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1. Smitty
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   "Now, almost seven weeks later, as the oil spewing from the battered well spreads across the Gulf and soils pristine beaches and coastline, BP and our government have reconsidered.

   U.S. ships are being outfitted this week with four pairs of the skimming booms airlifted from the Netherlands and should be deployed within days. Each pair can process 5 million gallons of water a day, removing 20,000 tons of oil and sludge."

   "They have a strategy to begin building 60-mile-long sand dikes within three weeks.

   That proposal, like the offer for skimmers, was rebuffed but later accepted by the government."

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

   Posted 1 year ago #         

2. Carson
   Member Profile

   

   Smitty, I don't agree with much of what you say, but you are right on the money this time. If BP CEO Tony Heyward had actually kicked his own ass a few weeks ago it wouldn't be so bad. Right on Smitty!!

   Posted 1 year ago #         

3. miws
   Member Profile

   

   Yes, poor ol' Tony's life is sooooooooo outta whack right now.

   Hopefully, he'll get it back someday soon.

   Mike

   Posted 1 year ago #         

4. Smitty
   Member Profile

   So true Carson.

   Poor Tony is probably still pissed off that he didn't get to attend the Paul McCartney gig at the White House!

   Cry me a river, dude - you had skimmers, boom and dikes to say NO (and now YES) to!

   Regardless, I can't wait for NPR to run with this story............still waiting..........still wa......

   Posted 1 year ago #         

5. HelperMonkey
   Member Profile

   

   Repugs and Teabaggers blaming Obama for the oil spill. Now I have seen everything. If BP would have just forked over the modest amount of cash for the remote shut-off valve, this would be but a blip in the news. But they didn't...and that's clearly the government's fault...how, exactly?

   drill, baby...drill.

   Posted 1 year ago #         

6. Smitty
   Member Profile

   Helper, I'm not sure I have heard one person blame Obama for the spill. Some however (like Carville, Matthews and a growing list of demorats) seem to be blaming him for the response.

   drill, baby, drill - on dry land like ANWR!

   Posted 1 year ago #         

7. JoB
   Member Profile

   Smitty..

   sorry to burst your bubble but the liberal media has been covering this story. Democracy Now ran this story and much more earlier this week... and has been running stories on the gulf since the well failed.

   As for NPR.. the fantasy that it is a hotbed of leftist reporting in full blind support of the democratic President is in conflict with the decreased funding during the Bush administration and the subsequent installation of the current conservative director who is doing everything they can to protect the interests of BP.

   While i will admit a move to recapture NPR as public television.. a venue with an obligation to report the facts.. is afoot.. it hasn't really happened yet.. and would only be lefist leaning if you acknowledge that factual reporting is a leftist construct.

   For a politically based news organization.. i truly hope nothing will ever reach the dizzying heights of FOX news who creates news by reporting on the comments of it's own commentators on it's own political entertainment shows as though they were factual.

   If you are going to gloat.. you really ought to check to see if you have something to gloat about.

   Posted 1 year ago #         

8. JoB
   Member Profile

   Smitty...

   easy to blame Obama who happened to be holding the bag when the bill came due for Bush's gutting the regulatory process...

   easy to blame Obama when the oil company delayed it's legal obligation to initiate clean up efforts.

   easy to blame Obama..

   but a little harder to take responsibility for the government sanctioned greedfest that created this mess in the first place.

   I would be more impressed if your posts actually had anything to do with solutions to the greater problem and not just glee at an opportunity to blame Obama.

   That said, i think our government failed to separate itself from the oil company and to take over the clean-up process early enough.

   The propriety information that BP was trying to protect has literally killed the gulf... even if BP is able to recover the viable oil on the surface.. which is what those clean up booms are doing... the propitiatory chemical formula they used to break the visible oil down during the initial stages of the spill is so toxic it is banned in the North Sea where BP headquarters are located... and it's toxicity is only part of the sotry... it only breaks the oil down into particles small enough to stick in the gills of fish and kill both flora and fauna on the seabed.

   Are you going to blame Obama for the environmental exception the Bush administration gave for that too?

   Posted 1 year ago #         

9. JoB
   Member Profile

   Smitty...

   one more thing.. just for giggles.

   Can you explain to me how this spill would be so much better for everyone concerned if it was on the dry land of ANWR other than it would be easier to cap?

   Do you actually know where ANWR is or why it might be a really bad idea to drill there? Do the words Coastal Plain ring a bell?

   http://www.anwr.org/backgrnd/where.htm

   Posted 1 year ago #         

10. Smitty
    Member Profile

    JoB,

    "I would be more impressed if your posts actually had anything to do with solutions to the greater problem and not just glee at an opportunity to blame Obama."

    Huh? Did you read the link? We should have accepted this knowledge and offer of assistance weeks ago.

    "Can you explain to me how this spill would be so much better for everyone concerned if it was on the dry land of ANWR other than it would be easier to cap?"

    Nope. "Easier to cap" sums it up quite nicely.

    As for the tired "Fox is biased" line, yes I agree with you. I just wish the Left would agree that MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, NPR, PBS, NYT, WaPo, LAT and the rest of that ENORMOUS market was too. That's why Fox exists, there is nowhere else for those folks to go.

    Posted 1 year ago #         

11. JoB
    Member Profile

    Smitty...

    was that a punch line??? You do realize that there isn't a single news media represented in that list that accurately reflects a leftist point of view don't you?

    I know what FOX says.. but them saying it doesn't make it so.. left of right is not far left.. in fact it isn't really left at all... there is all that area in the center leaning towards right that they cheerfully inhabit.

    Just for you.. an article blaming the president .. from a one of the few remaining independent investigative news sources.. Rolling Stone.

    http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/111965

    of course.. they blame him most for not cleaning up the Bush era regulatory mess and for not figuring it out sooner.. but they do clearly place blame on Obama. That ought to warm the cockles of your heart.

    the berms that Obama has been pressured into building aren't expected by the engineering community to last the hurricane season or to do much real good... in fact they are expected to cap off the irreparable harm by limiting the cleansing flushing... but they are a really cute political band-aid..

    not a stellar idea when that idiot who runs Lousiana had it and not a stellar idea now...

    You might want to investigate the history of oil well mishaps in the state of Alaska and the effectiveness with which drillers have cleaned them up before you smugly answer "easier to cap"... easier to hide perhaps.. but no less damaging.

    This "accident" was incredibly easy to prevent had BP actually followed their own policies and procedures while drilling... and they didn't.

    what makes you think they are any better at it where there is no-one paying attention?

    Does a world covered in black sludge appeal to you.. because that is becoming the reality in an increasingly large portion of the world.. along with decreased vegetation and wildlife and live births... not to mention the increased cancer rates and ....

    And you won't find any of that on the nightly news... not even on the those "lefty" stations like NBC and CBS and ABC and ....

    Posted 1 year ago #         

12. Smitty
    Member Profile

    Cool.

    Now, back to the original topic - should the government have turned down the Dutch offer of assistance THREE DAYS IN? The article is quite an interesting read.

    Now, to your topic - something along the lines of 90%+ of reporters/journalists voted for Obama. Do you think they are really that good at masking their preferences? Really?

    Posted 1 year ago #         

13. GenHillOne
    Member Profile

    Bottom line is that there hadn't been a "leak" in the first place, we wouldn't be having this discussion. Me taking my little gas tank to other stations alone will not bother BP, but if reports of possible bankruptcy - due to lifted liability caps - are true, bravo. I can think of very little that will scare the other oil companies enough to get their s**t together and change their practices as an industry. Yes, I know there are layers and layers to our energy problems, but damn, we ought to at least expect them to be experts on their own equipment. None of this, of course, eases my sadness about the damage already done.

    Posted 1 year ago #         

14. Carson
    Member Profile

    

    ""Now, to your topic - something along the lines of 90%+ of reporters/journalists voted for Obama. Do you think they are really that good at masking their preferences? Really? ""

    I am not sure if that makes them good at masking their preferences, but that does tell me they are much smarter than I ever gave them credit for!!

    Posted 1 year ago #         

15. Lindsey
    Member Profile

    

    Yeah, well, 90% of sourceless statistics are made up, that's what I heard.

    Posted 1 year ago #         

16. JoB
    Member Profile

    i have a confession to make. i was tired and read only the first couple of pages of the Rolling Stone article before posting the link. This morning i went back and read the final 6 :(

    My heart breaks for us. I hope there is a full investigation of this disaster because Salazar definately needs to go. The Gulf has been trashed for political expediency and our president really should take the blame here. He knew and gambled.

    That doesn't excuse the rank corruption of the Bush years that set this all up ... but it does break my heart in a big way.

    Read the article. It's 8 pages. It will take some time. But you will come away from it informed about the issues...

    and perhaps from that a real conversation is possible.

    Posted 1 year ago #         

17. JoB
    Member Profile

    smitty..

    where oh where did you get your figures?
    90% of reporters voted for Obama? Really?

    I personally hope that's true...

    But what i wish was true was that 90% of the decision makers in the media voted for Obama because that is a number that could have made a difference.

    reporters have no more decision making power about what reaches print than their readers.

    Posted 1 year ago #         

18. JoB
    Member Profile

    GenHillOne..

    if BP bankrupts there will be no pockets to pay for any of this... they will simply reorganize as a different company and walk away from their responsibilities...

    As for the other oil companies.. it turns out that they really are drilling more responsibly. Unlike BP they are in the actual business of drilling for oil.

    BP is a financing agency.. it contracts out all of it's work... making drilling decisions based on cost containment not safe drilling practices...

    this is an extreme example of what happens when you prioritize short term gain over infrastructure...

    Posted 1 year ago #         

19. Smitty
    Member Profile

    Guess this was older than I thought! Nevertheless, I can't imagine they have turn "more" conservative after W's 8 years in office.

    Embrace it - Carson has.

    Washington Bureau Chiefs and Correspondents

    In April 1996, the Freedom Forum published a report by Chicago Tribune writer Elaine Povich titled, “Partners and Adversaries: The Contentious Connection Between Congress and the Media.” Buried in Appendix D was the real news for those concerned about media bias: Based on the 139 Washington bureau chiefs and congressional correspondents who returned the Freedom Forum questionnaire, the Washington-based reporters — by an incredible margin of nine-to-one — overwhelmingly cast their presidential ballots in 1992 for Democrat Bill Clinton over Republican incumbent George Bush.

    KEY FINDINGS:

    89 percent of Washington-based reporters said they voted for Bill Clinton in 1992. Only seven percent voted for George Bush, with two percent choosing Ross Perot.
    Asked “How would you characterize your political orientation?” 61 percent said “liberal” or “liberal to moderate.” Only nine percent labeled themselves “conservative” or “moderate to conservative.”
    Fifty-nine percent dismissed the Republican’s 1994 Contract with America “an election-year campaign ploy.” Just three percent considered it “a serious reform proposal.”

    http://www.mediaresearch.org/biasbasics/biasbasics3.asp

    Posted 1 year ago #         

20. Carson
    Member Profile

    

    Obviously reporters are smart, great stats Smitty!!

    Posted 1 year ago #         

21. Smitty
    Member Profile

    Come to think of it, J-school is pretty difficult to get into.

    I am so smart- S, MRT! <HS>

    Posted 1 year ago #         

22. JoB
    Member Profile

    Smitty...

    that was so 1996.

    Posted 1 year ago #         

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