Ten Things Obama Should've Done

[Lefty]

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=37514

[mostpost]

1 Accepted help from the Netherlands when they offered it shortly after the accident. The Dutch, experienced in the oil business, offered prompt help for oil skimming booms and plans to create barriers to stop the oil from infiltrating into wetland areas.
I agree with this one. Expertise was definitely lacking.

2. Suspended the Jones Act, as President Bush did after Katrina, to allow foreign vessels into American waters to assist with recovery without having to swap ships and transfer equipment onto American flagged vessels.
To what purpose? In Katrina there were thousands in need of aid and supplies. In this situation 11 died, but they were beyond help. I don't know that there were any equipment needed that was not available closer at hand.

3. Suspended the Davis-Bacon prevailing wage laws, as President Bush did after Katrina, to allow rapid deployment of new workers to help with containment efforts.
That move by Bush was a ploy to save his contractor buddies money and screw the working man.

4. Suspended FEMA contracting and bidding rules, as President Bush did after Katrina, to allow a more rapid assignment of contracts to assist with the recovery effort.
Why? Obama doesn't have friends at Halliburton and KBR.

5. Allowed coastal governors to immediately begin dredging to create barrier islands.
I don't know the long range environmental effects, but most likely a good idea.

6. Talked to BP's CEO to establish initial metrics for progress to gauge BP's response so the federal government would have ascertainable metrics to determine when federal intervention was needed. Heck, he should have talked to BP's CEO period.
No Need!! I know nothing about Oil wells, I haven't been near the Gulf of Mexico in over 25 years, and I'm no expert on coastal wetlands, but I can guage BP's response. It was horsebleep.

7. Not imposed a blanket deep water drilling moratorium, further crippling economies in coastal communities.
:rolleyes: Let 'em drill. Let 'em screw up the fishing grounds and put tens of thousands in the fishing industry out of work. :rolleyes: Let 'em mess up the tourist industry, which I'm sure is a much larger part of the economy in the region than the oil industry. Great Idea. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

8. Talked to experts about how to fix the problem instead of trying to figure out whose "ass to kick."
It is not the President's job to fix the problem. His job is to see that it is fixed. It is obvious that the "experts" are sorely lacking in expertise. BP cut corners, refused to take the advice of Halliburton and Deepwater Horizons. No question who's "ass to kick"

9. Not waited to act lest he be seen as owning the situation. Guess what? He owns it now so why is he still on the golf course?
This is just stupid. Obama does more productive work asleep than Bush did wide awake.

10. Not have wasted time trying to blame the accident on George Bush before diving in to take responsibility.
I missed the part where Obama said, "This is George Bush's fault."
Perhaps the author is suffering from paranoia.

So Human Events got two out of ten right. Even grading on a curve, that's an "F"

[Robert Goren]

They get extra credit for trying send something to my computer which luckily my firewall caught.

[Lefty]

"This is just stupid. Obama does more productive work asleep than Bush did wide awake."
Mosty, wanna give some examples; otherwise this is the most laughable statement of the 20th and 21st Century.

[bigmack]

So Human Events got two out of ten right. Even grading on a curve, that's an "F"
You don't get 1 without 2

You never addressed 3 - Just a Bush bash

You never addressed 4 - Just a Bush bash

6. Beer summit and he can't meet with BP heads? Don't make me laugh

7. You use logic like R.Maddow. From now on every rig will blow. :D

8. Right. He should be more hands-off, get those approval ratings in the 30's now their 42.

9. Bush bash.

10. Not worthy of comment.

Sorry BlueMan, we're sending you back to a rural route.

[Mike at A+]

Obama on his best day can't shine George Bush's shoes. During this crisis he was playing golf and hanging with Paul McCartney. Could you just imagine how the press would have treated Bush under the same circumstances? Jimmy Carter must be smiling - he's no longer the worst president in the last 100 years. Obama is well on his way to destroying what's left of the middle class.

[JustRalph]

I am having flashbacks........

[JustRalph]

Pinocchio ?

I am scared to death we are going to have a Military Crisis with this loser at the wheel......... :bang:

[mostpost]

You don't get 1 without 2

You never addressed 3 - Just a Bush bash

You never addressed 4 - Just a Bush bash

6. Beer summit and he can't meet with BP heads? Don't make me laugh

7. You use logic like R.Maddow. From now on every rig will blow. :D

8. Right. He should be more hands-off, get those approval ratings in the 30's now their 42.

9. Bush bash.

10. Not worthy of comment.

Sorry BlueMan, we're sending you back to a rural route.
From another thread
Wrong again. I thought we covered the contraction of 'you are'
Apparently the class has not gotten to "There"-"Their" and "They're".
Now tell jballscalls you're sorry, or you won't get your dessert.

[bigmack]

Apparently the class has not gotten to "There"-"Their" and "They're". Now tell jballscalls you're sorry, or you won't get your dessert.
Touché, BlueMan but I don't mind being corrected. That's how I got the way I is or I axed. I trust folk know betta. I gotta have somebody to pimp around here.

In light of your continued Presidential support: Is there any way we might portray you as the last BO defender with a SuperHero like caricature in the next few months? USPS meets Presidential defender or something.

Cape, gloves, shield. The works.

[boxcar]

I agree with this one. Expertise was definitely lacking.


To what purpose? In Katrina there were thousands in need of aid and supplies. In this situation 11 died, but they were beyond help. I don't know that there were any equipment needed that was not available closer at hand.


That move by Bush was a ploy to save his contractor buddies money and screw the working man.

4. Suspended FEMA contracting and bidding rules, as President Bush did after Katrina, to allow a more rapid assignment of contracts to assist with the recovery effort.
Why? Obama doesn't have friends at Halliburton and KBR.


I don't know the long range environmental effects, but most likely a good idea.


No Need!! I know nothing about Oil wells, I haven't been near the Gulf of Mexico in over 25 years, and I'm no expert on coastal wetlands, but I can guage BP's response. It was horsebleep.


:rolleyes: Let 'em drill. Let 'em screw up the fishing grounds and put tens of thousands in the fishing industry out of work. :rolleyes: Let 'em mess up the tourist industry, which I'm sure is a much larger part of the economy in the region than the oil industry. Great Idea. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:


It is not the President's job to fix the problem. His job is to see that it is fixed. It is obvious that the "experts" are sorely lacking in expertise. BP cut corners, refused to take the advice of Halliburton and Deepwater Horizons. No question who's "ass to kick"


This is just stupid. Obama does more productive work asleep than Bush did wide awake.


I missed the part where Obama said, "This is George Bush's fault."
Perhaps the author is suffering from paranoia.

So Human Events got two out of ten right. Even grading on a curve, that's an "F"

Mosty...here's an analogy for you...as you know, only I can flawlessly engineer and execute. You're driving on a highway and a driver ahead of you a bit spins out of control for some reason and the car crashes badly. Assuming, you could stop safely, would you stop to see if you could render aid? Knowing you, you might not. (You would probably call the ObamaCare hotline :rolleyes: .) But assuming you would take this first step, would you try to render aid, if you could? You see the driver and passenger are bleeding badly. What would your first instinct be other than call 911 on your cell and sit by idly waiting for professional help to arrive why both persons continue to bleed profusely? Since you're a compassionate, loving, caring liberal would you start thinking in terms of damage control? You know you're no doctor. You're not a trained medical professional on any level -- but would you try to control the bleeding, for example? Or would you reason to yourself that it's not your place to get this deep over your head, and just sit by to wait for the pros to solve the medical problems of these two injured people?

Meanwhile, while you're sitting on your duff trying to look concerned and compassionate, another driver pulls up, looks at the two injured people and tells you that it appears they're both in shock and offers a blanket he has in his trunk to cover the two accident victims to keep them warm. But you're in charge here because you were the first on the scene, you made the perfunctory cell phone call and now you're determined to wait until the pros can solve the problem. You actually prohibit this Good Samaritan to contribute to the comfort of the victims. You won't let him help because you have the situation well under control.

May I suggest to you, Mosty, that this is precisely what BO did. The first instinct of any normal, caring, concerned human being when confronted with a disaster is to assess the situation to see how they can provide damage control. The first thing on such a person's mind is not determine who is at fault. It's not to play the Blame Game. It's not to talk tough ghetto language to see how much "ass can be kicked". Nor is it adopting an adversarial posture toward the responsible party. It's not even assuming that the "professionals" have all the answers. The first humanitarian instinct should be: [/b]What can I do to help[/b]? But BO's heart was empty and cold -- totally devoid of any compassion or consideration for all the victims of this disaster. He cared not a whit about seeing what the most powerful nation on earth could do to contain the situation to help those victims. He didn't care at all about actively seeking ways to HELP BP to contain the extent of the leak, while BP (the "experts") continued to work to actually fix the leak -- two entirely different matters here. No one is suggesting that the U.S. government has any or should have any expertise at all to actually stop the leak, but very many people are saying (including many liberals) that the U.S. government could have done a lot more in practical terms of applying some damage control.

It's well documented now that BO never gave Jindal the green light to execute his plan for some damage control. It is well documented that a company in Maine offered booms but BO refused. He refused to let them burn the oil off. He also refused the Dutch's help with skimmers, etc., etc. All the evidence indicates that this reprobate in the white house wanted this leak to get out of control for political reasons -- so that he could use this disaster as a marketing tool to push his "clean energy bill" (formerly Cap and Trade, which now I understand the name has been changed because of too many negative associations many if not most Americans have made with it).

Again, no one here is saying that the government should have fixed the leak. This is not the issue. Many are saying, however, that the government for some odd reason became a very poor steward of the environment when the chips were down. The state talks a good enviro game and tells us almost daily how the sky will soon fall upon us if we don't substantially shrink our carbon footprint, but when push comes to shove -- when it comes time to actually do something constructive for the environment -- the entire administration, it seems, has been out golfing and partying these last 60 days. Damage Control seemed to be the farthest thing from this administration's mind. This administration was content to let this well bleed, and bleed and bleed oil -- until the cows came home. Bottom line: Zero leadership, which is what so many people, on both sides of the aisle, are now finding more than disquieting. And I personally find BO to be a very poor excuse for a human being.

Boxcar

[Greyfox]

I didn't read the article. I know what he should have done.

The fact is he did NOTHING EXCEPT GIVE SPEECHES.
A well exploded.
It was gushing thousands of barrels of oil out.
Whatever supertankers were available 58 days ago should have
been ordered to the scene immediately.
They should have been sucking up the oil.
Booms should have been put down on the shore lines if any escaped.
People volunteering to help birds should have been welcomed with open arms.

The fact that he stuck his thumb up his arse and did nothing for 57 days and then finally gave an Oval Room speech talking about alternative fuels speaks volumes.
What is his agenda???

[Greyfox]

The first instinct of any normal, caring, concerned human being when confronted with a disaster is to assess the situation to see how they can provide damage control. ...The first humanitarian instinct should be: "What can I do to help?"

:ThmbUp: :ThmbUp: That's exactly what BO didn't do. Nailed it.

[NJ Stinks]

And I personally find BO to be a very poor excuse for a human being.

Boxcar

You could have saved a thousand words and just posted this. :rolleyes:

[JustRalph]

In case you don't know......... The Netherlands has special ships for scooping up an oil spill. On day 3 they offered them to Obama and offered to start steaming toward Florida. Obama did not waive the Law that would allow them to get started to help. He finally did this a week ago..They are still en route......when they could have been there 7 weeks now.

[Lefty]

Lst night, Obama took action: He appointed another Czar. I guess we can call him the "oil spill" Czar.

[highnote]

"This is just stupid. Obama does more productive work asleep than Bush did wide awake."
Mosty, wanna give some examples; otherwise this is the most laughable statement of the 20th and 21st Century.


I don't know whether the statement is true or false, but both of your statements are filled with hyperbole. That's not meant as a putdown. You both made me laugh! :ThmbUp:

[boxcar]

You could have saved a thousand words and just posted this. :rolleyes:

No. That's what a dumb liberal would do because you libs can't articulate your positions without your own version of a BO teleprompter. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
But unlike you, I'm not a programmed robot which means I can do what you can only dream of doing! :p

Boxcar

[Greyfox]

In case you don't know......... The Netherlands has special ships for scooping up an oil spill. On day 3 they offered them to Obama and offered to start steaming toward Florida. Obama did not waive the Law that would allow them to get started to help. He finally did this a week ago..They are still en route......when they could have been there 7 weeks now.

My God if those ships were available his refusal of them is criminal neglect.

[Lefty]

swety, let me help you out. I asked him for an example. Did you see one? Hope
this helps.

[mostpost]

You could have saved a thousand words and just posted this. :rolleyes:
Brevity is indeed the soul of wit. :ThmbUp:

[Lefty]

On the Radio, tuther day, CBS News reported that the Obama admin regularly
missed inspections of the BP oil rig and the last inspection was done by a trainee.
Kick your own ass Barack.

[mostpost]

I don't know whether the statement is true or false, but both of your statements are filled with hyperbole. That's not meant as a putdown. You both made me laugh! :ThmbUp:
Hyperbole was my intent; an exagerated statement made to prove a point. Obama does not do more work asleep than Bush does awake. Merely the same amount. :lol:

[mostpost]

No. That's what a dumb liberal would do because you libs can't articulate your positions without your own version of a BO teleprompter. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
But unlike you, I'm not a programmed robot which means I can do what you can only dream of doing! :p

Boxcar
My favorite British pejorative is "pompous ass." Not saying it applies here, just thought someone might be interested in what my favorite Brithish pejorative is. :p

[mostpost]

swety, let me help you out. I asked him for an example. Did you see one? Hope
this helps.
See my reply to swetyejohn above.

[bigmack]

Obama does not do more work asleep than Bush does awake.
If only we could get him to sleep more. When he's awake he's worthless.

k6urJsX3KX4

[mostpost]

You don't get 1 without 2

You never addressed 3 - Just a Bush bash

You never addressed 4 - Just a Bush bash

6. Beer summit and he can't meet with BP heads? Don't make me laugh

7. You use logic like R.Maddow. From now on every rig will blow. :D

8. Right. He should be more hands-off, get those approval ratings in the 30's now their 42.

9. Bush bash.

10. Not worthy of comment.

Sorry BlueMan, we're sending you back to a rural route.
1 and 2 are somewhat connected, but the Jones act provides that American goods carried between American ports must be carried in American ships. A Dutch ship coming to gather spilled oil would not be carrying American goods and would be working in international waters. It's easy to say in hindsight that Obama should have requested Dutch aid right away, but my recollection is that BP downplayed the seriousness of the situation for some time.

3 and 4. I don't consider it Bush bashing to state that Georgie was in the pockets of the oil companies and other corporate interests. I consider it a fact.

6 I just don't think it would have served a purpose. If he had done it, you would have accused him of grandstanding.

7. We have a well spewing 1.5M to 2.5M gallons of oil a day into the Gulf Of Mexico. We don't have the technology to stop it. We have oil companies that ignore or bypass safety protocols. We have a failed regulatory system. And you think it's a good idea to drill more wells. You say every well won't fail. True. Only one well failed this time and look at the disaster. If another well fails where do we get the resources to clean it up.
And you ignore my main point. The offshore oil industry is not the main supplier of jobs in the gulf area. My guess would be fishing and tourism lead the list. Both are industries which have been and would be severely impacted by another oil spill.

8 You won't be happy until Obama gets in a rowboat with a dixie cup and cleans up all the oil by himself.

9. Do you want me to post a list of all the days Bush spent in Crawford, or at Camp David, or on other vacations?

[Lefty]

mosty, it was obama;s admin that gave this rig a safety award and then missed inspections on a reg basis. This admin got money from BP as well so don't turn a blind eye to that. If BP downplayed the situation and this admin took their word, then they are stupid and yes I do mean Obama himself.
Even now instead of acting on various ways to deal with the situation, the dims conduct a "witchunt hearing" and obama appoints a new Czar. Come on Nov 2012.

[bigmack]

It's easy to say in hindsight that Obama should have requested Dutch aid right away
You must be someones hero. I'd take SuperChicken over your act.

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u70/macktime/002.jpg

[Lefty]

He didn't have to request Dutch aid, it was offered. He turned them down. He either is one big dumbass or he's not letting this crisis "go to waste"

[mostpost]

He didn't have to request Dutch aid, it was offered. He turned them down. He either is one big dumbass or he's not letting this crisis "go to waste"
My bad. I should have said accepted.

[mostpost]

mosty, it was obama;s admin that gave this rig a safety award and then missed inspections on a reg basis. This admin got money from BP as well so don't turn a blind eye to that. If BP downplayed the situation and this admin took their word, then they are stupid and yes I do mean Obama himself.
Even now instead of acting on various ways to deal with the situation, the dims conduct a "witchunt hearing" and obama appoints a new Czar. Come on Nov 2012.
I've already said the regulation and inspection system is broken, but don't act like this just began. Steps are being taken to remedy the situation, but it will take time to correct. It would be a fair criticism to say Obama was not aware of the situation as quickly as he should have been. It would be unfair to say he caused it.

The money from BP was not BP corporate money. It was money from BP employees and amounted to $71,000 out of $750M raised by the Obama campaign.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/05/05/bp.lobbying/index.html
I looked at a number of stories on this. Many of them try to leave the impression that the money came from BP corporate. Not true.
All of the stories use the phrase BP related.

[JustRalph]

I've already said the regulation and inspection system is broken, but don't act like this just began. Steps are being taken to remedy the situation, but it will take time to correct. It would be a fair criticism to say Obama was not aware of the situation as quickly as he should have been. It would be unfair to say he caused it.

change the venue,,,,,,make it Katrina and these posts were called stupid when it was said about Bush. You think it should fly now?

[GaryG]

It would be a fair criticism to say Obama was not aware of the situation as quickly as he should have been. Maybe he just didn't think it worthy of his attention. After all, he had McCartney to entertain. All he had to do was listen to the news or read a newspaper....Since he has no clue which way is straight up, I thought his advisors took care of briefing and prepping him. You said you liked the term "pompous ass" right? That empty suit behind the teleprompter is the best example you could ever want.

[JustRalph]

My God if those ships were available his refusal of them is criminal neglect.

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/obama-refused-dutch-oil-cleanup-help/

Read it and weep. The Dutch had formulated a plan to protect the marshes and offered their help.........on day 3!!

http://outsidethebeltway.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/obama-gulf-sand.jpg

From the link:

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. The response from the Obama administration and BP, which are coordinating the cleanup: “The embassy got a nice letter from the administration that said, ‘Thanks, but no thanks,’” said Geert Visser, consul general for the Netherlands in Houston.

Now, almost seven weeks later, as the oil spewing from the battered well spreads across the Gulf and soils pristine beaches and coastline, BP and our government have reconsidered. U.S. ships are being outfitted this week with four pairs of the skimming booms airlifted from the Netherlands and should be deployed within days. Each pair can process 5 million gallons of water a day, removing 20,000 tons of oil and sludge.
At that rate, how much more oil could have been removed from the Gulf during the past month?

The uncoordinated response to an offer of assistance has become characteristic of this disaster’s response. Too often, BP and the government don’t seem to know what the other is doing, and the response has seemed too slow and too confused.

[boxcar]

My favorite British pejorative is "pompous ass.

I can understand why. It comes immediately to mind every time you look in the mirror.

Boxcar

[boxcar]

Lst night, Obama took action: He appointed another Czar. I guess we can call him the "oil spill" Czar.

Yes, and this czar is the "independent third party" who will oversee this slush fund and, presumably, administer it. So, what we have is this hand-picked crony who answers only to the Chicago Thug in the White House watching over all this money. If this isn't a classic case of the fox guarding the chicken coop, I don't know what is. :rolleyes:

Boxcar