BP and the oil spill commission

I found this via Instapundit. It is something we already knew but he gets a gazillion more readers so he will have an impact on who actually reads or hears about it.

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, we’d have a President who got big bucks from an oil company and then gave it political protection. And they were right!

The While House oil-spill commission made it official today: The entire oil industry, not BP, is evil and potentially the source of another Deepwater-sized spill. Thus the entire oil industry, which has already been punished by the administration with its drilling moratorium and slowdown in permitting, should be punished further with massive new regulations and fees.

Those conclusions were virtually predetermined when the administration appointed a panel heavily stacked with academics and environmentalists. And those findings are wrong. Why? A simple reality check: Other companies drilling in deep water in the Gulf have not had well blow-outs. But in BP’s case, the commission’s own studies show not just one mistake but a series of failed judgment calls by BP officials. Responsibility is specific, not collective.

Obama got record donations from BP, while BP got lax treatment from federal regulators. Now, post-disaster, Obama’s handpicked commission is letting BP off the hook.

If the Republicans were smart, they’d be making an issue of this.

VDH on Calling a Swede a Swede and the News you Didn't Read in the newspaper or see on TV

Anyone who reads this blog is familiar with my love of what Victor Davis Hanson writes.
Today he has hit it out of the park again.

Calling a Swede a Swede
Imagine an alternate universe where terrorists are Scandinavian — Swedes, to be specific.

Imagine, if you will, an alternative universe where perception is slightly altered to reflect a different reality. In this universe, terrorists are Scandinavian — Swedes, to be specific.

We should not generalize, and it is clear that not all Swedes are terrorists, but all terrorists are Swedes. These radicals have perverted the beautiful Nordic religion of peace and turned it into an ideology of hatred.

The facts clearly show that the men who try to smuggle bombs onto airplanes have blond hair, blue eyes, are between twenty and forty years old, believe in the supreme god Odin, and carry names like Ingmar Johansson.

They talk funny and they love smorgasbord, which is a traditional Nordic meal with lots of raw fish, and every Swede can drink alcohol in amounts that would kill six reindeer within three minutes.

How do we make sure these bomb-laden Swedes don’t board our airplanes? How can we recognize these radical Nordic terrorists? Should we check dark-haired Asians called Honda? Italians called Ferrari?

Would it be acceptable to single out Swedes trying to travel by air? Or should we, trying to avoid offending Swedish sensibilities, check every person with an airline ticket in general and especially focus on inspecting their crotch? After all, Swedes love to wear their bombs in their underwear, so maybe non-Swedes also wear bombs in their underwear, right?

Read the rest here.

And now for the news you didn't read:

When News is No News

Here are a few important developments that remain strangely ignored. I say strangely, but most readers understand why some news becomes news and some does not.

1) Iraq. The United States military between 2007 and 2009 crushed al-Qaeda in Iraq. It destroyed cadres of radical Islamists and Baathists. It stabilized the country. It was one of the most stunning military performances in modern history, and helped to destroy the image of a competent and scary al-Qaeda. Yet everything from the recapture of Fallujah to the sheer number of Islamists that were taken out of Anbar Province was largely ignored. It is as if we went to sleep in 2007 with “Iraq is lost” and then woke up in 2010 with “Of course, it is quiet now. Why wouldn’t it be?” — but with little thought of what transpired in between. We know few names, fewer stories of the heroic Americans who turned Iraq around after 2006 — or kept it from imploding from 2003 onward.

But wait there's more:

2) Chinese Roguery. China’s Communist Party predicates foreign policy on mercantilism — period.
3) The Gulf Oil Hysteria. We were told that aquatic life in the Gulf of Mexico would be ruined for generations.
4) The Great Obama Flip-Flop. For over a year of hope and change, we were told by Obama that renditions, preventative detentions, and tribunals were anti-constitutional, that Guantanamo was synonymous with a gulag, that Iraq was lost, that Predators were a sort of airborne terror, that KSM and other terrorist killers should be tried in civilian courts — and what happened? Suddenly the world was turned upside down and what was once bad was now tolerable. And not a whimper about why, just the quiet assumption of “that was then, this is now.”
5) The Europe-America Cool-Off. Europe wanted Obama, got Obama, and now its elites are quietly whispering: “Why did you fulfill our childish wishes?”
6) The EU Meltdown. Surely the great story of the age is the serial meltdown of Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece and the furor of Germany and more Protestant northwestern Europe — all at a time when the September 15, 2008 ,Wall Street implosion supposedly had proved the triumph of socialism over the free market system.
7) The Implosion of the Green Movement. (be sure to read all of this one.)
8) The Nexus between California’s Financial Plight and Illegal Immigration. The state has the highest income, sales, and gas taxes and the largest deficits — and the largest number of illegal aliens.
9) The Implosion of Debt. There is very little said about the failure of Keynesian economics to restart the economy.
10) Obama and Race. We read of occasional slips from Obama and his associates, but never of the effect of lots of slips in the aggregate.

Be sure to click this link to read ALL of these listed topics.
If you have not read Victor Davis Hanson before this will show you why I think so highly of his intellect and reasonings.

In Case you were wondering about the dispersants....

The Washington Post has this.

Chemical dispersants in Gulf of Mexico not hurting seafood, FDA says

By Lyndsey Layton

Chemical dispersants sprayed into the Gulf of Mexico to break up the massive oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon disaster do not appear to threaten the safety of seafood in the affected waters, the Food and Drug Administration said this week.

In a letter sent in response to questions from Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), the agency responsible for ensuring the safety of seafood said that chemicals used to break up the slicks are not as dangerous to human health as the oil itself.

FDA scientists do not think that the chemicals accumulate significantly in the tissue of fish and shellfish; even if fish absorb the chemicals through gills or other ways, the fish do not retain them, Jeanne Ireland, the FDA's assistant commissioner for legislation, wrote to Markey. That means the chemicals are not passed up the food chain to humans and are not considered a public health concern, according to the FDA.

Read the rest, it does explain more fully the makeup of the dispersants.

He Really is trying to kill the oil industry, and a by product is our economy

Yahoo news has this AP headline

Volunteers ready but left out of spill cleanup
By Tom Breen
NEW ORLEANS – BP and the Obama administration face mounting complaints that they are ignoring foreign offers of equipment and making little use of the fishing boats and volunteers available to help clean up what may now be the biggest spill ever in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Coast Guard said there have been 107 offers of help from 44 nations, ranging from technical advice to skimmer boats and booms. But many of those offers are weeks old, and only a small number have been accepted, with the vast majority still under review, according to a list kept by the State Department.
And in recent days and weeks, for reasons BP has never explained, many fishing boats hired for the cleanup have done a lot of waiting around.

There is more on volunteers here.

But that's not the only reason for my headline.  There is also this showing they have gone to war against Texas. Again it is from Yahoo news, AP.

 EPA overturns 16-year-old Texas permit program
By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI,
HOUSTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday officially overturned a 16-year-old Texas air permitting program it says violates the Clean Air Act, leaving some of the country's largest refineries in a state of limbo.
The move comes after years of backdoor bickering, negotiations and public arguments between the EPA and Texas. The argument recently escalated from a battle over environmental issues into a heated political dispute over states' rights.
Gov. Rick Perry has been using it to drive home his contention that President Barack Obama's administration is overreaching, saying in a statement Wednesday that "Texas will continue to fight this federal takeover of a successful state program."
The EPA's decision, announced in a statement, will force some 125 refineries and petrochemical plants to invest millions of dollars to get new permits. Many of the plants may also have to invest in updates to comply with federal regulations.
The decision did not come as a surprise to Texas or the industries. EPA regional director Al Armendariz has said for months he would disapprove the permits if Texas did not comply with the Clean Air Act.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's chairman Bryan Shaw insisted Wednesday the state's permitting program complies with the Clean Air Act and has improved air quality in Texas. However, in an effort to satisfy the EPA's concerns, Shaw said the commission recently changed the rules but apparently the EPA "did not take them into consideration."
Texas can challenge the ruling in court, but a commission spokesman said it hasn't decided whether to go that route.

It doesn't matter what laws we change it is hard to fight a takeover of our way of life.

Louisiana seafood and oil spill contamination/ or NOT

Those of us who know about natural oil seeps in the Gulf know there has always been a certain amount of oil coming onto the beaches and into the ocean and onto the beaches . We know there are tar cleaning stations at the parks and motels.  This article addresses the current oil spill and the fact that only a small amount of the gulf seafood is a affected even in Louisiana.
From The Christian Science Monitor via Yahool news:

Oily rain and cracks in the earth: Busting Gulf oil spill myths
By Bill Sasser
New Orleans – As the prospect of an active hurricane season adds a new dimension to the on-going BP Gulf oil spill disaster, on-line media is awash with rumors of impending worst-case scenarios for the region. Viral Internet myths range from a collapsing seabed to oily rain to contaminated seafood.
Here are a few oil spill myths and misconceptions, addressed by scientists, experts, and official sources: • The blown oil well has spewed so much oil and gas from the substrata of the Gulf floor that the earth around the wellhead could sink and crack, opening multiple oil gushers that could never be stopped. A variation of this scenario involves a sinkhole forming under the well that could collapse, sending tidal waves ashore, or a giant methane gas bubble exploding to similar effect.
According to Gary Byerly, a professor of geology at Louisiana State University, none of this could occur.

Read the rest for the full story.

Oil Spill Politics Part 2

They are fed up with the feds in Louisiana.  Bureacracy has run amok. This Bayou Buzz blog tells some of it.  Notice how they feel about the bureaucrat who doesn't know how things work, um.... that would be all of them.

BP Oil Spill: Louisiana’s Nungesser Blasts Interior Officer Over Dredge Email

As the BP oil hits more of the Louisiana shore, state officials are becoming more frustrated by the day with the federal response. On Wednesday, Louisiana Plaquemines Parish President, Billy Nungesser, blasted the feds and a top Interior Department official in reaction to an email a top Interior official sent to Nungesser, state and other federal offficials. Louisiana has been in a dispute with the Obama administration and the federal government over the response to the BP oil spill. This week, Governor Bobby Jindal blasted the federal government for their stopping dredging that the state was doing to build barrier islands.
Below is a correspondence from Jane Lyder (Deputy Assistant Secretary For Fish and Wildlife and Parks, Department of the Interior) to various Louisiana and federal government officials.
After that email from Lyder, Nungesser issued the “Nungesser Dredge statement”, followed by even another statement below:
From: Lyder, Jane

Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 4:41 PM

To: Lee, Alvin B COL MVN; Garret Graves; Kyle Graham; charlie hess; Serio, Pete J MVN; Accardo, Christopher J MVN; Colletti, Jerry A MVN; Ulm, Michelle S MVN; Mayer, Martin S MVN

Cc: Robert Routon; steve mathies; Jeff Jenkins; George bevan; Mark Zimmerman; ancil taylor; Mike Flores; Harris, James

Subject: Question about manpower

I’ve been asked if we could get more people out there to help lay the pipe would it go faster. It was suggested that we should help the State find volunteers to make a 5-7 or 9-10 day job a much shorter job. Is that feasible at all? We would be willing to contact folks in Houma & round up volunteers if it would help at all. note from Rockport Conservative, are you kidding?

Jane
Nungesser Dredge Statement

Wednesday, June 23, 2010
“Every minute we waste makes us more and more vulnerable to the oil attacking the marsh and the breeding grounds for the pelicans. It’s a shame that the bureaucrats once again fight us instead of helping us in this war against the oil,” said Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser.
Below is an email from Jane Lyder of the Department of the Interior. She’s the one holding up the dredging. This is one piece of correspondence in a chain with the State of Louisiana, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, DOI, and others.
(2nd Nungesser statement from June 23)

“You don’t move sediment pumping pipe with volunteers. This is the lady that Thad Allen and President Obama are allowing hold up dredging to save our wetlands—God help us. What planet is this lady from? In the conference today Lyder was worried about the pelican nesting grounds. Obviously, she hasn’t been out there to see the birds dying, covered in oil, just like the other people who make ridiculous comments. Maybe she should go sailing on a yacht in England with Tony Hayward, it would be a great place to send her on vacation. I’ll pay her way,” said President Nungesser.

Bayoubuzz Note: The above email and nungesser statements were sent to Bayoubuzz (and others) by Nungesser's press office
by Stephen Sabludowsky

First they shut down the drilling....

Now they've made Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser angry by stopping the work on the berms he needs. From WDSU.com:
Federal Gov't Halts Sand Berm Dredging
Nungesser Pleads With President To Allow Work To Continue

NEW ORLEANS -- The federal government is shutting down the dredging that was being done to create protective sand berms in the Gulf of Mexico.

The berms are meant to protect the Louisiana coastline from oil. But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department has concerns about where the dredging is being done.

Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser, who was one of the most vocal advocates of the dredging plan, has sent a letter to President Barack Obama, pleading for the work to continue.

Nungesser said the government has asked crews to move the dredging site two more miles farther off the coastline.

"Once again, our government resource agencies, which are intended to protect us, are now leaving us vulnerable to the destruction of our coastline and marshes by the impending oil," Nungesser wrote to Obama. "Furthermore, with the threat of hurricanes or tropical storms, we are being put at an increased risk for devastation to our area from the intrusion of oil.

Nungesser has asked for the dredging to continue for the next seven days, the amount of time it would take to move the dredging operations two miles and out resume work.

Work is scheduled to halt at midnight Wednesday.

Ron Paul on the oil spill

From the Texas on the Potomac blog of  the Houston Chronicle.

Too much government in the Gulf
Texas on the Potomac welcomes guest commentary from across the political spectrum. Today, we share with you a column by Texas Rep. Ron Paul, republished from his "Texas Straight Talk" blog.
Sadly, the disaster in the Gulf continues this week as BP's efforts at containment keep hitting snags and residents along the coast scramble to clean up and defend their shores and wildlife.

Many have criticized the federal government in the past weeks for not doing enough. The reality is there is only so much government can do to help, yet a lot they can do to prolong the problem and misdirect the pain. For example, in the interest of "doing something" the administration has enacted a unilateral ban on offshore drilling.

This is counterproductive.

Read the rest here.

Oil Spill Politics

From Wizbang. I'm not sure I have the same take on the seriousness of the situation, or at least the fear of the long term disaster he is worried about.  But read it all, make you own conclusions. This is written by Jay Tea.

The Scent Of Fear

I've always been enamored of Professor Glenn Reynolds' oft-repeated aphorism: "I'll believe there's a crisis when the people who say there's a crisis act like there's a crisis." It's a great BS detector, but it has some corollaries that I'm finding truly terrifying.

What does it mean when those people say there's a crisis, I agree that there's a crisis, but they refuse to act like there's a crisis?

I speak, of course, about the Gulf oil spill.

I read the alleged inside account of the situation Kevin posted last week, and come to the conclusion that the anonymous author is a lousy writer, but seems to know his shit. And the conclusion I drew from that -- as well as what so many others have said -- is that the situation below the former Deepwater Horizon platform is developing into an ecological catastrophe that could scar -- and economically cripple -- the US for a very, very long time.

This is Katrina bad. This is 9/11 bad. This is JFK Assassination bad. This is Pearl Harbor bad.

Read the rest of this post and then the comments, there are some good ones, and some of the usual ugly drivel.

Some important links for today

From the Washington Post Politics:
Crist pulls way ahead of Rubio
Pelosi's enforcer not afraid to battle Rahmbo
Oil spill pits Palin against the Republican Party

From Washington Post AP news:
Supreme Court upholds anti-terror law
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court has upheld a U.S. law that bars "material support" to foreign terrorist organizations, rejecting a free speech challenge from humanitarian aid groups.
The court ruled 6-3 Monday that the government may prohibit all forms of aid to designated terrorist groups, even if the support consists of training and advice about entirely peaceful and legal activities.
 
From Washington Post Foreign Service:
Iran bans 2 IAEA inspectors from entering Iran
 
Editorials and Op-Edsand columnists:
Obama's energy pipe dreams
Robert J. Samuelson

"Just once, it would be nice if a president would level with Americans on energy. Barack Obama isn't that president. His speech the other night was about political damage control -- his own. It was full of misinformation and mythology. Obama held out a gleaming vision of an America that would convert to the "clean" energy of, presumably, wind, solar and biomass. It isn't going to happen for many, many decades, if ever."

Barton's BP comments highlight GOP's propensity for gaffes
by Davis S. Broder (ed. note: I wish this weren't so true. Barton may have been correct but it was not the time to do the attention grabbing apology.)

The unreadiness team

THE REPORT is chilling. Optimistically titled "U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team Makes Progress in Securing Cyberspace, but Challenges Remain," it paints a disturbing picture of a national security disaster waiting to happen.

What did You think of Obama's speech from the Oval Office UPDATED

I didn't watch and to tell the truth I have not read all the articles. Nor have I watched all the commentators on TV.  But I watched some and I read some.  These are all links referring to the speech, not all the links there are, just the ones I ran across.  Some from the original posts,  some via Lucianne. All are interesting.

LA Times by Andrew Malcolm via Lucianne:
Obama's speech: There's a pipe spewing a gazillion gobs of oil into the gulf, so let's build more windmills

Washington Post, by Michael Gerson:
Obama's address: grand setting, weak policies

Washington Post online Front page by Scott Wilson and Anne E. Kornblut:
In address, Obama presses for clean energy
(note: this is supposedly a news item, not an editorial)

Washington Post Business Opinion by Steven Pearlstein:
Bring on the Barack and Tony Show

Washington Post "The Fix" by Chris Cillizza:
Obama hammers BP in Oval Office Speech  (definitely opinion)

From the Washington Examiner by Byron York via Lucianne:
Obama's disastrous Gulf disaster team

From Newsweeks's Ben Adler via Lucianne: ( a blog)
Obama Chickens out on Energy

the American Thinker blog by Thomas Lifson:
Obama's First Oval Office Speech a 'Flop'

Michelle Malking doesn't like having a new Czar:(definitely a right wing blog)
Stuck on stupid: Obama’s czar fetish

From L A Times via Lucianne: (not  actually about the speech)
The gulf tragedy doesn't negate the fact that oil is a green fuel
By Jonah Goldberg

From American Thinker Blog by W. R. Wansley:
What we didn't hear from Obama last night

What’s next, Mr. Podesta? asks the Wall Street Journal

From WSJ's Washington Wire blog:

WH Takes Cues from Liberal Think Tank on Spill

By Jonathan Weisman

If you want to see where President Barack Obama’s response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster is heading, try following the urgings of the Center for American Progress.

The liberal think tank with close White House ties appears to have more influence on spill policy than the president’s in-house advisers. On May 4, for instance, the CAP’s energy and environment expert, Daniel Weiss, called on the president to name an independent commission to look at the causes of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. On May 22, he did just that.

On May 21, CAP president, John Podesta, privately implored White House officials to name someone to be the public point person for the spill response. A week later, the White House announced that Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen would hold daily briefings on the spill, wherever he would be on any given day.

On May 26, Weiss said the White House needed to demand that BP immediately set up an escrow account with billions of dollars from which claims for Gulf state residents would be paid out.

Monday’s headlines proclaimed the president’s latest get-tough stand: BP needs to set up a billion-dollar escrow account.

What’s next, Mr. Podesta?

Fudging the data to fit the agenda

You may have heard this on the news yesterday. I saw it in several places. This report is from Gateway Pundit.

Oh My!… Team Obama Fudged Report to Push Their Oil Drilling Moratorium

Posted by Jim Hoft

We saw these radicals withhold and manipulate information during the health care debate… Now we find out they’re doing the same thing with the nation’s energy supply…

Team Obama fudged a report to support their drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico.

A group of oil drilling experts claimed that the Obama Administration misrepresented their views in order to put a hold on drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

Click here to read the rest.

We are in the age of the bread and circus Roman routine

Only it is in our White House.  This is from Gateway Pundit:

Conga-Lines… Bare-Chested Beer Pong… Super Soaker Fights… The Good Times Keep Rolling Along For Obama White House Officials

Posted by Jim Hoft

Back in January 2009, Barack Obama told Americans that,

“Everyone must sacrifice… Everyone must have some skin in the game.”

Well… Everyone but Barack and Michelle Obama. See here for the videos

Guests gather for the entertainment segment of a state dinner in honor of President of Mexico Felipe Calderon inside a party tent on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, May 19, 2010. (Reuters)

In 2009 the Obamas spent over $10 million of taxpayer money on drunken White House parties.

And, it doesn’t look like things are going to slow down anytime soon.

The New York Post reported, via Free Republic.

Last week’s jobs report tanked the stock market; the president took weeks to assert control of the oil spill that threatens doom on the Gulf Coast — but at the White House the Gatsby-like parties roll on as if happy days were here again.

Just yesterday, President Obama held another fun-filled White House event, a picnic for Congress members, complete with hot dogs, cold beverages and a fire pit.

All told, during the last seven weeks of spewing oil and rampant unemployment, he has frolicked and danced through three major White House music parties.

* The black-tie tent bash on the White House South Lawn after the state dinner for Mexico’s President Felipe Calderón, which featured singer Beyoncé.

* The Paul McCartney hootenanny — a night of tributes to the former Beatle, which featured the president himself scooting onto the dance floor to join the Jonas Brothers in the long “la-la-la” closing refrain of “Hey Jude.” (Plus, of course, McCartney serenading the first lady with “Michelle.”)

* The Ford Theater event — in which the president, taking a break from “kicking ass” on the oil spill, kicked back and relaxed to the song stylings of one-time “American Idol” winner Kelly Clarkson, among other B-listers.

It was one thing when the president launched his White House days with a round of Martini Wednesdays, Stevie Wonder concerts, conga-line dancing and Super Bowl parties. That was before the gushing oil and before the employment picture defied the Obama hope-and-change cures.

Now it’s different. Now the president’s fascination with fun and parties in the midst of crisis has not only reinforced a feeling he’s out of touch, but has migrated down the chain of command.

Last weekend, Vice President Joe Biden and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel held a “super soaker” squirt-gun party at the veep’s residence. Everybody ran around giggling and shooting squirt guns at each other. Members of the press covering Biden joined in, to their shame.

And last Sunday, presidential spokesman Tommy Vietor and Obama speechwriter extraordinaire Jon Favreau, both 29 years old, were spotted at a Georgetown bar, stripped to the waist, playing a game of beer pong with a gang of bare-chested buddies. (This game involves throwing a ping-pong ball into cups of beer — loser drinks beer, winner drinks beer, everybody drinks beer.

If any heads roll under the bus how much do you want to bet it will be the last mentioned, the least powerful Vietor and Favreau? The original article in the New York Post was by John Gibson.

The Gulf Oil Spill

Here is an interesting article with much to say about it. It is from an AP article on Breitbart.com

Modern meets primeval in Gulf oil spill response

By CALVIN WOODWARD

It's all so last millennium, that filthy business in the depths of the Gulf of Mexico.

It reeks of yesterday's fuel, yesterday's sweaty labor—a hands-on way of life from another time. Today's Americans don't care to know how the gas comes to the pump, the food to the table, the iPad to the store.

Just make sure they do. ....

......The United States is a seafaring nation whose encounters with the sea now tend to be Red Lobster in the suburbs or Memorial Day at the beach.

It's historically a farming, industrial and exploring nation, most of whose people now are distant from the elemental struggles of living and working in the physical environment, much less understanding it.

Only 14 percent of the modern U.S. work force is engaged in production: manufacturing, mining, logging, construction and the like. The rest are in services.

While it is often considered an alien place, too, Washington is a product of that nation.

The president and many lawmakers are lawyers by training, not engineers, roustabouts or farmers. No wonder members of Congress met to discuss legal liability among their first orders of business in the oil spill response. For many in Washington, the talk is of blame, accountability and political consequences.

No wonder, perhaps, that President Barack Obama assumed that something so terrible would not happen because it had not happened before.

Like most Americans, he lacks the sixth sense of a mariner in foul weather or a miner listening to the earth speak.

He does, though, hail from Hawaii, where, as he noted last week, the ocean is sacred. Not to mention, all around.

A lot more in the article, read it here.

We are All Cynics Now

And Thank God for that.  If you are not cynical you have just not been facing facts.
Even Chris Mathews is calling the oil spill response a Jimmy Carter/embassy type moment.  James Carville is spitting mad and saying so.  Here are some other links you might be interested in reading:
President Barack Obama in Grand Isle after touring beach in Port Fourchon
apparently he finally realized this was a big deal and he better show up down there and look sympathetic.

From Investor's Business Daily: Slick, Real Slick

Accountability: Democrats have finally gotten around to blaming the Bush administration for the Gulf oil disaster. We wonder when this administration will take responsibility for anything.

ABC News: President Obama's Jimmy Carter Moment?

From Mediaite.com:
Chris Matthews Blasts Obama: “The Gulf Of Mexico Is More Important Than A Presidency”

Then of course The Sestak Moment:
From the Washington Examiner: GOP: White House Sestak story not believable
this by Byron York who is an Obama non-believeri n the first place.

From NBC and MSNBC :And here's Sestak's response
Read the comments at this one, the real true believers are ready to tar and feather Chuck Todd for not following the party line as he usually does.

Both the Oil spill and the Sestak story are not going away.  Some people may think it is business as usual but others are coming and and saying there is not only the Sestak story but also the story out of Colorado on the senate race told here by A J Strata in Stratasphere: Sestak Not The Only Incident Of WH Felonious Job Offers.

Sadly for Team Obama they have been so clumsy and crude in their Chicago Way that they have established clear evidence of the felonious act of trading jobs for political return in more than one instance. Take the Colorado Senate race for example, and this time pay was included:

Jim Messina, President Barack Obama’s deputy chief of staff and a storied fixer in the White House political shop, suggested a place for Romanoff might be found in the administration and offered specific suggestions, according to several sources who described the communication to The Denver Post.

Romanoff turned down the overture, which included mention of a job at USAID, the foreign aid agency, sources said.

If I were Joe Sestak I would be very careful today in responding to the WH lame excuse. It Romanoff was offered a paying job at USAID, then there is a very good chance Sestak was also provided an option that paid, as well as provided him other personal value.

Keep you eyes on these stories, don't let them go away.  And continue to not trust and try to verify everything you read about the Obama policies and administration.

The AP is doubting the Administrations take on the Oil Spill

Again From AP and Yahoo:

SPIN METER: There since Day One? Maybe not

By ERICA WERNER

WASHINGTON – To hear Obama administration officials tell it, they've been fully engaged on the Gulf Coast oil spill since Day One, bringing every resource to bear and able to ensure without question that taxpayers will be protected.

Not quite.

Take President Barack Obama's repeated claims that BP will be responsible for all the costs associated with the devastating spill that began after an oil rig operated by the company exploded April 20, killing 11 workers and later sinking.

"Let me be clear: BP is responsible for this leak; BP will be paying the bill," Obama said while touring the area Sunday.

While it's true that the federal Oil Pollution Act, enacted in 1990 in response to the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, makes BP responsible for cleanup costs, the law caps the company's liability for economic damages — such as lost wages, shortened fishing seasons or lagging tourism — at $75 million, a pittance compared to potential losses.

Administration officials insist BP will be held responsible anyway, noting that if the company is found negligent or criminally liable, the cap disappears. Claims also can potentially be made under other state or federal laws, officials said.

Read it all for a better explanation of the details.

Politico has this to say on the Oil Spill
White House in P.R. 'panic' over spill
By GLENN THRUSH & MIKE ALLEN
The ferocious oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is threatening President Barack Obama’s reputation for competence, just as surely as it endangers the Gulf ecosystem.
So White House aides are escalating their efforts to reassure Congress and the public in the face of a slow-motion catastrophe, even though it’s not clear they can bring it under control anytime soon.

“There is no good answer to this,” one senior administration official said. “There is no readily apparent solution besides one that could take three months. ... If it doesn’t show the impotence of the government, it shows the limits of the government.”
Hope and change was Obama’s headline message in 2008, but those atop his campaign have always said that it was Obama’s cool competence — exemplified by his level-headed handling of the financial meltdown during the campaign’s waning days — that sealed the deal with independents and skeptical Democrats. The promise of rational, responsive and efficient government is Obama’s brand, his justification for bigger and bolder federal interventions and, ultimately, his rationale for a second term.

So there was a “little bit of panic,” according to one administration official, when White House aides sensed the oil spill narrative getting away from them last week. The White House was particularly alarmed by the rash of stories comparing the Obama administration’s initial response with President George W. Bush’s sluggish response in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

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