Some Orwellian thoughts on BP and Obama's policies

[Guest 6.8 AR]

Obama's thuggery is useless in fighting spill | Washington Examiner

Obama's thuggery is useless in fighting spill

By: Michael Barone

Senior Political Analyst

June 20, 2010

President Barack Obama waves as he exits Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., on Friday. (Cliff Owen/AP)

Thuggery is unattractive. Ineffective thuggery even more so. Which may be one reason so many Americans have been reacting negatively to the response of Barack Obama and his administration to BP's Gulf oil spill.

Take Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's remark that he would keep his "boot on the neck" of BP, which brings to mind George Orwell's definition of totalitarianism as "a boot stamping on a human face -- forever." Except that Salazar's boot hasn't gotten much in the way of results yet.

Or consider Obama's undoubtedly carefully considered statement to Matt Lauer that he was consulting with experts "so I know whose ass to kick." Attacking others is a standard campaign tactic when you're in political trouble, and certainly BP, which appears to have taken unwise shortcuts in the Gulf, is an attractive target.

But you don't always win arguments that way. The Obama White House gleefully took on Dick Cheney on the issue of terrorist interrogations. It turned out that more Americans agreed with Cheney's stand, despite his low poll numbers, than Obama's.

Then there is Obama's decision to impose a six-month moratorium on deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf. This penalizes companies with better safety records than BP's and will result in many advanced drilling rigs being sent to offshore oil fields abroad.

The justification offered was an Interior Department report supposedly "peer reviewed" by "experts identified by the National Academy of Engineering." But it turned out the drafts the experts saw didn't include any recommendation for a moratorium. Eight of the cited experts have said they oppose the moratorium as more economically devastating than the oil spill and "counterproductive" to safety.

This was blatant dishonesty by the administration, on an Orwellian scale. In defense of a policy that has all the earmarks of mindless panic, that penalizes firms and individuals guilty of no wrongdoing and that will worsen rather than improve our energy situation. Ineffective thuggery.

And what about the decision not to waive the Jones Act, which bars foreign-flag vessels from coming to the aid of the Gulf cleanup? The Bush administration promptly waived it after Katrina in 2005. The Obama administration hasn't and claims unconvincingly that, gee, there aren't really any foreign vessels that could help.

The more plausible explanation is that this is a sop to the maritime unions, part of the union movement that gave Obama and other Democrats $400 million in the 2008 campaign cycle. It's the Chicago way: Dance with the girl that brung ya.

Or the decision to deny Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's proposal to deploy barges to skim oil from the Gulf's surface. Can't do that until we see if they've got enough life preservers and fire equipment. That inspired blogger Rand Simberg to write a blog post he dated June 1, 1940: "The evacuation of British and French troops from the besieged French city of Dunkirk was halted today, over concerns that many of the private vessels that had been deployed for the task were unsafe for troop transport."

Finally, the $20 billion escrow fund that Obama pried out of the BP treasury at the White House when he talked for the first time, 57 days after the rig exploded, with BP Chairman Tony Hayward. It's pleasing to think that those injured by BP will be paid off speedily, but House Republican Joe Barton had a point, though an impolitic one, when he called this a "shakedown."

For there already are laws in place that insure that BP will be held responsible for damages and the company has said it will comply. So what we have is government transferring property from one party, an admittedly unattractive one, to others, not based on pre-existing laws but on decisions by one man, pay czar Kenneth Feinberg.

Feinberg gets good reviews from everyone. But the Constitution does not command "no person . . . shall . . . be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law except by the decision of a person as wise and capable as Kenneth Feinberg." The Framers stopped at "due process of law."

Obama doesn't. "If he sees any impropriety in politicians ordering executives about, upstaging the courts and threatening confiscation, he has not said so," write the editors of the Economist, who then suggest that markets see Obama as "an American version of Vladimir Putin." Except that Putin is an effective thug.

It sums it up constitutionally for me!

[Ebow1]

Sounds about right.

[Smith]

Good article.

[Guest SUNTZU]

FOXNews.com - Interior Secretary Salazar Seeks to Reimpose Drilling Moratorium

WASHINGTON -- Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says he will issue a new order imposing a moratorium on deepwater oil drilling after a federal judge struck down the existing one.

Salazar said in a statement Tuesday that the new order will contain additional information making clear why the six-month drilling pause was necessary in the aftermath of the Gulf oil spill. The judge in New Orleans who struck down the moratorium earlier Tuesday complained there was insufficient justification for it.

"The decision to impose a moratorium on deepwater drilling was and is the right decision," Salazar said, adding that the moratorium is needed to protect the communities and the environment of the Gulf Coast that the Justice Department is appealing Tuesday's court ruling.

"We see clear evidence every day, as oil spills from BP's well, of the need for a pause on deepwater drilling," Salazar continued. "That evidence mounts as BP continues to be unable to stop its blowout, notwithstanding the huge efforts and help from the federal scientific team and most major oil companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico."

Salazar pointed to indications of inadequate safety precautions by industry on deepwater wells. "Based on this ever-growing evidence, I will issue a new order in the coming days that eliminates any doubt that a moratorium is needed, appropriate, and within our authorities."

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said President Obama believes that until investigations can determine why the spill happened, continued deepwater drilling exposes workers and the environment to "a danger that the president does not believe we can afford."

Several companies that ferry people and supplies and provide other services to offshore rigs argued that the moratorium was arbitrarily imposed after the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers and blew out a well 5,000 feet underwater. It has spewed anywhere from 67 million to 127 million gallons of oil.

U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan and has owned stock in a number of petroleum-related companies, sided with the plaintiffs.

"If some drilling equipment parts are flawed, is it rational to say all are?" he asked. "Are all airplanes a danger because one was? All oil tankers like Exxon Valdez? All trains? All mines? That sort of thinking seems heavy-handed, and rather overbearing."

He also warned that the shutdown would have an "immeasurable effect" on the industry, the local economy and the U.S. energy supply.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

They just want to piss everyone off, don't they?

Send those rigs to Brazil, in the meanwhile and let Petrobras

make all that money for Soros

[mikegideon]

They just want to piss everyone off, don't they?

Send those rigs to Brazil, in the meanwhile and let Petrobras

make all that money for Soros

Not everyone. The shutdown polls well nationwide, just not among the people that will be impacted. After listening to all sides of this, they really need to find a way to regulate these things while they're running. But, it sounds like they're gonna keep persuing the moratorium, and make a few more enemies in the process.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

And they are fools to do it. But when ideology runs amuck, this is what we get.

You know the trouble with polls, don't you? Kinda like mob rules, only worse.

People fall for them and submit.

What in the world are you doing up so late? Beck comes on in twenty minutes:D

I couldn't help myself.

[mikegideon]

And they are fools to do it. But when ideology runs amuck, this is what we get.

You know the trouble with polls, don't you? Kinda like mob rules, only worse.

People fall for them and submit.

What in the world are you doing up so late? Beck comes on in twenty minutes:D

I couldn't help myself.

I get my Glen Beck on demand

Glenn Beck Conspiracy Theory Generator - Crazy Glenn Beck Conspiracies

[Guest 6.8 AR]

I get my Glen Beck on demand

Glenn Beck Conspiracy Theory Generator - Crazy Glenn Beck Conspiracies

Oh me, that's good:D I was wrong, by the way, it's another hour. I don't think I'll make it. Too busy reading that Friedman article, still.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I get my Glen Beck on demand

Glenn Beck Conspiracy Theory Generator - Crazy Glenn Beck Conspiracies

Hah! Even paranoids have enemies you know.

Anyway, a dedicated paranoid would go for the straight Bacardi 151 of Paranoia--

Alex Jones' Infowars: There's a war on for your mind!

Or the Pure Grain Alcohol of Paranoia--

Alex Jones' Prison Planet.com

Compared to those, Glenn Beck ain't even a Mogen David 20/20 of Paranoia! Just barely a Boones Farm of Paranoia. Closer to a Near Beer of Paranoia.