An Unnatural Disaster - by Bob Herbert

[groovedaddy]

“Where I was wrong,” said President Obama at his press conference on Thursday, “was in my belief that the oil companies had their act together when it came to worst-case scenarios.”

With all due respect to the president, who is a very smart man, how is it possible for anyone with any reasonable awareness of the nonstop carnage that has accompanied the entire history of giant corporations to believe that the oil companies, which are among the most rapacious players on the planet, somehow “had their act together” with regard to worst-case scenarios.

These are not Little Lord Fauntleroys who can be trusted to abide by some fanciful honor system. These are greedy merchant armies drilling blindly at depths a mile and more beneath the seas while at the same time doing all they can to stifle the government oversight that is necessary to protect human lives and preserve the integrity of the environment.

President Obama knows that. He knows — or should know — that the biggest, most powerful companies do not have the best interests of the American people in mind when they are closing in on the kinds of profits that ancient kingdoms could only envy. BP’s profits are counted in the billions annually. They are like stacks and stacks of gold glittering beneath a brilliant sun. You don’t want to know what people will do for that kind of money.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/29/opinion/29herbert.html?th&emc=th

[nashville_brook]

1. Herbert gets to the heart of the matter in these paragraphs -->>

President Obama said on Thursday that his administration was “moving quickly on steps to ensure that a catastrophe like this never happens again.” Well, he can’t ensure anything of the kind. And, in fact, his corporate-friendly policy of opening up new regions for offshore drilling (that policy is only temporarily halted) will all but guarantee future disastrous spills.

The U.S. will never get its act together until we develop the courage and the will to crack down hard on these giant corporations. They need to be tamed, closely monitored and regulated, and constrained in ways that no longer allow them to trample the best interests of the American people.

[charlesg]

5. No truer words

[Smarmie Doofus]

2. They DO have their act together. Just like public school privatizers.

>>>>>>With all due respect to the president, who is a very smart man, how is it possible for anyone with any reasonable awareness of the nonstop carnage that has accompanied the entire history of giant corporations to believe that the oil companies, which are among the most rapacious players on the planet, somehow “had their act together” with regard to worst-case scenarios.>>>>>>>>

Mr. Obama's helping them also. Does the president *know* anything about public schools? Does he have any experience *using* public schools... either as a child or as a parent? Has he ever *taught* in a public school?

Answers: No. No. And , finally: No.

Doesn't stop him from having an opinion though. And here it is: Privatization is the way to go. Rising tide lifts all boats. Trust in the marketplace. The privatizers... or shall we say "educational entrepreneurs"... have their act together too.

I'd say Herbert's going easy. There's a little trap door in this president's head that leads to some disturbing places.

[elleng]

4. self-delete

[bajamary]

3. Swallowed in the political-corporate bubble

We've been saying it for years, the Obama swallowed "hook-line & (pardon the pun) sinker" the corporations must know what they're doing thought since he was in our Illinois Senate.

We've watched him, and worked for and supported him, as we hoped that he was the change that we "could believe in". But when we saw who he picked to follow him to DC from the Chicago politicos, we knew that a disaster was going to hit our fair nation.

First, it was the insistence that he & his financial team know best.

Look what happened and is still happening there.

Second, he had Rahm tell the Congress that Obama didn't really support a "public option" in the health reform we so desperately needed. And, of course, he made a behind the doors deal with Big Phama to allow them to continue to rape the sick and poor.

Now there's the worst environmental and economic and social disaster to hit America - bare none.

And what do we see? A man who just admitted that "that the oil companies had their act together when it came to worst-case scenarios.” who should have accepted the Swedish and Norwegian offer of help as they have the scientific expertise to stop deep water oil leaks. Both these governments made this offer over a month ago.

The Achilles heal of Obama is his arrogance in thinking that so called "smart people" (BP) and savvy businessmen (Goldman-Sachs & JP Morgan Chase) could be trusted with our economy and our ocean.

Now Obama is fighting mad at anyone who criticizing him - especially we Progressives. How dare we question the Professor.

I did not drink the Obama Kool Aid and I, for one, will never forget what his arrogance has done to millions of people and tens of millions of sea and air creatures.

Needless to say, I will never again work for or donate to Obama. And at this point, I doubt that I will ever vote for him again.

[johan helge]

6. The Repubs love liberals that don't vote Democratic

The Repubs will never forget that those liberals could have stopped Bush jr. in Florida 2000, but voted Nader instead.

But those same liberals seem to have forgotten it all.

[BridgeTheGap]

7. Ah, the "joys" of the two party system. If you are a truly progressive person, the rightward drift

of politics in this country is cause for alarm. Most elected democrats at the national level are now to the right of dick nixon.
And, sure, repubs like when progressives won't vote democratic. But any person of principle has to make a fundamental decision about whether or not they/we can go along with the serious rw bullshit that is going on in our country. There are dems at the national who know this and some who have tried to change things. Unfortunately, there are far too many (to the right of Nixon) who bloat themselves at the trough of corporate largesse. Whose bidding are they doing in Congress?

[johan helge]

8. Democratic victories make the two parties move leftwards

The two-party system is not good. But the rules of US elections make third parties help their enemy.

Why are "elected democrats at the national level <...> now to the right of dick nixon"? One of the reasons is liberals not voting Democratic. If all liberals, blacks etc. had voted, and voted Democratic, the Dems would win more elections. That would make the Repubs go leftwards, to win more elections, and the Dems to go leftwards, because they could do so without losing elections (just as the Repubs went rightwards under Bush when they thought they could do so without losing elections).

In short: The more Democratic (Republican) victories, the more towards the left (right) their policies will be.