Has the Obama Administration worked any harder on the Oil Leak than Bush* did on Katrina?

[Toots]

While the Oil leak has been slow in building and has not endangered any US city in such a way that Katrina did, if left to spew like it has results can be predicted. Results were predicted on Katrina five days before the hurricane actually hit land and yet Bush* did absolutely nothing to prepare. While I am not suggesting in any way this is Obama's Katrina, I am very disappointed in the government's response or should I say complete lack of response.

[The Damned]

1. Well, since Bush did Diddly Fucking Squat on Katrina.....

...I'd have to say yes.

[stray cat]

2. Given our elected officials - how many of them have the expertise to work a mile under the ocean

to stop oil from gushing out of an exploded mess? The pressure at the floor crushes submarines into scrap metal. I've heard DUers want to call in the national guard - seriously what are they going to do to solve this mess?

Prove you care by solving the problem - if you can't solve it why do you think DC has a solution in their back yard. We elect politicians who generally have no concept of science or engineering and even the scientific "experts" haven't solved the problem.

[tsuki]

3. And in a month, they could find anyone, anywhere. nt

[Johonny]

12. they did the worlds experts are the ones that made the leak

Just saying if you privatize everything, it's no surprise you have to lean heavily on private industry. Who would he call? The military has no expertise in closing leak one mile under the sea, NASA, I mean not even NOAA has any. The people that do this stuff are the people that made this.

[AndyA]

4. It's difficult to really say, since the two incidents are so different.

Katrina devastated an American city, and put thousands of people out on the streets with no food, water, or shelter.

The Gulf oil leak isn't as devastating to people at this point, but its long-term issues could very well have as many, if not more, implications.

The bottom line is this: If we don't have the knowledge and resources to deal with an emergency, and the oil companies don't have the knowledge, resources, and safety systems to deal with an emergency, no one has any business drilling that deep. Period.

Permits should have never been issued, and any and all permits in process should be stopped immediately, including those up in Alaska. Until the oil industry can prove to us 100% that they can deal with an emergency effectively, and that they have redundant safety systems in place to prevent accidents of this nature, they have no business asking for permits to drill.

So far, the Obama Administration has responded to emergencies much better than Bushco, so I would say were the Gulf leak not unprecedented, yes, they are doing a better job.

[Toots]

5. I thought the Oil Industry "Proved 100%" this spill could never happen.

How would it be possible to prove 100% a spill could never occur?

[AndyA]

7. The oil industry just SAID the likelihood of such a thing was remote.

No one ever really bothered to look into it, they just took their word for it. No one can PROVE 100% percent that such a spill could never happen. That's the point. We just have no business doing this. I understand there is risk in everything, but now we've gunked up the Gulf, what's next? Alaska? The Atlantic? Then the Pacific?

Before long, the oceans will not be able to function as they must, and life on this planet will cease to exist. No oil will be necessary then. The oceans play a very important role in climate control, providing food, etc., so we can't risk any more accidents of this nature.

[ixion]

6. In my opinion: No.

There's been a great deal of talk, and no action, as usual.

[chelsea0011]

8. Let's compare apples and oranges

[Winterblues]

15. Two MAJOR disasters and two Government responses

YEP apples and oranges..

[chelsea0011]

23. Why not throw in the wars while we are at it. And maybe the financial collapse.

You can't compare a hurrican to a private oil well blowing up. One's a natural disaster which the government is wholley responsible to deal with and the other is a private company that should be held criminally responsible for. Now if you want to talk about lax federal regulation inspections, I'm with you. But if you are going to compare a hurricane which happens yearly with something that is completely new than it is apples and oranges.

[madmax]

9. National Geographic

Tweety interviewed an oceanographer from National Geographic yesterday she said the government can't do anything. We don't have the subs, or equipment. Other countries do - Russia, France and a few others. She basically said that we are at the mercy of BP because ironically they DO have the equipment. Now if they only knew how!

[Winterblues]

16. When the Exxon spill happened the government had people on site

immediately to help in clean up. They washed the beaches and birds and sea otters and boomed the oil best they could and had skimmers in place. They worked alongside Exxon. How many government paid workers are on this spill?

[madmax]

19. No problem for the clean up

it's getting down to the gusher that we can't do. Pisses me off that other countries have spent the money for this type of technology and we haven't. Why? We're spending, and spending money on WARS.

[phleshdef]

21. It seems to me that a clean up effort would be futile right now.

The immediate worry is to stop the gusher. We can "scrub the beaches" all day long but that doesn't help if more and more oil is just spilling out and heading the same direction.

[WeDidIt]

10. You first call this Obama's KAtrina in your subject line

then say you aren't saying what you just said.

:crazy:

[freddie mertz]

11. I think he should be doing a lot more.

But don;t know how to compare it to Bush and Katrina.

[Barack_America]

13. You seem to not recognize the precedent for oil companies cleaning up spills.

[Blaukraut]

14. Katrina was 'fixable' by the government. This is not.

As someone else pointed out downthread, NG has said that our government does not have the resources it needs to stop the leak because of years of de-regulation. So I believe the Obama administration is doing all it can within its power, which basically is limited to clean-up. They need to appeal to other nations that have the technology to come to our aid. It's pretty likely that this is being done already.

[madmax]

24. +1

[Winterblues]

17. How many FEM A employees are on site to help in containment and clean-up?

:shrug:

[impik]

18. No. We all know that Obama is worse than Bush

[phleshdef]

20. What part of "the government was not prepared to handle something this big?"...

...are people not fucking getting?

Even in the most cynical of views of BP or the Obama administration, there is no logical reason to believe they are "doing nothing". There would be no political or financial gain for that. Just because the President isn't in your face, personally calling you on the fucking phone to give you updates on the situation, does not mean they aren't doing all that can currently be done with regard to maintaining public safety and regard to not making the situation worse than it all ready is.

I've heard the same idiots criticizing the Obama admins response on this call for some really stupid actions, like blowing it up or just setting all the oil on fire. I've heard the same idiots rage on about reporters not being allowed to enter a disaster zone where people are in fact working to try to do all they can to minimize this.

Its very apparent that we can't handle a situation like this. It creates a good argument for a complete ban on offshore drilling of this magnitude.

[marions ghost]

22. It's a national disaster of epic proportions

Obama cannot remain silent too much longer. He is on the verge of losing a lot of support if he doesn't stand up for Truth vs BP coverup.

He has to stop the emotional bleeding if he can't stop the well from bleeding.