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Ear to the Ground

Obama Puts Oil Companies on Blast

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Posted on May 14, 2010
AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais

President Barack Obama walks out the Oval Office on Friday with Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar after a closed meeting with his Cabinet and other senior administration officials on the ongoing effort to stop the BP oil spill.

In a stern rebuke of the irresponsibility that has defined the actions of those involved in the Gulf oil spill, President Barack Obama has revoked the “cozy relationship” that the U.S. government has had with oil companies and criticized those companies’ finger-pointing as part of a “ridiculous spectacle.”

The New York Times:

President Obama angrily denounced the finger-pointing among the three companies involved in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill as a “ridiculous spectacle,” and vowed on Friday to end what he called the “cozy relationship” between the government and the oil industry that has existed for a decade or more.

In sharp remarks during an appearance in the Rose Garden, Mr. Obama announced a review of environmental safeguards for oil and gas exploration to prevent future spills. He said that he “will not tolerate any more finger-pointing or irresponsibility” from the industry or the government over who made the mess or how to fix it.

“This is a responsibility that all of us share,” Mr. Obama said. “The oil companies share it. The manufacturers of this equipment share it. The agencies and the federal government in charge of oversight share that responsibility.”

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MarthaA's avatar

By MarthaA, May 16, 2010 at 9:35 pm Link to this comment

Steve E, May 16 at 11:41 pm,

Amorphous nonsense.  You are a Rush Limbaugh/Glenn Beck “sour grapes” pessimist propagandist helping Rupert Murdoch take over our country.  You should be supporting the President, instead of slinging subjective binary emotional rhetoric to help the Conservative Republican EXTREMISTS that destroyed the economy in the first place in their continuing destructive efforts to destroy the economy for the populace to put the American populace into slavery like was in England prior to the discovery of America; conservatism’s goal.

President Obama never said he would be the best president we have ever had, he said he would certainly make mistakes; he will learn from his mistakes and be better for each and every one of them.  I do not think your condemnation is advantageous as Republicans are always much worse.

IMHO President Obama is far better than the Bush administration led by the far Right-Wing Conservative EXTREMISTS that got our nation into two wars, bankrupted the nation and put the populace in debt.  It is difficult for a new administration to turn the Ship of State when there is an entrenched EXTREMIST Conservative Corporate Republican Right-Wing network and Right-Wing media doing all possible through propaganda and outrageous spending of their monies on lobbyists, etc. to keep the Ship of State from turning.

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By Steve E, May 16, 2010 at 7:41 pm Link to this comment

Yeah, this is much the same routine as was performed over Wall St., Healthcare,
and now Big Oil. Through the blogs I notice many people are now wise to this
bullshite artist. Another example early into Barry’s career as Pres was the “hot
under the collar routine” regarding Israel’s continued encroachment and building
of settlements with the not so distant genocidal war against Palestinians as a
backdrop. The war criminals called Obama’s bluff as well as Hillary’s and told
them to f-off and mind your own business. Now we see Obama is recommending
that we give the Zionist Cabal 200 plus million to top up their missile defense
program called “Iron Dome” as well as our annual donation of 3 billion in military
aid. This guy is somthing else.

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ThomasG's avatar

By ThomasG, May 16, 2010 at 5:04 pm Link to this comment

samosamo, May 15 at 10:06 pm,

The Progressive Democrats, with only academic capital on their side, do give some consideration to the populace, but the Conservative corporate capitalist Grand Old Party Republicans do not give any consideration to the populace at all.  Getting any kind of Republican back into any kind of office only works AGAINST returning political equilibrium to our nation.

It is difficult to understand why members of the populace losing their houses and jobs still think they are Republicans, conservative—no less,  equal with the elite Conservative GOP corporate capitalists that took their homes and their jobs, and never make the association that the two parties are not equal, with one party representative of the capitalists with capital, and the other party being representative of the populace without capital, other than their academic capital received from their education, and can be brought down relatively easy by the Conservative GOP corporate capitalists when they choose.

The Liberals and the Progressives of the Democratic Party are not the cause of the economic and environmental down turn; the new Conservative academic toady Republican-Lite greedy wolves in sheep’s clothing manipulated in on the democratic side are the cause, as they made/make laws to insure the Conservative Republicans take the means of livelihood away from the populace.  We must not throw the baby out with the bath, we must just remove the dirty conservative/moderate scummy water.

Whether they say it or not, ALL Republicans are Conservative, which means that they all are into taking the means of livelihood away from the populace, and giving it to the wealthy capitalists, the corporate Republican banksters, the corporate Republican insurance moguls, the corporate Republican media moguls, the corporate Republican military industry complex, the corporate Republican oil barons, the corporate Republican industry moguls, etc. to purposefully rape and pillage the populace.

The deceitful Political Spectrum that the Conservatives promoted as balance, allowed the Republicans to delete all Liberals/Moderates from the Conservative Republican Party’s autocratic side of the political spectrum, while allowing Conservatives/Moderates to remain on the Liberal Democratic Party’s side of the political spectrum, which threw the political spectrum’s equilibrium EXTREMELY off balance.  Now to balance the political spectrum, all Conservatives/Moderates must be removed from the Left’s Democratic Party, as there are ONLY Conservatives on the Republican side of the political teeter-totter, and massively overwhelming conservative political propaganda in the Conservative owned media against political Liberals and Progressives.

The populace must stand by President Obama, pray for him and see him through the mess the Conservatives are throwing at him to purposefully make him fail, but President Obama will not fail, he will find his way through the maze, but with difficulty because of so many conservative wolves in sheep’s clothing who want to see him fail.

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Leefeller's avatar

By Leefeller, May 16, 2010 at 9:07 am Link to this comment

Accepting accountability may be a first tiny step, 
saying one accepts accountability may be the next step,
then there oh my gosh there is .......doing it? 

So the cowboy/oil guy metaphors will continue from the 10
gallon hats to closing the door so the horsy dost get
out! Next time Obama is doing his closing the door after
the horse is out they could have one with a cowboy riding
by in the back ground!

Has anyone ever seen a cowboy with a 10 gallon hat stuck
up there ass!

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By keymanwst, May 16, 2010 at 4:37 am Link to this comment

Lots-a-luck on this one Mr. PRESIDENT.
 
Gunna fight the mega-corporatists, eh??
 
You might want to check with John F. Kennedy and find out how that strategy worked out for him.

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By samosamo, May 15, 2010 at 6:06 pm Link to this comment

****************

So o has come to the real cross roads, and finding it’s tough that
the oil lobby has played him for the chump that he has so willing
gone along with, now is the time, don’t look around you, o, you
must do what should have been done from that ‘change you can
believe in’ campaign and stand up to them. I said don’t start
looking around you, YOU are the one in the spot light, you are
the one everybody’s eyes are on and though I beleive you have
had more than the ‘9 lives of forgiveness’ from the people, now
would be the time to get it right. Even then, you may not get re-
elected in 2012.

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By par4, May 15, 2010 at 8:54 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Stern rebuke? What a joke. War criminals,looters and polluters own this country.All of us peasants are just supposed to be thrilled to live under their rule.

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MarthaA's avatar

By MarthaA, May 15, 2010 at 8:38 am Link to this comment

So, Corporate Conservative America thinks they have a barrel over President Obama, if the President doesn’t play the way Corporate Conservative America wants him to play, they will give all their money to the Conservative Republicans, which they are already. 

President Obama must have the constitution and fortitude to make his stand, and then stand, therefore, doing what has to be done to protect the American populace and the environment in every which way he can without fear of the outcome from Corporate Conservative elite and academic bullies.

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By SoTexGuy, May 15, 2010 at 6:00 am Link to this comment

In the network news clip of this that I saw.. Ken Salazar made his way to the podium underneath a huge ten-gallon cowboy hat.. Obama almost had to duck around it..

I think that was not just a stunt by Salazar.. he was making plain to all who needed conformation that he works for the Oil Industry and especially it’s deep Texas (and Colorado) roots.

And that our President had to step aside for that demonstration in any small way only further dramatizes the real power of big oil.

Adios!

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By amex, May 15, 2010 at 3:34 am Link to this comment

It is time for revolution!!!!!  All I see is that corrupt congress berating in front of the cameras and then what??  You mean like they did to the banksters?, the oil companies when the price of gas skyrocketed?  Talk is cheap - we need to go in and take them by their wigs and throw them out of the windows and spit on them after they land.

This oil spill is not about a piece of worthless paper crashing, it is a major catastrophe for the world.  Do you want to know what to do Obummer?  Freeze all assets of the three maggot companies, ask all of the world to bring their top engineers to the site, sit down with the head of the army corp of engineers, and provide and execute possibilities with the corp until one of them works.  Take the head of those companies, indite them, put them in front of a jury of their peers and if found guilty - punish them hard!!!!  Take all of the money from the frozen assets and make us whole again.  We can start by employing the 20% unemployed and pay them living wages with real health insurance and give them cleaning devices and let them work for the generation or two that it will take to fix this.

I piss on this American government nightmare!!!

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G.Anderson's avatar

By G.Anderson, May 14, 2010 at 11:44 pm Link to this comment

Talk is cheap….

Put one of those finger pointers behind bars, and I’ll be convinced,... say the CEO of Haliburton..

Put the FBI on it now, have them examine, every e-mail, memo, contract, sales reciept, down to the dust mites in his mattress, there has to be at least one violation he can go to the joint for…

Oh wait, I forget, you did that already with what’s his name…Bernie Madoff….

So you’ll have to come up with something different this time.

Eventually, your going to have to give one up…time to feed the suckers another fish…

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By Shift, May 14, 2010 at 11:11 pm Link to this comment

Obama has already screwed the pooch.  No one believes his lies.  His words are meaningless.  His actions will ultimately support BP.  Attempting to apply reason to pathology is irrational.

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By TheBrix57, May 14, 2010 at 9:57 pm Link to this comment

Does anyone actually think that these glorious spectacles are going to do anything worthwhile? President Obama has been coming out and saying these things are so terrible for most of his administration. Yet, after the cameras are gone, everybody goes back to work as usual and nothing changes.

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Outraged's avatar

By Outraged, May 14, 2010 at 7:18 pm Link to this comment

Quote: “President Obama angrily denounced the finger-pointing among the three companies involved in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill as a “ridiculous spectacle,”

You betcha, they are a RIDICULOUS SPECTACLE.  How else could you describe them…?

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By rollzone, May 14, 2010 at 6:56 pm Link to this comment

hello. gosh, he has had so many harsh words before. he told Wall Street they were being bad. meanwhile he works to expand the power of the Fed and avoid an audit. he told GM that was no way to run a business. he told Fannie and Freddie that was no way to qualify loans. he told the medical insurance industry that was no way to conduct business. he told private student loan companies he knew better. do not make him show his angry face. he is a mocking cheerleader at heart, so BMI must be giving him heartburn; to not be chiding his globalist oil buddies. this is a real irritant for him, while his precious time is running out: to slam through climate bills and immigration bills. here comes more weekend sessions. do the Senators have enough pep pills and the “constitution” to survive?

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By gerard, May 14, 2010 at 4:39 pm Link to this comment

Please take note of what Obama said—and didn’t say:  ““This is a responsibility that all of us share,” Mr. Obama said. “The oil companies share it. The manufacturers of this equipment share it. The agencies and the federal government in charge of oversight share that responsibility.”
  He didn’t say “Our government officials who are responsible for enforcing regulations strictly were bought off.”  Were they?
  He didn’t say “The American citizens—that means you listening to me now—are not responsible, and will not have to pay one red cent out of your tax dollars or otherwise.”  Will we?
  He didn’t say:  “Because this disaster proves beyond the shadow of a doubt the extreme likelihood of accident in such difficult and dangerous operations, I have changed my mind and will now oppose offshore drilling. I will now work harder to get the country off oil dependency.”  Will he?
  Words alone mean nothing.

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By Vincent, May 14, 2010 at 4:32 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

2-3 million gallons of oil are spewing into the Gulf EVERY DAY. Approximately 75 million gallons of oil have already spewed into the ocean. Why aren’t there screaming headlines about this in every newspaper?? -Because Big Oil owns our media and our government.

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By Mike, May 14, 2010 at 12:49 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

His administration had quite a “blast” giving the green light to more than 300 drilling operations without the required permits, and he still wants to drill! This is looking more like a Bush sequel every day. 

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/05/14-1

“SAN FRANCISCO - The Center for Biological Diversity today filed a formal notice of intent to sue Interior Secretary Ken Salazar for ignoring marine-mammal protection laws when approving offshore drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico. Since Salazar took office, the Department of the Interior has approved three lease sales, more than 100 seismic surveys, and more than 300 drilling operations without permits required by the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act that are designed to protect endangered whales and other marine mammals from harmful offshore oil activities. ”

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