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Obama is playing a losing game of chicken.
Vine Deloria once commented that only the white man would make a river that catches on fire. Now, with cracking shale to get natural gas in Texas, residents can set their dishwater on fire. The next statement, given the release of methane from the sea floor, could be, "only the white man would make the sky catch on fire."
I think Obama is playing chess, absolutely, no question about it... however, chess isn't a team sport, he's playing for HIMSELF.
N
if Obama is playing chess, he is not playing it very well. the BP gulf disaster gives him the perfect opportunity to LEAD. Lead us out of dependence on oil and into the renewable and clean energy age. Lead the progressives will follow. challenge the nation to act and let BP and the republicans be left behind. if we don't act now we will all be left behind China, Germany, Spain and other countries who have seen the light.
Supporting President Obama for being marginally better than the pukes who intend intentional and direct malice against our nation and its citizenry is damning by the faintest of praise. It may be a necessary evil but evil is evil no matter how it gets triangulated.
Frankly, I am tired of being told that the ghost of the merest fraction of a crumb of an old, moldy, spoiled loaf is enough.
About the so-called moratorium on drilling leases:
License To Drill "Why did the Obama administration just approve more than 400 new leases for oil companies to operate in the Gulf of Mexico?...In recent weeks, the government has quietly approved the sale of more than 400 new leases for vast swaths of the Gulf of Mexico. And these contracts—which mark the first step in the drilling process—were subjected to the same slapdash environmental oversight that failed to prevent the BP catastrophe."
"We have to make sure this guy is re-elected in 2012"... sigh, I agree, and that's probably why I'm getting increasingly more and more fustrated with our piss poor political system. Its ultimately why I'm going to my Green Party meetings, I can no longer just vote, I can no longer just cheer from the sidelines, I have to get in the game.
N
Seems their insurer was Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited ("Aspen") (NYSE: AHL).
And see this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/16/gulf-oil-spill-insurance-losses
Woah- not to change the topic but there has been another Wiki leak of war fare in Afghanistan. If you have been hearing it, the rumor is the Obama Admin is after the president of Wiki link for posting these stories. Also the soldier that took the footage is in big trouble http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-news-section/122-122/2215-wikileaks-to-release-another-video-of-deadly-us-afghan-attack
One child dies of hunger every 6 seconds- what the hell is the guest thinking?
Sir Paul McCartney, when asked what fans could do upon the passing of his lovely wife, Linda said,"Become a Vegetarian." The City and County of SanFrancisco Board of Supervisor voted unanimously last week to encourage its citizens to reduce their carbon impact by decreasing their meat consumption consistent with the Meatless Monday Campaign. The campaign encourages persons, groups, and organizations worldwide to pledge to eat just vegetarian just one day a week, on a Monday. Dixie Mahy from the San Francisco Vegetarian Society led the way to passing the resolution reports Bob Linden, GoVeganRadio.com.
Read more at Suite101: McCartney 'Meatless Monday' Gains Momentum, Municipal Support http://greenliving.suite101.com/article.cfm/mccartney-meatless-monday-gains-momentum-municipalitys-support#ixzz0r8RInxfE
Manage it Better
Large complicated problems, like the eruption at Deepwater Horizons, can often be reduced to a few declarative statements.
1. Plug the leak.
2. Find out how much is leaking.
3. Find out where all of the oil is.
4. Keep the oil off of the shore.
5. Clean the shore.
6. Save the wildlife.
7. Protect the people – workers and residents.
8. Compensate the people and business.
Make each of these a job. Give each job to a competent person that can get the job done, and communicate with the people. Get out of his or her way. Give each manager resources, authority, and exposure.
The person should be capable take charge kind of guy that can talk to the people. Lt. Col. Jack Jacobs comes to mind.
These tasks are pretty independent. In most cases the teams will not conflict with each other. Where there are overlaps, this could be easily managed.
The president is still on the hook, and is now on the hook for choosing the right people. He should be part of their communications, and occasionally have all of them together for status reports to the people.
These teams will absorb a lot of heat, and let people know exactly what happening.
One comment is that the President isn’t emotional enough. Solve that by putting the Vice President in charge of coordinating the whole show.
What do you think?
re: #29. Did AIG carry their insurance?
http://yougottobekidding.wordpress.com/2010/02/11/more-wal-martians/
ROTFLOL!!!!!!!
N
The CEO sets the tone and the culture for the corporation.
Games, our federal government plays.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/war-is-no-game-so-why-is-it-marketed-to-children-as-one-20100614-ya3d.html
Response to corporate politicians who rail against public funding of elections: The public is ALREADY funding elections, with the political donor class steering the money to politicians.
This burns me to no end ...
http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/transocean-really-cleans-oil-spil...
Transocean, the OWNER of the Deepwater Horizon rig (BP rented it from them) apparently had the rig insured for about TWICE what it cost them to build it. So, when the rig blew up, they actually MADE nearly $300 Million! Not only that, but (a) they ALREADY have the check in hand (can any shrimpers say the same?!), and (2) They'll be distributing a BILLION DOLLAR dividend among their stockholders this quarter!
How wrong is this??!!
RE #21. What I was saying about Mike P is that he is at front line of the war against corporate power. If he says $20B is an unbelievable victory, I think we need to recalibrate what we can expect out of Obama even if he wanted to ignore the constitution and make himself a dictator like Bush (referring to Bush's action regarding section 382 of the IRS code).
So that is what crystal meth is. All that frozen methane on the ocean floor.
http://www.handsacrossthesand.com/
More work has been put into keeping cars from being efficient over the last 30 years.
Off-shore drilling is done to drive up the costs of oil procurement.
Solar panels installed on state, federal and residential building would wipe out a big amount of our oil snide.
Oil goes to the world market not our own national use.
An early sign that your representative does not represent you is the boilerplate lecture that you get in response to a real question. The rep usually tells you why you are wrong. ie: government takeover of health care, auto industry, private property, etc.
A pipeline was recently built connecting Superior, WI and Pontiac, IL. There are two pipes. A large pipe for oil that comes to WI from tar sands in Canada. A smaller pipe takes light crude to WI to mix with the heavier, dirtier crude from Canada. How much oil can you pipe under corn and bean fields before the pipe is eroded and fails?
@harry, I didn't post the link to dress up my post. It's there for you to get the answers to your questions. I'm not organizing this demonstration, I'm just passing along the information. Pehaps you can stand out in front of your house if you wish, with cardboard cutouts.
N
Re: Mike Papitano (sp?) thinks the 20B escrow fund is beyond belief
"Even were it clear that the $20 billion will really be made available to the blowout’s many economic victims—and it is not—this is a preposterously small sum for a catastrophe whose real cost will run into the hundreds of billions, if not trillions. All the costs of environmental cleanup are to be paid out of this fund, according to the Financial Times. There can be no doubt that this alone will far surpass $20 billion."
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jun2010/spil-j17.shtml