The BP oil spill has poisoned the Gulf of Mexico for over two months now, and not only has the leak not been stopped, but all efforts seem to have more potential to exacerbate the problem instead of fixing it as we discover that BP ignored safety warnings in the final hour and installed sub-par emergency equipment at their installation.
Everyone is pointing fingers at Obama, and in a sense, they're right to do so--he's the President! But there comes a point where even I, though I favor a bigger government that can get things done, recognize that government may not be able to solve all of society's problems. The point is to employ it when it can. To echo Rachel Maddow, we do not currently have the knowledge or the technology to stop this disaster.
BP has continually made promises that it knows it cannot keep, such as siphoning a miraculous amount of barrels per day from the sea, and it's credit in the bank of public trust had truly gone bust when Tony Hayward went to some yacht club after that farce some describe as a congressional hearing. Reminds me of some other people we saw recently.... "I'm truly sorry [for all I want to do is go home and isolate myself with my money. Ayn Rand says I don't have to listen to you insects!]"
The problem here is that nothing is working, and we can't figure out whether BP is actually trying to clean it up, or if they're just fooling around. But I don't really think its fair to pin everything on Obama. And look who's doing it: The people who don't have any confidence in government to start with! On Meet the Press last Sunday, Californian GOP Congressional candidate Carly Fiorina felt incensed: "Where were the regulators on this?" Thankfully, Rep. Debbie Wasserman of Florida was there to set her straight: "What right do you people have to talk about regulation?" [meaning Republicans], and she continued to recall how the regulators under a certain previous administration...allowed energy companies like BP to get away with what I described above (faulty equipment and incomplete emergency procedures).
What right to people who don't have confidence in government have to complain when government fails them? Shouldn't the GOP be celebrating right about now? No, it doesn't make sense. But those disenfranchised racists need to come to power somehow and fight any way they can against the Evil Black Man. Its a bizarre circus, really: A slightly-veiled anarchist party 1) still wants to tell people when, with whom, and under what conditions they can have sex, and 2) actually gets angry when conditions serve to seem to prove them right, even when it doesn't, really.
What do I mean? Well, did the government cause the oil spill? Is Obama doing nothing? I don't think so. To say that the BP spill is Obama's Katrina is to ignore the fact that Bush could have had the National Guard down there in 30 minutes, and it was the job of the government to clean up after a natural disaster.
"Wait, what? What about all that stuff you talk about in previous posts about how the government had to clean up the economic mess? You better not be backpedaling!" I'm not backpedaling. Consider the fact that the oil industry--we could assume, but that's stretching it, given BP's "attempts"--I'll use "supposedly"-- has the best people to deal with this crisis: The engineers, the mechanics, the geologists, and the operators--to control the machines in case something goes terribly wrong. The banks were not in any position to repair the damage they caused to our economy. BP is in a position where it can be held accountable for its irresponsibility and at the very least stop the leak. The government is getting involved where it should--holding BP legally responsible and overseeing the cleanup effort. The government should not be the entity that plugs the leak because, as I said before, it is entirely BP's responsibility given that BP is in the best position to be able to solve the problem.
This isn't like the economy, because our regulatory system in that sector is long-established for about 70-80 years since the Great Depression. This is THE WORST oil spill in our history, and it would truly be hoping for too much to believe that we have the equipment and expertise to deal with it before being exposed to enormous risk, the same way 9/11 woke us up to the true violence of the Middle East, or Columbine to teen psychopathy.
It is extremely unfortunate that something has to happen before we collectively act, but the major problem here and now with this BP spill is that we cannot act. Where our collective frustration comes from is that we--even myself, though I sometimes seem to believe that government can do everything--understand that neither BP or the federal government of the most powerful nation on Earth do not have the capacity to act.
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