Gulf Oil Rig Disaster

[Doug S.]

Let me try to address each:
Doug - Also, I must respectfully disagree in regard to your last comment.....Gee-DUB still looks like a buffoon to many of us who have to endure him in the U.S
- Yes Gee - Dub didn't look good, but as I see it: a) the US was safe from serious terrorist attacks, b) peopled were employed and paying taxes, c) the world economy had pretty well recovered from 9/11 d) we were in two wars, Afghanistan, and Iraq

Now, when are we all going out for a beer?

And now for a different view:

IMHO, Gee-DUB is a war criminal and ought to be interred in Gitmo with all the terrorists. He invaded a country that was simply at civil war with itself, all in an effort to vindicate his father's reputation after his failed effort to depose a violent dictator. He says he just believed bad intelligence, that may be, but he is responsible for the decision regardless of his ineffective excuses. As for being safe from terrorist attacks....didn't 9/11 happen on Gee-DUB's watch? And as for delaying any action when disaster strikes (not counting his delay when Katrina devastated NOLA), what did he do when he was notified that the WTC was attacked (from HistoryCommons.org): "So why, at 9:03 a.m.—fifteen minutes after it was clear the United States was under terrorist attack—did President Bush sit down with a classroom of second-graders and begin a 20-minute pre-planned photo op?"

My comments have nothing to do with his political party or his "conservative/liberal" orientation, it has to do with his actions.

Unemployment might well have been lower (yes, war is GOOD for the economy.....many presidents have chosen to "wag the dog" when the economy starts to tank), but we WERE in two wars with Bush, and with NO stated intention to withdraw from either. Where's the good in that? At least Bee-OH has set a withdrawal timeline for Iraq (and, in Afghanistan as well) and is moving forward with those plans--as for the Afghan war, I'm at a neutral point on that, but I want to see some significant progress quickly or I'll be against that one, too.

Thank goodness for differences of opinion, and for the freedom to express them!

I'm ready for that beer anytime !

Cheers from Doug

 

[Jim Craik]

Right on Doug,

Lock his ass up, and do not forget Cheney!

 

[Pat Buckley]

Doug, you ignorant slut......






LOL! I couldn't resist, remembering some of the classics from SNL.

 

[Jim Craik]

I know for a fact that Doug is not ignorant..............

 

[Pat Buckley]

It's a joke, Jim....

Did you ever watch early SNL?

 

[domtoni]

Doug, how do we know that the person who wrote the timeline of 9/11 is truthful regarding the photo op re Bush. I remember pictures of W. not being able to face the cameras because of the his own personal shortcomings. But Giuliani did a wonderful job fronting the whole incident.

Then in response W. attacks Afghanistan, and remember the US is not the only country in there. Other participants include the Brits, Germans, Italians, Danes.

Regarding Iraq, I thought he should have waited for more intelligence. Parliament did a big investigation and Blair was questioned for some 8 hours. Perhaps our British friends can comment in greater detail, but nothing new came out of the questioning. You may remember the joke that was floating around some years ago that the reason the US said Iraq had nuclear weapons is because we still had the receipts of sale. Other people think that Iraq did have nuclear weapons, however they were shipped to Syria.

Regarding our pullout of Iraq, the time line was not of BHO's making. In December 2008 the Iraqis voted in their parliament to end the ally involvement.

See this from the NYT.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/28/world/middleeast/28iraq.html

Have a good weekend all, I am out of here until monday. I'm waiting for the beer !! In fact it should be in about an hour's time.

 

[Al Wohlstrom]

Doug, you ignorant slut......








LOL! I couldn't resist, remembering some of the classics from SNL.

Uuuuh, don't hold back!

 

[Keith]

:wrongforum:

Gulf Oil Spill.....

 

[Pat Buckley]

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As an example.....

 

[Jim Craik]

Pat, so was mine, you know not ignorant but....................................I know SNL well!

I think most know its a joke, sort of.....

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

Jim is the girl in that clip posted by Pat your sister by any chance?:laugh:

 

[Jim Craik]

Close Pete, very close.

 

[Ian K]

Ian - At 15 ppm contamination, that means for every 1 Gallon in 15 Million gallons of oil in the Gulf for the skimmers and the EPA held off. I have to believe that the skimmers would do a better job than just letting oil gush uncontrolled into the Gulf.

I agree, but it's not my decision to override the EPA rules. Nor can Obama. So, the real question is why hasn't the EPA lifted the rule? Or, perhaps, why didn't they lift it sooner?

The official site monitoring the Deepwater Horizon response says that more than 6,800 vessels ranging from recovery vessels to barges are currently operating in the Gulf. So far almost 33 million gallons of mixed oil and water mix have been recovered, and 387 controlled burns have been conducted to remove a further 11 million gallons of oil from open waters.

No mention of when the foreign ships came into help, as the ref date is 15 june, almost 60 days after the disaster.

From the SIU (Seafarers International Union website) posting of The Maritime Cabotage Task Force news release, dated July 13::

On June 19, the National Incident Command set a goal of 752 for offshore and nearshore skimmers to respond to the spill. The total inventory of U.S. and foreign skimmers – plus orders for additional skimmers to be delivered within the next few weeks – currently stands at 1,072, more than 320 above the target. On June 29, the State Department accepted 22 offers of assistance from twelve foreign countries or entities to provide skimmers, booms and other equipment. Before that date, assistance from nine countries had already been accepted, including eight skimmers from Norway in early May.

So, eight Dutch skimmers since early May - how early isn't stated, but by most definitions of "early", sometime before May 15th. So, at most, 25 days since the explosion, and 23 days since ships were able to get near enough to the wreckage to actually skim oil, and potentially sooner.

Ian

 

[Jim Craik]

Quote:
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=6 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=alt2 style="BORDER-RIGHT: 1px inset; BORDER-TOP: 1px inset; BORDER-LEFT: 1px inset; BORDER-BOTTOM: 1px inset">The question is did Obama drag his heels on the Gulf Oil response and the general consensus is that he did. Personally, I don't blame him if he took a few days to respond. After all we,the American People, are paying for a huge bureaucracy that is supposed to take care of disasters. How's that working for us?! </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
posted by Garry.

Garry, you are wrong,

There are some things our governemt does very well and others not so much.

The part of the federal governent that is tasked with responding to disasters worked very well and very fast. Right from the first explosion the Coast Guard was on it. These brave sailors helped to rescue who they could and searched for the missing for days. There was no heel dragging!

The part of the government that did not work so well was our Oil Well Blowout Responce Team. Oh yes, thats right we do not have one! Should we have one is another question for another day.

One thing our government is fairly good at is helping to save people in times of need. Which is why everyone was so supprised at the slow respone to Katrina.

Now that said I'm sure that many of Obamas later disigions were late or wrong, and hopefully we will learn from this but to say "huge burocracy" failed is somewhat disengenuous.

Additionally in 1989 when the Exxon Valldeas spilled oil all over Alaska, I do not recall the right wing media getting all upset by the Bush administrations total lack of responce, slow or otherwise.

Garry, why do you think these same people who are now so outraged did not care then?<!-- google_ad_section_end -->

 

[domtoni]

This article goes into more detail on the number of skimmers employed, the Jones Act, why some vessels were sold to US companies etc.

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/06/red_tape_keeps_prized_oil-figh.html

Here's a member of the House (?) from Florida??

http://dailyradar.com/beltwayblips/video/rep-corrine-brown-on-skimmers-in-the-gulf/

This from the Christian Science Monitor on 19 June 2010:
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0619/Jones-Act-Maritime-politics-strain-Gulf-oil-spill-cleanup

Going back to our history discussion, I find this Jones Act really interesting. Those of us who are left say the act has nothing to do with skimmers, but the right does.

Don't you all find that interesting that the government isn't doing all it can to get the job done?

 

[Al Wohlstrom]

Well, everyone has been MFing BP for 90+ days, I wonder if anyone told them they did a good job under impossible circumstances.

 

[egoman/ Shawn Wedge]

Yes john wayne gacy was bad for a while, Lets clap our hands and thank him for getting caught.

 

[Al Wohlstrom]

Yes john wayne gacy was bad for a while, Lets clap our hands and thank him for getting caught.

Great comparison!
They did the spill on purpose, yeah right. It was still a engineering feat!

 

[Keith]

+1 Al

 

[egoman/ Shawn Wedge]

Actually their corner cutting was right on the edge of criminal. The only problem they fixed was of their own causing. When it your butt on the line you will tend to become very creative.The contingency plan for this should have been in place long before it was ever needed. Sorry the kudos will have to go to the guys that are building 40s and the like not a group that was deficient in their planning.