Obama: I'm responsible (for zilch)

In a rare appearance before his adoring fans in the press corps yesterday, President Obama repeatedly took "full responsibility" for the blundering efforts to clog up the geyser of crude oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico coating everything in sight.

At the same time, Obama repeatedly denied that his administration was complicit in allowing the catastrophe to happen in the first place, slow to realize the devastating nature of it, or ham-handed in the five-week effort to try to stem the toxic tide.

In other words, Obama -- as he often does -- took "full responsibility" for being awesome.

Haven’t they figured out anything to dump on the oil yet? Can’t the government mobilize here? Apparently, it’s a big deal, but the Federal Government is doing nothing apparently.

Figure out what can soak up the oil and either float or sink.

Dump it in and then either let it sink to the bottom or float and if if floats, remove it from the water. The oil is slowly, very slowly, moving toward the coast, and nothing at all is being done to stop it.

You know what I think will work? Dump ANYTHING on it. EVERYTHING either sinks or floats.

If the oil will stick to ANYTHING, wouldn’t it be better if it stuck to dead stuff than living plants on the coast?

The oil, once it gets stuck to, I don’t know, any and all available biomass anywhere that you choose to dump in the Gulf, isn’t going to rub off on something else like living plants? It’s stuck to the straw or the wood chips or the sawdust. If you choose your biomass wisely you can burn the biomass with the oil on it for energy.

Why didn’t Obama do this right away?

FDR was a horrible socialist (like Obama of course) but a handful of public works projects happened under FDR that did have lasting value. Obama could try something like this. On welfare? Unemployed? Join the Mop The Gulf Corps. Stand along the shoreline throwing sawdust, straw and wood chips into the water.

Obama’s Oil

1) Pres_ _ent Obama gets $$$$$ from BP ............. check
"Obama biggest recipient of BP cash
BP and its employees have given more than $3.5 million
to federal …with the largest chunk of their money going to Obama"

"Obama White House and British Petroleum (BP), which pumped $71,000 into Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign
are covering up the magnitude of the volcanic-level oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico"

BP oil leak: Fallen Deepwater Horizon was tapping second largest oil deposit in the world
If there is a single aspect to the dangers of the BP oil leak,
it lies in the question CEO Tony Hayward and other BP executives
have been avoiding since the first drop of oil went rogue: How much oil is leaking?
The real answer is - more than anyone wants to admit,
because the well holds enough oil to make Saudi Arabian drillers jealous."

2) Pres_ _ent Obama exempts BP from normal requirements ......... check
Gulf oil spill: BP has a long record of legal, ethical violations
…. BP's actions are facing unprecedented scrutiny, thanks to a years-long history of legal
and ethical violations that critics, judges and members of Congress say shows that the
London-based company has a penchant for putting profits ahead of just about everything else.

Over the past two decades, BP subsidiaries have been convicted three times of
environmental crimes in Alaska and Texas, including two felonies. It remains on
probation for two of them. "

“Heated Argument on Rig Hours Before Blast ( Deepwater Horizon oil spill )
Mr. Brown said Transocean's crew leaders—including the rig operator's top manager,
Jimmy W. Harrell—strongly objected to a decision by BP's top representative, or
"company man," over how to start removing heavy drilling fluid and replacing it with
lighter seawater from a riser pipe connected to the well head. Such pipes act as conduits
between the rig and the wellhead at the ocean floor, and carry drilling fluid in and out of the well."

“Workers on doomed BP oil rig: Corners were cut to save money
Two workers injured when an oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico told Congress on
Thursday that the companies in charge of the doomed drilling operation cut corners and
neglected maintenance in a race toward higher profits.
MMS official Jason Mathews, one of the panelists who questioned Harrell, noted that the
project was several weeks behind schedule, a delay that had cost more than $20 million at
a daily rate of $525,000."

“BP Used Riskier Method to Seal Oil Well Before Blast
Several days before the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, BP officials chose,
partly for financial reasons, to use a type of casing for the well that the company knew
was the riskier of two options, according to a BP document.
BP’s decision was “without a doubt a riskier way to go,” said Greg McCormack,
director of the Petroleum Extension Service at the University of Texas at Austin"

Federal Regulator Repeatedly Failed to Inspect Deepwater Horizon – Including for... Obama Presidency
ABC News has learned that in the 16 months from January 2009 through April 2010
MMS failed to inspect Deepwater Horizon four times – in May 2009, August 2009, December 2009, and January 2010."

"U.S. exempted BP's Gulf of Mexico drilling from environmental impact study"

"Obama admin exempted BP's Gulf drilling from environmental impact study "

"Obama sheltered BP's Deepwater Horizon rig from regulatory requirement"

"Red Flags Were Ignored Aboard Doomed Rig "

"US allowed drilling 'without required permits"

"U.S. Said to Allow Drilling Without Needed Permits
The federal Minerals Management Service gave permission to BP …
to drill in the Gulf of Mexico without first getting required permits "

3) Pres_ _ent Obama and the DNC begin the obstruction ......... check
“McCarthy: Obama hasn't returned call of lawmaker representing district of rig!! "

"Obama sat on sand berm request 2 weeks, still no reply"

"Frustration over sand barriers boils in Louisiana as federal government offers few answers"

President Delays Oil Spill Recovery Efforts For San Francisco Fundraiser With Getty Oil Heirs”

4) Pres_ _ent Obama and the DNC begin the coverup ......... check
“Parish official: BP shipped in workers for president's visit
Roberts said the workers were offered $12 an hour to come out to the scene at Grand Isle and work.
But, when Obama departed, so did the workers, he said."

"Oil Spill - CBS Threatened With Arrest For Filming The Oil Spill (Coast Guard: "This Is BP's Rules."

"Lab Chosen To Test Oil Spill Water & Animal Samples Has Ties To BP
In addition to this potential conflict of interest, federal officials have mandated that BP
gets to hire the companies that collect data as part of efforts to rescue wildlife covered with oil."

BP reports warning signs before gulf oil rig explosion"

I don’t know that government itself can really do anything about the spill. That is fine with me. Most of us have no background in engineering or science, and Obama is no exception. However, had he been a real leader, he would have bypassed BP and called in all the great minds in the field to come up with a solution. Instead he chose to play politics and point fingers at BP and President Bush.

I heard it said that Obama should have called in Halilburton. I don’t know if the company has the expertise, but if he failed to consider Haliburton solely as a result of its association with Dick Cheney, then Obama was and is a fool. I’m a Republican, but if my house is burning down, I’m not going to stop the firefighters at the door to determine their party affiliation. In a disaster politics is irrelevant.

In short, yes.

Instead of it all washing up on the beaches, some of it will be soaked up by biomass which will either sink or float on the the surface where it can be removed either on land or in the Gulf. Better than letting it get into all the marches and sticking to the living plants.

Fill some sort of aircraft with biomass. Grass clippings, wet or dry leaves. Fly over the thickest part. Drop the biomass. 30 seconds later a helicopter dragging a mesh net scoops up the biomass. Repeat frequently.

Honestly, I don’t know if it’s important or not.

If it’s important, this should’ve been done a long time ago.

If this wasn’t done, it’s not important. It might not be important. But if this wasn’t done, I better not hear from Obama that this thing was so important that some new tax must be implemented or some anti-economy, anti-oil measure must be undertaken. Not for something that Obama didn’t figure was important to try to fix in the first place.

A massive project like this is exactly what Gov’t is good for. BP doesn’t have a list of people to call with mops, the Gov’t might have the greater ability than BP to mobilize the efforts needed.

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