Saturday, June 5, 2010
President Obama's Weekly Address, Blasting BP, June 5, 2010 (Video, Transcript)
In his weekly address, President Barack Obama underscored his commitment to helping the people of the Gulf Coast recover and rebuild from the BP oil spill that has threatened their livelihoods. On Friday, the President heard from local residents and small business owners about the hardships that they are facing as a result of this catastrophe. The Administration has mobilized the largest response to an environmental disaster of this kind in the history of our country to clean up the BP oil spill. Additionally, the federal government is working to ensure that BP and other companies are held accountable for damages and that aggressive new standards are put into place to avoid a disaster in the future.
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Friday, June 4, 2010
Obama Blasts BP, period.
This is going to be all about MONEY. BP says they will make people whole? Nobody believes that, and President Obama had to go down to the Gulf to assure the folks that BP will. This is a huge court battle coming ahead, just watch.
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Dying wildlife thanks to BP!!!
More photos here.
A sad, damn, shame. No wonder BP does not want these images out there.
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41,000 new jobs created in the private sector, OUCH!!!
It takes around 125,000 new jobs each month just to match population growth.
Did you get that? 125,000 new jobs each month to match population growth.
Yes, the unemployment is back down to 9.7, but let's be real here, that is only temporary. And as I wrote last month, I want to see the real job numbers when the temporary census jobs shake out by the end of the summer. From the jobs report, the growth of jobs is from the government, in census jobs, temporary jobs.
Then we are back to square one. Looking at anemic numbers like 41,000 jobs a month from the private sector.
We are past, "Houston, we got a problem...."
Friday's employment report underscores the critical transition now underway in the U.S. economy. As the impact of government stimulus fades, job creation will have to come from growth in the private sector.
The latest data on the job market weren't encouraging.
A wave of hiring by the government brought a surge in employment; some 431,000 jobs were added for the month. But almost all of them were temporary Census Department jobs that will last for only a few weeks or months. Private sector employers added just 41,000 net new workers to their payrolls in May. Payroll gains were revised downward for March and April by a combined 22,000.
Even forecasters who are upbeat about the economic recovery were discouraged by the numbers.
“You’ll need to see (job gains) of about 200,000 to be considered a serious advance,” said Robert Barbera, chief economist at ITG.
The large number of census jobs added in May will also weigh on employment data in the months ahead. As those short-term jobs expire, they’ll count as jobs lost in the upcoming payroll data.
My question is this, "What happened to all those tax breaks for businesses to hire people?" My answer is this, "It does not look like it is working." And to Republicans, if you want to use TAX BREAKS, look at what is happening!!! It is not working. Time for some new innovation to addressing job creation in this country and not the same old stale, repackaged solutions that USED TO WORK, but is not working now.
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Thursday, June 3, 2010
President Obama's Economic Speech at Carnegie Mellon, June 2, 2010 (Video)
This speech was given 6/2/2010.
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BP was unprepared for disastrous deepwater oil spill
Well, that is obvious. Look at BP's performance!!! The American Public has every right to be angry at BP. Personally, I would like all their oil leases cancelled and send their asses back to Europe. But that is just me.
BP's top executive acknowledged Thursday the global oil giant was unprepared to fight a catastrophic deepwater oil spill as engineers were forced yet again to reconfigure plans for executing their latest gambit to control the Gulf of Mexico gusher.
BP PLC planned to use giant shears to cut a pipe a mile below the sea after a diamond-tipped saw became stuck halfway through the job, another frustrating delay in six weeks of failed efforts to stop or at least curtail the worst oil spill in U.S. history. The government's point man for the disaster, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, said on the NBC "Today" show the cut would be made later Thursday.
Once the riser pipe is cut, BP hopes to cap it and start pumping some crude to a surface tanker, which would reduce but not end the spill. The next chance for stopping the flow won't come until two relief wells meant to plug the reservoir for good are finished in August, after an effort to staunch the gusher with heavy mud failed Saturday.
BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward told The Financial Times it was "an entirely fair criticism" to say the company had not been fully prepared for a deepwater oil leak. Hayward called it "low-probability, high-impact" accident.
"What is undoubtedly true is that we did not have the tools you would want in your tool-kit," Hayward said in an interview published in Thursday's edition of the London-based newspaper.
BP's share holders need to demand that Tony Hayward is fired. He is a PR nightmare and definitely does not help any messaging the White House is trying to promote.
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Tuesday, June 1, 2010
"President Obama Doesn't Care About Bayou People?"
OUCH. That from Charles Blow of the New York Times.
Barack Obama going to California for fundraisers and then going to son of J. Paul Getty's home for a fundraiser in San Francisco, California was just a NO-NO in my book. While the Gulf Coast is bleeding and BP continues to LIE, Obama was in California away from it all.
I am sorry, he deserves to get blasted. I know that raising money is critical but in the middle of a massive catastrophe, the American Public does not want to see you raising money, yet alone at a former OIL BARON son's home in California.
Barack Obama is playing catch up. That is catch up in perception, but as I wrote earlier, "Did the perception train leave on the Obama White House? Were they just too slow to actually get it?" All I can write is that it is going to be a long, hot summer.
From Hardball:
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FOOD POISONING??? From BP CEO Tony Hayward??? Are you kidding me? (Video)
This corporate shill, suit, asshole needs to go back to the U.K. and stay there. He has a lot of nerve to say these workers getting sick from picking HIS SHIT UP off their shores, that crude oil, is having food poisoning? Dude, you need to go back from where you came from. This dude needs to LOSE HIS JOB.
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Attorney General Eric Holder News Conference on BP (British Petroleum)
Transcript
AG Holder says, "U.S. will prosecute any and all violators."
Look for years of litigation on this.
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Reality is sinking in for the Gulf Coast Region
First off, the BP Oil Disaster on the Deepwater Horizon is British Petroleum's fault at the end of the day. Now BP can continue to point fingers at Transocean or Halliburton, but at the end of the day, it was BP who was drilling in deep ocean water for crude oil.
Next, this is not Barack Obama's fault. This was a man made disaster caused by greed, in my opinion. Greed of a company to make more money, and greed of the money received to allowe BP to drill by the United States of America.
Finally, the reality is that this oil will probably spill until the relief wells are on line, the earliest late July and the latest late August. So, for another solid 60 days, we have the glorious opportunity to continue to view the toxic oil dumping into the Gulf Coast.
We all are angry, no one more than, I.
I am angry at this country for its dependence on oil and even after this catastrophe, 49% still want off shore drilling.
I am angry at the Obama Administration who has walked slower than turtles during this disaster. I said during the campaign when something happens, only then does Barack Obama move. Well, I am glad that he is moving now with more presence (from him), more comunication (from the White House and Louisiana), and sending Attorney General Eric Holder to the region.
Over the weekend, the Obama administration tossed some harsh words in the direction of BP. And it’s dispatched its top cop, Attorney General Eric Holder, to the Gulf Coast to meet with top federal prosecutors for the states most affected by the spill.
Also joining Holder: Assistant Attorney General for Environment and Natural Resources Ignacia Moreno and Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division Tony West.
I am glad that movement from the Obama White House is finally being seen. I state this because this region, more than any other in the United States, has been through the fire and walking through a furious one now. This region has every right to be skeptical about the intervention of government. Government did not do a very good job after Hurricane Katrina, still has not made that region whole and bitter remenants are left from government in this region.
Now we have the Obama Administration who was given a golden opportunity about what government CAN DO, but was slow as turtles in communicating it and delivering it. I liked that President Obama made the original statement in Louisiana after the Deepwater Horizon blowout informing us that this is "BP's spill and BP's bill", but his presence was needed repeatedly in that region with back up of ACTION from his words. That is just happening.
I don't know if Barack Obama's friends, staff are being honest with him and I mean about the perception of all of this. I state this because if I was in charge of watching the fallout from the news, I would tell him to dump repeating Steven Chu being a Nobel Peace Price recipient. That is important to whom? Right now, when you are worried about your life as you know it, knowing that is not more important than how much BOOM is in my backyard. That is perception. The perception for me hit, when I was able to see live video feed of that oil continuously pumping with no stoppage in sight. If I saw this, I know everyone in the White House did, too.
Reality is sinking into the Gulf Coast Region. They know that this oil will probably continue to pump its toxins into the region. Mississippi and Alabama will probably see this oil coming to their shores, a most certainty. And Florida? They are getting hammered because they are in the vicinity. Perception is a thing that can contaminate all these states. I don't know if the perception train has left in regards to the Obama Administration, but they finally found a clue that people are angry about this and distancing themselves from BP.
With Attorney General Eric Holder now huddling with Gulf states attorneys general, the uneasy relationship between BP and the Obama administration is taking the ugly but inevitable "see you in court" turn. The White House is so anxious to separate itself from the BP stink that from now on only Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen will do daily briefings on the spill, with no BP exec in sight.
And yet, as The Washington Post's Joel Achenbach and Jerry Markon point out, this creates quite the awkward situation. Obama desperately needs BP to succeed. His status as a leader erodes with each day of gushing-oil webcasts from the sea bottom.
The reality is sitting in for everyone around here. We have the privilege, opportunity to continue to see black crude oil pump its toxins into our Gulf Coast waters until August. This is going to be a long, hot, summer for all of us.
Lastly, we need a shake up in that White House. I am watching Robert Gibbs painfully answer questions about BP and it does not look good. Put it like this, he does not wear answering BP questions well and someone needs to be at these pressers that CAN ANSWERS BP QUESTIONS WELL. David Axelrod was a wonderful strategist for the campaign, but in this White House he has been horrific. And Rahm? You all know the answer to that question.
Videos:
Carol Browner letting the public know, again we are preparing for the worst and BP has an interest for low balling the flow rate of oil into the Gulf:
President Obama introducing his Oil Spill Commission:
Conservationist Rick Steiner gives a great explanation of this blowout on Friday and why he believed the top kill was not working (at the time):
Keith Olbermann's comment on President Obama:
This is why BP needs to keep their CEO away from a mic, more importantly to just fire his ass.
And isn't wonderful that BP's CEO states that, "He wants his life back." How selfish, vain a statement. What about the Gulf Coast region and how the oil is expanding to other states DAILY? What about their lives, livlihood, etc.? They just want their lives back too!!! But you, Mr. Hayward will be ok. You will continue to fly down to the South of France and live life the way you want. You can just turn the whining of the Gulf Region and its U.S.A. citizens off, because you don't have your life staked in this catastrophe. WE, the U.S.A. do.
Cross-posted @ Daily Kos
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President Obama introduces his Oil Spill Commission (Video)
This is a catastrophe that is growing daily and the reality is that this oil will be spilling in the Gulf Region until a relief well is on line in August. A total destruction of a huge part of the United States of America.
But the NOAA forecast was a sober reminder that oil from the unchecked spill, broken up and carried by winds and ocean currents, could threaten a vast area of the U.S. Gulf Coast, including tourism mecca Florida, as well as Cuba and Mexico.
The public anger and frustration over the spill poses a major domestic challenge for Obama, who has been forced to admit publicly that the U.S. government and military do not have the technology to plug the leaking well and must leave this to BP and its private industry partners.
Obama, who made his second visit to the Gulf disaster zone Friday, is sending three of his top energy and environmental officials back there this week. He is trying to fend off criticism that his administration acted too slowly in its response to the spill.
The perception ship of the Obama Administration has SAILED already.
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