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Post by melani on Jun 15, 2010 23:35:53 GMT -5
Dennis, read more carefully--I didn't say "experience," I said "expertise," and I was referring to the technical details of how to stop the oil from pouring out. Like whether or not to cut the pipe, cap it with--what? I have no idea what method to use, and I doubt Obama does either--he's a lawyer, like most politicians, not an oil drilling engineer. And unless you are an engineer (which for all I know you may be), I doubt you would know the technical procedures either.
I have to say, I cannot believe that this was staged by anybody. 11 guys killed, 17 injured, and the worst possible press for BP, and the destruction of huge areas of the coast and possibly millions of people's livelihoods--who would stage that? There hasn't been a single breath of any sort of sabotage, and I can't believe the feds would do it either--the consequences are too horrific.
And I don't think anybody staged the ship getting struck by lightening--frankly, after the mine disaster and now this, I think God is trying to tell us something...
We have been living in a fantasy world of too cheap energy for a long time. The prices they pay for gas in Europe are so much higher that less people drive, and public transit is available in ways that it isn't here. We gotta wake up and pay the piper.
Remember when nobody recycled anything? Now, at least here in California, recycling is the norm, and there are sets of trash cans for garbage, compost, and recyclables practically everywhere. I have those same three trash cans at home, and it gets picked up curbside every week. Times change and things get different. Somebody is making money off that compost and recycling, and somebody will figure out how to make money off of wind, hydro and solar power, and they will get competitive. Someday they will be the norm, and there will be practical cars powered by something other than fossil fuels. As soon as somebody sees a profit in those things, the research will get done, and we all know it's not impossible--just needs the incentive.
This may have happened on Obama's watch, but the laxity that allowed it to happen was in place a long time ago. Now he gets to clean it up, and I certainly hope he's equal to it. I guess we'll find out.
In the meantime, I am having fantasies of the BP execs getting burned at the stake, helped along by a generous dollop of oil.
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Post by melani on Jun 15, 2010 23:53:30 GMT -5
Just out of curiosity, what actions do you think Obama should take in this situation? What would meet with your approval? This is an honest question, not an attempt to start an argument.
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Post by tbw on Jun 16, 2010 12:49:45 GMT -5
Parsing words here are we Melani. Now I wonder where someone like you could have picked that tactic up, Pesticide Mary perhaps. Would not haveing "expertise" require the same of "experience" to gain it? As for your lame excuses to "excuse" the man. Wrong! Wrong! and double wrong until hell freezes over! Your trying to excuse him from his obligated duty to "preserve, protect, and defend the United States of America" - NO MATTER WHAT THE CONDITIONS ARE!!! And it is unconditional, read that oath of office and tell anyone where it excludes him from his obligations to "preserve, protect and defend" if he's a lawyer with no expertise. It doesn't matter whether Lincoln was a toymaker or Roosevelt (take your pick) was a cartoonist, or whether Barack Hussein Obama was a lawyer, which he was not, he was a 'community organizer', that's what he campaigned as. Try telling that one different? By the same standard, then as you measure this "great man", then we are to excuse any president of any blame for anyone who comes to invade our country because he's a "lawyer", not a soldier, or a sailor because he has no "expertise" in those fields? And by that same token, he is not to do "anything about it" when another aircraft is flown into another building in 'any-town usa' and blows the living crap out of everyone there? By this same senseless idiocy, we now can truely believe that because he doesn't have "air force expertise" that he can be excused from doing anything about it. Tell that to those folks along the Gulf coast who have oil on their beaches, and have - and yet will ruin their way of life, their way of turning a buck, and not just when this crisis is resolved, which according to those, so calledly in the know, tell us it wont happen 100%. And when a hurricane blows over the top of this make shift proposition to stop it with mega waves and it blows it to smithereens, what then? This is "preserving, protecting and defending the United States of America"? I fail to see how. www.associatedcontent.com/article/2975278/is_florida_drinking_water_supply_threatened.html You didn't read what I said about that, did you? Or if you did, it blew in one ear and out the other. Another contrived notion for reDucing global warming through stronger Cloud cover perhaps? Activist and organizers don't just talk the talk, they walk the walk, some more covertly than others, guaranteed! Are you D.A.F.T.? No, your God is not trying to tell us anything. But your President as God is. He can sit there on his glorious throne all he wants and make proclamations all he wants, but the next time you my lady may not be so fortunate in your beliefs if he has anything to say about it, which obviously he does... And unfortunately for you, like this, its not about "saying anything" but DOING SOMETHING besides sitting on his butt preaching inspiring campaign slogans and trying to let someone else take the blame for something he so clearly was elected to do, "preserve, protect and defend the United States of America." Yeah and if you believe that, then why don't you go dig into the pocket of that BP executive and see how much cash he has on him and see what "fantasy world" he lives in. Or better yet, ask him or others in similar positions to fly you to Tahiti or other paradise locations each and every time they go there and experience first hand their "fantasies". The mega bucks they make is a damn site more than to what you make or will ever see in your lifetime, and they get that in less than a years time. Sure, line their pockets more, why not? Ask the average Dick and Jane out here how many times they've been to Tahiti, Hawaii or anyplace else exotic (fantasy-world) like that. Then go ask those oil execs. that same question. Yeah and that incentive is to not stop an oil spill 100%! That incentive is to force us into believing the opposite of what really should be done. It's called "forcing an agenda" that in reality has very little to do with the oath he took and everything to do with what he wants and not what you want, wait and see. For him its easier said than done, obviously for you the same. Lets see how fast he can "force that agenda" now... Shades of Orson Wells' - War of the World, or a better analogy that most children get sucked into, "The sky is falling", perhaps you should join the Mile High Skeptics and find out if Bredo Morstoel's body is really there, or whether its someone's ideas of a practical joke. We already have. The man isn't capable of leading a colony of piss ants, let alone a nation where he swore an oath to "preserve, protect and defend". Really, you really think this is going to happen? Think again... what was he before he became President... a community organizer perhaps? Do you really expect the "truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" from any of them, especially him? His sense of "world community" has a higher priority than his dedication to "preserving, protecting, or defending" anything in this country as he so fully and clearly has demonstrated thus far, and will continue to do so, because people like you cannot discern the difference and are blinded by what he says, and excuse him for what he should be doing each and every time. An excuse he has no right to claim and you nor anyone else has the right to grant him... by the Constitution of the United States of America - or what used to be. As you said yourself, " Times change and things get different", like the interpretation of his oath and our constitution and what it says as opposed to what you believe "he" thinks it says? Shades of Jann Scott and his biases. Again you didn't read anything I said. Or if you did, it failed to gain your attention. Your assumptions are long on insight and short on fact. |
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Post by Cutter on Jun 16, 2010 19:14:23 GMT -5
To answer what President Obama could do, waive the Jones act would be a good start. While all are bickering, not only here, but everywhere else, things have the potencial to become much worse. This is a good example why a centralised government is not a good thing.
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Post by joewiggs on Jun 16, 2010 19:40:01 GMT -5
It is also an example as to why " much government is not a good thing!
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Post by Cutter on Jun 16, 2010 20:25:43 GMT -5
Yep, "They who govern best, govern least."
Cool what you did on your post Joe.
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Post by joewiggs on Jun 17, 2010 16:22:06 GMT -5
Who would have ever "thunk" that your signature would wound up being so apropos for a topic!  I just hit "TOO" with the marque button  |
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Post by melani on Jun 17, 2010 18:32:22 GMT -5
Dennis, you don't have to get nasty about it. Without hauling out a dictionary, to me, "experience" means having done things in the past, and "expertise" means knowing about something. They are not the same, and I did not mean to use them interchangeably. I am not nitpicking terminology here--I just think you misunderstood what I was saying. Obama's experience, as you pointed out, is not in the oil industry or the technology associated with it, but as a community organizer and a politician. His expertise, I assume, is in law, since he used to teach it.
So tell me if I've got this right--you think the oil spill was not an accident, but an act of sabotage sponsored by environmentalists, with the blessing of the Obama administration, for the purpose of promoting non-fossil fuel energy sources? If that's not what you're saying, then my apologies--please try to explain so I will understand it better. If that is what you are saying, then I don't agree.
What practical steps do you think should be taken to clean up this mess? And what practical steps do you think should be taken to prevent a repeat of a disaster like this one? And do you think we should try to move on to non-fossil fuel energy sources, or take some other action?
Cutter, I had to look up the Jones Act, and what I found was that it provides for cargo being shipped between U.S. ports to be carried on American flag ships. I'm not sure how that applies to the oil spill, or how repealing it would affect the clean-up. Can you tell me what your reasoning is here, or if I am missing something about the Jones Act? As I said, I had to look it up.
Dennis, I am not trying to start an argument here; I am trying to understand what your ideas are about this situation. So far, all I have seen is that you think Obama is responsible for this, and you are really angry (as well you might be, and all of us!) but I'm not sure why you think Obama is responsible, or exactly what you think he should do at this point.
I have no idea who Bredo Morstoel is, or Pesticide Mary. I had thought that the idea behind this forum was to have civilized conversations without the rancor that has appeared elsewhere.
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Post by tbw on Jun 17, 2010 18:40:24 GMT -5
Yup, your right Melanie... Sorry if you took my words wrong, apologize profusely.... [check pm's]
Deep sea fishing for the Great White in the Gulf.
Day 1.
My day started off fairly desent, and my 10 foot dingy handled the seas fairly well. The rowing was a little tough against some of that oil sludge that I ran into about 13 miles off shore, but I managed to plough through it, but was extremely tired of the effort so I decided to have a tuna sandwich and some home made deep fried kettle chips.
Having downed the course in about the time it takes a hungry man to eat his dinner, and by the markings on the pole of the oar that I had placed there, it took me about 20 minutes in all to finish.
I decided to try to catch a bit of news on the Aar Gallery radio that I had just bought before leaving. And wouldn't you know it, they were broadcasting the hearings in Washington about the Oil Spill. Deeply interested, I decided to plop my line in and listen to the radio right there. It got to the part where the CEO of BP was saying that the people on the oil rig at the time of the... ahem 'accident', who were killed, were not employees of Bp. I thought oh good, we'll find out who they were and know right then and there "whodoneit", and the "case would be closed." But nope, right then the radio cut out and I never heard another word. Wouldn't you know it. Here they were all those people from Washington who represented us in Governmental affairs were finally going to get to the bottom of this and wham, that darn radio decides to take a siesta. Well, I suppose you good people heard it and can tell me who was on that oil rig when it exploded into a mass ball of flames? One down - NOT BP employees - and how many more to go? The question is - or should be; who was on that oil rig when it blew if it wasn't BP personnel?
PS until I get this radio rig fixed, I guess I'll see if there is more out here than those Big White's i've been looking for, until then, i'll be incommunicado.
[Note: I do believe in the election process in this country. That is why I look forward to 2012 when we can put this guy back where he belongs, doing what he knows best... community organizing.]
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Post by Cutter on Jun 17, 2010 20:13:39 GMT -5
Good luck on fixing the rig, I have the same problem....
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Post by joewiggs on Jun 18, 2010 18:09:16 GMT -5
You both own boats? What have I been doing wrong all my life?  |
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Post by Cutter on Jun 18, 2010 20:25:42 GMT -5
Coast guard said I didn't have proper safety equipment, so went back to port....
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Post by stumblingbear on Jul 3, 2010 19:20:57 GMT -5
Which direction is "port." |
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Post by Cutter on Jul 3, 2010 19:24:25 GMT -5
Funny, it's the left side of the ship. Something this country doesn't need right now, left.
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Post by stumblingbear on Jul 3, 2010 19:56:26 GMT -5
LOL ! Now that was a good one! ;D!
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