As I’ve been driving cross country and reading about the Oil Spill (and occasionally getting some information from various news or broadcast networks), a number of things have struck me, notably the number of federal regulations making it difficult for those ready and willing to help provide relief or stop the leak and contain its spread to do so.
We’ve read about the Jones Act which limits the ability of foreign-owned ships to help out. Of course, a signature from the president could waive that in the present crisis. I’m sure our readers can quickly come up with other areas where regulation or bureaucratic inertia has delayed (or prevented) assistance from getting through.
This morning, Glenn Reynolds linked a piece on Bureaucracy Standing In The Way Of Oil Spill Clean Up Efforts. This is where the energetic executive comes in. The president should be doing what he can to cut through the bureaucracy, wiling to step on toes with the primary goal of stopping the leak and limiting its spread. In short, it is executive action which is key at the present moment — not legislative initiatives.
And yet, President Obama saw fit to use this, um, well, “crisis” to push passage of Cap and Trade. That he would use his Oval Office Address to that end shows just how clueless he is, particularly about the power of his office.
He should be using the tools at his disposal to cut through bureaucracy instead of asking another branch of government to expand it.
It gets worse. Obama is C-in-C of U.S. armed forces, including the Coast Guard. What is he doing? Having them to *prevent* cleanup:
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/bp-oil-spill-gov-bobby-jindals-wishes-crude/story?id=10946379
Note: I don’t claim Obama has ordered the Coast Guard to prevent cleanup. I used the broader verb, “having”, on purpose. Even if Obama didn’t order the Coast Guard to prevent cleanup, the point is that as C-in-C, he could and should override the Coast Guard’s efforts to prevent cleanup. As C-in-C, he should order the Coast Guard to assist Jindal’s cleanup barges instead of stopping them. As of this writing, Obama hasn’t done that, so he “having it”, that the Coast Guard prevents cleanup.
When your mission is to transform the world you can’t have some petty details get in the way. Cleaning up the oil spill is for the LESSER Gods to handle.
There is a very interesting set of “circumstances” that cause one to become suspicious of motive.
Obama has declared “war” on energy, not the one gushing oil well.
Obama has placed a moratorium on further off shore drilling.
The oil platforms are being relocated to other world sites and to Brazil in particular.
Brazil has a $2B gift from the US government to develop deep water wells that are even deeper than the Gulf of Mexico well that is gushing oil.
The Brazilian oil company is Petrobras and George Soros has an enormous stake in it. Bloomberg has a series of reports on the Soros hedge fund interest in Petrobras and Hess.
Link here: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a.V5sgGzdsQY
Whether or not you are keyed into the whole Alinsky, radical agenda, Soros as puppet master theme, it is amazing how often the roads lead to the same core players.
The Dems made such an issue about how Haliburton was running the show during the Bush years, that most of us are snake-bitten about sounding like those loons. (Amazing, isn’t it, that Obama is using the same guy Bush replaced “Brownie” with after Katrina and the full Democrat lib government has not seen fit to tear Haliburton down brick by brick. In fact, Obama has let at least two no bid contracts to Halliburton.)
The conundrum here is the same as the frog being slowing killed by rising water temps in the pot. At some point, Obama and his minions must be “forced” to lay out their strategy before it is too late. We have a collapsing world economy, a rocket powered rising deficit, $130TRILLION unfunded entitlement liability deficit, an environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, record unemployment, growing hostile nuclear threats, rising discontent from the welfare sector, a huge section of Arizona closed to US citizens because of illegal alien occupation and much more.
Whether Obama is just inept or there is a plan being unfolded, we can see the direction we are taking. Next year, the Bush tax cuts expire and there will be a massive tax increase on the middle class as a result. It will not improve the treasury balance sheet, but it will further strangle the economy. People will have fewer free market choices for their dollars when more of them are funneled to the government. Jobs will be lost and sales will decline and all the unemployment comp entitlements will eat up the “increased” revenue.
Now we are looking at the Obama administration causing energy prices to rise. A recent report from Harvard sees $7.00 a gallon gasoline. The actual dollar amount is not the point. Energy costs affect every aspect of the economy and they are all passed on to the consumer. So, if your wallet is tight now, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Has anyone seen any talk of investigating the oil companies recently? Do they only make “obscene” profits when the Republicans are in charge? If a company has an income of $200B it ought to be making $20B in profit or it ought to reorganize.
And, as the oh-so-socialist Brits are learning, BP supports a lot of pensioners who are shareholders in their profits.
Liberals are not just liars, they are corruptocrats who sit like vultures waiting to tear their dying victims apart. When was the last time you heard of vulture opening a food pantry for the people in the hood?
heliotrope, good points. I wouldn’t allege a conspiracy yet, either, but it is amazing what a scumbag Soros is – and how often he is there to benefit from the Obama administration.
I was reading yesterday that Obama is now even more unpopular in Britain than he is in the US. They were willing to overlook Obama’s many diplomatic gaffes / insults, but now with this BP thing, Obama is aggressively scapegoating, blackmailing and possibly destroying a company that is very important to them. How would we feel if, say, Britain did that to GM?
By the way, the Japanese ought to feel similarly: I suspect that, whatever Toyota’s actual faults may be, their cars are probably safer than GM cars and the media hysteria over Toyota may have been quietly ‘arranged’ to benefit Government Motors.
Obama not JAEL after all Epic FAEL – Obama’s Crypt-o-nite.
http://youhavetobethistalltogoonthisride.blogspot.com/2010/06/tgif-circus-life-crypt-o-nite.html
I tweeted this as a comment to you, but on off chance you don’t see it, I thought I would cross post it on your blog. I read earlier this evening that the LC organization, GOProud has formed a partnership with Grover Norquist, and all I could think was why?? It isn’t a secret any more that Norquist converted to Islam when he married his Hamas supporting Palestinian radical wife, and formed the Islamic Institute, that is allied with CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood, and working to impose sharia in the US.
Norquist is only out for himself, and seeks such alliances to dupe people, an that is what he’s doing with GOProud. He tried as much with the teaparty at CPAC, but they blew him off when he aired that anti-semitic progaganda video at the conference. Please, look into him yourself and consider reaching out to GOProud to warn them. It’s bad enough that left wing gay organizations are selling themselves out, conservative gays shouldn’t be aping them.
The thing with the Jones Act.
And the thing with the Maine company that makes booms.
And the thing with private citizens wanting to help but being told, “No.”
And the thing with skimmer owners being told, “No.”
One thing might be in common to all of them:
Obama is in bed with the UNIONS.
The Jones Act protects American Unionized boats and ships.
The Maine boom builder seems to be a family shop, not union.
Private citizens and skimmer owners are also non-union.
Would Obama bankrupt this country to deliver part of the auto industry to the UAW?….Yes, he would.
Would Obama bankrupt this country to save or create almost exclusively union jobs?…..Yes, he would.
So, why is it such a stretch to think Obama would chose union protection over the Gulf Coast of America?
Nan G
You have made the leap that I am nearly ready to cross. I just do not have the Moxie to join the likes of Tano and Levi in the shrouded world of conspiracies. However, if this is pure narcissistic idiocy on Obama’s part, how come so many Democrats are following him off the cliff?
When certain conservatives (such as my favorite radio host, Michael Medved) make the point that Obama isn’t deliberately trying to wreck our country, I reluctantly have to agree. It probably doesn’t help us conservatives to stop giving him the benefit of the doubt at this point. (That is, it’s still best for us to assume he’s doing what he believes to be right, even if it’s horribly wrong.) Even so, it’s sort of hard to think of things he’d do differently if he were trying to wreck our country. But I think it’s still best for conservatives to not question his intentions but rather to question his actions. His intentions may or may not be bad, but his actions are definitely wrong.
What is clear to me is that he’s a guy who won’t let events get in the way of his plans. Rather than leading a country and doing what is appropriate given the circumstances (think Jindal, Christie, etc.), it’s more like he’s leading a college seminar, albeit one with 300 million people in attendance. Whenever someone gets off the subject by talking about actual current events, he tries to bring the subject back to whatever is on his syllabus from the beginning of the term. A student raises his hand to ask the professor what he thinks should be done about the oil spill. Prof. Obama thanks him for the question, points out that oil is a fossil fuel, and segues into a lecture about how we need to reduce our use of fossil fuel by passing a cap-and-trade (er, I mean, climate) bill. The student’s question is never actually answered, and the professor moves ahead with his curriculum.
#1 I agree with stopping them for safety reasons. In emergency response situations, the safety of the responders should ALWAYS be paramount. This is the first lesson in fire & EMS training because you don’t do anybody any good if you get hurt or killed.
HOWEVER, I can’t imagine why these boats would have to be stopped for over 24 hours. If it’s life vests and fire extinguishers, you make a trip to WalMart and get back to work. The only thing I can think of is that there were some questions about the safety of the equipment being used. The story doesn’t say anything about that though.
I’m not reluctant to make the leap that you are still reluctant to make, heliotrope and ILC. Why do I say that? Well, consider that Obama knew the potential scope of the damage shortly after the spill occurred, and yet, not only did he do nothing, he repeatedly turned away offers of help from foreign governments. Therefore, I have no problem accepting the premise that he wants this to be a disaster so he can push his agenda. After all, what did he do in his disastrous speech the other night? Did he outline a plan for cleaning up the spill? No, he only did what a community organizer/agitator does best: he spoke in broad generalities while demonizing a corporation, and then he argued that this is why we need to pass cap-and-tax. “Let no crisis go to waste,” indeed.
I think when your worldview dictates that the problem to all possible problems is increased government regulation, the concept that government regulation could be part of the problem is totally out of the realm of possibility.
It has become clear to me that Obama is more invested in his ideology than the American people. He will continue with the talking points to get his leftist agenda furthered, no matter how far divorced from reality they become or how much he alienates the American people.
Ha ha ha …what a group of tongue in cheek comedians these liberals are. True everyone egged on POTUS to get tough with BP, but let’s get serious here, Mr Obama has no legal or legislative authority to compel any corporation to set up a monetary fund for victims…… Hell yeah BP acted irresponsibly, no one is denying that…… however, the president is reaching far past the purview of his constitutional powers by strong arming BP into ponying up Billions of dollars with out a court order…… Yeah… yeah… yeah, I can hear all the left wing numb-nuts out there in the dark…but the law is the law, and no president has the right to demand an immense transfer of stockholder wealth. But Obama has become accustom to doing what ever the hell he wants, regardless what the law says… remember he did fire the head of GM with just a phone call………… Mr Obama is not acting like the constitutional scholar he’s purported to be, but rather like a Big City Boss. It seems the lack of jurisprudence from the South Side streets of Chicago has rubbed off on the man rather than the legal decorum found in the U of C law school.
Now I say this to all you progressive hacks out there wallowing in the sludge, don’t get your hopes up. This lil dust up isn’t gonna get you any traction come November when you try and smear the GOP. Given the inept handling of the whole situation by this administration, in a week the left’s current allegations will be long forgotten…………. Come on kids, ya gotta admit if to no one other than yourselves, the dude now occupying the Oval Office is a miserable failure when it comes to dealing with a major problem and hasn’t a clue how to really delegate responsibilities……….. Have you heard? Of course you haven’t. I’m sure none of you on the left are aware how Obama screwed up yet again by appointing an oil spill czar from the Navy who is only available to oversee the cleanup in the Gulf on a part time basis……….. How frickin stupid was that presidential decision???????
Hmmmmm ….What to do next to save face? I know….how’s this grab you leftists? This idea is sure to lift the spirits of all you you liberal spooge peddlers…… You should urge Mr Obama to just go ahead and seize BP, in fact have him grab all of Big Oil’s assests to bail out the public sector unions all across the USA….. Tell him to just be done with it all…. remembering if you will when you tell him, that’s what LA’s queen, Maxine Waters, said she wanted to do:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrA9zj94NuU&feature=related
According to our friends on the far left, big oil has always been the BIG enemy…. and dang-it,their assets should be seized. Think about it, if you go ahead and snag all their wealth you can get rid of every union problem that exists … and after that you can follow up by using the excess to pad the Democrat’s reelection war chest. Wow….what an idea. Do that, why don’t ya???? Just don’t hide behind closed doors when you do it… Have some cajones for a change and do it in the light of day for the whole world to see…..and in one fell swoop. Come on, aint that what’s really happening here now??? Who can doubt that the far left’s perspective, and that includes Mr Obama, is now demanding Big Oil must pay for all their crimes against humanity….not just for the leak in the Gulf, but from as far back as when Rockefeller found the 1st drop of black gold in the Saudi dunes. Think about it….I’m talking to all progressive sharks out there smelling the blood in the water. What an opportunity for you all to finally get even…….. Bon appetite bitches.
Now my beloved FLA has oil hitting the beaches.
Day 61
BP Tony Hayward goes yachting.
Barack Obama goes golfing. No I’m not kidding.
Yet another crisis….
It is reported that 17 Afghans being flight trained for the Afghan Air services ARE MISSING after training in the USA?
Islamists, flight trained, missing and on the loose in America.
Since Obama never has press conferences, we can’t get answers as to how this happened and what the current status is.
I’d advise GP users not to fly for the next few weeks if you can avoid it.
I’m still not certain that Obama isn’t allowing the crisis to get worse intentionally so that he can then use it to push his agenda.
I take that back…I *AM* increasingly convinced he is sitting on his hands while the crisis gets worse, running whatever interference he can to ensure that the spill gets worse, so he can use the crisis to pass his radical agenda
And Obama played yet another round of golf today.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2010/06/19/media-outraged-bp-ceo-yacht-race-saturday-dont-care-obama-golfed
All that dithering can wear a body out.
I think Obama probably really believed the UNIONs could handle the BP oil spill.
I think he believes government is always the answer, too.
Some essay writer compared Obama’s teleological worldview with the logic/materialistic view held by more rational folks.
Seems teleologics believe (as opposed to reasoning) and, if they believe hard enough, and there are enough of them all believing the same thing – any problem can be solved.
Peter Pan demanded that type of viewpoint from his audience when he demanded we all clap and Tinkerbelle could recover from poison.
There are two huge problems with teleology:
One, it is false.
And, two, when they fail they can always blame the rational/materialists among them!
That’s us, for the most part, guys.
It is OUR fault the unions couldn’t keep the Gulf coast clean.
Executive management is *hard work*, and it is something that Obama has no experience in..nor does he appear to have even studied it academically.
One thing that executives learn is how to keep their own bureaucracies from engaging in cripplingly dysfunctional behavior…a CEO friend referred to the necessary activity as “playing whack-a-mole.”
Obama knows nothing of these things. For him to offer himself as President was as presumptuous as for someone to fly a 737 full of passengers without ever having even taken a Cessna 152 around the pattern on a sunny day.
I have to wonder if it’s getting kind of painful for Bammy’s obsequious worshipers to have to defend his ever more evident incompetence.
Obama plays Blame-a-Mole. “His fault! Oh, their fault too! His fault! I had nothing to do with it!”
Oh my gosh….all you have to do is look at how few supporters now come to GP to defend the administration. Even they seem to know this is the gang that can’t shoot straight.
There are very few libs who will come here and argue substance.
chicken chickens I call them.
Would you want to defend Obama Biden Napalatano Holder Sebelius
BTW who is the head of FEMA now? Has that post been eliminated?
Dilbert does Bammy.
Scott Adams (Dilbert creator) lost his business here in Dublin about 8 months ago due to the Obama economy. “Stacey’s” was a really classy place to have a nice meal and a drink. I’m not surprised he’s ragging on The Won now.