Meanwhile, Oil Continues to Pour into the Gulf
17 June 2010 9:17 am by Taylor Marsh
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It’s great that BP is putting $20B in escrow, plus other funds to pay for the blow-out that was authorized on Pres. Obama’s watch. But oil continues to pour into the Gulf, with Obama having no containment plan in sight.
This is going to put the “Obama choir Can Do No Wrong” crowd off their coffee, I know, but someone has to remind the loyalists that this isn’t about defending Barack Obama. It simply isn’t the most important issue in what’s unfolding in the Gulf, though you wouldn’t know it by some of the outbursts online, as well as on cable news.
In fact, people are more incensed by the latest PR gaffe by BP’s chairman using the words “little people” than they are about Pres. Obama’s lack of competence to roust the power of his presidency and the federal government to accomplish job one right now, which is to contain the oil.
Activist and TM.com reader texan4hillary had insomnia last night and posted Keith Olberman’s DailyKos adieu “In the News.” Keith is fed up with the personal attacks he’s getting and is packing it in over there. Dear Keith, Welcome to my world. I knew you’d experience what started happening to me several years ago (and continues) eventually. My advice: ignore the “Obama Can Do No Wrong” choir. Glad to have you back on the reality side of telling it like it is, though I wish you hadn’t been so defensive about it last night. Hey, but I do understand.
It reminds me of a comment I got from an Obama die hard recently on my Facebook page when I clearly posted results from a polling firm, which this person took as my own words. The immature review went like this: You really don’t like Obama… Like? At this late stage in a catastrophe that has caused an ecological and environmental holocaust, the Obama choir is playing high school popularity games and talking about their “faith” in the President. Some of my emails look the same way, with people aghast that I’m not cheerleading at a time when there’s little to cheer.
I’m all for “faith” in someone, but I’d like a little action that actually deals with the problem at hand. When it doesn’t come after 58 days, well, it’s time for a little Harry Truman.
Pres. Obama still hasn’t addressed how to contain the millions of gallons of oil, with no plan in sight from the federal government. This is his job. It is astonishing to any person with an independent mind who is more interested in rescuing what we can in the Gulf rather than saving the Obama aura.
I addressed the need for supertankers and other elements weeks ago when I laid out what needed to be done that Obama wasn’t doing, with the help of industry experts, while TV anchors and their guests didn’t say squat.
As you sit here reading these words, oil continues to pour into the Gulf, without Pres. Obama announcing one single approach that differs from what hasn’t worked since day one. If you want to add further injury in presenting more reality, industry experts have said from the start, whether it’s Matthew Simmons or the ones I’ve engaged, that this blown well may not be capped for months, maybe not at all.
Dylan Ratigan said it again today on “Morning Joe,” as Mike and Joe tried their best to play PR defense for the President and his administration. Whatever can be said, the containment plan, well, there isn’t an effective one in place even today.
This is Pres. Obama’s job and his responsibility. His incompetence in not pulling out all the stops to at least suck the oil out of the Gulf is crisis management malpractice.
It’s tremendous news BP is going to pony up some real cash.
But what’s Pres. Obama going to do about containing the oil that continues to spew into the Gulf at a rate that rises every few days with new estimates of the horror given, with no end in sight?
It looks like we have a president who does not know how to manipulate the levers of government. He is in way over his head and clueless about how our government works. In his short 2 years as a senator, he was so busy fundraising that he never did the work necessary to get real experience.
The fact that he had never run a company, or even been a manager in a a business, much less a state governor or accomplished senator is showing now.
To have a president who seems to feel helpless about his ability to impact what is going on in the gulf (or one whose ideas are simply to trot out a “war on the oil spill” speech – since it worked for Bush after 9-11, why won’t it work for him?) is where we are right now.
If he were more concerned about the total devastation of the Gulf of Mexico instead buffing the obama brand that exists in his mind (transformational!!!Yay!!) Would he take action? Or is it just what I wrote above – in over his head and clueless.
Is that sort of patriotism, to take perhaps unpopular action to protect our natural world, too much to expect of the President of the United States?
The flip side to Obama loyalism is Obama Derangement Syndrome. Both should be avoided, as neither are rational.
Obama was in government for 11 years, not 2.
He was a State Senator for about 8 and a US Senator for about 4. As for running a business, well, the last guy was a CEO when we see how that worked out.
You’ve built quite a straw man there, assuming that there is something within Obama’s legal power to do to stop the leak that he is not doing. If you know of what he could do, please share.
I am confident that someone, somewhere will report that something can be done to better control the flow of oil. As a scientist, I am confident in the Lawrence Livermore National Lab and their ability to find an alternate solution. They apparently are involved in the improved cap to be installed at the end of the month.
I understand that frustration is running high. I am also a self-confessed Obot, despite being critical of the politcal handling of the response. But I just don’t see what else could be done besides better organization of the cleanup.
Taylor — Couldn’t resist reading the comments in your FB page.. amazing.
You should see my emails (at least the ones I see).
I live in TX and someone here with family in the oil business told me that they use small nuclear weapons to close gushers all the time. I was shocked to hear they would use a nuclear weapon, but what that person was also saying is that in this case, they aren’t just shutting the hole to stop the oil–BP is still trying to save their well–or at least a well so they can continue to have access to this oil. I have no idea if this is true, but if it is, why wouldn’t the government tell them that you blew it, close it up–do it now. It certainly is Obama’s responsibility to tell BP that they have to stop the oil whatever their loss, the loss of the Gulf ecosystems is greater than any economic loss.
It’s not true.
The Soviets experimented with cutting off Natural Gas Leaks using nuclear weapons on land. They succeeded 4 out of 5 times. You know what’s worse than an oil spill? A radioactive oil spill.
Where the myth may be coming from is that explosives are used to put out oil well fires on land. The explosion sucks up all the available oxygen for a brief second, and that’s enough to put the fire out.
You don’t want to use an explosive here because you would turn one leak into thousands of uncontrollable leaks. Right now, oil is leaking from the broken riser pipe. If you failed to seal the well with your explosion, you could rupture the sea bed, and oil would leak indefinitely through thousands of cracks in the ocean floor.
So no, there is no quick fix here. It is very difficult to wait for the relief wells.
Hi Sagacity. Matthew Simmons said 3 weeks ago on Dylan Ratigan that the military should bomb the well. He didn’t say to use nuclear, but this has been said by several experts I’ve engaged as well.
Pres. Obama not stopping the well is the elephant in the room right now. They’re clearly afraid to do anything, so they’re doing nothing while we watch the oil spew into the Gulf unabated.
It’s political cowardice and catastrophe management incompetence.
Bombs?
A relief well is the only ‘tried and true’ method to stop the blowout, nothing is 100% guaranteed, but this method has the absolute highest chance of success. What did these oil ‘experts’ convey to you that makes you continually insinuate that there is a better solution to stopping the blowout than a relief well?
This is so unlike your usual well-researched assessment that it stands out like neon to me.
I have to agree.
As someone with a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering with a specialty in fluid mechanics, I’ve been searching high and low for solutions, but research indicates the relief wells are the best and only real option now.
No wonder the first one was started on May 2, three days before the top hat even left port.
If someone has something different to say, I’ll pit my knowledge and credentials against theirs, but so far, nothing has come up.
I do think we need this information.
If you “liked*” Obama, I wouldn’t bother to visit your site. I come here because you don’t “like” him. What’s the point of an echo chamber?
And for Keith? He’ll be back. Markos is still the preeminent blogger on the left. As I predicted before last night, right here, he and Fineman would walk back their criticism. And sure enough, they did just that. And I predict Keith will be back when people cool down. I think peoples’ tempers are flaring due to the frustration, leading to all sorts of bad behavior. Keith was terribly slandered, but at the same time, I know many people who were upset at his rush to judgment.
* I don’t think this is about like and dislike. Obama is a divisive figure, like Hillary and Bill Clinton. He’s a Rorschach test. You either see one thing or another when you look at him.
The Obama Can Do No Wrong crew’s penchant for “like” and “dislike” columns is too juvenile for words.
No wonder we have the government we do today.
You do realize you shot yourself in the foot there by applying labels; the “Obama Can Do No Wrong Crowd”, “Obama Loyalists”.
Hey NFS — Nice to see you..
Taylor only shot herself in the foot with OBOTS ( as you have professed to being..
).
I agree with your statement:
* I don’t think this is about like and dislike. Obama is a divisive figure, like Hillary and Bill Clinton. He’s a Rorschach test. You either see one thing or another when you look at him. *
And I just don’t see what the Obots see/saw in him. I voted for him naturally … but I don’t think I will again. What a major disappointment he has been. And with the Gulf spill… he has the “deer in headlights” going on. Clearly out of his depth.
But at least I have a sense of humor about being an Obot. As I said yesterday, I received all these free coupons for Kool Aid in the mail randomly, and I laughed.
I totally understand how you could feel the way you do.
Why I prodded Ms. Marsh is because she was chiding us supporters, whatever it means to be a “supporter” or a “loyalist”, into categorizing, when she too had assigned her own categories.
I think we do ourselves a great disservice on the left if we dismiss other peoples’ ideas simply because they fall into what we perceive to be the other column. The reason I am here is because Ms. Marsh, and others who follow her, think differently than I do.
I am actually fascinated by how people on the left perceive Obama differently, and wrote four columns about it in Boston.
It is interesting, isn’t it? I find the comments here interesting – I find myself always weighing and balancing in my mind what is said.
Hi again NFS. I’m very glad you are here. And I’d be interested in reading your columns.
Hi again Lynnette — I’m well. Are you on summer break now?
Do you believe it is still raining and in the 60s here in Portland, OR. Being the true Oregonian that I am, I actually like it…………..
love ya, whitepaw…
NoFortunateSon says:
17 June 2010 at 2:59 pm
No, actually, I don’t.
It’s exactly the behavior of some of the people out here.
I have been steadfastly fair to Obama on Afghanistan, the Middle East, on Pakistan and many other foreign policy matters. I went to bat for Chas Freeman, and got the site shut down by invaders for doing so. It’s happened more than once.
Obama deserves derision for his caving on Bush items, Gitmo and civil liberties, prosecuting whistleblowers, which even Jon Stewart blasted him for recently.
Politicians are not to be “liked” or “disliked.” This isn’t a political fan club, though that’s how some treat it.
I am not a loyalist or an “Obama can do no wrong” person, but I’m not that for Clinton either, though I steadfastly support her prowess, because we need women like her in leadership very badly. For my criticism of her I have lost friends, have been smeared and vilified, which happened from your side too. When I went after DipNote for terrible coverage, wow, the emails I got. When I criticized Hillary for being too militaristic in language, sheesh, you would have thought I’d killed her dog.
I don’t give people hell, I just tell the truth and they think it’s hell. (I was born in the Show Me state, so I cop from Harry when I can.)
Glad you’re here, NFS. But I honestly wish we could get beyond “liking” and “not liking” politicians. I voted for Obama in 2008 and don’t regret it for a minute.
However, the facts of the BP blowout are not in his favor, for which I believe he should be held to account, the truth revealed. Thank the gods for McClatchy, Rolling Stone and other investigative bureaus, as I don’t have that budget.
Taylor,
You’re making an assumption that the Federal Government has something in its tool box right now to stop the leak. The cupboard might be bare. As Ms. Maddow points out the technology for stopping and containing leaks is stuck at Ixtok 1 in 1979. What were you doing in 1979? Anything new happen since then?
There is no technology for this. Nothing to stop a 100,000 gallon per day gusher of oil that may keep on keeping on for 6,000 days. The only cure for this particular disease was prevention. And BP had no interest in the cost of preventing a spill.
Welcome to privatizing the profit while socializing the loss. Welcome to crony capitalism. Welcome to final stage where capitalism becomes an aggressive metastatic cancer. Obama does not have the tools for this. He is a result of the process. He is constitutionally unable to even begin to think of a solution.
Even if he had the will, he does not have the way. Thirty years of hollowing out the public sphere; of shredding the government’s oversight role has left a shell. Congratulations Ronny Regan; the government and the nation are drowning in a bathtub filled with crude oil.
We are drilling down a mile deep and we have no plan B for when a rig goes south in a hurry. We did not even bother to try. We trusted corporation to do what was best. We trusted the industry to police its own. We did squat to develop new safety equipment. We did zippo to develop new safety protocols. Bitch all you want about Obama’s pathetic response; god knows he deserves it. But the man just discovered that all he had for the four alarm fire burning through his property was an odd collection of broken water pistols.
He is in same awful place we all are; hoping that BP gets the relief well dug and nothing else goes bonk. God knows Mr. Murphy has been working overtime on this disaster; something else going horribly wrong seems to be even odds right now.
Having trusted a company that had no history of deserving that trust was Obama’s mistake. Hiring a gung-ho off-shore drilling advocate for Secretary of the Interior was another whopper foul-up. Only getting engaged at near day 60? What the hell? There is plenty to fault Obama for; but stopping the leak? Controlling the leak? BP did not even have the right bit of hardware to cap the sheared riser. It had to custom build the thing. No point in having the tankers holding station when most of the oil is leaking and dispersing past your top hat. The depth of the well is playing havoc with the technology that we can deploy.
May I be proved wrong. But I’m looking toward August with fingers crossed. Maybe then we will get a break. Until then, its chewing gum, bailing wire and duct tape slathered hither and thither as stop-gap solutions. That’s what we have because no one planned for a well to blow at these depths. We got nothing in standby. We’re tossing ah hoc solutions at the well in the faint hope something will work. Any solution that is not a relief well will have to be created out of whole cloth. We don’t have any real technological answers. If we did Obama would be deploying them. He is after all not that clueless.
Government and big oil have been figuratively and literally in bed since Rockefeller created Standard Oil. MMS was created by James Watt to be a captive of big oil from day one. Surprise, it failed miserably at regulating the industry that created it. Yes Obama failed to know the history of this department; but there is plenty of blame to go around. Obama was not the man who let the government regulatory system rot away to a feeble shell. He is, however, acting like the useful idiot who thinks all we have to do is put a fresh coat of paint on the structure and everything will be right as rain. Far be it for this meritocratic achiever to bite the hand of the system that has so richly rewarded him. Far be it that he offer real hope of substantial change.
Wow, I think its sad Taylor that you lost friends just for speaking your mind. I think in a democracy, we have to hold our government accountable for the citizens of this country. It took this country years and fought wars so we could have the freedom to do so. This should cross party lines. Thanks Taylor for all you do, continue to so it because many of us out there need places like this to speak our mind !!