Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Post Oval Office Speechification pondering…

Update – After meeting with President Obama, BP to set aside $20 Billion fund for people and small businesses in the Gulf.

Shall we?

President Obama addressed the nation from the Oval Office last night.  He spoke of the oil spill in the Gulf and holding BP accountable and making them pay for the financial impact of this eco-tragedy.

A bitch found the speech short on specifics…and yes, that is beyond frustrating given the fact that this address to the nation is about a month and a half overdue.

Short of putting on scuba gear then diving into the Gulf and plugging that motherfucking leak his damn self, President Obama is not gonna please anyone on this shit.

Pause…consider…continue.

A bitch suspects that if Obama did get his dive on and plug that leak his political opponents would find fault in his dive technique, accuse him of engaging in political theater or declare scuba diving proof that he’s an elitist who is out of touch with regular Americans who can’t afford to dive.

Cough.

That’s neither here nor there…that’s just politics.

And politics will not stop the oil from gushing in the Gulf.

Hopefully those relief wells will and they aren’t due to be complete until August or September.

Here’s some realness - we are all invested in making sure the federal government gets their act together.

Not just progressives who would like to see reforms put in place to prevent disasters like this in the future.

Not just conservatives who seek political benefits from the Obama administration’s mishandling of this shit even as they navigate the tricky waters of advocating for off-shore drilling in a time when the masses are being confronted with the all too real dangers of drilling off-shore.

We the people need the Obama administration to get a handle on this shit…to take the lead and govern the nation through what will be a long and painful multi-stage disaster relief for the Gulf.

So, now that the Oval Office speech is over and meetings with BP executives are gonna happen, this bitch is looking for action and for some oversight that will address the fact that my ass isn’t confident that the same company that got us in this mess is now being charged with getting us out of it.

Which takes me back to the lack of specifics in last night’s speech…

…and my growing fear that any day now we’re gonna see BP approach the leak with a roll of duct tape and prayer.

Blink.

4 comments:

Joe said...

My gut agrees with you, but I can't help wondering if blaming the government for this is a little bit reactionary. I mean, don't get me wrong, I think it IS due to a lack of oversight and an over-reliance on "self-regulation" in ravenous corporations that we often find ourselves in these situations, but really...It's BP's fault, not the government's right? The coast guard, it seems, is stretched incredibly thin and is only responsible for inspecting the sea-worthiness of oil rigs, while there is another agency that handles 'spot-checks' on the actual drilling for some reason.I mean, if someone crashes their car into a bus full of children, you blame the driver not the shop that just rotated their tires, right?

I contend that we should hold oil companies in general responsible. I liked that Obama mentioned eventually escaping reliance on oil, but I too am befuddled as to the specifics, when/where/how/if this is actually going to happen. That said, I don't understand, as you say, what the president is actually expected to do beyond issuing decrees and producing policy. I do find it sort of encouraging that the nation can finally demand so much of its president, before Obama we barely expected a tenth-grade reading level.

Miss Trudy said...

Sadly, I get the feeling, from that speech, that there is much of pandering and reacting to those polls showing that the public is increasingly irate about all this and expecting more forceful action from the government. There isn't any "this is what we are doing, when we are doing it, how we are doing it" etc. Government--by and large, not just this administration--has been too corporate friendly at the expense of public well-being. This comes after the crisis caused by lack of oversight on financial corporations. I don't seen anything really effective being done to stop these things from happening again. I am disillusioned, to say the least, and don't believe ANY government has the political will to do anything serious against the crimes of corporations. I hope I am wrong, but until proven wrong, I can't shake this feeling.

JT said...

My guess would be a resurgence in birthers if he went and plugged it himself. The depth of the leakage is 4000 feet deeper than the scuba diving record and more than 3x the level of pressure.
http://www.ouramazingplanet.com/infographic-tallest-mountain-to-deepest-ocean-trench-0249/

Clearly someone who scuba'd themselves on down there and plugged the thing up wouldn't be human and I don't know where that falls on the "wig-out-o-meter" compared to being born in Kenya.

I'd complain (quietly mind you) if he plugged it himself because where the hell was all that super-human stuff before? Pretty sure you'd only have to crush two or three obstructionist legislators with your bare hands and health reform would go through unanimously with all the access to abortion women deserved.

SamWorking said...

The daily show did a bit on this. They also counted up the number of times that Obama has said that dealing with (insert issue here) is "complicated (or complex) and requires finesse..etc.."

Jon Stewart was asking him if maybe we ought to simplify things until we get the basics of government down.

I went to bed thinking about that, and woke up wondering:

Does Obama say "The issue is complicated (or complex) and requires finesse..etc.." because he can't say what he really wants? Which is:

"You know what? I inherited an absolute cluster&*^$ from that dipshit who was in office before me. The BP oil spill isn't the only gushing mess I'm trying to figure out how to fix. So start helping, or back up OFF ME!"

Just thinking out loud...

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