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The Spectacle Blog
Winston Groom (a great historian and great former journalist who is best known as the author of Forrest Gump) has an absolutely essential piece in today’s Weekly Standard about the stunningly utrageous level of bureaucratic interference in efforts to contain the Gulf oil spill. We at the Washington Times today add other important details. For example,
Radio Netherlands, for example, reported on May 4 that the Environmental Protection Agency’s water discharge rules appear to have played a role in prompting federal agencies to turn down international offers of assistance, including oil skimming equipment from the Netherlands. The massive Dutch ships are specifically designed to deal with oil spills by taking in the contaminated seawater, separating out a large amount of oil and then dumping the remaining water overboard. “But the water does contain some oil residue, and that is too much according to U.S. environment regulations,” Radio Netherlands explained. These ships sat idle for six weeks because bureaucratic rules could not distinguish an effort that would have sucked 5,000 tons of oil per day out of the Gulf from the actions of someone deliberately pumping oil into the water.
From Groom’s piece comes this info:
Each morning seems to bring a new fool’s errand. On June 18, for example, the U.S. Coast Guard apprehended a dozen oil-skimming barges in the midst of performing their duty, and shut down their operations for the rest of the day in order to determine if they were carrying the proper number of life preservers and fire extinguishers. If the Coast Guard was so worried about safety, why not simply take a big pile of life preservers and fire extinguishers out to these craft and hand them around, so that the skimmers could keep at their essential job? But that is not the way government operates. At least not this government, which has created a perfect storm of bureaucratic and regulatory gridlock around the Deep-water Horizon disaster. Whatever is done to prevent the oil from coming ashore must be approved by the EPA, OSHA, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Coast Guard, and a host of lesser bureaucracies. Just a few days ago, a large slick of oil several hundred acres in size was allowed to enter Mobile Bay and hover in the lee of Gaillard Island, one of the largest Brown Pelican rookeries in the United States. According to a spokesman for BP, “None of the 135 boats working out of Dog River, or the 54 boats working out of Fairhope, had the training to handle the oil.” It seems oil skimming or booming requires taking courses and passing tests given by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration. -Otherwise you run the risk of being arrested. Same goes for trying to save oiled birds or other wildlife. Federal permits—which can take up to three years to process—are required, and violators are subject to arrest, fines, and jail.
This isn’t a partisan hit on the Obamites. I bow to no one in my anger at the Bush administration for how it mishandled Katrina both short-term and long. But in the case of the Bush administration, local and state officials (with the exceptions of then-Rep. Bobby Jindal in Louisiana and Gov. Bob Riley in Alabama) were incompetents who made the Bush administration’s job much harder by getting in the administration’s way, while the administration did at least, via the Coast Guard and Fish and Wildlife Service, rescue about 35,000 people. In this case of the oil spill, all the state and local officials (again with now-Gov. Jindal and Gov. Riley leading the way) have performed absolutely admirably, but the Obama administration is getting in their way (rather than vice-versa) and the new Obamatized Coast Guard being as much a font of harmful red tape as it is much of a help to anyone. In short, bad as the Bush response to Katrina has been, Obama’s response to the oil spill has been far, far worse — to the degree where it is, in moral terms, almost criminally negligent.
This disaster was all BP’s fault, and in the long run BP should pay and pay and pay and pay and pay for its numerous violations of basic safety and response rules and practices. But the EFFECT of the disaster on the coasts and in the wetlands, and in the whole Gulf eco-system, could have been so greatly lessened if the administration were competent and caring that the blame for long-term damage must read in the Oval Office, in the person of that cold, detached Alinskyite who sees in this spill nothing more than yet another opportunity to stop other offshore drilling and push cap and trade. The word for his response, in every sense of the word, is “rotten.”
View all comments (27) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Quin Hillyer
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/06/28/obama-admin-criminally-neglige
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Bob Miller| 6.28.10 @ 1:47PM
What a trip! Our public servants found the way to apply environmental regulations so as to allow an environmental catastrophe to get out of control. Is it Obama & team who are the ultimate criminals here or is it the American voters in 2008 who failed miserably to do any due diligence?
Dixie Pixie| 6.28.10 @ 2:26PM
Greetings Bob
What due diligence?
Obama was wafted aloft on hallucinogenic media smoke.
The MSM pushed the line voting for Obama was such “historic occasion” that to deny him was to deny History.
Besides the MSM agitprop line was voting against Obama was a admission of out right Racism.
It worked.
So do not blame the voters.
Every statement about Obama was a lie.
All data was falsified by the MSM.
The voters had only bogus information to vote on.
Due diligence was not possible when all data is false.
The voters never had chance and that was by design.
Besides I did not vote for Obama and never will.
Frankly I am tired of hearing the voters are to blamed when the system is so fixed you can only see bailing wire, hatchet jobs,agitprop patches and blown / broken political promises.
Bob Miller| 6.28.10 @ 2:52PM
If I at my humble computer could find out what I needed to know, so, too, could everybody else. You should accept that unless you feel the MSM has hypnotic powers.
Dixie Pixie| 6.28.10 @ 6:15PM
Bob --- Obama was elected with 51% of the vote with no observable qualifications.
If that does not prove the MSM has Hypnotic powers or the equivalent, what does.
So please don't blame me for Barney Frank and I will not blame you for Nancy Pelosi.
Patti| 6.30.10 @ 3:13PM
Dixie Pixie,
The media smoke? My oh my, you shouldn't have inhaled!! How come the rest of us could figure it out? Too many white people trying to prove they're not racist. That's what got him elected. Pride. Thanks a million. Now we have all but lost this Great Country and now he's letting it implode with red tape. I can't stand all the ridiculous excuses. But, that aside, let's stand together and vote ALL incumbents OUT next election. And try to support the Independents. It's the only way we'll ever have a chance at TERM LIMITS. And get rid of Pelosi, Reid and Boxer. PLEASE. And STOP bashing the Tea Parties, not all of them are run by the GOP!! At least they're doing something besides sitting on their fat butts watching TV and feeding their faces.
deano50 | 6.29.10 @ 7:02PM
Obama told everyone what his plan and agenda was, spread the wealth, Cap and Tax Gov. Take Over of Health Care, now known as Obama Care. The voters turned a deaf ear to what he said and the Lame Street Slobbering Media did not report true news, they still don't. If you want the truth Fair and Balanced watch Fox News. We can Fire Obama he has no clue on how to clean up the Gulf and he dosen't want to.
rachelwelch| 6.29.10 @ 10:44PM
Bob, this article needs to go viral. I have said for the last 2 decades that these agencies are "stifling" America. Matter of fact, there was a book that all should read (from 20 years ago) called "The Death of Common Sense", subtitled, "How Law is Suffocating America." Can you help me get this word out?
WhiteBikerTrash| 6.28.10 @ 1:57PM
Diversion is the tool of Con-Men and Magicians, and since I have yet to see a rabbit from Obama's hat?
Of course he is allowing the spread of the slick! How else could he use this to his advantage. As the slicks spread out he will continue to extort money from BP because "It's their fault". As the Con goes you need to switch blame to an outside force, while you continue to extract the "Fee" from the "Mark". Uh-oh Is that a hurricane I see coming?
This game is an old standard, Obama is doing nothing new!
WhiteBikerTrash| 6.28.10 @ 1:57PM
Diversion is the tool of Con-Men and Magicians, and since I have yet to see a rabbit from Obama's hat?
Of course he is allowing the spread of the slick! How else could he use this to his advantage. As the slicks spread out he will continue to extort money from BP because "It's their fault". As the Con goes you need to switch blame to an outside force, while you continue to extract the "Fee" from the "Mark". Uh-oh Is that a hurricane I see coming?
This game is an old standard, Obama is doing nothing new!
Nate| 6.28.10 @ 3:00PM
Mr Hillyer's got it all wrong.
If you the government would just get off industry's back everything would be fine.
Government isn't the solution to our problems. Government IS the problem.
See, if the government just got out of the way, BP could clean up all this oil and get back to doing what it does best, drilling oil.
SoCon| 6.28.10 @ 7:37PM
Only a Marxist Kool-Aid swilling moron would defend the Obamster for his obvious dereliction of duty regarding the Gulf oil spill and resulting ec0-catastrophe.
Government IS the problem, fool--the only job they DON'T do is the one they're SUPPOSED to do!
Oldefarte| 6.29.10 @ 11:46AM
No IDIOT, you're tongue-in-cheek desire for GOVERNMENT REGULATION is not the answer and never has been. The overabundance of regulation could/should have prevented the banking/credit/real estate crisis, and [as Quin states] could lessen natural disasters [ie Katrina, this oil spill,etc] if the government [at the direction/administration of its political leaders] would simply DO ITS JOB! The banking failures were due to incompetitent politicians [Dodd, Frank,etc] who ramned down out throats Fannie, Freddie, Affordable Homes [and the banking industry responded by instituting subprime mortgages, no income loans,etc]; while government regulators whose jobs are to prevent such abombanations sat on their fat ARSES and didnt perform their regulatory duties. With this oil spill, it's the same thing. The present administration either CAUSED this well explosion or took political advantage of same, and are now preventing helpful cleanup measures because they want the oil to devastate the Gulf region. They can then promote their cap & tax environmental BS to line the government's coffers with another tax upon taxpayers and destroy the energy industry in the process. Then, their wind mills alternative BS can ride to the rescue, except that same won't provide needed energy to consumers/businesses. This administration, as Quin states, is not the regulatory SOLUTION but rather the radically political PROBLEM [and until taxpayer-voters wise up and remove them from office, they will continue to be such]!!!!!!
sick and tired| 6.30.10 @ 8:12AM
The simple treuth is thes people need to be fired. I took an oath to uphold the constitution and all laws of the US. To hear an agency head ICE and department head DHS say " we can choose when and if we will take action or not (AZ)" in my opinion should be fired from their jobs.
Cal Mark| 6.28.10 @ 4:25PM
Mr. Hillyer, get off Bush's back about Katrina. I'm not Bush fan--we are about to lose the country to an illegal alien rabble largely because of Bush--but the real Katrina scandal is the incompetence of the Louisiana governor and the mayor of New Orleans.
Bush kept offering them help; they kept refusing.
Bush's shortcoming in Katrina was one of his usual failings: he didn't shout his intentions from the rooftops, allowing the media to blame him and beat him up. As always, Bush was being circumspect and gracious to incompetent, vicious, partisan Democrats.
The Bush "failing" in Katrina was the same as always: failing to act strongly enough against Democrat incompetence. The only Katrina-related Bush scandal has nothing to do with FEMA or the disaster itself.
Keith I| 6.28.10 @ 6:10PM
Not to replay the Bush years but it seems that his unabashedly Christian mindset was behind his administration's serial misunderstanding of how their actions would be portrayed.
The first example was the response (or lack thereof) to the "Bush Lied, People Died" claptrap. WE all know that EVERYONE in Congress KNEW that Saddam had WMD. Did the Repubics EVER stand up and remind them of that.
The second was in not forcefully presenting the very plausible case that Saddam moved the WMD to Syria.
Katrina was a complete EMGS (Eastern Mogolian Goat Screw) that originated with Nagan and Blanco but Bush was too decent a man to point his out.
Top it off with Scooter Libby and the administration's not throwing Armitege (and Powell for good measure) to the wolves, allowing the alleged Libby misdeads to tar Cheney.
President Bush took the concept of "turning the other cheek" to an entirely new level apparently believing that the American people would somehow come to know the truth. In my heart of hearts I think that he was just too decent a man for the job.
Those that continue to conflate Katrina with the ObaMao response to BP do President Bush a great disservice.
Now, back to the ObaMao bashing!!!!!!!
deano50 | 6.29.10 @ 7:09PM
Carl-Mark thank you , you know Bush offered help, he also warned NO that Katrina was on the way and to leave, the comments from NO was we have been throuigh Hurricanes , we did not leave then,we aren't going to leave now.
Dixie Pixie| 6.28.10 @ 6:03PM
What, Didn't Forrest Grump get the memo.
The Gulf Oil Spill Crisis is officially over.
The President has informed the nation he was on top of the situation from day one.
Obama a formally taken full responsibly for the oil spill.
He has also vowed before God and Man that all resources available will be used against the oil-spill.
The villainous oil company BP has been identified and assigned the full blame for the oil spill.
He has even gone as far as to assign to BP the full responsibility for stopping the oil gusher and oil spill cleanup. Obama has assured the nation that he has his boot on the neck of BP and they will pay the full cost of the cleanup and all lost revenue. Even the lost revenue of strippers. He even forced BP to drill 2 relief wells when one would do.
Obama has even used the power of the Attorney General Office to force BP to disgorge 20 billion dollars without even using the cover of the Law. Obama then assigned one of his minions to be a independent panel to dispense the money to the deserving. Obama even affirmed the independence of the one man panel by personally creating a 'do not pay list'.
Obama even made the supreme sacrifice by going to the Gulf to meet the “little people”.
He even had southern seafood with actual fisherman. Not like the polite Chicago fisherman with Italian surnames who delivered fish thoughtfully wrapped in the clothes of Obama political enemies. These fisherman were preselected from Obama campaign workers. But one did smell of hard work and week old shrimp to give a realistic atmosphere to the photo-ops.
So Obama has descended from the cloud-city of Washington DC to grant his blessings to the people of the Gulf Region. Minions have been assigned their jobs. Obama has done all that can be done.
So the new MSM agitprop line is the Gulf War Crisis is over, so there is no need to show any more dead fish or oil coated birds.
However back in the real world, the oil still flows, the oil slick grows ever larger. The estimated amount of oil spilled has grown one hundred fold. BP has only limited and finite resources to combat the spill. Obama refuses to declare the Gulf Oil Spill a National Emergency to allow the resources of the Federal government to help in the cleanup. As a result insufficient resources are on hand to handle the crisis.
The Federal government has impeded the cleanup in ways large and small. The EPA has been unleashed on anyone who tried combat the oil spill. Red Tape pettifoggery abounded. Needed oil skimmers are deliberately kept away by bureaucratic decree.
Obama administration has mucked up the Gulf Oil Crisis from start to finish. To top it off the oil flow will continue for months to come.
Obama has done all that he wants to do. If what is done is not enough, the Gulf States must be happy about what he has done. If they want more they will have to come up with something for Obama. That is the Obama / Chicago Way.
Mimi| 6.28.10 @ 9:38PM
Great post DIXIE .... You hit it all! Sounds like gross incompetance & dereliction of duty. This was not done well by the "O" and I fear the aftermath to the people in the Gulf. God help us all! In my lifetime I have never seen or lived thru such failure of Government. Every day another outrage! Can we even wait until 2012. The Black Robes showed up for duty today! That was a good thing. Who knows what tomorrow will bring. I know one sure thing and that is....PROVIDENCE will not fail us he has always blessed this NATION.
Dixie Pixie| 6.28.10 @ 10:06PM
I am glad you liked it Mimi.
But do you agree with the punchline that extortion is the Official Obama Doctrine.
I would like to hear your viewpoint.
Merle Savage | 6.29.10 @ 10:42AM
Crude oil continues to invade the Gulf; while BP, the US Government, and other official agencies monitoring the toxic crude, continues to FIDDLE. I call that the “Dance of Deliberate Deception”. No one will come forward with the intestinal fortitude, and declare the obvious - that crude oil is toxic to our health. There are even warnings posted at sites where there is refined oil - like gas stations we visit daily. I have been told that a medical study cannot be conducted until after 6 months of exposure. WHAT? There have been 21 years since the exposure of the crude oil in Prince William Sound, Alaska. So we have to wait until after 6 months of workers, in the Gulf, breathing in the crude oil fumes, before a study can be conducted? That leads me to believe that the government is holding up the rug, while BP sweeps known reports under that same rug, and the other agencies conduct the “Dance of Deliberate Deception” on top of that rug.
Read this alert - Stand with me and demand honest answers for the Gulf residents, and cleanup workers who will be suffering from the toxicity of the crude oil, if this political dance is allowed to continue. President demand respirators for the cleanup workers!!
Olbermann & Savage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJAwc7QV_QA
Esquire: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/p.....cts-062110
My name is Merle Savage, a female general foreman during the Exxon Valdez oil spill beach cleanup in 1989. I am one of the 11,000+ cleanup workers, who is suffering from health issues from that toxic cleanup, without compensation from Exxon.
Dr. Riki Ott visited me in 2007 to explain about the toxic spraying on the beaches, and informed me that Exxon's medical records that surfaced in litigation by sick workers in 1994, had been sealed from the public, making it impossible to hold Exxon responsible for their actions.
Beach crews breathed in crude oil that splashed off the rocks and into the air -- the toxic exposure turned into chronic breathing conditions, central nervous system problems, neurological impairment, chronic respiratory disease, leukemia, lymphoma, brain tumors, liver damage, and blood disease.
IgnorantAmy| 6.29.10 @ 3:27PM
Okay... not trying to get all stupid on everyone, but I have a question. We have many oil drilling sites off all of our coasts, and around the world.. right? So.. has there never been a catastrophe like this before? What did others do to plug oil spills up in the past? Why aren't we doing the same? I guess I'm not stupid, I just don't understand?? :(
Papadoc| 6.29.10 @ 4:30PM
There is a continued failure to understand that this has not yet become a politically exploitable "crisis" yet. Attempting to make it such in Obama's first Oval Office speech was his first real mistake according the playbook in use. He tried to make it the Cap and Trade impetus, and it fell flat because he tried it too soon. Look for that to change once oil hits beaches big time and he pushes again.
Oil does not become a crisis to the public while it is out at sea. Sure, nobody likes seeing these big blobs out there, but it's not a crisis till hit hits the beaches where people see it and live it. It must MUST hit the shores before a crisis can be pronounced and people will be willing to do anything to make it stop and clean it up.
Look for this to be the answers to many problems. Obama has already telegraphed his intent to push Cap and Trade. But nothing goes over so well as giving people free money courtesy of big oil. (mission accomplished)
The real kicker though is that Obama will require hundreds of thousands of union workers down there cleaning up oil residues. These will ultimately be the only jobs that Obama has any hope of creating (and by allowing the mess to form, I do mean "creating" the jobs). And he will refer to these as private sector jobs, just in time to have a couple of months right before elections.
The idea of creating or allowing disasters or catastrophes to develop and play out so that leaders can "save their people" is not a new one. It is speculated that Rome burned for political reasons and Wilson and FDR turned a blind eye to get us into wars, emperors have fought wars to be seen as victors, and so on. Obama ignores hemoraging southern borders and is okay with drug lords setting up permanent command centers in the hills of Arizona, and he advocates for defacto violation of Court rulings when they go against him. It is hardly inconceivable that he would let someone else's problem in the gulf become the catalyst for him forcing his agenda.
Brian| 6.29.10 @ 4:50PM
The idea of the Coast Guards shutting down the skimmers to determine if there were enough life preservers is like stopping the fire department from going into a burning building to ask if their oxygen bottles have the proper mixture of air so that the firefighters can breath. Please Oh Please will someone tell our government to GET THE F**K out of the way and let common sense take over?
Mark Johnson| 6.29.10 @ 9:12PM
Read a little history before you write an article like this. If you research the Exxon V disaster in Alaska, you would have noted that thousands of people became sick due to oil clean up efforts without proper training and equipment. Did you know that a zoo in Louisiana is the noted location for all animal clean up? You must have hazardous waist training, be in total head to toe gear with breathing apparatus just to clean a turtle or you can get very sick. This is not cooking oil from your kitchen.
So, I will wait to see your flip article against the administration again when the 500 local fisherman who were hired by BP to go out and help the clean up without the proper equipment to keep themselves healthy. Your title will then read, not enough regulation in place to help the 500 terminally ill local fisherman dyeing of lung infections.
You can take shots at any administration with history. But to be fair, one must work from a day to day to day historical perspective and work forwards. It is very easy to sum up a mistake when looking back 30 days. Go back 30 days, start with the data given that day and move day by day. If your arguments still hold water, then write your article.
I am a moderate republican but this article is unfair in my opinion and poorly researched.
Sam| 6.30.10 @ 3:08AM
You don't get it. If Obama had responded competently to the oil spill in the first place, most of the oil would not have reached the shore.
There is no excuse for his scandalous hesitancy--he's criminally negligent.
marianne723| 6.30.10 @ 8:02PM
If you really want to understand the Gulf Oil Spill, check out this link.....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGqc-uABits