Jesus Christ, I wish you'd be consistent. First you wanted him to pay attention more. Now that he is, you want to bust his balls for paying attention. For once, can you shut your partisan pie hole and pay attention to something besides being partisan?

6/19/2010 3:04:37 PM

I don't see how a requirement to have a plan of what to do after the rig blows up would have prevented the rig from blowing up.

What the article does say is that the rig was state-of-the-art.

6/19/2010 7:07:21 PM

^It also says federal regulators fucked up under Obamas watch.

6/19/2010 7:22:25 PM

^^^ maybe my point was that dedicating a youtube video to the issue doesn't fucking impress me

[Edited on June 19, 2010 at 7:25 PM. Reason : ]

6/19/2010 7:24:47 PM

No one's suggesting you should be impressed. But if he IS trying, maybe you could be a little less knee-jerk partisan than you usually are.

6/19/2010 7:56:31 PM

solinari wants him to take major action, expanding the role and power of the federal government in such issues

then he can criticize him for expanding the role and power of the federal government

6/19/2010 8:13:44 PM

Quote :

"expanding the role and power of the federal government in such issues "

are they not in charge of the operation now and have been? obama keeps saying that is the case.

6/19/2010 11:21:28 PM

Sarah Palin now thinks that divine intervention is required in the Gulf.



[Edited on June 20, 2010 at 9:09 PM. Reason : while we're at it, let's ask magic pixies and the Flying Spahgetti Monster, too]

6/20/2010 9:08:38 PM

I thought the most esteemed chosen one was supposed to be our savior. Didn't u guys pay any attention in 2008? Hope is all that is needed to fix problems.

6/20/2010 9:30:07 PM

What happened to Obama's charisma and tenacity? It died and no one let us know.

6/20/2010 9:35:47 PM

I love Sarah Palin's tweets. Always good for a hearty chuckle.

6/20/2010 10:17:49 PM

Didnt Obama ask us to pray during his address.

6/21/2010 9:25:32 AM

yes, but he's a liberal democrat so everyone knows he's just being rhetorical and doesn't really believe in prayer or god

6/21/2010 11:28:20 AM

You forgot the .

6/21/2010 11:48:21 AM

and the problem with praying is...?

6/21/2010 6:49:22 PM

There is no problem with fake or rhetorical prayer... But serious prayer should be made fun of by smug and self satisfied liberal douchebags

6/21/2010 6:56:09 PM

Palin/"Gulf lawmakers" are merely using prayer as a political football. If prayer helps, fine. But do you really think that an almighty god is going to swoop down and fix a man-made million-mile-wide oil slick?

Also, Solinari, I'd like to make a pact with you. Why don't we both agree to ease off on the rude invective?

6/21/2010 7:23:07 PM

it surely isn't going to make things worse, so why the fuck do you all care if someone prays. hell pray to the spaghetti monster, who the fuck cares?

6/21/2010 7:25:50 PM

My point is that it's being politicized. Chill out, ok?

6/21/2010 7:26:37 PM

I don't mind if people hope or wish for something, but I don't act as if it's going to affect reality.

6/21/2010 7:27:50 PM

its only a political issue because smug assholes make it one; if they didn't get on their high horse about prayer every fucking time it wouldn't turn into a divisive issue.

6/21/2010 7:30:10 PM

Look, do you think a bunch of politicians getting together to pray about something is any less getting on a high horse? Sarah Palin has like a million followers on Twitter and another million on Facebook. Whatever she says is going to get noticed.

Why are you so angry tonight? No one else is getting worked up about this.

6/21/2010 7:33:12 PM

because you all are so predictable about it its ridiculous, you have no idea how stupid you all look

6/21/2010 7:48:50 PM

lol... prayer.

6/21/2010 7:53:54 PM

^^ you've been the one cursing while extolling the virtues of prayer. you ought to reflect on that before casting insults.

6/21/2010 8:09:09 PM

because secular people aren't capable of respecting and appreciating christians... jeez, what a bigot.

6/21/2010 8:16:00 PM

No one is appreciating or disappreciating your faith, Mr. Solinari. If you'd read above, the point was about the politicization of prayer.

6/21/2010 8:20:52 PM

nowhere in this thread have i been extolling the virtues of prayer what i was doing was pointing out how pompous you all sound from your smug high horse.

you guys are why so many people in the middle are iffy about being democrats

its only a political issue because you all attack it. there are plenty of religious democrats and they used to be much more vocal. your kind of smug behavior is what allowed the right to co-opt religion; if you don't like people politicizing it just stop attacking it.

[Edited on June 21, 2010 at 9:04 PM. Reason : .]

6/21/2010 9:03:31 PM

wow, you care about this a lot more than i do.

6/21/2010 9:07:25 PM

ITT Optimum discovers that some people politicize religion.


Of course, who's worse, the cynic liberal president who throws out invocations to prayer, or the private citizen who actually believes in God and posts a call to prayer on her facebook page.

6/21/2010 9:26:35 PM

ahhh... you're such a cunt. obama asks for prayer, and you assume he's lying because you don't think he's religious. you put him in a box, and when he steps outside of your perceived view of him, you cast it aside and dismiss it as weightless rhetoric. palin asks for prayer and she's a genuine, salt of the earth christian.

i love it. obama's a liberal, so naturally he can't be religious, and any reference to faith should be met with suspicion. jesus fucking fuck.


shouldn't you be crying about this being a government shakedown of a private business? at least then you can keep your talking points in order.

[Edited on June 22, 2010 at 12:20 AM. Reason : ]

6/22/2010 12:04:08 AM

Not sure if it was mentioned in any threads yet, but a federal judge struck down Obama's 6 month ban on offshore drilling calling it hasty...White House is appealing

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/06/22/1516780/judge-hears-request-to-end-drilling.html

(PART of the article):

Quote :

"A federal judge struck down the Obama administration's six-month ban on deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico as rash and heavy-handed Tuesday, saying the government simply assumed that because one rig exploded, the others pose an imminent danger, too. The White House promised an immediate appeal. The Interior Department had imposed the moratorium last month in the wake of the BP disaster, halting approval of any new permits for deepwater projects and suspending drilling on 33 exploratory wells. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama believes that until investigations can determine why the spill happened, continued deepwater drilling exposes workers and the environment to "a danger that the president does not believe we can afford." Several companies that ferry people and supplies and provide other services to offshore rigs argued that the moratorium was arbitrarily imposed after the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers and blew out a well 5,000 feet underwater. It has spewed anywhere from 67 million to 127 million gallons of oil. U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan and has owned stock in a number of petroleum-related companies, sided with the plaintiffs. "If some drilling equipment parts are flawed, is it rational to say all are?" he asked. "Are all airplanes a danger because one was? All oil tankers like Exxon Valdez? All trains? All mines? That sort of thinking seems heavy-handed, and rather overbearing." He also warned that the shutdown would have an "immeasurable effect" on the industry, the local economy and the U.S. energy supply. The ruling was welcomed by the oil and gas industry and decried by environmentalists."

6/22/2010 6:27:58 PM

Shit. Big oil has judges too. We're really in deep.

6/23/2010 2:43:12 AM

or maybe the moratorium was just a stupid an unlawful idea. just a thought.


btw, Salazar is talking about ignoring the law and the courts and just making a new ban. Way to follow the law, Obama...

6/23/2010 7:42:54 AM

I'm not sure if I know enough about the legality of the executive order or not, but I'm trying to understand how the temporary drilling ban directly affects the "local" communities, as has been suggested by some who oppose it.

The land-based refineries in the gulf area are, by and large, already processing petroleum products at- or near capacity (we learned this after the BP refinery explosion a few of years ago). There's still, interestingly, a significant land-drilling/pumping presence here in Texas, and I've personally watched a couple of new pumps go up just in my area since I moved here. Exploration companies work all over the world, not just in one geographic area.

6/23/2010 7:57:27 AM

Considering that there's no scientific basis for a temporary ban, and that experts in the field said it would be worse (read: potentially more dangerous and harmful to the environment) to stop drilling than continue I'm going to say this is a good thing.

Not to mention the Obama Admin was sheisty as hell changing the document after the experts signed off on it

[Edited on June 23, 2010 at 10:23 AM. Reason : k]

6/23/2010 10:20:23 AM

Congress passed a law authorizing drilling in these areas, only Congress can stop it. Apparently the law authorizing the drilling allows the president to halt drilling in certain circumstances, all the judge is saying is that this is not one of those circumstances.

Although, I am shocked to see the force of law stand up to the Obama force.

6/23/2010 10:28:46 AM

Quote :

"I'm not sure if I know enough about the legality of the executive order or not, but I'm trying to understand how the temporary drilling ban directly affects the "local" communities, as has been suggested by some who oppose it."

running a drilling rig out in the ocean requires lots of supplies and transport and stuff.

6/23/2010 3:48:43 PM

Quote :

"I'm not sure if I know enough about the legality of the executive order or not, but I'm trying to understand how the temporary drilling ban directly affects the "local" communities, as has been suggested by some who oppose it. The land-based refineries in the gulf area are, by and large, already processing petroleum products at- or near capacity (we learned this after the BP refinery explosion a few of years ago). There's still, interestingly, a significant land-drilling/pumping presence here in Texas, and I've personally watched a couple of new pumps go up just in my area since I moved here. Exploration companies work all over the world, not just in one geographic area."

Well the plan was for the ban to last for like six months. Companies would see this as six month lag in profit and spend the ten day trip to move the drills to somehwere like brazil.

Once the ban is lifted the drills would still be drilling in brazil and would have no reason to stop for 10 days just to come back to the us. The ban would essentially stop all drilling inthe gulf for many years. (until the oil runs out in brazil.)

I was really hoping that could all play out.

6/23/2010 7:46:21 PM

.

[Edited on June 23, 2010 at 9:13 PM. Reason : Do not feed the trolls]

6/23/2010 9:12:41 PM

^

6/26/2010 1:45:45 PM

Quote :

" I was really hoping that could all play out."

yes. more foreign energy dependence is exactly what we need.

[Edited on June 26, 2010 at 4:12 PM. Reason : .]

6/26/2010 4:00:42 PM

^What? Oil is the only form of energy of which we depend on imports. Increasing/maintaining oil infrastructure, refining capacity, and profitability only deepens our dependence on foreign oil. Even if we are able to somehow produce 10% of our oil consumed through offshore drilling (which destroys ecosystems and regional economies), it would only make us more likely to continue the status quo which is dependence on oil; 90% of which we consume would still come from opec. Its a very short term way of thinking.

Green energies and even natural gas would be 100% home grown, however.

People just don't get it. THERE IS NO WAY WE CAN PRODUCE OUR OWN OIL.

6/26/2010 6:50:17 PM

We get our oil from Canada, Mexico, and south America. We get a large chunk of our natural gas from Canada and Mexico, again. And we have several liquefied natural gas ports in operation, usually coming from OPEC countries. Our solar panels and wind generators are imported from China. Choose your technology, and only through trade with foreigners can it be had efficiently enough to use.

Also, banning offshore oil drilling would harm the coastal economy far more than this spill has. The fishermen are not really out anything, since they are going to be compensated enough to come back next year after the fish return. However, the oil service workers would permanently lose their livelihoods, as would all the stakeholders invested in their economic activity, wrecking the coastal economy.

6/27/2010 12:24:35 AM

^ solar please

6/27/2010 8:50:53 PM

^^ explain how that's going to be any different when oil extraction and production from the gulf dries up, as it inevitably will. if they're smart, they'd already be thinking about how to adapt.

6/27/2010 9:30:51 PM

Quote :

"However, the oil service workers would permanently lose their livelihoods, as would all the stakeholders invested in their economic activity, wrecking the coastal economy."

LOL

So they're Too Big To Fail™?

6/27/2010 9:33:06 PM

there is no need for a ban across the board, what they should have done is immediately ramp up inspections of the deep water rigs (of which there are not that many). i'd love to see legislation requiring deep see rigs to be registered in the us, instead of whatever tiny island nation they chose to operate most of them under. safety inspections for us rigs are very involved and take weeks, while safety inspections for foreign registered rigs can take as little as 8 hours.

6/27/2010 9:40:38 PM

^ take a look at the link i put in the Drill Baby Drill thread, talking about the blowout preventers. pretty scary stuff.

6/27/2010 9:41:50 PM

Quote :

"^^ explain how that's going to be any different when oil extraction and production from the gulf dries up, as it inevitably will. if they're smart, they'd already be thinking about how to adapt."

I was not suggesting they would roll over and die, just that large numbers would be rendered poorer than they otherwise would be. Compare that to allowing drilling to continue, where no one is demonstrably harmed without compensation, and everyone else makes out wealthier than they otherwise would be.

6/27/2010 10:51:09 PM