I listened to the President’s speech from the Oval Office last evening. He did pretty well with me for the first part of what he had to say about the continuing oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. He talked about holding BP accountable for the environmental and economic damage they have caused through decisions I believe were based upon greed. He talked about putting into place mechanisms that would assure all of us that this type of “accident” would never happen again. This all sounded pretty good.
Then he switched to a pitch about climate change legislation and cap and trade. This was not the time. President Obama needed to deal with the crisis at hand, not use the crisis to push his legislative agenda. The people on the Gulf Coast are suffering. The oil continues to flow and the end is not in sight. Things for life in the environment, the loss of fisheries, and the loss of tourism can only get worse from this point. It is likely a part of all of these will never return at least in the lifetime of any who read this. Yes, we must set a course that will eventually wean the United States from dependency on oil or we will face disaster after disaster in the future. But, now is the time for compassion and actions that will help the current crisis. There is no conversation left over for the energy and climate change debate right now. This is not the time for “never let a crisis go to waste”.
It is incredibly disheartening to hear that the Dutch and Norwegians offered boats to us within hours of the Deep Water explosion that would have skimmed oil from the water only to be turned down. Stupid decision. It is disheartening to learn of the history of the Minerals Mining Service with the bribery, pornography, sex, and corruption that was prevalent there. Now another attorney with no experience with the oil and gas industry has been put in charge. Stupid. Frankly, it is time for firing of all employees in that agency; not just the addition of yet another “oversight” person or committee.
The incompetence of President Obama and his administration continues to be demonstrated time and time again. November will take care of the Congress, but without change, we have another two and one half years of Obama in the White House. I am not sure this country will make it through this long. Everywhere one looks there are screw ups: economy and unemployment, BP oil disaster, illegal aliens pouring across the Mexican border, the health care debacle, and a foreign policy in shambles among many others. Yet the President has plenty of time for golf, vacations, photo ops with basketball teams, and hosting Paul McCartney at the White House. If all of this were not so serious, it would be a joke.