Barack’s Panic: Mishandling of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/06/07/obama_seeking_ass_to_kick_over_oil_spill.html
So...Obama is talking to people...so he can eventually kick somebody’s ass at BP soon.
I mean, it makes sense. BP had faulty equipment at Deepwater Horizon and we’re all reaping the horrible outcome of it failing. Reasonably, the President of the United States should have been “kicking ass” since day one.
But.....we’re into day 50+, aren’t we?
Look, I have absolutely no problem with Obama being incensed that things went wrong, they can’t be fixed, and that we need solutions now. That’s what a president needs to do in time of crisis such as this. What I don’t understand is why it took THIS LONG for him to finally show some emotion over what’s been going on.
You can hate me for this statement, but I don’t fault BP much in this situation. There are a number of reasons that, although BP is part of the blame, they don’t deserve all of it. First of all, the rig was being leased by BP, meaning BP didn’t build the rig. The Deepwater Horizon rig was built by the largest offshore drilling contractor in the world, Transocean http://www.deepwater.com/fw/main/Home-1.html. It was built in 2001, but wasn’t leased by BP until 2008/2009 http://www.offshore-mag.com/index/article-display/6112303380/articles/offshore/volume-69/issue-11/departments/gulf-of_mexico/gulf-of_mexico.html). It was built in South Korea at a Hyundai owned plant.
In that paragraph alone, there’s two companies more at fault than BP. Transocean funded and built the specs and Hyundai built the structure. The big problem being that when the explosions happened, the blowout preventer failed to do its job, which would be to stop oil from spilling out into the ocean. Why isn’t more scrutiny made toward Transocean and Hyundai for providing equipment that failed?
It is BP’s fault insomuch as they chose to drill in that region and bring the faulty equipment into the area. Faulty equipment that has passed multiple inspections by federal and BP standards.
I propose that the reason so much scrutiny is being heaped upon BP instead of the other companies is due, in large part, to the liberal agenda. Everybody is vehemently heaping hate upon BP over the past two months. Why? Because the media, politicians, etc. are all blaming BP. Yes, BP needs to shoulder some of the blame. Not nearly as much as the other two companies, though.
Its a smart political move. If the Democrats can get the American people to continue to hate oil companies, it can move it’s energy policy along. This has been in the works since the demonization of Halliburton because, at one point, Dick Cheney worked there.
We, as Americans, have come to love sensationalism. The more vitriolic somebody is when they denounce something, the more we eat it up and believe them. If they’re passionate, well....they must be right.
Well, Obama decided to get passionate. Weeks later than he should have. Now, he’s receiving anger from both sides.
He deserves it, too. His response is downright laughable. He’s talking to people to find out “who’s ass to kick”. We’re over 50 days into this fiasco and our government doesn’t have the names of the people responsible?
Not to mention the fact that the person who deserves the biggest kick is Obama himself. For all the proselytizing Obama does about what an awful thing this is and how it needs to be fixed, what exactly has the federal government done to help out?
Absolutely nothing.
On the page the White House has set up to discuss government involvement http://www.whitehouse.gov/deepwater-bp-oil-spill, if you read through it, its a whole lot of NOTHING.
Apart from doing search and rescue right after the explosion, there’s not much. The EPA is committed to continuously testing the environment in the region to watch out for dangers, but come on. Really? We need the EPA to stand there every day to tell us ‘it’s bad down here.’? We can’t figure that out by looking out into the Gulf and seeing oil EVERYWHERE?
Oh, well, the Small Business Administration is offering low-interest loans to companies suffering because of the disaster.
You mean to tell me that with all the bailout money that has been tossed around like Monopoly money over the past year, we can’t spare a fraction of it to help out businesses that actually need the help? These people aren’t going under because they don’t know how to run a business, they’re failing because of a terrible ecological disaster! The only way you can provide help is to give them loans? That is absolutely absurd considering the frivolity this administration has shown when it comes to helping businesses recover from self-inflicted wounds.
With his decision to show some anger with the interview over the oil spill, critics latched on and began to criticize him for being too late to respond in such a manner, and not being all that believable with his anger. Unfortunately, the left has decide to make it more than that. They’ve decided, as they usually do with Obama, to turn it into a race issue.
First, there’s Jonathan Capehart, a writer for the Washington Post, who decided to make it known that Obama needs to watch what he says lest he be seen as a “dangerous or menacing” African American http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/06/rage_why_obama_wont_and_cant_g.html.
As always, the left is quick to pull the race card to quell any argument the right may have against its knight in shining armor.
Really? For once I would love to see the left treat this man as just the President of the United States, instead of the African American President of the United States.
Capehart goes on to quote an African American Democratic strategist in the following passage...
“"You and I are held to a somewhat different standard in the way we comport ourselves in professional environments," a black Democratic strategist with close ties to the business community said. "We are oftentimes held hostage to the myth of the 'angry black man' in ways that constrain us."
"As a black man, as a big black man, I know there are certain ways I can behave," an African American executive told me last week. "We don't have the luxury of making certain kinds of mistakes that would have us viewed as unintelligent.... You're carrying this burden of not having the luxury of messing up."”
REALLY? This just absolutely outrages me. To attempt to say that black men must keep their calm because they are viewed differently is just absurd. If you sit there and spout off a racist agenda, you have every right to be considered a dangerous person, regardless of sex or skin pigmentation. But if you are angry because of something legitimate, like an oil spill, and you’re angry on day one instead of somewhere in the fifties, then you have every right to speak and act as such. You may be critiqued for your message, but that will be because of the message, not because of the color of your skin.
Obama, as president, has every right to explode at any moment he wants, just as both Bushes, Clinton, and all the other presidents before him. Though I disagree with his policy and his governing style, I will never begrudge another person the right to speak what they want and be angered at whatever angers them, provided they have solid reasoning for being that angry.
Then, Mark Halperin, co-author of admittedly my favorite political book, Game Change, even went so far as to claim racism when Matt Drudge reported Obama’s interview. http://realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/06/09/oreilly_interviews_halperin_about_drudge_report_headline_on_obamas_ass_to_kick_comment.html
I don’t get it. I really don’t. What’s the appeal? Is there anything that can be said about this president that can’t be misconstrued with racism? In Halperin’s book, it’s even stated at multiple points that Obama didn’t want his presidency to be focused solely on the race card, yet here’s the author of the book that made that known falling back on the race card. It’s really mindboggling.
I don’t know. Maybe I’m blind to this issue. I just don’t see it. If you have proof that we treat minority politicians that much differently than white politicians that they feel the need to act in such a manner, please email it to me, or post it as feedback.
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