The Myth of Self-Regulation
If a government has no right right, and moreover, no obligation to protect the people on whose behalf it was established in the first place, then what rights and obligations do governments have?
If a government has no right right, and moreover, no obligation to protect the people on whose behalf it was established in the first place, then what rights and obligations do governments have?
Today is the day we go to vote in the 2010 midterm elections. The results of this election will reverberate far beyond our localities; they will affect the entire country and indeed, the entire world.
An interesting survey of the residents of New Orleans by the Kaiser Family Foundation released today found that 49% of those surveyed think that the BP oil spill is a more damaging threat to the city than Hurricane Katrina was (40%). No matter how much BP has tried to spin their response, 84% held a negative of view of how the company responded to the man made disaster.
On CNN’s State of the Union today, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) labeled the oil spill in the Gulf Barack Obama’s fault due to incompetence. McConnell said, “This is mainly a failure of the administration… my point is, you can’t legislate competence.” McConnell supported his point with claims that were flat out untrue.
President Obama spoke to the media today to give an update on the how the new cap is functioning to contain BP’s oil spill in the Gulf. Obama stressed that the new cap is good news, “The new cap is good news. Either we will be able to stop the flow, or we will be able to use it to capture almost all of the oil until the relief well is done.”
Fox News’ Brian Sullivan was filling in for Neil Cavuto today and was running the usual blame Obama for the Gulf oil spill segment, when guest Republican Billy Nungesser accidentally changed the narrative and blamed BP for the red tape involved in the clean up, “You know the red tape. We’ve got stacks of paperwork…
On his radio show today, Glenn Beck came up with a solution to the Gulf oil spill. He thinks that Sarah Palin should use her oil industry expertise hold an oil spill summit where she and her team would come up with ideas fix the leak. Beck said that Palin has, “the connections and the knowledge to put a team together and say Mr. President, this is what we do.”
On his radio show today Michael Savage went one step further than the rest of the Right on the subject of the Gulf oil spill. Instead of simply defending BP, he blamed the victims of the spill. Savage said, “They haven’t worked most of their lives down there…It’s a welfare state. They think they’re entitled to a government check after Katrina.”
Since the creation of the victims fund was announced last week, Fox News has been going ballistic with claims that President Obama bullied BP and abused his power. These claims went to whole new level today when on FNC’s Journal Report, John Fund referred to the $20 billion put up by BP as a new model for how a company is, “nationalized.”
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was on ABC’s This Week today, where he painted the Republican Party as dangerous to America due to their blind support of BP, “It’s dangerous for the American people.” Emanuel’s point was that if Republicans were in charge, there would be no regulation, and corporate America would run wild as they did during the Bush years.
Fox News ratcheted up their pro-BP rhetoric today when the Wall Street Journal’s Steve Moore went on their On The Record program and claimed that President Obama put a gun to BP’s head, “The federal government, that is to say the Obama administration put a gun to BP’s head and said either go along with this agreement, or the future of this company will be very much in jeopardy.”
Rudy Giuliani became the latest Republican this morning to go on Fox News and blame environmentalists for the oil spill in the Gulf. On Fox and Friends Unbelievably, he touted drilling ANWR, “The reason they’re drilling out there is because environmentalists have prevented us from drilling closer and in places like ANWR.”
Over the last two days various Fox News personalities including Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, and Sarah Palin has been pushing a new falsehood that Barack Obama turned down international aid for the Gulf oil spill. While trying to play up the Obama’s inept narrative the FNC crew neglected to mention that Canada, Germany, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway are all in the Gulf.
Sarah Palin turned up on The O’Reilly Factor tonight and claimed that she knows how to stop the Gulf oil leak. Palin claimed that we should rely on foreign countries to fix the oil leak, “What the federal government should have done was accept the assistance of foreign countries, of entrepreneurial Americans who have solutions…who can’t even get a phone call returned.”
Sarah Palin was on Fox News’ Fox and Friends this morning to argue that the oil spill in the Gulf is not a good enough reason to not, drill, baby, drill. Palin said, “We still need to drill, baby, drill.” She also bogusly claimed that without offshore drilling energy production would be, “outsourced.” Does she understand that the oil belongs to the companies, not the American people?
Kevin Costner, he of liberal Hollywood elite status, may be riding to the rescue of the deliberately careless drilling in the Gulf that lead to Deepwater Horizon’s tragic oil spill. Costner co-founded Ocean Therapy Solutions, which is now partnering with BP to deploy the machine that separates oil from water, known as CINC, in the Gulf. CINC uses centrifuge technology to clean up oil spills.
Evidence is mounting that BP is not only trying to control message war as the oil continues to pour into the Gulf of Mexico, but also they are hassling reporters and media who are attempting to report on the clean up efforts. ABC News reporter Matt Gutman captured BP’s daily tactics on video, as the energy giant tries to prevent the American people from seeing the truth.
As the disaster in the Gulf continues, President Obama has said the buck stops with him, which is refreshing because Obama is actually man enough to step up to the plate in the midst of it all and in spite of the criticism for the sake of the country. Obama has become the Cleaner in Chief.
Rush Limbaugh took to his radio show today to claim that the Gulf oil spill is really no big deal because, “More oil is spilled every year in Africa, in Nigeria, than so far in the Gulf, so it’s not unique. It’s not exceptional. It’s not the largest….So yes, it’s a disaster. It’s not the worst of its kind.” How much BP stock does Limbaugh own, anyway?
A brand new Obama/oil leak conspiracy theory is making the rounds courtesy of Fox News and Fox Business. The network is alleging that Obama intentionally let the oil leak so that he could ban offshore drilling. Eric Bolling said, “Are you sure they didn’t let it leak so he could renege on his promise to, to, to allow some offshore drilling?”
Everywhere I go, Liberals are griping about the President, carrying water for the GOP again. Liberals want Obama to “FIX” the BP spill. He should have “taken over”, he should have “done more”. Beware the lazy intellectualism of the pseudo elite liberal, because it’s much more cool to reproach scornfully from above than it is to tell the nerdy truth. The nerdy truth is that the law prevents the government from just taking over. The nerdy truth is this sucks and there is no way to fix it now.
Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was on Meet The Press today, and he came right out of the gate trying to score political points on the Gulf oil by blaming the Obama administration for the incident, “the administration’s involvement in this will be a big part of the inquiry.” McConnell also stated his opposition to lifting the damages cap and making BP pay for everything.
On Fox News yesterday, Shepard Smith unloaded on BP CEO Tony Heyward who called the Gulf Oil spill a small leak. In a commentary Smith said to Heyward, “Our water is now polluted, our coast is now soiled…many of our people are out of a job, and 11 hard working men are dead from the explosion on the rig that carried your company’s name….at least act like you care.”
On his Fox News show tonight Sean Hannity used a list of the events of the past week to make the case that President Barack Obama should either resign or not run for a second term. Hannity said, “Mr. President what in the world are you doing. Is it time to step up, or maybe step aside?”
Our President, in just a few short weeks, is managing to address multiple disasters and crisis situations at the same time. Response to what may become the largest and most significant and dramatic oil spill disaster in our nation’s history is now being blamed on the Obama administration by the “usual suspects on the “Right”‘ instead of the big oil company, BP that caused it, while at the same time keeping America safe from terrorism.
On his FNC program Hannity, Sean Hannity was doing his best to sell the oil spill in the Gulf as Obama’s Katrina, when he flat out lied to his audience and said, “The fact is they sat back for nine days and did absolutely nothing.” If by doing nothing Hannity meant deploying the Coast Guard within hours of the explosion, first for search and rescue then to contain the spill, then Obama did nothing.
The “Drill Baby Drill” proponents are eerily silent as the oil spill in the Gulf, which could become one of the worst recent environmental disasters of this nation, threatens hundreds of species of fish, birds and other wildlife. The massive explosion and subsequent oil spill of a rig in the Gulf of Mexico may lead to reinstating the expired moratoriums on off-shore drilling as well as new regulations, which oil giant BP says it is expecting.
Fox News contributor Bill Kristol was on Special Report with Bret Baier tonight defending off shore drilling, when he made perhaps the stupidest statement of all time. He said offshore drilling is quite safe, “and very environmentally clean, except where there is a disaster like this.” Essentially Kristol is saying that offshore drilling is safe, until the oil rig bursts into flames.