A Problem For Oily Populists

Paul Hodes is scalp hunting BP over the Gulf Oil spill—even though BP ponied up 20 Billion already and has spent plenty trying to fix things besides.  Fine and dandy “but how do I use that for populist traction” cries Sugar Daddy Hodes.  “I need votes.”  His answer is another press release promising something or other—it doesn’t really matter with Hodes.  Anyway, what he should be doing, if in fact he is truly interested in reform and reparation, is investigating his own government and how the bureaucracy totally screwed things up.

P-Diddy Hodes won’t want to do that. He didn’t want to investigate Adolphus Townes on potential ‘Friends of Angelo’ connections to sweetheart loans. (That was the one with the famous Hodes running away video).  He still can’t return the tainted Rangel money because, well, like I said who cares what he said it’s Hodes.  He took that $10,000.00 payday from a major sugar producer after forcing a massive ethanol handout past two separate vetoes—and he’s not about to admit that was a corrupt act.  So investigate his own love of the endless layers of paper-pushing progress staunching bureaucrats?  No frikkin way.  He’s voted for plenty of 2000 plus page bills destined to deforest how many acres just to get the rules and regulations written down—none of which he cares anything about unless it costs him votes with the left wing, America hating, progressive-compulsives.

The problems with the spill are epic, so Hodes has plenty to ignore, particularly when all the government had to do was keep the oil off the beaches.  That was it.  Keep the oil off the beaches.  But they waited weeks before even responding, ignoring pleas, and bogging down every effort to protect the shoreline with bureaucrats and paperwork.   And even when they did try to do something, they did it the only way they know how.  FUBAR! 

Winston Groom, in the July 12^th issue of the Weekly Standard spotlights a few of these transgressions which I have paraphrased below—issues which Hodes and the democrats have now imposed upon the health Care system thanks to Obama care, not that you have any reason to be concerned.  The list is on the jump.

One:  The government is paying fleets of college kids up to $2000.00 a day to take daddy’s boat out to look for oil.

Two: On June 18^th the Coast Guard stopped a dozen oil skimming barges from skimming oil and shut them down because there was some question about whether they had the proper number of life preservers and fire extinguishers on board each vessel. (As Winston points out, why not just carry a bunch of each around and hand them out if they appear to be short one or two.)

Three: Any effort to stop the oil from reaching shore must first pass through the approval process of the EPA, OSHA, the Army Corps (that’s pronounced corpse) of Engineers, the Coast Guard, and a host of other Alphabet bureaucrats before being implemented.  (Remember Obama?  He was going to fix the parts that  didn’t work.  So if none of them work then what?)

Four: several hundred acres of oil found its way into Mobile bay, one of the world’s largest Pelican rookeries; despite the availability of 189 boats in the near vicinity, none of them had taken and passed the required OSHA tests.  If they tried to help, they could get arrested.

Five: Saving and cleaning up oiled birds requires a federal permit—which Winston points out can take up to three years to process.  Saving or cleaning a bird without the permit could result in your arrest, fines, and jail.  (No helpful citizen using the Dawn Dish detergent on the fauna without a federal permit.)

Six: Some fire chiefs got weary of the five weeks of red tape they encountered just trying to bring in equipment to block the oil from getting into their rivers—they are risking arrest in favor of something called leadership and action.

Seven: Ideas to stop the leak were one-ups.  There does not seen to have been any work being done on the next option, while the current one was being attempted, should the current one fail. 

Eight: Two months in and apparently there was no way for spotters in planes to communicate with skimmer boat captains to direct them to areas of oil.

Nine: Dispersants were approved by EPA, then disapproved, then re-approved.

Ten: Bob Riley, Governor of Alabama secured 12 miles of Boom to protect Mobile Bay (the place with the Pelican rookery) but the Coast Guard confiscated it for use in Louisiana.

Eleven: Coast Guard decides letting the oil hit land and cleaning it up after is the best way to go.   This resulted in oil killing off everything in shallow water as the tide went out.  The real problem was a lack of skimmers—see item four above.

Twelve: On Day two (or within days) 13 different nations offered dredges, and massive skimmers to contain and remove oil.  The Obama administration turned them down to protect Labor union interests.  (Maybe we could soak the oil off the shoreline with some of those Purple SEIU shirts?)  Republicans repeatedly requested a suspension of the Jones act but Obama declined.  Paul Hodes is not on record anywhere I can find asking Obama to suspend the Jones act.  That makes him culpable.

Thirteen:  Having turned down help, and waited weeks, even months to respond even inadequately the lack of skimmers (and people who have taken the proper OSHA instruction and exams) means there is not enough boom to keep the oil off the shore—and no skimmers to go get it when contained.  The Mobile-Tensaw Delta, one of the largest wetlands systems in the nation gets slicked because there is no qualified or available equipment to stop it.

Fourteen: There are 400 Skimmers working 500 miles of coast (or 5000 miles of cove and creek) while there are 2000 skimmers available nationwide.  Disregard the dismissal of foreign assistance and maybe wonder what the other 1600 skimmers were doing? Federal regulations required them to remain where they were.

Fifteen: Mayors and locals try to buy their own skimmers instead of waiting for BP and the government, but with weeks of required training and testing needed before they can be put to use, these local leaders risk tons of red tape, fines and possibly arrest for operating without a permit or  untested.

Sixteen:  Not from the article.  We are now learning that slow response after the explosion which may have been what allowed the rig to sink.  The sinking rig is what may have caused the massive leak 5000 feet underwater instead of somewhere else closer to the surface--if at all; that is still developing, but given everything else we know government has screwed up, why not this too?

These are the same people and processes Mr. Hodes and the left trust and have just put in charge of your health care system, (and everything else for that matter.)  If that doesn’t inspire you to get rid of a few grow government democrats I’m not sure what will.

What Took So Long?

I'm really just posting this to annoy the hypocrats.  They are, after all, hypcorats.

Obama - Micro Historian

Courtesy of Politico via NH Watchdog-apparently Mr. Obama is now blaming people for things that never happened in the past that he never even suggested. 

In an interview with Politico, the president said: “I think it’s fair to say, if six months ago, before this spill had happened, I had gone up to Congress and I had said we need to crack down a lot harder on oil companies and we need to spend more money on technology to respond in case of a catastrophic spill, there are folks up there, who will not be named, who would have said this is classic, big-government overregulation and wasteful spending.”

Well Mr. President, I think it's fair to say, if twenty-four months ago's you went before the American people and said I'm an arrogant, inexperienced, thin-skinned, corrupt, partisan, socialist, big government insider, there are a few million folks, who will not be named, who would have said, this guy is just an empty suit with no leadership skills, and you'd still be voting present in the Senate, and this would be John Mc Cain's problem not yours.

Another Obama Jobs Program

Obama has apparently banned deep water drilling in the Gulf.  Well c'mon, what did you expect.  Millions of barrels spewing into the water and oil went down in price?  Who cares if thousands more people are now out of work.  This is about the agenda damn it.  Besides they are probably all a bunch of God fearing, gun clinging republicans anyway.  Oh, and then there's this.

“I don’t sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar. We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers so I know whose ass to kick.”

-President Obama (About the oil spill)

Erick Erickson noticed it first.

Obama talks to these people because they'll know whose ass to kick.  It's all about who gets in trouble, who gets the blame, and we know it's never Obama. 

One more point.  This was one well, one accident, right before Obama's MMS was going to give them a safety award.  The government fails all the time.  Does that mean we can just shut that down now that dear leader has set the precedent?

(H/T Erick Erickson-RedState)

From Day One

The anti-terrorism strategy so far has been to bow and scrape, and admit faults, and hope nothing bad happens.  The product of that failed policy has been for our enemies to take advantage of us while continuing to hate us more than ever, with a jihadi gunman successfully killing at fort Hood while two Bombs that were meant to kill hundreds (fortunately) failed.

This hands off approach (coincidentally?) appears to be the same strategywhen dealing with BP.  After a week long silence we were barraged with speeches about how they'd all been responding "from day one."  Well its been thirty days or more since "day one,"  and the Obama administration has done nothing except blame BP, ask BP what they were going to do about it, and wait for them to do it. 

Now we have oil on the Louisiana Coastline.

What happened to the 'From Day one' people?  Where'd they go?  They went into the situation room to plot the media strategy on how to use the crisis of oil washing up on coastal beeches to advance their left wing energy policy.

You doubt me?

A bank gets a bonus and we've got union activists on the doorsteps of bank employees and legislation already written coming out of committee. 

The supreme court overturns federal speech restrictions and there's a massive outcry, constitutional amendments, and bills in both houses of congress the next morning.

The race pimps are on standby 24/7 to promulgate a massive media blitz against anyone and anything that demonstrates any behavior that could be construed as racism--to the point of making it up when it fails to happen when they'd like it to.

If Obama wanted SEIU guys on the coast building barriers and spying for oil slicks, you don't think he could make it happen overnight?  Damn right he could, but he didn't and you know why.  He needs big oil to look bad and if he has to give up some coastline (the way he gives up democrat legislators, for examle) then that's the price we'll have to pay to advance his agenda.

That's just the kind of guy he is...from day one