Latest Column

Good piece, Joe.
.
The criticism of Obama’s acquiescene to the “drill, baby, drill” morons is wholly warranted, and the characterization of this as “Bush’s second Katrina” hits the nail on the head.

I normally am very suspicious of your tendency to ‘spread the blame’ to make sure that you are balanced in at least your paragraph construction if not the contents of your articles. But in this case the balancing act is quite justified. Eighteen months is certainly enough time to determine if any heads needed to roll over a ridiculously easy permitting process at MMS.
.
Having said that, I find that this particular balancing act rings false:
.
>Nature was mocking the conservative faith in untrammeled market freedom and the liberal faith that market excesses can be regulated.
.
Nothing about this spill sugests that market excesses can’t be regulated. You point out yourself in the same article that the fail-safe valves that are required on the rigs in the North Sea would have dealt with this problem on the first day.
.
Regulators cannot forsee every eventuality and there may be things that they can’t protect against, but this doesn’t qualify as an example.

Joe Klein the ever clever protagonist again calls out all the denizens of the deep political arena to lay the blame where it belongs. “On everyone”. Of course Joe cannot resist is “blaming Bush” first, and then reluctantly adds Obama to the mix despite all of the evidence that Obama alone is reponsible for this disaster.
.
Here you go Joe. A timeline. Go ahead and fix it where you might think I have it wrong. Maybe you, and little kevin can figure out a way to put Bush II into this timeline and blame him yet again for Obama’s failures.
.

How about a timeline of events, swampland bias reporters? Show on a timeline exactly what has been done to date. Wouldn’t that clear some of the questions up in people’s minds?
.
4/20/10 – Oil explosion, 11 workers killed, hundreds escape.
.
4/21/10 and 4/22/10 – Oil well fire, search and rescue, and Coast Guard called in to help.
.
4/23/10 – Coast Guard on scene investigation says “well platform collasped into the Gulf, the oil does not appear to be leaking into the Gulf”.
.
4/24/10 – Oops. Underwater cameras reveal there is a leak, estimates of how much oil is being released are being estimated.
.
4/25/10 – Coast Guard now changes it’s mind. Stated oil leak is “very serious”, and they are concerned about oil spill reaching the surface.
.
4/26/10 – Oil spill now size of the State of Rhode Island, over 1800 square miles. (Any word from the Obama Administration as of yet?? NOPE).
.
4/27/10 – “Here we come to save the day!!!” Interior Secretary, now 7 days into the impending disaster launches a “joint investigation” with the Coast Guard. Imagine that!!
.
4/28/10 – Coast Guard says “5000 barrels a day is leaking from the well, we will try a burn”.
.
4/29/10 – President Obama FINALLY comes out of the White House to give a presser. Obama says “BP is responsible”. Pointing fingers it seems is the way to solve the huge oil slick which is now the size of Texas. Wildlife and natural preserves are looking at death in the eye. Lousiana now calls for a State of Emergency, reports that Jindal has been asking for help from the Federal Government for days past. Asking for the Shrimpers and other Fishermen to be hired to help in the cleanup.
.
4/30/10 – Obama announces a “freeze” on any NEW oil exploration. Isn’t that great?? Now we can sleep tight in our beds knowing that no NEW oil exploration will happen. Great job Mr President. That is taking the bull by the horn.
.
5/1/10 – Lousianna shuts down all fishing in Gulf waters. Impact estimated to be in the billions in dollars lost to the economy.
.
5/2/10 – Obama goes to the Gulf. Stated “this could be massive and unprecedented”. He ordered all fishing in Federal waters be suspended for 10 days. No plans as of yet, but deferring to BP as “the responsible party in all of this”. Coast Guard is given the official authority to oversee BP’s operations.
.
5/3/10 – Finally the boom laying off coastal shores has begun. Jindal demands that locals be used in the cleanup operations and putting out the boom barriers to keep oil from coming on shore.
.
5/5/10 – One leak plugged says BP. Now they are working on the more severe leak. A “Top Hat” container box process is being considered. Oil has not as of yet reached the shoreline, but is expected.
.
5/6/10 – Top hat is lowered to the leak. Not successful. Dispersents stopped. “Could be more harmful”. No new Government involvement. President is playing golf.
.
5/9/10 – Tar balls reach Alabama coast. Barrier islands are now full of oil killing the reeds which are all over these islands. Still no Government involvement. Dispersents resumed. LA National Guard ordered by Jindal to put out huge sand bags in hopes of blocking oil from reaching further into the LA coastline.
.
5/11/10 – Oil Execs “grilled” by Congress. Oil Execs pointing fingers at each other and not taking blame. Obama points finger at all three accused perpetrators, but still no other actions taken by the Federal Government as of yet.
.
5/13/10 – First video of the actual spill released to the public. Looks like over 200,000 gallons of oil per day estimated by the Coast Guard.
.
5/14/10 – Obama makes a statement he’s “deeply frustrated”.
.
5/16/10 – A siphoning tube is inserted into the oil well. Seems to be slowing the 200,000 gallon per day spill.
.
5/17/10 – President Obama appoints a “blue ribbon panel” of experts. (now isn’t that special!!).
.
5/20/10 – As predicted oil reaches the very sensitive marshes. Plants dying. Birds spotted covered in oil. Jindal asks for more Government help and assistance. Wants permits issued so they can build a barrier of sand to stop anymore oil from reaching coastline. Slick is moving to the “Loop Current” which is predicted to move faster and out into the Atlantic, up the East coast.
.
5/22/10 – Lousianna citizens outraged at the lack of Federal response. People begin to speak out and protest. Protests fall on deaf ears from Obama Administration.
.
5/24/10 – “Top Hat” gives way to “Top Kill”. BP hopeful that this process will stop the leak with mud and then cement. Fingers are all crossed in the White House. Administration officials are all now hitting the air waves of all news agencies trying to stem the spill of negative press which is now hitting the Administration. Obama goes to California to give a speech for $34,000 per couple campaign contribs for Barbara Boxer.
.
5/26/10 – “Top Kill” underway. Oil still spewing into the Gulf.
.
4/27/10 – Gov Jindal is very frustrated speaking out against Federal Govt refusal to issue permits so they can go to work to save what they can. Obama announces another trip to the Gulf. (does he have his boots with him and a rake to help with the cleanup?). So far no real Federal Government involvement in over 30 days into this disaster. And Democrats / Liberals finally begin to speak out and question Obama on his lack of involvement. Carville goes nuts on network TV. Calls on President to “git down here now”.
.
And they call Katrina Bush’s failure. I do hope you all can compare the response to Katrina to the response of Obama on this little mishap.

It would appear that your timeline fails to include any events before the explosion.

That’s odd. When looking for the ’causes’ of events, it’s usually customary to look at prior events, not subsequent ones……

“junk shot.” The notion that the propulsion of man-made garbage — chunks of metal, knotted ropes, golf balls (!) and so forth

Joe:

Finally a use for your columns. After they stop the leak the rest can be used as fertilizer. A two-fer

What Paul said.
.
I won’t bother to respond to your timeline again, since you still haven’t corrected the laughable lie that the Obama administration didn’t address the spill until 4/29.

You already posted your long copy and paste job once Rusty. If you don’t have any new to say except Obama sucks and government sucks, give us all a break.

Paul – It’s customary to ignore “advice” and “analysis” from morons too.
..
It doesn’t serve rustyblogwhore’s ideology to look at anything that transpired before the explosion; that might cast some blame on W and he can’t have that.
..
The simple fact is that the MMS under W was a pathetic joke. Obama’s failure was in not cleaning house more throughly from the start.

My thoughts exactly, Paul.

As usual the laughable, and hypocritics of the left spew forth as much hot air as their is oil leaking into the Gulf unabated.
.
Perhaps the “fix” is simply a couple hundred left-wing nuts spewing out hot air, this may create a bubble effect and stop the leak that is going to take down this Administration and the Democrats once and for all.

Gunny’s right – recycled crap is still crap, neocons.

Alright, Rusty, you have to stop. If you make me laugh any harder, the other people in my office are going to start complaining.
.
Oh God. The BP spill is going to bring down Obama’s presidency? Christ Almighty, that’s funny.

Geez rustyblogwhore, I though HCR was going to be Obama’s “Waterloo”. What happened? Way to move the finish line btw.

Nothing about this spill sugests that market excesses can’t be regulated.
.
That’s absolutely correct, Dirks.
.
But Joe’s strong adherence to Third Way orthodoxy tells him that “nobody could have predicted,” and so we get rather obvious cognitive dissonance.
.
See, when the technocrats working closely with industry “experts” predictably fail to hold the public interest in higher regard than private interest, it must be an Act of God for which no one should ever be held accountable. That’s the Third Way!
.
Nobody could have predicted that financial markets would collapse a little less than a decade after industry “experts” informed the Clinton Treasury and GOP Congressional leadership that the repeal of Glass-Steagall would allow the financial sector to “innovate,” either.
.
It’s not that our ideas on how the government should operate are consistently proven to be correct by events, it’s that we have “faith that market excesses can be regulated.” We’re ideological, see, and Joe’s ideology is post-ideological, or something like that. His New Democrats are the reasoning, informed adults, and we liberals are exactly the same kind of faith-healers to be find in the rightists’ revival tents and Objectivist book clubs.
.
Come to think of it, there is a context in which Joe’s criticism of our “faith that market excesses can be regulated” makes perfect sense, Dirks.
.
Maybe Joe’s thinking of our woefully misplaced faith that the New Democrats’ leadership can ever stop the predictable destruction wreaked on the rest of us by big industry and finance. Since the proponents of that state/industry partnership are in charge of the Democratic party, and the GOP are mostly market fundamentalist Taliban, maybe our “faith that market excesses can be regulated” is sadly out of touch with reality.
.
Yes, I think Joe might have a point: liberals’ faith in New Democrats’ ability to do anything substantial about the nation’s ills is just as flawed as the rightists’ market mythology. I mean, isn’t the idea of the current Democratic leadership fundamentally breaking up the state’s working relationships with the most powerful market players laughable? Isn’t the idea that New Democrats would somehow attempt to enforce the New Deal’s concept of government a sad testament to the wishful idealism of the liberal base?
.
It’s not a question of whether market excesses “can” be regulated, it’s a question of whether ideologues like Joe can bring themselves out of their comfortable, elite stupor, right?
.
That’s the real question, isn’t it, Dirks?

Sorry, that should be “we liberals are exactly the same kind of faith-healers to be found in the rightists’ revival tents and Objectivist book clubs“

Joe, you left out the part of blaming the Israelis. What happened? Obviously someone wrote this article for Joe. But that’s ok when Joe comes back he’ll blame the leak, cleanup, damage and the next tornado on the Israelis.

bushdidit,bushdidit,bushdidit,bushdidit!…kevie, the wannabe rooster, with his usual nugget of wisdom. You are a joke and impossibly ignorant. (but you are good for a laugh, now and then)

Not bad except Joe Klein, a self professed member of the “half a bushel for you and half a bushel for me” crowd probably shouldn’t be criticizing Obama for joining the “drill, baby drill” club. That is sort of like a Republican criticizing him for playing golf, or taking a vacation.

newfreedom lays the grounwork leading up to this disaster and frick and frack, little kevie and diecash, weigh in with inane, nonsensical prattle. Two losers of major magnitude. The HCR fiasco is FAR from settled, diehard. When the true cost is actually gauged and patients start getting inconvenienced, the ramifications will hit home and hit home hard. It will not be pretty for you star gazers. This is far from being over.

I’m glad I’m good for a laugh.
.
You, however, add nothing here. Seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you bring anything to the conversation but insults and accusations. I’ve tried to engage you with facts and figures, but all I get in return is comments about “little Kevie” and “ruffling the chicken’s feathers” and so on.
.
You’re a sad, sad little man.

And right on cue, earljr with the name-calling and nothing substantial.

substantial this little kevie….THIRTEEN TRILLION dollar deficit and growing at over one billion per day. In your pretentious state, you think you have ALL the answers. What are you liberals proposing to do about this bombshell? Nothing, of course…this follows your script perfectly. A pseudo intellectual with NONE of the answers. As stated previously, you are nothing but a joke, little kevie.

I was also very disappointed when I heard Obama’s announcement that he was approving more offshore drilling. I rarely disagree with Joe, but there just isn’t enough oil in the gulf (or off of Alaska) to justify the environmental risks, especially when you consider that it takes years to drill a new well, and by that time we could have improved our alternative energy methods with the money and effort that would have been put into the well.

I do, however, agree that Obama really should have looked into the state of off-shore drilling regulations, considering the Bush Administration’s environmental record.

http://www.abercrombiehot.com
http://www.abercrombiecity.com
http://www.afandhco.com
http://www.afandhco.com