WASHINGTON -- In assuring Americans on Tuesday that BP won't control the compensation fund for Gulf oil spill recovery, President Barack Obama failed to mention that the government won't control it, either.
That means it's anyone's guess whether the government can, in fact, make BP pay all costs related to the spill.
Obama aimed high in his prime-time Oval Office address -- perhaps higher than the facts support and history teaches -- as he vowed to restore livelihoods and nature from the still-unfolding calamity in the Gulf of Mexico.
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#1
"we need to know the facts before we allow deepwater drilling to continue." Wrong!
You must know the facts before you have a lease sale.
U.S government already found out the hard way in Alaska. You cannot have a billion dollar lease sale and then not allow the oil companys drill.
Enviromental issues that emerge after the sale are no justification for refusing a drilling permit.
The oil companys sued for and won, not only the price they paid for the lease, including all expenses incured for bid preparation, impact studys, fees, contract agreements, ect. but also the profit they claim they lost by not being allowed to drill the lease.
President Obama, in the first televised Oval Office message of his presidency, sought to quell rising anger over his response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico by saying he will demand that BP's chairman set aside whatever money is needed to compensate those who have been harmed by the company's "recklessness."
"We will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused," Obama said in an 18-minute speech. "And we will do whatever's necessary to help the Gulf Coast and its people recover from this tragedy."
Obama announced that he had asked former Mississippi Gov. Ray Mabus to develop a long-term Gulf Coast Restoration Plan -- to be funded by BP -- in concert with local states, communities, fishermen, conservationists and residents "as soon as possible."
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#1
I sat through that crap last night, I was waiting for his malaise moment. Really all he said was, you all are screwed, it's BP's fault, you need to pay higher taxes.
Posted by: Jefferson ||
06/16/2010 10:22 Comments ||
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#2
Still no word from 0 about going after Goldman Sachs & the other Pig Men who have done 10X the damage to the national economy, not to mention the world.
Note to BP: relief is just a bankruptcy away. As if BP hasn't already been making its plans in that direction anyway.
#5
BP to Barry: Please get off of our asses, OUR STOCK IS PLUMMETING! We're doing all we can at the moment. If it's money you want....'AGAIN' we'll give you $10B for a contingency fund for peasant damages, an escrow, call it whatever you bloody will...oh WTF, make it $20B.
Barry to BP: Ok, but it has to $30B AND MY idea or the deal is off! (Rahm smiles in background, Robert Gibbs mines nose nuggets and grins)
BP to Barry: Ok, it's your idea...do a press conference. Your check is in the mail.
#6
Half of all Gulf well-heads are capped. The current catastrophe occured under Obama's regulatory watch. Point the finger in his direction. National security issues - including strategic concealment - should limit demagoguery, viz said catastrophe. Maybe this President is out of the loop.
#7
Half of all Gulf well-heads are capped. The current catastrophe occur ed under Obama's regulatory watch. Point the finger in his direction. National security issues - including strategic concealment - should limit demagoguery, viz said catastrophe. Maybe this President is out of the loop.
Yes, the well was "fast-tracked" by Obama's people 18 months ago.
I'm sure that if this was the East or West Coast being threatened, the idiot would have National Guardsmen and schoolchildren (those Obama service corps kids) wiping the beaches with Bounty Towels.
#3
at least someone loves a closeted gay unprincipled narcissist Oompa Loompa. Loved the pic of him ogling a girl in a thong today. Luckily he didn't retch on camera
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/16/2010 20:55 Comments ||
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#4
Meek isn't the nominee yet.
The Florida Democratic primary is August 24. A lot can happen.
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/16/2010 21:08 Comments ||
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#5
Crist would even find a way to screw the donks. He'd make them nostalgic for specter. Way beyond scary...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/16/2010 21:56 Comments ||
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#6
Frank G.,
I also noticed that in the last week we had the beach babe butt ogling photo and another with some babe smooching him on the lips. I guess someone is trying to project a certain image. " Not that there's anything wrong with that..."
#1
Last night Obama tells the nation he going to energy tax the nation. Today he and his Chicago Mob meet with BP and force $20 Billion out of them "for the people". Shakedown artists are on a roll.
#6
Interesting that we hear nothing in the US press about what the president of Mexico or Fidel Castro or any of the other Caribean nation leaders are doing to stop the oil. The US is expected to do it all by ourselves. And then they will undoubtedly send us a bill for damages...
President Obama has selected Michael Bromwich, a partner in the law firm Fried Frank's Washington D.C. and New York offices, to head the Minerals Management Service, the troubled agency that oversees offshore oil drilling, according to senior administration officials.
In announcing the selection Tuesday, the White House said Bromwich would be charged with reorganizing the agency to "ensure that there is no conflict of interest, real or perceived, in oil industry oversight."
"For a decade or more, the cozy relationship between the oil companies and the federal agency was allowed to go unchecked," Obama said in a statement. "That allowed drilling permits to be issued in exchange not for safety plans, but assurances of safety from oil companies. That cannot and will not happen anymore."
While Bromwich has no significant experience with oil and gas issues, he has a reputation for cleaning up embattled organizations. In addition to serving as as inspector general for the Justice Department under President Clinton for five years, he worked as the District Metropolitan Police Department's independent monitor on the issue of excessive force and as the independent investigator for the Houston Police Department's crime lab. He also served as an associate counsel in the Iran-Contra investigation in the late 1980s.
How much money did he and his law firm give Bambi in the last cycle?
The agency, part of the Interior Department, has come under fire in recent years for failing to adequately oversee offshore oil and gas development.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/16/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
FREEREPUBLIC/TOPIX > THE GULF DISASTER: YOU AINT SEEN NOTHING YET; + THE GULF OIL SPILL: A DISASTER OF UNFATHOMABLE CONSEQUENCES.
* Also on FREEP > LEAKED REPORT: GOVT. BELIEVES DEEPWATER HORIZON OIL WELL COULD BECOME AN UNCONTROLLED GUSHER. Forever + ever + ever.
By and for the sake of OWG-NWO, GLOBAL SOCIALISM-GOVTISM, + PERMANENTLY-POOR-BUT-OPTIMISTIC UNIVERSAL SOC REGRESSIONISM???
#4
By putting a lawyer in charge he is indicating the purpose of the MMS will be legal, not technical oversight. It will be focussed on extracting money (lawsuits) after an incident rather than preventing an incident. Or maybe about minimizing lawsuit losses against the MMS.
#5
If there was an oil dividend like in Georgist Alaska then maximising the payout seems like a good idea. If the oil money was bureaucrat directed then it will just be used for the benefit of bureaucrats at the expense of the people.
#6
Karl Denninger had this interesting observation about the Administration's role in permitting the oil well blowout in the first place: Congress and President Obama have a political Kobyashi Maru here.
MMS is 100% responsible for approving the well casing changes made on the rig - changes that, were they not approved, would have likely prevented the blowout in the first place.
But MMS is the Obama Administration and those changes were approved just days before the blast. And while BP selected the design and implementation they used, they didn't do it in a vacuum - they did so with the full permission of the government's so-called "regulators."
Oops.
President Obama doesn't want to discuss this, of course. Did you notice the lack of an MMS representative at the hearings today? Guess why? Yep. Start asking about those permits and the rubber stamp at the MMS office, and you're going to get a lot of stuttering in response.
#7
I suspect his sole purpose is to legally cover the administration's butt from potential litigation. Probably by shifting liability to the oil companies.
#14
I have been wondering from very the beginning if this would end up with the U.S Government sueing BP or the other way around. I didn't sale any of my BP stock if you want to know who I've got my money on.
San Francisco is a high-rent city. Just ask Nancy Pelosi.
The House Speaker's district office in the new federal building in San Francisco costs a whopping $18,736 a month -- the highest rental paid by any member of the House -- or, more precisely, the highest rental paid by taxpayers on behalf of a member of the House. The rental price was reported by Roll Call on Monday.
The Democratic congresswoman moved last fall from her old office in the Burton Federal Building, which she occupied for 20 years, to a "greener" space in the city's new federal building -- a move and a high price that her spokesman, Drew Hammill, says was amply justified.
Hammill cited the new building's increased security measures and the new office's larger size as reasons for the move -- and the expense. "The new office space is 3,075 square feet, nearly a third larger than the old space, which was of inadequate size," he told FoxNews.com.
"As speaker, the security needs are different," he said. "The new San Francisco Federal Building offers enhanced security features, which were a major factor in the decision to move offices."
The new office, he said, also is "more centrally located," provides easier access for constituents "via public transportation," and the building consumes "less than half the power of a standard office tower, saving taxpayer funds on utility costs."
Pelosi's constituency hasn't significantly expanded in size, but her San Francisco staff has increased to a size that requires a larger space for files and storage, he said -- though he did not provide a precise number. The difference in office size is approximately 1,000 square feet, he said.
Roll Call reported Monday that Pelosi's new office space costs almost double that of the next-highest rental office held by a House member. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., reportedly pays just under $10,600 a month for his office in New York's Soho neighborhood.
The newspaper, which cites a database produced by the Sunlight Foundation, also reports that other lawmakers, like Democratic Reps. Stephen Lynch of Boston and Diane Watson of Los Angeles, pay exorbitant rental fees for their offices -- $9,000 to $10,000 a month.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/16/2010 00:00 ||
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So I take it when she's kicked out on her fat ass from the Speakers position come November - she'll be moving to more modest offices right?
Somehow I doubt it - she'll want to both keep the lavish office and military transports for her family.
It's not so much the crime, it's the cover up. Jennifer Rubin's "Friends in High Places," from this week's issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD, delves into the intrigue surrounding the dismissal of the voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party. Her reporting on the NAACP's possible involvement has caught the attention of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which has sent this letter to the Department of Justice:
Posted by: ed ||
06/16/2010 07:39 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
