I agree. Wait! Hear me out.
The federal government is not a people. (Neither is BP, of course, so the same following argument applies.) If Boner is really looking for the "federal government" people responsible, he can start with these two names:
George W. Bush and Richard Cheney.
Bush was never able to persuade Congress to approve drilling in ANWR. But he did succeed in expanding drilling in other areas, including the deepwater gulf. Bush's principal instrument in these endeavors was the Minerals Management Service (MMS), the branch of the Interior Department responsible for providing leases for offshore drilling as well as collecting the fees and royalties the companies paid for operating in federal waters.Intended largely to promote offshore drilling, the MMS was also responsible for ensuring that all such operations complied with the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act and other environmental laws. Full adherence to these laws could have slowed the expansion of drilling or blocked it altogether-but the MMS provided the leases without making the companies, including BP, obtain required environmental permits. MMS officials routinely ignored warnings from the agency's own scientists and from those at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that this sort of deepwater drilling posed a risk of massive oil spills with devastating consequences for protected marine species. Such preferential treatment for industry is hardly surprising, given the cozy-in some cases criminal-relationships that developed between senior MMS officials and their corporate counterparts.
From now on, the damage caused by offshore oil drilling is on Obama's head. But the people responsible for the current Gulf oil catastrophe are at BP and in the spider holes hiding Bush and Cheney.
I am perfectly fine with the actual "people responsible in the oil spill" taking responsibility for once in their miserable fucking lives and paying for every penny of the trillions it's going to cost to put the Gulf Coast right.
Just make sure you're targeting the actual perpetrators, Boner.
There is no good news coming out of the depressing and endless war in Afghanistan. There once was merit to our incursion there, but that was long ago. Now we're just going through the tragic motions, flailing at this and that, with no real strategy or decent end in sight.
The U.S. doesn't win wars anymore. We just funnel the stressed and underpaid troops in and out of the combat zones, while all the while showering taxpayer billions on the contractors and giant corporations that view the horrors of war as a heaven-sent bonanza. BP, as we've been told repeatedly recently, is one of the largest suppliers of fuel to the wartime U.S. military.
Seven American soldiers were killed in Afghanistan on Monday but hardly anyone noticed. Far more concern is being expressed for the wildlife threatened by the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico than for the G.I.'s being blown up in the wilds of Afghanistan.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/12/opinion/12herbert.html?ref=bobherbert
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Pot, meet kettle
Silly? THIS stupid bint is calling Boxer SILLY?
Just STFU, you illiterate, incomprehensible cow, and go exploit Trig for another couple of million.
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"MMS quietly granted oil companies the right to drill 198 more deepwater wells as if the spill wasn't devastating the Gulf," said Derb Carter, senior attorney and director, Carolinas Office, Southern Environmental Law Center. "If it's too deep to stop a spill, it's too deep to drill. BP is under criminal investigation for its explosion and dumping millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf, yet MMS approved 13 new leases for BP to drill in deepwater without any better oversight."
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/06/11-3
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I think we all know what this means. The US government needs to strip this away from BP and take charge. Send BP the bill and keep them and their shifty "cost savings" business partner out of the process.
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I just read that Karzai of the Afghans doesn't believe that our military can beat the Taliban. I believe that in the best traditions of American good will, we should agree with him, pack up our troops and equipment, put our money back in our pocket and leave the Kabul Quagmire.
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We can't remember the last news item in which Israelis were the good guys. "Polish authorities have arrested a suspected Israeli agent in connection with the murder of a Hamas operative in Dubai in January. Officials say the agent was arrested in early June. Media reports named him as Uri Brodsky. Germany is seeking his extradition over a forged German passport used by one of the killers, the prosecutors say. Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, one of the founders of Hamas's military wing, was found dead in a Dubai hotel on 20 January. Dubai police have said they are 99% sure Israeli agents were involved, but Israel says there is no proof."
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Skip the election - let's go straight for the impeachment:
"T]he thing is, here we are, people can't wait until November. They're practically lining up for polls now, they can't wait to go out and vote. The only thing is people wish Barack Obama was up for re-election right now, because they'd honestly love to have a chance to throw him out of office. Everywhere I go, people ask me, 'Michele, can we impeach the president?'"
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Jill: Where is the Democratic farm team?
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Surpassing the Chimperor
In 17 months in office, President Obama has already outdone every previous president in pursuing leak prosecutions. His administration has taken actions that might have provoked sharp political criticism for his predecessor, George W. Bush, who was often in public fights with the press.
Prosecuting, nay, persecuting whistleblowers is an anti-freedom, anti-transparency move. It is what I expected of Chimpy. I expect better from Barry.
An oil soaked Mallard duck stands on a rock in Liberty Park, Saturday, June 12, 2010 in Salt Lake City. A Chevron pipe broke in the foothills of Salt Lake, sending oil down Red Butte Creek, eventually dumping it into the park's pond.
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They've already wasted almost two months - shut the fuckers down now. "A top US Coast Guard official has said that BP's plans to contain oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico from a blown-out well do not go far enough. Rear Adm James Watson gave the oil firm 48 hours to identify "additional leak containment capacity". The warning follows new US government data suggesting the flow of oil could be double previous estimates. Speaking to UK PM David Cameron by phone, President Barack Obama said his criticism of BP was not anti-British. In a letter to the oil firm, Rear Adm Watson said: "Because those estimates have now been revised and estimate a substantially higher flow of oil from the Macado 252 well, it is clear that additional capacity is urgently needed." The letter was dated 11 June and released on Saturday. "BP must identify in the next 48 hours additional leak containment capacity that could be operationalised and expedited," he said."
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All wars are money-makers, at least for a select few - and the culture wars are no exception. The dirty little secret is, republicans and other conservatives are never going to do anything to outlaw abortion. Ever. If they were going to do it, they would have done it when they had both chambers and Bush. They didn't touch it. That is because they value the hot-button issue above all else, and if they make the anti-choicers happy, they lose the issue. They will never let that happen so long as there are wallets and votes to exploit.
