Obama declares war on Big Oil

How can it be a war when you've already handed over the keys to the castle?

Where is the perp walk? Where is the expropriation?

Some war....

"Now is the moment for this generation to embark on a national mission to unleash American innovation and seize control of our own destiny," Obama said after returning from a two-day visit to four Gulf states to assess the damage and the cleanup effort.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/prez_wields_ksU7uq846rFNJ9XHX6jkXI#ixzz0r1EzxHDS

written by industry lobbyists.

If our elected representatives count for nothing to you, you are too cynical for politics, why bother?

What job do you do? I'm sure we can find that it leads to a big business at some point.

Quit trying to be so superior.

Where did he get that number?

The healthcare/insurance bund wrote the healthcare bill.

The bankers wrote financial reform.

Why should this be any different?

Politics is hardly restricted to our electoral system.

I had the same reaction right after the election. Almost lost a friend over it.

I was so relieved that we won, that Bush and Cheney were finally gone. I just wanted to enjoy the moment, but my friend immediately launched into a diatribe about how much worse Obama was going to be (she voted for him, btw) because he was so much more intellegent (but owned and operated by the same coroprate cabal). I wanted to strangle her just to shut her up! Fortunatly for both of us, I live in SC and she lives in NY, so tragedy was averted.:rofl:

Hope precludes action. Hope means we sit on our asses waiting for a 'deus ex machina'. Easy to see where that got us.

What we need is a multitude in the streets, not hoping but demanding.

People have to get so mad their fear is trumped...

Godot never showed up...

the world needs to be weaned off oil

and the people of this country..when all is lost on the Gulf and our states?

This is not the time for politics..and running campaigns..It is time to lead..and i sure as hell didn't see any leading last night or for 58 days!

This is time to stop the damage of the worst disaster to our nations environment and eco system..with all the resources we have in this nation!

If you don't understand that..please leave this up to the adults..because we on the gulf have had 58 days of childish behavior, with no one taking responsibility ..and the turning over of the responsibility to a corrupt foreign oil corporation...and we are watching the Gulf have every bit of its oxygen squeezed from it's body!

90% of oil will be captured..what a fucking joke..90% of what..the first lies..the second lies , the third numbers? the fourth??????/ of what?????????????

People are using fucking hoses ..and shop vacs..people who have gone swimming in my area and came out covered with under water oil were whisked away out of sight and told to scrub with COMET..

What we got last night was lip service..it was a campaign speech...nothing more..and not what we on the Gulf need.

We need tough words..we need to be told the Federal Government is taking all controls out of the hands of the criminal perpetrators! Now!..

from a gulf coast resident

He praised Salazar, the industry's choice to run Interior, for supposedly making great strides in cleaning up the corruption in MMS. Salazar should have been fired, not praised.

In no way did the speech I heard sound like a declaration of war. It was a gentle warning, at best.

:dem:

-Laelth

Sadly, I do not.

:dem:

-Laelth

I never heard a damn thing that can or will help the Gulf..

this would have been good for starters..had we had real adults running our government..and not the Goldman BP oil boys club!

Not one word ofwhat is needed to be done immediately..after a negligent delay in our government's responsibility!

Obama could have started here..but he didn't!!

needed response..

The federal government takes over the clean up operations. It institutes close cooperation with local groups and government.

The federal government requires that BP turn over all of its data on the spill and it starts live casting what is going on at the well.

It freezes all of BP’s leases, permits, and enjoins BP from asset hiding.

It requires that deepwater wells have two relief wells drilled and ready to go.

It stops having government agencies running interference for BP: MMS, OSHA, EPA, Coast Guard, NOAA, FAA, Interior, Homeland Security, etc.

It reviews all deepwater permits and revokes all waivers.

Those are a few things for starters.

paying attention...

Oh and don't forget..Obama's friends at Goldman Sachs were just hired by BP!!

when it should have been dad saying, "I've packed your bags, and you're going to military school right now."

...later, President Obama finally addressed the nation..."

Better late than never, I suppose.

Did you hear about the wetlands and wildlife sanctuaries covered in crude oil? No, probably not. That's because "...it's BP's oil..." Mercenary guards are actively prohibiting bloggers, journalists and other curious folk from eye-witnessing the ecological disaster.

"What more could President Obama do?"

1. Declare a national ecological disaster, complete with every federal agency ordered to provide assistance.
   
2. Immediately freeze all BP assets in the United States and its territories.
   
3. Seize and assume control of every piece of the BP petroleum infrastructure on US soil or waters. If there is one nightmare deep-water oil drilling platform, there is certainly another.
   
4. All regulatory information supplied by BP must now be considered suspect and tainted. Guilty until proven innocent.
   
5. Remove all mercenary and private security that BP has commissioned to limit information and prohibit journalists from doing their jobs. Replace said rent-a-thugs with federal marshals and the National Guard.
   
6. Allow blogger and journalists access to fairly and accurately report the situation.
   
   
   And that's just the beginning of my list...

He would have mentioned the dispersements being used. The lack of protective gear for the clean up workers.

The booms not being monitored or used properly.

Instead he tries to convince us that the government is calling the shots in the clean up.

This part I am not understanding. Anybody want to clue me in?

"declares war on Big Oil"!! :rofl:

Who wrote that, Peter Baker or the OP?

Tell me we do not live in a militaristic society.

the one i saw reeked of bp-apology, pathetic

that was neither a God's love and redemption speech nor a down-home hellfire speech, it was a speech where the pastor announces that he made a mistake with that young man in the airport bathroom and he's going on leave to spend more time with his family.

It reeked of fail.

:rofl:

and in our back yards and our beaches and marshes and our air and our waterways, and thewar is killing our wildlife and our marine life and drawing the last oxygen out of our Ocean!

The war is... a foreign Oil corporation owning and controlling... our Beaches and our air, and our water , and the media trying to bring the American people the truth...and the people wanting and trying to save our wild life and marine life...and doing all they can to shut up scientists and limit their research into real facts ....the war is a foreign Oil corporation working with the assistance of our federal government ..against the will and concerns of we the people!

And the NYT damn well knows that!

BP-U.S. Escrow Deal Stalls Ahead of Obama Meeting (Update1)

June 16 (Bloomberg) -- BP Plc and the Obama administration have failed to agree on an escrow fund covering cleanup costs and claims stemming from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, people familiar with the negotiations said.

The lack of an agreement raises the stakes for a scheduled meeting of President Barack Obama with BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward and Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg at the White House today.

The two sides continue to negotiate over issues including the size of the fund, who would administer it and whether BP shareholders would have to approve the transfer of money required for the account, according to the people, who asked not to be identified describing the private talks.

“Tomorrow, I will meet with the chairman of BP and inform him that he is to set aside whatever resources are required to compensate the workers and business owners who have been harmed as a result of his company’s recklessness,” Obama said in a speech from the Oval Office last night.

“And this fund will not be controlled by BP,” Obama said. “In order to ensure that all legitimate claims are paid out in a fair and timely manner, the account must and will be administered by an independent, third party,” he said.

Stopping the Leak

The White House anticipates “tangible progress” in the escrow fund talks, an administration official said today. The president doesn’t expect BP to agree to anything that would threaten the company’s viability, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

...

“We share the president’s goal of shutting off the well as quickly as possible,” BP said in a statement after the speech. “We look forward to meeting with President Obama for a constructive discussion.”

...

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-16/bp-u-s-escrow-deal-stalls-ahead-of-obama-meeting-update1-.html

to anything. They should be grateful that they are not in Federal Prison. The fact that they think they have the right to negotiate with the POTUS after this assault on this country shows just how powerful Global Corps are. If nothing else taught the American people that our government is run by Corporations, not even Corporate America, but Foreign Corporations, nothing will.

That they are using our Coast Guard, National Guard, local law enforcement and mercenaries to protect them from the American people knowing what is going on, should really frighten people. In third world countries, the Oil Giants operate in exactly the same way with compliant governments protecting THEM as they destroy environments around the world, from the citizens who attempt to stand up to them.

And our president, like presidents in third world countries, tells us he's angry at them, which I'm sure has them shivering in their boots. And then he asks us to pray. The Oil Execs sat in Congress yesterday, just as they did in 2008, and we heard a lot of lecturing, stern words were used on both sides of the aisle, while the Republicans one after the other made it clear that no one should even think about nationalizing our oil industry, or investing money in alternative energy as a result of this disaster. They even went so far as to tell us, once again, that 'these five people sitting before us' while they may be the cause of some of our problems, are 'the only ones who can solve them'.

Disgusting, there has been a long, slow coup in this country and we've never seen more blatant evidence of it than this.

Since when do we negotiate with criminals?

I agree with every word of your post. You captured my feelings.

of the U.S. in the face of these Oil Corps. and worse, the continuation of support for them in Congress yesterday was simply sickening. I do not know what to think regarding Obama but I'm beginning to believe that the entire government has been compromised and that any president who did stand up to them, wouldn't get much support and might even be in danger. They've certainly never worried about the murders of citizens of other countries.

There is no other explanation when the devastation to this country is so great, and the arrogance of those responsible so apparent 'I want my life back' etc., so accustomed are they to not being bothered by 'whining' citizens of other countries who are kept in check for them by their corrupt governments, that they cannot believe anyone is even bothering them about this.

Right now going back at least as far as Cheney, hearings to sort out where the handover of power began, should already be in session. It's like watching someone with a gun to their head as their family is being killed and they cannot stop it. We are fighting two wars for these Oil Corps also. So I suppose I should not be surprised, but I am.

Thank you I am really glad that others feel the same way ...

in the first instance? :shrug:

But thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

the war on the truth. I see speeches and promises but very little action.