...the left would be screaming holy hell about oil drilling and the incompetence of the administration and the criminal charges that need to be leveled against both the oil industry people responsible for this and the administration people who did nothing to mitigate and/or fix the problem.
And they would be RIGHT.
But because it happened during the suddenly pro-oil drilling Obama administration...nothing critical from the left.
Not a thing.
It's as if nothing happened.
Is that the change we can all believe in?
Or is it just hypocrisy?
This is OBAMA'S KATRINA.
He has done NOTHING but talk shit about BP without actually FORCING them to do anything to mitigate the disaster.
Maybe the administration is realizing their mistake now.
The Times says three cabinet officials have flown down to the Gulf specially today just to do some photo ops.
Heckuva job, Barack!!!
PHOTO OPS!!!!
That should make things better.
Meanwhile, what has happened in the gulf under the Obama administration is MUCH WORSE and will have a MUCH LONGER LASTING effect than what happened under Bush during Katrina.
Get to work, Obama.
DO SOMETHING OTHER THAN TALK.
Maybe you should make believe BP is run by teachers.
MAYBE THAT WOULD HELP WITH THE ACCOUNTABILITY.
UPDATE: The Times says tonight that even the moratorium that Obama announced on oil drilling after last month's explosion of the oil rig in the gulf is bullshit:
WASHINGTON — In the days since President Obama announced a moratorium on permits for drilling new offshore oil wells and a halt to a controversial type of environmental waiver that was given to the Deepwater Horizon rig, at least seven new drilling permits and five waivers have been granted, according to records.
The records also indicate that since the April 20 explosion on the rig, federal regulators have granted at least 19 environmental waivers for gulf drilling projects and at least 17 drilling permits, most of which were for types of work like that on the Deepwater Horizon shortly before it exploded, pouring a ceaseless current of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
Asked about the permits and waivers, officials at the Department of the Interior and the Minerals Management Service, which regulates drilling, pointed to public statements by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, reiterating that the agency had no intention of stopping all new oil and gas production in the gulf.
...
Shown the data indicating that waivers and permits were still being granted, Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, Democrat of Maryland, said that he was “deeply troubled.”
“We were given the clear impression that these waivers and permits were not being granted,” said Mr. Cardin, who is a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, where Mr. Salazar testified last week. “I think the presumption should be that there should be stronger environmental reviews, not weaker.”
More Change We Can Believe In from President Accountability.
BE:
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised that you would be so critical of the left. In their minds it is still George Bush's fault. They can't blame Obama for his lack of action, it must be those dastardly Republicans that is doing it.
Chaz,
ReplyDeleteI have been very critical of the left for abandoning so many of their principles - from free speech to civil liberties to the environment to holding Wall Street accountable for the financial mess - and letting this president be.
Other than Firedoglake and Atrios, the other liberal sites have sat on their hands and done NOTHING and said NOTHING as Obama has consistently acted like the corporate whore he is.
If you've been reading this blog, you know that is not the case here. I refuse to shill for ANY party. I believe in principles over party. Doesn't make me popular with some of my former friends on the left who have decided I am a "wing nut" now because I refuse to genuflect at the altar of Obama.
But whether it was the health care fiasco that mandates 32 million new customers for the health insurance industry or the shitty Supreme Court picks he's made (the current one is Harriet Miers all over again - only for the left) or the illegal wiretapping or the financial bailouts or renominating Bernanke or ed deform or the mess in the Gulf that President Incompetence cannot seem to do anything about, I have held him accountable.
As for the lefties who shill for him rather than stay true to their principles, fuck 'em.
They're no better than the FOXIES or the people at Little Green Footballs or Red State who thought Bush could do no wrong (even when he was spending the country into bankruptcy and expanding government power and spending while diminishing civil liberties.)
We have to define the "left." If you mean liberals or the NY Times that is not the left. Maybe you mean relative left which as far as I am concerned is close to the right. The real left has been brutal on Obama - branding him a neo-liberal.
ReplyDeleteI agree on the oil spill. But it is ironic to see Bobby Jindal asking the federal govt to DO SOMETHING! And Saral Drill Baby Drill criticizing Obama. The tea party want no govt. They are getting what they want.
Norm
ReplyDeleteI mean the blogosphere "left" - the Daily Kossacks, Talking Points Memo, et al.
Actually, Sarah is still saying drill baby drill. Apparently she's a slow learner. How did her pal Rand Paul ever get a medical degree? Doesn't stuff like that rule out teabagging and crusading against civil rights?
ReplyDeleteAre you sure Sarah means for oil? Maybe she wants to go visit the old Appalachian Trail with Mark Sanford? Or conduct some abstinence only sex education with mark Souder?
ReplyDelete