Posted on 06/13/2010 3:10:46 PM PDT by kristinn
Two stories about President Obama this weekend pushed my growing unease with his recent moves into full-blown anxiety. They come on the heels of Tim Dickinson's devastating Rolling Stone piece laying out concrete problems with Obama's response to the BP oil spill – from delays in cleaning up the Minerals Management Service, distrusting scientists who correctly reported the spill was much bigger than BP said, waiting more than a week to declare the crisis "an Oil Spill of National Significance," which corralled new services. Maybe the most damning, to me, section of Dickinson's piece comes when he quotes the president proudly announcing he'd reversed his stand against offshore oil drilling "It turns out, by the way, that oil rigs today generally don't cause spills," the president said. "They are technologically very advanced." Dickenson notes: "Eighteen days later, on the eve of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the Deepwater Horizon rig went off like a bomb."
Of the weekend's worrisome Obama stories, the first was Politico's Roger Simon's interview with Obama, published in full today, in which his self-defense about how he's handled the BP oil disaster sounded whiny and juvenile, and raised big questions about whether he's capable of fighting the battles he needs to enter and win to move the country forward. The other was Matt Bai's "President in Chief?" in the New York Times Magazine, which showed that Obama and his team seem more focused on protecting the "brand" that they believe galvanized millions of new voters, young voters and independents in 2008, to potentially realign American politics, than with helping Democrats hold the House and Senate.
SNIP
I don't know where to start with that cavalcade of complaint. First, it sounds like the president has been spooked by the Tea Partiers and their shrill, silly claims he's a socialist. I'm alarmed that he seems to have internalized their crazy charges that he's been over-zealously expanding government. And is he really claiming that he would have loved to crack down on the oil companies with tougher regulations before the explosion, but he didn't, because he was afraid of what his opponents would say? I honestly don't believe that's true, and I don't know what's worse, that he's dissembling here, or that the excuse he's dissembling with is so lame.
SNIP
Between the BP oil disaster and the near-collapse of the world economy thanks to the finance industry – both have in common a corporate arrogance that big risks to make big money were worth taking, no matter the impact on the rest of us – Obama has the perfect context for laying out why government matters, and why Democrats run the government best. Instead he's carping about "folks up there" in Washington and complaining that if he'd tried to regulate the oil industry before the spill, people would have said bad things about him. Grow up, Mr. President.
SNIP
The lights went out before the explosion:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/04/27/national/main6437054.shtml
Swat teams to oil rigs:
“The President announced yesterday that the Department of Interior is sending swat teams to inspect all oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.”
http://www.infowars.com/obama-sends-swat-teams-to-gulf-oil-rigs/
Interior Department SWAT Teams
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2950146/president_obama_announces_interior.html
SWAT team concept rereported to mean some other kind of SWAT, more technical:
“
The announcement of the SWAT teams received much media attention because it came as the White House was being criticized in some quarters for a tardy response to the explosion that killed 11 crew members on the platform and the ensuing massive oil spill that followed the structure’s sinking in 5,000 feet of water.
But have you noticed we haven’t heard much at all about the results of those inspections? Maybe that’s because the SWAT teams found virtually nothing of significance?
What they did find on the 29 rigs was a single violation on one rig and three violations on another. That’s it. None of the four violations was serious, though one involved flammable materials left in a safe welding area. The other violations included a testing procedure flaw, an uncovered six-inch by 12-inch hole, and expired eyewash bottles in a first aid kit.
Anybody want to guess why these results have gotten no coverage? At a time when lots of people naturally wonder how safe are the rest of the drilling rigs in the Gulf, wouldn’t it be useful to know the results of those emergency SWAT team investigations? You can read the full report of the inspections here.
Could it be that the White House and its many friends in the mainstream media are ignoring the inspection results because a finding of less than a handful of mnor violations conflicts with their preferred narrative than off-shore oil drilling is always and everywhere bad?”
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Remember-Obamas-emergency-Gulf-Oil-SWAT-team-inspections-94727604.html#ixzz0qmIIyzbe
Reminder of Al Gore’s call to civil disobedience of the green left: http://demleft.blogspot.com/2010/05/did-eco-terrorists-cause-gulf-oil-spill.html
Gina Miller’s article....and, she lives there:
http://www.dakotavoice.com/2010/05/was-the-gulf-oil-rig-explosion-a-deliberate-attack-on-america/
Isn’t branding what they do to a horse’s ass? Well, then, it is totally appropriate use of the word.
I wonder how long it will take before the Left realizes that continuing to back Obama is detrimental to their credibility. The rats are running around the deck of the sinking ship. How many of them will actually jump?
It is interesting to watch them eat each other....implosion to follow soon...
I would be posting from the grave if I were.
My name is "Jeff" and I live in Chandler, AZ, so I thought what the heck.
Who's leading who, indeed?
In the same way, bipartisanship is only a means to an end; it should never be an end in itself. If Obama was able to move a significant bloc of liberal Repubicans behind his moderate goals on the above issues, to get good things done, fantastic. But right now, Obama can only achieve bipartisanship by capitulating on Democratic values and adopting Republican goals – larding both the stimulus and jobs bills with tax cuts, for instance, or flip-flopping on offshore oil drilling to try to win GOP support for a climate change bill. Even then, Republicans tend to back away from his outstretched hand, and Obama looks like an impotent nincompoop waiting around for cooperation that will never come.
Well, Obambi looks like an impotent nincompoop because he is one. But I commend the author for speaking the truth that bipartisanship should never be an end in and of itself. That is because bipartisanship is a HOAX and a JOKE written by jokewriters specifically to appeal to "content-free" voters who just want to "feel good" about who they vote for and about Big Government.
Politics is a COMPETITION of ideas. That is all. Opposing teams do not work together to "win." Each team goes all out to advance its own goals. What is so hard to understand about that?
"Bipartisanship" is nothing more than a lame ode to content-free blather that no thinking voter should fall or or desire. Civility, yes! That is another matter. Even opposing teams in the heat of competition can show good sportsmanship and obey the rules. But that is a far, far cry from the modern hoax of "vote for me, I'll work for bipartisanship."
Can both teams win the Super Bowl? DUH. Both teams can play well and by the rules. That is all.
With this, I agree.
THE Jeff Chandler has been dead since June 18, 1961 so I would say no.
I have to say, this author's analysis is in a whole other league than the usual ragging on the President by the Left. This is way beyond simple "he's not liberal enough." This is he's not competent enough. This is he's really, really not competent enough, to the point where he may set back the party (Dems) and the nation.
Dayum.
I’ll see if I can go back and find that Russian ‘hoax’ piece. In the meantime, this is hilarious and a sign of the future: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-ZDgVrP55g&feature=related
*
Really ... that was an interesting coincidence.
What about the Neville brand...
This is not the original article (and I’ve never been to this site before) but it refers to the original article. The first site I went to had the title and the rest of the page blacked out. http://www.truth-out.org/was-gulf-oil-spill-act-war-you-betcha59224 ok here is the original at another site I’ve never seen before
http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1367.htm
I asked my neice the same question some years ago. She answered my question with a question; “Would that be American history or world history?”. She went on to get a BA in criminal justice but I still bust her when I see her.
and my birthday.....
He's playing the Presidential role very poorly and that will NOT be forgiven.
Walsh is a SCREAMING HATE-FILLED LIBERAL!!!
I’ve been to the truth out & whatdoes it mean sites and don’t know if they’re legit or not. There’s so much flotsam & jetsam on the Net.
Then again, I got caught up earlier in the day looking at an entire tarmac of white trucks & semi containers at some private airfield in Florida. People were arguing back & forth about whether they were there or not, so I went to look. Something about why are they all there N or Orlando.
I do know that some stories get reported on briefly and dry up so fast that it’s like someone makes a phone call. Once the Venezuela rig blew up in Mid-May, together with the knowledge that an NK sub can hold 2 torpedos, I got to thinking that 0bama would never openly acknowledge that a state of war exists between us and anyone. He has even publicly stated that we would not respond if attacked via nuclear, chemical or biologic means. Now, we have this oil spill disaster going on, and yet Brazil is going great guns with our $$ pumped into Soros’ pockets—and the US media says nothing. Do they think THEY’re immune? Do the DC numbnuts? Really? Do they not know?
Frankly, I don’t think they do know. I also think that not only is this administration displaying a black hole level vaccuum of leadership, but also, as a type of Godly wrath, the Gulf area where the well was dug may in some respects simply collapse on itself, as is discussed here: http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6593/648967 . No one knows how bad this is going to get, and, every single day this goes on, the level of ‘bad’ it gets grows expoenetially. Politics is not going to save anyone this time, and no one, absolutely no one could design an attack that just keeps getting worse, makes people who fight it get sick from fumes like this does and just keeps growing and growing like something out of a horror sci-fi movie. To say what has happened is ‘criminal’ is not even in the ball park.
The other 1/2 & I simply do not know how bad this is going to get. And we don’t live there, but, eventually, it’s just not going to matter because no one but die hards will be. Thoughts?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.