Time will tell if what I am saying is exaggeration or prescient... :D

Michale.....

(FTR - I'd agree w/ pro-active.)

That's a far cry from And Obama seems to be taking his cues from BP.

Forgot about your tendency to exaggerate. But I'm glad you're reading some German!

David

Read some of the reports coming from the Left??

Look at some of the Left Media reports out of Europe..

Der Spiegel, who literally FAWNED over Obama in the past, says he is on track to becoming the 21st Century Jimmy Carter...

Look over at the Banter Site SUBURBAN GUERRILLA and see how the like Obama. Just don't tell them I sent ya.. :D hehehehehehe

Seriously, it's not just me saying what I am saying... All up and down the Left spectrum, people are saying what a wuss Obama turned out to be...

So, if you plan on riding the Obama bandwagon, it will likely be a very lonely ride...

Michale...

Sure would have been nice if Obama got something legally binding saying that BP wouldn't try to evade paying by litigational methods...

Sure would have been nice if Obama got $20 Billion UP FRONT instead of over 4 years...

Sure would have been nice if Obama told BP, "Frak you. You aren't going to do right by Americans and everyone knows it. Your American operations are now OUR American operations. You're fired. Have a nice day and get the frak outta my sight."

THAT is leadership...

"Gee Whiz, BP.. Sorry to be so brutal on you.. But if we can get $5 Billion up front and if you can SAY you'll give us another $15 billion in a few years, we promise to make sure you can still exist and make $207 BILLION a year... Gee whiz, thanks guys.."

THAT is what Obama did...

Michale.....

It'd be nice if that were true. And that's part of what I'm arguing for. But you've got the Republican party issuing notes on how to politicize the issue.

And Obama seems to be taking his cues from BP.

Huh?

Really. It's easy to see how Joe Barton is taking his cues from BP. But I've seen nothing that would indicate Obama is.

This is an American Vs BP issue..

And Obama seems to be taking his cues from BP.

Nationalize the fuckers.

That's my solution...

Michale.....

Trivia question: Do you know who reduced the settlement to $500 million?

Hint: Your favorite appointed conservatives.

And yeah, most signs look like the Gulf Spill is gonna get a lot worse.

So why are Republicans not helping? Why are they instead apologizing to the oil industry and doing little but criticize President Obama?

How is that "putting country first" as you'd say?

Cheers
David

Yea, but nothing in writing. No legally binding document NOT to try and weasel out of the verbal pledge.

You know the initial settlement for the EXXON VALDEZ?? $5 Billion..

You know what they actually have to pay?? A little over 500 million...

Nothing but American public opinion is holding BP to anything..

Consider what's ahead. The seabed floor around the Blowout Preventer is collapsing. There are hundreds of pipes in this sub-seabed floor. They are on the verge of collapsing. When they go, there won't be any more pipe between the Gulf Of Mexico and the largest oil deposit in the hemisphere.

Get that?? There will be a DIRECT breach between the ocean and the oil deposit. It will make the current catastrophe look like CW's car problem by comparison. (Sorry, CW... Don't mean to mitigate your problem.) And no relief wells in the world will stop it then..

Second... Hurricane season is here. It's projected to be an extremely above average season. Not as bad as 2005, but close... Now you get a few hurricanes going thru this area, A-All work stops.. B- All of that oils is swirled around and drudged up and thrown up in to the atmosphere and then comes down over the entire Southeast US in the form of oily rain.. So, forget a problem with the Gulf COAST.. Now we have oil-related catastrophes stretching hundreds if not thousands of miles inland from Texas on over thru Florida and up the eastern coast past Virgina...

Now, I axe you.... Do you think that BP is **NOT** going to run for bankruptcy cover??

If you do, then I would want what yer smokin'.... :D If I was a smoker, that is...

Americans are going to get shafted...

But, hay.. At least Obama got us $5 Billion, right??

Whooopppeeee Deeeeee Dooo Dooo

Michale.....

Idunno, Michale. When I look at the 2 sides, I see Obama getting BP to take responsibility for the spill.

Then I compare this to the GOP - with folks like Joe Barton - apologizing to BP or trying to get the government to pay. WTF?!

I thought you of all people would want someone who could be tough on the oil industry and not someone bending over backwards trying to apologize to them.

Where's FOX news coming down on these corporate shills? Remember how hard they came down on Obama just for observing the custom of bowing?

You'd think they'd go after people like Barton for sucking on a big BP nozzle :).

Cheers
David

But the relevant part of it is for a period of months or years..

Climate Change is much longer term than that...

Put another way..

You can take a hose, put your finger over the end and spray it up in the air to make it "rain"...

Is that Climate Change?? No, it's a climactic effect.. :D

Michale

No, it is not...

Nuclear winter is a predicted climatic effect of nuclear war. It has been theorized that severely cold weather and reduced sunlight for a period of months or years could be caused by detonating large numbers of nuclear weapons, especially over flammable targets such as cities, where large amounts of smoke and soot would be ejected into the Earth's stratosphere.

We're not talking "weather" that changes from day to day, week to week, year to year or even decade to decade...

Climate is something that happens over centuries or millennia....

The simple fact is, we don't even have a firm grasp of the totality of the planet's climate to begin with...

How the hell are we supposed to CHANGE what we can barely understand???

It's a fool's errand to even try..

We might as well try and change the orbit of the earth for all the capability we have to change the climate..

Michale.....

Uh..

Nuclear winter is not climate change?

Oh, I didn’t mean to imply you were ignoring me!

I just thought you may not be exactly enamoured with the fact that my foul mood of late has spilled over onto the pages of your HP columns. It’s just that I’ve had about enough of all the negativity coming from people all over HP and I haven’t been missing too many opportunities to let at least some of those responsible for all of the nonsense over there know it. It makes me feel better, sort of ... in future, I’m going to try to be more selective and reserve my wrath for only the most egregious nonsense. :)

I am glad, though, to know that the little “message from webpage” that pops up on my screen to tell me that there is a “stack overflow at line: 11" every time I come here to your site or click on anything here which I have to close by clicking 'OK' before I can do anything else is not some sort of sign that I should just go away! :)

(RANT)
If I hear "Climate Change Policy" one more time, I am going to go positively bat-shit!!

The utter arrogance of humans to think that they can actually effect the planet's climate is mind-boggling..

Now, a policy that addresses how we can respond or react to Climate Change makes sense.. THAT is logic-driven policy.

But the Climate Change Policy that the Democrats are pushing is an attempt to control the planet's climate.

Why don't we have a Solar Storm policy to change solar storms?? Why don't we have a Planetary Rotation policy?? Hell, let's go all out and have a The Sun Rises In The East And Sets In The West policy..

There is absolutely NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER that mere mortals can affect the climate of planet Earth.

So why are the Democrats intent on bankrupting this country to try and accomplish just that??

"Climate Change Policy"... Jeeesh....
(/RANT)

Thank you. We now return you to the kinder gentler Michale... :D

Michale.....

Au Contraire' I do believe I have quoted Monty Python a few times before..

And you are correct.. It's the BRING OUT YER DEAD sequence from Monty Python And The Holy Grail.. :D It loses something without the full audio..

Michale....

Anyway, just a warning, there may be no post Thursday -- the wife's car needs emergency work so I'll be crawling underneath it with tools for most of tomorrow. If I'm lucky, and get the job done fairly quickly, then I may post (late-ish), but these things always seem to take more time than you expect, so I can't promise anything.

Sorry for the busy week, folks! Even when I don't have time to respond, I always read EVERY comment (although sometimes it takes a few days).

:-)

I guess me and Al Gore are the only two people who liked Obama's speech, though...

-CW

You didn't get the reference I posted to Liz??? :D

I think I may be in the doghouse, so to speak. So, if you want CW to notice something you post, then don't reference it to me ... or, something like that. :)

Oh, by the way ... nice blog and pics! You might see me around some time ...

Everyone is all cheering and celebrating that Obama got a 20 billion dollar escrow account out of BP...

There is no 20 billion dollars...

There is 4 billion in 2010..

Then, assuming that BP hasn't litigated it's way out of it, there will be another 4 billion in 2011.. And so on until the 20 billion is achieved...

So, there isn't any 20 billion... There is just 4 billion.. 4 billion that probably has ALREADY been spent just in the past 55+ days..

So, that 4 billion that has been promised for 2010 is already gone..

So, this begs the question...

What did Obama really get???

A kick in the balls of America...

THAT's what he got...

Whoooppeee Deeee Dooooo....

Michale.....

You didn't get the reference I posted to Liz??? :D

Michale

I just like to bring them out and tweak the noses when they say something I know ya'all won't like..

Just gentle ribbing amongst friends.. :D

Michale.....

I don't put much stock in Rasmussen, personally. Here's why - all the other polls show slight improvement this week:

6/13 - Ipsos - Approve 50 / Disap. 45
6/14 - AP - 50 / 49
6/15 - Rasumussen - 42 / 57
6/15 - Gallup - 49 / 43

This is why many people don't even average in Rasumussen, because they're so consistently off the mark. But in the OPW I use RealClearPolitics, which does include Rasmussen, just FYI...

-CW

RASMUSSEN Reports at 9:30AM ET:
Obama Approval Falls to New Low: 42%
Obama Approval Index: -20
Strongly Approve 24%
Strongly Disapprove 44%
Total Approval 42%

Not that I put stock in polls.. :D

Michale......

I got a blog now.. :D

http://profile.typepad.com/michale1

Michale......

mmmmmmmmm The best kind of playground! :D hhehehehehe

Seriously, though.. I see your point. HP used to be a real fun place when they were just talking about the various agendas....

Once they set their own and didn't broke any dissension, it just became another ditto-head site where people could go to hear, "yep, yer right.. yer right" over and over and over and over again...

Oh, well ... when I get too depressed about all the negativity, I can always come here to get happy! :)

"I'mm soooo happy... I'mmmm sooo happpppyyyyy..."
(WHUMP!!!)
"Ohh, thanx very much."
"Right.. See ya on Thursday."
"Right"

Michale.....

You can be very happy that you are not allowed to play at the Huffington Post because that has become some foul playground.

I think I might do something soon to get myself permanently banned. It would do my psyche more that a bit of good.

Oh, well ... when I get too depressed about all the negativity, I can always come here to get happy! :)

According to all the guys ya'all follow (Colbert, Matthews, etc etc) it was "THAT" bad... :D

However, you might consider making this general comment over at the Huffington Post where it is much more needed!

Oh sure, take it where *I* can't go play! :D

OH well, I'll just play over at Cesca's! hehehehehe

Michale.....

I don't know if you've been following the common commentariat or not, but the reaction to everything this president and his team says and does - almost since the beginning - has been negative, to say the least.

To me, this has become neither stunning nor surprising but, par for the course for the life of this presidency, so far. I expect it will continue.

Between the punditocracy and the other chatting class, it's what accounts for my rather foul mood of late.

It does my heart good, though, that you are recognizing it here. However, you might consider making this general comment over at the Huffington Post where it is much more needed!

Wow, did I watch the same speech others did? I write these "snap judgement" columns while intentionally NOT reading others' reactions to the same speech, to keep my perspective pure as it were, and now I'm reading some other critiques of the speech, and am dumbfounded. I mean, I've been saying all along that Obama will be judged on the situation on the ground rather than what he says about it, but I'm pretty stunned at the negative reaction from the punditocracy (left and right) so far. C'mon, guys, it wasn't THAT bad a speech! As a speech, I thought it was rather good. Let's see what details emerge tomorrow before jumping to any conclusions...

Sigh.

-CW

Or, when it comes to you and the president, great minds think alike!

I really liked the idea of "leaving the Gulf coast in a better condition than it was when the well blew up." While he didn't specifically speak to the restoration of the wetlands and barrier islands of coastal Louisiana, Louisiana's off-shore drilling royalties (or paucity thereof) and the responsibility of the oil companies to assist in this grand effort, or of the federal government's ironclad commitment to save a great American city, I was somewhat heartened by the commitment he did give. And, being ever the cockeyed optimist and despite my prevailing mood of late, I am hopeful that he didn't over-promise on this critical point.

However, I did think that he sounded a bit too optimistic about the outcome of this unprecedented environmental and economic catastrophe in that he gave no hint that the worst case scenario may be that the damage to this deep water well - below and above the seabed - is so severe that it cannot be repaired and that oil will still be gushing after he finishes up his second term, some six and a half years from now.