This is what this Spill should be called, cause that is what it is.
Louisiana as a state is the perfect example of a contradiction that is present
with a majority of Americans; they support Off Shore Oil Drilling,
yet they want the Offshore Oil drilling disaster fixed, and they want it fixed now!
They believe in Small government and have been voting for such for years,
yet they want full government involvement in this Oil spill, although they chant that business knows better,
and that private enterprise should not be limited,
and should be on the honor system instead of controlled via government regulation.
So a Majority of Americans want to have their cake and they want to eat it too....
and that's a problem for me.
In addition, those same Americans get righteously pissed off at anyone,
and I mean anyone who tries to tell them that they want is impossible.
Hell, back in the 70s, they got pissed off cause Carter wore a fucking sweater on TeeVee!
So rather than point my finger at one man, or even one company; I'm pointing my fingers
at desingenious Americans who want it all and want it now.
I think their mindset is the culprit, and that is where I intend on focusing my discussion when
folks are trying to place blame.
The media doesn't help much as there is rarely an honest conversation to be found on television,
just a lot of politicking and the same old game of promoting impossible high expectations from those who really can't deliver,
because the media (with what they omit, gloss over, obscure, hide, ignore, focus on and lackthereof)
makes sure that this is so.
This is what President Obama stated last Thursday.
I hope the American people actually heard him.....
"for years the oil and gas industry has leveraged such power that they have effectively been allowed to regulate themselves. One example: Under current law, the Interior Department has only 30 days to review an exploration plan submitted by an oil company. That leaves no time for the appropriate environmental review. They result is, they are continually waived. And this is just one example of a law that was tailored by the industry to serve their needs instead of the public's. So Congress needs to address these issues as soon as possible, and my administration will work with them to do so.
....
Still,
preventing such a catastrophe in the future will require further study and deeper reform. That's why last Friday, I also signed an executive order establishing the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. While there are a number of ongoing investigations, including an independent review by the National Academy of Engineering, the purpose of this commission is to
consider both the root causes of the disaster and offer options on what safety and environmental precautions are necessary. If the laws on our books are inadequate to prevent such a spill, or if we did not enforce those laws, then I want to know. I want to know what worked and what didn't work in our response to the disaster, and where oversight of the oil and gas industry broke down.
....
We've talked about doing this for decades, and we've made significant strides over the last year when it comes to investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency.
The House of Representatives has already passed a bill that would finally jumpstart a permanent transition to a clean energy economy, and there is currently a plan in the Senate –- a plan that was developed with ideas from Democrats and Republicans –- that would achieve the same goal.
If nothing else, this disaster should serve as a wake-up call that it's time to move forward on this legislation. It's time to accelerate the competition with countries like China, who have already realized the future lies in renewable energy. And it's time to seize that future ourselves.
So I call on Democrats and Republicans in Congress, working with my administration, to answer this challenge once and for all. I'll close by saying this: This oil spill is an unprecedented disaster.
The fact that the source of the leak is a mile under the surface, where no human being can go, has made it enormously difficult to stop. But we are relying on every resource and every idea, every expert and every bit of technology, to work to stop it. We will take ideas from anywhere, but we are going to stop it.
And I know that doesn't lessen the enormous sense of anger and frustration felt by people on the Gulf and so many Americans. Every day I see this leak continue I am angry and frustrated as well.
I realize that this entire response effort will continue to be filtered through the typical prism of politics, but that's not what I care about right now. What I care about right now is the containment of this disaster and the health and safety and livelihoods of our neighbors in the Gulf Coast. And for as long as it takes, I intend to use the full force of the federal government to protect our fellow citizens and the place where they live. I can assure you of that.
....
What is true is that when it comes to stopping the leak down below, the federal government does not possess superior technology to BP. This is something, by the way -- going back to my involvement -- two or three days after this happened, we had a meeting down in the Situation Room in which I specifically asked Bob Gates and Mike Mullen what assets do we have that could potentially help that BP or other oil companies around the world do not have.
We do not have superior technology when it comes to dealing with this particular crisis. .....
Now, let me make one broader point, though, about energy. The fact that oil companies now have to go a mile underwater and then drill another three miles below that in order to hit oil tells us something about the direction of the oil industry. Extraction is more expensive and it is going to be inherently more risky.
And so that's part of the reason you never heard me say, "Drill, baby, drill" -- because we can't drill our way out of the problem. It may be part of the mix as a bridge to a transition to new technologies and new energy sources, but we should be pretty modest in understanding that the easily accessible oil has already been sucked up out of the ground.
And as we are moving forward, the technology gets more complicated, the oil sources are more remote, and that means that there's probably going to end up being more risk. And we as a society are going to have to make some very serious determinations in terms of what risks are we willing to accept. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/28/us/28obama-text.html?pagewanted=1Those who would prefer to focus on how best to blame one man are wrong in doing this....
as it will not result in any solutions to the problem that we as a nation have dug for ourselves
over time. Instead, turning our back on this President will only delay the inevitable;
a day when we will have to reckon with the truth that Americans collectively cannot have Oily Cake and eat it too.
Once the majority of Americans admit that not only is there a problem,
but rather than just acknowledging such, the majority is also willing
to do what they can, including personal sacrifice, then maybe we can get to a true solution!
Till then, we will continue to play politics which is what we do best collectively,
which includes kicking this President's ass, and kicking the can down to the next generation,
and hoping and praying that they will make the sacrifice that to date, a majority of us Americans
just aren't willing to make.
If we don't start going after, in full force and relentlessly, the obvious contradictions
that we collectively, as American have supported and believed in for so long,
than we are not fit to blame a single soul, because as each of us take up time
in adding to the pile-on of those looking for a fall guy,
IF we cannot acknowledge and focus on the fact that the real culprit is in fact,
the collective American people who in the majority, have chosen who would represent
our Government for the past 30 years. If we can't concentrate on that, than we aren't worth much.
Our American collective mindset is right now busy finding who is to blame,
when we should be discussing what we are going to do as individuals to change this
overall culture of us wanting everything all of the time, and no,
we shouldn't believe that one person can change this, because that wouldn't be true,
and would be setting one person for a giant fail....and keeping us off the hook once again,
while we look for singular figures to blame.
We really do know that the biggest villain is really us;
that collectively as "ordinary Americans",
we've lacked the political will up to this point.
And I dare believe that the same Americans guilty of aiding us get to where we are,
will once again obscure the real solutions by playing the same old games.
In other words, we cannot win until we admit that we are the ones that we have been waiting for....
not just some, but an overwhelming majority.
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