The oil spill...

[Deleted member 365]

I have no real conviction about Obama one way or the other, but how this is being laid at his feet is beyond me. If Bush was the president I'd be defending him, but only until it was revealed the lax policies of his administration led directly to this disaster. There is no way it should be so easy to to just drill for oil anywhere you want, any way you want, as long as you can pay the tithe. That's effectively what happened. When the dust settles on this, the second biggest story is going to be what environmental impact studies were done to build Horizon, and then what oversight was put into place to ensure that it was being operated properly. The answer is that virtually no environmental impact study was done, there are no standards for what an oil company has to do to maintain such a rig, and there is no oversight of that. The biggest story, of course, is the grave extent of BP's lax safety practices which are very likely to cripple the company into oblivion when it will be bought off and absorbed into highly moral companies like Exxon or Shell.

I couldn't agree more.

 

[Deleted member 365]

OMG. BP spills oil, is forced to set-up a fund to pay the damages resulting from that spill, and we feel BAD for them?

This has got to be a joke. Please tell me this is one of those un-funny onion articles I stopped reading in 1999.

I only wish it were a joke...

 

[Deleted member 365]

It's Bush's fault.

https://newsbusters.org/blogs/brent...bsolutely-thousand-percent-bush-cheneys-fault

I really don't find that it's any President's fault.

I do believe that the Mineral and Mining Agency needs to be gutted. They were found a few years ago to having accepted bribes and even slept with some oil execs. No overseeing agency should be that cozy with those they should be regulating.

Other than this, the blame of this falls on those truly responsible, BP.

 

[honz]

It's BP's fault. I don't care what Bush or Obama have done. We need oil, offshore drilling is a big part of how we get our oil, and BP/Halliburton ****ed up.

 

[Gameface]

Hey, BP might finally stand for beyond petroleum after all this.

 

[sirkickyass]

Fox isn't defending BP. They are criticizing the President because he is doing next to nothing. His speech was a joke. Don't believe me, ask liberals such as Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann.

I went and got the transcript from the program my boss was listening to. Uhhh...they were defending BP. They were saying that making BP pay for the spill was "redistribution of wealth." A true WTF.


Here's a pretty good rundown of Fox News coverage where they defend BP and argue that Obama is doing a bad thing because he's hurting BP's stock prices.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A505w8MG0Uw

That's just ridiculous. I can't believe we're at a point where some people hate the president so much that they're willing to defend BP just because he's taking action against them in this situation.

 

[Deleted member 365]

Kicky, this is a good article on what's wrong w/America's right wing. Let me know what you think... And for anyone, read this and discuss

https://www.economist.com/node/16321546

Thanks for the video. From what little I've seen, this is exactly what's being spewed on 1160 am radio and fox news 24/7. That's why I find it repulsing that we're defending those who are truly responsible, all in the hope that this will somehow win a few political points....

 

[Hopper]

Kicky, this is a good article on what's wrong w/America's right wing. Let me know what you think... And for anyone, read this and discuss

Not sure exactly why, but for some damn reason, I kinda git the feelin Kicky aint gunna think that article is "good," eh?:

"[Obama] has done little to fix the deficit, shown a zeal for big government and all too often given the impression that capitalism is something unpleasant he found on the sole of his sneaker. America desperately needs a strong opposition."

 

[Deleted member 365]

Not sure exactly why, but for some damn reason, I kinda git the feelin Kicky aint gunna think that article is "good," eh?:

"[Obama] has done little to fix the deficit, shown a zeal for big government and all too often given the impression that capitalism is something unpleasant he found on the sole of his sneaker. America desperately needs a strong opposition."

The article isn't perfect. That quote above surely isn't a point that I agreed 100 % on. However, some of the other points it makes I think show some merit in that the right really has no idea what the hell they're doing. All they know is that they need to get back into power... Even if it means going off the deep end of sanity and defending folks like BP. As kicky has shown in that video above.

I'm truly disappointed in the government, there are things I disagree with, but I'm completely repulsed at what the Republican party is doing with this oil spill.

 

[Gameface]

My work used to play only FOX news in the cafeteria. After much complaining they switched one TV to CNN and left the other on FOX. I have to say that my opinion of FOX has declined. Their actual news coverage is passable, but 90% of what they show is opinion. Right after Obama made his last speech they went to a split screen of two pundits, while CNN had their anchor reporting the story. Now, the CNN anchor did editorialize a lot, but at least it wasn't two chicken heads pecking at one another over issues they certainly know are not real.

 

[Deleted member 365]

My work used to play only FOX news in the cafeteria. After much complaining they switched one TV to CNN and left the other on FOX. I have to say that my opinion of FOX has declined. Their actual news coverage is passable, but 90% of what they show is opinion. Right after Obama made his last speech they went to a split screen of two pundits, while CNN had their anchor reporting the story. Now, the CNN anchor did editorialize a lot, but at least it wasn't two chicken heads pecking at one another over issues they certainly know are not real.

I like to watch foxnews at the gym when I'm running or biking. I have noticed this as well.

I usually watch CNN, I find it the "most" balanced of the news organizations.

 

[TheMulletMutilator]

There is little comparison to this and Katrina. The lone caveat is I don't actually know what Obama was doing with the MMS prior to the disaster, and I know that he was pushing for more offshore drilling. The question is whether there was any overhaul of the Bush policies, but there had to be some considering the massive scandal MMS went through (and the loophole that exempted BP from building Horizon was closed prior to the spill.)

Bush/Katrina is far different. Prior to it occurring, there were years upon years of studies that the entire nation's system of levies, not just New Orleans, built by the lackluster Army Corps of Engineers, was outdated and insufficient. Maybe Bush gets a pass on that. But if I had those studies in my lap, and something like Katrina happened, I wouldn't dawdle in dealing with it. The calamity of Katrina was that the disaster was effectively over and the federal government did almost nothing to respond to it.

Obama may have not acted fast enough to intervene in this debacle, either. But it was evolving. The reports of the damage, and promises of controlling it seemed credible. It took time for it to really sink in that BP was clueless to stop it. And the entire world's scientists still don't have a true answer for it. Obama is dealing with a fluid situation, maybe not as well as he could. Bush was dealing with a fixed situation, and completely botched it.

I don't think you quite get what I was saying. Katrina and this oil spill are obviously not the same thing. But in the political spectrum they are both disastrous for the POTUS who was in office at the time. This oil spill and the procrastination shown by the President will really hurt him like Bush's handling of Katrina hurt him.