Obama Outraged Over BP, Federal Oil Regulators, Axelrod Says

[Trillo]

Source: Bloomberg via Business Week

May 26, 2010, 6:58 PM EDT

By Edwin Chen and Julianna Goldman

May 26 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama’s outrage over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has reached “the upper scale,” and it is directed at both BP Plc and federal regulators, senior White House adviser David Axelrod said today.

“His anger and frustration about those things, and his anger and frustration about any attempt to obfuscate the amount of damage that’s been done by the company is great,” Axelrod said in an interview on the eve of the release of a report on the spill from Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

...

Obama, in planned remarks tomorrow, will speak about the Salazar report and “lay out some new thoughts on how to proceed on drilling,” White House spokesman Bill Burton said today. On May 28, the president will visit the gulf region for the second time since the oil rig caught fire.

...

The president’s top political adviser declined to quote Obama’s words, saying: “Knowing that Bloomberg is a family news service, I can’t share with you what he said.”



Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-26/obama-outraged-over-bp-federal-oil-regulators-axelrod-says.html

---

In this case it's nice to read of some presidential outrage.

[polichick]

1. Sure hope he's outraged enough to kill his expansion of offshore drilling. nt

[BootinUp]

5. I don't want to burst bubbles here

but if they believe it can be done safely, i.e. with new regs and procedures then it is unlikely it will be stopeed entirely. Of course it will be more expensive to do and that may end up seriously reducing future efforts to drill in the gulf anyways.

[liberation]

19. Well, I also believe I can fly...

... and yet they don't let me fly airliners. I wonder why?

Seriously, who gives a fuck about what people with such crappy security record think can or can't be done "safely?"

[truedelphi]

30. Did you manage to catch "Frontline' last night? A person now needs only

450 hours of flight time, and they can be a captain at one of the regional air plane "hubs" around the US.

Of course, you are not paid particularly well, and you might crash a plane (just as happened in Feb 2009 when the Continental/Colgun airplane went down) but for a while you will be able to fly!

Oh and after that crash, the nasty people in the Senate went about trying to see if they should regulate the industry. But in the end, after the industry lobbyists showed up, they realized that they want this nation to be a Democracy and not some sort of crazy Communist state, where pilots would actually have to know how to fly the equipment they are piloting!

[polichick]

26. The recent expansion can be stopped entirely - it was a crazy move anyway. nt

[Catherina]

28. That would be the change I can believe in. Anything else is just posturing n/t

[polichick]

31. I'm with you on that! nt

[Tansy_Gold]

2. Yes, reading "of" it is nice.

NOW, LET'S SEE IT AND LET'S SEE IT IN FUCKING ACTION, Bloomberg's family news service be damned.





Tansy Gold, who has gone waaaaaaaay beyond "new thoughts on how to proceed on drilling"

[Newsjock]

3. Time for another strongly worded memo!

BP quivers in fear.

[Myrina]

13. +100

Indeed. Next thing you know, mean old POTUS is going to send the oil execs to bed without their caviar!

[charlesg]

4. Axelrod said MMS itself "needs a top kill of its own"

When does that start?

[BootinUp]

6. top kill may enter the lexicon

as a sarcastic term to mean ending a clusterfuck, ending corruption, etc.

[Tansy_Gold]

7. And will it be televised? n/t

[jdlh8894]

11. Only the Revolution.

[skeptical cynic]

22. "The revolution will not be televised"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p43YYovonS0

[bergie321]

8. Great

He is outraged. But will he DO something to CHANGE it? Or will he allow Republicans to dictate policy yet again?

[BootinUp]

10. What policies have they dictated

during Obamas presidency? Before you answer, consider that Obama wrote a whole book about the kinds of policies he favors long before he was elected.

[Tansy_Gold]

18. Yes, but that book was in the PAST and we have to look FORWARD n/t

[Nite Owl]

15. Oh I'm sure it will need to be

bipartisan. Can't do anything without consulting and begging the GOP first.

[Canuckistanian]

9. Outrage is cheap

Let's see some ACTION.

[Donnachaidh]

17. Poutrage is easy to do in a limo on the way to a fabulous fundraiser!

And none of the unwashed masses can see into those blackened windows. Makes it easy to tell a minion to call a press conference on your *outrage*....

[Canuckistanian]

24. One's priorities simply must NOT be changed

Merely because of some "left-wing whiners".

Rahm is in the limo now, tapping his watch.....

[Cal Carpenter]

12. Honestly I'm not holding my breath

When I first saw this, I felt relief, for about 5 seconds. And as I thought about it and read more of the article, it sunk in that this is just talk, and nothing that will amount to more than a 'sternly worded letter'. Maybe some regulations will change, maybe a few will even be enforced for a moment, at least until people stop paying such close attention, and then it will be business as usual. It always has been, so why would it be different this time?

This will do no more to protect the interests of the *people* of this country than the bailout did, or healthcare, or education, or anything else that has been dabbled in during Obama's tenure.

It's beyond party, it's beyond Obama as an individual, it's just how it's gonna fucking be. He's not gonna challenge the system that makes things his way. He can't, or he wouldn't be where he is.

I suppose his words tomorrow will speak for themselves, and then in 3 months or 6 months or a few years from now we'll see what's really different.

:shrug:

[Paul E Ester]

14. Obama fundraising at the Gettys

How awkward, to be so outraged, it spoils the mood. President Obama went to an exclusive VIP dinner at the mansion of wealthy oil heir Gordon Getty and his wife, Ann, last night according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Gordon is the son of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty. The event at his home required a $35,200 donation per couple.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/26/MNOJ1DKAIQ.DTL

Continuing the theme, it's vacation week at the Whitehouse, Rahms in Israel for a long scheduled family vacation to celebrate the bar mitzvah of his son for the memorial day week holiday.

http://www.dallasblog.com/201005261006583/dallas-blog/rahm-emanuel-takes-a-trip-to-israel.html

I get the feeling the seriousness of the disaster has not sunk in...

[Donnachaidh]

16. Getty fundraising more important than those fishing COMMUNITIES huh?

Get set for the next visit - they'll be THROWING *CHANGE* out the limo window as they speed to the next elitist fundraiser.

[gateley]

25. We need to help Boxer all we can. If he'd cancelled and gone down to the

spill I know it would have been a good thing, but looking longer term we need to keep Boxer in office so we can GET those regulations and restrictions passed.

It was a tough call, I'm sure, but those fishing communities need Boxer in Washington fighting for them, too.

I just wish he would have gone down again sooner than tomorrow. I know he went at the outset, but he needs to talk to those people. Every day that passes the frustration and fear and anger grow. I'm glad he's going tomorrow, and hope he continues to visit frequently.

[Tansy_Gold]

20. But at least it's not John McCain's birthday party! n/t

[truedelphi]

29. These types of dinners must be such a dilemna for someone like Di Fienstein

Should I go off with these people and meet my old oil buddies, and our President, and risk missing an evening at the Opera with George Schultz and his wife?

Decisions, decisions. It must be loverly to be that well off.

[hay rick]

21. Look in the mirror outrage is

the finest kind of outrage and the only one worth having here. Before Obama considers the mote in BP's or MMS' eye he needs to consider the beam in his own. The appointment of Salazar. Yawning instead of acting when the MMS scandals broke. Jumping on board the expanded offshore drilling bandwagon...

A real PRESIDENTIAL response would be to fess up on the error of his (and our) oil-dependent ways and make an order-of-magnitude change in our energy/environmental policies. Deepwater Horizon can be Obama's Katrina (the MSM is SO pushing that outcome) or it can be Obama's Sputnik!

[glitch]

23. He's got a lot of allies among We the People, should he decide to accept them.

and take on the many, many, many, criminal corporations.

[Politicub]

27. I'm glad he could get that out. Maybe he'll feel better now.

Mr. Axelrod and President Obama can send a sternly worded letter to BP.

:eyes:

[Jefferson23]

32. There is a host of environmental groups sponsoring a tv ad that

features the rig exploding, then the words, YOU CAN"T REWIND AN OIL SPILL, then, BUT YOU CAN PAUSE THE NEXT ONE.

Arctic ocean drilling is a mistake.

Call President Obama and tell him to stop Shell Oil from drilling in the Arctic Ocean.

202 456 1414

[polichick]

33. If the prez doesn't stop that and cancel his expansion of offshore drilling...

...we'll know exactly who he works for.

[Nihil]

36. You say that as if there was doubt ...

> If ... we'll know exactly who he works for.

He works for the corporations who put him where he is now.

He works for the financiers, the arms manufacturers, the fossil fuel
producers, the car industry, the pharmaceutical conglomerates, the
media moguls and the agricultural giants.

He is the POTUS and so he works for the same people who put him
there as their most recent ambassador to the world at large as most
of his predecessors, the figurehead for the decision makers and their
collection of bought & sold politicians.

Did you really think that things would change just because the skin tone
of the lead spokesman is different this time around?
:shrug:

[polichick]

37. Silly me - I thought he might answer to all those people who worked their butts off...

...to get him elected.

[alp227]

34. Good, but he should've been outraged a few weeks ago. n/t

[hayu_lol]

35. Axlerod, last time I thought about it, was never...

elected to anything.

If the Prez is mad, then he should be man enough to tell the people that himself.

[Arkana]

38. I purposefully did not read the responses to this thread, because I know what they said without

even looking.

Still, it's clear that Obama's getting more and more angry as the days go by--and I think that Friday will be the start of something big.