Are perhaps needed a larger crisis that couldn't go to waste. But this is the sort of thing that pisses me off, frankly.
Three days after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, the Dutch government offered to help. It was willing to provide ships outfitted with oil-skimming booms, and it proposed a plan for building sand barriers to protect sensitive marshlands.
One of the commenters there suggests, without a source, that BP was actually all for it but got overruled by the administration. I was tempted to add a new label "going to hell in a hand-basket" but drowning in corruption works well also.
H/T - Insty
Oh, crap. I truly did not see your post about this prior to adding my own.
ReplyDeleteI will delete mine, and just make it a comment here.
I've not said much about Obama's handling of the Gulf oil disaster, simply because I know there are some things that even a self-proffessed presidential messiah cannot do.
ReplyDeleteThat is no longer the case.
Besides his anti (worse than un) Americanism, this asshole initially turned away the offer of help from Holland, the country with arguably more expertise in handling water troubles than any other, that was made, THREE DAYS after the blowout.
Millions, if not billions of gallons of contaminated water, trillions of fragile marine life-forms and thousands of people who live from those resources have his incredible hubris to thank for this.
Yes. I too have restrained from pinning blame on the O. And really, still think it a bad idea, in general.
ReplyDeleteBut I'll make an exception here. This may have been a lower level decision, we don't know for sure, but it shouldn't have been (in violation of the 'pig' rule). Not an offer of this sort.
In the midst of an ecological disaster someone thought it politically advantageous to say no to Holland's offer. That's my take, as I think anyone of average ability would have accepted help from practically any source in an effort to prevent the damage that is occurring.
The real problem here is the power we have given the Executive to make unilateral decisions that affect us all. I think George W. knew the dangers of this and we've had no one of sense since him.
I'm horrified by what is happening in the beautiful Gulf. It's an environmental disaster of epic proportions.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure why the president would turn down help from the Dutch; it sounds like they had excellent knowledge and equipment to contribute. I'd like an explanation from the White House.
The oil has now penetrated the marshes, up to twenty miles inland. At this advanced stage, all the money and equipment on the planet can't fix what has happened, and what will happen in the coming weeks.
Every skimmer and length of boom on earth should have been deployed when the spill was small, especially if BP and the president KNEW (as has been reported) that it would take months to stop the leak.
If he had taken the offer of help from Holland, then this situation may have been cleaned up with little damage. Then The Messiah would not have had a tool with which to try and nationalize the oil industry.
ReplyDeleteWhat's more important, protecting the country or achieving his political goals? Re-education camp for you.
It took a little while to find a convenient villain on whom to pin the NO damage of Katrina, but eventually, the Army Corps of Engineers became the whipping boy for the criminal negligence and ineptitude of local and state government.
ReplyDeleteWith this disaster, the "villain" was already front and center. I don't want to become a conspiracy theorist and tend to ascribe to the "never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence" line of thinking, but as more information like this comes out, it's very hard to believe that it's ALL incompetence and not some secondary motives finding a convenient way to play out.
This has become (unnecessarily) such a horrific thing. I hope it haunts Obama for the rest of his life. Unlike Bush who could have done nothing to turn or downgrade Katrina, Obama could have done much keep this from becoming what it has.
Lyana...first, it's nice to hear some one else tell a bit of truth about Katrina and the Corps of Engineers versus the incompetents in both state and local Louisiana levels....not to mention the arbitrary budget cuts under both Bushes and Clinton.
ReplyDeleteAs for the villain in the Gulf affair, yep, front and center and also given birth under prior administrations going back to at least Bush 41. Obama appointed an idiot phony as Secretary of the Interior, who on day one had full access to the 2008 IG report about malfeasance within MMS...and he did nothing. MMS was, literally, in-bed with big oil. Short cuts lead to more short cuts...BOOM!!
But it didn't just occur on Obama's watch, it grew on his predecessors watches, and was encouraged. Institutionalized idiocy makes governance difficult...no matter who is POTUS, the same morons are running the Departments day to day. Faces change, mediocrity remains within the senior executive levels. Civil servants just try to survive inept leadership and do a job. Rock the boat and you're out.