Is Obama doing a good job handling the BP oil spill? (Contest Question!)
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M$26 Answers
Starting at the beginning, lets take a look at the history of the oil rig, the Deepwater Horizon. Construction started on it in December of 1998 in Ulsan, South Korea. It was delivered in February of 2001 to Transocean after they acquired R&B Falcon, whom it was originally built for. BP leased it in 2008, and extended their contract to 2013 in October 2009.
Which leaves us where we are today, in a huge heaping mess of finger pointing. BP was first on the scene. It took Obama about a week to recognize there was a problem, and about another week after that for us to even hear that he acknowledged it.
Also to please some conspiracy theorists, this very well could have been a terroristic attack on the South Koreans. The rig was built in South Korea, and was destroyed shortly after a threat from North Korea to South Korea. I mean seriously, how could a pipe with 10ft thick walls seperate at the bottom of the shaft?
Ok, back to facts. From day 5 (or 6 or 7 etc.) Obama was pointing his finger at BP claiming it was their fault something like this happened. In reality, the finger should be pointed at both parties, BP and Obama. Obama has been too lax in the rules and regulations regarding oil drilling safety. There should have been a number of skimmers down in the Gulf of Mexico long before this happened. Yet there wasn't a single skimmer when the pipe blew. BP also was riding that same bandwagon. Because it wasn't required to follow some of the safety 'recommendations', BP chose not to.
Now once this happened, BP came to Obama with their plan of action, and Obama turned them down, and told them to try other means to fix the pipe. What did they end up doing? Covering the hole with a cap, which was their first PoA.
On top of all this, BP CEO Tony Hayward has to deal with the pressure of taking care of the spill in the Gulf, AND all the pressure that the president, his administration, he press, you guys, and just about everybody else is putting on him. I would like to see somebody step into his shoes RIGHT NOW, and not feel the same way he is right now.
Obama is currently working to stop drilling in the US completely. He has already stopped Alaskan drilling, and US Gulf drilling. This is going to cause the prices of gas and other oil-based products to inflate dramatically, which will cause the economy to sink further into the ground.
What Obama needs to do is either A) get him and his administration out of office and replaced with people who know how to run a country, or B) take the puppet masters hand out of his back and start running the country he promised he was going to run. He is planning to increase the national debt by 20% by 2015 and as much as 100% by 2020. Do we not see a problem here? He is PLANNING on running us into the ground. I would like to be disproved when I state that we have more debt than there is money on this planet.
The oil spill is going to be an eye opener for many people who don't know what goes on in the process of drilling oil, and what is REALLY going on behind the closed doors of the White House Administration. (Which were actually promised to be open doors by the way)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_Horizon
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/07/south-korea-military-exer_n_489427...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/28/south-korea-raises-alert-north-...
http://faustasblog.com/?p=20580
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt#Calculating_and_proj...
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy10/index.html
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M$We need to clean up and fix, not engage in a blame game right now. They're more focused on measuring the amount of damage in thousands of barrels every day than on *fast* searching for the best technologies available to undo the dirt *fast* and implementing them *fast*.
I know the limits of the US president's power. He is far from being the world's most powerful person. The world's richest people, the real ones, are the most powerful, but a US president can stand up to his job and do what he has to do. Obama has the voice that can break the limits of his power. His words endeared him to America and the world, he should choose them more carefully now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV1DeWJj46A
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M$It was referenced here:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/06/on_bp_spill_obama_puts_his_boo.html
"""I don't sit around talking to experts because this is a college seminar," he said. "We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick.""
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/06/07/gulf.oil.obama/
With hurricane season already upon us and oil AND toxic chemicals in the Gulf of Mexico it would seem that everyone would be worried about the water supplies of the world. But they're not. This is not the time to be looking for someone to blame, this is the time to get in there and fix it. There's plenty of blame to go around and should be doled out later. Fire fighters put an arson fire out before they go after the arsonist.
Where's Green Peace? Where are all the Green people? Where's everyone who drinks water? It's outrageous that millions of gallons of oil is spewing into the Gulf of Mexico and the state of California is boycotting Arizona.
And where's this oil coming from? I thought we didn't have any oil, that's why we are buying it from everyone else. Duped, again, I guess.
It seems to me that Obama has just recently realized that he was elected as the president of the United States, not president of the Student Council. The man does not have a clue as to what to do about anything.
He tried to appease the country by saying that he has the Nobel Prize winner, Energy Secretary Steven Chu working on the problem. I've lost some confidence in the Nobel process since they gave Obama one. So there's two Nobel prize winners working on the problem, so what?
I don't get it. "Actions speak louder than words" they say. So why doesn't everyone just shut up and DO SOMETHING.
http://current.com/news/92481189_aftermath-of-gulf-of-mexico-ecocide-benzen...
my anger, my disappointment in mankind, my breaking heart
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M$Second, BP is no more at fault for the spill than anyone else who rents property. Imagine if you rented an apartment, and inspectors found building/zoning code violations in it. Who should the blame go to?
You? The landlord? The builder? The previous building/zoning inspector(s)?
However, thanks to a US law (see source 2, below), the blame goes to the owner, BP, who is, ultimately, deemed responsible. As bizarre as that seems, given my apartment rental example, the law was passed to avoid having to do research to find the responsible parties, which is understandable. This is similar to a multiple car accident: The police will file a report, blame the most likely driver, then leave it to the insurance companies and courts to decide who is to blame, who needs to pay the others, and who will get paid as a result of the accident.
Third, given the above two, it is equally impossible for anyone not directly connected with the oil spill to do anything about it, other than to requisition aid in whatever forms are necessary, which President Obama, Congress, the Senate, and State and local governments have done. Of course, that won't help the fisherman and others whose livelihoods are being destroyed along with the environment. Even though some are being paid for the use of their boats at $1,000/day - 3,000/day (see sources 3 and 4, below), that will not help with long-term issues, including the affects of the oil spill on the health of all clean-up workers, as well as future catches.
Can the US government, or anyone else for that matter, do anything more than point fingers? No.
Should President Obama accept blame for the incident under his "watch"? While it is nice to think that any good Captain or Commander-in-Chief might do so, realistically speaking, the answer is "no".
Assuming this was truly an "accident" (i.e., as opposed to sabotage in an effort to raise gas prices or collect insurance money, which, I'm sure, will be among the next major topic for conspiracy theorists/nuts), there is nothing anyone can do, at this point, except keep pumping money, manpower, and resources, into the clean-up efforts, and do whatever is necessary to prevent such in the future,
such as preventing any further deep water oil platforms from being constructed, and putting additional safeguards into existing ones. Ironically, President Obama removed a 20-year ban preventing offshore oil drilling just days before this current incident (see source 4, below). Of course, lifting the ban at that time had nothing to do with this current incident, though, in hindsight, his legacy will be viewed as being environmentally unfriendly in the wake of it.
So, is President Obama (and the current administration) doing a good job handling this current crisis? Considering there is little anyone can do about it, the conclusion is, yes, he is doing as good a job as anyone could do, at this point. However, it remains to be seen how he will affect US or international laws concerning offshore drilling, so that future generations will not have another such accident to deal with.
(1) Transocean Ltd home website:
http://www.deepwater.com/fw/main/Home-1.html
(2) EPA - - US law concerning oil pollution:
http://www.epa.gov/oem/content/lawsregs/opaover.htm
(3) Affects on Louisiana fishermen:
http://www.wacktrap.com/environment/oil-spills/bp-oil-spill-fishermen-drop-...
(4) Affects on Louisiana fishermen:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1284334/I-lucky-I-1-000-m...
(5) Pres Obama lifts offshore drilling ban:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/31/barack-obama-offshore-drilling
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M$Secondly the six month ban on top of destroyed industries has left the Gulf economy shot. Now S&P has downgraded the drillers which flows on to the whole industry and the US. Obviously it is so distressing but we should be proactive and he we are after a month doing thinks. It concerns me all the noise without substance. I did expect more from him.
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M$I'm not saying anyone else is doing any better but it sure seems like the President would have a more powerful impact. He answers stategically placed questions with well thought out, generic, although well written responses. This does not make him a great leader for his issue.
A catastrophe of this magnitude needs a lot more input from our LEADER than what has been given or shown. A leader, THE leader, should be giving much more concern and leadership to this situation. I think it really struck me when he sent the Vice President to the Veteran's ceremony on Memorial Day while he was "otherwise detained".
This oil spill in the Gulf is a disaster and will affect many aspects of our environment. This should take some sort of presidence over any many of the issues he has been handling.
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M$I admit I don't know anything about oil spills, but it seems to me that everyone is saying that there is too much interference from the government and now they are complaining because the government didn't immediately step in to something that the oil companies knew more about.
Obama is not God and cannot solve all the problems of the world, but I have to give him credit for trying to clean up the mess he inherited from the last administration, plus any new problems as they arise. Give him a break, he is trying to solve them as quickly as humanly possible. And he is human. No matter what he does someone is always trying to criticize him without offering any plausible solutions.
I do know he attended the memorial day ceremony in Chicago because he was home for the weekend, that's why he was not at the one in DC.
I think the problem is that politicians campaign promising to fix everything... so I'll give you that. The ironic thing is that we'd never vote for a guy who would campaign based on this premise "Hey.... I'm gonna do the best job I can, but I'm not going to be able to fix everything." We'd never vote for a guy with that honesty... we WANT a guy to tell us he'll fix everything... we WANT a guy who says he'll lower taxes, fix unemployment, the economy, the environment and oh yeah... don't forget stop terrorism.
No ONE person can fix all of these monumental issues, throw on top of him this BP issue.... forget about it !
johnhaden.com
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M$The caveat, though, as someone on CNN pointed out is that once The President puts the Navy, or whoever, completely in charge, bp has an out and can say "You made it worse." Better to stick with the strained partnership they're attempting--the government inst the tech expert here, so they have to rely on bp or Transocean or someone who knows about deep-water drilling.
"what's the guy supposed to do?"
Huh? How about doing his job for starters.
The Oil Pollution Act (OPA) of 1990 gives the president of the United States complete responsibility for immediate action in cleaning up an oil spill.
This gives him the authority to command ALL available assets including those assets belonging to BP.
He claims that he is not interested in talk, what he's interested in is action.
Lets see, its 52 days since the incident and what has Obama done action wise?
Talk, talk and more talk.
"The US has bigger problems like our economy, how many things can the guy focus on at one time?"
Are you serious? you don't view this as a VERY big economic problem?
Obama is the leader of the USA and has a super sized administration so advisors should not be difficult for him to find.
As president of the USA he best be able to focus on as many problems as he is faced with or he's not fit for the office period.
Its very disconcerting that a president can't seem to focus on much of anything other then his own arrogance and what his tee off time is for the day.
His lack of executive decision skills are becoming painfully clear.
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$The country is facing many dilemmas needing the attention of the President of the United States, including involvement in 2 wars, slow emergence from a near economic collapse, instability in other parts of the world and congressional gridlock. I have confidence that President Obama will not drop the ball on any of these issues.
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$This is a tough inquiry to give an answer to because of potentially limited information and the tentative nature of the situation. President Obama has limited control over what happens for several reasons. For one thing, the damage has for the most part been done and most of the work with the areas the spill has already hit involves cleanup and rescuing wildlife, which has nothing to do with political decisions, and so he's doing good.
I see how people can assert that he's not doing his job fully because he has to give the go ahead for obvious actions such as burning it. Yes this is emitting a hell of a lot of CO2 by doing this, but we can't have this much oil just sit there and gradually spread out. As for other actions he could be ordering and permitting, such as assigning an engineering team of oil drilling experts outside of BP to come up with a "blocking" solution, who's to say that he hasn't already implemented this particular "route" of action. As for ordering all the technical data from BP, which would contribute to(what I just said) about engineering an alternative collaborative solution of some kind, like said, (and not with pleasure) the damage is done-this is what happens eventually when you rely on an unsustainable energy fuel source- perplexed catastrophic disasters. The Jamaican sized blob was there within five days, and would have eventually manifested before any possible solution made possible by the president or whoever.
Ultimately if you're going to even assume that there's enough power lying in the hands of one person that can effect a nation's well-being so eminently that he gets the majority of the publicity from the press and blame from people who want you to forget that they voted for George W. Bush and so on and so forth, then the executive power should be done away with. I don't care how American you think it is. The power of the "presidency" is too concentrated. I wrote a whole thesis paper on this.
Maybe he should be giving the go ahead for one of the plans of action I mentioned, but his part in this situation shouldn't be outstaged by the GENERAL DEMAND FOR PETROL and BP who (unless there's some sort of corrupt conspiracy occurring here-which I wouldn't rule out) is doing everything that could possibly be implement and executed at this point.
If you want to say President Obama's doing a bad job then you're pretty much saying he should go into a telephone booth, throw on a mask and some tights, and dive into the water with a giant DELUXE™ Red, White & Blue Juggernaut shield for blocking oil.
What I think he is really doing is making an unfortunately bold, yet robust statement that this is what can happen with the constant, and ongoing dependency on oil and we need to invest in renewable energy sources for the future. The claim that he's being neglectful is mostly irrational and soon he will do something following this bold statement. Plus, like people on here have already covered, sometimes reacting with certain decisions is less of a benefit to the ultimate solution.
opinion.
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$It is Obama's responsibility to fix this problem because he is Constitutionally-bound to protect our borders, from illegal immigrants as well as environmental catastrophe. Regardless of who created the disaster. If the oil spill is to be BP's responsibility, then illegal immigrants are to be the responsibility of the Mexican government, as the 9-11 attack the responsibility of Saudi Arabia, et. al. You make some fine points in your comments, but the Commander in Chief owns the responsibility regardless of the origin of problems. The buck stops with him. Thanks for your sincere insight into this question, and continue to engage the process of making our Country and world a better place for future generations. Blessings!!
What Obama could do to re-establish trust is promise to reduce the risk of future catastrophes by proposing laws to alllow drilling in safer places, like in more shallow ocean or on land, like in ANWR. Drilling miles out and miles deep, while it satisfies environmental activists, is tremendously risky compared to land or shallow sea.
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$There is the old saying that talk is cheap. We have heard a lot of talk so the administration has gotten off cheaply. When are we going to see some action that actually accomplishes something?
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M$www.infowars.com
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M$The American people did not elect him because he promised to sit back and take a wait-and-see approach to geverning. He's not doing his job, in my opinion.
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M$Wisdom
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M$He's the President--not God.
Common sense.
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
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M$With all due respect to the sheep skin, Obama cannot due a good job without by partisan
advice from his own team of experts from BP. Al the hope you cans and maybe you wills
cannot fix mans inhumanity to man therefore the problems are human error by all humans
each and everyone.
Would you explain.
none
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M$



By easing up, he should have stopped with the blame process, and sent help down there, you know, like the skimmers which I mentioned. Mind you, they are there NOW, but he should have sent them BEFORE.
Keeping the public from knowing what is going on is not what I meant when I stated that he needed to take the press out. What I meant is that he needed to stop using the press as his outlet for dealing with BP. He should have actually talked with BP. Which he HASN'T! Check out http://247.newsvine.com/_news/2010/06/11/4496249-pres-obama-wont-talk-to-bp-ceo-but-willing-to-sit-down-with-leaders-of-north-korea-iran-or-venezuala or you can also google it.
I didn't say he should have done "something" after the spill happened. I said he should have done "something" before it happened. I said he should have sent help to the Gulf to, you know, HELP with the cleanup. Not play the blame game he has been playing.
Because of what he *did* do, he needed to step out, or actually help. What he did, was play the blame game I just mentioned. That made things worse. To put in a perspective to see easily, he should have sent help, but played the blame game. Because of that, he made it worse.
To quote me "This could have been a MUCH much worse situation than it is now." I wrote it wrong. I was in a hurry. Sorry for making a mistake. It was supposed to read "This could have been a MUCH much better situation than it is now." If he had accepted help from the dutch, this mess could have been cleaned up much faster than its taking.
Just so you know, I have no stock with BP, nor do I have any stock with any company. The only association I *kind of* have with BP is that I was employed for all of 3-4 months at one of their gas stations. I also had no idea what a spin-doctor was until you mentioned it, so thank you for that tidbit of knowledge.
I would also appreciate if your attacks on me would cease. I have not been attacking you, so I would expect the same. I have just been expressing my political opinion about how Obama had been dealing with the oil spill, per the question's requirements, as well as defending me opinion. You however, have been ripping my posts apart, taking parts of them out of context, then insulting me and making assumptions about what I must be. Thank you for the debate, however. I quite enjoyed it.
Oh give me a break!!!!!!!! Why don't you stop pointing the finger. Like you can do any better!!!! You seem to forget that those "puppet masters" are the House and Senate who are there to "supposedly speak on behalf of the American people" when they make the rules and regulations which frankly I think they are worried about them and their own and don't give a damn about "US, the PEOPLE". I don't see them rolling up their sleeves and getting their shoes and elbows dirty.
You also seem to forget that Obama did say that cleaning up this country wasn't going to be easy but he was going to do his best with what he has to work with!!!! Obviously he's working with "idiots" like you who don't know how to get the stick out of their ass and actually see that the Bush's are the ones who ran us into the ground and people like you think it's a snap of a finger to turn it around. Oh yeah, the economy and etc. didn't get like this after Obama took office it was ALREADY THERE when he took office.
This is the risks that BP accepted when they took on this choice of business and that has nothing to do with Obama or anyone before him or after him.
Funny you pointing the finger of being "lax", I remember hearing on the news something about maintenance neglect prior to this disaster so yeah!!! BP should be the first ones on the scene....it's THEIR property and RESPONSIBILITY!!! I think this is the definition and actions of OWNERSHIP. You idiot.
As for Obama being "lax" as you put it to the crises............i'm sure it's not as neglecting as you make him look. BP did all they could to convince President Obama and Staff that they were on top of it and had it under control. Only when BP's "competence and failure" to succeed did the President step in. Oh yeah, because that's right maintenance was supposedly done on it prior to!!!!!
I'm confident that it will be enforced that BP will be solely responsible for "ALL" expenses as well as compensation to all including the gov't for any assistance and losses as a result.
The only sensible thing you wrote was the regulations should be stiffer than they are. Yes, they should..........this is serious business.
omicron, I give you props for tearing my post, and my opinions, apart.
Obama could have had skimmers placed in the Gulf at all times to help with the cleanup, just in case something like this happened. He could have also sent skimmers when the oil started gushing out. He also could have put in place slightly stricter rules regarding how oil wells are built and maintained. He has been in office almost a year and a half now.
Did you know that the administration turned down assistance from the Netherlands, three days after the blowout? He did this because of the Jones Act of 1920. Even Bush waived it for Katrina, Obama could have done the same. The Dutch were eventually recruited, but not before damage had already been done.
BP in other places actually have well equipped rigs, just not here in the US, because we don't enforce it. Im not putting full blame on Obama, but I am still putting some blame on him. He could have done *something* to make it better, yet he didn't. It took him longer to get on the scene of the oil spill, and he is still pointing fingers, and looking for who's ass to kick.
You are correct in one regard. He has "suspended" oil drilling. However, if you look up the word suspend on merriam-webster.com, you get the following definition: "to cause to stop temporarily", so I was right as well. You must also realize, that the suspension is in place for the next 6 months, and he is looking at expanding it for an additional 6 months. Included in this suspension, is all offshore drilling, pending leases for exploratory drilling, and any other leases for oil drilling. We will be forced to increase our rate of imported oil, which will greatly increase prices on gas, and *all* petroleum based products.
Regarding Tony Hayward, Obama has been pointing as many fingers as he can get ahold of, not just his own, at BP. This issue would have been resolved long ago if he had eased up a lot, and let BP do their thing, and punished them after the spill was taken care of. He hasn't even talked with Tony yet either. And I do claim to say that Obama should have worked on tightening the regulations for ALL oil companies, not just BP, so this could have been avoided.
Hayward's company was *allowed* to do the damage, while the United States government sat aside and watched. While it may be Hayward's problem, he has actually been doing something to fix the problem, while Obama tried to figure out who needed the most blame.
I put equal blame on everybody. BP should have been more strict in their drilling procedures, and Obama should have been more strict with the rules. Now because both parties were lax in the way they went about their business, we are in this mess which is going to cause everyone in the country problems.
There isn't a real clear indication as to who the ONE 'puppet master' is, but their are some good candidates. George Soros for one. (See sources below)
And for the record, I don't condone the deprivation of school funding. Kids and all people should get the education they deserve. I do however think the schooling system should be given a change, and operated much differently than it already is.
Sources:
- Government/Obama turns down help from the Dutch
http://rossputin.com/blog/index.php/gulf-spill-now-obama-truly-has-something-to-answer-for
http://mayrantandrave.com/2010/06/09/obama-administration-and-bp-turned-down-dutch-oil-skimmers-on-day-3/
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8539301#8539445
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/obama-refused-dutch-oil-cleanup-help/
http://www.infidelsparadise.com/?p=28515
http://www.eons.com/groups/topic/2159987-O-Refused-Help-From-Netherlands
- Obama looks for an ass to kick
http://blogs.tampabay.com/media/2010/06/obama-says-hes-.html
- What Obama has done in office
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_has_President_Barack_Obama_done_so_far
- Definition of suspend
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/suspend
- Obama suspends drilling
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/president_barack_obama_suspend.html
http://www.grist.org/article/2010-05-27-obama-suspends-oil-permits-deepwater-exploration/
http://www.grist.org/article/2010-05-27-top-kill-seems-to-be-halting-oil-gusher-in-gulf/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/27/obama-suspends-arctic-oil-drilling-plans
- Puppet Masters
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/03/obamas-puppetmaster-george-soros-made-buko-billion-talks-down-the-economy.html
http://www.frugal-cafe.com/public_html/frugal-blog/frugal-cafe-blogzone/2009/04/28/is-there-an-obama-puppet-master-rush-limbaugh-caller-discuss-whos-really-in-charge-in-the-white-house/
http://www.black-and-right.com/2008/10/08/an-obama-puppetmaster-revealed/
http://www.allthatisnecessary.com/all_that_is_necessary/2010/04/who-is-obamas-puppet-master.html
http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/march2010/jim315-2.htm
http://www.theblogmocracy.com/2009/04/03/obamas-puppet-master/
http://townhall.com/columnists/BurtPrelutsky/2008/09/19/saul_alinsky_the_puppet_master
Well I have to make this short, and hopefully sweet. I have a family BBQ to attend in a few hours.
It is *not* Obama's fault that the spill happened. That is on BP. Obama could have done *something*, anything beforehand. Have you not seen what he has done? Quite a lot for *only* a year.
And now after the fact, he could have sent everything he had to help clean up the spill when the spill happened, but he didn't. When I say he refused help from the Dutch, then accepted it, you have to remember, the Dutch offered help on day *three*. This could have been a MUCH much worse situation than it is now. He still hasn't waived the Jones act, he just had the equipment air lifted over onto US boats.
Do you not realize how much our economy is based on oil? Without our oil, we will be forced to import almost all of it, effectively raising all oil based products. Yes, in six months. Because we DO NOT have six months of oil.
Obama is pointing fingers, and because of that, I point my finger at him, and I am no better than him. But he is our President. He has the authority to use the almighty signature of his to authorize lots of things, yet he still didn't do anything about the spill except place blame before major damage had been done.
Bp was the company in charge, and they were fixing it. Obama was making it worse. He should have pulled the press out. I will also quote from my previous response, which you so construed.
"This issue would have been resolved long ago if he had eased up a lot, and let BP do their thing, and punished them after the spill was taken care of. "
When I say 'eased up a lot' i am referring to AFTER the spill happened. in fact, that whole sentence refers to after the spill. He is placing blame (mind you, it should be there) at BP, but he should have *waited* until the fire was over so it could have been taken care of swiftly and promptly, at least more so than it was.