I urge everyone to flood the WH email asking Obama to make the GULF his #1 priority right now.

[jillan]

I can't stand to see BP ruin our oceans, underwater life another day....

And I still want to believe in this administration, but I can't stand to watch him act like Bush did during Katrina.
I hear he's pissed - then do something, sir - LEAD!


http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

[Better Today]

1. Sorry, but jobs is still #1. Of course, he's still not making that a priority

either. Oh, nevermind.

[greencharlie]

10. oh...

so he's on the phone every day getting people jobs? The POTUS (any POTUS) doesn't do shit... what they DO DO is they set the tone for the hierarchy of people who DO actually do things.

2 weeks ago Obama should have called a meeting with the Navy, NASA, NOOA... and opened the meeting to private industry.

Call me a homer... but I REFUSE to believe that AMERICAN INGENUITY could not cap this gusher.

Refuse to believe.

BP is treating this thing like an inconvenience, a nuisance.

CLUSTERFUCK.

We've sent submersibles inside the Titanic @ 12,600 feet and brought back forks, knives and tea cups. Don't f-in tell me that they can't send submersibles to the gusher and cap the thing.

EPIC FAIL.

[marions ghost]

17. you speak for me

:thumbsup:

[paparush]

36. Get James Cameron on the site. He gets shit done!

Nobody crosses JC when he's working. He's notorious and tenacious and knows how to work at depths.

[Hawkowl]

47. Bravo!

Indeed it is Obama's epic fail!

And no I am not gleeful. I'm heartbroken. So much of our environment being destroyed while Nero fiddles. I hope this changes Obama so he actually starts doing something instead of flapping his gums and bending over for corporations.

[Uncle Joe]

40. As this catastrophe unfolds employment will take a major hit along with the environment.

Many people and businesses will go bankrupt because of the damage.

[FirstLight]

2. ya I am frustrated too

I thought he was more concerned about the earth for the sake of his kids :shrug:

It is really upsetting on so many levels. how long until the general public gets overloaded and stops watching? Or until something new and shiny dstracts the media?

you know the Haiti earthquake was only covered for so long, then there were scandals to follow, etc...
the disaster continues in the gulf, but the attention span is short and BP wants to make sure we look the other way.

I am wondering if some other leader of the gulf countries will be the one to call him out? This is not just an american issue, all the bordering countries are affected, and who's gonna pay for their relief when they lose all their fish and can't eat?

[jillan]

4. You're right. He needs to get out of his bubble. History will not be kind.

The effects from this tragedy will be with the planet for a very long time.

[Lorien]

8. Those of us in Florida and the other gulf States won't be "forgetting" any time soon

I can assure you. :grr:

[stray cat]

3. What is he suppose to be doing that he isn't? or should he stand on a ship and stare at it

until they figure out a solution?

[Lorien]

7. How about calling in some ADULTS who know what they are doing to stop

the gusher and clean up the mess? Do you honestly think that BP, whose only motive-EVER-has been profit, are competent enough to handle this? Do you approve of their performance so far? This is a National emergency! OUR ocean, OUR beaches, OUR wildlife, OUR health and jobs...NOT just BPs! It should be treated as such. Call in specialists from around the globe, put together a solid plan, implement it and stick BP with the bill. Enough of this pathetic "corporations do it better than government" Reaganesque bullshit!

[butterfly77]

43. How do you know that he hasn't..

or do you believe EVERYTHING the LIBERAL media tells you. ARE THEY IN ON ALL OF THE NEGOTIATIONS?

[Lorien]

5. Doing just that-and contacting my other reps as well

this is a National emergency and should be treated as such!!

[calimary]

16. Posting here so the TOLL FREE Capitol Hill numbers will be part of this thread.

They're in my sig line. Last I checked, they were all still operational. But I haven't checked them in a few weeks.

[dixiegrrrrl]

26. PLEASE con't to post those toll free numbers

when appropriate.
I had been looking for them and had no idea they existed.

Maybe a separate post would be nice????

[calimary]

32. I actually have done that from time to time.

I started compiling them in my sig line because there are times when I post a LOT. Whenever I see a thread with an appeal for a campaign to contact your reps, I usually try to post there, too.

I usually do a three-pronged call campaign, myself:
1) my congressman
2) my senators
3) SOMEBODY ELSE'S congressmember/senators

And YES. CALL. Even if you're a hostage of republi-CON "representation." THEY TOO need to hear from you. They need to hear that they're not surrounded by freeper lemmings and they need to be reminded that they represent YOU, ALSO (even though that one probably won't change anybody's mind). They NEED this awareness. I really worked this during the bush years especially as the war got more unpopular. The bad guys who allegedly "represent" you BADLY NEED to know when your opposition is gaining ground. It's basically psy-ops at that point. Fucking with them. Fucking with their minds. If they start feeling as though the walls are closing in on them, so much the better. Helps usher them toward another sleepless night.

We WANT the bad guys popping the Maalox pills all the time. We WANT them in a dither, looking over their shoulders, distracted, suddenly insecure, unsure of their base or their support anymore. We WANT them nervous and upset and second-guessing their original knuckle-dragger positions. DESTABILIZE THE ENEMY!!! CRITICALLY, URGENTLY, VITALLY IMPORTANT!!!

And yes, when you call in, you don't get to talk to the big guy or gal - you get a staffer, or an intern, or whoever's picking up the phone at that moment. Basically all they do is log the nature of the call - what issue it was about, and a checkmark beside what side the caller took on said issue. The staffers listen to the Great Unwashed so the Senator or Congressmember basically doesn't have to. But they keep track. And if those checkmarks start to add up rather lopsidedly, they take note. All these phone answerer types have to keep logs so their boss knows what rings the public's chimes the most - so the boss knows how best to pander, and to whom. It's basically compiling statistics. So we have to call in and weigh in with what WE care about because then WE affect the numbers. It's all about the numbers.

Also remember, some of these underlings aspire to run for office, themselves. If THEY get it - that there's serious, lopsided unrest out there or strong, vigorous opposition to something the boss is pushing (and the underling probably does, too, if he or she is working for that kind of senator or congressmember), that might plant a seed of instability. If the intern or staffer can see that there's a HUGE amount of opposition, or a noticeably growing opposition, OR the same kinds of support, that WILL influence THEIR thinking on that issue. Plant that seed!

After all - imagine this: what would YOU like to see this group of interns or low-level staffers or phone-answerers be all abuzz about, what would YOU like to see them bringing up in meetings - when they're all assembled by some mid-level supervisor tasked with collecting the input that's come in from voters through the phones? What would YOU like to see THOSE supervisors have to turn around and carry in to the boss's office as a new priority the boss needs to pay more attention to. ESPECIALLY when it's time to assign some OTHER staffer there to start drafting a new bill on something...

PLANT THE SEEDS. DESTABILIZE THE ENEMY. IF YOU DON'T CALL AND WEIGH IN, THERE WILL BE NOTHING TO COUNTER-BALANCE THE KNUCKLE-DRAGGER WHO'S ALSO CALLING IN TO PLAY THE NUMBERS THE BAD GUYS' WAY!!!

[dixiegrrrrl]

34. Well written and just what I needed to hear today, actually.

Was really feeling like I had been under a steam roller, with all this shit going on.

[calimary]

46. Yeah, I know EXACTLY what you mean.

Felt that way myself. But I try (don't always succeed, but most of the time I do keep trying) not to let it stop me from being an irritant. Irritants are good things sometimes. Even the itty bitty ones. They force oysters to make pearls. And sometimes they force a whole line of big ferocious Chinese tanks to stop - just cause there's ONE little guy out there standing in their way, in the middle of the road (there's a photo of that somewhere here - it's pretty famous).

:hug:

[Captain Hilts]

6. Yes. nt

[Cleita]

9. Also, be sure to add that hurricane season is coming up and if he

doesn't want "worse than Katrina" on his watch to be in the history books forever, he'd better bring out everything to fix this including nationalizing those rigs so that government and military can go in with their engineers and experts. Also, Mike Papantonio was talking about super tankers in the world that cleaned up a messy spill in the Arabian Gulf a few years back. Why aren't they coming to our aid?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War_oil_spill

[Lorien]

13. Every time I've brought up the fact that other countries HAVE been able to clean up such

spills and do have the equipment I'm told that no, the leak is impossibly difficult to fix and so is the mess. We can put a man on the moon, wiretap our neighbors, invade and occupy sovereign Nations, produce iphones and iPads...but no, plugging a hole is WAYYYYY too difficult for America!

:crazy:

[marions ghost]

19. Hurricanes are a big worry in this

Just what we need, a big blender to churn it all up and spray it everywhere. :(

[liberal N proud]

11. K&R

[Lorien]

12. How appropriate. I clicked on your link to contact the White House

and all I got was a blank page.

[proudohioan]

24. Thank you....

I needed that one, truly, I did!

:rofl: :spray:(literally!) :rofl:

Not that I think that the subject of the OP is in any way a laughing matter. (Edit to add this)

[rudy23]

14. Obama's jumped the shark with this whole thing. I am FURIOUS with him!!!!

No, there are not the deaths involved that there were with Katrina.

This is still almost as infuriating.

[marions ghost]

20. There will be plenty of deaths

needless deaths, of humans and animals...over time. Just easier to "hide the body" this time.

[rudy23]

22. Yep. Not to mention the death of many Cajun traditions, events, & communities.

We got conned. We have a corporatist, Republican president who doesn't give a shit about humanity.

[Bragi]

28. That's a really good point

Cajun culture *is* closely tied to the Gulf in a true myriad of ways.

Huh. Real bad possibilities.

- B

[rudy23]

30. Check out this article: Oil threatens French-speaking Cajuns, native Choctaw

Very sad, and downright infuriating to me:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100520/ts_alt_afp/usblastoilenergypollutionculturecajun

[Bragi]

45. Wow!

That's very sad indeed. I think the Choctaw fellow has it right: who knew they'd get wiped out by oil before climate-change induced sea level rises could put them underwater?

[edgineered]

15. limits on message box

not to my surprise i was unable to deliver a meaningful post via the wh link. their text box has a limit of 2,500 chars yet it the text box freezes at about 400 ...

thanks for your undying support, go figure

[cilla4progress]

18. Done.

Thank you for the suggestion, and convenient link.

[Bragi]

21. Problem is he has already screwed up politically on this

Obama has politically screwed himself on this issue because a) he made a controversial pro-drilling announcement right before this blowout, and b) because any attempt to try to seriously elevate this now as a priority raises the question about what he's been doing on this for the last month.

I think it safe to say that Obama's failure to grasp the importance of this really does what the right wing hoped -- it has made it his "Katrina". Obama has now matched Bush in terms of fucked-up crisis management.

Because of this, I predict that the White House will not now try to elevate this into the visible and urgent priority that it actually should be.

[rudy23]

23. Well, I guess we'll have to elevate it for them. n/t

[Bragi]

27. A commendable response! /nt

[amborin]

38. more permits granted since the spill:

http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/we-are-endangered-species

[bobbolink]

25. I will continue to email about what is important to me...Low-Income HOUSING..

If the rest of you would make that important to you, I would be able to also work on other issues.

But since this is not something that matters to most of you, I will continue to make it my only issue.

That's what happens when you ignore people.

[crazyjoe]

29. naa

[ljm2002]

31. I just called the WH 1-202-456-1111

to let them know how disappointed I am with the response to date, particularly letting BP remain in charge.

[blindpig]

33. I think the administration has made it's position clear.

Capital is superior to and rules the State.

[slackmaster]

35. I will not participate in a mob of monkeys fucking a football

President Obama is perfectly capable of managing the nation's priorities.

[watercolors]

44. Ditto on that!

nt

[margotb822]

37. Good luck with that

Not that I don't think the administration should hear the people's voices, but I work with White House correspondence, and we are just receiving emails sent last September/October. The volume of mail is so great that nothing is read the day (or week or month) it's sent. It'll flood the inbox...in five months.

[butterfly77]

39. Then everyone will complain that ,he needs...

to work on jobs,terrorism,getting out of Iraq,Don't ask don't tell,Financial reform, work on Afghanistan,Work on Israel,Work on Schools,Work on immigration,Work on climate change bill, did I leave anything out?

[Uncle Joe]

41. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, jillan.

[lpbk2713]

42. K&R

Once it's gone it's gone. We just can't wait to see how bad it gets before we do anything about
it and we sure as hell can't leave the solution up to the greedy finger-pointing bastards.

:kick: