Not only shouldn’t our global messiah be expected to plug the damn hole — he’s not Superman, people! — but evidently he shouldn’t be expected to find out if there’s any containment boom sitting in a warehouse somewhere {Maine} waiting to be used either. What he’s supposed to do, apparently, is go around reminding people why he’s really not to blame. I’ll say this for him: He’s awfully good at that, at least.
Obama on the spill:“Even though I am President of the United States my powers are not limitless,” Obama said last Friday at Camardelle’s Live Bait and Boiled Seafood, “So I can’t dive down there and plug the hole. I can’t suck it up with a straw. All I can do is make sure that I put honest, hardworking, smart people in place.”
So that’s why he refused the Dutch offer of oil skimmers 3 days after the incident!
Why people who have technology to deal with the spill are being given a deaf ear.
Because he’s doing everything he can to make it not his fault that he’s not doing enough to convince people he has no blame for being unconcerned, really, about it.
So we get the Campaign Speech tonight. Not leadership.
He’s worried about the politics. And after nearly 2 months, now he wants to “kick ass” because the politics is kicking his ass. That’s why he’s now “engaged”.
The White House is the one that released the video of the above meeting, after all!
It’s a PR stunt. Nothing more.
And tonight is no different.
The bottom line: Oil Week in Washington — complete with CEO testimony, a presidential address to the nation and the release of damaging documents about BP’s safety record — may represent a turning point in the way the public views the domestic oil industry if Waxman and the White House succeed in their efforts. Longtime environmentalists like Waxman see the oil spill crisis as their moment to put the industry on its heels after decades of having its way on Capitol Hill — much like Waxman did with the tobacco industry in the 1990s.
President Barack Obama is expected to challenge lawmakers to complete climate change legislation in his first address from the Oval Office Tuesday night — right after evening newscasts featuring oil company executives defending their businesses and safety standards.
While Markey’s global warming subcommittee is the opening venue, Waxman has ensured that he will be a dominant force in the oil spill investigation and the planned legislative response. Another of Waxman’s panels, the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, will bear down on BP CEO Tony Hayward on Thursday.
Waxman has been assiduously building his case against Big Oil for years, and now he has the documents and the forum to carry on his mission. On Monday, Waxman released a scathing 14-page letter to Hayward that outlined his charge that BP sacrificed safety for profit and cut corners on drilling procedures.
Industry and government sources expect that the other oil company executives — including those from Exxon, Conoco and Chevron — will echo the charge that BP cut corners, further isolating the company at the center of the oil spill. The strategy for these other companies is to help Waxman throw BP down the well in hopes of appeasing him. (Politico)
The Angry Environmentalist Political Gods demand a Sacrifice!
Then they will come after you later.
Everyone is looking forward to President Obama’s speech about the Gulf of Mexico. After all, he promised that he was taking in information from experts throughout the land in order to determine, in his words, “whose ass to kick.”
However it comes across from the presidential lectern on Tuesday night or from the media analysis afterwards, the Gulf of Mexico spin will direct our attention away from a matter that has more of an impact on how the nation is riding along under this administration.
The latest retail numbers came back from May, indicating that they are down over 1%. With the continued unemployment rate hovering around 10% (even after the addition of some 400,000 temporary consensus position with the federal government) and the failure of the private sector to pick up with job creation, the nation’s dizzying focus on President Obama’s butt-kicking ventures with BP pale in comparison with the butt-kicking endeavors his administration should be undertaking to get this economy going. After a massive stimulus package, bank bailouts (started under President Bush), and government interference that included the presidential firing of a corporate CEO, not much is changing for Americans that are growing weary and finding their economic options dwindling without a boom in the economy or a change in Washington this fall.
Through both unplanned (e.g., the BP oil spill) and planned (e.g., the sudden prioritization of health care reform in 2009-2010 to the top of legislative importance) issues, the Obama Administration has continued to remain distracted, failing to keep focus on the top issue that put him into the White House after the 2008 election. Many forget that Senator John McCain was leading the national polls in early September – even with swing states such as Virginia leading towards Mr. Obama – until the economic crisis of 2008 hit America. Health care reform, the wars overseas, and even a shaky set of Sarah Palin interviews could not catapult the Obama Candidacy to comfortable leads in the polls. Each became a cementing factor only after the economic crisis broke public perception and mood Mr. Obama’s way.
Now, President Obama wades through oil slicks in the Gulf and the muck of a stagnant economy that does not show signs of recovery for “Main Street” – the group of Americans he vowed to put before the “Wall Street fat-cats” that, by the way, have received billions and recovered since the initial crisis some 2 years ago. With the choice of reporting on the blotched efforts of an oil corporation whose dereliction of duty is well-documented versus answering to the failures of his administration to improve the lives of everyday Americans economically, the president has chosen the former. It is more believable – and thus easier for the White House – to support President Obama as he details the storyline of the BP spill and the administration’s efforts henceforth than it is to allow President Obama, Robert Gibbs, and others within the administration to continue propagating the myth of a “jobless recovery” with the latest unemployment numbers and retail figures out from May noting otherwise for America’s economy.
The spin from the BP and administration actions around the oil spill in the Gulf may make the nation dizzy, but the more important spin is the one that has been given for some time now: namely, the talk of this continued “economic recovery” in the midst of economic disappointing numbers. That spin should make America sick. What we are finding out is that the more that we follow this supposed butt-kicking ride with the president, the more that everyday Americans are feeling light-headed, queasy, and uncertain of continuing on this downhill ride much longer.(Daily Caller).
The state and local grants in Porkulus acted as a federal bailout package for state bureaucrats, who otherwise may have lost their jobs as state and local governments cut spending in order to balance budgets. The White House sold this as rescues of teachers and first responders, but as a series of local newspapers reported, those jobs were never in jeopardy. The money that got added to those budget items got transferred elsewhere to save less politically sensitive bureaucrats elsewhere, while the Obama administration claimed to have saved millions of jobs through these bailout transfers.
Of course, that only works for a single budget year, and the same structural cost issues that existed over the last year continue today, thanks to the federal bailout. What’s the Obama administration answer for that? Another bailout:
Besides, the jobs targeted by these bloc-grant bailouts are the exact same ones claimed by the White House last year. When do people in Minnesota get to stop bailing out California bureaucrats? Shouldn’t the states themselves start working on making rational judgments about the size and sustainability of their own governments? If it takes Minnesota money to float California, and Texas money to float Minnesota, then there is no accountability to the citizens of a state at all. It’s a shell game and nothing more.
And this is all money just going down a rathole anyway. The bailout last year didn’t solve the problem, but it did add over a hundred billion dollars to the national debt. Obama now proposes to send $50 billion more in imaginary money after bad imaginary money to, once again, avoid tough economic choices by kicking the can down the road at the expense of future generations. It’s becoming the theme of his presidency, which is profligate irresponsibility combined with an utter lack of strategic comprehensive growth policies.
John Hinderaker agrees, and points out the only real beneficiary of this bailout:
But don’t worry, with Teleprompter One’s help, he’ll look “presidential” and he’ll be forceful and The Ministry of Truth will be gushing all over him with more praise that if you could see if physically it would leak more than the Deep Water Horizon.
Meanwhile, nothing will have actually been done.
Unemployment will still be near 10%.
There will be more bailouts of his base.
More government control of everything and everybody.
And more people will struggle when the Democrats pass their Cap & Trade monster.
But at least he’ll look “presidential”.
Just ask the Ministry of Truth.
Obama on the spill:“Even though I am President of the United States my powers are not limitless,” Obama said last Friday at Camardelle’s Live Bait and Boiled Seafood, “So I can’t dive down there and plug the hole. I can’t suck it up with a straw. All I can do is make sure that I put honest, hardworking, smart people in place.”
So that’s why he refused the Dutch offer of oil skimmers 3 days after the incident!
Why people who have technology to deal with the spill are being given a deaf ear.
Because he’s doing everything he can to make it not his fault that he’s not doing enough to convince people he has no blame for being unconcerned, really, about it.
So we get the Campaign Speech tonight. Not leadership.
He’s worried about the politics. And after nearly 2 months, now he wants to “kick ass” because the politics is kicking his ass. That’s why he’s now “engaged”.
The White House is the one that released the video of the above meeting, after all!
It’s a PR stunt. Nothing more.
And tonight is no different.
The bottom line: Oil Week in Washington — complete with CEO testimony, a presidential address to the nation and the release of damaging documents about BP’s safety record — may represent a turning point in the way the public views the domestic oil industry if Waxman and the White House succeed in their efforts. Longtime environmentalists like Waxman see the oil spill crisis as their moment to put the industry on its heels after decades of having its way on Capitol Hill — much like Waxman did with the tobacco industry in the 1990s.
President Barack Obama is expected to challenge lawmakers to complete climate change legislation in his first address from the Oval Office Tuesday night — right after evening newscasts featuring oil company executives defending their businesses and safety standards.
While Markey’s global warming subcommittee is the opening venue, Waxman has ensured that he will be a dominant force in the oil spill investigation and the planned legislative response. Another of Waxman’s panels, the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, will bear down on BP CEO Tony Hayward on Thursday.
Waxman has been assiduously building his case against Big Oil for years, and now he has the documents and the forum to carry on his mission. On Monday, Waxman released a scathing 14-page letter to Hayward that outlined his charge that BP sacrificed safety for profit and cut corners on drilling procedures.
Industry and government sources expect that the other oil company executives — including those from Exxon, Conoco and Chevron — will echo the charge that BP cut corners, further isolating the company at the center of the oil spill. The strategy for these other companies is to help Waxman throw BP down the well in hopes of appeasing him. (Politico)
The Angry Environmentalist Political Gods demand a Sacrifice!
Then they will come after you later.
Everyone is looking forward to President Obama’s speech about the Gulf of Mexico. After all, he promised that he was taking in information from experts throughout the land in order to determine, in his words, “whose ass to kick.”
However it comes across from the presidential lectern on Tuesday night or from the media analysis afterwards, the Gulf of Mexico spin will direct our attention away from a matter that has more of an impact on how the nation is riding along under this administration.
The latest retail numbers came back from May, indicating that they are down over 1%. With the continued unemployment rate hovering around 10% (even after the addition of some 400,000 temporary consensus position with the federal government) and the failure of the private sector to pick up with job creation, the nation’s dizzying focus on President Obama’s butt-kicking ventures with BP pale in comparison with the butt-kicking endeavors his administration should be undertaking to get this economy going. After a massive stimulus package, bank bailouts (started under President Bush), and government interference that included the presidential firing of a corporate CEO, not much is changing for Americans that are growing weary and finding their economic options dwindling without a boom in the economy or a change in Washington this fall.
Through both unplanned (e.g., the BP oil spill) and planned (e.g., the sudden prioritization of health care reform in 2009-2010 to the top of legislative importance) issues, the Obama Administration has continued to remain distracted, failing to keep focus on the top issue that put him into the White House after the 2008 election. Many forget that Senator John McCain was leading the national polls in early September – even with swing states such as Virginia leading towards Mr. Obama – until the economic crisis of 2008 hit America. Health care reform, the wars overseas, and even a shaky set of Sarah Palin interviews could not catapult the Obama Candidacy to comfortable leads in the polls. Each became a cementing factor only after the economic crisis broke public perception and mood Mr. Obama’s way.
Now, President Obama wades through oil slicks in the Gulf and the muck of a stagnant economy that does not show signs of recovery for “Main Street” – the group of Americans he vowed to put before the “Wall Street fat-cats” that, by the way, have received billions and recovered since the initial crisis some 2 years ago. With the choice of reporting on the blotched efforts of an oil corporation whose dereliction of duty is well-documented versus answering to the failures of his administration to improve the lives of everyday Americans economically, the president has chosen the former. It is more believable – and thus easier for the White House – to support President Obama as he details the storyline of the BP spill and the administration’s efforts henceforth than it is to allow President Obama, Robert Gibbs, and others within the administration to continue propagating the myth of a “jobless recovery” with the latest unemployment numbers and retail figures out from May noting otherwise for America’s economy.
The spin from the BP and administration actions around the oil spill in the Gulf may make the nation dizzy, but the more important spin is the one that has been given for some time now: namely, the talk of this continued “economic recovery” in the midst of economic disappointing numbers. That spin should make America sick. What we are finding out is that the more that we follow this supposed butt-kicking ride with the president, the more that everyday Americans are feeling light-headed, queasy, and uncertain of continuing on this downhill ride much longer.(Daily Caller).
The state and local grants in Porkulus acted as a federal bailout package for state bureaucrats, who otherwise may have lost their jobs as state and local governments cut spending in order to balance budgets. The White House sold this as rescues of teachers and first responders, but as a series of local newspapers reported, those jobs were never in jeopardy. The money that got added to those budget items got transferred elsewhere to save less politically sensitive bureaucrats elsewhere, while the Obama administration claimed to have saved millions of jobs through these bailout transfers.
Of course, that only works for a single budget year, and the same structural cost issues that existed over the last year continue today, thanks to the federal bailout. What’s the Obama administration answer for that? Another bailout:
President Obama urged reluctant lawmakers Saturday to quickly approve nearly $50 billion in emergency aid to state and local governments, saying the money is needed to avoid “massive layoffs of teachers, police and firefighters” and to support the still-fragile economic recovery.That’s a laugh. Obama wants people to believe he’s serious about deficit reform, and so he’s proposing making the deficit worse until someone forces him to stop spending. It’s the action of an addict. I can stop spending any time I want. I just don’t want to do it right now.
In a letter to congressional leaders, Obama defended last year’s huge economic stimulus package, saying it helped break the economy’s free fall, but argued that more spending is urgent and unavoidable. “We must take these emergency measures,” he wrote in an appeal aimed primarily at members of his own party. …
With the letter, however, Obama makes a direct and unequivocal case for additional “targeted investments,” including state aid and several less-expensive initiatives aimed at assisting small businesses. He specifically calls for passage of the measure that is before the Senate, which would extend unemployment benefits and offer states additional aid, increasing deficits by nearly $80 billion over the next decade.
Obama asks lawmakers to be patient on the deficit, noting that a special commission is at work on a comprehensive deficit-reduction plan.
Besides, the jobs targeted by these bloc-grant bailouts are the exact same ones claimed by the White House last year. When do people in Minnesota get to stop bailing out California bureaucrats? Shouldn’t the states themselves start working on making rational judgments about the size and sustainability of their own governments? If it takes Minnesota money to float California, and Texas money to float Minnesota, then there is no accountability to the citizens of a state at all. It’s a shell game and nothing more.
And this is all money just going down a rathole anyway. The bailout last year didn’t solve the problem, but it did add over a hundred billion dollars to the national debt. Obama now proposes to send $50 billion more in imaginary money after bad imaginary money to, once again, avoid tough economic choices by kicking the can down the road at the expense of future generations. It’s becoming the theme of his presidency, which is profligate irresponsibility combined with an utter lack of strategic comprehensive growth policies.
John Hinderaker agrees, and points out the only real beneficiary of this bailout:
The original “stimulus” bill was all about keeping state and local government spending, and the salaries it supports, sky-high. It doesn’t appear that President Obama has a game plan to help the economy, other than continuing to feed the already-bloated public sector. This is consistent with his apparently complete ignorance of basic principles of economics. Democrats in Congress, however, can see the writing on the wall. It will be interesting to see whether they are willing to brave voter wrath by stimulating the public sector still further.This is a $50 billion bailout to Big Labor — the SEIU, AFSCME, and the NEA.
But don’t worry, with Teleprompter One’s help, he’ll look “presidential” and he’ll be forceful and The Ministry of Truth will be gushing all over him with more praise that if you could see if physically it would leak more than the Deep Water Horizon.
Meanwhile, nothing will have actually been done.
Unemployment will still be near 10%.
There will be more bailouts of his base.
More government control of everything and everybody.
And more people will struggle when the Democrats pass their Cap & Trade monster.
But at least he’ll look “presidential”.
Just ask the Ministry of Truth.
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