Yes, Mr. President, It Was Your Katrina – Three Weeks Ago. Now it May Be Your Chernobyl
by Robert Redick
You’re a man of vision, intelligence, stamina and nerve. And you’re blowing it. A hemorrhage of poison is sickening the Gulf of Mexico. And has been, for a month. What action have you taken? What direct response have you made?
Friends, enemies, drillers’ families, fishing families, anyone and everyone who has been appalled by the ecological horror show: we are all asking you this question. At first you gave us a rhetorical performance, a promise to be tough, while BP invested as much effort in limiting information and liability as it did in limiting the extent of the spill, and coast guard vessels continued to monitor plankton drift on the far side of the Gulf. We don’t deserve the insult of your obfuscation. No law allows you to intervene? Rubbish. Did that ever stop a president from pursuing his notion of national security? Did it ever stop you? And if a crippling blow to the Gulf ecosystem and economy doesn’t constitute a national security threat, what does?
You have every freedom to act. The heartbreaker is that you’ve chosen not to. Maybe your usually-flawless political senses told you this was a losing bet. Maybe you were overworked, overtired. Maybe your daily briefings from the Gulf produced a spike of denial–“it can’t be as bad as they say.” I don’t know, or deeply care. I couldn’t do you job. But you, Mr President, spent eighteen months and countless millions of dollars telling us you could.
What you did not do was soberly and responsibly decide to leave BP in charge of the disaster response. Of that I’m certain, because no such sober, responsible conclusion could possibly be reached. A child (or a fiction writer) could have told you that BP had long ago–weeks ago–proven themselves duplicitous and inept. They are naked, and so is your failure. We have cringed before this farce, even as we cringe before the sight of oiled beaches, dying birds and fish, dying hope for a way of life.
Every day hundreds of thousands of gallons are belched from that open wound on the sea floor. This is a vast, underwater chemical burn, a massive trauma incident, a body blow to America. You’re treating it like a tickle in the throat. You offer stern words and stoic looks and a carousel of indignant underlings on the talk shows. Today it’s a blue-ribbon commission. Bipartisan, of course. The better to protect you and your circle, if nothing much else. The insults accumulate. The denial marches on.
This isn’t about spin or power or next fall’s elections or the predictable sleaze of a largely-above-the-law behemoth like BP. It’s not about you or your legacy–though the latter may well be written on the poisoned waters of a marsh. IT’S ABOUT THE GULF OF MEXICO. Period. It can’t wait. You cannot, must not wait. Don’t let another day go by.
I posted this article because I believe in the words this writer spoke to President Obama. The Summer of disconect is growing and only going to get worst. I would like to think that President Obama would be willing to do what is best for this country. If he can’t handle the job of being President than he should NOT run in 2012. Let a Progressive who can lead this country run and win against the Republican in 2012. You Obama will only cause the Republicans to gain power because I believe Greens across this country will not vote for you. That election will no longer be Progressives voting for the less of two evils. He didn’t earn my respect or vote in 2008 and he has not going to earn them by his actions.
Mr. President you might not like the Americans are speaking up and being HONEST about their feelings, but be prepared, because this SUMMER people are going to start standing up to the evil corruption that has overpowered our government. The genie is coming out of the bottle and may not be able to be put back in. People are going to reach the point where they will fight for the moral imperatives in life.
Watching President Obama in action is like watching a movie where the monster ” THE BLOB” attacks and the person in charge refuses to fight the blob and just lets the blob kill anything that gets in his path. The town expects the President to at least stand side by side with him putting sand in the sandbags, making sure that permits are not needed so that good people can work hard to save LA and the rest of the gulf coast. No, the President is hiding in his safe place and not caring about what his happening to his nation. Very much out of touch with reality. Not really caring how much the American people suffer. That is why their is valid anger. How long will the government refuse to listen to the American people who are trying to help them?
If you don’t know what to do, just say ” I don’t know”. Admit you don’t know and look for the answers yourself. Do your own research. Find out new technology to try and put Americans to work in finding a solution to attacking ” THE BLOB”. To continue on this course and allowing this oil to flow out is a CRIME!!!!!
Please if you don’t have what it takes to be President, then please let someone who does run in your place in 2012. I really love this nation that my ancestors founded and this Political Daughter of the American Revolution took an oath to defend this country from all enemies foreign and domestic. The oil spill because of the amount of environmental damage being done is a national problem. You just don’t seem to have a clue. Sorry, I don’t mean to be so blunt, as you went to school in Hawaii with my nephew’s uncle who also went to school there. I was very happy that someone born in Hawaii was President. I thought growing up in Hawaii the island paradise that you would have loved the oceans and the marine life. How would you feel if this was happening off the coast of Hawaii?
The people in LA who I know have families that have lived in Southern LA for generations, who love the gulf of Mexico and the LA wetlands much like I think you love Hawaii. To make the towns wait until they can get a permit from city hall to begin building the sand bar they need is criminal. Do you understand, Mr. President that people have a right for their anger toward the out of control coruption in our government?
If I said anything out of line I am sorry. I am passionate.
Christine Cosser
Here is a comment from Common Dreams that I am posting here, because I think it is important for my readers to see this.
lefttown May 24th, 2010 1:57 pm
Impeach him. Drastic times call for drastic measures, and if these aren’t drastic times, I don’t know what would be. I’d rather have Biden. He wouldn’t have the unquestioning support and adulation of the veal pen supporters that Obama has, so there would be pushback on Biden.
Obama’s starting to scare the living crap out of me.
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Obama scares a lot of people. One of the reasons I couldn’t support him was that I didn’t think he was ready to be President. I thought it was to soon and he needed more time in the Senate. He is not able to do the job that is needed at this time in history. I hope he would be man enough to do what is best for the country and not run for President in 2012.
Here is another comment from Common Dreams.
freepressmyass May 24th, 2010 1:27 pm
Environmental concerns?! That’s a real kick in the head.
You’re so right about Jindal. Screw ACE and just do it.
Look, Obama’s milking this so BP gets the booty. Everything else be damned.
After all the law breaking he’s done already, he’s suddenly found the Constitution?
Someone tell me when the US government has ever refrained from going any place it damn well pleases, no matter what laws are broken. What a crock!
He’s not touching this thing because he knows what’s at stake for Goldman. Goldman holds 6 million shares of BP. They also share ownership of Corexit along with Pete Peterson’s Blackstone Group.
He should have killed the well weeks ago. Instead Obama’s going to do everything possible to prevent BP from losing their investment. That’s all that matters to him.
BTW, Salazar and Obama issued the permit and environmental waiver for this very well in April 2009. (I wonder if they personally stand to make billions from it?)
The Center for Biological Diversity took them to court and won.
Obama had it overturned.
So, anyone who thinks Obama cares about the environment needs to turn him off and check out what he’s really up to.
He deserves to immediately be removed from office because he’s obviously mentally disturbed. I say this in all seriousness.
He can’t possibly be playing with a full deck!
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I agree with you that Obama is not the environmental Green President that some Progressives think he is. I am hoping that some of these people will start to wake up from the deep sleep they have been under and are willing to fight for the moral imperatives once they wipe the dust from their eyes.
I would hope that Obama man enough to do the right thing and not run in 2012. Greens will not vote for Obama again. I would be very surprised if Greens held their nose and vote for him in 2012. We went new blood in both parties. Americans of all political views want new blood and get rid of the corrupted ones who sold the American people down the river.
This was another good comment I really liked and wanted to share with my readers.
Galenwainwright… May 24th, 2010 11:57 am
The region around Chernobyl is slowly adapting, and life is returning to the ares in some ways that surprise biologists. But it will still be unfit for human habitation for another 50 000 years. Evidence of man’s tenure there is already disappearing quickly.
If this beast is not plugged, it *WILL* get into the Gulf Stream current. It *WILL* poison and contaminate the entire east coast of North America. It *WILL* reach and contaminate the Arctic. It *WILL* reach the British Isles, Europe and eventually the Mediterranean region. Poisoning and killing everything along the way.
The Gulf is already reporting dangerous level of hydrogen sulfide from anoxic bacteria. The already oxygen poor waters are under even more threat. And this beast will choke the life out of anything in it’s path, most especially the phyto-plankton that provide more of the world’s oxygen than the rain-forests of Brazil.
This monster oil blowout is being discussed in various venues as an ‘ELE’. An ‘Extinction Level Event’. That means we are looking at the very real possibility of joining the dinosaurs.
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