Thread: I guess BP stands for "Broken Promises"

Originally Posted by zib

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm tired of this mess in the gulf. As a Floridian, this hits home for me. I can't believe Oil companies like BP have no contingency plans for situations like this.

While I believe that BP and all other oil companies should have a back up plan the truth of the matter is that the US Government through NOAA had a back up plan set forth in our laws that was never enacted.

Originally Posted by JMS

Anyone who blames Obama for the spill is an idiot. That said President Barack Obama sure has shown the world his inability or unwillingness to be a leader on this.

That's right the first day he should have dressed up in his John Wayne garb and gone down to the gulf area and stood on a Coast Guard Ship and shook his fist at BP and then he should have dove off the ship and swam down and fixed it himself. Then he should have brought all our troops home from all over the world to start cleaning up this mess and he should be stationed on the gulf coast dressed in coveralls cleaning the mess up himself.

At least he didn't show up for a photo op with a banner saying "mission accomplished".

Who was it that said: ""I am in control here" for about
30 seconds folk bought it and thought well of AH... But now
he is history.

Know you limits

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

That's right the first day he should have dressed up in his John Wayne garb and gone down to the gulf area and stood on a Coast Guard Ship and shook his fist at BP and then he should have dove off the ship and swam down and fixed it himself. Then he should have brought all our troops home from all over the world to start cleaning up this mess and he should be stationed on the gulf coast dressed in coveralls cleaning the mess up himself.

I think dressing up as John Wayne is a little too much but he might exchange his short pants for a more presidential suit.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

At least he didn't show up for a photo op with a banner saying "mission accomplished".

We are speaking of Obamas Katrina here

Originally Posted by niftyshaving

Who was it that said: ""I am in control here" for about
30 seconds folk bought it and thought well of AH... But now
he is history.

Know you limits

Alexander Haig Was not the president and in declaring himself in control showed he did not know his limits. Obama on the other hand is our president but he apparently doesn't understand his responsibilities:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c101:1:./temp/~c101OGJU0b:e64668:

Originally Posted by JMS

We are speaking of Obamas Katrina here

One was a natural disaster and the other was due to human error.
One had a death toll of almost 2000 people and the other had a toll of 11.

Try to keep things in perspective please.

Originally Posted by commiecat

One was a natural disaster and the other was due to human error.
One had a death toll of almost 2000 people and the other had a toll of 11.

Try to keep things in perspective please.

I believe I am keeping it in perspective.

The 2000 dead can be laid at the feet of Katrina, Mayor Nagin, and Governor Blanco. We still don't know all the facts with this oil spill. We do know that it was almost 12 days before the Federal government responded...and how did the respond? By sending SWAT teams out to all the other oil rigs and platforms in the gulf. Does that make sense? Governor Jindal is pulling his hair out over this mess. every time he has a plan to protect his state the federal government has to do an environmental audit or some such nonsense. It seems to me the government should be removing the red tape to speed up the process of taking care of this mess. instead it is allowing the red tape to ensnare the efforts to control this disaster.

Originally Posted by JMS

I believe I am keeping it in perspective.

The 2000 dead can be laid at the feet of Katrina, Mayor Nagin, and Governor Blanco. We still don't know all the facts with this oil spill. We do know that it was almost 12 days before the Federal government responded...and how did the respond? By sending SWAT teams out to all the other oil rigs and platforms in the gulf. Does that make sense? Governor Jindal is pulling his hair out over this mess. every time he has a plan to protect his state the federal government has to do an environmental audit or some such nonsense. It seems to me the government should be removing the red tape to speed up the process of taking care of this mess. instead it is allowing the red tape to ensnare the efforts to control this disaster.

Your perspective is skewed.

The lives lost during Katrina are not to be laid at anyone's feet. Why would you blame Nagin and Blanco for something that affected several states? Oh, right -- they were democrats. How come GWB wasn't mentioned in your list?

What backup plan did NOAA have for this situation that wasn't enacted? What red tape exists that is preventing a cleanup? This is the fault of BP, and BP alone.

Originally Posted by commiecat

Your perspective is skewed.

The lives lost during Katrina are not to be laid at anyone's feet. Why would you blame Nagin and Blanco for something that affected several states? Oh, right -- they were democrats. How come GWB wasn't mentioned in your list?

What backup plan did NOAA have for this situation that wasn't enacted? What red tape exists that is preventing a cleanup? This is the fault of BP, and BP alone.

IIRC, GWB was suggesting to Nagin and Blanco to evacuate atleast three days before the storm hit, they took it upon themselves to disregard his warnings and stayed put, and IMO they are to blame for what happened following the storm, since they had plenty of time to evacuate. Of the 1836 deaths blamed on katrina, 1400 happened in NO, while 400 or so happened in all the other states combined, why the huge disparity? I think you pointed correctly to them democrats, getting used to other people taking care of you, definitely reduces your ability to take matters in your own hands when the need arrives. One video clip i saw was a year after the disaster, they showed the progress of the clean up of NO. They went to a school and the administrator showed them a school that was very dirty still, she said just look around, they havent done anything to this school yet, all I could think was yah a year later and you still havent cleaned up your school, I guess we cant teach the children a work ethic, at the same time as they increase the pride they have in the school, because they have sweat equity invested.

The red tape, is that there has to be an enviromental study before Jindahl can build sand berms to prevent an enviromental catastrophy, how would building berms cause more harm, to the enviroment, than millions of gallons of crude coming ashore? As a side note, the current try of BP, which has shown some success, since they now claim a majority of the oil is being contained, was their first idea but they were told it wouldnt work by the current administration and were told to try other methods(including highly toxic dispersants), after weeks of trying the other plans, and millions more gallons of oil leaking, they went back to the original idea and it seems to be working. So IMO this admin is atleast partially to blame. Not to mention that now BP gets to take time out of their efforts to answer the criminal probe that has been started, like they have all sorts of free time to participate in interviews, why not wait until after the disaster has been contained? Maybe the enviromentalists will learn that it is far safer to drill and far easier to deal with a disaster, when it happens, in shallow water close to shore, than in mile deep water miles and miles from shore.

Originally Posted by Jasongreat

IIRC, GWB was suggesting to Nagin and Blanco to evacuate atleast three days before the storm hit, they took it upon themselves to disregard his warnings and stayed put, and IMO they are to blame for what happened following the storm, since they had plenty of time to evacuate.

The entire area was told to evacuate. I've lived in Florida my whole life and was in Broward County during Andrew. Whenever there's a hurricane, all areas projected to be possibly hit with a certain level of force are told to evacuate. It isn't any politician's fault that people opted to stay in a city below-sealevel amidst a hurricane.

Originally Posted by Jasongreat

Of the 1836 deaths blamed on katrina, 1400 happened in NO, while 400 or so happened in all the other states combined, why the huge disparity?

The disparity is because the storm hit NO directly and it's ludicrous to suggest otherwise.

Originally Posted by Jasongreat

The red tape, is that there has to be an enviromental study before Jindahl can build sand berms to prevent an enviromental catastrophy, how would building berms cause more harm, to the enviroment, than millions of gallons of crude coming ashore?

Right, well from everything I've read it's been the scientists and engineers -- you know, the people who actually know about this stuff -- that have been the skeptics. If you're going spend money to dump a bunch of sand in the water in the hope that it merely slows things down, I'd like to think that at some point there are engineers consulted.

Again, I think this is the fault of BP and BP alone.