Sponsored Content




Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support


Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!



Recent Entries
Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022
Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022
OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published. Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me
Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups

NoVaMoMe 2024: 06/08/2024
Arlington, VA
Details to follow


Texas MoMe 2024: 10/18/2024-10/19/2024 Corsicana,TX
Contact Ben Had for info





















« Huh: Sex and The City 2 Gets Politically Incorrect.
No, Like Really Politically Incorrect.
| Main | Three Muslim Men Caught Breaking Into Heinz Field For Nonsensical Reasons; Pittsburgh Police Called "Blatantly Anti-Muslim" »
May 24, 2010

Gov. Bobby Jindal Rips Obama For Slowness On Oil Spill

Video at the link. The problem is with sand-booms needed to protect Louisiana's shores from the invasion of oil.

The video is worth watching, but here's a transcript of some of his remarks.

Note his Tea Party-like vow.

"It is so much better for us. We don't want oil on one inch of Louisiana's coastline, but we'd much rather fight this oil off of a hard coast, off of an island, off of an island, off of a sandy beach on our coastal islands, rather than having to fight it inside in these wetlands," Gov. Jindal said, making the case for sand booms.

The governor said he has been forced to protect Louisiana without the approval of the Army Corps of Engineers, which is weighing the ecological impact of the construction of more sand booms.

"We are not waiting for them. We are going to build it," Jindal said.

"We can either fight battle -- we can fight this oil -- on the Barrier Islands 15 to 20 miles off of our coast, or we can face it in thousands of miles of fragmented wetlands," Gov. Jindal said, clearing favoring the first option. "Every day we're not given approval on this emergency permit to create more of these sand booms is another day when that choice is made for us, as more and more miles of our shore are hit by oil."

One federal official is kinda-sorta taking responsibility for the inadequate response, for once.

Somehow I don't think Obama will follow his lead.

The oil mass continues moving west, and as the toxic sludge begins to make landfall in Terrebonne, Capt. Edwin Stanton, who heads up the Coast Guard’s response, is taking blame.

“The governor is right. It’s too slow, and if it’s anybody’s fault, it’s mine, for not pushing (BP) hard enough perhaps,” Stanton said.“We did have a problem with getting boom down here to begin with, but there seems to be boom that is in the staging areas that needs to be put out.”

Then, in an exchange with a reporter, he went further.

Stanton: “It’s my job to direct this response in Louisiana.”

Reporter: “Why didn’t you do it?”

Stanton: “Well, the why — is that really important?”

Reporter: “Yes sir, we live here.”

Stanton: “Well, I guess I’m just slow and dumb.”

That answer is kind of dismissive -- I don't think he really believes that -- but at least he's acknowledging his responsibility.

Palin made a halfway similar criticism of Obama.

“If there's any connection there to President Obama taking so doggone long to get in there, to dive in there, and grasp the complexity and the potential tragedy that we are seeing here in the Gulf of Mexico -- now, if this was President Bush or if this were a Republican in office who hadn't received as much support even as President Obama has from B.P. and other oil companies, you know the mainstream media would be all over his case," she said.

Gibbs fired back that the former Alaska governor needs a lesson in how the oil industry works.


"Sarah Palin was involved in that election but, I don't think she was paying a whole lot of attention," Gibbs said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

"I'm almost sure that the oil companies don't consider the Obama administration a huge ally," he said, adding, "My suggestion to Sarah Palin would be to get slightly more informed as to what's going on in and around oil drilling in this country."

Palin used Twitter shortly thereafter to respond to Gibbs.

"Obama is the top recipient of BP PAC & individual money over the past 20 years. Dispute these facts," she wrote, linking to a Politico article citing campaign finance reporting showing more than $3.5 million given to candidates by BP since 1990.

The largest single donation by BP -- $77,051 -- went to Obama.

A big question I have is why wasn't there, already present in the Gulf, the equipment needed to contain or plug a leaking well? Why are we so far behind, scrambling, after the disaster has been ongoing for 33 days?

Please don't call me a socialist when I say that if a company is engaging in an inherently dangerous activity, there should be laws requiring them to have the equipment necessary to contain a disaster. Sure, you can demolish a building through explosive force if needed -- but you have to pay the Fire Department and EMTs to have personnel on site. You can't just trust that you placed you charges properly.

A disaster will happen; they always do. This is just a fact of life.

What makes it criminal is that there was no back-up plan ready to roll.

Apparently Plan A for this was "the well will not explode." Period. End of sentence, end of file. There was no Plan B in case it did explode because... see Plan A: The well will not explode. How many times do I have to tell you? There will not be a disaster -- that's our plan for containing a disaster.

Was there really no law requiring a ready-to-be-deployed cap to be present in the theater, in case a well exploded?

I'm assuming there was supposed to be some kind of disaster-preparedness going on here, required by law -- but there wasn't.

And who, exactly, is chargable for that? Bush?

Bush hasn't been president for more than a year. Who was responsible for enforcing the nation's law the past fifteen months? Am I dreaming, or was that President Peter Perfect?

BTW: I think Rand Paul's response to this -- whining about the "boot on the neck" of BP -- is both horrible policy and even worse politics.

Wretched politics. Only Rand Paul feels sympathy for poor, put-upon BP.

The American people are not really in the mood to cut BP a break on this. Yes, understand disasters happen. I cannot fathom why there is no plan already being deployed.

That is, in fact, criminal.

Like I said: If you have to demolish a building with explosives, fine, the government shouldn't prohibit that, exactly. But it should be enforcing reasonable safety measures for inherently dangerous activities.

And if the guy blowing up a building doesn't have fire extinguishers handy when he pushes the button -- Yes, he's to blame. (And so is the government, for not having inspected to make sure those extinguishers were present.)

It's not "boot on the neck." It's common sense.


digg this
posted by Ace at 03:07 PM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
Alberta Oil Peon: "Well, off to the snoozer for me. Night, Horde. ..."

Alberta Oil Peon: "King Biscuit Boy with Crowbar. Had beers with Bisc ..."

Doo-Dah, Doo-Dah: "Regarding the lack of prosecution: Isn't the corr ..."

Ciampino - Update #171: "Brooklyn woman has jaw wired shut after stranger s ..."

Ciampino - Update #170: "Army suffers two Apache helicopter crashes within ..."

m: "499 ..."

m: "498 ..."

Ciampino - Update #169: "470 They say that the drummer and his Dad's reuni ..."

Ciampino - the cost of a new engine will buy a lot of fags: "459 I doubt an ordinary camera-equipped drone cou ..."

Alberta Oil Peon: "Little Feat, "Waiting For Columbus" is a darned go ..."

Stress Management Techniques for Women: "First off I want to say excellent blog! I had a qu ..."

SunyD: "The Who were never high on my playlists. None of ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64