Posted on 06/29/2010 8:16:55 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
It’s one thing to say that Obama’s administration showed ineptitude and mismanagement in its handling of the Gulf oil spill. It is quite another to grasp the situation up close, as I did during a recent visit to Alabama.
According to state disaster relief officials, Alabama conceived a plan — early on — to erect huge booms offshore to shield the approximately 200 miles of the state’s coastline from oil. Rather than install the relatively light and shallow booms in use elsewhere, the state (with assistance from the Coast Guard) canvassed the world and located enough huge, heavy booms — some weighing tons and seven meters high — to guard their coast.
But … no sooner were the booms in place than the Coast Guard, perhaps under pressure from the public comments of James Carville, uprooted them and moved them to guard the Louisiana coastline instead.
So Alabama decided on a backup plan. It would buy snare booms to catch the oil as it began to wash up on the beaches.
But … the Fish and Wildlife Administration vetoed the plan, saying it would endanger sea turtles that nest on the beaches.
So Alabama — ever resourceful — decided to hire 400 workers to patrol the beaches in person, scooping up oil that had washed ashore.
But … OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) refused to allow them to work more than 20 minutes out of every hour and required an hourlong break after 40 minutes of work, so the cleanup proceeded at a very slow pace.
The short answer is that every agency — each with its own particular bureaucratic agenda — was able to veto each aspect of any plan to fight the spill, with the unintended consequence that nothing stopped the oil from destroying hundreds of miles of wetlands, habitats, beaches, fisheries and recreational facilities.
Where was the president? Why did he not intervene in these and countless other bureaucratic controversies to force a focus on the oil, not on the turtles and other incidental concerns?
According to Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, the administration’s “lack of ability has become transparent” in its handling of the oil spill. He notes that one stellar exception has been Obama aide Valerie Jarrett, without whom, he says, nothing whatever would have gotten done.
Eventually, the state stopped listening to federal agencies and just has gone ahead and given funds directly to the local folks fighting the spill rather than paying attention to the directives of the Unified Command. Apparently, there is a world of difference between the competence of the Coast Guard and the superb and efficient regular Navy and military.
Now the greatest crisis of all looms on the horizon as hurricanes sweep into the Gulf. Should one hit offshore, it will destroy all the booms that have been placed to stop the oil from reaching shore. And there are no more booms anywhere in the world, according to Alabama disaster relief officials. “There is no more inventory of booms anywhere on earth,” one told me in despair.
The political impact of this incompetence has only just begun to be felt. While administration operatives are flying high after a week in which the president’s ratings rebounded to 49 percent, per Rasmussen, after his firing of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the oil is still gushing and the situation is about to worsen.
The obvious fact is that Obama has no executive experience, nor do any of his top advisers. Without a clear mandate from the top, needed efforts to salvage the situation are repeatedly stymied by well-meaning bureaucrats strictly following the letter of their agency policy and federal law. The result, ironically, of their determined efforts to protect the environment has been the greatest environmental disaster in history. But some turtles are OK!
Obama couldn’t manage a sidewalk taco stand.
"The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite."
LoL. I laugh every time I read that one. To think anyone ever took it seriously!
Heck of a job, Brownie.
The inefficiency is stunning, though it shouldn’t be.
One of those little Subway shops inside a truck stop is above his pay grade.
Hey!
Did you hear they’ve invented a car that runs on water?
It’ll run on water...as long as the water comes from the Gulf!
Ineptitude is one thing (as DM noted) but this is malice.
“. . . he couldn’t lead Michael Moore to a 24-hr All-You-Can-Eat buffet.”
I think that this book cover accurately reflects my thoughts on the matter of this president.
The US response to this spill (which I place in completely separate categories) has been despicable, sub-moronic.
It has been idiotic both from the practical standpoint...as in actually getting something done. To not have deployed oil skimming assets at the point where this spill was revealed as the size it was and is. And it has been a policy blunder from the standpoint of 0bama’s & the administration’s failure to take advantage of all the help offerings from other countries. I mean, what a miserable dumb scumbag, he could have shown he was this world leader, all connected to everything, by letting in these other countrys’ assets. But no, either he has zero leadership ability [check] or he is so beholden to the Jones act and its implications as to domestic union labor [probably check] or he is just one insensitive clod determined to make life as miserable as possible for BP.
In any interpretation, the prevention and remediation effort has been a colossal failure on his part, IMHO. I really hope he pays for it.
“Obama couldn’t manage a sidewalk taco stand.”
He does have a big interest in ice cream so he “might” break even with an ice cream cart.
While I completely agree with everything else in your post, I believe that we are going to be the ones who pay, and we are going to pay dearly.
He is going to be protected by his horde.
Obama is the kind of guy that will pinch a loaf in a toilet stall before discovering there isn’t any toilet paper.
Taring Barry is a good idea. Where are the feathers and rail?
Not that any of them will realize it. Elitists are not common people, they have no common sense.
OUTSTANDING FReeper humor BUMP!
(Hey Dick...what about that 20B agreement between the tyrannical branch of government and BP? How about we see it? How can Barry “This Is Not a Cap” OFascist make that claim?)
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