This oil spill is part of the Bush/Cheney legacy. K&R if you agree.

[Electric Monk]

It was Cheney's energy task force that set the standards, for just one example.

[barbtries]

1. i agree

[flvegan]

2. Better yet, K&R if you think nothing will be done about it!

War crimes? Illegal wars? Nobody does shit about it. So yeah, this is part of their legacy. Meaningless as nobody will do anything about it.

Silence is acquiescence. And it is indeed deafening.

[Echo In Light]

17. +1 ...Silence = Consent

[inna]

31. +

[Ignis]

52. +1, see my sig.

[flamingdem]

3. yup

[opihimoimoi]

4. KnR sad indeed ... more so no one HIGH UP held accountable

[Scurrilous]

5. K & R

:thumbsup:

[DesertFlower]

6. K&R.

interesting how we haven't heard anything from dick cheney and his daughter.

[Sherman A1]

8. +1, Agreed & Well Said!

[aquart]

7. k&r

[MannyGoldstein]

9. 27 new offshore wells approved since the spill started

26 of these had environmental review waived.

Obama owns this.

[Zoeisright]

57. No.

He owns it if THOSE wells fail and cause a disaster. He does NOT own the Deepwater catastrophe. That's disingenuous.

[gleaner]

10. I agree ...

but Obama has responsibility now. He issued 26 or 27 new permits for offshore drilling with the same exceptions and he is not exactly leaping forward to see that something is done to mitigate this disaster or that BP pays for it. Whether we wanted nothing done or not that is what we are getting in abundance. This could kill the gulf, perhaps damage the oceans beyond our ability to cope with it and still all those in power can think of is money.

[Hannah Bell]

11. i don't think it's about any one administration. it's about a steadily increasing regulatory

laxity at the behest of capital & in the name of profits, i.e. it's about capitalism.

[blindpig]

12. undoubtably

Fucked up as those people are, they are more effect than cause.

[amborin]

18. yes

but imho, Marx himself allowed for the relative autonomy of the political.....capitalism is not an inexorable force impervious to human intervention, unless one subscribes to the very early Marx; it is shaped and sustained by everyday political actions

the social relations of production are crucial, and politics---the decisions and choices of ordinary men and women---can play a role

we can throw up our hands in despair and let this inexorable force proceed; or we can admit we have choices and can influence it

[blindpig]

22. I think despair motivates much opposition to a revolutionary

outlook. "They are too strong, we cannot win."

We have no choice, for the love of life and humanity, we must kill capitalism before it kills us.

[amborin]

23. totally agree

that kind of despair is defeatist serves the masters

[hypocrisyandlies]

13. I clicked on this to say pretty much the same thing.

Let's stop this stupid blame game. Everyone gets in an uproar when the repubs do this to us. Let's just fix the problem and stop pointing fingers.

[amborin]

15. yes, it's about capitalism; but the social relations of production are crucial; capitalism is not an

immutable force (unless one subscribes to a very deterministic view; in that case: throw up one's hands and stay home)

Marx himself allowed for the relative autonomy of the political sphere....politics do matter....the actions and decisions of ordinary men and woman can make a difference

[gulliver]

25. Or it could be just human nature.

But no, let's blame and punish the most proximate and most culpable first if you don't mind.

[newtothegame]

14. I'm over it, have moved onto to changing my current world, not the one from 8 years ago. nt

[amborin]

16. you can't absolve the current White House; Obama made a poor choice for Int Dept

when Salazar took over the Int Dept, he vowed to clean up the well-known mess at MMS....said there's a "new sheriff in town"


then did zip

then exempted this disastrous BP project from required eis that would have prohibited it.....

[Lugnut]

19. K&R n/t

[spin]

20. K&R (n/t)

[rudy23]

21. Yet another Bush/Cheney policy that got Obama's stamp of approval.

What has he done to rock the boat since he's taken office? Maybe I'm missing something.

[amborin]

24. +1000

1. Obama chose Salazar to head Int Dept; S is a known industry insider, particularly cozy w/ big oil
2. S and O knew the mess MMS represented, and vowed to clean it up; then did nothing
3. S's Int Dept gave this disastrous BP project an exemption from an EIS, which would have prohibited the project....

[inna]

33. +

[CLANG]

38. Stem cell research funding!

[iamjoy]

26. Here Goes

:kick:

[Blue-Jay]

27. I honestly DO blame Cheney.

I realize that lots of DUers like to blame Cheney for every cow fart in the entire world, but yeah, this disaster is his fucking fault. He & his oil buddies are completely to blame.

[dlfuller]

28. Yup

[tnlurker]

29. K and R Agreed.

[southern_belle]

30. K & R

[Angry Dragon]

32. K&R

[Grassy Knoll]

34. K & R.

[Lifelong Protester]

35. A K & R from me!

[Sugarcoated]

36. You bet your ass I'll kick this

Just one more collosal Bushcheney fuck up. History will not be kind to them.

[pundaint]

37. Congress hasn't been doing it's job of oversight for 30 years. Congress holds the power over all

areas of this failure. Congress does not work for us. Bush and Reagan were both idiots reelected by Americans, they did their part, but Congress has gotten away with a free ride while allowing abuse after abuse. They must be replaced continuously until they demonstrate willingness to work for the People whose power the wield.

[NoSheep]

39. How could anyone disagree with that? Oil men...hiding in plain sight-LOL

[liberation]

40. Too bad, nature does not give a rat's ass about which presidential administration is at fault

What difference does it make, if this admin is not going to prosecute Cheney et al?

[TxVietVet]

41. K & R

[Rex]

42. Oh there is NO DOUBT who put down the blueprints for our destruction

I'd also have to add Scalia/Thomas to that legacy, because they made sure it happened and Bush/Dick got their stolen election!

[liam_laddie]

43. Fookin' A right! K&R n/t

[ocd liberal]

44. Oh yeah! n/t

K & R!!

[jwirr]

45. K&R

[Oldtimeralso]

46. K & R and proud to be # 100 n/t

[Just-plain-Kathy]

47. K&R...Big Time.

[jeff47]

48. I blame it mostly on Reagan

He was very, very successful at convincing the public that government was "the others". That government was some sort of outside entity that is out to hurt them. Without that, the gutting of regulatory agencies wouldn't have been so effective.

[liberal N proud]

49. K&R

[lonestarnot]

50. I'll give it to 'em. Yeah.

[donheld]

51. k & R

[tandot]

53. K & R

[flyarm]

54. And what president just opened up millions of miles of coastlines to oil drilling Just before this

disaster??

After campaigning to not allow any more drilling while campaigning in Fla..a huge campaign issue in Fla ...

Who was that new drill baby drill guy??????????????

And who in congress tried to stop the drilling?? In either party???????????

ya know bullshit is just that..bullshit!

Our pristine beaches that will be destroyed and the oxygen that is lost in the Gulf ..will have both party's names on it!

The dead Turtles, and Manatee's and dolphin's and grouper and our magnificent marie life will be dead because of the deeds of leaders ( or lack there of ) of both parties..

who has been held accountable for any of the crimes against this nation and our environment?

Who has been held accountable for the toxins and poisons delivered all over the world by our USof A???????????

ever???

How's Nancy's and Harry's table doing?? still empty???????? and how dry does the powder have to get?

Ya know people of power will only do what they get away with doing..and when no one is ever held accountable..they will continue to break our laws..and destroy our constitution and bill of rights because they get away with doing so.

Didn't you know ..the laws are only for us little peions..the f'ers who think they are the leaders do what they want when we are so busy pointing our fingers at others..

Where are the dems ????? asleep at the f'ing wheel??

Where were the dems when we the people were screaming about Cheney's energy secrecy..and what has Harry or Nancy done since they took power..oh yeah..fucking crickets!

Can't set that damn table even now!

And we have more powder than we know what the f to do with it! But keep that powder coming folks.

How about that immunity given to the telecoms by the dem President?????????? How is that working for ya????????

How about those renditions that continue today??????????

How about a dem president opening up millions of miles of coastlines to drilling?????????

wake the fuck up!



Count on that!


Spill, Baby, Spill
By Michael Isikoff, Ian Yarett and Matthew Philips | NEWSWEEK
From the magazine issue dated May 10, 2010

BP has been trying hard to burnish its public image in recent years after being hit with a pair of environmental disasters, including a fatal refinery explosion in Texas and a pipeline leak in Alaska. One major step was to announce, in 2007, that it had hired a high-powered advisory board that included former EPA director Christine Todd Whitman, former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, and Leon Panetta, who were each paid $120,000 a year. (Panetta left when he became President Obama's CIA director.) Two years ago the oil giant's chief executive, Robert Malone, flew board members out to the Gulf of Mexico on a helicopter to demonstrate the safeguards surrounding BP's advanced drilling technology. "We got a sense they were really committed to ensuring they got it right," Whitman told NEWSWEEK.

Now BP, formerly known as British Petroleum, finds itself blamed for what could prove to be the worst oil spill in U.S. history. And only weeks after Obama announced an ambitious plan to open up more U.S. offshore waters to oil drilling, shunting aside environmental concerns from his own Democratic Party, his administration is facing a comeuppance from hell. "There was a lot of wishful thinking, I guess," says Villy Kourafalou, a scientist at the University of Miami's Rosensteil School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. "The new technologies were said to be so wonderful that we'd never have an oil spill again." Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), who had sought to block the expanded drilling, says the oil and gas industry was pushing this idea hard. "They said, 'We'll never have a repeat of Santa Barbara,'?" referring to the 1969 rig explosion off the California coast. Both the Bush and Obama administrations "were buying the line that the technology was fine," Pallone adds.

BP pressed hard to make that point in D.C. Its PR efforts included payments of $16 million last year to a battery of Washington lobbyists, among them the firm of Tony Podesta, the brother of former Obama transition chief John Podesta. Last fall, after the U.S. Interior Department proposed tighter federal regulation of oil companies' environmental programs, David Rainey, BP's vice president for Gulf of Mexico exploration, told Congress that the proposal was unnecessary. "I think we need to remember," he said, that offshore drilling "has been going on for the last 50 years, and it has been going on in a way that is both safe and protective of the environment."

Read the full article at:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/237298



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Since spill, feds have given 27 waivers to oil companies in gulf
Source: McClatchy

Since spill, feds have given 27 waivers to oil companies in gulf

By Marisa Taylor | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Since the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig exploded April 20, the Obama administration has granted oil and gas companies at least 27 exemptions from doing in-depth environmental studies of oil exploration and production in the Gulf of Mexico.

The waivers were granted despite President Barack Obama's vow that his administration would launch a "relentless response effort" to stop the leak and prevent more damage to the gulf. One of them was dated Friday — the day after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he was temporarily halting offshore drilling.

The exemptions, known as "categorical exclusions," were granted by the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, or MMS, and included waiving detailed environmental studies for a British Petroleum exploration plan to be conducted at a depth of more than 4,000 feet and an Anadarko Petroleum Corp. exploration plan at more 9,000 feet.

"Is there a moratorium on offshore drilling or not?" asked Peter Galvin, the conservation director at the Center for Biological Diversity, the environmental group that discovered the administration's continued approval of the exemptions. "Possibly the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history has occurred, and nothing appears to have changed."

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/07/9376...

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

and never forget this..we Floridans won't!!!


YouTube - Barack Obama on Offshore Oil Drilling ( to Florida voters while asking for their votes)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8fkbEuCQss...

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Obama: “Oil Rigs Today Generally Don’t Cause Spills”

Obama Repeats Katrina Oil Spill Myth To Defend Offshore Drilling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm8gLmuTvJ4... ...


By: David Dayen Thursday April 29, 2010 1:42 pm

snip:

What a difference 18 days makes. Here was Barack Obama, on April 2, before the BP oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, claiming that oil rigs are safe to justify his position on offshore drilling:

I don’t agree with the notion that we shouldn’t do anything. It turns out, by the way, that oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills. They are technologically very advanced. Even during Katrina, the spills didn’t come from the oil rigs, they came from the refineries onshore.

Not only does this quote look ridiculous in hindsight, it wasn’t true at the time, as Brad Johnson points out:

Obama’s claim that oil rigs did not cause any spills during Hurricane Katrina is simply false, as the Wonk Room reported in June, 2008, when Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and other conservatives made the same false claim:

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Caused 124 Offshore Spills For A Total Of 743,700 Gallons. 554,400 gallons were crude oil and condensate from platforms, rigs and pipelines, and 189,000 gallons were refined products from platforms and rigs.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Caused Six Offshore Spills Of 42,000 Gallons Or Greater. The largest of these was 152,250 gallons, well over the 100,000 gallon threshhold considered a “major spill.”

http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/04/29/oba... ... ’t-cause-spills/

[Name removed]

55. Deleted message

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

[Zoeisright]

56. Abso-fucking-lutely!

[tomp]

58. the response is all obama. no getting around that. nt

[Electric Monk]

59. That is true too. Hard to argue against that point. But the cause was Cheney.

[tomp]

71. agreed. i think they deserve at least equal emphasis.

but we already knew cheney sucked. and not only is obama responding poorly, but he's not going after cheney for any of his crimes. they end up on the same page of my book.

[guitar man]

60. I disagree

The oil gusher, the mine disaster, the economy falling apart ,wages going to hell, general lack of regulation, big corps running amok...I blame it not just on Bush/Cheney, but on the almost 30 years since Reagan came to power. I blame it all on the "let's drown the govt in a bathtub" horseshit culture that has been built up around their silly goddamned notions that the govt is all evil and the robber baron class is all good. 30. effing. years. :grr:

I'm so sick of hearing those brainwashed idiots bleat out their lame battle cry of "the govt can't do anything right". My answer to that is "well duh, that's because YOU BROKE IT!! Yeah you, the ones who constantly voted for the people that only wanted to tear the govt down, give all the power to the top .01%...drown it in
the bathtub...well that's a great idea there geniuses, look how it turned out" :mad:

Bush/Cheney was only the icing on their cake, the rot started long before then. 30. effing. years.

:rant:

[Crop Circle]

70. Great post!

[gateley]

61. K&R.

[Lagomorph]

62. I don't agree...

Since Ixtol happened in 1979, this kind of thing predates Bush. Bush certainly didn't do anything about it, but then neither did Carter, Reagan, Bush I or Clinton. On the upside, finding a solution and bringing about effective government controls will be a part of Obama's legacy.

[FreshRocket]

63. Obama is not blameless on this issue either!

He certainly inherited a mess on just about every front, but wanting to open up additional off-shore drilling? We've had our head in the sand for 35 years. Change that I believe in includes serious efforts on alternative energies. Please.

[jae1227]

64. Its Obama's fault

BP was not following regulations. Obama did not regulate them well. This shit just got real for me because it looks like the oil will end up in my hometown on the east coast of Florida.

[RaleighNCDUer]

65. knr

[flamingdem]

66. It's all about the corporate climate at BP see the 60 minute segments in Political Videos nt

[calimary]

67. Kicked!!! I'm too late to recommend, but at least I can kick this.

:kick:

[LawnKorn]

68. KICK

[MadHound]

69. It's not just what Big Dick and Bushboy did,

It is the result of an ongoing legacy that extends from Reagan until now. Just like oil, there's plenty of blame to spread around, and nobody, absolutely nobody, is clean on this one.