Friday, June 18, 2010

What Teh Won SHOULD Have Done

OK. This is not just "Party of NO" yappaflappa. This is like Paul Ryan, but about the Gulf.

Naturally, it's a Republican candidate (Ga-12) who wrote the plan.

  • Immediately suspend or grant waivers to the Jones Act. Saudi and Dutch firms have proven high-tech solutions to clean up the spill in an estimated 3 months, instead of the current projection of 9 months it is likely to take under current policies. . . .
  • Lift the six-month moratorium on offshore drilling. Thirty-three Gulf oil rigs are now idle, and according to the Times-Picayune, Louisiana alone would lose $2.97 billion and 7,590 jobs directly related to the oil industry. . . .
  • Allow local governments to construct all the protective barrier islands (sand berms) they need to keep safe the beaches and marsh lands along the gulf coast. Delay in approval has allowed oil to wash up on the shore. . . .
  • Cut all red tape that may hinder efforts to stop the spill and clean up areas affected by the spill.
  • Salvaging the well can no longer be priority one. We must stop the gushing well and return to normal the lives affected by this catastrophe. . . .
  • BP is responsible for the spill and BP, not the taxpayers, must bear the cost of the cleanup.
All that woulda/coulda/shoulda been done on Day One, Mr. President.

HT: AmSpec

5 comments:

J. Strupp said...

Yeah naturally it's a Republican who wrote the plan. A 4 page, six bullet point argument with little or no substantive content whatsoever. Someone just shut this party down for good. Do it immediately. Ryan and Pawlenty will do just fine without the rest of these guys.


1. No waivers have been requested. The Jones Act only refers to the water up to 3 miles off the U.S. coast. The rest of the gulf is not applicable to the Act. Skimmer ships and skimming equipment provided for other vessels are being shipped in from everywhere around the world. No one at the Federal level is impeding the clean up via the Jones Act.

2. Agree. You can figure out safety measures while the rest of these rigs continue to operate. Put these people back to work immediately. But this isn't relevant to stopping the leak and/or the clean up efforts.

3. This is happening right now.

4. The "red tape" argument is just some general rhetorical statement that has no real substance. Fine. Cut "red tape". Whatever.

5. Salvaging the well hasn't been priority number one ever since the beginning of this crisis, if ever. Are you really going to tell me that BP or the Federal Government cares one bit about the future integrity of this particular oil well at this point? Why even include this bullet point? This is just common sense stuff.


6. Considering the rhetoric coming out of the Administration along with it's familiarity with matters of the law, does anyone really think that BP isn't going to bear the cost of this clean up? I'll put my money on Obama's legal team on this one. This subject should be his wheelhouse if none other.

Dad29 said...

Struppie, you're confused...

1) The skimmers are best used within 3 miles of the coast--partly b/c Obama sat on his hands for so damn long.

4) Ask Jindahl about 'red tape.' Go ahead. Make his day.

5) BP certainly should bear the costs--of what BP caused. NOT the costs of all the other shutdowns, which Obama wants included in BP's tab.

TerryN said...

It's amazing to me that people who know how to construct words into sentences on a computer can still carry water for this train wreck of a president.

At any point in the last 50 or so days I could give a rip who's Republican or Who's a Democrat. I'd like to see a concerted effort to stop the fucking leak.

Beer, Bicycles and the VRWC said...

Yes,Struppster...it IS a Republican who wrote the plan because Democrats are either too stupid to do so or don't care. Substance? Let's talk about the President if you want to discuss a lack of it. He has shown zero leadership. Not only in this crisis, but in everything. His agenda (if he has one), he's left in the hands of Pelosi and Ried. He has no foreign policy, other than to stand around the heads of other countries and accept their America-bashing. He has no negotiating skills. His speechifying in nothing more than empty-suit rhetoric. No "Hope", no "Change", no solutions. This guy is a disaster. Anyone who thinks this guy is doing a good job at this point is either stupid, not paying attention or is just like him. An empty suit.

Oh...and The Law? This administration cares less about the rule of law than any I've ever seen. The law clearly caps BP's liability. Contract Law is pretty clear about paying out bond-holders before the Unions.

You aren't even in the ballpark on this one.

Dad29 said...

No waivers have been requested

Flat out wrong.

the State Department on May 5 declared that Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Mexico, Norway, Romania, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, the U.K., and the U.N. had offered skimmer boats and other assets and experts

All were told to drop dead.

Try again.