In 2005, Hurricane Katrina came ashore in Mississippi. Three days prior to the Hurricane making landfall, President Bush declared it a disaster area.
Less than 5 years later, an oil rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico spewing the oil into the gulf on Earth Day. 5,000 barrels of oil per day is shooting up out of the earth into the Gulf.
During those nine days that the oil was flowing into the Gulf, President Obama was traveling around the midwest trying to sell Americans on Financial Reform and demonizing Wall Street. At the beginning of his campaign against Wall Street, the SEC said they were investigating Goldman Sachs.
In the midst of those nine days Arizona passed a law banning illegal aliens or foriegn invaders from Arizona. While doing one of his speeches in the midwest on Financial Reform, Obama became Anti Government claiming that the law was misdirected and claimed that this law will mean that if you're an illegal invader, and you take your children to get ice cream, you will be harrassed even though your ancestors may have been here for generations. This is a flat out lie on Obama's part, but it's interesting that he would lie and disparage the Arizona lawmakers making him one of those anti government domestic terrorists that they've been complaining about since the Health Care vote. Still the oil flowed.
Also during this nine days, Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano testified and when asked whether the borders were safe in Arizona, she said first that they were as safe as they've ever been. People are being murdered. Ranchers, officers of the law, and even some of the illegal invaders. In addition, kidnappings are running rampant. Senator Lindsay Graham pushed the question again and Napolitano said that the question was not a fair one. Still the oil flowed.
Finally, nine days after the explosion, we still don't know what caused the explosion, but Napolitano did do a flyover of the leaking oil rig where 11 people are presumed dead. The oil has reached the mouth of the Mississippi and the shores of Louisiana and Mississippi.
Animals are being covered in oil. The fishing season is upon the area and the fishermen are saying that this will ruin their businesses.
While this oil is flowing, let's take a look back again. It's August 2005. All eyes are on the Gulf of Mexico. There is a hurricane brewing. It's getting stronger. But we don't know if it's going to go to Mexico, Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, or turn towards Florida and Alabama.
The hurricane continues to churn out in the gulf and grows stronger. Finally, nearly a week before the hurricane, named Katrina, actually hits shore, the tracking shows that it will hit anywhere from Louisiana to Florida. The presumed track is narrowing as the hurricane moves ever closer. The only question now is how far east it will turn in.
Three days prior to landfall, it's pretty well certain it's going to hit Louisiana and Mississippi. The experts are now questioning how large of a storm it will be, although it's known it will be a very large one. Just how large is in question. President Bush declares a state of emergency for the states on the Gulf Coast. He urges people to evacuate.
Twelve hours before landfall, Governor Blanco declares a state of emergency and tells everyone to evacuate. Mayor Nagin urges people to evacuate and opens the SuperDome to those that have no place to go.
The hurricane makes landfall in Mississippi. While it was a Category 5 in the gulf when it hits shallow water before making landfall the strength drops and it's a Category 2 when it hits land.
We all know what happened from there. People in New Orleans waited for the government to come and get them. 1,000 people died. 2,000 buses sat empty in a parking lot. Bush was called a racist for allowing so many black people to die. News programs showed the looting going on following the hurricane and they showed mainly minorities doing the looting. Again, racism was yelled out. Even Lewis Farrakhan jumped in with his conspiracy theory that Bush had ordered the levies blown up.
Liberals complained that it took President Bush two days to go to New Orleans. Yet, the hardest hit areas in Mississippi were rarely mentioned and not given the attention that New Orleans received.
Back to present day. Where are the news reports complaining that Obama has not been to the Gulf during any of the nine days since the explosion? Why has he not visited New Orleans? Is he a racist? Incompetent? Why has it taken nine days for Napolitano to fly over the region? Is the Federal Government ignoring New Orleans again?
Today, on the tenth day, Obama decides to suspend all new oil and natural gas leases off shore. It's an interesting response considering that there are 819 active oil rigs in the gulf and there have been over 6,600 rigs in the gulf.
Once again, the liberals are quick to accuse when Bush is President, but duck and cover for their President.
You're welcome to comment.
Brett
3 comments:
Regarding the response to the the BP oil spill disaster, Here's the timeline as I've compiled it from several sources including treehugger and TPM. I see no comparison to Katrina where the catastrophe was slow in developing and clearly a government responsibility. The BP disaster was sudden and was private industry's (BP and Transocean) responsibility until it became clear that they were incapable of handling the problem they had created:
Wed Apr 21 2300 - Rig Explodes.
Thu Apr 22 - Coast Guard on Site. NASA/NOAA monitoring via satellite.Environmental damage is believed to be minimal, due to the fact that Deepwater Horizon is an exploration rig owned by Transocean and operated by BP, as opposed to a production rig. In a statement from Transocean there is no mention of any possible spill. BP's chief executive, Tony Hayward, says BP will do "everything in our power to contain this oil spill and resolve the situation as rapidly, safely and effectively as possible."
Fri April 23: The day after the rig sank, Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry said that no oil appeared to be leaking from the well head at the ocean floor, nor was any leaking at the water's surface. However, Landry said crews were closely monitoring the rig for any more crude that might spill.
Sat April 24: Late afternoon, the Coast Guard officials said an estimated 1,000 barrels of oil per day were coming out of the well head on the ocean floor, 5,000 feet under water. BP's chief operating officer, Doug Suttles, says, "Over the next several days, we should determine which method (of handling the spill) is the best one to follow"
Mon Apr 26 Search-and-rescue operations have been suspended with 11 people still missing, while underwater robots have discovered at least two leaks that are dumping an estimated 1,000 barrels of oil per day in the sea. BP says in a press release it is 'accelerating offshore oil recovery and continuing well control efforts. Improved weather "combined with the light, thin oil we are dealing with has further increased our confidence that we can tackle this spill offshore." says BP chief exec Tony Hayward.
April 27: After underwater robots fail to stop the flow of oil, the coast guard floats the idea of containing pools of oil in containment booms and then setting it on fire. BP says it will begin drilling a new relief well near the spill site later in the week; the process could take months. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announce an investigation of the explosion.
Wednesday, April 28 Stopping the leak is so technically challenging that experts realize it could take months. U.S. Coast Guard suggests best possible solution is to set the oil slick on fire. Later, they do so, releasing a huge plume into the sky. Late Wednesday, the Coast Guard announces that 5,000, not 1,000, barrels a day of oil are spilling, citing a new National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration estimate. At the same press conference as the Coast Guard announcement, BP COO Doug Suttle disputes the new estimate and argues that a newly discovered leak does not change the rate of the spill. He showed a diagram showing where the leaks are and said the newly discovered leak is upstream from the previous leaks.
April 29: Suttle acknowledged on the Today Show that the government's new estimate may be accurate. In a Rose Garden statement, Obama said the Administration will use "every single available resource" to address the spill, including the military. He also says BP will have to pay the costs. By end of day, the oil slick has reached the Mississippi Delta.
Friday, April 30 Obama puts a halt on any new offshore drilling
Well, you're the second one that understand my sarcasm. It's my fault for not making it clear. So, let me add abit here. Hurricane Katrina was not Bush's fault. However, I will disagree with you about it developing slowly. This storm was brewing for nearly two weeks. Once it was known with reasonable certainty where it would hit, Bush declared the area and emergency and urged everyone to evacuate. Governor Blanco, on the other hand, didn't call for evacuation until 12 hours before the storm hit.
I disagree that it's governments responsibility before the storm hit. The Fed's (Bush) told them to evacuate three days before it hit. Blanco told them to evacuate 12 hours before it hit. They ignored her. the people sat there waiting for the government to come and rescue them instead of getting off their butts and moving to safer ground.
What did government do? Local government opened up the superdome to those hadn't left and were now watching the rain come down. But they didn't provide enough water. Then it took them five days to get water to them.
Local government left 2,000 buses to rot and drown rather than using them in an emergency to evacuate people that weren't smart enough to heed the previous two government warnings not to mention the constant barrage by the weather channels.
On Tuesday, following the storm, Bush, Blanco and Nagin met. Bush offered a deal to Blanco for the Feds to come in and help. It was a state problem to that point. The Feds couldn't go in yet by law. Blanco didn't accept the deal, but to her credit she didn't reject the deal. Instead, she took 24 hours to decide to accept the deal, then the feds moved in.
Natural or man caused, doesn't make any difference. Politicians positioning themselves in the midst of a disaster of any kind is nothing more than a photo op.
If Bush wanted to be there, give him a helicopter and haul people out. Give him a hand truck and let him haul water to those waiting.
The Democrats controlled the message on this disaster and vilified Bush.
If Obama was to go to the Gulf, it should only be if he could help. Slap on a wet suit and carry a plug to the source of the leak and plug it up. If he can't do that, stay out of the way and let the workers do it. Politicians only get in the way.
Interesting that yesterday Obama said he had no plans to go to the Gulf, but now that several news programs asked if his lack of response was going to make this his Katrina, he's decided to make an appearance on Sunday morning.
This is nothing short of an admission that he didn't do as he expected Bush to do five years ago.
It's funny to me that my sarcasm on an event and the similarities to a previous event is missed, but then now some of what I said is beginning to play itself out. I wasn't even pessimistic enough to think that it would play out like this.
Defending Obama on this while blaming Bush for Katrina shows the bias ingrained in some.
Brett
That first line should have said "that didn't understand my sarcasm".
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