Sarah Palin: Call The Dutch To Help The Oil Spill, Because They Know About Leaks
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Probably the dumbest person alive, and she’s helping to lead the GOP.
115 Responses to “Sarah Palin: Call The Dutch To Help The Oil Spill, Because They Know About Leaks”
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Because Obama’s response to the spill has been SO much better. What are we at, Day 58? Bush started getting crap from you halfway through Day 2 of Katrina!!!
“Bush started getting crap from you halfway through Day 2 of Katrina!!!”
Because there were already hundreds dead? Because there were pictures of people sitting by the roadside and in the Superdome with no food and water?
And last I checked, Katrina struck on land, not 2 miles below water. It’s a bit more straightforward to deliver supplies on land than to plug a rip in the earth 2 miles below water.
Obama has stumbled on the oil spill. But if he took over right away, he’d either be charged with another government takeover, or BP would have been happy to pass the clean-up costs to the American taxpayer.
Palin: “And yet, no, they too, with the proverbial, can’t even get a phone call back.”
Except of course for the equipment and aid we accepted from the Dutch last month.
I’ll admit, it’s frustrating. Palin doesn’t care that she’s just lying, because her handlers are smart enough to know that “Palin disses Obama! LOLOLOL” is the only story her marks will care about. It’s just depressing to see so many people proud of this.
Pollak, are you proud of the fact that this blog has been far more critical of Sarah Palin than it has the Obama Administration in this oil crisis?
Palin has been the poster child for liberal frustration with the oil spill here. Do you think that is honest?
“Thad Allen’s a glorified YMCA lifeguard”-Sarah Palin
Denis, are you obsessing about Palin again? Do you ever stop?
Sarah Palin is a priceless treasure.
If I had to invent the perfect person to run the Republican Party it would be a challenge to do better than Ms. Palin.
The challenge this offers the Democrats is also valuable: how to identify the people that CAN learn to think critically, and motivate them to vote for us in rejection of her Forest Gump brand of politics.
Dennis, are you proud of how dishonest Palin’s criticism of the President has been?
Since, y’know, you care so much about honesty and stuff.
You’re arguing that Obama’s response hasn’t been better than the deranged ramblings of a media whore who makes puddles of rancid piss look intelligent?
Seriously?
That would be Oliver, Repack. His blog. His blog post. His 10,000th one on Sarah Palin. Probably up in the twenties on the oil spill alone, although I give him kudos for withholding speculation on the naturalness of her spectacular physical features recently that many other lefty bloggers couldn’t seem to resist.
It’s just depressing to see so many people proud of this.
Right. In this post about Sarah Palin, it would be nice to address the irretrievable ridiculousness of the Actual Major Party Vice Presidential Candidate. That there are still people who cannot admit that she’s a train wreck is frustrating and depressing. It’s also kind of scary (she really was almost President. Really. No kidding. I’m serious).
As the great Tom Toles wrote:
Indeed. That would be a start. I fear, though, that Ms. Palin’s pathetic defenders would get themselves intentionally sidetracked to avoid the issue. They might gin up a bit of the all too common perceived victimization, perhaps suggesting that “diffusion through a semi-permeable membrane” sounds a bit too much like a plot by Liberal Science to enslave Real Americans in Socialist Sharia Law. Or maybe chirping that it’s one of the “several tenets of the Laffer Curve” or something. Regardless, they don’t want to directly address the Hopelessly and Proudly Ignorant Elephant in the Room. How sad.
“foreign countries with entrepreneurial Americans”? Murdoch’s investment is paying off big-time. No wonder the network couldn’t trust her to conduct a puff-piece interview with LL Cool J.
Hope there’s going to be a transcript of the discussion between the Iquitarod and demented old Maggie Thatcher.
“Iquitarod”?? OOooh, that’s a new one. Outstanding!! I am going to have to remember that!
Noone died in this disaster, eh? No pictures of the destruction?
Admit it: Obama was elected, based in part, on his hectoring of Bush’s Katrina response. And, when given the chance to “show everyone how it’s done”, he’s failed miserably.
The one person hurt most by this, ironically, is Bobby Jindal. He was a shoo-in for the 2016 election, but Obama is f**ing up so badly, he won’t get re-elected in 2012, which means Jindal’s going to have to wait out an incumbent.
The Quitbull with Lipstick…
Oh, my. FanBoi Revolt.
MSNBC Trashes Obama’s Address:
Compared To Carter, “I Don’t Sense Executive Command”
Day 58…..Good night and Good Luck.
I’m confused, so someone here please enlighten me. BP is a private company. BP had an accident and BP made a mess (“mess” is obviously an understatement). I thought that the Republicans wanted to keep the governemnt out of private business? Why are they all getting mad with Obama’s response? Following their logic, should’t the US government stay out of private business matters? Why don’t I hear Hannity screaming about BP, everytime I turn on his show (he and his “companion” Dick Morris) he is talking about how Obama dropped the ball? I am truly highly dissapointed/disgusted in the response to the spill. Mainly BP, but also the US govt. Calling out Obama and not mentioning BP’s responsibility is just dishonest and that is EXACTLY what the right is doing. Period.
Palin has spectacular physical features? I do not want to meet your girlfriend (Hah! I said “your girlfriend!”) who set your standard of beauty so low.
If Palin had ordinary looks, that would be an improvement. I do not understand how anyone finds her attractive, but then I never understood why other cultures find tattoos, ritual scarring, stretched necks, or obesity a turn-on. Apparently that extends to the strange culture of Republican men (*cough*Bill Kristol*cough*John McCain*cough*) who get that thrill up the leg when they see this ordinary-at-best looking woman.
I think it’s significant that women are far more distrustful of her than men are.
Day 59… when are the dishonest republican commentators going to hold BP accountable. All I hear is “Obama”…
Pollak, are you proud of the fact that this blog has been far more critical of Sarah Palin than it has the Obama Administration in this oil crisis?
Obama was offered and accepted help from the Dutch. Three weeks later, Sarah Palin went on TV and criticized the President for not getting help from the Dutch. If you agree with Palin that I should criticize Obama for not doing the stuff he actually did, I can’t really help you.
f you agree with Palin that I should criticize Obama for not doing the stuff he actually did, I can’t really help you.
Indeed. To reiterate Mr. Toles, “Conservatives need to admit that Sarah Palin is an out-and-out preposterous fraud first.” Still not happening.
Also too, do Troll’s incessant “Look Over There/Nobody Likes You Everybody Hates You” comments remind anyone else of this:
The parallels are eerily similar. Spooky even. Also.
joey, this spill is just what conservatives wanted. The permit for the well was rushed through, there were no big government safety inspections, and environmental concerns were completely ignored.
Hey, maybe Obama should dress in a pilot costume and strut around under a banner that says Mission Accomplished! Right wingers thought that was the epitome of leadership…until they all began blaming the Navy for it.
Buh?
Let me see if I have this right.
Bush hears that the levies might fail, and that New Orleans, being below sea level, could flood, putting thousands at risk. But he’s on *vacation*, and if people are dying, well, that doesn’t matter so long as ol’ Brownie is on TV reading lists of lies that sound pleasing. There’s well known stuff to do – like *GET PEOPLE THE FUCK OUT OF NEW ORLEANS*, and give them clean water, food and shelter. But it’s *SO MEAN* that people gave him shit for not giving a damn about people dying.
Meanwhile, Obama is faced with a crisis that is *not* immediately threatening to human life, doesn’t ignore the problem, people aren’t dying, and he’s doing more than having his pal read lists of pleasant lies. There’s no well known stuff to do because no one quite knows how to fix the problem.
And this is equivalent because?
No, wait, let me guess.
George W. Bush was a Republican, wasn’t he?
And I bet Obama’s a Democrat. Amiright? I bet I’m right!
Because, face it, people like Sarah Palin are still revered in the Republican Party, and she thinks they should call in the Dutch because they fix leaks and clean up water. She’s an oil industry *expert* and she understands that the Dutch often plug leaks *under a mile of ocean*.
No one else “understands” this, but maybe that just proves that other people don’t “get” Sarah the way rightwingers do.
There you go again admitting defeat, Della Sweet. As you’ve told us twice already, invoking Olbermann falls under a sub-category of Godwin’s Law. Not only that, it’s laziness on your part.
How do you account for the Left’s creepy and bizarre infatuation with every single body part of hers, Repack? From her uterus, to her breasts recently, to her toenails, her eyes, her legs, her hands, her glasses, her hair, and her rear.
And I apologize to all the Palin fetishists here if I left something in particular out.
And while you’re busy not answering that question, please show me a picture of any 46 year old mother of five kids that you think makes her look like a dog.
Dennis, thank you for the laugh!
Yes, Oliver’s criticized the idiotic Sarah Palin, who has not demonstrated any leadership, and hasn’t had any good ideas, more than Obama who is leading, and has had good ideas, and has been trying to find a way to resolve the crisis.
I say it again: Oliver might be a fan of Superman; he might be a fan of President Obama. That doesn’t mean that Obama is actually Superman, and able to use his superhuman powers to plug the leak. If you have some substantive criticism, something more than “YEAH! We have something we can use to bash Obama! Let’s ignore all the suffering and damage, caused by our[1] oil industry heroes and BASH OBAMA!” I’d like to hear it…
But if all you can do is rub your hands in glee over the damage, because it gives you ammunition for a clumsy smear job, you really ought to do the world a favor and be silent.
[1] “Our” refers, of course, to you right-wingers, who make heroes out of people who give your other heroes lots of money.
I didn’t invoke him, DA. No matter who he loves or who he hates at any given time, whether I agree or disagree, he’s still a Freak Obama Fanboi.
When a FOF like KO revolts, it gives you a good indication of where Obama’s poll numbers are likely headed.
FOF revolts are somewhat reliable tipping point indicators.
I agree with KXB. You would here the rhetoric out there that Obama is taking over yet another Company, another sector. Socialism keeps on knocking!! A mile deep is pretty f’n deep. How does it get fixed? It’s a disaster that won’t be ignored. It’s a new kind of problem, and dumb b****s like Palin thinking a dam building, water cleaning, american entrepreneurials friend, the DUTCH are going to “Plug the Damn Hole” just shows that her ilk have no remedy but to keep being dumb!
I’m not an Obama knob hobber, but I believe his only mistake regarding this disaster was with his speech last night where he had the opportunity to pinpoint the problem, the CORPORATOCRACY and the fumbles of de-regulation.
Dissent & Reason
If you agree with Palin that I should criticize Obama for not doing the stuff he actually did, I can’t really help you.
There’s no stopping Ms. Palin at this point. Even if she knows or is otherwise informed that she erred. That’s a key feature of the Right Wing: Never admit a mistake (part of creating their “own reality” as one influential Party figure famously put it).
I’ll give you a totally hypothetical example. Say a troll on a blog, in a lame-ass attempt at snark, wrote something like “one for five, that’s way below the Mendoza Line, you fool!” Then suppose the troll was immediately corrected and mocked (since, as most baseball fans are fully aware, one for five is the Mendoza Line, not way below it). I’d wager when called out the Troll would pretend he knew that all along and never admit making an error. He might even go on to lecture everyone else about his detailed understanding of the various nuances of the Mendoza Line, having been utterly humiliated and consulted Teh Wikipedia. But he would never admit error.
Or, again, totally hypothetically, say a blog troll attempted to impress the gallery with his mastery of economics and mentioned something non-existant like, oh I dunno, “the several tenets of the Laffer Curve”. If called on it, I guarantee that troll would deny having ever written that, no matter what your lyin’ Google tells you.
A common tell is the apparently pathological need to repeat “I never said that.” You could probably find a shitload of examples this the comment history of this very blog, among others. Also.
The pathetic irony is that Ms. Palin, and the hypothetical troll in these examples, could have quite easily upgraded their integrity cred if they only said or wrote, “my bad, I got that one wrong”. But they just aren’t able to do that (one of the key differences between liberal and right wing). How sad.
Dominoes…..
DA, here’s Exhibit B of the Freak Obama Fanboi revolt/tipping point:
Eugene Robinson: Obama disappoints from the beginning of his speech
‘Bush started getting crap from you halfway through Day 2 of Katrina!!!’
Hurricane Katrina was tracked DAYS before making landfall, the predictions of the severity of its impact were updated minute by minute well in advance of its arrival on the Gulf, and less than a year after the Hurricane Pam emergency response scenario which accurately predicted the devastation a cat 5 hurricane would inflict on the region, AND STILL BUSH DID NOTHING FOR DAYS AFTER IT STRUCK.
This was not an oil rig explosion that suddenly occurs and whose owners and operators immediately began criminally under reporting and
mitigating for WEEKS afterward; right up to the present BP has consistently downplaying the extent of their incompetence.
Comparing the two situations and how each President has handled them is completely unjustified.
‘The one person hurt most by this, ironically, is Bobby Jindal. He was a shoo-in for the 2016 election’
HAHAHAH; was that before or after he imploded with his response to Obama’s State of the Union address?
I suspect Jindal isn’t going to suffer anywhere close to the level most of the average Gulf Coast residents will.
That is so bloody true, Della Sweet, as we saw in 2008:
About the only glee I detect here is in witnessing you guys bash Sarah Palin, Long-Haired. You guys are bashing a citizen of the United States and not a politician with any executive authority right now, and for the most part, giving the one executive with more authority than anyone else in the country a free pass, bragging because you think he’s doing the best he can and he wants to kick ass and gosh, darn it, he can’t suck it up with a straw. A citizen who dares criticize the president is your main focus in this whole mess.
And btw, where is the greatest envirnmentalist known to man in all this? Why isn’t Uncle Albert weighing in? Why doesn’t he show up on The Factor instead? I’m sure Bill O’Reilly would give him the forum.
‘Palin has been the poster child for liberal frustration with the oil spill here. ‘
OMG, one post by OW that showcases Palin’s own idiocy on this issue represents the unfair Liberal obsession with this insufferable clown?
Maybe if her every utterance didn’t so succinctly verify her status as mentally deficient, there would be no need to comment on her existence at all.
Oh, but then there is the unfathomable obsession with her that the Right seems incapable of resisting.
IQUITAROD; oh that is wayyyy too good.
Bravo.
There is no denying that if Hillary had what Palin had, she’d be Madame President instead of Madame Secretary. And there’d be no doubt that the starbursts from guys like you and Repack over a Hillary Clinton with Palin’s looks and appeal would make Lowry’s tribute pale in comparison.
I didn’t invoke him, DA. No matter who he loves or who he hates at any given time, whether I agree or disagree, he’s still a Freak Obama Fanboi.
Then why quote him in the first place, Della Sweet?
Getting afraid that if you don’t reply to me, people will thing you’ve been bitch-slapped again, for the 6th time?
Try using both hands when you’re typing about Sarah Palin or trashing Obama, perhaps you’ll stop sounding like you’re seeing starbursts and you’ll finally start to make sense.
Obama is getting criticizes from the left?
Does that mean they have more intellectual honesty that Faux Snews, who never uttered a peep of discontent over how the previous Administration handled Katrina?
Don’t try to think about what I just wrote Della Sweet, think about whoever has to clean the fragments of grey matter, skull, flesh, skin and blood that you’ll leave everywhere in your room if you do………….
I will admit that Palin has a few things over Mrs. Clinton, like being able to sound like Ellie Mae and string together words that sound insightful if your literary standard is late Norman Vincent Peale, and making Katie Couric look like a serious reporter with hard-hitting questions like “What kind of newspapers and magazines do you read”, but Ms. Palin’s popularity has been on a downward spiral ever since.
How’s she going to move her currently unfavorable numbers in Iowa among the Republicans there when only a friggin 3% are undecided about her this far off from her possible candidacy in 2012?
Use google, if you don’t believe me.
And finally, I will say that Sarah demonstrated a willingness to cash in and demonstrate what really matters for her, while Clinton demonstrated that she could win an election when she could’ve done the smart thing and go into private business.
‘About the only glee I detect here is in witnessing you guys bash Sarah Palin,’
It is literally amazing that no matter how often Palin shoots herself in the face with her endless litany of lies and her seemingly inexhaustible ability to make absolutely no sense whatsoever, it is always the likes of Right wing supporters such as you who will relentlessly disparage those who call her out on her utterly transparent and intolerable bullshit, but will NEVER admit that her reputation as a middling half wit is endlessly reinforced by her.
Barely anyone here on the left has uttered a peep of critique over Obama’s handling of the oil crisis, DA.
Is that an admission on your part that no intellectual honesty exists from you guys here on this blog?
As for your particularly dishonest description of Fox News, here’s a video for you to eat your words; it’s so well known and got so much coverage from the nutroots it almost seems silly to have to
bitch-slapremind you:Geraldo Rivera & Shepard Smith Unleashed
Repeat after me, DA “I, Dark Avenger, believing myself to be an intellectually honest American citizen, was wrong, Dennis, and I apologize for it.”
I can’t believe I just read this.
Additionally also too: Projection.
Example: Right wingers will never admit a mistake, but they’ll demand apologies from Reality Based in a classic case of what the kids like to call “projection.” As with the Mendoza Line, you could look it up.
I didn’t invoke him, DA.
Yes you did. Yes you did,
BrettSarahDennis.Yes, seriously. That’s Farris.
So you agree that all Palin has to go for her are her looks? Good to know.
Yeah, sometimes I can’t believe you can read either.
No one is bashing Sarah because she dares to criticize the President.
The bashing is because she’s sniping, while offering no useful ideas, and not even attempting to accomplish anything than claim there’s something awful about Obama.
In a crisis, you lead, follow, or get out of the way. She’s chosen to snipe, and lie, and speak nonsensically. And you… you’ve chosen to defend that. Congratulations; we now know the content of your character.
Quitbull; simply awesome.
So show us all the other posts Oliver has made about Palin and the spill.
Especially a big word like “insufferable”. Maybe he’s learned prefixes and suffixes?
Because our focus is “plug[ing] the d*mn hole”, not racing to the courthouse to file lawsuits. Any time spent by BP executives going over public statements to decrease liability and being hauled before Congressional Committees is time that’s NOT spent working on the problem at hand.
Fix. The. Leak. First.
The only way Obama’s response could have been worse is if he’d have spent all his time playing golf and going to concerts instead of meeting with BP executives to figure out how to stop the leak.
Oh, wait…
Pretty neat the way you left out the people who were really in charge…namely DEMOCRAT Mayor Nagin and DEMOCRAT Governor Kathleen Blanco, and the local levee boards presumably controlled by the DEMOCRATS.
Nowhere near the sniping done by the Left and Democratic politicians from the get-go in the aftermath of Katrina, LHW.
Not. Even. Close.
And more and more liberal journalists, politicians and talking heads on TV, all huge Obama supporters, are doing more than their fair share of sniping lately, too. To a person they are saying it’s Obama that’s not doing the leading. Your focus is not only not on Obama’s lack of exemplary leadership abilities, a characteristic he ran on during the campaign versus his characterization of Bush’s ineptness, but you have nothing to say about the liberals coming apart at the seems over Obama’s ineptness. Only Sarah Palin.
You have character issues of your own, Long-Haired.
What is the name of the DC conservative politician(s) who knew that BP was massively underestimating the severity of its disaster, and who fought for the federal response AT DAY 3 which wingnuts are now screaming that Obama never delivered?
No, Creepy Lurker, I didn’t invoke him.
Let’s see here, did I do any of the following definitions of the word?
invoke
1 a : to petition for help or support b : to appeal to or cite as authority…..No
2 : to call forth by incantation : conjure….No
3 : to make an earnest request for : solicit…..No
4 : to put into effect or operation : implement…..No
Go back behind the bushes and get some new binoc’s, Creepy Lurker; the ones you have must be all fogged over.
I did just yesterday:
http://www.oliverwillis.com/2010/06/15/npr-poll-base-issues-for-dems-for-2010-midterms/#comments
At worst, Obama may have fallen into the trap of trusting BP and his team of experts. Wingnuts ignore that Dubya went through the same thing with Iraq, but on a much greater scale in terms of loss of life and limb and financial cost.
Maybe the little Dutch boy could dive to the bottom of the ocean and plug the leak with his finger.
How?
Really, jrfunky?
So, the majority of polled residents of Louisiana, people who endured both Katrina and now enduring Obamatrina, who say Bush did a better job on Katrina than Obama is doing on the oil mess, are not only crazy, but that we should disregard their opinion over a bird-brained, biased Canadian citizen’s who lives thousands of miles away from either disaster?
Is that really what you’re trying to say here?
This Democratic polling firm also said that one of Obama’s harshest critics, Gov. Bobby Jindal, had a 65% approval rating for the job he was doing in Louisiana.
Thanks for your concern, funky. Speaking on behalf of all Americans, we just love it when Canadians tell us how we’re supposed to think, so from the bottom of my heart, ‘Thank you’. I’m sure Louisianan’s share my wishes as well.
Noted, Little timmy.
Yours was why I prefaced the sentence with ‘Barely’.
No comment on the conservatives trusting corporations over government?
MSNBC criticizes a Dem president. Something Fox never did with a Republican one.
My comment to you, timmy, is that it’s not true that conservatives ignore that W. went through the same thing regarding counsel on Iraq.
What you ignore is that if he had done nothing and gotten it wrong with regard to WMD and Al Qaeda’s threat of acquiring them, the risks of loss of life and limb and financial cost could’ve been completely devastating. You ignore that presumably because you think the decision to invade Iraq was made while he was still the governor of Texas.
Of course, we should all focus ONLY on the leak. That’s clearly the only problem here.
Pay no attention to the loss of income by Gulf Coast residents. I’m sure that BP will give them ample restitution…in time. It’s only been a few weeks that they have had no chance of earning income. Those fishermen who mostly work on a cash-only basis have enormous savings at the early point in the fishing season.
I think you’re under the assumption that the Administration can’t do multiple things at the same time, like have DoJ work on lawsuits while DHS and NOAA help with the leak.
Geraldo and Shep, Oliver.
See above about 6 comments for the video proof, just as it pertains to Katrina.
At day 7.
Not day 57.
Silly me, I always had the quaint idea that the responsibility to “*GET PEOPLE THE FUCK OUT OF NEW ORLEANS*, and give them clean water, food and shelter” rested FIRST with the city, then the county, then the state, and only then, as a last resort, with the federal gov’t.
timmy, circa Sept 2005?
“who were the DC liberal politician(s) who knew that the state and city gov’ts reaction plans to Katrina were inadequate and that THEY needed to be doing more before the hurricane hit to lessen the impact?”
Yeah. If he’d actually done that.
Oh, wait…
Nah, he’s probably still working on the basics.
I think they should follow exactly what Princess Sarah said and have one of the Dutch dykes do it (or maybe I misheard).
Repeat after me, DA “I, Dark Avenger, believing myself to be an intellectually honest American citizen, was wrong, Dennis, and I apologize for it.”
Happy to rain on your parade.
Again, SaveFarris & Dennis are joking; they don’t really mean any of this… I mean, just read them.
Parenthetically, why does no substantive criticism of Obama ever come from the right?
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/06/16/stewart/index.html
No, but let’s play that anyways. You’re saying there’s nothing an R or D government can ever do right to regulate or fix anything correctly?
Gee, I’ve always wanted to get rich off the creation of a self-replicating carbon eating organism which would clean up oil spills in a jiffy… before the thing mutated into something that ate up all the rest of the earths carbon based life forms. Screw government regulation against anybody ever doing such a thing in this brave new world of incredible technological power.
Any ideas that fall outside the range of childish “your guy sucks ’cause he didn’t hit a homer” sniping?
I didn’t.
My bad.
There isn’t.
.200 is below .215.
I do. So what?
I didn’t.
Anything else?
First, saying it doesn’t make it true. Not. Even. If. You Separate. The. Words. With Periods.
Second: Bush had a job to do. There were people suffering, he had the power to do something – get clean water, food, and shelter to people. He didn’t. And people died because he was on vacation and his aides wouldn’t ruin his vacation. This was not just a failure of action, it showed exactly the measure of the man.
Remember the myth of George W. showing up if a house caught fire, and making sure the kids were all accounted for? Yeah – we found out that was a false myth, didn’t we? When an entire city was flooding, he couldn’t be bothered.
What does Obama have to do? Evacuate people? No – there’s no people to evacuate. Get food, shelter, and water to people who are suffering? Nope. Get aides to inform him so he doesn’t sit on his ass, on vacation, while people die? Nope, that didn’t happen.
Now, Dennis, I’m not explaining this because I think you’ll learn anything from it. I’m sure you already know about the profound differences between Katrina and the oil spill.
I know that you know that
1) Bush got blamed for the things he could do, and simply didn’t, and
2) Obama is being blamed for things he can’t do.
I’m explaining it so that no one think that you have any excuse for continuing to play this game. So that people can see, for themselves, how intellectually and morally bankrupt your complaints are.
However, let’s play a little game.
I’ll list some things that George W. Bush could have done during Katrina to have avoided criticism.
He could have taken action to mobilize resources to help evacuate, and to provide food, shelter and proper care for the evacuees.
He didn’t.
Therefore he was criticized because people died, over a thousand people died, and he was on vacation, clueless.
Now, let’s direct our attention to Obama. What could he do to avoid criticism?
“Be a Republican” would help, but it’s not very realistic. Obama is smart, tough, and a good leader.
“Plug the oil leak” – but no one knows how to do that.
“Take control,” or “demonstrate leadership” or “show passion” – a bunch of meaningless, question begging terms.
But maybe I’m missing something. Please, since you know that Obama deserves to be criticized, tell me what specific things that he could do, that are in his power to do.
Keep in mind it has to be as mindblowingly obvious as “there are people who are suffering, and in need of rescue, water, food, and shelter. He can mobilize the resources to provide those things.”
The Dutch offered help 3 days after the accident. Obama declined. Now a month later the administration is reconsidering and you think this shows what…leadership? decisiveness?
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/steffy/7043272.html
In the time you’re taking to think about how to compensate all those fisherman, 8 million more gallons just spilled out.
Do you worry about where to place the fire extinguishers in your new condo before calling the fire department to put out the inferno in your current one?
Better late than never. From a news source even you can trust:
http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/06/14/oil-skimmers-president-visit-bama-beaches/?test=latestnews
Lessons learned for Obama:
When taking responsibility, never trust an oil corporation to give the straight scoop about its ability to handle its part in its own disaster.
If only BP shared your sense of immediacy…
You’re confusing ‘dishonest’ with ‘unfair’. Palin’s (and the rest of the Right’s) criticism of Obama over the oil spill has been EXTREMELY unfair. The problem is Obama’s not really in a position to complain. After all, he set the bar in this debate.
BP isn’t the President.
“I won”.
“I take full responsibility.”
“But I don’t want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess. I don’t mind cleaning up after them, but don’t do a lot of talking.”
“If there’s a spill in the Netherlands, we give the oil companies 12 hours to react,” he said. If the response is inadequate or the companies are unprepared, the government takes over and sends the companies the bill.”
If only our own government would have acted as decisively…
Dennis if you want to read praise of Palin all day long you could try Red State. they love her and hate Obama. That should be your favorite blog, instead it seems to be this one. Why?
Barely anyone here on the left has uttered a peep of critique over Obama’s handling of the oil crisis, DA.
You got any statistics to back up your claims, or is this another Photoshop, Della Twit?
You mean, like the proprietor of this site, a few days ago, counts as barely anyone here?:
Is that an admission on your part that no intellectual honesty exists from you guys here on this blog?
If you could refute that Faux Snews didn’t act as GWBs rentboys after his miserable response to Katrina, that would be more to the point, which, as always, is on top of your head.
As for your example, it’s probably not to be found on the Faux Snews website, and can you find one criticism of GWB that they do have accessible on their site?
And I’ll take on your challenge when you explain how Palin is going to be acceptable to the majority of the Republicans in Iowa when the latest figures show only 3% undecided about her, and the majority not likely to select her in 2012 unless she starts taking more like Velma and less like Minnie Pearl.
As for “repeat after me”, you’re the one repeating the Faux Snews shit here, Della Sweet, and nobody except your dry drunk buddies around here are buying it………….
Except dummy is wrong. We’ve accepted their help already.
1836 people died in Hurricane Katrina, and you want to compare it to the Gulf oil mess? That’s unconscionable.
While it is indeed unfair of Sarah the Quitter to have told as many lies about the BP spill as she has, because she’s lied about it when I called her criticism dishonest, it’s because that’s what it is and has been.
Well at least FARRIS is open minded enough to cut $arah alot of slack…that’s all that really matters because she is so helpful and so insightful and so HAWT.
I think even BILLO was rolling his eyes at $arah donkey bray THIS time.
Jeebus, $arah, shut THE f*ck up, wull ya.
Well, the BP thing is less like Katrina and more like 9/11………….oh yeah, that happened during the Bush administration ALSO TOO.
Nod. Mayors *always* have access to resources outside of their cities – outside of the entire hurricane path, in fact – to get people to… oh. Heh. Yeah, mayors don’t have authority outside their cities. Their emergency shelter was the Superdome, which they used (and had school buses transport people there – go figure).
But I’m sure you’re right about the county and state; states always have resources to move people outside of the hurricane path, which includes their whole… state. Huh. Boy, this is tricky, isn’t it? It would almost require someone to assist who is beyond just the city or state. Someone who was warned that the levies might fail, and had time to coordinate a possible response.
Are you seriously suggesting Nagin and Blanco made George W. Bush sit on his ass on vacation, rather than trying to coordinate the rescue efforts?
No, wait – you want to pretend that Nagin and Blanco could have emptied New Orleans, so we wouldn’t see what an incompetent, uncaring administration Bush ran.
Weirdo: Please, since you know that Obama deserves to be criticized, tell me what specific things that he could do, that are in his power to do.
What could Obama do to avoid criticism? Why, thank you for asking.
Now let me say, first of all, that I understand you’re having a conversation with Dennis and I understand what that entails. Rest assured, I am not attempting to score any points for Dennis, though I’m sure he’d have tried to frame things that way if I hadn’t written this. Nevertheless, as only ONE left-of-center commenter here has acknowledged so far, Obama has dropped the ball on this one. He’s made a number of good choices, and his negligence is — as you and others have ably indicated — nowhere near that of Bush during Katrina — but he has also failed in a number of areas where he could have succeeded.
To wit:
Obama could have decided not to open the Atlantic coast to offshore oil drilling. Read that article, from way back at the end of March. Go ahead, read it. There’s all kinds of Monday morning quarterbacking now, of course, but here’s a poignant reminder that the Deepwater Horizon spill was not an out-of-left-field surprise, that plenty of people were aware of the risks of offshore oil drilling before this latest in a long, long, long string of devastating environmental disasters caused by the oil industry, and that President Obama — however much better he may be than his opponents, however many good decisions he may have made, also made the decision to throw a huge bone to the greediest industry in the history of the world. And he did it to the detriment of everyone but them.
Second item: Obama could be pushing back vigorously against the oil industry now. He could and should be getting the belt out, but he isn’t. This is the time to bring these bastards to heel. This is the time to be pushing for a renaissance of regulation and governmental oversight of ALL industries, particularly those that have the capacity to damage the environment in a significant way. Obama needs to do whatever he can — legally, politically, rhetorically — to put the hurt on BP and their massively bloated competitors.
Third item: Obama could be vigorously pursuing investment in alternative energy, on the level of Eisenhower and the Interstate Highway System. We need a serious makeover of our energy consumption, and it needs to begin now. Obama has squandered several opportunities to initiate this change.
Fourth item: Obama could be calling upon the conscience of the nation to pull together as volunteers, WWII-style, to clean up this mess. Blame game aside, the bottom line is that everyone who can be of service should be. Those who don’t volunteer should be compelled by law, and those who can’t be compelled should be noted, embarrassed in the media, and ostracized. Get the cleanup done first, get it done right, and then figure out who’s going to pay the tab.
That’ll do for a start.
Agreed, wholeheartedly. This is almost as bad as George W. Bush assigning a new head of the bureau of mines just as a mine collapsed. The pick was “industry friendly” of course….
The whole “Let’s allow more drilling!” was a foolish move, intended to pander to the Republicans. And, just like voting in favor of Iraq, to protect yourself against cheap attacks, it backfired. Not only did he pander pointlessly, he removed his right to take a strong moral stand right now.
I disagree – he’s painted himself into that corner with the off-shore drilling. If he jumped on the oil companies now, he’d be two-faced.
However, it does show how horrible the first decision is, and it’s a valid criticism.
Agreed. However, that’s not a Bush and Katrina level bit of idiocy. It’s close, though… he’s smart enough to realize that, in the not too distant future, people will wonder how we could possibly have been so stupid and lazy over climate change and energy usage.
I’m not sure if that’s possible or useful. It’s definitely not on a par with “there are people who need rescue, water, food, and shelter.” But I can see it as a valid criticism, and definitely worth getting loud and ugly over – squeaky wheel gets the grease, and all.
Okay, so, when the Republicans start complaining that Obama hasn’t been demanding shutdowns of offshore drilling, and creating an eco-corps that can help clean up, and getting *tough* on the oil companies, yeah, then I should start showing them some measure of respect for their criticism.
Oh, totally. Not all criticism is created equal, and the fact that there is a great deal of legitimate criticism to be made about the Obama administration does not mean that that criticism is coming from the right. The right is behaving with all the petulance of a child who has been spoiled for far too long, and whatever intellectual rigor Bill Buckley et al loaned to American conservatism so many years ago, it’s just not there anymore.
The right thinks that it’s about us versus them, that winning is the only important goal, and that any means necessary are justified to reach that goal. They’re wrong on all counts. It doesn’t matter what “team” you’re on. What matters is truth and justice, and the resolve to demand those things from people who have power — no matter who those people are.
If only Nagin had resources…
You recently wrote that the Mendoza line ranged from .185 – .215. That means .200 is the exact center of the Mendoza line, not below it.
What are you talking about? They both happened in Louisiana so they are EXACTLY the same! And about all those dead, they don’t really matter because the majority were black and poor. /sarcasm
Government taking over a private company’s operations? There’s a term for that that cons don’t like. I believe it starts with “s” and ends with “ocialism.”
Uh, SF?
I hate to break it to you, but those buses were clearly not hurricane proof.
So, people couldn’t ride out the storm in them.
Now, I’m sure you can point to where the buses could have taken people, with clean water, food, and shelter, along with adequate security and sanitation… right?
Because just “getting people out of New Orleans” isn’t reasonable. You don’t drop people at the side of the road in a hurricane’s path.
Oh, wait… you can’t, can you?
You’ve used that picture as evidence that Nagin was a failure for *years* without ever *once* thinking about the incredibly obvious question of “where would he put the people even if he used the buses to move them”!
If you can’t even think critically about such a huge, obvious issue, when are you going to actually engage your brain?
Felix:
Agreed, wholeheartedly, and the ugly thing is, they can get away with it for a long time, and unless it completely implodes, it will keep sucking people in.
But if it *does* completely implode, it can damage a lot of people.
This is the only reason I can forgive Obama for some of his choices about “looking forward” and trying to engage Republicans. The most important task in this country right now is returning it to sanity.
But I think he might be wrong in his choices. I think things have gone to far for constructive engagement to work.
Ohhh Oliver……
Keith Olbermann Checks Out Of Daily Kos After Criticism From Left
“Thanks for your time served, Keef. Now kindly STFU and pretend everything’s going swimmingly for Zero.”–Kos Kid Management
And not to make too much of a generalization out of this one-in-a-million freakish anomaly, but this is why people like me with their heads on planet Earth can never ever take liberalism seriously.
Jesus, Dennis, now you’ve gotten spunk all over the keyboard again.
You’re talking to a guy who proclaimed back on 03/31/10:
The skimmers are indeed, retrieving oil.
Because Obama wasn’t president?
Ah, good point. I’ll issue a Joe Barton apology, post-haste!
I think the Pres should run out and buy himself a country and western plaid shirt, a cowboy hat and some boots and get out there and start plugging the hole with a hoarse and a lasso. That should convince the cons and their believers that the Pres really cares and is doing something productive. It’s all optics with those fuckers.
Dennis, the fact that 5 YEARS after Katrina people are STILL living in temporary mobile homes should tell you everything about the validity of a poll that suggests Bush ‘handled’ that crisis with anything less than his typical incompetence.
Take the poll immediately after Barton’s comments today and see if those results change.
‘Thanks for your concern, funky. Speaking on behalf of all Americans, we just love it when Canadians tell us how we’re supposed to think,’
That’s right Dennis; you’re far more comfortable telling everyone else what to think.
Must’ve hit a nerve, huh Den-Den?
The only problem with that is that you don’t know that it is to think.
No matter what the issue or where the location, you don’t have a problem voicing your opinions, but someone who isn’t an American has no right to do so when it comes to the US?
You gotta be kidding.
No wonder you love Palin; she represents every petty, arrogant, hypocritical and mindless characteristic of American intolerance.
Where the fuck do you live? I’d bet it’s thousands of miles from Louisiana.
Get bent.
Where the fuck do you live? I’d bet it’s thousands of miles from Louisiana.
Ohhhhhhh…..Psycho killer…..Qu’est-ce que c’est?
fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa
Run run run run run run run a-wayyyyyyyyyy!
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Alarm system, too, Indeed.
I’m thinking of a pretty good commercial for that alarm company- psycho Aqualung pervert stalker on the internets makes his way into the yard of his obsession target and hides in the bushes. His target sees him from his front window and steps outside and kicks the perv in the teeth and knocks him senseless. Target then calls alarm company to have him picked up off the front lawn before the sprinkler system comes on and drowns him.
You’re the one stalking Oliver on this site all day if he posts anything to the effect that perhaps Palin isn’t the brightest light bulb to come out of Wasilla, AK.