Why would the Obama administration sign off on a ton of BP safety violations?
Is it just incompetence?
Or did Obams need a distraction from his record as president like the oil spill and speechify his way to putting the blame soley on BP and the Republicans to rally his base (stupid people)?
Bill Randall, a North Carolina Republican candidate for Congress, is calling for a “thorough investigation” into whether President Barack Obama’s administration colluded with BP to allow the Gulf oil spill.
“There were procedures that were violated by BP that the federal government signed off on, safeguards that decades of engineering wherewithal and knowledge told them that this way the way to do it,” Randall told reporters earlier this week.
“They intentionally bypassed that and the safety was compromised.” Randall continued:
“I’m not necessarily a conspiracy person, but I don’t think enough investigation has been done on this. Someone needs to be digging into that situation. Full story
I don’t feel good about our prospects for the upcoming mid-term elections this November.
Why?
Because we have a very serious leadership problem in the GOP.
I could put up Ronald Reagan clips on this blog from now until Election Day in November and it won’t make a damn bit of difference if leaders like John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Mike Pence capitulate to false premises set by Democrats.
As far as I’m concerned these fearful men don’t have the right to call themselves Reagan Republicans ever again because of their treatment of a true patriot like Joe Barton.
How can we expect to set this country right again with feckless leaders like these who have become so bound by political correctness?
These men have become 21st century Neville Chamberlains for appeasing Democrats and the Left by acquiescing to PC rules of speech.
Democrats said that Joe Barton had the nerve to apologize to BP.
Instead of Republicans promptly refocusing the debate back to a proper criticism of Barack Obama circumventing our constitution by acting as judge and jury without giving BP due process, Republicans quickly accepted the false premise and appeased the Democrats without a fight!
How can the Republicans win any debate when they let the Dems set the rules of what can be said and what can’t be said?
Barack Obama’s approval ratings is in the 40s and Boehner, Cantor and Pence are still are afraid of their own shadows!
We need leaders that have the intestinal fortitude to totally ignore PC rules. Kick it in the ass! Rip it up and throw it away, and say what you mean and mean what you say.
That to me would be the first sign of audacity.
And though that man or woman will be savaged by Democrats and aided by their willing hookers in the press, the amount of public support that strong leader would receive by tens of millions of Americans would be like nothing you’d ever seen before.
I already have this vid on a prior post, but it deserves a post of its own because Reed is so dead on in her knocking Obama for stupidly shutting down all oil drilling in the gulf and throwing thousands of people out of work.
I don’t hear that expression much here in New York. The last time I heard I think was a Foghorn Leghorn cartoon I used to watch as a kid.
Julia, count me in as your newest fan.
Some background stuff on Reed
Julia Reed is senior writer at “Vogue” and a contributing editor at “Newsweek.” She also writes for “The New York Times Magazine,” among other publications, and is the author of “Queen of the Turtle Derby and Other Southern Phenomena” (2005).
Yesterday Gateway Pundit reported that Obama said that he won’t rest rest until the leak in the Gulf is stopped. Then he promptly goes off to see a baseball game, the Washington Nationals vs his Chicago Whute Sox.
Now, as you know I’m a baseball fan too. And I won’t begrudge Obama taking in a game. But, when he makes these high sounding pronouncements and then doesn’t miss a party, a game and a round of golf, it rings very hollow and nobody can take the guy seriously anymore.
Oh, I hope Obama keeps right on playing his golf and shaking his booty on the dance floor.
The White House pool report noted that Obama left at about 1 p.m. for the course at Andrews Air Force base, and his golfing parters included White House Trip Director Marvin Nicholson and David Katz, the energy efficiency campaign manager at the Department of Energy.
Obama left the course shortly before 6 p.m.
Nicholson and Katz, along with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, joined Obama for four hours of golf last weekend.
soon afterward taking aim at Obama's golfing during the ongoing BP oil spill crisis in the Gulf of Mexico.
The temperatures in the Washington, D.C., area Saturday were similar to last weekend, in the low 90s and humid.
Obama attended the Washington Nationals game Friday night wearing a cap for his hometown Chicago White Sox. Sources told the pool reporter that Obama sang "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and left in the ninth inning, before the White Sox edged out the Nationals 2-1 in the 11th.
Conservatives are making their voices knows and re-affirming Joe Barton’s correct charge that President Barack Obama circumvented the rule of law and acted as judge, jury, and executioner by extorting $20 billion dollars from BP.
The president and his regime committed a crime!
We need to stand up and say so otherwise our republic is in great danger. If some elected officials are too timid to defend the rights of American citizens against the makings of a tyrannical government, then we need to replace those officials with more capable replacements who love liberty more than political correctness.
Left Coast Rebel posted these videos that are well worth watching and learning about what’s happening to our country. Visit Left Coast Rebel for his wonderful commentary on this topic.
This is the incompetence of the Obama regime who seems to be more adept at extorting money from BP, Chicago style, than to actually address the problem of cleaning up the oil.
59 Days Into Oil Crisis, Gulf Coast Governors Say Feds Are Failing Them
"It's the most frustrating thing," the Republican governor said today in Buras, La. "Literally, yesterday morning we found out that they were halting all of these barges."
Sixteen barges sat stationary today, although they were sucking up thousands of gallons of BP's oil as recently as Tuesday. Workers in hazmat suits and gas masks pumped the oil out of the Louisiana waters and into steel tanks. It was a homegrown idea that seemed to be effective at collecting the thick gunk.
"These barges work. You've seen them work. You've seen them suck oil out of the water," said Jindal.
British subjects are irate over President Barack Obama’s bad mouthing of BP. Their animosity adds more spice to the meeting of the United States versus Britain in today’s World Cup soccer match.
To be honest, I’m not a soccer fan at all, it’s an American thing. But, it’s a different issue for the rest of the world who taken the World Cup very seriously to the point of obsessions.
Nothing wrong with that.
And if the Britain beats the United States, I won’t be too upset.
We’re still strong allies and I apologize to the British people for enduring shabby treatment by our president.
While tens of millions settle in to watch England and the United States in their first match of the World Cup today, the leaders of the two testy allies will be butting heads over BP and the Gulf oil spill.
The White House said President Obama would ring new Prime Minister David Cameron in London this morning to discuss a range of issues -- but Topic A is certain to be the environmental catastrophe in the Gulf, caused by an explosion at a rig owned by the British energy giant.
Three and a half hours after the Obama-Cameron call, at 2:30 p.m., the underdog American soccer squad takes on England in both teams' opening World Cup game in South Africa.
The two teams have been bitter rivals in the past, but anger over the Gulf mess raises today's game to a new level.
Filmmaker Spike Lee urged the US team members to wear T-shirts that read, "BP Sucks."
The finger-pointing prompted a former British ambassador to Washington, Christopher Meyer, to say relations between the two countries are in "a bit of a crisis."
Obama, under mounting pressure to get tough with BP, said this week that he would have fired the firm's CEO, Tony Hayward, and that he wanted to find out "whose ass to kick."
Fellow Democrats including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi demanded that BP suspend its rich stock-dividend payments until it pays for the Gulf cleanup -- and Obama has raised questions about it, too.
The BBC reported yesterday that the United States won the first round and that BP's board will announce it is shelving this quarter's dividend payment after Obama confronts Hayward and board chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg at the White House next Wednesday.
But British newspapers have fired back, with screaming headlines accusing Obama of trying to steal Grandmum's nest egg.
"Obama's boot on the throat of British pensioners," blared Thursday's front page of The Daily Telegraph.
"Obama is killing all our pensions," said The Daily Express.
I don’t know why people give Kevin Costner a hard time. I guess he somewhat fell out of favor after Water World.
But, so what?
If his machine can clean up the oil, then that’s a blessing as far as I’m concerned. And it once again would show that “free market” solutions and not government is the answer to problems.
On second thought, maybe that’s why congress is giving Kevin a hard time.
Costner said that BP, the oil company whose damaged well is the source of the spill, had recently placed an order for deploying 32 of the machines.
“We’re coming to this fight very late,” said Costner. “I think everybody would recognize that. And so we’re going to do the things that we can do but this company is poised to mobilize in order to step this up and to create an environment where people can go back to work. There is a single moment that exists right at this moment and that is there are people out of work. There’s a moratorium and there’s no way to lift that unless I believe the government feels that people can operate in a safe way. This represents that pivot point.” Full story
As an investor in stock myself, you're taught to dump a stock if your company gets involved in a serious lawsuit. It's done to preserve the capital you accumulated.
Obama should have concentrated on fixing the oil leak and containing the oil. BP wasn't going anywhere. With all this law suit threats BP has lost over 30 market value and it's not because of the leaks.
But, Obama doesn't know anything about free markets and capital, so this is what you get with a man without business experience .
As far as I’m concerned the Helen Thomas story is already overdone. and old news.
She was a vile anti-Semite that was able to get away with her prejudice for years because she was a Liberal icon.
Good riddance to bad rubbish and don’t let the door hit you where the Good Lord split you, Helen.
A much bigger story that I’m sure will fall through the cracks of the step-n-fetch it media is the cozy relationship Obama’s chief of staff Rahn Emanuel has with an associate of BP.
In case you were tempted to buy the faux Washington outrage at BP and its gulf oil spill in recent days, here's a story that reveals a little-known corporate political connection and the quiet way the inner political circles intersect, protect and care for one another in the nation's capital and Chicago.
We already knew that BP and its folks were significant contributors to the record $750-million war chest of Barack Obama's 2007-08 campaign.
Now, we learn the details of a connection of Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago mayoral wannabe, current Obama chief of staff, ex-representative, ex-Clinton money man and ex-Windy City political machine go-fer.
Shortly after Obama's happy inaugural, eyebrows rose slightly upon word that, as a House member, Emanuel had lived the last five years rent-free in a D.C. apartment of Democratic colleague Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut and her husband, Stanley Greenberg.
For an ordinary American, that would likely raise some obvious tax liability questions.
But like Emanuel, the guy overseeing the Internal Revenue Service now is another Obama insider, Tim Geithner, who had his own outstanding tax problems but skated through confirmation anyway by the Democratic-controlled Congress.
Remember this was all before the letters BP stood for Huge Mess. Even before the Obama administration gave BP a safety award.
Greenberg's consulting firm was a prime architect of BP's recent rebranding drive as a green petroleum company, down to green signs and the slogan "Beyond Petroleum."
Greenberg's company is also closely tied to a sister Democratic outfit -- GCS, named for the last initials of Greenberg, James Carville, another Clinton advisor, and Bob Shrum, John Kerry's 2004 campaign manager.
The more I think about all that oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, the it appears to be analogous to the Obama administration itself with all its slimy dark and toxic secrets, dirty deals and different set of rules that only applies to them.
I’m not a believer in Karma, but I know the Left is. Those shady Chicago tactics are what’s really spilling into the water.
Obama’s friends, suck ups, and ass kissers, except for James Carville for a time, are in mega damage control mode trying to explain why the Messiah who said the ocean levels would falll and the planet begin to heal if he got elected president can’t fix an oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.
I try to be as accurate as I can on this blog, but here is CYA (Cover Your Ass) reporting from Richard Wolfe who’s a frequent contributor on Count Down with Keith Olberman on MSNBC, a show nobody watches except me when I want a quick laugh.
Critics have bashed President Obama for being slow to seize the political initiative in combating the BP oil spill in the Gulf Coast, now widely believed to be the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.
The White House has battled back, releasing a timeline of events showing that Obama was briefed—and deploying the Coast Guard—within 24 hours of the Deepwater Horizon blowout.
[This is a load of hooey. With any explosion of an oil rig in the Gulf, the Coast Guard would respond automatically. It’s part of their mission and would not have to be directed by the White House. This is another lame attempt to explain that Obama was engaged FROM DAY 1! My left foot!]
What has not been previously disclosed: The president was not only briefed on the real-time events of the spill, but also on just how bad it would be—and how hard it would be to plug the hole.
Allen had called Carville after his first TV outburst to talk about the administration’s response, but Carville failed to return the call. When Allen asked why, Carville said he had been busy, the aide says. Carol Browner, director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, told Obama at one of the earliest briefings in late April that the blowout would likely lead to an unprecedented environmental disaster, senior White House aides told The Daily Beast.
Browner warned that capping a well at such depths had never been done before, and that they ought to expect an oil spill that would continue until a relief well was drilled in August, the aide said.
That early briefing on the scope of the spill—and enormous technical challenges involved in fixing it—might help explain the sense of fatalism that has infused Obama's team from the start.
[Fatalism? So according to Wolfe Obama practically retreats to a fetal position paralyzed with the news of the spill. This report, if true, makes the president look even worse by showing a man who is in over his head with REAL WORLD events that can befall any president.]
Little that has happened since has changed their mind-set. Now six weeks later, the president’s top advisers expect the oil spill—and the negative stories—to continue through August.
The fact that Team Obama was warned of the extent of the disaster so early on suggests that White House officials were aware of the environmental challenge long before they decided to demonstrate concern via presidential visits to the Gulf.
When asked about the prospects for the new cap fitted over the leaking well earlier this week, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs voiced little optimism. “I’m long out of the prediction business on this,” he told reporters on Air Force One on Friday.
“Everyone is hopeful that this works.” His comments were echoed by Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the national incident commander for the BP spill—who warned reporters against “over-optimism.”
Given the lack of technical capabilities on the sea floor, there’s not much the White House can do to plug the hole. And there are limited options for effectively preventing the oil from reaching large stretches of coastline.
Instead, Obama’s team is focusing on the options at their immediate disposal—methods of news management and presidential communication.
[So when Obama is in trouble, fall back to what he does best, TALK, TALK, and TALK some more to convince people he is competent.]
Obama’s aides have grown increasingly frustrated with the public criticism that the president has failed to express sufficient anger. As Gibbs put it at a recent briefing, “If jumping up and down and screaming were to fix a hole in the ocean, we’d have done that five or six weeks ago. We’d have done that the first night.” Full story
Sorry for putting you through this tripe.
Here’s the deal that Obama and Progressives/Liberals still don’t understand.
Obama presented himself to the American people as something that he wasn’t-competent to be president of the United States. They thought that an articulate man with a Harvard degree that can wordsmith his way on multiple issues can be an effected president.
But, running for president and being a president is about as different as a donkey is to a zebra.
Running for president is a beauty contest whereby if you’re attractive, speak without saying “ya know wha’ I’m say’en” every four or five words, don’t have a southern accent, and can hit the mark and pose without breaking a sweat every time under the hot lights, gets you the prize.
Obama is the complete package and it worked to get him the White House.
Look how calm and professorial he appears to be!
Nevertheless, Obama has been exposed since day 1 in the White House for being only what he is, a poser.
90% of being a president takes place when the cameras are off and the teleprompter is tucked away in a closet. At those times you need practical experience to make tough decisions.
What has Obama ever managed in his life?
Was he ever a governor of a state or a city?
Was he ever a CEO of a fortune 500 company?
The answer to both questions are obviously, no.
He’s just a poser and that’s the reason why his poll numbers have been steadily dropping BEFORE Deep Water Horizon sank.
If this oil leak never happened, his numbers would still be in freefall as a result of his profligate spending that most American disagree with, ObamaCare which most Americans didn’t want, Porkulous that’s basically a payoff ot his union buddies, Cap and Trade that would increases everyone’s utiliy bills, and all the domestic terrorists attacks we’ve suffered that didn’t happen under George W. Bush.
If anything this oil leak could have been a blessing in disguise for Obama if he had been pro-active since day one working with Gov Bobby Jindal and giving him the permits he wanted to build 6 sand berms to keep the oil away from the Louisiana coast.
But, Jindal is a Republican and Obama preferred to play politics instead of saving the Bayou.
Opportunity lost!
Being president is more than organizing the community with pitch forks to protest for social justice.
What’s really being exposed is not oil in the Gulf, but ineptitude at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
And Progressives can’t see that the Emperor has no clothes.
BP is expected to announce that it will move on to its next option, known as LMRP. The procedure involves cutting off the failed, leaking riser at the top of the Lower Marine Riser Package on the blowout preventer to get a clean-cut surface on the pipe.
Then the company will install a cap with a sealing grommet that would be connected to a new riser from the Discoverer Enterprise drillship, with the hopes of capturing most of the oil and gas flowing from the well.
BP began a risky operation known as "top kill" on Wednesday. The procedure involves pumping heavy drilling mud into the crippled well in a bid to stop the oil. It's never been tried in 5,000 feet of water.
The oil spill began after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded last month, killing 11 people. It's the worst spill in U.S. history, dumping between 18 million and 40 million gallons into the Gulf.
It’s time for the president to leave Chicago and direct BP as to what to do next since they’re operating under his direction.
