Obama Plans to Force BP’s Hand on Oil Spill Fund (LEAVE BP ALONE!)

Obama Plans to Force BP’s Hand on Oil Spill Fund - NYTimes.com

An interesting article, that should hopefully silence the "Obama hasn't done anything" crowd. Here's what gets me, Obama is making his fourth trip to the area since the disaster began two months ago. How many trips did Bush make to New Orleans for Katrina? I don't know the answer, but I'll look and we can talk about that later.

My favorite part of the artitle was this:

Inside BP, there is a view that President Obama’s unflinching criticism of BP and its chief executive represents an unprecedented example of a chief of state interfering in the affairs of a corporation.

And while some officials inside the company recognize that the president faces severe political pressures, there is also a resentment that the company has become a whipping boy even as it does its best on the clean-up.

dot dot dot

Seriously, I am not one to abuse the ellipsis (my good friend is a copy-editor and would have my head) but I cannot come up with much more than a blank stare for that remark.

When your company is single-handedly responsible for the most catastrophic environmental crisis in a country copiously lax on environmental issues as the United States (I love living here, but let's own up, compared to other industrial nations, our regulations are bit weak), I think you deserve just about all the criticism that comes your way. It's kinda like the beaches along the coast; they are gonna get covered in your mess whether they want to or not, so you need to take the criticism whether you like it or not.

Yes, yes, BP is working hard and spending money money money on the cleanup. But, over two straight months of largely unmitigated oil leakage? I work a manual labor job, if it took me two months to get absolutely nothing done, I would get an earful from my foreman. Just because you are trying does not mean that you are exempt from criticism, this is the real world, not AYSO.

Back from Vacation

I spent two weeks off taking a break, and four days off to enjoy my free time at home. Back into the fray, lets see a few of the events I missed:

McCain criticized Obama for not visiting the injured troops while on his world tour. Of course Obama was told he could not bring the media that spend the whole trip on his plane with him, that's official DoD policy, so he decided it would be best not to try and politicize their wounds. McCain was rejected for the same type of trip in the Spring, because it was during his primary run and the DOD saw the conflict that it would create.
Click the link for the rest.

Obama's suggestion that inflating our tires would help reduce gas consumption (the DoE has said this may help up to 4%) was immediately mocked by the McCain campaign, they released some tire gauges with "Obama's Energy Plan" on them. Of course McCain says that properly inflating tires is the right thing to do.

Senator Lindsey Graham, a top McCain advisor, said that raising raising taxes on Social Security is not out of the question as part of a comprehensive reform package that the McCain campaign is offering. McCain has repeatedly said that he, unlike Obama, would refuse to raise any taxes and would only reduce them.

The Democrats have refused to vote on offshore drilling, while the Republicans have refused to allow votes on any comprehensive energy plan. Both of them blame each other, and the American people lose.

Walmart is forcing managers to go to meetings that focus on the negatives of an Obama presidency, higher wages, health care, carbon taxes. Mostly they are afraid of being forced to open their workforce up to unions.

Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska was indicted on 7 counts of failing to report several hundred thousand dollars worth of renovations to his home from an oil company that has pushed for drilling in ANWR. Sen. Stevens himself has been a large advocate of opening up ANWR to drilling and has repeatedly been scrutinized for his connections to donors.

Bruce Ivans, the main suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks, killed himself as the FBI began to close in around him. Charges were set to be filed, after his lawyer got a phone call indicated what the charges would be, he apparently took a large amount of prescription Tylenol with codine.

When asked about experts opinions that offshore drilling wouldn't produce oil until 2020 at the earliest at an event last week, McCain said that the oil executives he met with told him it could be done within months, maybe 2-3 years at the most. In addition to that, McCain's joint campaign fund with the RNC (which allows him to raise money but avoid nagging problems like $2000 caps on donations) raised over $880,000 from oil companies after June 16th, the day he came out in support of offshore drilling. He raised less than $50,000 in the previous 17 months of his campaign from that same business sector.

A small sampling of the events taking place while I was slacking off.
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