In an effort to make political hay in the wake of the top kill failure, Republicans and their house PR firm Fixed News have been trying to say that BPs failure to stop the oil leak in the gulf is Barack Obama's failure and that The President is to blame. Well here's a challenge to all those who would seek to do so....an open invitation, if you will, to all of my Republican friends; If you know of anyone in this world who can stop this leak, which was facilitated by WCheney, produce him or her and stop the leak. Otherwise, stop the crap.
I am guessing that none of you, not a one, knows of such a person on this earth, huh?
Perhaps Republicans ought to have thought of that before they advocated for virtually unlimited and nominally regulated offshore drilling at depths of 5000 feet. Ah, but the hypocrisy party has never really believed in environmental protection have they? The hypocrisy party...the party of short term profit at the expense of everything and everyone around them.
So do us all a favor and stop the crap, OK?
We're damn tired of it!
Showing posts with label Oil Leak. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oil Leak. Show all posts
Monday, May 31, 2010
THEY WERE AGAINST IT BEFORE THEY WERE FOR IT
Well here's another fine mess you've gotten us into W.
As toxic crude oil continues to spew into the gulf and into our previously pristine wetlands there are those who, for political reasons, seek to place the blame for this crime against nature at the feet of the President of The United States.
Of course, as we have previously documented in this space it was the previous administration that relaxed the safety standards for deep water coastal drilling Inspector General's Inquiry Faults Regulators (among those for other industries) as part of an overall mindset that government should lighten up on the regulation of private enterprise. After all, the reasoning went, the government never gets anything right and its regulations always delay and add to the cost of doing business.
So, how is that unregulated private sector thingy working out for you? Not so good huh? I suppose the only thing we can be thankful for in this disaster is that it does not involve a nuclear power plant.
The same people who have been reflexively calling for smaller government and lower taxes (on the part of the wealthy) to fund that government, are today screaming for the government to come in and take responsibility for what is almost surely the worst industrial incident the world has known to date.
The nerve of them! Those same people who today decry government as ineffective are the ones who made it so. They spend years dismantling the government and eviscerating it's oversight functions and then predictably, when business under the not so watchful eye of a Republican led government, cuts corners in the quest for short term profits and it leads to disaster they cry for the help of the federal government.
Well, me thinks thou doest protest too much. You can't spend years railing against government regulation of business and then selectively scream about government ineffectiveness when it suits your political purpose. You can't have it both ways. Either you believe that government has a legitimate roll in protecting it's people and our environment against the excesses of the private sector or you don't but you can't have it both ways.
Government, the Republicans were against it before they were for it.
As toxic crude oil continues to spew into the gulf and into our previously pristine wetlands there are those who, for political reasons, seek to place the blame for this crime against nature at the feet of the President of The United States.
Of course, as we have previously documented in this space it was the previous administration that relaxed the safety standards for deep water coastal drilling Inspector General's Inquiry Faults Regulators (among those for other industries) as part of an overall mindset that government should lighten up on the regulation of private enterprise. After all, the reasoning went, the government never gets anything right and its regulations always delay and add to the cost of doing business.
So, how is that unregulated private sector thingy working out for you? Not so good huh? I suppose the only thing we can be thankful for in this disaster is that it does not involve a nuclear power plant.
The same people who have been reflexively calling for smaller government and lower taxes (on the part of the wealthy) to fund that government, are today screaming for the government to come in and take responsibility for what is almost surely the worst industrial incident the world has known to date.
The nerve of them! Those same people who today decry government as ineffective are the ones who made it so. They spend years dismantling the government and eviscerating it's oversight functions and then predictably, when business under the not so watchful eye of a Republican led government, cuts corners in the quest for short term profits and it leads to disaster they cry for the help of the federal government.
Well, me thinks thou doest protest too much. You can't spend years railing against government regulation of business and then selectively scream about government ineffectiveness when it suits your political purpose. You can't have it both ways. Either you believe that government has a legitimate roll in protecting it's people and our environment against the excesses of the private sector or you don't but you can't have it both ways.
Government, the Republicans were against it before they were for it.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
REPUBLICANS - THE PARTY OF SPILL
News Item: Bush Lifts Offshore Drilling Ban
News Item: Spill Is Now Estimated At One Million Gallons of Oil Per Day...47 Million Gallons and Counting
Live Spill Cam
Live Spill Cam
News Item: Fox News Host Scoffs At Gulf Spill: 'Where Is The Oil?'
I guess Brit can't believe his own lying eyes.
News Item: As Six West Coast Senators Propose Banning Offshore Drilling, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (S.C.) announces his support for continued - and additional - offshore oil drilling.
As oil continues to spew into the Gulf of Mexico at an unprecedented rate, and attempts to stop the flow fail, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) reaffirmed his support for continued - and additional - offshore oil drilling. In a press statement issued late last week, Senator Graham said, "I remain committed to safely expanding offshore drilling because I know oil will be part of our nation's energy plan for years to come."
Safely huh? As in when he supported Bush's weakening of safety standards for offshore oil drilling? Or perhaps it was when he supported Bush's choice of a longtime oil industry lobbyist to be the chief regulator of drilling safety.
Of course, as we are seeing now, it only takes one spill to severely damage our environment, perhaps irreparably. Visit this site to learn more about the scope of the disaster.
Speaking of for years to come:
News Item: Oil Spill Shuts Down 19 Percent of Gulf Fishing As much as 40 percent of America's commercial seafood is harvested from the Gulf of Mexico, and the oil spill is already hurting the industry.
News Item: Seafood testing could last years - The spill "will affect the Gulf, and possibly the entire North American region, for maybe years, if not decades," said Rowan Gould, acting director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. More pessimistic was Harry "Chu Chu" Cheramie, 59, a Louisiana trawler: "That's going to kill our fishing grounds forever."
News Item: Seafood testing could last years - The spill "will affect the Gulf, and possibly the entire North American region, for maybe years, if not decades," said Rowan Gould, acting director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. More pessimistic was Harry "Chu Chu" Cheramie, 59, a Louisiana trawler: "That's going to kill our fishing grounds forever."
Comparing the effects of the spill to Katrina, Randy Adams, 48, a construction worker from Grand Isle Louisiana said: "This is worse than a hurricane. We can leave from a hurricane. This we can't leave from."
So, who will pay the enormous costs in clean up and lost business associated with this disastorous spill? Well, if Republicans have their way, it won't be BP and their big oil brethren.
Republicans for the second time blocked legislation that would increase oil companies' liability for oil spill damages, setting off criticism from Democrats seeking to make BP pay for the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
News Item: Heavy Sludge Oozes into Marshes of Louisiana
News Item: Oil Spill's Economic Impact Spans Country
Government by, for and of big business is not in the public interest. As I have said many times previously, pick an issue and the Republicans are on the wrong side of it as respects what is actually good for our country. The environment is no exception. Republican's have been voting against protecting the environment for at least the last 50 years.
When you take a few steps back and consider the entirety of the situation, Republicans have either facilitated, excused or denied the enormity of the spill.
Indeed they have well earned the title... THE PARTY OF SPILL.
Indeed they have well earned the title... THE PARTY OF SPILL.
And just when you thought it couldn't get any worse....
You don't even want to imagine.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
OIL WATER & WIND
Isn't it ironic that on a day nine years in the making, when the nation's first offshore wind farm was approved off the coast of Cape Cod, the urgent need for it and other forms of clean, renewable energy is being driven home by events 1500 miles to the south where the Coast Guard announced today that they have discovered an additional 5000 foot deep leak at the site of the sunken rig in the Gulf of Mexico. They now estimate that 5000 barrels or about 210,000 gallons of oil are spewing into ocean every day. This is up from initial reports of 1000 barrels and 42,000 gallons of just a few days ago.
There are few effective options for dealing with the problem as the safeguards designed to seal any potential leak are not working. In the short term anyway, it seems that we are down to firing cannons to try and scare away the wildlife and setting the sea on fire. Perhaps the emptiest oil barrel of them all, Sarah Palin can explain to us again how safe drilling is.
Very soon, the world will be presented with horrific visions of dead or dying, oil covered fish and birds, on oil slicked beaches along the gulf coastline. Very soon surrealistic visions of flaming seas against a smokey horizon will be reality as the oil is set on fire in a desperate effort to minimize the amount that reaches the coast.
So far, it is estimated that the cost in damage and mitigation efforts has reached $1 billion and counting. The sure to be considerable cost to our environment is as yet unknown.
In the face of these ill winds comes word that there are still many people and organizations who for one reason or another vow to extend the nine year battle to stop the building of the wind farm.
The farm, by the way, will be able to supply about 75% of the energy needed on Cape Cod & Nantucket. The clean energy that will be produced will be tatamount to removing 175,000. cars a year from the road, a significant plus for our air.
Most of those opposed, (Ted Kennedy was among them) do so on the grounds that the wind turbines will be an eyesore on pristine waters. Maybe so, but one thing is certain, no matter what, the water itself will remain pristine and will always look much more appealing than the images we are about to see from the Gulf where clearly, oil and water do not mix.
There are few effective options for dealing with the problem as the safeguards designed to seal any potential leak are not working. In the short term anyway, it seems that we are down to firing cannons to try and scare away the wildlife and setting the sea on fire. Perhaps the emptiest oil barrel of them all, Sarah Palin can explain to us again how safe drilling is.
Very soon, the world will be presented with horrific visions of dead or dying, oil covered fish and birds, on oil slicked beaches along the gulf coastline. Very soon surrealistic visions of flaming seas against a smokey horizon will be reality as the oil is set on fire in a desperate effort to minimize the amount that reaches the coast.
So far, it is estimated that the cost in damage and mitigation efforts has reached $1 billion and counting. The sure to be considerable cost to our environment is as yet unknown.
In the face of these ill winds comes word that there are still many people and organizations who for one reason or another vow to extend the nine year battle to stop the building of the wind farm.
The farm, by the way, will be able to supply about 75% of the energy needed on Cape Cod & Nantucket. The clean energy that will be produced will be tatamount to removing 175,000. cars a year from the road, a significant plus for our air.
Most of those opposed, (Ted Kennedy was among them) do so on the grounds that the wind turbines will be an eyesore on pristine waters. Maybe so, but one thing is certain, no matter what, the water itself will remain pristine and will always look much more appealing than the images we are about to see from the Gulf where clearly, oil and water do not mix.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
OIL... IT'S WHAT'S FOR DINNER
News Item: Oil Leaking Underwater From Well in Rig Blast
About 1000 barrels or 42,000 gallons of oil a day have been discovered leaking from the sea bed, a development that a senior Coast Guard official on Saturday called a “game changer.”
The rainbow-colored sheen of oil stretched 20 miles by 20 miles on Saturday -- about 25 times larger than it appeared to be a day earlier.
It could take months to seal the leak.
Neptune, we have a problem.
About 1000 barrels or 42,000 gallons of oil a day have been discovered leaking from the sea bed, a development that a senior Coast Guard official on Saturday called a “game changer.”
The rainbow-colored sheen of oil stretched 20 miles by 20 miles on Saturday -- about 25 times larger than it appeared to be a day earlier.
It could take months to seal the leak.
Neptune, we have a problem.
Friday, April 23, 2010
SPILL BABY SPILL
News Item: Oil Rig Sinks, Raising Fears of Major Spill & Signifigant Enviornmental Damage.
They say timing is everything.
As thick, black, poisonous crude oil, flows unabated, out of a man made hole deep in the ocean floor, the only thing flowing from the party of drill baby drill is an eerie silence. Shame on them for always putting the interests of big oil and corporate profits ahead of the public interest in protecting our environment. Shame on them for lying to us by telling us that drilling was environmentally safe. For the republicans, this is nothing new but for democrats it is uncharted territory.
I wonder if The President now regrets his decision reversing long standing Democratic opposition to offshore drilling. It was an opposition based upon the understanding that it only takes one major accident to foul our oceans and devastate our environment in ways that we may never fully understand or recover from.
While The President has been right on almost every issue to come across his desk, he was wrong on this one. No one bats 1000.
But the absolute poster child for drilling in environmentally sensitive areas has got to be Sarah Palin, who, it is rumored, has now changed her campaign slogan to SPILL BABY SPILL!
Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?
They say timing is everything.
As thick, black, poisonous crude oil, flows unabated, out of a man made hole deep in the ocean floor, the only thing flowing from the party of drill baby drill is an eerie silence. Shame on them for always putting the interests of big oil and corporate profits ahead of the public interest in protecting our environment. Shame on them for lying to us by telling us that drilling was environmentally safe. For the republicans, this is nothing new but for democrats it is uncharted territory.
I wonder if The President now regrets his decision reversing long standing Democratic opposition to offshore drilling. It was an opposition based upon the understanding that it only takes one major accident to foul our oceans and devastate our environment in ways that we may never fully understand or recover from.
While The President has been right on almost every issue to come across his desk, he was wrong on this one. No one bats 1000.
But the absolute poster child for drilling in environmentally sensitive areas has got to be Sarah Palin, who, it is rumored, has now changed her campaign slogan to SPILL BABY SPILL!
Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?
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