Oil spill: Why did Obama refuse to go Dutch?

No, Kyle, an “error” is when you lose your car keys. When BP causes a disaster, then deliberately lies and misleads everyone, that’s called “criminal negligence.” You really are determined to hang the blame on Obama, aren’t you? What about a column asking why BP’s chairman isn’t making media statements from behind bulletproof glass via two-way phones, like any other criminal?

You seem to have snipped out the part where the Dutch could make the offer because their GOVERNMENT owns the equipment. I’m sure if Obama had announced plans to nationalize part of the oil industry when he took office, fake conservatives like yourself would have been screaming bloody murder.

Oh, and the booms won’t do &%$ if they are improperly deployed, or the seas are more than a couple of feet. Actually, they don’t do much at all, and this is according to people who make their living doing spill containment.

http://www.itopf.com/spill-response/clean-up-and-response/containment-and-recovery/

Keep the partisan hack crap coming, Kyle. I’m sure the dittohead crowd will eat it up without thinking, so why make the effort to do anything else?

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Anyone with half a brain can see the clever Dutch plan, to infect America with European Socialism, presented as goodwill. Sure, 100,000 barrels of crude a day is a convenient excuse to have Dutch engineers and oil spill containment experts taking jobs away from hardworking Americans, and before you know it, they’re offering to show us how to make prostitution legal, and run perfectly legal hash bars. By the way, Kyle, what’s your plan? How would you “fix” this? Maybe the State of Georgia can offer to have Sonny Perdue pray for the oil to stop.

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Daddy, did you kick someone’s ass yet?

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Good blog Kyle, keep the objective analysis coming. It’s the only thing that maintains a shred of balance among all the left-wing hack gibberish published from the resident comrades on this site.

Oh… and Kyle, don’t forget pending “Cap and Trade” legislation that remains in the background to all of this. As Rahmbo “Dead Fish” Emanuel so eloquently stated:

“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”

~ White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjMTNPXYu-Y&NR=1

Among some events of the most remarkable uncanny timing Obama and company give crisis management an entirely different meaning don’t they?

Just saying…

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Even though my conscience is clear that I didnt vote that spineless buffoon into office, I still worry because other idiots did. Is it 2012 yet?

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I will say it one more time…………… if you are gonna put BP and their services company on the hotseat for this (and you should) you should also go after the Govt. officials and departments who blocked solutions being enabled to solve the problem……………… They are as much or more at fault for todays situation being the headache it is at the present time than when the issue orginally happened.

I will also say that this mess proves that we need people in key postions with real world working experience……….. Not people experienced “working the system”. When stuff like this happens they are more concerned with politics and creating the perception of action vs. taking action.

These matters are made worse when the mainstream media is in the tank for the “inexperienced person/people”.

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So we are supposed to help every other nation on this planet and yet the all powerful US can’t accept help. Obama did not cause the oil spill but this proves that he did nothing to keep it from becoming the mega disaster that it has become. There has to be an ulterior motive as to why he did not accept their help – that or he really is a complete and total idiot. Either way we are screwed.

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Kyle,
Ok, first you blame the environmentalists are responsible for the platform being out in deep water, now pile on President Obama for not accepting (perhaps overlooking) an offer of what is marginal, and probably ineffective equipment. You and your fellow Right Wingers offer nothing but noise that passes for criticism, and nothing in the way of constructive ideas. Maybe President Obama should consult Bush and Brownie for suggestions on how to handle a disaster.

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I take no joy at seeing the environmental destruction and watching millions of barrels of American crude go to waste. Fry BP and Trans-Oceanic. But I do love watching liberals squirm and rationalize the fact that Presidents – even leftist/socialist ones – can’t contain disasters with good intentions, photo ops and helicopter flyovers.

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DS from 9:12 am :

Spot on…… My personal belief is that President Obama got bad intell early on (This is no big deal we will fix it before anything major occurs……Move along, nothing to see here type attitude which he and his administration passed along to the public).

By the time he switched his opinion about waiving provisions, (To it being a high priority mission critical situation) the situation had gotten so far out of hand, that methods that may have worked in the beginning, were no longer plausible……

All because he or his team has convinced him that in every situation, he needs to write the roadmap from scratch so that any credit can be 100% his. We all know the downside……. That is failure…….. And if the mainstream media would get their heads out of their butts about all things Obama, the criticism for this administrations failures (and there are many…At least as many as the Bush administration) would be as much front page news as all the soft shoeing they are doing on his behalf presently……..

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Uh…the author needs to redo his math. PBS reports that over 30 million barrels have leaked into the Gulf. If the Dutch could remove 4.4 million barrels each month (that’s how he calculated the 4.4 million, by 30 days), we would still be dealling with over 20 million barrels in the Gulf.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/05/how-much-oil-has-spilled-in-the-gulf-of-mexico.html

Can these skim close to shore or deeper waters?

Unregulated private enterprise is a scary thing. Our government have had to save our economy many times over our 250 odd year history. Yes…I love private enterprise because we all pretty much live like kings (compare us to the Romans), but every so often, socialism has to save us from our own Capitalism. Then Capitalism will forge ahead again.

It’s a nice balance and is why I love the 2 party system with it’s polar opposite core ideologies.

If I was president and BP created the spill…I would think they would be capable of cleaning it up. We all would have…especially if that’s what they said directly to us. I wouldn’t have looked at it again until probably 20-25 days later. Obama was looking at it 7 days later and was down to the Gulf 20-25 days into it.

I hear a lot of hypocritical thinking on here.

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I stand corrected.

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Hope you don’t run for President any time soon Jay. Why don’t you go take a look at what action other leaders have taken when a rig like that went down off their shores……… Say Brazil, and even that idiot Chavez, showed more concern and took action quicker than President Obama.

No spin in what I have posted today whatsoever. This incident proved the concept that inexperienced decision makers such as President Obama and his crony crew, have no clue how to ogvern, no respect of the office of President, and are going to continue to foul up this country even from this point forward………… Mark my words we need this administration OUT in 2012….. If we make it that far………

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Jay the fact that the Feds “Took BP’s word for it” is testament to every facet of how this administration governs……… Lazy, Spin the story, do some damage control, entertain a celebrity and hid behind their media friends who will spew so many variations of the story even a petro chemical disaster expert won’t be able to tell what is the truth.

That is the way this administration does business……. It has nothing to do with anything the previous administration did or did not do. It has nothing to do with being a Democrat or a Republican. This is entirely the Obama administration’s mess.

Legislation is legislation….. Response to the situation is what matters and that is what he owns all the way.

If you think there are know lessons to be learned from what occurred in Brazil in terms of process and resource allocation, then you and I don’t need to have any further discourse.

The only egomaniac here is President Obama and his advisers like Axlerod, and Emanuel. Oh and you with all of your accusations……. So in the tank……. So out of touch… Sorry bud ya don’t have the mental jewelry. When you see the situation for what it really is, and can discuss it with an objective viewpoint let me know.

Oh and this is not about race or intelligence…….. Its about experience and advice, priorities and decisions. I think President Obama is a very smart man, and I could care less what color he is, so lets let squash that here.

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Wrong Jay………. I am results driven, not excuse driven. I was also involved in Business Continuity Planning and Disaster Recovery for a number of years, so I think my background is if you can get you head out of the sand or the butt (don’t know/don’t care) and seriously consider this perspective instead of defending incompitence with a more incompitent defense.

It comes from experience……. We worked on scenario’s that have never happened (and hope they don’t). We planned and prepared, not reacted deflected, and spun….. Sorry Jay…. Don’t want to insult and sorry if I did. I just get a lil ticked at defending indefensible behavior with “Come on….Give em a chance” while our country goes to hell in a handbasket held by Obama/Pelosi/Emanuel/Axlerod ect. I’m done. You get the point even if you care not to admitt it publicly, you know I am spot on….. If not… I implore you to at least stay out of politics………..

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All I can say is that Gator Joe and the rest of his ilk can just go away. You people are obviously so infatuated with ‘The Annointed One’ that he can do no evil. You people are absolutely pathetic. Sure Bush made a lot of mistakes (most of them being going along with some of the things the Dems & other Progressives wanted) during his two terms but Katrina was totally misconstrued as being totally his fault. The truth is that, by law, the Federal Government is not allowed to send any manpower, need it be FEMA or any other department, into any state without being invited by the state. Regardless of what you might believe or what the MSM might not have told us, the facts are that President Bush did offer the Federal Governments’ services, to both Governor Blanco & Mayor Nagin, after Katrina struck. They both said “Thanks but no thanks”.

There is a law, called the Jones Act, passed in 1920 that prevents other nations from navigating in US waters. Guess what? It was written to protect the jobs of our ‘Unionized’ seamen. Bet you didn’t know this. It can be temporarily suspended by the President if he feels that it is in the best interests of our nation. Bet you also didn’t know this. President Bush temporarily suspended the Jones Act so that other nations could help us in the aftermath of Katrina.

According to Foreign Policy, thirteen entities had offered the U.S. oil spill assistance. Some within three days of the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and some within about two weeks of the Horizon rig explosion. They were the governments of Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United Nations.

The U.S. response – Thank you, but no thank you, we’ve got it.

“..While there is no need right now that the U.S. cannot meet, the U.S. Coast Guard is assessing these offers of assistance to see if there will be something which we will need in the near future.”

Separately, Belgian newspaper De Standaard also reported Belgian and Dutch dredgers have technology in-house to fight the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but the Jones Act forbids them to work in the U.S.

A Belgian group–DEME– contends it can clean up the oil in three to four months with specialty vessels and equipment, rather than an estimated nine months if done only by the U.S. The article also noted there are no more than 5 or 6 of these ships in the ENTIRE WORLD and that the top specialist players are the two Belgian companies- DEME and De Nul – and their Dutch competitors.

The U.S. DOES NOT have either similar technology and/or vessels to accomplish the cleanup task because those ships cost twice as much to build in the U.S. as compared to the Far East. The article goes on to state that this “great technological delay” is a direct consequence of the Jones Act.

For more information on the Act, the Merchant Marine Act of 1920 is a United States Federal statute that regulates maritime commerce in U.S. waters and between U.S. ports. Section 27, also known as the Jones Act, deals with coastal shipping and requires that all goods transported by water between U.S. ports be carried in U.S.-flagged ships, must have been constructed in the United States, must be owned by U.S. citizens and must be crewed by U.S. citizens or permanent U.S. residents.

The supposed purpose of the law is to support the U.S. merchant marine industry. Critics say that the legislation ultimately results in increased costs in moving cargo between U.S. ports and, in essence, is protectionism. Supporters of the Act maintain that the legislation is of strategic, economic and wartime interest to the United States.

Since Obama hasn’t yet suspended the Jones Act, the Belgian ships nor any other foreign ships, cannot work in the Gulf. Therefore the Act has inhibited technology and knowledge exchange and development and prevented a quicker and stronger response to the oil spill.

Waivers of the Jones may be granted by the President in cases of national emergency and in cases of strategic interest so it would appear that Obama’s refusal to waive the Act and allow foreign help can only be for one of three reasons or a combination of two or all three of them. Reason #1: Because of a miscalculation of the scale and deepwater technological barriers for this unprecedented disaster. Reason #2: Pride & arrogance. Reason #3: Just what he has probably been praying for. A reason to not only not expand our offshore drilling, to help us to be less dependent on foreign oil, but to also restrict, reduce and eventually eliminate all offshore drilling. Believe me, this has been his quest from the beginning.

All I can say is SHAME on OBAMA, SHAME on the MAIN STREAM MEDIA for not reporting any of these FACTS and SHAME on any American who insists on excusing this behavior. You know and I know that if it were a Republican President and he was responding or should I say NOT responding as Obama has, there would already be talks of Impeachment….. or worse.

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Mark—I am so glad that someone is finally setting the record straight on this subject.

THANK YOU!

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I’m doing all that I can to get this information out to as many people as I possibly can and I am asking them to do the same. We don’t need the MSM to get the truth reported. They are simply PATHETIC. Anytime Obama is involved in any kind of missteps, mistakes, backroom dealings, legislative manipulations or outright incompetence, you can be sure that the MSM will be pulling the old Monkey Trick. You know, the See No Evil, Hear No Evil and Speak No Evil monkeys. Except, in the case of Obama & his Administration it is Refuse To See or Investigate Anything Negative Towards Obama or His Administration, Refuse to Listen To or Acknowledge Any Negative Reports Regarding Obama or His Administration and Refuse To Report Any News That Might Expose Any Malfeasence or Incompetence On The Part of Obama or His Administration.

It is my understanding that now, almost seven weeks later, the administration has finally relented and has agreed to accept partial Dutch assistance with the cleanup. The Administration is still not allowing the Dutch ships to enter the gulf and assist in removing the oil with their one of a kind specialty ships but they are now going to allow the skimming booms to be airlifted from the Netherlands and deployed in the Gulf. Big Freakin Whoop! We still have a company on the East Coast that nearly bankrupted themselves when they ramped up the uproduction of specialty booms that could be used to assist in keeping the oil from reaching the shore. When they informed Obama and his Administration that they had miles and miles and miles of boom and could continue to manufacture all that would be needed, guess what the response of the Obama Administration was to their offer? YOU GUESSED IT!!! “Thanks but no thanks. We got it covered”. Apparently Obamas’ main concern is for BP to get a compensation fund set up to pay out money to cover the losses of those impacted by the spill. To me, it is beginning to look more and more like they are doing all that they can to MAXIMIZE the impact while claiming that everything possible has been done and is being done to minimize the impact. Also, once the compensation fund has been set up, the Obama Administration will be able to give us Up-To-The-Minute “Look At How Much Monetary Damage Has Been Caused By Drilling In The Gulf” assessments. Just what we need!

The Administration has also stated, on many occaisions, that they have been, ‘On It From Day One’.
At first glance, you wouldn’t know it but this is the most honest statement that they have ever made. The only problem is that they don’t explain what ‘IT’ is. In this case, apparently ‘IT’ is their ‘MISSION’ to Fundamentally ruin this great nation of ours and ‘Day One’ is the day that he took office. So you see? They really have been ‘On It From Day One’! Of course, those that have really been paying attention already knew this. It’s just so refreshing to hear it from them, now isn’t it?

Getting back to the current crisis, our government is also making it difficult for the Dutch to provide assistance in creating sand barriers to prevent the leaking oil from reaching the gulf shores. Van Oord, a Dutch company and Deltares, a Dutch research institute provided plans to build 60 mile sand dikes and the Obama Administration initially rebuffed their offer of assistance. The government is now saying that they have accepted the plan but once again the Jones Act prevents the Dutch from operating in America’s coastal waters. I think this move on the Administrations part is just so that, in the future, when anyone says that they refused assistance, they can point to the acceptance of the plans and say “no we didn’t”. President Obama could request that the United States Maritime Administration to issue a waiver of the Jones Act limitations, which has done several times in the past. Doing so, however, would subject the Obama administration to criticism from labor unions who demand protection from global competition. If any of you watch Glenn Beck or do searches on YouTube, you know that Obama said, at virtually every speech he gave at a union organized political speech, that he was there for the unions and that he owed them ‘BIG TIME’ for all of their support. There you go. Another honest statement from our esteemed President. BOY does he owe them!!!! Too bad for the ‘little people’ who live and make their living on or from the gulf. Yep. IRS just too bad. Well what do you expect? He can’t very well piss off the unions. Not right now. Not with the November elections coming up and 2012 not too far away either. That would be political suicide for Obama and the Democratic Party and you know them. They do have their priorities now don’t they?

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Oh and one other comment. This one concerning Gerald West’s post. In it he says, “Where would we be without Fox News propagandists and their Running Dogs”. For his information, facts are not propaganda. You just want to believe that it is because you don’t hear them from the MSM. What the MSM are doing is actually more of a form of propaganda because they actually subvert & control, to the extent that they can, the news. This is why Obama hates them so much. Especially Glenn Beck. If you have ever watched his show, then you should know that he has a special phone line, just for the White House, that they can call if they feel that anything he has said, about any of their actions or motives, is inaccurate or misleading. Take a guess on how many times they have called him to make a correction. Any idea at all? For your informatio, the answer is NONE! NOT EVEN ONCE. Do you want to know why they haven’t called? It’s because everything that Glenn has said or put on a chalk board is TRUE & ACCURATE. The only thing Obama can do right now is to try to put them down, through the MSM, while he hopes that no one is listening or believes what they are hearing. Well that and he is currently trying his best to get control over the Internet and Talk Radio, for starters. If anyone is paying attention, they would know that this is true because his hired Czars are, at this very moment, doing all that they can to accomplish just that. Glenn has told us exactly what his cronies are doing and why. Still, not one call from the White House saying that he is wrong. You know at lot of what Glenn says could be considered slander, if it weren’t true. Still no call from the White House. So what should we deduce from all of this? For me it means that Obama really was mentored, while a teenanger, by a Communist, his name being Frank Marshall Davis and he really did seek out and surround himself with Communist, Socialist and Marxist professors, speakers & mentors while he was in college. He even admits this in his book ‘Dreams From My Father’ although in the book he only mentions his earlier mentor by his first name, Frank. Obama has also appointed, as his Czars, known Communists, Socialists, Marxists and Progressives. Does anyone see a pattern here? Still no calls from the White House. Also, not a peep from our esteemed MSM. Hmmmmmm! I wonder why!

Oh! Before I forget! Gerald uses the term ‘Running Dogs’. That term is derived from a literal translation from a Chinese/Korean saying into English and it means a ‘Lackey’ which inturn means an uninformed manservant. Americans would probably use the ter
‘Brown Nose’. Sorry Gerald but that term does not define Fox News nor those that listen to or watch Fox News but it defines the MSM perfectly. There is one other thing that I would like to point out. I think ‘Gerald’ may have tipped his hat, so to speak. The usage of the term ‘Running Dogs’ originated in Communist China around 1937 and was and is used, pretty much exclusively, by them to refer to anything related to the United States. And not in a good way to be sure. Therefore, I can only surmise the following. ‘Gerald’ (if that is his real name) is, quite likely, either Chinese, a Communist or both. I’m guessing Communist.

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Obama has just won the Triple Crown for libs with the oil spill.
(1) Cap & Tax
(2) Keeping the lawers happy with all law suits against BP
(3) Keeping the union happy with the Jones law

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Does nobody verify their sources anymore??? There are three problems with your blaming the Jones Act.

1) There is nothing in the Constitution (of the Jones Act) that gives the President the ability to waive a law, no matter how convenient it may be. Show me anywhere that the President said he couldn’t ask for foreign help because of the Jones Act.

2) There are provisions in the Jones Act that allow for temporary waivers of CERTAIN parts of the act with restrictions. Depending on circumstances, this authority resides with either the Secretary of Transportation, or the Secretary of Homeland Security, NOT the President. Look it up and you will see that it was the Secretary of Homeland Security that that exercised that authority in the wake of Katrina FOR A WHOLE 18 DAYS.

3) The Jones Act already has an exception written in for the clean up of oil spills – NOBODY has to waive or repeal anything. Here’s the relevant passage:
55113. Use of foreign documented oil spill response vessels “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, an oil spill response vessel documented under the laws of a foreign country may operate in waters of the United States on an emergency and temporary basis, for the purpose of recovering, transporting, and unloading in a United States port oil discharged as a result of an oil spill in or near those waters, if–
“(1) an adequate number and type of oil spill response vessels documented under the laws of the United States cannot be engaged to recover oil from an oil spill in or near those waters in a timely manner, as determined by the Federal On-Scene Coordinator for a discharge or threat of a discharge of oil; and
“(2) the foreign country has by its laws accorded to vessels of the United States the same privileges accorded to vessels of the foreign country under this section.

Try doing a little research before you regurgitate the misinformation that you’re spewing about. That’s three mistakes about one thing. How can I believe you got any of your other ‘facts’ correct?

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I never said they were mistakes. What I was wanted to say was “Never let a crisis go to waste”

‘

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The bottom line is BP was and is responsible not only for the oil disaster in the Gulf but for a plan
for Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery. BP had no plan. Although MSM did a poor job regarding BP, BP is the one RESPONSIBLE for having a Disaster Recovery plan.

People who preach personal responsibility evidently don’t mean corporate responsibility. BP, alone, is responsible for the disaster, failure to plan, and failure to manage disaster.

All the discussion about Obama, MSM, the Dutch, etc, etc etc. masks the bottom line. BP ALONE IS RESPONSIBLE. The fact is BP lied and misrepresented having a plan, the seriousness of the disaster, and their ability to provide solutions and get results.

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Kyle,

You have the whole story wrong. The refusal of the Dutch skimmers has nothing to do with the Jones Act. The Jones Act has an expemtion in it already for oil pollution. They were refused because of an EPA regulation the prevents polluted water from being pumped into the water. I thought they taught in journalism school to “get the fact straight”? Here is the part in the Jones Act that gives the expemtion

“§ 55113. Use of foreign documented oil spill response vessels “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, an oil spill response vessel documented under the laws of a foreign country may operate in waters of the United States on an emergency and temporary basis, for the purpose of recovering, transporting,
and unloading in a United States port oil discharged as a result of an oil spill in or near those waters, if–
“(1) an adequate number and type of oil spill response vessels documented under the laws of the United States cannot be engaged to recover oil from an oil spill in or near those waters in a timely manner, as determined by the Federal On-Scene Coordinator for a discharge or threat of a discharge of oil

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Read some less biased information on the Jones Act here:
http://factcheck.org/2010/06/oil-spill-foreign-help-and-the-jones-act/

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