Carville Takes On Obama On Oil Spill: He's 'Risking Everything' With 'Go Along With BP Strategy"

James Carville Takes On Obama On Oil Spill: He's 'Risking Everything' With 'Go Along With BP Strategy'

...............

Carville, the famously outspoken Louisianian who was a chief political aide to Bill and Hillary Clinton, told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Thursday that the administration's response to the spill has been "lackadaisical" and that Obama was "naive" to trust BP to manage the massive clean-up effort.

"I think they actually believe that BP has some kind of a good motivation here," he said. "They're naive! BP is trying to save money, save everything they can... They won't tell us anything, and oddly enough, the government seems to be going along with it! Somebody has got to, like shake them and say, 'These people don't wish you well! They're going to take you down!'"

Carville also accused the White House of going along with what he called the "let BP handle it" strategy. "I'm as good a Democrat as most people, and I think this administration has done some good things. They are risking everything by this 'go along with BP' strategy they have that seems like, lackadaisical on this, and Doug is right, they seem like they're inconvenienced by this, this is some giant thing getting in their way and somehow or another, if you let BP handle it, it'll all go away. It's not going away. It's growing out there. It is a disaster of the first magnitude, and they've got to go to Plan B."


more:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/21/obama-faces-new-wave-of-c_n_585620.html

:rofl: :rofl:

However, little peons like us just can't be heard. Obama has an opportunity to make lemon aid out of this lemon and whoever is advising him, is just letting it rot on the vine and hurting him.

that too many in the WH now want to re-create and emulate.

but even a broken clock is right twice a day.

:puke:

If it's anti-Obama, it must be good!

and I did. I'm consistent. You and your friends, not so much.

is FOLLOWING THE LAW.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8396797

but as both Bush and Obama have done in the past, sign and Executive Order to circumvent the law. They can do it to protect corporations, and always have. Can they do it to protect us from the corporations? Haven't seen it yet.

All these other measures are very partial solutions, mainly PR to show an effort. They are unlikely to significantly affect the flow rate.

Two drilling ships are on site and in the process of drilling. However, it takes time to drill to roughly 18,000 feet below seabed in 5000 feet of water.

As for cleanup, the volume of oil is too large and too widely distributed to ever be cleaned up. It will be degraded slowly over time by natural processes.

..We have our own expert here with all the answers. Relax, people.

I'm sure Obama will do well, going on TV and repeating what you say?

Right?

See "PTTEP completes Montara H1 well capping operation in Timor Sea today"
http://www.spillnews.com/2010/01/pttep-completes-montara-h1-well-capping.html

PTTEP Australasia today announced the the operation to cap the Montara well in the Timor Sea has been completed. The H1 well which was leaking approximately 35 000 barrels of oil per day between late August and early November caused one of the largest spills in Australian history. Permanent plugging operations have been ongoing since the well was temporarily plugged with 3400 barrels of heavy mud in late November.

See also http://www.theage.com.au/environment/timor-oil-leak-was-potentially-catastrophic-20100315-q6w4.html

On what basis are you estimating that things will go better for the Gulf spill?

Of course Obama isn't going to come out and give a realistic assessment of what will happen.

"
Of course Obama isn't going to come out and give a realistic assessment of what will happen."

We are being kept in the dark and fed bullshit. We are nothing but mushrooms to the Obama's of the world.

The estimates of the barrels per day over the 10 week period vary widely.

Apparently, the slick drifted north to Timor and Indonesia, instead of towards the Australian coast. There are reports of damages to Timor and Indonesian fisheries. Those areas would seem to be quite sensitive ecologically.

Can't find pix either.

I want him doing something. I want him to put people in charge of organizing and implementing a clean up. Do you realize that the oil never had to reach the marshes in LA? I'm getting angry because they're all just sitting around waiting for BP to stop the leak and then begin cleanup. When we should be cleaning as as it flows. Their silly little booms not even deployed correctly, is a farce. Simple bales of hay deployed and surrounding the marshes could have prevented much of the oil from getting into the marshes.

Why the hell do they have to organize a commission to wring their hand for a few more weeks before deciding what the hell to do, meanwhile the oil creeps further inland? The people currently advising Obama on this, I have come to the conclusion, are not working in his administration's best interests.

And getting worse. Is it incompetence spreading? Or is it by design?

The further it goes, the more it begins to look like by design. The enviros will end up being crushed and there will never be any opposition to drill baby drill, because there will be nothing left to save. It is getting that bad.

at best has very little legs left to run on.

talk about this...and he said he was "appalled" at the Obama administration's handling of this disaster. I have to agree.

Unless you believe the propaganda, that Americans are lazy and stupid.

There is no existing governmental beauracratic structure to handle this problem, and BP had a managerial and techical ability to address it. However, the "mistake" was in effect not "nationalizing" that structure, maybe under the Army Corp or something. The federal government can "nationalize" anything in the short term. They may have to ultimately "compensate" BP for doing so, but it could merely be an "offset" to what they're gonna owe anyway.

I can understand them letting BP "have the lead" at the beginning, but it is becoming clear that there should have been a longer range plan to take over as BP was unsuccessful.

many of us here have had that thought. And that begs the questions:

Why would a Govt. ill-equipped to handle such a major catastrophy EVER issue drilling permits to BP, with a track record of callous disregard for human life and the ecology in the first place?

And why would that Govt. waive all the safety regulations required of that same corporation?

And why, knowing all that, would that same Govt. give that same corporation Carte Blanche to "fix" the mess they created in the first place, especially knowing that corporation stands to lose BILLIONS of dollars, therefore having every reason in the world to cover up the extent of the damage being done?

The Govt. may not have the ability to stop the leak, but it sure does have the ability and the authority to oversee and control cleanup and containment.

If the Govt. is in charge of this mess, it's certainly one of the best kept secrets in Washington, a city like leaks like, oh, I don't know, an oil gusher in the Gulf.

Be practical and provide a budget with your proposal.

That's BP's problem. I don't care how much we spend to clean up this mess, as long as BP foots the bill.

Cleanup: removal of as much oil/contaminants as is possible. deploy ecologically friendly adsorbents (straw bales, hair booms, Kevin Costner's centrifuges, etc) to soak up/remove the oil.

Containment: deploy booms correctly, build berms.

As I type this, there are areas in La. that have requested permission/help from the Army Corps of Engineers to build barriers along the coast, but are still waiting for an answer. Meanwhile, the oil is already onshore, in the wetlands, and estuaries.

BP is concentrating on the leak, not the cleanup, and dictating what they will or will not do. They have defied the EPA regarding the type of dispersants they're using, basically told them to go pound sand. They're refusing to allow any volunteers to help, refusing to send any oil/contaminate samples to any independent labs. The Coast Guard has stated that they're following orders from BP, refusing to allow independent scientists/experts to assist.

It isn't going to be done.

but it certainly SHOULD be done.

To the greatest extent possible. Spraying the dispersants worked for a while.
But now it's down to the nitty-gritty.

Tell ya what, try to go down there and protect your coast line... bet you get arrested.

It's the Govt that SHOULD be doing this. I'm in Coastal SC, just waiting for this mess to hit the Atlantic. Only pleasure I'm going to get out of this is watching DeMint, Graham, and Sanford bitching and moaning about why the Govt isn't doing enough to protect SC. Hypocrits!

That makes sense.

:sarcasm:

You know what? If we manage to protect 100 miles of coast, that's 100 miles that remains clean. If we manage to protect 1000 miles of coast, so much the better. Hey, maybe we could shoot for 5000 miles.

Or, we could make the best possible effort to save every last mile of the 7700 mile coastline, knowing we won't get to 100% but also knowing we gave it our all.

In the meantime, as per usual, there are folks out there who are trying to do something constructive but are being stopped by government bureaucracy -- that same government whose bureaucracy waived permits for BP and others and set up this disaster.

Berms, hay bales, hair, whatever it takes. Personally I think people should start taking cleanup into their own hands as it is obvious that neither the US government nor BP gives a tinker's damn what happens to the Gulf coast.

the problem will take care of itself. :sarcasm:

If the government cannot handle the crisis then their sin and culpability is more than if they could, in my opinion.

but Carville has not come up with any answers, only criticisms. He also is not down there on the gulf sopping up oil. Just another useless mouth spouting off.

There are NO experts on this at government levels. There are NO elected experts anywhere. Obama hardly qualifies as an expert in this.

The experts using payola to gain approval to drill are now doing their best(admittedly not very good)to solve the problem. They are THE only experts.

Coast Guard has been the victim of underfunding for years. They also have NO experts capable of handling this mess...so quit picking on the Coast Guard.

Who issued the OK TO DRILL permits?

but to the generalized theme in many of these 'oil' threads knocking the efforts of the Coast Guard. Coasties are neither equipped nor trained to handle anything like this catastrophe. Small, in harbor, spills are one thing. This monster is something else entirely.

The people who licensed BP to drill, the employees of BP who are responsible, the executive staffs of the oil conglomarates should be under direct investigation by the US Justice Dept. right now. Questioning should be by whatever experts we can find who are not wedded to 'big oil.' Testimony should be sworn only. Heads need to roll and people need to go to prison over this situation.

Oh, but wait, we don't punish the guilty in high places anymore.

.....since I live so close to LA/Long Beach harbor, I know what a wonderful job they do. They were "at the ready" when we had the Sansinena oil tanker explosion in Los Angeles harbor in 1976.

it is a clickable story in this post.


................Not until yesterday, critics note, a full 30 days after the oil rig explosion, did federal officials establish a technical team to measure the full extent of the spill.

That's the problem. Apparently there is no effective plan to deal with this kind disaster, either by BP or the government. If BP were to fold its tent today and sinmply walk away from it, what would the government do to stop the gusher? Probably hire another oil company to do what BP is doing now.

Obama wants to keep the monkey on BP's back. He doesn't want that monkey to jump onto his back because the government has no way to stop the oil flow.