Friday, May 28, 2010
Obama's Katrina
5/28/2010
The fawning liberal media has finally gotten around to questioning whether or not the BP crisis is Obama’s Katrina. While it only took 72 hours for the same media to blame the Bush administration for the suffering and delayed response to the Katrina disaster.
Upon comparing the two events, one could only wish this was Obama’s Katrina and told him that back in April. If it were his Katrina, he would have prepared ahead of time for it and immediately moved this to his highest priority.
There are major differences between the two events. Perhaps the greatest difference is the fact that the BP incident was certainly 100% caused by (man) private industry, but the permit & licensing fees and enormous amount of taxes paid by companies in the off shore oil business are to be used , in part, by the federal government to minimize the impact of such disasters. While the media and the administration were wagging their fingers at BP, the federal government was supposed to be implementing the In-situ Burn Plan that has introduced by NOAA’s Oil Spill – Behavior, Response and Planning report back in 1997. Furthermore, as pointed out on the Mark Levin shown on May 24, 2010, the federal government and specifically the President is given the following three options in the Oil Pollution Act of 1990: 1) Perform cleanup immediately (“federalize” the spill) 2) Monitor the response efforts of the spiller 3) Direct the spiller’s cleanup activities.
Katrina, on the other hand, was mostly a natural disaster that was made worse by what man did not do to fortify the levees, which dates back to 1969, all the way up to the local government’s failure to make and carry out some key decisions immediately before and after the storm moved out of the area. Unlike the federal government’s complete and immediate authority involving oil spills, the federal government is not allowed to intervene in storm disasters (i.e. dispatch FEMA) until the state approves it. On top of that, New Orleans had been squandering the funds that were supposed to be used to fortify the levies for 30 years, they did a horrible job of evacuating the city and waited too long to authorize federal assistance. If you believe local government was not responsible for much of the outcome, just compare the prevention and recovery efforts in Louisiana to Alabama and Mississippi. Click HERE for a response timeline for both disasters (hit your browser's back button to return to the blog)
As you will see, Bush responded 100% faster, as he was able to take action before the disaster. He also arrived on the scene almost 250% faster and took responsibility for his shortcomings 230% faster than Obama took any responsibility for the federal government’s shortcomings. While it only took 72 hours for the media to begin blaming Bush, it took five weeks for Obama to face any criticism.
There is scant debate whether or not there is a liberal media bias, even among liberals. Unfortunately, the question many are now faced with is if this administration deliberately chose to politicize rather than federalize this spill. If the answer is no, we are left to wonder if they ever knew their own responsibility or were just unwilling or able to help with this crisis.
Upon comparing the two events, one could only wish this was Obama’s Katrina and told him that back in April. If it were his Katrina, he would have prepared ahead of time for it and immediately moved this to his highest priority.
There are major differences between the two events. Perhaps the greatest difference is the fact that the BP incident was certainly 100% caused by (man) private industry, but the permit & licensing fees and enormous amount of taxes paid by companies in the off shore oil business are to be used , in part, by the federal government to minimize the impact of such disasters. While the media and the administration were wagging their fingers at BP, the federal government was supposed to be implementing the In-situ Burn Plan that has introduced by NOAA’s Oil Spill – Behavior, Response and Planning report back in 1997. Furthermore, as pointed out on the Mark Levin shown on May 24, 2010, the federal government and specifically the President is given the following three options in the Oil Pollution Act of 1990: 1) Perform cleanup immediately (“federalize” the spill) 2) Monitor the response efforts of the spiller 3) Direct the spiller’s cleanup activities.
Katrina, on the other hand, was mostly a natural disaster that was made worse by what man did not do to fortify the levees, which dates back to 1969, all the way up to the local government’s failure to make and carry out some key decisions immediately before and after the storm moved out of the area. Unlike the federal government’s complete and immediate authority involving oil spills, the federal government is not allowed to intervene in storm disasters (i.e. dispatch FEMA) until the state approves it. On top of that, New Orleans had been squandering the funds that were supposed to be used to fortify the levies for 30 years, they did a horrible job of evacuating the city and waited too long to authorize federal assistance. If you believe local government was not responsible for much of the outcome, just compare the prevention and recovery efforts in Louisiana to Alabama and Mississippi. Click HERE for a response timeline for both disasters (hit your browser's back button to return to the blog)
As you will see, Bush responded 100% faster, as he was able to take action before the disaster. He also arrived on the scene almost 250% faster and took responsibility for his shortcomings 230% faster than Obama took any responsibility for the federal government’s shortcomings. While it only took 72 hours for the media to begin blaming Bush, it took five weeks for Obama to face any criticism.
There is scant debate whether or not there is a liberal media bias, even among liberals. Unfortunately, the question many are now faced with is if this administration deliberately chose to politicize rather than federalize this spill. If the answer is no, we are left to wonder if they ever knew their own responsibility or were just unwilling or able to help with this crisis.
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1 comments:
Hi Ring,
Sorry I've not yet made the time to tell you what a great job you're doing here. I'm especially appreciative of your efforts when I consider how very busy you are. While I clearly agree with each of your articles to date, this one rings (npi) particularly loud and clear. To wit, I think this is the first time I've heard someone who is not from here in "Katrina's Ground Zero" admit that New Orleans never was actually hit by the storm. But, instead it was flooded three days later when one of the neglected levees gave way to the higher water levels caused by the passing storm. I'm not disputing the devastation thousands of folks ultimately suffered as a result of the floods. However, I don't blame former President Bush. I do believe the overwhelming responsibility lies at the feet of all the crooked Louisiana politicians who never properly maintained the levees; and, who never got those thousands of folks left in the city on available buses and out of town before the flood waters came in and trapped them there! Thank You. Love to you and "G" and "C".
Popi
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