Saturday, June 19, 2010

Sticky Situation



As Barack Obama told his daughter Malia, and a somewhat less inquisitive or sophisticated mainstream media, he can't just "swim down" to the ongoing oil leak and "suck it up with a straw." And in fairness, that's true - there's only so much that a president can do.

The problem is, this president isn't doing it.

And in fact, it's starting to seem that the final plague which may destroy New Orleans will not be hurricane, flood, or oil...but a sea of governmental red tape.

Louisiana officials were outraged when the Coast Guard forced 16 oil-sucking barges to stop their cleanup efforts for 24 hours...so they could be checked for "enough fire extinguishers and life jackets."

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal had to plead with federal officials for over a month to allow him to build berms to keep oil away from the Louisiana coast...and even then, the government issued permission for only 6 berms, and not the 24 that the Governor says are desperately needed.

And let us not forget that just 3 days after the initial oil blowout, other countries started offering their aid in containment and cleanup efforts. But despite such offers from 13 nations, Barack Obama turned them all down - allowing the oil and devastation to spread - in order to protect the jobs of his union supporters.

Barack Obama is "kicking ass," alright. But sadly, most of those asses are covered with oil-soaked feathers.


10 comments:

A Repatriated Expat said...

"Atlas Shrugged" come to life.

Suzy said...

Its sick.

The Dark Knight said...

You'd think that more of these details would make it out to the media... oh wait ;-)

Dr.D said...

With respect to the oil recovery barges, there was also some nonsense about not being able to contact the builders of the barges. This is all so clearly a delaying tactic, simply designed to impede progress and maximize damage.

I am bitterly disappointed to see the USCG acting as Obama thugs, rather than protecting the interests of the American people. Their long established image as the "good guys" just about goes out the window with this. The fact that they were "just following orders" does not hold much water; we told the Nazis at Nuremberg that following orders was not an excuse. You can say, "well, nobody was being shot" which is true, but people futures are being destroyed, their way of life wiped out forever. It is comparable, and the USCG is the agent of enforcement for Obama, just like the SS.

Emmentaler Limburger said...

Not to pile intrigue onto incompetence, but isn't Bobby Jindal highly regarded by the GOP? Haven't I heard rumblings of his potential run for the shiny office upon the hill? Hmmmm. How will the Obamanazis and the MSM twist this into a failure on his part, I wonder. Not if; but how...

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

Emmentaler- We've had the same thought; this could be a "reverse Katrina" strategy: the governor of Louisiana originally forbade Bush from sending troops to help, but Bush got the blame for a delayed response.

So it's possible that Obama thinks if he can maximize the damage, Bobby Jindal will take the political hit.

We hope that's not really part of the political algebra, but we're at a loss for explanations about why the president is obstructing the clean-up efforts.

alan markus said...

Bobby Jindal has been considered one of the "rising stars" of the Republican Party. Unfortunately (I was just thinking of this yesterday), I imagine he is going to be pretty busy for many years dealing with Louisiana problems, and national issues will take a back seat. Meaning, this will take him out of commission for a long time.

As far as the Obamanazis, MSM, etc., I'm sure that if Louisiana's economy goes in the crapper and stays there, the "spin" will be that it happened under Jindal's watch, nevermind that the oil spill had anything to do with it, and that the nation couldn't afford to go down the same path that Jindal took Louisiana.

Here is an example of how Democrats spin things:

Dem Strategist: Oil Spill A Winning Issue For Dems In 2010

Rachel Madow asks if "Could GOP coziness with Big Oil embolden Democrats" - sorry, my computer might go into melt-down mode if I do a link to her, so I'm not going to take that chance.

Bottom line, this Oil Spill is being played as if it were some kind of gift from heaven for the Democrats.

The Dark Knight said...

Democrat Strategist Karen Finney - "Bottom line, I think that this was a good week for the President..."

Did he shoot under par?

Emmentaler Limburger said...

Stilton - Great cheeses think alike!

Anonymous said...

The incredible part is the berms were being held up, at least in part, because some bureaucrat was worried of the unintended environmental damage they might cause. While I agree that building berms in the ocean is usually not a good idea, I would take the the unintended environmental damage that might/maybe/possibly occur over the devastating damage we KNOW is going to occur. Idiots!