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Turning the corner on the Gulf oil spill?

Has the president turned the corner on the oil drilling crisis?

  • Yes, time to move on

    Votes: 1 6.7%
  • No, he should continue to focus on the Gulf

    Votes: 10 66.7%
  • Other (write in)

    Votes: 4 26.7%

  • Total voters
    15

Ockham

Noblesse oblige
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Washington Post said:
This week's schedule for President Obama suggests that the White House believes he has. After dominating the conversation in Washington all last week, the environmental crisis in the Gulf of Mexico does not appear front and center on the White House calendar.

...

But the administration is clearly expecting -- maybe hoping -- that the intense public attention on the spill fades a bit, starting with this week, giving them a chance to turn to other subjects.

...

For the rest of the week, Obama and his aides hope they can focus on Afghanistan, health insurance reform, relations with Russia (whose president arrives for a visit on Thursday) and the global economy.

Obama departs Thursday for Canada for the G-20 gathering of the world's largest economies. Ahead of the meeting, the president warned the group last week that members must redouble their prior commitments or risk allowing the global economy to sink once again.

Tuesday's meeting with state health care commissioners is another chance for Obama to remind the public of the benefits he predicts will come from the massive overhaul of the nation's health-care system.

And Tuesday night's White House celebration of gay and lesbian pride month should be an upbeat event for Obama. That constituency -- which has been angry about the pace of some changes -- is likely to be happier at this year's version of the annual event, as Congress is on the verge of ending the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

washingtonpost.com


Do you agree the Oil spill is now over, time to move on to other issues and focus on other things?
 
The world does stop just because we have an environmental disaster.
 
washingtonpost.com


Do you agree the Oil spill is now over, time to move on to other issues and focus on other things?

Yeah - move on to the massive, decades old and continuing spill, contamination and destruction in Nigeria.

It really sinks my heart and disgusts me that the one off our southern coast gets all this dramatic attention, drives anger and even political action - Yet there are other areas of the world have had to deal with much worse with no recognition or intervention - and those other oil companies are just :shrug: not being held accountable, not held responsible, no investigations - nothing.

Even our own president ignores these other issues throughout this entire process.

What ****ing bull**** - we're not more important or any more special than anyone else out there, you know.
 
washingtonpost.com


Do you agree the Oil spill is now over, time to move on to other issues and focus on other things?

Don't hear anyone suggesting the event is resolved. But there does seem to be some recent encouraging news regarding capturing some of the leaking oil. And hopefully that will continue to improve over time until the relief wells are in place.

The "cleanup" may be a different story. Not sure what kind of confident calculations have been made on what damage the spill will leave on the ecosystem. Or how long it will take to recover.



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When the spill first started bp claimed it was 1,000 barrels a day. Today I heard it could be 100,000 a day. Hell no, it's not over. It's a long way from over. I am talking centuries, not decades or years.
 
Yeah - move on to the massive, decades old and continuing spill, contamination and destruction in Nigeria.

It really sinks my heart and disgusts me that the one off our southern coast gets all this dramatic attention, drives anger and even political action - Yet there are other areas of the world have had to deal with much worse with no recognition or intervention - and those other oil companies are just :shrug: not being held accountable, not held responsible, no investigations - nothing.

Even our own president ignores these other issues throughout this entire process.

What ****ing bull**** - we're not more important or any more special than anyone else out there, you know.

Should America intervene in Nigeria's affairs?
 
Should America intervene in Nigeria's affairs?

We should support them in any and all effort to clean that crap up . . . we could actually put pressure on Shell and other companies to take care of THEIR spill if we so wanted. Just because it's not happening on our soil doesn't mean it doesn't affect us, matter to us or that it's not worth our assitance in some way.
 
Yeah - move on to the massive, decades old and continuing spill, contamination and destruction in Nigeria.

It really sinks my heart and disgusts me that the one off our southern coast gets all this dramatic attention, drives anger and even political action - Yet there are other areas of the world have had to deal with much worse with no recognition or intervention - and those other oil companies are just :shrug: not being held accountable, not held responsible, no investigations - nothing.

Even our own president ignores these other issues throughout this entire process.

What ****ing bull**** - we're not more important or any more special than anyone else out there, you know.

The locals in Ogniland within Nigeria would appreciate it if it were given 100th the attention given the Gulf disaster.
SPDC, which is the Shell Pertoleum Development Company was implicit in the multiple Oil leaks and has done absolutely nothing to clean up the subsequent mess.
I rather imagine they (SPDC & SHELL) are keeping themselves in some corner and hoping that no one notices what they have caused in other parts of the World.
 
Do I expect a lawyer with absolutely no technical training to handle an extremely technical engineering problem that many seasoned oil engineers can't fix?

Let me think about that. Oh wait. No, I don't expect him to. Let's put a school teacher in charge of engineering specialized equipment for NASA! Yeah, that's a good idea. How about an accountant in charge of genetic recombination programs?

Seriously. You people crack me up. This is like expecting Bush to be able to solve a problem on the International Space Station. LOL.
 
Do I expect a lawyer with absolutely no technical training to handle an extremely technical engineering problem that many seasoned oil engineers can't fix?

Let me think about that. Oh wait. No, I don't expect him to. Let's put a school teacher in charge of engineering specialized equipment for NASA! Yeah, that's a good idea. How about an accountant in charge of genetic recombination programs?

Seriously. You people crack me up. This is like expecting Bush to be able to solve a problem on the International Space Station. LOL.

I think you fail to realize that when most people say "the president should do something" we're not suggesting he put on some gear and go diving - work some magic and tadaaa! Fix it! We're saying he should use his political state, position and power as well as purse strings to persuade those responsible to take it seriously, put it on top of their 'to do' list and tackle the issue that they caused in the best way possible. As well as to enforce the laws that are in place and to hold people at fault accountable as well as spark investigation and be a leader in public-awareness.

I think he's handling the BP situation pretty well right now - it could have happened sooner but better late than never.
 
I think you fail to realize that when most people say "the president should do something" we're not suggesting he put on some gear and go diving - work some magic and tadaaa! Fix it! We're saying he should use his political state, position and power as well as purse strings to persuade those responsible to take it seriously, put it on top of their 'to do' list and tackle the issue that they caused in the best way possible. As well as to enforce the laws that are in place and to hold people at fault accountable as well as spark investigation and be a leader in public-awareness.

I think he's handling the BP situation pretty well right now - it could have happened sooner but better late than never.

With reference to the underlined.
It should have happened sooner, much sooner, whether it was because States bordering the Gulf had Republican Governors that are not friendly to the WH or not I do not know, but only when his inactivity ttarted to kick him and his administration politically, did he begin to do something. But as you say 'Better late than never".
What US Presidents seem to fail to realise is that they are President to all the US not just those that voted them into power.
 
Do I expect a lawyer with absolutely no technical training to handle an extremely technical engineering problem that many seasoned oil engineers can't fix?

Let me think about that. Oh wait. No, I don't expect him to. Let's put a school teacher in charge of engineering specialized equipment for NASA! Yeah, that's a good idea. How about an accountant in charge of genetic recombination programs?

Seriously. You people crack me up. This is like expecting Bush to be able to solve a problem on the International Space Station. LOL.




do you expect him to run a war? :ssst:
 
do you expect him to run a war? :ssst:

I expect him to follow the advice of those experts he appoints to run the war.

If he fails to follow their advice then he can hardly blame those he appoints if their efforts fail.

Similarly I expect him to follow the advice of those he appoints to follow up matters with regard to the Oil spill.

I do not expect him to don diving gear and descend to the spill point and seal it, I may well hope, but expect? No.
 
Just one subjective opinion. Obama has never had to manage anything in his entire life before assuming the presidency. A business, a war, a national disaster, etc.

And he is less than overwhelming on what he has shown us to this point.....



.
 
I think you fail to realize that when most people say "the president should do something" we're not suggesting he put on some gear and go diving - work some magic and tadaaa!

The various posts here suggest otherwise.

Fix it! We're saying he should use his political state, position and power as well as purse strings to persuade those responsible to take it seriously, put it on top of their 'to do' list and tackle the issue that they caused in the best way possible.

What makes you think BP is just sitting there play on their iPhones?

As well as to enforce the laws that are in place and to hold people at fault accountable as well as spark investigation and be a leader in public-awareness.

So we need more government to ensure that firms actually have real materials and people behind their emergency plans? Is that what you're telling me? (I don't think Rev had that in mind when he thanked your post) And Obama did get them to commit to a $20 billion fund.
 
The various posts here suggest otherwise.

What makes you think BP is just sitting there play on their iPhones?

So we need more government to ensure that firms actually have real materials and people behind their emergency plans? Is that what you're telling me? (I don't think Rev had that in mind when he thanked your post) And Obama did get them to commit to a $20 billion fund.

If the government and BP and everyone else involved in this mess had stuck to their end of the deal it's likely this mess wouldn't have happened. As the investigation into the entire business' septics are discovering: nothing was ever done like it was suppose to.

Government has set some standards, put in place rules and guidelines, and they're insufficient at best - and none were followed or enforced.
BP also has it's own guidelines, insufficient at best, and they were also not followed or enforced properly.
Haliburton . . . everyone else . . .

Yep - when inspection time came and they just penciled in their forms - they were jacking off, if not playing on their Iphones.

What's Shell doing through all of this?
They're responsible for a much bigger and longer-lasting and far more detrimental disaster in Nigeria . . . which has had no intervention or focus at ALL - because, likely, they're jacking off and playing on their Iphones, too.

If not jacking off and playing around - they're certainly rolling in the money pile like Uncle Scrooge.
 
Last edited:
washingtonpost.com


Do you agree the Oil spill is now over, time to move on to other issues and focus on other things?
NO
This is far from resolved
Heads must roll, none have yet.
What energy reform?
And have attitudes improved, this may take generations ??
And the Coast Guard supposedly throwing a wrench in the works over some silly regulation...
And BP lying about the oil loss quantity, if they really did, of course.
The media is in need of reform, badly....
 
Nope. I expect him to get the hell out of the way and let the Generals do that. We had to wait 4 years before Bush learned that lesson in Iraq.



So you are suggesting Bush was drawing up battle plans?


please by all means, link so we may review.



(Bush again? Really? :doh)
 
Well today was certainly a bit of a setback. Not exactly back to square one, but sort of that direction...:doh



.
 
Well today was certainly a bit of a setback. Not exactly back to square one, but sort of that direction...:doh



.

Well, all of that came undone because Obama let go of McChrystal.
If he had just kept him around - this spill wouldn't be unraveling more and more.

It's all Obama's fault.
 
Unfortunately there is little more Obama can do to fix this mess created by deregulation and private sector recklessness. So many other issues are important and the president is busy dealing with lots of other issues. However I believe he can keep the "boot" on BP to fix the situation. BP is reacting correctly by accepting responsibility which is surprising considering Exxon Valdese spill. The real problem is republicans attacking the presedent because he is holding BP responsible. These ridiculous requests for more offshore drilling despite the fact that oil companies can't deal with these sorts of disasters so deep in the oceans. The moratorium is completely appropriate and big oil will just have to suck it up and move their rigs till they develop technology that can deal with this sort of problem effectively. Further the other oil companies involved with this mess should be accepting financial responsibility as well. These are not poor companies and they are all responsible for this mess. The other oil companies who were profiting from this should have financial culpability to the people of the gulf.
 
Well, all of that came undone because Obama let go of McChrystal.
If he had just kept him around - this spill wouldn't be unraveling more and more.

It's all Obama's fault.

What exactly in the bejeezus are you talking about....???




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