 @ 12:07PM

The die is cast? That can't be right. Wouldn't a more apt metaphor be "the chips are down"?

As in: The chips are down, we know the stakes, and the shifty-eyed dude with the funny ears is bluffing.

chester arthur| 6.17.10 @ 12:07PM

It's times like these,and people like the current president,that bring forward the real leaders.Decent people will only ignore the political class for so long before they get fed up and become part of the political solution.America,when things are at their worst,brings out it's best,and I'm pretty sure we'll see that happeneing again.These creeps will pass from the scene in the next few years.Maybe Jimmy Carter can give them a hammer,and a real job.

Scott| 6.17.10 @ 12:12PM

What a blithering load of crap this is.....It says absolutely nothing, just feeds into the paranoia of most of the readers of this site.

What exactly is wrong with demanding BP put money into escrow? I've already lost about $7,500 in lost rental income (with much more to come) on cancellations at my Florida gulf coast condos. That's money that BP owes me and everyone else affected. Why shouldn't they pay?

Ken (Old Texican)| 6.17.10 @ 12:47PM

Scott,
Are you stuck on stupid...or an unrepentant communist?

...Bless your heart. I'm so sorry you want to whine to the Obamites about your "lost rental income".

Lots of luck getting anything from them. You "risked" to earn dollars. OOPs.

and you say "hep me hep me boss Obama".

Stupid!

Scott| 6.17.10 @ 5:17PM

STUPID. I think thats you, old man.

Risk is that the economy falters and people don't go on vacation. That IS NOT WHAT HAPPENED. My condos were booked solid until another private company soiled my investment.

I'm sorry you are to ignorant to understand the difference. You obviously don't know shit about business, while I've started 3 successful businesses from the ground up in my lifetime.

Ran / Si Vis Pacem | 6.17.10 @ 10:28PM

Uh-huh. My heart just bleeds. Feel your pain, man.

Stuff happens and people don't go on vacation. Your narrow definition of risk is adolescent, pal, and it betrays your lack of basic economic skill. It also undermines your claim of "success." Either you're damned lucky or a bad liar. Couldn't be that your condos - assuming they exist - were let to people directly or indirectly employed by the building industry. Or that their RIA's are tanking and they have to scrimp this year - such a booming economy, this. Or they were auto execs or bank execs or bond-holders who got screwed by your pal Obama. Nope, I'll bet they all called - personally - to say that they were allergic to petroleum products, and sadly, maybe next year? Maybe you should just offer free gas-masks and rubber gloves?

Scott| 6.18.10 @ 3:32PM

First of all Obama isn't my "pal". I don't really care if you believe me or not. The facts are the facts. The condos were 100% booked for June and July as of 3 months ago. They are now less than 50% booked.

I suppose that's too much anecdotal evidence for you. I'd need to actually talk with each person who cancelled and find out their reason for doing so 1-2 months away from their trip.

For people with any common sense, however, the reason is obvious.

I really don't understand the mindset of those that prefer to support a huge mulit-national oil company over the interests of mom and pop business people and investors.

RCV| 6.20.10 @ 11:12PM

Scott ... The bulk of the folks on this site are mindless reflexive anti-Obamaites. If he's for making sure you losses are covered by the multiple-national corporation that caused them, they must oppose that. The reality is that BP chose not to take the safety steps that could have prevented this disaster, for economic reasons. They made a bet and lost. Under legal principles settled since the Common Law first developed, it is their obligation to make whole those who have suffered as a result of their negligence.

Jerry| 6.17.10 @ 12:48PM

"OWES" you?!? Did you sign a contract that guaranteed rental income, or did you invest in a property with the realistic understanding that it may or MAY NOT earn money? Investments are risks, and while your lost rental income is one of the worst possible outcomes from an investment, it is not up to anybody to indemnify ever vacancy for the life of your ownership.

Tom| 6.17.10 @ 2:01PM

It is at least arguable that BP is legally liable for losses incurred due to their mishandling of this situation. The OP was not talking about vacancies, he was talking about cancellations which he directly assigns to BPs incompetence. If that is indeed true and provable I see no reason he should not have a valid claim for reimbursement of his losses.

Scott| 6.17.10 @ 5:24PM

Yes Jerry, BP "OWES ME" for every cancellation of bookings of rooms that I have. Just as they owe every fishing industry company and every tourism industry company in the gulf.

Sorry you are too ignorant to understand business liability, but BP is liable for these damages.

This isn't dollars lost from economic risk. This is dollars lost becuase of the direct fault of another company.

Ran / Si Vis Pacem | 6.17.10 @ 10:42PM

Folks - I think Scott is "Bob." Is this not all hilariously familiar?
BP doesn't owe you, pal.

John II| 6.17.10 @ 12:54PM

You're misusing the word "paranoia," which is a pathological condition characterized by a delusional sense of persecution or grandeur.

The topic at hand is the severe exacerbation of an environmental disaster, the exacerbation caused by a toxic mixture of incompetence and political opportunism. If the charges of opportunism and incompetence were groundless and delusional, paranoia might be an appropriate term. But the charges are neither delusional nor groundless.

Paranoia is the word for seeing danger where there is none. There's a different word for not seeing danger where it exists: stupidity.

And still another word for the posture that the rest of the world should pay for the risks one chooses to take. But let's not go there. Happy lawsuits.

Louis Jenkins| 6.17.10 @ 2:57PM

Dear Scott:

I feel your pain for your lost income. However, we cast our money out upon the waters of uncertainty hoping for a return in the investment. Nothing is guaranteed. Perhaps next year (if there is one) will be better for you.

loulou| 6.17.10 @ 4:19PM

Hey, stuck on stupid: our efforts should be directed toward stopping the leak, getting berms built and putting booms in place.

After that you can proceed with your lawsuit. I will say this though, that you're NOT guaranteed X amount of income from your properties. You took a risk in buying rental properties--maybe you don't have renters for reasons other than the BP oil spill. I'm a more cautious investor--I don't put money into rental properties.

Scott| 6.17.10 @ 5:21PM

WRONG. These condos were booked solid throughout the summer. The SAME as they have been every year for the last 12 years that I've owned them. Cancellations were for one reason, and one reason only. Oil has made the waters off limits to swimmers - as of 2 days ago.

So nice for you that you don't take "risk". Fortunately there are people in the economy that due. But this has nothing to do with risk, this is another private company destroying the incomes of other private companies through negligence.

John II| 6.17.10 @ 9:49PM

Interesting post. If you happen by this way again, Scott, I'd be privileged to receive a response. I'm a low-life academician (more than 40 years teaching rich people's kids how to act toward one another, with only marginal success, I think). It's not often that I have the opportunity to engage in a sure-enough hoe-down with the kinds of people who actually make the world turn: condo complex owners and oil producers--that sort of people.

Me, I teach Latin and Greek civilization to college kids, and what I earn doing so would . . . well, I guess it would surprise you. Many of my friends from my undergraduate days, more than forty years ago, are "surprised," and I'm using the word discreetly. My wife is also a teacher, and our combined income is enough to secure a mortgage on a modest house in a relatively (relative to what we both grew up with) dangerous part of town.

Now, here's a thought experiment. Suppose a person of the sort just described told you that he and his wife sent all four of their kids, one by one, to a private college that, shall we say, "shares our values." Suppose as well that, even though all four of the kids were very brainy and damn near maxed the SAT's and were offered full rides at prestigious colleges and universities by headhunters from the aforementioned . . . suppose that all four, over a period of 12 years, chose instead to attend a small liberal arts college that offers little financial aid but much in the way of what I think of --professionally, as a college teacher--to be a first-rate education.

And suppose even more that all four of the kids chose not to avail themselves of the little financial aid available--but rather, worked two years before starting at the college, worked another year between the sophomore and junior year, and finished, without crushing debt, on what the hypothetical family now refers to as "our seven-year plan."

Just suppose. And suppose even more that, if questioned about the peculiar pattern, each of the four kids was inclined to quote from the letter of St. James, to the effect that: if you don't truly need help, don't ask for it. Someone else may truly need it.

Here's my question regarding the hypothetical family. As a man of the world, do you regard the family as fools?

And if you do regard them thus, does it matter to you as a businessman that, if everyone followed that same foolish conservative ethos, the average cost of a college education would be about one-third what it is now?

And if the hypothetical story is of interest to you at all, would you be prepared to suggest that a good business practice for the health of the whole culture would be for good businessmen not to expect others to pay for the decisions they make?

If you choose to respond, I hope the response is of a more elevated quality that what y0u've delivered yourself of so far. Whether or not it's a good business practice, there's something unmanly about the whine.

Ran / Si Vis Pacem | 6.17.10 @ 11:32PM

John,
You've asked an articulate question of an individual - if my senses are correct - who may have once boasted in these pages that he'd studied religion at the age of 10 and then translated the five books of Moses from the "original Aramaic." (That he hadn't translated Homer from the original "Latin" remains a wonder.) If this is not the same individual, his language pattern, the anecdotal propensity, logical error and expression are creepily familiar. May they never meet.

BTW, my daughter is on the Seven Year Plan. She scores 99% on the SAT's but thanks to ADD (from her dad, poor kid!) she can't get assignments completed on time. This will resolve. She'll be fine.

John II| 6.18.10 @ 10:00AM

Nope--wasn't me; must have been some other jackass.

Whether or not you regard the following as illogical or creepy, I'd like to venture into, or gingerly around, the suggestion that ADD is one of many fraudulent constructs of the so-called education psychologists.

Such people, I've had many occasions to notice, are suffering from a severe case of CDD (Cultural Deficit Disaster), owing to their own management of an SPSS (Screwed-up Public School System) wrought by a poisonous mixture of VPP (Vulgarized Pragmatic Philosophy) and SIF (Shabby Ideological Fanaticism).

Your daughter will indeed be fine because she's already fine. What the school system nervously calls ADD is really a perfectly normal LCT (Low Crap Tolerance), which will serve her well in real life.

I guess Scott isn't going to respond. Damn.

Kingofthenet| 6.17.10 @ 1:56PM

No surprise here. The Republicans would side with Pontius Pilate and the Romans at Jesus Christ's crucifixion. It's a sad day in America when a GOP Senator Apologies to the CEO of a Foreign company who just killed 11 Americans and spoiled 1000's of miles of Marshes and beaches , and cost tens of thousands of AMERICANS their livelihood. SHAMEFUL!

A Real Republican| 6.17.10 @ 3:01PM

What is shameful and lost in the shuffling madness: Mr. Obama acting as if he has authority, Constitutional or Magesterial, to demand of any entity, that they fork over money. And now we hear the Congress will write the language granting such authorities. Retro authorities? By what Constitutional standing? That BP stepped up and accepted the offer they could not refuse was their first good PR move. But to demand of them that they do so?
Btw, Amoco, an American company, owns greater than 40% of BP. When discussing international players in oil, keep in mind the incestuous relationships. This is not to defend BP *and btw, who among us knows precisely what happened?*, but to defend The Constitution from a President asserting Powers not Granted.

Dixie Pixie| 6.17.10 @ 2:55PM

Gentlemen and Ladies,it is a sad duty to report we do not have a President as conservatives conceive a President to be. Conservatives believe a President should operate within and uphold the Laws of the United States as written by the US Congress. We do not have such a President.

As Ben Stein in yesterdays article has pointed out Obama does not have a statutory authority to demand 20 billion dollars from BP for a “Compensation Fund”. Certainly the use of the AG Office to threaten criminal prosecution if BP did not come up with the money is a out right abuse of office. In short Obama was not operating within the Rule Of Law. In fact the Obama administration is operating outside the Rule Of Law.

As the above article by George Neumayr shows, there is a continuing pattern of behavior in pursuit of funds that Obama can control. The Banking Crisis, Car Company Crisis, The Health Care Crisis and now the Gulf Oil Crisis are all part of a pattern of behavior of the Obama administration.

Consider whenever a Crisis occurred Obama let the problem fester until a “Villain” corporation could be produced. Then the corporation was forced to disgorge funds or actual control of the corporation to the Obama administration. Once the extorted wealth is in hand the Crisis is declared over. Then the hunt for the next victim begins.

The facts are clear and obvious. The Obama administration has shown a pattern of criminal behavior. And since the Obama administration is headed by and controlled by Obama it is a logical conclusion that the Office of President is occupied by a criminal extortionist.

If Obama follows the usual well worn road, Obama's criminal behavior will grow evermore wilder with each success. With each flouting of the laws resulting in the extortion of funds, Obama will push the envelope even further until it becomes obvious even to the most dimwitted Democrat.

Campy| 6.17.10 @ 5:21PM

Dixie,

Excellent post! The growing, almost whipped-up anger at Tony Hayward and BP is reminiscent of the 2-minute hate.

In addition, the 'emergency' request by Obama for another 50 billion for state and local aid follows the same pattern of Crisis, though even Steny doubts it might be passed, given voter spending fatigue.

Dixie Pixie| 6.17.10 @ 8:09PM

Thanks Campy
I am glad you enjoyed the post.

I have always believed that provable facts presented in a logical order makes for a more pervasive argument.
I hope you have found my posts a better read than the usual screeching.

On the other part of your reply:
The 2-Minute Hate will continue until BP is destroyed.
The long standing hate the Liberals have for the oil industry will not satiated by anything less.

Campy| 6.17.10 @ 9:33PM

Dixie,

Your method is one I'm trying with my liberal friends these days and while I find some are still vehemently blind no matter what, it gives pause to others to consider that I'm not a wingnut. What I've found so dismaying is why, given my generation's tendency to 'question authority', that they now don't... just because... why exactly???

At any rate, keep up the good work. In my naivete, I keep hoping that reason will sink in. That it won't is my nightmare.

Mimi| 6.17.10 @ 8:03PM

A GREAT POST...DIXIE!! Hope some " Black Robes " notice!!!! By the way does anyone know where they are?? Maybe their behind on their " noticing - stuff "... or waiting on the paper-work!!!

Dixie Pixie| 6.17.10 @ 8:36PM

Thanks Missy
I keep hoping the TAS Online reader comments can equal or excel the quality of the original article.
I consider myself nowhere close, but it is a goal to which everyone should strive for.

Then LiberalReader or PurpleGuy shows up to make me doubt there is a spark of the Divine in everyone.

Scientists have become convinced the Neanderthals interbreed with the early humans to produce Liberals. It is a humorous theory that fits the facts. Some of the Liberal posters seem to be trying to prove it.

RCV| 6.20.10 @ 11:20PM

Watch it, Dixie Pixie, you're getting dangerously close to admitting belief in ... Evolution. You could face shunning soon.

loulou| 6.17.10 @ 4:13PM

If Obama keeps this up, regular people (not the lunatic right wing fringe) are going to be asking to see his birth certificate and school records that at the moment are sealed and hidden in a secret location.

RCV| 6.20.10 @ 11:22PM

Maybe it's that secret location Dick Cheney used to hide away in.

Pat| 6.17.10 @ 5:48PM

Within our much loved Federal government apparatus, nothing succeeds like failure. And to prove it, Obama is appointing yet another govt. committee to investigate the Federal govt., specifcally the Minerals Management Service. What will emerge is a fatter, more heavily staffed, better paid MMS. We will be assured this new MMS, which will arise after the proper investigation isn't your father's Oldsmobile, they'll function without the bungling or ineptitude they've enjoyed up to now. We'll pay for that promised competence, however, but what's another 20 to 50 million if we can rehabilitate the MMS?

Like the Federal Reserve or the SEC before the current recession, the occasional crisis tests the mettle of federal oversight agencies and that's a good thing, we learn where new procedures and greatly expanded budgets are needed to control private sector abuses. Hooray for us, aren't we fortunate it's so easy to forgive and forget, to grant a second chance.

Obama declared war on BP, pelicans covered in crude oil are innocent victims of oil company terrorism, Americans who own stock in BP and those who work in the drilling industry are the enablers who support such terrorists. We're not talking General Motors here, a company that bungled away its market share in order to appease the UAW just isn't in the same league as an oil company that ignored safety and common sense precautions. So, no massive taxpayer bailouts for BP, they don't deserve it like GM did.

Congress, wanting in on the moral indignation, should now pass a bill which legally requires the deep water well to stop gushing - how isn't their concern, just do it. A big bailout should also be included within the legislation, once the money is run off the printing press we'll figure out how to divy it up among the concerned parties. Also, on page 1197 of the bill, Congress should insert a 10% raise for themselves; stopping a gusher dead in its tracks deserves a little compensation.

Kingofthenet| 6.17.10 @ 7:25PM

What the president did was negotiate a guaranteed settlement for the people of the gulf. He did in one meeting with BP what would take decades in a courtroom and doesn't always guarantee a win for those injured. By the way, there is nothing ILLEGAL about an out of court settlement. In fact most courts appreciate such action because it's important for public policy to encourage humanitarian efforts outside of the courtroom. It's unbelievable that most of you are not more impressed. Further the agreement was not even capped! Those in the gulf may still get more if clean-up in the gulf is not complete. President Obama is AMAZING! I bet those who were harmed in the Exxon Valdez spill wish they had such an advocate.

Dixie Pixie| 6.17.10 @ 9:14PM

Greetings Kingofthenet
Interesting handle, can you back it up?

Obviously you have never watched your fathers face when he received a long-awaited class action settlement check and found it was a grand total of 1 cent. And yes the law firm got the rest of the 150 million dollars.

Long standing experience of the conservatives is the BP Fund will not be fairly, honorably run and it is doubtful that the wronged will be fairly compensated. It has never happened when the Democrats are involved and won't happen with the BP Fund.

Kingofthenet| 6.18.10 @ 12:53AM

Baby, I ALWAYS back it up, In fact i'll give you the shirt off my back....All I expect is for you to do the same:) Well this fund is not going to be run by the President, but by Kenneth Feinberg, you know the guy G.W. Bush Hired to handle compensation of 9/11 victims, so it's ALL GOOD!

Truth to Power| 6.17.10 @ 9:25PM

http://www.realclearpolitics.c....._care.html

This is the anatomy of a shakedown. It was going to be for the little people and now it will be poured into the bureaucracy and never seen again.

GA Boy| 6.17.10 @ 9:54PM

How dare democrats hold BP responsible for fouling the gulf. It was an act of god.
God hates fish & clean beaches.
Don't make them clean it up-it's part of the end of days-read your good book-O' & ignore reality
& ...(w/ the same logic) vote republican!

Truth to Power| 6.17.10 @ 11:38PM

It looks like the only thing that the Democrats care about is the shakedown. When it comes to clean up they are in the way and incompetent.

Jim O'Brien| 6.18.10 @ 8:23AM

BP was grossly negligent. But its blunder in the Gulf of Mexico pales by comparison to the damage being done to our economy by Congress and Obama with the new, so-called health care legislation, and other socialist schemes. The national debt is $13 trillion, after growing by one trillion in one year. It is increasing at the rate of about $200 billion per month. This has already undermined our national security, which is weaker than we realize.

It is absurd beyond description for the pack of liars, crooks, and demagogues in Congress and the White House to hold meetings for the purpose of attacking BP executives. In fact, the oil leak should be plugged by taking the entire Capitol building with our illustrious representatives inside, turning it upside down, and shoving it in the hole at the bottom of the sea. Then for good measure take the White House, dip it in Super Glue, and shove it in on top of the Capitol.

trampoline| 6.19.10 @ 12:16AM

Scott - who would "owe" you if a hurricane blew the roof off your condos?

I blew a lot of money on a vacation in Barbados once and spent two weeks in a torrential downpour, the likes of which I have never seen.

My resort hotel did not offer me a refund on my villa due to my not being able to use the beach.

I could not sue my travel agent for booking the wrong two weeks. I could not sue the Mayor of Bridgetown for not warning me I had chosen the wrong two weeks.

I could not even sue the car rental folks, when I braked too hard in my in my Bahama Buggy Jeep and the awning-like roof, which held about five gallons of rainfall, slopped right into my lap.

As we say in the South Sea Islands, Tough Tahiti. Condos are one thing, a shrimper's livelihood for generations is quite another.

If condo rental for a season stands between you and bankruptcy, you are operating on too slim a margin, anyhow.

Tenn Slim| 6.19.10 @ 8:10AM

Opine
While you all discuss the spill etal, the EPA, FCC, DEA and other Czar led agencies continue to implement the Ctr for Amrcrn Prgrss agendas. While the Gulf becomes contaminated to 100% the OBNA is proceeding right on schedule to emasculate the USA GNP.
We MAY well have lost the ability to prevail
Semper Fi
end

jabberwocky| 6.19.10 @ 1:46PM

HURRICANE INSURANCE would pay Scott if his roof blew off. And then they would raise his rates for having a claim.

What Scott needs is Tar Ball Insurance, as he built his condos where they might occur or "Changed Plans Insurance" for those who made reservations and decided not to come.

How about a non-refundable cash-up-front total rent payment, so no matter who loses, it won't be Scott?

What a good thing though, that Scott has only been burned once by awful Big Oil. He could never have survived if he had actually been engaged in drilling for it - - suing the geologist who told him where to drill, suing the drilling rig operator for for missing pay dirt . . . And imagine if Scott were a successful oil rig operator and an accident of this proportion occurred? Scott would be fighting trivial claims and paying legitimate ones he could not weasel out of.

Scott, the sure thing is there is no sure thing. A successful business man like you should know that.

John D| 6.20.10 @ 11:28AM

Of course BP needs to pay up and make whole
a lot of people ( and maybe some birds ) hurt by the oil spill. But how that is
done is MORE important than almost anything.

When the president steps in and makes an arbitrary move against a private company, we MUST ask from whence he got that authority.
Do we want this to be a precedent ?

I am only an amateur constitutional scholar, but
it appears that he steped over the line. He seems to be playing judge jury and hangman.

WHY ?? are other major political figures not
putting their critiques in these terms

Marcus| 6.21.10 @ 9:33PM

Hank says, "BP obviously invited all of this through its gross incompetence.." THAT is a stupid statement.

fjd| 7.1.10 @ 5:05AM

beijing massage

Latest Headlines

Heritage, Levin Call for Immigration Debate

Jeffrey Lord|7 comments

NSA’s Disclosures Cast Confusing Shadows

Luca Gattoni-Celli|4 comments

Exit the IRS Stage Left

R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.|11 comments

Oregon Uncovered

David Hogberg|3 comments

Lincoln on the Defensive

Christopher Orlet|6 comments

Another IRS Outrage

Kevin Mooney|1 comment

‘That De Gaulle, He Is Somebody’

Mark Tooley|1 comment

The Tea Party Returns to Washington

Kaylin Bugos|2 comments

The Spectacle Blog

James Gandolfini, R.I.P.

Aaron Goldstein | 6.19.13

An Alternate History of the Syrian Civil War

John Tabin | 6.19.13

Peter Wehner Responds

Jeffrey Lord | 6.19.13

CBO Gives Ammunition to Immigration Reform Supporters

Jordan Gonzalez | 6.19.13

Obama Addresses Nuclear Reduction, Climate Change

Claire Healey | 6.19.13

Elbert Guillory: ‘Why I Am a Republican’

Patrick Ryan | 6.19.13

The One Party State

F.H. Buckley | 6.19.13

Cummings Accused of Subverting IRS Investigation

Jeffrey Lord | 6.19.13

FLASHBACK TO: 1995

Pope Culture

By George Sim Johnston

A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck

By P.J. O'Rourke

Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
Dames at Sea

By John Corry
In the Absence of Guns

By Mark Steyn

In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
The Metaphysical Martini

By Werner J. Dannhauser
Counting the Costs of Clintonism

By Robert H. Bork

The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
Chuck McHagel

By George Neumayr

It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted

By Douglas Bartholomew
It’s the Best Time of the Year

By Mark Steyn

The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
The Bush Crack-Up

By Brit Hume

Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?