Why did Obama turn down offers of help?

Steven Tallach

Not to labour the point, but here is a news release of 15 June from the official Deepwater Horizon Response website that states:
"Currently, 15 foreign-flagged vessels are involved in the largest response to an oil spill in U.S. history. No Jones Act waivers have been granted because none of these vessels have required such a waiver to conduct their operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

However, in order to prepare for any potential need, Admiral Allen has provided guidance to the Coast Guard Federal On-Scene Coordinator, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the U.S. Maritime Administration to ensure any Jones Act waiver requests receive urgent attention and processing."

http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/doc/2931/660195/

Oflife

Worrying and all rather political. And sad, because if he was pushing a genuine ideological agenda, he would sound more credible to all concerned.

Trefor Jones

This whole murky business becomes worse by the day. Obama's attitude to the spill comes over as one of a petulant child. If I see another American weeping over the pristine sands of Louisiana,I'l throw up. There is obviously a hidden agenda here, however, how one weans one's self off a hydrocarbon diet in less than the very long term is beyond me. I'm afraid, Melanie if the Democrats had not become boxed themselves in by the AGW myth, then a saner more logical debate on alternatives would now be in train. He is already being described as a Jimmy Carter and a one term presidency beckons for Obama should he not wise up and join the real as against the world of environmental sentimentality.

Dee Ranged

This is going to come home and haunt the USA

naomimuse

Obama turned down offers so that he could appear to be a solitary person fighting against the BIG OIL BUSINESS.

He also ignored the assurances given to him by BP and made demands and twisted arms behind backs, to give the impression that BP had not already said it would pay all legitimate claims.

Obama is on a crusade to show his beliefs are true. As true as creationism and other fads.

He is illogical. He does not follow a political mantra. He should be awarded the Prat of the Month award for the Americans can see through him too, but they'd rather have their own script for the soap played out first.

ahem

With Omaha it's all politics, all the time. He is in the process of dismantling what he imagines to be an evil American empire--no, I'm not exaggerating, even remotely--and our failure actually furthers this goal. Omaha is the first 'Anti-American" president.

Graeme

I do not disbelieve any of this statement. To change the subject a little, has anyone notices the complete lack of criticism by the Media about Obama's handling of the oil spillage crisis? When you compare this with the massive media criticism of President Bush over Hurricane Katrina disaster, although the comparison might be a little difficult because of the resultant deaths of Katrina. Anyway, emergency disaster is a State Governor's prerogative supported by the President and Federal Government if needed. So why was Bush heavily criticised over Hurricane Katrina and Obama being appraised over his handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill?

ahem

Melanie: If you want to understand Obama's motives, read Saul Alinsky's 'Rules for Radicals'. O is incorrectly noted for being a 'Constitutional Law Professor" (He was tentatively an adjunct instructor). What he really taught--for years--was Alinsky. The scales will fall from your eyes.

Steven Tallach

Sorry, it looks like my original comment didn't come through, so my comment above doesn't make entire sense. I basically asked Melanie to provide a link to reputable source to substantiate her claim that Obama "refused offers of help from other countries to fix the bust oil well, refusing to waive the trade union-inspired protectionist legislation which normally prohibits such assistance from being taken". In addition to the news release quoted above, here is a transcript of what Thad Allen said on the matter in a press conference:

"...And to the extent that foreign equipment and skimmers are available, and can be use out there, we have accepted foreign offers of assistance, BP is buying skimming equipment and skimmers from overseas in areas that they normally operate, Mexico, Norway where they have oil operations is where we're getting it from mostly. So, to date nobody has come for a Jones Act waiver. We have expedited procedures to go with customs and border protection which would grant it, I'm willing to do that. It not only relates to skimming equipment but potentially it could relate to the amount of dredges that are available for some of the barrier island construction. But to date, no Jones Act waivers have been requested."

http://congress.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/06/17/thad-allen-updates-on-oil-spill-relief-well-flow-rate-jones-act/

This surely suggests that Melanie is mistaken in her claim.

GaryO

OT:
Guardian's obsession with Melanie continues:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/18/melanie-phillips-rightwing#start-of-comments

mark

Question "why did Obama turn down offers of help?'

Answer he did not. Here is a quote from the Deepwater Horizon Joint Response website:

"To date, the administration has leveraged assets and skills from numerous foreign countries and international organizations as part of this historic, all-hands-on-deck response, including Canada, Germany, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, the United Nations' International Maritime Organization and the European Union's Monitoring and Information Centre. In some cases, offers of international assistance have been turned down because the offer didn't fit the needs of the response."

Question has Obama refused to waive "union inspired protectionist legislation"?

Answer White house press secretary Robert Gibbs stated on June 15th ""there are no pending requests for foreign vessels to come into the Gulf" but that "if somebody down [in the Gulf] needed a ship from the Netherlands or somewhere else, the president and Admiral Allen would waive the Jones Act in 10 seconds.".

Question what could possibly be the source for MP's bold assertion?

Answer: The only source I can find is Fox News. Leading light Glenn Beck said that Obama needed to explain " why we turned down all the international help" Beck is rabidly anti Obama as indeed are many other broadcasters on this channel. If Fox news is the source for these assertions, fine, tell us. We can all form our own views about the quality, fairness and balance any media source. A great many pages on this blog have been devoted to other media outlets.

If it is not Fox then who?
I fear MP has been badly mislead on this one

John A. Davison

Everything Obama does is calculated to weaken this nation. He knows exactly what he is doing.

Bogdan from Australia

Mark, if there was even a smallest grain of truth in your quasi-legalistic jabber, we would see a flotilla of ships steaming towards the Gulf three-four days after the disaster.
And above all a great team of the best specialist working under the Obama's leadership to plug the hole and stop the gusher.
After all, he has personally promised us to heal all the world's wounds, hasn't he?
What we are seeing instead is Obama deliberately prolonging the crisis in order to exploit it for his strategic agenda of destroying the US.
Only the blindest are still incapable of discerning and articulating it.
For me, it was clear what Obama's objectives are from the very first moment he had appeared on the political scene.
On doesn't have to be a political analyst to learn that; The information havs always been avaiable on the Internet.

Mick J

Here is a somewhat related story, a method that is said to be meetin with some success bogged down by bureaucracy.

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/bp-oil-spill-gov-bobby-jindals-wishes-crude/story?id=10946379

BP Oil Spill: Against Gov. Jindal's Wishes, Crude-Sucking Barges Stopped by Coast Guard
60 Days Into Oil Crisis, Gulf Coast Governors Say Feds Are Failing Them

By DAVID MUIR and BRADLEY BLACKBURN
June 18, 2010

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has spent the past week and half fighting to get working barges to begin vacuuming crude oil out of his state's oil-soaked waters. By Thursday morning, against the governor's wishes, those barges still were sitting idle, even as more oil flowed toward the Louisiana shore.
Louisiana Governor Jindal frustrated over decision-making red tape.
Sixteen barges sat stationary Thursday, although they had been sucking up thousands of gallons of BP's oil as recently as Tuesday. Workers in hazmat suits and gas masks pumped the oil out of the Louisiana waters and into steel tanks. It was a homegrown idea that seemed to be effective at collecting the thick gunk.

ab

Here is a story (from June 8) quoting the Dutch consul general in Houston. He is not employed by Fox News, I think.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/steffy/7043272.html

David, Thailand

Regardless what disasters Obama abuses for political and ideological ends, his abuse of the office, his contempt for freedom, democracy and decency, or even his eligibility for the position, history will award him the title of greatest president.

It is, after all, media records that will survive beyond the effects of a radically Socialist president.

shingles

To Mr John Davidson: and what evidence do you have for that spectacular assertion, beyond Fox News and channels of that ilk?

shingles

AB - I have followed your link and received a "not currently available" message at the HC. I can't find it in thire archive for 8th June with the search term "dutch" or "dutch consul". Please could I have a bit more information to help track down your source. thanks.

bill40

I love these conspiracy theories they make me chuckle. All I can see is some cock ups happens all the time.

It is time to stop picking on America. Ok dumping millions of tonnes of oil on it's coast was funny, but sending them Piers Morgan is a joke too far.

Augustus

According to The Wall Street Journal, the Netherlands Consul General in Houston, Geert Visser, said in the two weeks immediately following the spill,
"13 governments reached out and
offered their assistance. The US
response? Thanks, but no thanks." But the amazing thing is that after two months the Obama administration still hasn't accepted the help. It's all very well accusing BP for it's role in the disaster, but when are the Democrats in Congress and the White House going to be held accountable for their own total lack of leadership and management? And they criticised Bush?! Nobody can be that stupid, so it must be by design.

Thomas

"When an accident on an oil rig results in an environmental catastrophe, it surely takes a particular genius to turn the oil company involved into the victim."

The genius here is to be able to say it with a straight face.

TGF UKIP

A puzzling and worrying major divergence between Steven Tallach's and Mark's posts and the assertions of MP, Glenn Beck and a majority of those posting.

It would be interesting and useful to see a Melanie Phillips response to what mark and Steven have posted.

Bob.India

Very interesting article at “American Thinker” by Robert Eugene Simmons Jr

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/06/an_oil_spill_is_not_a_license.html

Conspiracy by the Obama administration? Perish the thought!

“With pictures of oil drenched birds, blackened beaches and marshlands invaded with oil streaming across our televisions every day, it is easy to become angry and demand retribution from the cause of the disaster. Unfortunately it is also easy for unscrupulous politicians to take that anger and turn it to their political advantage. History is replete with incidents of real popular anger leading to monstrous outcomes of tyranny. On Thursday, June 17th the USA wrote a new anecdote in that awful book.

There is no doubt that the oil spill produced by the Deepwater Horizon rig and BP is a disaster of monumental ecological proportions. There is no doubt that the spill has caused the loss of livelihood for fishermen, hotel owners, beach surfboard renters and millions of other people on the gulf coast. There is also no doubt that it is the responsibility of BP to get the well shut off and pay for the cleanup. Finally, there is no doubt that a full investigation should be conducted into how the spill happened, the role of BP and of the government in the spill and the mistakes made in the cleanup. It is important that we find out what caused the blowout, how it could have been prevented, why the cleanup was so slow in getting started, why foreign experts were not allowed to help, why the EPA is blocking applications of products as simple as hay which could soak up oil, and why Governor Jindal and others were disallowed the means to protect their shore lines by government bureaucracies.

However, none of these events or responsibilities gives the president the power to suspend the constitution, revoke the rule of law or demand payments from a company. In fact the $20 billion fund "demanded" of BP by the Obama administration does just that. To understand let's review the facts around the fund.……….”

An American

Intentional disregard... with the intent of letting the oil spill get even worse so that Obama can get his Cap and Trade bill passed which we all know, is a global warming fraud perpetrated on the American people to put yet more money into Obama's hoax of a government.

An American

Since Senator Joe Butler was scolded for telling the truth about Obama's shakedown of BP, but later forced to apologize by his Republican cronies in order to retain his committee seat...I feel the need to tell it like it is.

Obama is a Chicago thug who extorted 20 billion dollars from BP to be signed over to him to do with as he pleases...Our Dear Leader makes Hugo Chavez look like a duffer.

Obama has yet again abused his executive power outside the rule of US Law.

If any of the Gulf residents believe they will see a cent of BP's, now Obama's, 20 billion dollars, they are probably the same incredibly naive people that voted for Obama in the first place. Within hours, one Democratic Senator was crowing that the 20 billion would be spent on Obamacare.

And while Obama was at it...he was shutting down all Gulf oil drilling which will put over 100,000 people out of jobs just in the Houston, Texas area and affect hundreds of thousands more in all of the Gulf states.

Obama also plans to make BP pay off the people that will lose their jobs and businesses due to this/his politically motivated decision of shutting down Gulf drilling...BP will be expected to pay the very Americans Obama is intentionally hurting.

Somehow, there is a little bit of justice for BP in all of this...BP brought a lot of this upon themselves...they exclusively supported socialist Obama to the tune of hundreds of thousands of campaign dollars while spending hundreds of thousands lobbying for Cap and Trade and other negative taxes on the American people's backs...I wonder how they feel about that now...on top of the damage they wreaked on our economy and environment...How very fitting...A foreign company meddled and helped elect Obama, their shakedown thug.

I can forgive BP the drilling accident, I can't forgive them their financial support of a Marxist thug for the US presidency and their support for the fraudulent Cap and Tax bill.

Miranda Rose Smith

Dear Ms. Phillips: I thought Obama was trying to pin responsibility for the oil disaster on BP and threatening to sue them? Now he's cozy as kittens with them? My head aches?

Bob, son of Bob

Barrack Hussein Obama could have made a huge commitment to build nuclear power stations and drill for oil both on US land and offshore, even if a few birds had to fly off and build nests somewhere else.
The fact that he did not suggests that Barrack Hussein Obama prefers the US to be dependent on Arabs for their oil. For those Americans who are anti-American, this has two advantages:
1) Arabs continue to get billions of dollars a year with which to cause mischief in the world
2) The US economy will collapse if unstable dictators start blowing up each other's oil wells, or Israel blows up their oil wells in retaliation for the nuclear bombs which they are clearly intent on making.

Let us hope that Russia stops helping these countries with technology. Let us hope for an alliance with Russia some time in the future. They face the same demographic problems as the West, not helped by them murdering tens of millions of their own. Mark Steyn on YouTube says that by 2015, 50% of the
Russian troops will be Muslim.

An American

Miranda Rose Smith,

This is how Chicago backroom racketeering is done...Obama style.

I believe that BP went along with Obama's 20 billion dollar shakedown for a 'deal'...perhaps Obama promised to let them off easy on future money handouts and to stop blaming them for Obama's complete incompetence in the cleanup. But, everyone should know by now, that Obama is a lying weasel that cannot be trusted.

My hope is that BP survives this disaster because thousands of Americans work for BP, US businesses depend on that trickle down income, a lot of Brit pensioners depend on BP dividends along with Americans and Brits who have invested in BP stocks.

Absolutely nothing good will come of BP going under...on second thought, it would make Obama and his Marxist buddies happy since this would be one more step toward the destruction of American.

Bob.India

More from “American Thinker”

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/06/wheres_the_navy.html

Seems like not only an ecological disaster but an on-running presidential disaster for USA (and the world).

“But the Three Stooges-like effort (to clean up the Gulf oil spill) has continued to be poorly managed by the Coast Guard and Homeland Security. (In March 2003 the Coast Guard was formally transferred from the Department of Transportation to the newly created Department of Homeland Security.) Why does it continue to be poorly led? Well, this Administrations' primary concern has been to manipulate media spin, so that political considerations override the logical planning of operations by the Coast Guard and BP' to stop the leak and clean up the oil.

Wouldn't you have thought that a President, upon learning of the explosion and oil leak a mile under water off the Louisiana coast, would have immediately placed a call to the Secretary of the Navy and simply ordered the U.S, Navy to "seal that damn pipe, yesterday!" While SUPSALV is based in Washington D.C., the trained manpower, the specialty deep-sea equipment, the engineering proficiency, and the materials fabrication facilities to do the job quickly are all located at Norfolk Navy Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia.

So, what the heck is going on? We can logically conclude the following; the Navy is out of the critical decision loop, the Navy's marine engineering expertise has been replaced by dubious advise from Homeland Security and the Coast Guard, the oil spill responders remain under strictly control of the "West Wing" political operation, and the Navy has been told to "shut up and don't say anything to anyone."

It is now clear that Obama and the senior operatives of this Administration have such a deeply held anti- military fixation that it does not allow them to use the Navy's real world engineering expertise to quickly stop the oil spill. These progressive/socialist radicals would prefer to have the Gulf coast beaches coated in oil, while continuing to milk the crisis for partisan political gains (such as cap and trade legislation and a renewed oil drilling moratorium), rather than allow the U.S. Navy to receive the credit for preserving the Gulf coast and its economies. Why else does the oil continue to gush forth from the mile deep wellhead?”

Bhaskar

I do not understand the ins and outs of the oil spill argument. However, the hysterical and paranoid assertion from 'An American' that Obama is a Marxist thug must be challenged. Obama is politically to the right of our David Cameron. He believes in Capital punishment. His healthcare reform does not come anywhere near mirroring the state sponsored healthcare in the UK (which Cameron believes in). Obama sends his children to elite private schools and believes in free choice in education and schooling. He is more hawkish on Afghanistan than his predecessor. Some Marxist! Interestingly, one of the Bush daughters has just come out in support of Obamacare. Presumably she is a Marxist thug as well?
'An American', your country now has a black president. Instead of being perpetually distressed by such a spectacle, get over it! Fast changing US demographics will ensure that in the lifetime of many of us, there will be Hispanic US presidents, female black presidents etc. No amount of tea party histrionics can override demographic realities.

Paul from Texas

Obama and his cohorts believe that when people see oil ruining our shorelines for decades, we will blame BP and our dependence on oil. They are wrong. We blame BP for the accident and the leak, but Obama has done very little trying to prevent the oil from reaching the coast or from trying other retrieval and cleanup methods. He is determined to ruin BP and sue the them for all their money and to pursue criminal charges against the CEO, but he doesn't seem interested in protecting our coast. Many people here think, as do I, that he wants it spoiled so he can use it as another crisis to use to further his leftist agenda.

Relations will get worse. Wait until the next serious terrorist attack in the U.S. Obama will fight back with lawyers and a media campaign, and use the incident to raise taxes, help unions and grow government.

Bob.India

Bhaskar. I’ve cut and pasted a piece by Lauri B. Regan but please consider it as reflecting accurately and entirely my own view of the disastrous Obama presidency. I hope the piece goes some way towards assuaging “the hysterical and paranoid assertion from An American”.

Obama may be the first black president in the history of the U.S., but he will be remembered more for his policies that have initiated the decline of American's exceptional nature.

While those on the far left who support Obama's domestic policies enjoy comparing him to FDR, upon closer scrutiny, a more appropriate comparison would be Hugo Chávez or Vladimir Putin. His takeover of private enterprises such as General Motors, the student loan industry, the health care industry, and the financial sector are certainly novel for the world's oldest and most respected democracy and bastion of free enterprise and entrepreneurial success. His intimidation tactics that force business executives to give up paychecks, bonuses, and dividend payments to public shareholders, and his scapegoating of everyone from insurance companies to Wall Street executives, sound a lot like tactics employed more by (Marxist) dictators than by U.S. presidents. For it is clear that while Obama's domestic policies are unique to American values and will deter the country's future prosperity, they are certainly not new to socialist and totalitarian regimes, whose citizens fester under policies meant to keep them submissive, not equal.

Beginning with his petulant attacks on Rush Limbaugh and Fox News, his assault on middle-class Americans and tea party protesters, and his rejection of any input on his health care legislation, Obama has acted more like a bully than a president. Obama promised to reach across the aisle as the first post-partisan president, yet he has shown complete intolerance and total contempt for dissenting opinions. In just eighteen months, he has divided the country in a way not seen since the Civil War.

Obama has usurped the Constitution, defied the will of the people, moved partisan politics into the back rooms of Chicago-style wheeling and dealing, and expanded government to levels never before seen in the history of the country. His socialist policies have failed across the globe, and yet he pursues them with zeal. And while the world's economies are failing and oil pours into the Gulf of Mexico, causing environmental destruction at a disastrous rate, Obama has found an exorbitant amount of time to spend in indulging in dalliances and leisure activities on the taxpayers' dime, including concerts, date nights, and more rounds of golf in his first months in office than any of his predecessors during each of their respective terms.

On the foreign policy front, Obama's goal of reducing America's standing in the world as superpower, defender of human rights, and supporter of democracy and freedom is certainly novel. How many U.S. presidents have genuflected before the world's leading dictators and shunned the country's allies? How many U.S. presidents have been so obsessed with reversing course with their predecessors that they throw freedom-fighters, dissidents, dignitaries, and democratic leaders under the bus for the purpose of appeasing enemies and undermining well-established and accepted U.S. doctrines and principles? And how many U.S. presidents have traveled the globe on an apology tour promising that America's greatness will never again be something that the world will have to face?

Honduras, Poland, the Czech Republic, Great Britain, and Israel are at the top of the list of America's allies who have faced the wrath of Obama. Yet Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, China, and Russia consistently face Obama's outstretched arms, notwithstanding the threats, intimidation, human rights abuses, and terrorism which pervade these countries' politics and which U.S. presidents have customarily shunned.

But the most harmful and long-lasting effects of Obama's novel foreign policy plans involve his isolation of, and turn against, Israel, America's strongest and most strategic ally in the Mideast -- the frontline of the War on Terror. For no other U.S. president has used the word "condemn" to admonish an ally for announcing the receipt of a building permit for the future development of housing units in its capital city. No other U.S. president has ever signed onto a U.N. resolution that condemns Israel or isolates it for doing what every sovereign nation has a right and an obligation to do -- defend its borders and its citizens. No other U.S. president has jumped on the never-ending international bandwagon of "Blame Israel" as Obama recently did in response to Israel's legal blockade of Gaza. And no other U.S. president has ever taken part in, let alone initiated and organized, an international meeting to "out" Israel's nuclear weapons and force it to give up its only real means of deterrence and defense that ensures its survival.

An American

Bhaskar,
If it looks like a duck, waddles like a duck and quacks like a duck...it's a duck.

Socialists like you always bring up the race card...in fact you can't see beyond the race and gender card and apparently, your own ethnic nose...I don't care if Obama is purple with pink polkadots...I do care that he is a far-left socialist ideologue that is destroying my country's economy and undermining its Constitution.

If Obama had turned out to be a president who was a centrist as he claimed he would be...if he was improving, instead of ruining our economy and raising our unemployment rates, if he had listened to the American people when we told him we didn't want his Obamacare, if he had not encouraged the Muslim world to try to destroy Israel by all of his words and actions, if he had not tried to make little Democratic Honduras take back a Commie dictator, etc. etc. etc. I would whole heartedly support him...but he has shown himself for what he is...and will go down as the most despised President in our history...and IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HIM BEING BLACK OR PART BLACK!

Now his administration is going after the web...they are trying to stop my free speech...anything that interfers with their socialist agenda because it cannot stand the light of day and the truth.

You say that Obama is politically right of Cameron...you have no idea what is happening in this country or what Obama is all about.

I agree with a recent statement of Melanie's that the UK is lost to socialism...but there is still hope for the US...thank goodness, we haven't gone through the socialist brain-washing that you and most of your fellow Brits have succumbed to.

I have no idea what Obama's stance on capital punishment is..and it doesn't matter..even though Obama thinks he is above US law and our Constitution.

We have no idea how bad Obamacare will be but considering how he and his administration has handled everything else domestic and foreign...I would say we are in real trouble...since his administration can't even run the post office...or clean up an oil spill...or lower the seas as he in one of his Messiah moods, once claimed.

Of course Obama's children go to private school...Obama is an elitist which goes along with being a far-left socialist who believes he is better and smarter than the 'little' people he reigns over. He and Michele are spending more money entertaining and living it up in the White House than any other president before them...in fact they were over budget four months into their first year...but, hey there's always more money where that came from...on the backs of the American taxpayers...kind of reminds me of the French King and his consort...let them eat cake mentality...

We are now in trouble in the Afghanistan war because of Obama's dithering and slow response to that war. He also put a timeline on that war and al Qaida and the Taliban plan to wait it out while killing as many American and Nato soldiers during the interim. Obama is a Muslim and really didn't want to go to war against his fellow Muslims...even the ones who were/are bent on destroying the US.

And who cares what a spoiled Harvard educated Bush lame-brain thinks about anything...Of course Africans need healthcare...The US is not Africa and we have/had the best healthcare in the world. Can't you come up with something better than that? Pathetic.

An American

Bob.India

Why would you call me paranoid and hysterical...was it because I actually used what all brain-washed people, worldwide, now consider to be a politically incorrect word to describe Obama and his presidency...Marxist?

Hey, he's just getting started...look at the damage he's done in just a year and half...

Everything you wrote in your last comment mirrored what I said previously...although more gently...how very thoughtful and politically correct of you.

Its true I'm pretty riled up over seeing my country go down the tubes, but what person who loves their country wouldn't.

I wonder what people like you will say when Obama and his pals try to shut people like you and me up who post on blogs like Melanies...Huh?

Miranda Rose Smith

'An American', your country now has a black president. Instead of being perpetually distressed by such a spectacle, get over it! Fast changing US demographics will ensure that in the lifetime of many of us, there will be Hispanic US presidents, female black presidents etc. No amount of tea party histrionics can override demographic realities.

Dear Bhaskar: Whether on agrees or disagrees with "An American," I see no sign to "Tea Party histrionics" in his writing, or of needing to "get over" America's having a Black President.

This is how Chicago backroom racketeering is done...Obama style.

"Chicago backroom racketeering" goes back more than a century, to the Jim Crow era, to the time when most of the ward heelers were Irish.

Thanks, An American, whether you were 100% right and accurate or not.

Israel

Bhaskar and Bob.india:

I have had many run-ins with An American on another website and she will spout some of the most disgusting smears of President Obama and his wife from whichever rightwing website email list she gets sent every day.

There is nothing you can say which will change her viewpoint, believe me l have tried.

One question for all those here if the monitor has the guts to pass this for publication:

If a company led by an American on £4.3 million a year had a massive oilspill on the coast of the South of England, had continually lied about the size of the spill, had whined about “wanting their lives back” after destroying the livelyhoods of thousands and the deaths of 11 workers, had claimed that those who got sick at the clean up had “food poisoning” and whose security guards are continuing to block access to the beaches where the oil had reached from the media both local and national just how do you think the tabloid press and the right wing commentators over here would have reacted to it?

Do you think that there would be just a LITTLE backlash?

But none of that matters to people with Obama Derangement Syndrome like Mel and her flying monkeys here where everything Obama does is wrong.

Bob.India

An American. Actually, I didn’t call you paranoid and hysterical. I was replying to Bhaskar and using a little irony in your support. Guess it backfired!

An American

Bob.India
Thanks for your reply...I was perplexed when I read your very good, indepth reply to Bashkar...all of the points I agree with wholeheartedly...sorry for the misunderstanding, you can see from my posts that subtlety is not one of my stong points... :)

An American

Israel,
My old friend!...yes, I consider you a friend even though I'll never be able to get any common sense into your very thick head.

I truly miss Conservative Cabbie...what a brilliant fellow...do you see him commenting anywhere?

An American

Miranda Rose Smith,

Please read my reply to Bhaskar...I would support a black, hispanic, oriental, black-hispanic, black-white, hispanic-oriental, hispanic-white, oriental-white, native American, etc., etc. or woman president with any of the above ethnicities... IF they were not Socialists...it's as simple as that...Socialism destroys...just look at what is happening/happened to all the countries that have embraced varied forms of Socialism.

People will not continue to work for the good of the 'State' (unless they are made into slaves)...but they will work hard to make a better life for themselves and in turn create a great nation...it is human nature.

wonderer

@ An American. I believe /www.conservativecabbie.com/> is where Conservative Cabbie went, but he seems to have stopped in April.

An American

Wonderer,
Yes, I use to comment on Conservative Cabbie's blog...and he just 'poof', disappeared in April. His blog is still there but sitting idle.

But most important, I hope that he personally is ok, he was an incredibly decent, fair fellow with a great mind.

Jared Israel

Obama has done a terrible job, but he is NO SOCIALIST. That claim, made loudly enough, is probably the only thing that could save him -- the idea: see how nuts his opponents are?

The main thing he did: put BP in charge. When you call the Unified Command phone for companies/governments offering solutions, you get BP, not the government. Obama put the criminals in charge of the crime scene, and dutifully kept everyone else away for reasons that have nothing to do with socialism. Starting with the fact that, as he NEVER admits, it was HIS ADMINISTRATION that waived environmental oversight and approved drilling at the disaster site. He is in fact now cutting his throat politically by doing what BP wants BECAUSE HE HAS TO. He and BP are like the lovers/killers in "The Postman Only Rings Twice."
--Jared Israel
http://emperors-clothes.com

Israel

An American:

Cabbie seems to have fallen off the map.

I still think that you need an intervention with a lot of your delusional statements you post from the nutty emails you get.

Nothing to say about the blanket defence of BP by the corporation loving republicans you support?

We all knew they put corporations ahead of people, we found that out with disgust when they voted against the Amendment Senator Franken put forward over the Jamie Leigh Jones rape case against Halliburton/KBR:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/155/116/824

And did so the day before Joe Barton's apology to the people who paid money for him to become a lawmaker:

http://rsc.tomprice.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=191125

Making it common consesus amongst many on the right that BP is more important than people.

Augustine

An American et al.
Your continued assertion that Obama and his administration is 'Socialist' can only draw a weary horse laugh from these quarters!!
Why don't you check out what Stalinist Central Europe, the USSR and pre-Thatcher Britain were like to find out what REAL socialism is like.

Greg Urban, Vallejo, CA

For those of you who unaware, the Jones Act has been in danger of appeal many times before. Who would most like to see this law done away with? All the owners and heads of the marine industry. Why is this? Because they would then be able to finally hire foreign nationals to crew and run their vessels at extremely reduced manning costs. Also, vessels worked domestically in the US would be able to be built on foreign shores at reduced costs. It is doubtful, in this day of corporate gluttony and greed, that these savings would be passed on to the consumer. The number of US jobs, on the water and shore side, lost would be tremendous. The Jones Act has protected our maritime industry since the 1920's. It also protects, directly and indirectly, millions of non-maritime jobs.

Also of note, while there are many UNION maritime positions that are protected by this law there are at least as many NON-union jobs protected by the law. The law protects the industry and those industries with direct involvement in the shipping and receiving of goods- not just the unions, as it is being reported.

The oil spill in the Gulf is now, so it appears to me, being exploited as yet another possible back door to circumvent this law.

As US citizens, we need to think long and hard about all of the implications of doing away with the Jones Act. First, the loss of American jobs as already stated, not to mention the loss of a long standing American maritime industry and tradition. I know that we tend to have very short memories as Americans, but we also need to remember the USS Cole and the events of 9/11.

By appealing or amending the Jones Act we are opening the doors to foreign nationals to operate our domestic vessels. These vessels are as various as a person can imagine, from ferries operating in New York harbor to tug boats towing barges with millions of gallons of petroleum products in pristine waters of Alaskan or in and out of the San Francisco Bay, passing under the Golden Gate Bridge. Each of these thousands of vessels could, in the hands of the wrong people, be used as a terrorist weapon, visiting anything from environmental disaster to our nation's waterways, to bridges being taken out along the inter-coastal waterways and bays of our country or to countless people being killed in planned attacks. The USS Cole was taken out by a single small barge. A few terrorists with minimal training were able to take over several planes and take down the World Trade Center and attack the Pentagon. Use your imagination. It does not take much of one to see how giving up our country's control of our entire marine industry and all of the associated thousands and thousands of miles of shores and waterways would be terrorist's dream come true.

Yes, what is happening in the Gulf is a disaster and a better way of dealing with it must come into play. I applaud Obama's decision not to waive the Jones Act and I urge caution and a better understanding to those who just want to throw away a law that they may not fully understand. This law, albeit an 'old' law, was written for a reason. It continues to serve and protect this country well, not just the unions as indicated. I can think of a few other old laws, the freedom of speech, the right to bear arms, the right to vote... just to name a few. Some 'old' laws are good laws. We would not think of opening the doors at GM and letting foreign nationals take away the factory jobs, would we?

I am a tug boat captain that works towing petroleum barges on the west coast of the US and Hawaii. I have worked in the maritime industry for thirty years and work for a non-union company. Please educate yourselves and help us hold and protect our country's values, traditions and jobs together, along with those 'old' laws that make this great nation of ours possible.

Please provide comments to: tugcapt11@sbcglobal.net

An American

Augustine,

You don't believe that Obama is an avowed socialist?

Everything that he has said and done points to that fact. He has said he believes in 'wealth distribution' and if that is Socialism, I don't know what is...Obama has only been in the presidency a year and half...yet, he has socialized our medical care and in doing so, has taken over 15% of the American economy, he has taken over/federalized private American companies and has appointed a Supreme Court judge that believes in legislating from the bench and ignoring the Constitution.

Your comment implies that the US is just a 'little' bit sick with cancer...and we should just ignore it until it really gets bad...kind of like your socialized medicine.

Everything that Obama has said and done thus far is about socializing the US.

There are all types and extremes of socialism...and it seems that socialists never give up on their dreams of a socialist nirvana. They refuse to see their past and present failures.

You are a very intelligent fellow whose writings I admire...but if someone like you can't see the writing on the wall...I'm really worried.

Would your advice be to wait until Obama and the far-left Socialists in the Congress push us even further into the Socialist quagmire?

An American

Greg in Vallejo,

Most people are not insisting that the Jones Act be done away with entirely...they are saying to set it aside during this oil spill to allow other nations into the Gulf to help with the cleanup.

It's only common sense. And think of all the jobs that will be lost in the Gulf Coast area and the long lasting environmental damage, if we don't get a handle on the continuing destruction.

I understand your concern that once Obama opens that door, he and others will refuse to close it...but not to worry, the Unions own Obama's soul and they won't let him sign off on it...no matter how bad the oil pollution gets. They are being selfish, as I suspect you are.

Israel

I love some of the comments here!!

It's like a UK version of Faux "News" with the ability to ignore history to push a particular agenda.

What is really funny is the right wing attempts to gloss over who was president of the US when TARP went through and who signed the bill to bail out the banks (here's a hint, it happened BEFORE Nov 5th 2008).

As for pushing through healthcare & other bills without consent? Well the Stimulus contained 40% in tax cuts as demanded for by the GOP who then voted against it and I'm surprised that you have forgotten how long Chuck Grassley and the "Gang Of Six" went when working on healthcare before Grassley went nuts, jumped ship, and started parroting Sista Sarah's lies about " killing granny.

I once wrote a piece for Cabbie's website called "The Infinite Memory Void Of The Right Wing Echo Chamber" where people on the right ignored previous actions or statements of fellow right wingers just to push another false agenda. Even Charles Johnson, never to be mixed up with a liberal, move away in disgust but even his detailed reasons were questioned.

Mike

See article on EPA and Dutch Skimmers . Looks like EPA turned equipment which could have cleaned up much of the oil.
http://climateaudit.org/

Miranda Rose Smith

Miranda Rose Smith,

Please read my reply to Bhaskar...I would support a black, hispanic, oriental, black-hispanic, black-white, hispanic-oriental, hispanic-white, oriental-white, native American, etc., etc. or woman president with any of the above ethnicities... IF they were not Socialists...it's as simple as that...Socialism destroys...just look at what is happening/happened to all the countries that have embraced varied forms of Socialism

Dear An American: Please re-read my posting. I never suggested that you needed to get over America's having a Black President. Bhaskar did and I DEFENDED you.

An American

Miranda Rose Smith.

So sorry, I did misread your post. Thanks for you support...

It's so incredibly unfair for the leftys and Obama's political cronies to imply that the reason that so many Americans are unhappy with the Obama administation has everything to do with his ethnicity...If Obama wasn't a socialist ideologue...if he was middle of the road politically, mature with good judgement...with his looks and smile...he would have been incredible popular...but, of course, he isn't any of the above... he is wantonly trying to undermine Capitalism (oh, that nasty word) and our Constitution.

We are in the fight of our lives here.

I hear the VAT has gone up yet again to 20% in the UK...and Brits are fighting inflation daily on their purchases...we are not far behind the way things are going.

Miranda Rose Smith

Miranda Rose Smith.

So sorry, I did misread your post. Thanks for you support...

Dear An American: You're welcome.