Comments

1
Augh.
2
Obama says he has been On Top of the situation since Day One....
the oil spill seems to have made Obama it's bottom
3
Whelp, here we go again!
4
as this sickening Disaster eats through it's sixth week it begins to take on an Iran Hostage Crisis air-
a helpless surreal nauseated feeling in the face of a slow motion unfolding nightmare....
5
Obama's current vacation is his second since the Leak began.
Plus it will keep him away from Arlington on Memorial Day (Clinton never missed a wreath laying at the Tomb of the Unknown in 8 years...), seemingly a tonedeaf move for a wartime President.

are we feeling the Malaise yet?
6
Please, grant me just one large hurricane to suck the oil-laden water out of the Gulf and drop it in a thick sheen all across the southern US. Maybe from Texas on East.
7
Failblog.org?

@6: Just on the Houston-Galveston MSA, please. I'll allow for as far west as Freeport and as far east to Orange. Make it a slow hurricane.
8
Don't worry, this well should be played out by August 2011 at the latest. Is anybody watching this thing move up the worst-ever table? I know it's the worst US spill, but is it in the top five worldwide yet? It will be.
9
Wake me when we have blood storms.
11
I've seen and heard a bunch of comments like @2 and @5 and I just don't understand it. There is an unprecedented disaster taking place before our eyes and the President, like every other human being, corporation and government is powerless to stop it. Yet there are some "conservatives" out there who seem positively gleeful at the scale of the destruction. Where is the political victory is all of this?

Is it the environmental devastation that makes you so joyful? Are you happy that so many working people are about to become destitute? Does this whole situation somehow suck less if you are a Republican? Someone needs to explain, because I am totally baffled by the response.
12
gosh girl doggie
you DON'T understand-
anything you read, obviously....

gleeful?
joyful?

because we are angered at an administration
that has done NOTHING?
(oh yes,
other than assure us repeatedly that they were
"On Top of this crisis from Day One!"...)

we are sorry if it offends you that we
express disappointment in
The Beloved but alas Helpless One.

have we blasphemed the tenets of
Secular Humanist Liberalism?

let us join you in a chanting circle on the oily beach,
holding hands and
humming the mantra
"the President is Powerless to Stop It"
while tossing the occasional tar ball back into the surf.
13
Dint listen to that asshole gurl. That guy is just misdirecting anger all over the place-you, Obama-glad I am not that persons spouse.
14
@8: Indeed. I won't doubt a top 5 after the discharge subsides. Maybe I'm a cynic β€” no, of course I'm cynical β€” but when this platform first sank, I had the sense that this one would be a really, really bad one. Of course, I lacked foreknowledge of the technology and all that, but having grown up on the gulf coast within spitting distance of refineries (close enough to smell them when the winds blew a certain way), I could sort of pick out that this one had the potential to be really nasty as oil spills go.

This, atop a prior awareness of the eutrophic dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico (thanks to all those washed-away fertilizers from upriver farms along the Mississippi), sort of seals the deal that the Gulf's waters have been in poor condition for a long time and neglected in terms of ecological-economic policy and enforcement.

Maybe this will change things. Slightly. Unfortunately, it's remedial, as it too often is.
15
you're not surprised because stopping this disaster is very hard to do. hopefully the relief well is underway?
16
Or the oil in the water could inhibit hurricanes from developing. We just don't know yet.
17
The Gulf Spill is George Bush's Chernobyl.
18
More like Obama's Katrina, Joe.
19
A big difference between this leak and Hurricane Katrina is that the NOAA was sending out warnings of all sorts, and the Bush Administration did nothing to prepare. In contrast, BP has claimed that they're on top of it all from the get-go. Obama's not been negligent, I'd say. More like naive, or overly trusting.
20
Hmmmm. Maybe I'm too cynical -- were that possible on this topic -- but I'm thinking the plan that BP came up with that allows the capture of leaking oil will be the plan that works. The plans that render the pipeline useless were doomed to fail.
21
Obama isn't Aquaman. What's he supposed to do, swim down there with a big cork? The government doesn't have the equipment or the expertise. What they have is lawyers, and it'll be the lawyers' turn once the oil stops.
22
Yesterday, Obama called BP's ongoing failure "enraging." I think the day to start getting enraged was Spill Day 1, not Spill Day 40.
23
19
right.
warnings.
warning the Democrap mayor of NO and Democrap governor of La ignored.
who exactly is responsible for the safety and well being of NO and La? The mayor and governor?
the mayor let 550 school buses flood in their parking lot then that very evening is on the radio ranting and cursing for every Greyhound bus in the nation to be sent to NO. nice.
the MSM managed to hang Katrina on Bush's neck.
fair enough.
politics is a sleazy shitty game,
no place for crybabies.

the Oil Spill will be Obama's Katrina and Iran Hostage Crisis all rolled into one.
the Democraps served up a big shit banquet,
enjoy the leftovers.

"the President is Powerless to Stop It"
OK
if you say so.

Just like the President was POWERLESS to pass single payer with 60 senators and the VP.
Just like the President was POWERLESS to stop Iran from getting nukes.
Just like the President was POWERLESS to end DADT.

It will look nice on Obama's political tombstone:
"the President is Powerless to Stop It"
24
Other that bitch about BP and take frequent golfing trips what has Obama done for the past six weeks?

The spill should have been nationalized by the third day and BP shoved out of the way.

Has the navy been called in?

If a sub with 200 crewmen was disabled and sitting on the floor of the gulf would Obama throw his hands up and go golfing?

What exactly have Obama and his administration DONE?

Daily updates that BP isn't doing enough are not really helping end the leak or clean up the gulf....
25
calling it Obama's Katrina makes zero sense. not a natural disaster. 2000 people aren't dead and rotting in their ruined homes. federal response hasn't been criminally negligent. just because Obama's not hopping up and down screaming like drink-addled James Carville doesn't mean nothing is happening. and the aftermath hasn't really begun yet.

if he nukes the well the GOP will call him an enemy of free enterprise.
26
Obama=Environmental War Criminal
27
@23: In that case, why are you expecting Obama to handle this? Shouldn't Bobby Jindal and his local colleagues be the ones responsible for overseeing the cleanup?
Of course not, you nitwit. State and local agencies aren't equipped to respond to natural disasters of that scope; that's why we have FEMA. (Well, that and to round up and intern patriotic citizens when the socialists make their coup. OOPS!)
And the local and state response was basically what it should have been; they, having quickly exhausted their resources, requested aid from the Federal government, aid that would prove to be grudging and shortcoming. Thank you, George W.

@26: Alleged=Radioactive Horse's Ass
In other words, can you back up your assertion with the occasional fact or two?
28
One word: OILICANES
29
The way this conversation is going - both here on the Slog and in the press in general - seems idiotic as well as dangerous. First, it is sheer nonsense to say that President Obama is responsible for causing this problem. It is prima facie absurd. Drilling for oil is an industry fraught with risk and with a long history of accidents, and when you take those risks under a mile of ocean it is only a matter of time before something awful happens. Now it's happened, and it is hardly unprecedented that the oil industry lacks the tools they need to clean up their mess.

But much more importantly, this is so clearly a matter that outweighs the usual politics of "my team is better than your team." This is a catastrophe. This oil spill will kill many people, ruin many lives, and destroy huge quantities of vital natural resources. If it is time for anything, it is time to use your labor or your money to help seal the Louisiana and Florida shore against a tide of toxins. Or if you're a pessimist it is time to say good bye to the Gulf of Mexico as a living ecosystem. It is a particularly stupid time to chant whiny slogans about "Democraps." You would prefer that Sarah Palin handle this situation perhaps? Or Glenn Beck?

And you, @2 and @5, 23 24 and @headupyourass, what would you do? How are you contributing to a solution? What would you do that Mr. Obama isn't doing? How would you go about getting a "sub with 200 crew men" off the sea floor? How would you even find a fucking job?

You are a moron.
30
because it is big oil Über Alles, think about it if, the feds couldn't bring the bankers into line then how the hell do you think they are going to bring the oil peeps into heel? c'mon democracy ? oh o.k.(paging 18th century re-ordering of society , for whatever that got us) it's a fucking pipe dream at best, they not only do what they want, they also got us hooked on the junk used to enrich themselves and have convinced us there is no other way out of our human malaise.
31
sheesh, you should be thankful for yer oil-i-garchy.

oh, i know i am.

as endlessly pointless and stupidly unsustainable as it is.
32
27
No city or state has jurisdiction over the well spewing oil into the Gulf. Only Obama.
Obama says his administration has been "in charge" and directing BP from Day One.
(did you know it was the administration that pulled the plug on the 'top kill' effort?)
33
Why haven't they exploded the well like the Russians have done so often in the past?
34
Why not cut the pipe off clean (as they are now proposing to do) then attach a section of pipe with a coupling on one end to attach to the end of the well and a valve on the other end. Leave the valve open while the section is attached (so the pressure doesn't blow it off while they are affixing it) then close the valve after the segment is securely attached?
35
Just how big is
"The Worst Ecological Disaster in US History"?

Only a third or fourth as big as it is going to be.

Obama Administration stooges were on the Sunday news shows preparing us for the notion that the spill won't be stopped until relief wells go online in August.
36
29

my my

we're all
"let's put partisanship aside
and pull together, team!..."
when Obama and the Democraps' bare asses
are hanging over the flame.

sorry, sweetheart

the Democraps already wrote the manual for
"How to Politically Respond to a Disaster"

you forgot,
in your heart wrenching listing
of damages and casualties,
to include
the Obama Presidency and
the Democrap Congress.

Killed by the Obama Oil Spill.

RIP

37
This Disaster is a
"100% Owned by Obama" production.

The well was permitted after Obama came into office.

The decisions on pipe thickness were regulated by the Obama Administration

In March, when the oil rig company (not BP) reported to regulators that they were having trouble maintaining control of the well it was the Obama Administration taking that report (and doing nothing about it...)

And, just days before the blow, it was Obama calling for more deep water drilling.

Obama and the Democraps may try to hide in the "bush" but that isn't going to cover them.

Please wait...

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