I'm as troubled about the oil spill as the next person...

[WCGreen]

I have always been concerned about environmental degradation. In fact, I was there on the very first Earth Day marching in a parade as a sixth grader and then again on the twentieth Earth Day Celebration getting involved with the resurgence of environmental activism. I even fancied myself a Green Party member back then...

It's always been a main issue for me.

And yet, I don't know how to respond to this disaster. It's overwhelming.

It's pretty easy to see where the blame lays and that is with the cozy relationship between the regulated and the regulators. This is nothing new. We all know that. We just saw how that effected the progress and the outcome of the recent Heath Care Debate. It was also pretty damn clear when the financial system melted down.

Now there is more than enough blame to pass around for both party's but of course I firmly believe it is mostly a republican problem considering who was sitting in the white house for eight years while this reciprocation culture was blossoming into what we now have in the Gulf.

Last night. Nance Grace posted a great essay over in GDP where she took to task the endless blame game and how we were expecting so much from president Obama. Then just this morning there was another post about how the folks over at Free Republic were thanking us for tearing down the "socialist Kenyan..."

I don't know if the Administration is not doing enough to staunch the flow but I do know this, especially after observing how president Obama expresses leadership, is that he doesn't puff things up and he doesn't talk to just hear himself talk.

I still have gobs of trust that the man will do the right thing. And that if there is a feasible way to stop the carnage to the environment, it will be done...

That is all I feel I am really qualified to say about this whole matter.

It's not that I don't care, it's that perhaps I care too much to see this presidency drown in oil...

[Captain Hilts]

1. It's not about the president for me. It's about the Gulf. I want to see Cheney and Bush Admin

officials frog marched to testify before Congress.

What was the 2003 ruling that made this possible? I want to know.

I want to see the Board of Directors of BP sweating. I want them in Washington or New Orleans sweating.

I want the BP officials that decided on the more risky capping method frog marched.

[elocs]

3. Don't hold your breathe on the frog marching.

You have infinitely higher odds of winning the Powerball lottery.

[rurallib]

2. Consider that the M$Mis doing all it can to make Obama look bad

Just listening to Alan Grayson on the Steph show, it is pretty obvious that the M$M is only telling one side of the story.
Basing a judgment on info from the M$M is never a good idea.
I admit that I also struggled until I realized that the M$M will beat Obama to death (figuratively) with this if they can.
Of course the admin is doing a great deal we hear nothing about.
Plug the damned hole and then we can look at what happened.

[DFW]

4. It's not about Obama.

The second the rupture happened, an oil spill started, the likes of which have never been seen or confronted
before, and for which the technology to remedy it was not in place if, indeed, it exists now. BP didn't drill
relief wells simultaneously as damage prevention in case disaster struck. They could have, but it's expensive.
We all know how unprofitable the oil business is, after all........

No one sane blames this on Obama. This whole fiasco happened independently of him. Lax inspection
procedures put in place under Cheneybush plus criminally negligent actions of BP management and faulty
equipment provided, in part by Halliburton, are what led to this disaster occurring in the first place.

[Captain Hilts]

5. It's not Obama's fault AT ALL. That's why Bush Admin officials who loosened oversight must be

rounded up.

[Kalun D]

10. Are You Sure?

Why did Obama ask for an increase in offshore drilling under a reg system that was broken because of Bush cronies?

He should of known it was broken because of 8 years of Bush.

Did he just make a mistake and not notice? Or did he know and not care?

From Obama's history with his unregulated banker buddies you might think he knew and didn't care, after all it should be blatantly obvious.

Why would you fire the head of MMS after this disaster and not before you pushed for more offshore drilling?

Whoever takes the blame, the buck stops at Obama's desk.

and his handling of the spill is bad. No way BP should have been involved with the clean up. And no way they should have been allowed to use toxic dispersants banned in BP's home country of Britian. Dispersants shouldn't have been used at all, they only hide the amount of spill and make it harder to clean up.

[Captain Hilts]

11. He turned on the offshore issue repeatedly for political reasons but the absence of proper oversight

IS Bush's fault.

Obama hasn't helped. They need to enforce the laws on the books which the oil companies are ignoring.

I completely agree on the dispersants. I have wanted the folks from Aberdeen here to advise since Day One.

[BeFree]

6. There is a reason...

...that drilling off the coasts of Florida and up the Atlantic was, once upon a time, verboten.

[Art_from_Ark]

28. There is plenty of blame to go around

First and foremost, BP and whatever partners had a hand in this operation.

Second is bu$h/Cheney which gutted oversight during their 8 years of error.

But the Obama administration must share some of the blame, because the exemption given to BP for this operation was granted in April 2009, after bu$h was out of, and Obama was in office
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/04/AR2010050404118.html

Moreover, Obama didn't help his cause by insisting that offshore drilling was perfectly safe days before this disaster, and by dillydallying with the issue of moratorium vs. issuing more drilling permits even after it became obvious that this was not simply a minor leak. And his administration's apparent acquiescence to BP, because "they have the expertise and we don't", makes him, and the government, look weak, if not downright impotent.

Personally, I haven't seen anything in Obama that indicates he is particularly interested in environmental matters. And Salazar at Interior just seems to be another James Watt, just with a "D" after his name. Certainly not enough attention was given to the environmental aspects of this operation before the exemption was granted. So while it might not be fair to blame Obama for this mess, his administration is not entirely blameless, either.

[Common Sense Party]

7. Nance Grace?

Really?

[Captain Hilts]

8. I saw that too! Greggs. nt

[CaliforniaPeggy]

17. Our NanceGreggs!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x315425

[WCGreen]

18. You know I was heading out the door for an all day appointment

at the Cleveland Clinic and Ijust had a brain fart...

[Common Sense Party]

20. I think when you accidentally invoke the image of Nancy Grace

...it's referred to as a "brain puke".

[freddie mertz]

26. But it's also oddly fitting.

Most of her OPs have a distinctly "prosecutorial" tone.

Hell, she even posted one not long ago about how she wanted to execute political opponents.

Very Nancy Grace-esque.

[BeFree]

9. WDGreen wrote: ...drown in oil

My advice? Obama better start swimming.

[Angry Dragon]

12. I am waiting for him to grow a spine.

I see the Democratic party as a party that wants to include everyone. In doing this one needs to listen to all and consider their views. Obama does this well it seems. However, it does not seem that he has gotten anywhere listening to the other side.

It is time for him to just go out and do the things he has said needs to be done. I feel he has a couple of options here. He can be remembered as the president that could not pass things because because he could not get a consensus or the president that fought hard and lost. Or if he fights hard he may get what he wants.

Getting watered down bills passed or not fighting for things because the country is not ready for it, is not what this country needs now. We need a president that leads and can be seen fighting for the betterment of all Americans. It is time to stop worrying about the power elite and the greedy ones and call them out.

[freddie mertz]

13. It is up to the president to figure out what his "strong leadership" style is.

It's a complicated thing, and I don't think he has it worked out yet.

This crisis, so far, has shown him to be not quite ready for the challenge.

When London was being bombed to smithereens, Churchill figured it out.

When the nation faced a depression, and later Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt showed that he had the stuff.

I hate to admit it, but even the loathsome Rudy Giuliani figured it out, for a few days at least, after the 9/11 attacks.

I loved Jimmy Carter, but I'm not sure he ever figured it out.

I think Clinton had a better handle on it, and would have handled the gulf crisis with more assurance than what we have seen so far.

I'm really surprised that Obama has let this slip away from him. He showed real skills during the campaign, especially after the Jeremiah Wright business threatened to torpedo his campaign.

I think the country still likes him, and he could still pull it out today (I hope he does, we need him to).

[KonaKane]

19. What exactly would you have him do that he hasnt already?

I've asked this question several times on DU and havent yet gotten a thoughtful response. Since the government does not possess the technology necessary to deal with a spill of this magnitude, what exactly do you think they would bring to the tragedy that hasn't already been brought?

[freddie mertz]

21. In some ways my critique here is of his "performance of leadership."

Call it show craft if you like.

But going there several times, rather than once, and personally making himself available to the citizens and the press, speaking in very clear and commanding tones, on site, would have done a lot to alleviate the perception that he was otherwise engaged.

That is what I would have advised. Be a presence, take ownership of the calamity and declare your willingness to do whatever it takes, then do it, and be seen to be doing it.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

22. I prefer his current style of leadership over what you proclaim to be leadership. nt

[freddie mertz]

25. I submit that it is not a matter of what he most ardent supports might "prefer".

It's a matter of what works politically and how it plays out on a mass scale.

Obama is the president and he should have better instincts.

His absence from the stage allowed others to write the story ABOUT him.

A crisis abhors a vacuum.

I thought he was smarter than this.

[laughingliberal]

24. +1 nt

[KonaKane]

29. So "put on a bullshit show"? Is that what you are suggesting?

Because thats what it sounds like.

[freddie mertz]

31. A good "performance" as a leader does not have to be bullshit.

Obama can be and has been an inspiring figure.

We could use some of that inspiration right now.

That is pretty much all I am saying.

[jaxx]

14. Nice post.

And from reading on I see what the freepers are gloating about. What a damn shame that this is happening when most do not think that way.

I'm with you, I trust the man will do the right thing as he has been doing all along.

[FBI_Un_Sub]

15. Accept reality

• Accept reality -- this was the Chernobyl and Three Mile Island redux for our wastrel life style.
  
• We have harvested all of the "low hanging fruit" from the petroleum deposits -- see Kenneth F. Deffeyes Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert's Peak and Hubbert's Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage and When Oil Peaked.
  
• We are going to have fight "Oil Wars" (as in Iraq and Afghanistan), see Michael Klare's books about mineral wars.
  
• We have harvested all of the light sweet crude that is easily extractable -- now we are driven to the polar regions and bottoms of the oceans.
  
• Maybe it's past time that we abandon our MacMansions in remote suburbs, our green cul-de-sacs, and our disdain of mass transit and urban life. See http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/06/here-comes-the-neighborhood/8093">Christopher Leinberger, Here Comes the Neighborhood,The Atlantic Monthly, June 2010
  

[closeupready]

16. I don't give a flying crap what freepers say, and I wish people here would stop

giving them and their views respect.

As to your other points, I think they are very valid. :hi:

[WCGreen]

23. I was just trying to make a point...

I don't really care what they say either..

[closeupready]

27. No offense, I've just been cranky lately.

:hi:

[Jamastiene]

30. FUCK what the FReepers say.

You made some good points, but we should not spend one iota of our time worrying what the FReepers say. They have proven themselves to be uncaring, unthinking, unfeeling idiots time and again. To hell with the fucking FReepers and their comments.

[blindpig]

32. It ain't about this presidency, it is about capitalism.

Anyone who becomes President of the United States is necessarily the front man for capitalism, wouldn't have the job otherwise.

Kill Capitalism.