The ever expanding oil mess

[vanitybinge]

Fingers are waving, everybodys looking for the blame.

Is Obama dropping the ball on this? Are you satisfied with his efforts? Is there really an easy fix for this that we're missing?

[JakeYonkel]

I don't really know enough about containing this thing to comment and I'm not going to pull a left-wing Bush bash and just blindly claim he's dropped the ball.

But the scary thing is that this thing is just spreading and spreading by the day, making it more and more difficult to clean up. Living in Florida, people are really nervous about the damage this is going to cause to the tourism industry on the west coast of the state.

[Hames Jetfield]

The White House has dropped the ball on an environmental catastrophe that should be tailor-made for Democrats to deal with and take on. The optics have been horrible. He needed to scrap his Memorial Day vacation and spend some time down there listening to the people. He should fire his advisors if he wants to be a two-term president.

[Crazy Levi]

Living in Florida, people are really nervous about the damage this is going to cause to the tourism industry on the west coast of the state.

You guys are fucked.

This is the end of all that "Drill baby drill" horseshit. People are gonna pulling those stupid bumper stickers off their F150s.

This is the three-mile island of oil drilling.

[Nevermind]

Living in Florida, people are really nervous about the damage this is going to cause to the tourism industry on the west coast of the state.

You guys are fucked.

This is the end of all that "Drill baby drill" horseshit. People are gonna pulling those stupid bumper stickers off their F150s.

This is the three-mile island of oil drilling.

Great. Now we can have bumper stickers that say "Because of liberal douchebag environmentalists who don't want to even drill on our own soil, we can now count on a bunch of middle eastern countries who hate us for our energy needs for the next century."

[Tykel]

Canada actually supply's you approximately 80% of your oil consumption, you don't need to worry about those sand niggers

[Crazy Levi]

Living in Florida, people are really nervous about the damage this is going to cause to the tourism industry on the west coast of the state.

You guys are fucked.

This is the end of all that "Drill baby drill" horseshit. People are gonna pulling those stupid bumper stickers off their F150s.

This is the three-mile island of oil drilling.

Great. Now we can have bumper stickers that say "Because of liberal douchebag environmentalists who don't want to even drill on our own soil, we can now count on a bunch of middle eastern countries who hate us for our energy needs for the next century."

Drilling just destroyed a huge body of water, and it will get worse.

And you still think drilling is a good idea when it could obviously happen again?

The risk reward isn't there. It's not good business. Next.

[pulsar0510]

The White House has dropped the ball on an environmental catastrophe that should be tailor-made for Democrats to deal with and take on. The optics have been horrible. He needed to scrap his Memorial Day vacation and spend some time down there listening to the people. He should fire his advisors if he wants to be a two-term president.

What the fuck are you talking about? There isn't anything for him to do. This isn't Katrina, where he could actually get something done with aid. Unfortunately, the best people in the world with experience are already working on the problem.
I have no love for Obama, but I don't see where he has a lot of options here beyond waiting until it's fixed to ass-fuck BP.

[MasterOfMeatPuppets]

You guys are fucked.

This is the end of all that "Drill baby drill" horseshit. People are gonna pulling those stupid bumper stickers off their F150s.

This is the three-mile island of oil drilling.

Great. Now we can have bumper stickers that say "Because of liberal douchebag environmentalists who don't want to even drill on our own soil, we can now count on a bunch of middle eastern countries who hate us for our energy needs for the next century."

These shirts will sell much better.

For a conservative, you are a shitty businessman.

[Hames Jetfield]

The White House has dropped the ball on an environmental catastrophe that should be tailor-made for Democrats to deal with and take on. The optics have been horrible. He needed to scrap his Memorial Day vacation and spend some time down there listening to the people. He should fire his advisors if he wants to be a two-term president.

What the fuck are you talking about? There isn't anything for him to do. This isn't Katrina, where he could actually get something done with aid. Unfortunately, the best people in the world with experience are already working on the problem.
I have no love for Obama, but I don't see where he has a lot of options here beyond waiting until it's fixed to ass-fuck BP.

This is the party that (rightfully in my opinion) opposed the phrase "drill baby drill." It's the party, or is supposed to be, of environmental awareness, and the one that wants to shows that the government can be effective--and visually it hasn't, in this case. Now I know that the problems within the Interior department cannot all be blamed on Obama's administration as its coziness with big oil had been developed over several of his predecessors, but the general public looks at it as his mess.

When you view his two, short visits you have what appears to be indifference on the part of the White House, even though I believe that not to be true. It's basic PR, man. The president should have "looked" much more "on the job" than he has. Most people are sheep and are driven and informed by what they see and can't be bothered to look up "facts.”

[thejuggernaut]

The White House has dropped the ball on an environmental catastrophe that should be tailor-made for Democrats to deal with and take on. The optics have been horrible. He needed to scrap his Memorial Day vacation and spend some time down there listening to the people. He should fire his advisors if he wants to be a two-term president.

What the fuck are you talking about? There isn't anything for him to do. This isn't Katrina, where he could actually get something done with aid. Unfortunately, the best people in the world with experience are already working on the problem.
I have no love for Obama, but I don't see where he has a lot of options here beyond waiting until it's fixed to ass-fuck BP.

He could start by telling his committees to stop taking their pulses rectally tootsie pops.

As President Obama prepares to return to the Gulf Coast Friday, he is receiving increasing criticism for his handling of the oil spill. For good reason: Since the Deepwater Horizon rig blew up on April 20, a lethargic Team Obama has delayed or blown off key decisions requested by state and local governments and left British Petroleum in charge of developing a plan to cap the massive leak.

Now the slow-moving oil spill threatens Mr. Obama's reputation, along with 40% of America's sensitive wetlands. Critics include some of his most ardent cheerleaders, who understand that 38 days without an administration solution is unacceptable.

Obama officials have it backwards: They talk tough about BP's responsibilities but do not meet their own responsibilities under federal law. They should not have let more than a month go by without telling BP what to do. And they should avoid recriminations against their partner in solving the problem until after the leak is sealed.

BP is still running tests to see if the "top kill" procedure will be effective while the U.S. government is turning the pressure on high.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar sounds whiney when he rails against BP. It didn't build confidence when his opening statement to a congressional hearing Wednesday focused on future safety and inspections requirements, and not on what the administration will do now to end the leak.

Initially, Team Obama wanted to keep this problem away from the president (a natural instinct for any White House). It took Mr. Obama 12 days to show up in the region. Democrats criticized President George W. Bush for waiting four days after Katrina to go to New Orleans.

Now the administration is intent on making it appear he has engaged all along. But this stance is undermined by lack of action. Where has its plan been? And why has the White House been so slow with decisions?

Take the containment strategy of barrier berms. These temporary sand islands block the flow of oil into fragile wetlands and marshes. Berm construction requires approval from the Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Louisiana officials asked permission on May 11. They have yet to hear back. The feds are conducting a review as oil washes ashore.

The federal government was even slower on the question of dispersants, chemicals used to break up the oil and hasten its evaporation from the surface of the water. On May 8, Louisiana sent a letter to BP and the EPA begging BP not to use dispersants below the surface of the water. Subsurface use of dispersants keeps oil slicks from forming. But when it doesn't come to the surface to evaporate, the oil lingers below, gets into underwater currents, and puts at risk fisheries that supply a third of America's seafood.

On May 13, EPA overruled the state and permitted BP to use dispersants 4,000 feet below the surface. Then, a week after BP released 55,000 gallons of dispersants below the surface, EPA did an about-face, ordering BP to stop using the dispersant and to "find a less-toxic" one. Louisiana officials found out about this imprecise guidance in the Washington Post. BP refused, EPA backed off, and Louisiana's concerns about their marine fisheries remain.

Last weekend, as winds and currents drove oil towards particularly sensitive wetlands, the state asked Washington to mobilize all available boats to deploy booms and containment devices. Federal officials didn't act. Local officials were forced to commandeer the boats. Even then some equipment went unused.

State officials believe their federal counterparts don't have a handle on the resources being deployed and are constantly overestimating the amount of booms, containment equipment, and boats being used.

Could this be Mr. Obama's Katrina? It could be even worse. The federal response to Katrina was governed by the 1988 Stafford Act, which says that in natural disasters on-shore states are in charge, not Washington. The federal obligation is to "support . . . State and local assistance efforts" by providing whatever resources a governor requests and then writing big checks for the cleanup. Mr. Bush had to deal with a Louisiana governor and a New Orleans mayor who were, by federal law, in charge.

But BP's well was drilled in federal waters. Washington, not Louisiana, is in charge. This is Mr. Obama's responsibility. He says his administration has been prepared for the worst from the start. Mr. Obama's failure to lead in cleaning up the spill could lead voters to echo his complaint in Katrina's aftermath: "I wish that the federal government had been up to the task."

[Luminiferous]

Fortunately for America, we have two intelligent people in Alaska who've found who the REAL culprits (extreme environmentalists) that are to blame for this catastrophe and want us to know this is merely "nature taking it's course.."

In her latest note on Facebook, Sarah Palin is blaming "extreme 'environmentalists'" for causing the gulf oil disaster that has been unfolding for over a month. Her logic is that because environmentalists push for tougher drilling regulations onshore in places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (also known as ANWR) it forces oil companies to explore deeper offshore drilling which has more risks.

Palin writes: With [environmentalists'] nonsensical efforts to lock up safer drilling areas, all you're doing is outsourcing energy development, which makes us more controlled by foreign countries, less safe, and less prosperous on a dirtier planet. Your hypocrisy is showing. You're not preventing environmental hazards; you're outsourcing them and making drilling more dangerous.

Extreme deep water drilling is not the preferred choice to meet our country's energy needs, but your protests and lawsuits and lies about onshore and shallow water drilling have locked up safer areas. It's catching up with you. The tragic, unprecedented deep water Gulf oil spill proves it.

This is one of several comments about the oil spill Palin has made that has caused a stir, including a tweet in which she said we said we shouldn't trust BP because it is a foreign oil company.
(Palin's husband Todd worked for BP for 18 years.)

Don't worry about the oil spilling into the Gulf, Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) says, because the worst spill in U.S. history is "not an environmental disaster," just nature taking its course.

"This is not an environmental disaster, and I will say that again and again because it is a natural phenomenon," Young said after Congressional hearings last week. "Oil has seeped into this ocean for centuries, will continue to do it. During World War II there was over 10 million barrels of oil spilt from ships, and no natural catastrophe. ... We will lose some birds, we will lose some fixed sea life, but overall it will recover."

[vanitybinge]

Fortunately for America, we have two intelligent people in Alaska who've found who the REAL culprits (extreme environmentalists) that are to blame for this catastrophe and want us to know this is merely "nature taking it's course.."

In her latest note on Facebook, Sarah Palin is blaming "extreme 'environmentalists'" for causing the gulf oil disaster that has been unfolding for over a month. Her logic is that because environmentalists push for tougher drilling regulations onshore in places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (also known as ANWR) it forces oil companies to explore deeper offshore drilling which has more risks.

Palin writes: With [environmentalists'] nonsensical efforts to lock up safer drilling areas, all you're doing is outsourcing energy development, which makes us more controlled by foreign countries, less safe, and less prosperous on a dirtier planet. Your hypocrisy is showing. You're not preventing environmental hazards; you're outsourcing them and making drilling more dangerous.

Extreme deep water drilling is not the preferred choice to meet our country's energy needs, but your protests and lawsuits and lies about onshore and shallow water drilling have locked up safer areas. It's catching up with you. The tragic, unprecedented deep water Gulf oil spill proves it.

This is one of several comments about the oil spill Palin has made that has caused a stir, including a tweet in which she said we said we shouldn't trust BP because it is a foreign oil company.
(Palin's husband Todd worked for BP for 18 years.)

Don't worry about the oil spilling into the Gulf, Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) says, because the worst spill in U.S. history is "not an environmental disaster," just nature taking its course.

"This is not an environmental disaster, and I will say that again and again because it is a natural phenomenon," Young said after Congressional hearings last week. "Oil has seeped into this ocean for centuries, will continue to do it. During World War II there was over 10 million barrels of oil spilt from ships, and no natural catastrophe. ... We will lose some birds, we will lose some fixed sea life, but overall it will recover."

Is it Palin & Friend's mission to completely defy common sense on every issue they ever discuss, ever?

[MickeyG]

Instead of reporting Palins comments on the news, her comments should instead be reported on Comedy Central.