May 26, 2010

Obama’s Version(s) Of Katrina?

There were a number of reasons why George W. Bush’s administration didn’t become proactive in Louisiana, as quickly as the lefty media crowed that he should have, during the Katrina debacle, one being that state’s Governor Blanco’s refusing (her legal right as a governor) to accept Bush’s help when it was offered and for some hours to come, others related to the fact that the breached levees, the floods and so forth were a first-time occurrance, in modern history (in Obamanese “unprecedented”), for these events in that region.

However, there were less reasons, especially after Katrina had given the emergency planners a crash course in addressing the same kind of problems they recently had with flooding in Tennessee, for the Obama Administration’s response therein.

Now, we’ve got the big oil kerfuffle down in the Gulf of Mexico and the damage it’s doing all along that coast, from Texas to Florida, and the response to it, from the Obama crowd, leaves much more to be desired. Much, much more.

So where are the anti-Obama diatribes from the liberal “progressive” media? .

And what’s the Obama Administration doing?

Priorities, folks: priorities. Apparently Lisa Jackson figures that if Interior Dept CoS Tom Strickland could go white-water rafting while the oil spread, she can go raise money for the Democrats:

As the Obama administration struggles to contain the massive oil spill threatening the Louisiana coast, one of its top environmental officials will be the featured attraction at a fundraiser for Senate Democrats next week in Manhattan, at which donors are promised they can speak to her about their “issues of concern.”

I have an ‘issue of concern:’ the Governor of Louisiana is shouting at the federal government to sign off on emergency sand berms to keep the oil away from wetlands; and the administration is dithering. So, several questions, here:

• When was the EPA planning to help with that?
• Was the EPA planning to help with that at all?
• If it’s not… why? I mean, I can guess, but the nicest answer implies rank partisanship on Jackson’s part, and rapidly degenerates from there. And I mean really rapidly degenerates.

Lisa Jackson can answer these at her leisure: after all, it’s not like there’s an acute ecological crisis going on right now…

So, from the “dithering” link above:

As federal agencies continue to study the state’s proposal to build a chain of sand barriers along the Louisiana coast, Gov. Bobby Jindal and other state and local leaders are heightening the rhetorical battle against the federal government’s delays in giving a clear “yes” or “no” to the expansive, $350 million proposal.

As proposed, the plan would build up a mostly continuous chain of six-foot sand berms stretching more than 80 miles east and west of the Mississippi River in an attempt to keep oil out of coastal wetlands. The Army Corps of Engineers and Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the national incident commander for the oil spill, offered few new details on the likelihood of approval Monday.

Allen cited several logistical challenges with the state’s proposal during a White House news conference Monday afternoon, though he said the Coast Guard and corps are still considering it.

“Building a set of barrier islands and berms that large would take a very, very long time — even by the state’s own estimates six to nine months in some cases — and a significant amount of resources associated with that might be applied elsewhere,” Allen said.

As proposed, the sand dredging would be an unprecedented engineering effort, requiring as many as 18 dredges to be mobilized from across the country to begin building up islands. There are substantial questions about whether the berms could be built in time to stop the oil. And several scientists and environmental experts have cautioned that the hasty approach could jeopardize future barrier island restoration efforts by depleting the state’s limited offshore sand resources.

So here, we have the right-thinking incumbent governor of New Orleans, Bobby Lindal, begging the government (under Obama, not only is the governor aggressively seeking help from the government, but all he’s getting in return is a lot of hemming and hawing from an administration that, simply put, does not belong in the White House, because they do not possess the leadership abilities that would qualify them to be there, let alone any unsolicited offers of assistance.

On Monday, Jindal and Sen. David Vitter pushed the plan again in a news conference with congressional leaders, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

“Every day that it’s not approved is another day the choice is made for us” to allow oil to seep into coastal marshes, Jindal said.

And Louisiana Attorney General James “Buddy” Caldwell sent a forceful letter over the weekend to Lt. Gen. Robert Van Antwerp, the commanding general of the corps, asking for “prompt approval” of the emergency permits to begin dredging. Caldwell in the letter says the federal government does not have the right to block a state from doing emergency response activities to prevent environmental damage and urged Van Antwerp to issue the permit and avoid “an unnecessary constitutional confrontation between the state and federal governments.”

If the corps does not OK the plan, Caldwell wrote, “I will have no choice but to advise the Governor to go forward with our plans to construct the barrier islands without a fill permit from the Corps in order to set up a legal test of your constitutional and statutory authority.”

Officials with the corps did not return e-mail messages seeking a response to Caldwell’s letter on Monday.

At least Bush attempted, very quickly and though put off by the Democrat then “governing” Louisiana, to get the federal government mobilized. Not so Obama in this instance. The only “help” his administration is interested in providing is in the areas of oppressive federal regulation in and manipulation of the private sector.

Well, all you wildlife, wetlands and environmental “buffs” who supported Obama’s election to the presidency, how do you like him now? He’s fiddling while your version of Rome is burning. Diddling around while your precious nature is being well oiled, greased, saturated with petroleum and your animals and birds are slowly dying.

Your hero, your messiah, your agent of Hope and Change is really working hard for you, isn’t he?

Now pay the price, you gullible asses.

by @ 12:07 pm. Filed under The President
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4 Responses to “Obama’s Version(s) Of Katrina?”

  1. Simeon Says:

    Now pay the price, you gullible asses.

    Come on!

    You almost make it sound like Obama wants to see all that vegetation and wildlife destroyed, kind of the way you poked fun at the blaming of Bush for the Katrina response disaster, which was, despite the way you defend it above, pretty damn pitiful.

    What was the joke? Bush and Cheneys’ “racist hurricane machine?”

    How about some real, mature adult analysis of the oil spill situation and the credible and noncredible solutions proposed to stop the spread of the oil instead of this mindless Obama bashing?

    The proposal by Jindal, nine months’ worth of manufacturing sand piles, doesn’t sound like it would be effective enough soon enough to protect very much of the coastal wetlands, and it would cost a fortune.

  2. Harry Says:

    Obama bashing! I don’t see any Obama bashing!

    Look, Simeon, the way I look at it, taking into account Obama’s track record for running both a less than honest campaign and an even less veracity-oriented presidency, adding to that the atmosphere of his Chicago “machine” origins and his corruption, AND the generous campaign support he received from BP, I think Chuck is right on target here.

    The president is not single mindedly looking to stop the creep spread of the oil. As usual, there are political considerations involved in his thought process here, and if there are not, it means he’s being incompetent on this occasion by way of gross indecisiveness.

    If this had been Bush, the media would have been piled on him like flies on sh-t.

  3. Chuck Says:

    Simeon,

    First, I think Jindal’s plan for moving dredges in and erecting a wall of berms along the shore, while obviously not being any kind of definitive solution, is at least a proactive one which could salvage some significant amount of coastal flora and reduce the potential proportion of contaminated water in the coastal marshland.

    The longer the Corps of Engineers and the Obama Administration jaw uselessly about their misgivings while doing nothing proactive at all, the less effectiveness Jindal’s idea, if brought to fruition, will have.

    As for bashing Obama, my friend, that guy himself whenever he either opens his mouth away from a teleprompter or attempts to make people believe he is in possession of any quantity of common sense.

    If it weren’t for his being so damned corrupt, so damned socialist and so damned embarrassed to be an American that he hopscotches the globe apologizing for us or discussing our fictitious “civil rights” violations with the leaders of China and Mexico, I might consider cutting the man some slack.

    Now pay the price, you gullible asses.

    You can bet I mean that. Those of us who took the time to circumvent the propaganda the media fed the voters during the presidential campaign, and to look into Obama’s background a bit while also listening to him talk his way across the country for hours and days without actually saying a damn thing didn’t vote for him.

    He has consistently crapped on the Constitution, which he took an oath to Protect and Defend, since the minute he was inaugurated. His policies have our economy headed on a downward spiral and guarantee a whole bunch of misery for the children of the present generation and generations to come.

    Luckily, not that it will do any tangible good, those of us who vote responsibly will be able, a few years down the road, to point at everybody who voted for Obama and say “this is your fault”.

  4. Chuck Says:

    Harry,

    If this had been Bush, the media would have been piled on him like flies on sh-t.

    Truer words were never uttered. Nothing like having a corrupt, biased media around to support an enemy of the state in POTUS’ clothing. :-(