Heck of a Job, Brownie
3:04 AM
by Nick Stone of Drawnlines Politics.
As tens of thousands of barrels of oil a day gush out of a gaping hole at the ocean floor, Americans hold their breath and await a solution to the problem. Frustration grows as livelihoods flash before the eyes of concerned coastal residents. People are right to be angry over this horrifying spectacle, but angry at whom?
While vigilant in fanning flames of outrage, President Obama has been deft at keeping all fingers pointed at British Petroleum and away from the White House so far. But the tide is slowly turning as details come out and the White House sits on its hands. We know that the MMS has had a plan for years to combat scenarios like this. Yet the government material needed was never put into place. Already, parallels have been drawn to the 2005 Katrina disaster and general federal impotence. It’s only a matter of time until we see Barack pat some crony on the back and cheer, “Heck of a job, Brownie!”
With 65 miles of coastline now tarnished beach to clean and revitalize, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is understandably frustrated with the White House response to a natural disaster on his shores. Within moments of learning about the disaster in late April, the Obama White House leapt into action. Not a group that likes to let any good crisis go to waste, the administration began tireless efforts to point fingers, grandstand, shift blame, ignore obvious truths and politicize the disaster. Instead of sending ships, crew, and material, they sent a team of lawyers.
President Obama finds himself in a politically tight spot. He recently announced a plan to allow more offshore drilling in previously protected areas and praised the safety record of American oil producers. Not only was Barack Obama the largest recipient of BP’s campaign contributions in 2008, but the sum he received from BP and related PACs totaled a whopping $2.89 million. Now he has to walk back his offshore drilling plans and instead shore up his left flank with his legendary heated rhetoric. One can’t help but wonder if candidate Obama felt the industry was quite so evil while flying around on the Obama campaign jet, fueled and paid for by fossil fuels (literally).
Looking objectively, it appears all but certain that British Petroleum took shortcuts which reduced margins of safety and led to the rig explosion. They are almost definitely to blame. Every company puts productivity as priority number one, yet every company claims that they put safety first, and every company has accidents. But that’s not to say that Rand Paul was wrong when he admitted, “Accidents happen” to the press last week.
When a disaster hits, it’s important to scramble to fix the problem first. Then you have to be able to objectively review what went wrong and make steps to correct the problem. Finally, if you feel scorned, go after the bastards that caused pain and try to make victims whole. Yet time and time again we see this White House point blame first and fact-find later. Take the issue of Professor Gates and Beergate as a perfect example of the president shooting his mouth off before fact-finding.
Anyone who has watched the news over the past month knows that BP is doing everything they can to plug the hole at the bottom of the ocean. Does any sane person really think that BP is dragging this disaster out, that they intentionally caused it, or that they are cavalier about the seriousness of the problem? Who in their right mind thinks that this mess is benefitting the oil company in any way? We all know that BP would have been better off if there was no spill, if it had been stopped quickly, and if few people would be affected. BP wants this mess fixed as badly as any person living along the coast, for their own sake. In other words, yelling and threatening doesn’t plug the spill any faster.
While this president points fingers at oil-hungry Americans, he might want to ask himself whether the government itself is complicit in this spill. The problematic rig was in 5,000 ft of water instead of fifty feet because regulators pushed it out there. If that rig was on land or near shore, is there any doubt that a team would have access and ability to seal the pipe in short order? Of course not. Because the government wanted all new rigs out of sight and out of mind, it created a much larger problem through the virtues of bureaucracy. Instead of an accident tarnishing some shallow cove, this mess threatens the entire Gulf and Eastern Seaboard.
If the president has his way, the cleanup and court costs will bankrupt and eliminate British Petroleum from the face of the Earth. But even if that makes us feel better in the short term, it will not save us from rare accidents. It will do nothing to shift our economy away from fossil fuels, either. Barack can browbeat and saber rattle as much as he likes, but this crisis needs cool heads and real results. Public sentiment is likely to turn on this president if he doesn’t start becoming part of the solution instead of the problem.
Will he be bicycling around the country to greet angry voters in November? Probably not.
Our economy needs oil, and our security requires it be domestic. American oil drillers have the best safety and environmental standards in the world. Compare our records against Mexico, Russia, or Saudi Arabia. But if we started capping oil wells tomorrow, it wouldn’t take any cars off the road and it wouldn’t stop our competitors from tapping their resources. We would just import 90 percent of our oil instead of 70 percent.
Despite the current mess, Americans must hold firm in support of more exploration and use of our domestic resources.
For videos and archives visit Drawnlines Politics Online AND check us out on FACEBOOK
As tens of thousands of barrels of oil a day gush out of a gaping hole at the ocean floor, Americans hold their breath and await a solution to the problem. Frustration grows as livelihoods flash before the eyes of concerned coastal residents. People are right to be angry over this horrifying spectacle, but angry at whom?
While vigilant in fanning flames of outrage, President Obama has been deft at keeping all fingers pointed at British Petroleum and away from the White House so far. But the tide is slowly turning as details come out and the White House sits on its hands. We know that the MMS has had a plan for years to combat scenarios like this. Yet the government material needed was never put into place. Already, parallels have been drawn to the 2005 Katrina disaster and general federal impotence. It’s only a matter of time until we see Barack pat some crony on the back and cheer, “Heck of a job, Brownie!”
With 65 miles of coastline now tarnished beach to clean and revitalize, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is understandably frustrated with the White House response to a natural disaster on his shores. Within moments of learning about the disaster in late April, the Obama White House leapt into action. Not a group that likes to let any good crisis go to waste, the administration began tireless efforts to point fingers, grandstand, shift blame, ignore obvious truths and politicize the disaster. Instead of sending ships, crew, and material, they sent a team of lawyers.
President Obama finds himself in a politically tight spot. He recently announced a plan to allow more offshore drilling in previously protected areas and praised the safety record of American oil producers. Not only was Barack Obama the largest recipient of BP’s campaign contributions in 2008, but the sum he received from BP and related PACs totaled a whopping $2.89 million. Now he has to walk back his offshore drilling plans and instead shore up his left flank with his legendary heated rhetoric. One can’t help but wonder if candidate Obama felt the industry was quite so evil while flying around on the Obama campaign jet, fueled and paid for by fossil fuels (literally).
Looking objectively, it appears all but certain that British Petroleum took shortcuts which reduced margins of safety and led to the rig explosion. They are almost definitely to blame. Every company puts productivity as priority number one, yet every company claims that they put safety first, and every company has accidents. But that’s not to say that Rand Paul was wrong when he admitted, “Accidents happen” to the press last week.
When a disaster hits, it’s important to scramble to fix the problem first. Then you have to be able to objectively review what went wrong and make steps to correct the problem. Finally, if you feel scorned, go after the bastards that caused pain and try to make victims whole. Yet time and time again we see this White House point blame first and fact-find later. Take the issue of Professor Gates and Beergate as a perfect example of the president shooting his mouth off before fact-finding.
Anyone who has watched the news over the past month knows that BP is doing everything they can to plug the hole at the bottom of the ocean. Does any sane person really think that BP is dragging this disaster out, that they intentionally caused it, or that they are cavalier about the seriousness of the problem? Who in their right mind thinks that this mess is benefitting the oil company in any way? We all know that BP would have been better off if there was no spill, if it had been stopped quickly, and if few people would be affected. BP wants this mess fixed as badly as any person living along the coast, for their own sake. In other words, yelling and threatening doesn’t plug the spill any faster.
While this president points fingers at oil-hungry Americans, he might want to ask himself whether the government itself is complicit in this spill. The problematic rig was in 5,000 ft of water instead of fifty feet because regulators pushed it out there. If that rig was on land or near shore, is there any doubt that a team would have access and ability to seal the pipe in short order? Of course not. Because the government wanted all new rigs out of sight and out of mind, it created a much larger problem through the virtues of bureaucracy. Instead of an accident tarnishing some shallow cove, this mess threatens the entire Gulf and Eastern Seaboard.
If the president has his way, the cleanup and court costs will bankrupt and eliminate British Petroleum from the face of the Earth. But even if that makes us feel better in the short term, it will not save us from rare accidents. It will do nothing to shift our economy away from fossil fuels, either. Barack can browbeat and saber rattle as much as he likes, but this crisis needs cool heads and real results. Public sentiment is likely to turn on this president if he doesn’t start becoming part of the solution instead of the problem.
Will he be bicycling around the country to greet angry voters in November? Probably not.
Our economy needs oil, and our security requires it be domestic. American oil drillers have the best safety and environmental standards in the world. Compare our records against Mexico, Russia, or Saudi Arabia. But if we started capping oil wells tomorrow, it wouldn’t take any cars off the road and it wouldn’t stop our competitors from tapping their resources. We would just import 90 percent of our oil instead of 70 percent.
Despite the current mess, Americans must hold firm in support of more exploration and use of our domestic resources.
For videos and archives visit Drawnlines Politics Online AND check us out on FACEBOOK
Posted by Nick Stone
on 3:04 AM.
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Are you honestly comparing a natural disaster that had four to five days of warning, which instantly impoverished tens of thousands of people, and left thousands more stranded with no way out of their homes or off the streets, to a man-made disaster by an oil conglomerate?
I think the President has been slow to respond, but this is not his doing. He did the right thing by trying to let BP clean it up first. It's their mess. They're losing the oil. Why force taxpayers to pick up the tab, at least in the interim?
Furthermore, it's almost offensive to compare George Bush's ineptitude at hiring one of his cronies, Michael Brown, as Director of FEMA. At least the person in that role now has serious experience in emergency management, working under Republican Jeb Bush in Florida.