How is it that Obama is not responsible for the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster?

[arcadian]

Last time I checked he took the oath of office for the office of the President of the United States. While the bungling idiots at BP try and try again to cap this thing what is Obama doing? I don't see any action. This needs to be taken out of the private sector and we need a national response to this disaster. You can argue over whose deregulation caused this colossal mishap, Obama's or Bush's, but the fact remains, Obama is President RIGHT NOW. Do something Mr President.

[dipsydoodle]

1. The simple answer to your question

may be what is he doing as I write that is more important ? I have to express it that way because I'm english in the UK and wouldn't normally give a shit what he does on Sundays.

[Jamastiene]

2. I wish SOMEBODY would do something.

Anybody at this point...other than the BP idiots who have been throwing bullshit non-solutions at the problem ever since it happened. OBVIOUSLY, they aren't the most qualified to fix it.

[tabatha]

3. He did.

http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/10/obama-sends-scientists-to-meet-bp-team/

[madokie]

4. someone just stirring the pot sounds to me like

He accepted the responsibility for this early on. Even though the people in government who are directly responsible is the ones who have pushed for and took the government off our backs. :puke: for the most part. You know the de-regulators again for the most part :puke:

[saltpoint]

5. What would you suggest that he do that he has not already done and

continues to do?

There's no evidence whatsoever that President Obama is unaware of the grievous threat the disaster poses or that he is anything but wholly engaged.

None.

[Karenina]

15. Fire Salazar.

Then again there's been this tiny, persistent problem of getting his nominees appointed... ;-)

[saltpoint]

18. Energy policy has to be a focus. Firing Salazar would achieve

little or nothing. U.S. Interior is, in one key aspect, a management of the environment. U.S. Energy policy represents significnt invasion of that environment for non-environmental purposes by corporate interests. Those interests include the citizenry's reliance on finite energy sources which cannot be generally accessed without damage to the ecosystem.

My car runs on gas. Likely yours does too if you have a car. This country wastes a lot of things, energy most notably, IMO, and the wastefulness is not unique to the past couple months but has been going on at least since we "won" the second World War.

Most retail stores in the country are closed long before 04:00 a.m. but the signs along freeways are lit up all night, evidently so that people driving by can see the Tire Kingdom sign. Near as I can tell, there's no reason to burn signs on stores long closed all night.

[Karenina]

39. GENAU!* Indeed it would only create an uproar within a catastrophe.

Interior and MMS have been seriously fucked-up for DECADES. Hang it on Obama for not immediately rushing in and surgically removing all the moles left by the Cheney Administration. Oh wait, he did begin to address it early on! See 8:10 for salient points.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#37161134

Petroleum is in EVERYTHING. I'll be twisting my dreads with it (once I log off here and find some 90 minute wonkfest on Fora.tv) and the BP pill I swallowed earlier has it as an "inert" ingredient. It's as much a part of our everyday lives as the tiny plastic pellets in the Great Pacific Garbage Dump. We're swimming in it and eating it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8639769.stm?ls

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxNqzAHGXvs

The sociopaths controlling the industry have, shall we say, abundant resources. And they have just destroyed another part of "The Commons." It is indeed a tragedy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons

P.S. *Genau=Exactly!

[saltpoint]

46. There are harsh words to be said also for those who would desecrate Beauty.

My saying so does not give Energy Policy its fair due, I concede. And it does not pretend to cover the environmental disaster at hand.

But the beauty of the Gulf and life within it and around it is a quiet and underrated beauty in this part of the hemisphere.

There is extraordinary beauty and poetry along that coast. It is home to dolphins and manatee and whales. It is the setting of novels and film scripts and the subject of many paintings and photographs. It is a hint of how vast Time is.

It is the cage of hurricanes.

The negative impact of the BP disaster is almost trans-human in scope.

[Karenina]

47. Glimpses of a pristine ocean

http://www.ted.com/talks/enric_sala.html

[saltpoint]

49. Thank you for that link.

I had not seen it.

[Scuba]

6. As if there's anything anyone can do.

[arcadian]

8. How about mobilzing that massive naval fleet we have?

The USS Grapple and USS Grasp. All the Stalwart Class NOAA ships need to be on this.

[madokie]

9. What's a ship gonna do

last I checked they are simply made of iron with no sense of now about them. The plan is what needs to be worked on not (just throw everything you have and hope something sticks.) Its not Obama's fault that this happened, its the supply side tax cutting getting the government off our backs hacks to blame here.

Look mostly to the :puke: side of the isle for answers to this

[Scuba]

20. Exactly. Carriers and other warships aren't designed to fix things.

[arcadian]

25. Ummm,,, are you familar with the USS Grasp and Grapple?

They are salvage ships. Stalwart class ships are deep ocean survey ships. :eyes:

[Scuba]

28. No. What's their capability to plug leaks a mile under the surface?

[Codeine]

26. The Safeguard-class ships

don't really have the capacity to do anything at that depth, and most of the Stalwart-class stuff has been repurposed. They wouldn't be that useful anyway -- it's not lack of acoustical data that's the problem. Those are just surveillance ships.

[90-percent]

7. The cancer

The cancer on the Obama admin is all the hold overs from the evil Bush Cheney eight years of insidious bureaucratic appointments.

I am absolutely convinced Cheney especially has moles buried deep in all aspects of federal government apparatus. I'm sure many of these people earn their taxpayer provided salaries sabotaging as much of any "Obama Doctrine" as they possibly can.

Think of what damage such moles could do in the Justice Department, the CIA and especially the MILITARY INDUSTRIAL CONGRESSIONAL COMPLEX!

-90% Jimmy

[madokie]

10. I'd bet on that being the truth

and I don't do bets

[FBI_Un_Sub]

45. Totally valid

Starting with the Reagan era, followed up during the Bush-Cheney-Rove era they have been embedding themselves into the government. And look at the YOUNG Federalist Society judges Bush-Cheney-Rove have wished on us.

[jpak]

11. yes - the Bad Obama is responsible for this - and he eats kittens too

:thumbsdown:

[mikehiggins]

12. This is a joke, right?

Do you expect Obama to walk across the Gulf and wave a magic wand, ending the threat?

Sounds like.

"You can argue over whose deregulation caused this colossal mishap, Obama's or Bush's..."

No you can't. Unless you figure that Obama can solve all of the problems of the last eight years (and more if you count NAFTA, et al) in the wink of an eye it would behoove your argument more if you simply accepted that such is an impossbile task. Who is to blame for the regulatory collapse that made this disaster likely, if not inevitable? Bush/Cheney. Period.

Lord knows Obama has given us lots of grounds for complaint but this charge is bogus.

[madmax]

19. If he walked on water

they'd bitch that he can't swim. :eyes:

[arcadian]

24. Sooo, Obama is a superman up until the moment when we actually need a superman,.

Gotcha.

[madmax]

27. He should suit up

swim 1 mile down and stick his pecker in the hole. That's the ticket.

[depakid]

13. The buck stops with the person at the head of the executive agencies

and one is only justified for so long in blaming the problems created or indulged in by their predecessors.

[stray cat]

14. How are you and I also not responsible as we demand access to energy?

[depakid]

16. Passing the regulatory buck down the line to individuals may be honest, but not really practical

when it come down to specific instances like this.

Indeed, it sounds very much like a bankster take.

[Codeine]

17. The 800 pound gorilla in the room

that everyone studiously ignores.

[arcadian]

22. Last time I checked

I have absolutely zero influence on energy policy and response to man made disasters. Obama on the other hand, well, he's the most powerful person on the planet.

[Angry Dragon]

30. "he's the most powerful person on the planet."??

I believe that mindset is the basis for most of the problems that we face as a country today.

I have heard for years how the USA is the most powerful nation in the world and the president is the most powerful person in the world. To me that is a lie. Because of this attitude the US has gravitated to the belief whatever they do is what is best for the world, forcing our beliefs on others around the world. Instead we should have used this so called power and let the people in the other parts of the world live their lives, decide for themselves what it was that made them who they were.

[arcadian]

33. You want to tell me somebody else

who can direct that somebody to assassinated via unmanned drones half way around the world and then that order being carried out nearly instantaneously.

[Angry Dragon]

42. And this is a good thing??

This sense of power did not start with Obama. Where is the responsibility that goes with power. Should one use power to topple governments, influence killing, because I can kill you in a blink of an eye makes it right?? When one thinks they are better and more powerful than all others is when the sense of heart and soul go out the window.

[madmax]

36. And don't forget we have the best

health care system in the world. :sarcasm:

[Name removed]

31. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Scuba]

29. Don't blame the victims We bought gas. We didn't OK them killing the Gulf to get me that gas.

[Lil Missy]

21. Contrary to popular opinion, he is not God.

[Rage for Order]

23. He's only been in office for a year and a half

These things take time

[DailyGrind51]

32. Short of nationalizing BP gulf operations, what can he do?

It was caused by private sector entities, which are solely responsible for cleaning it up.

[Schema Thing]

34. Oh please. If the feds come up with a credible idea

it is their responsibility to use it, and of course they would in a heartbeat whether BP approved or not.

[librechik]

35. That's a good idea. Nationalize that crimescene

Get the navy over there and start problem solving. It would be a good introduction to the sort of treatment the banks and Wall Street should be getting. When the corporate pigsmake a disaster out of their greed and negligence, it's up to the government to step in and do some law enforcement. Obama seems reluctant to do the right thing here.

[Karmadillo]

37. He's angry! What more do you want?

nt

[jpak]

38. BP has changed its name to.................BO !!!!!11111

its true!

:rofl:

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

40. He is responsible for the government response to the disaster.

It could turn out in the end to be perceived as very similar to Bush's response to Katrina - slow on the draw, too little too late.

Every day minute and hour that passes with more damage being done to the water, the coast, the sealife, the beaches, the coastal economies, the job losses, etc. will be a drop that erodes President Obama's stature. That's just the way it is.

The criticsm has actually been fairly restrained so far IMHO in the MSM. Right wing radio is already using this as a cudgel against Obama.

I criticized Bush for 9/11 ferociously when he had been in office only 9 months. I criticized him probably more ferociously for his Katrina response.

Now we have one of the largest manmade environmental disasters in history, and the guy at the top is in the hotseat and he happens to be President Obama. Salazar is his Chertoff. They are looking for a Brownie scapegoat I bet right now, most likely someone in the cesspool of MM.

What is/was supposed to happen? What is the official national response to a disasterous offshore oil drilling blowout supposed to be?

[tallahasseedem]

41. Last time I checked...

he wasn't fixing the pipe with Halliburton before it burst.

[grahamhgreen]

43. The fault lies with him and all that support offshore drilling.

[Balbus]

44. Because of the (D)

[O is 44]

48. The most important issue right now is finding

a way to stop the oil from gushing. I don't get all the anger asking for the President to do something, what is he supposed to do? Go down there himself and plug it? All those asking for firings should maybe consider the President's main concern at this point is to make sure BP is doing all they can to stop the oil from gushing. The time for prosecutions and finger pointing can come at a later date. I love the latest outrage about how the President is supposedly covering up for BP in not allowing data to be released. How is that going to help us stop the oil from gushing out of the oceans floor? So I ask the author of the OP just what would you like the President to do that he is not already doing?