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Elliot will be posting the list of Sunday Talking Heads, and it contains the usual list of suspects and people whose views have proven to be so insightful in the past. We’re only missing Rand Paul, who claims to be exhausted from having to not explain himself.
So I’d like to ask all the chosen Congressional and Administration folks the following question(s):
Please consider the latest stories below concerning the BP Oil Disaster and then tell us what it is about your personal political ideology and policy positions, or any votes you have taken, that you now realize could have contributed to or prevented any/all of the conditions described? What responsibility do you accept for what went wrong?
Times-Picayune: Louisiana closes more fishing grounds.
State authorities Saturday closed the southwestern part of Barataria Bay to commercial and recreational fishing after oil began moving into that famed fishing area Friday night.
WGNO: Louisiana fisherman contemplating suicide; need mental health services; and see Bob Herbert/NYT on More than just an oil spill:
. . . an oyster fisherman whose life has been upended by the monstrous oil spill fouling an enormous swath of the Gulf of Mexico. He shook his head. “My wife and I have got two kids, 2 and 7. We could lose everything we’ve been working all of our lives for.”
AP/Times-Picayune: Cleaning wetlands may be impossible, scientists say
The gooey oil washing into the maze of marshes along the Gulf Coast could prove impossible to remove, leaving a toxic stew lethal to fish and wildlife, government officials and independent scientists said.
Officials are considering some drastic and risky solutions: They could set the wetlands on fire or flood areas in hopes of floating out the oil.
National Geographic: Oil spill puts Gulf sperm whales at risk?
NYT: Giant oil plumes may be beneath surface
NYT/Greenwire: Less toxic dispersants lose out in BP oil spill cleanup
Times-Picayune: Safety measures omitted during drilling
MMS/Seminal: Industry/regulators ignored results of own studies on plumes
NYT/Seminal: Oil regulators routinely ignored environmental laws, muzzled scientists
AP: Frustration mounts as oil seeps into Gulf wetlands
Times-Picayune: May 23 forecast size/density of spill
So here’s the question again: Do you think your views, positions, ideologies, votes, etc had anything to do with creating the climate in which all this occurred? Or was it all just an unfortunate accident?
________
As for the panels, what can we say? Here’s NBC’s Meet the Press lineup: Roundtable: Tom Friedman, Paul Gigot, Andrea Mitchell, Bob Woodward.
These folks are representative of almost everything that went wrong in the last decade — they clamored for imperialist wars driven by schoolboy machismo rather than national interest, shilled for unregulated mega corporations and Wall Street banks that looted the country and then pleaded to be bailed out, ignored economic regulators complicit or asleep while economic/financial risks got out of control and put millions out of work, and worried more about the next book then doing his job. Can NBC’s producers explain why it believes the country needs to hear from these people?
44 Comments
Yes, I believe Friedman told the wildlife of the marshes and bayous to “suck on this oil”.
It’s just another edition of millionaires talking to millionaires. Same as it ever was. Once in a blue moon, someone will make a mistake or have a particular axe to grind and a progressive like Glenn Greenwald will get invited on, but otherwise it is always the same lineup of Establishment approved hacks, shills, and conmen.
Great diary, with one very minor correction.
That works too.
Gigot proclaims that Pres. O. is governing so far to the left, it’s pushing the country to the right. They’re incapable of seeing how far from true that is, seems like.
that smack across the face is gonna leave finger marks ‘Crow
Good thing there are such things as make up artists.
caw! caw!
I have a question. Why does Sarah hate Rachel so much? It’s not very Cristian of her, I don’t think. (snort)
Gigot claims Obama has governed so far to the left .. what left? what was left about anything Obama did? Lily Ledbetter? That’s leftist? Fairness is radical?
But, but, but, those are “gotcha” questions and only the librul media would ask those!
Or float it further inland. Why does everything they suggest have the potential of making the problem orders of magnitude worse?
To the wingers, basic decency is socialist. so fairness gotta be terraistic.
No, they know how centrist Obama is. But they’re pushing propaganda that’s he’s a lefty, so they can move the baseline even further to the right.
This is why we are working on providing a counterpoint. Last week, Marcy and mcjoan were especially good.
Here’s NBC’s Meet the Press lineup: Roundtable: Tom Friedman, Paul Gigot, Andrea Mitchell, Bob Woodward.
What, Joe Lieberman and John McCain were already booked?
These Sunday (and every other day, for that matter) talking head shows are a very sick fucking joke. Is there anyone in the known universe who actually takes them seriously?
If they had that much sense, they would by now have realized that lowering taxes on corporations does NOT create jobs.
T-shirt for the Republican National Convention
Republican
National
Convention
Tampa, FL
Aug 27-30, 2012
Where
Stupidity
Meets
Humidity
and this week it’s you and Avedon Carol – Virtually Speaking
Did anybody notice the new David Gregory? He has a new spiffy set. I think NBC saw how dull he is and how low his ratings are and did two things. One, they gave him a new dazzling set with lots and lots of books and two, told him to “liven it up”. Notice his intro. He is gesturing a lot more and leaning to the left and to the right. He seems to be trying to channel Leno. Then when he sat down, he still was kind of jumping up a little in his chair and making his head pop. Later, he seemed to forget his coaching and just sat there like a lump as usual.
“Where
Stupidity
Meets
Humidity”
with a soupcon of oil slick.
I’ve seen test patterns that are more riveting than Gregory.
NBC and its kindred affiliates are truly irrelevant in this day and age.
lol
I don’t watch those shows. All that stress for little content and vacuous posturing? No thanks.
No one is talking about the TX Bd of Ed version of wingnutterie;
but I am
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/50225
David Gregory just said Rand Paul has “well developed” views. Apparently David did not understand that the Rachel Maddow interview revealed he had incoherent views and lacked the integrity to explain the consequences of what he was saying.
Bob woodward says Paul is a “pragmatist” because he refused to come on the show.
Paul Gigot, who edits the WSJ, just told us that Obama bailing out insurance companies etc meant he’d gone way beyond bailing the financial system. Apparently, the editor of the WSJ does not know that AIG was the insurer for the financial system, so that bailing out AIG meant bailing out the banks.
The answer to your question would have been “who could have known” – only with lots more bullshit. Isn’t that always the case? Who knew the Iraq War would last this long, who knew the deregulation of Wall Street would collapse the world economy, who knew giving tax breaks to the rich would bankrupt the country, who knew union busting would break the middle class, who knew that when people don’t have jobs they can’t pay their bills. On and on it goes.
that same WSJ that was declaring financial signs were good back in Fall of 2007? I remember that too. still claims lowering taxes on corporations is the way to create jobs.
Little Tommie Friedman just lamented that we can’t have China’s authoritarian system for just a minute while we fix stuff, while complaining that the US political system doesn’t have a center.
Paul Gigot just reminded everyone how much better things were when we had a Republican Congress and a Republican President. He apparently is not aware of Iraq, the collapse of financial and environmental regulation or the creation of the worst economic/financial disaster since the Great Depression.
Tom Friedman says, wrt to BP disaster, Obama is thinking small (he’s right there), not thinking about the long-term solution. So he concocts a “center” for himself between the oil crazies and the environmental crazies. it’s all about Tommy.
Andrea Mitchell asks why Salazar didn’t turn MMS up side down before recommending a drill more policy. Good question?
Friendman says the genuine experts in the Administration — really smart people — are being held in a “witness protection program,” not allowed to speak their own views.
Bob Woodward is now reporting you don’t have to pump oil; it bubbles up on its own. He saw the video. He also learned that during the night in a parking garage.
How many Friedman units is he suggesting we have an authoritarian system in which to fix these problems? And did he define which problems needed fixing?
Well, he then said is just wants democracy to work, after saying he wishes we could be China for a day.
Best closer: Woodward is panicked that the oil will flow around Florida, up the East coast, and eventually destroy David Gregory’s new set.
The horror, the horror.
I’m afraid that the only thing that will wake these people the f*ck up is if it impacts them very directly and profoundly. Otherwise we’re just going to have to listen to them whine about the price of shrimp for the next twenty years or so.
lolol
For refreshers, he could go see “Giant” – when first tapped, oil gushes.
Gigot thinks that solid white line is the center line of the road, and he’s driving in the bar-ditch to the right of it, wondering why it takes so long to get anywhere.
Maybe he thinks it’s all like the tar pits in LA: slow oozing.
I guess he’s never seen the pictures of oil gushers from the days before BOPs. (My mother lived in a house that a oil company had had to buy because a gusher coated it.)
Actually, it was the Bush Administration that oversaw this.
Goosh! well said Hugh.
It’s exactly what I see most of the time:rich people talking to rich people.
Ordinary Americans have no representation,you will see from time to time
some congress people make some noise, but really, that’s just it,noise.
I stayed up late last night watching “Sex & the City” re-runs. I think I learned much more of real value from that than anything these overpaid hacks and corporate shills will ever say in their entire lifetimes combined.
Meh: gave up on the Sun am tawk showz a long time ago. Bunch of hot air signifying bupkiss. Youz that watch have a higher tolerance level than me.
Should the administration should take a stand on the oil spill issue more like this?
“…In the coming days, there will be hearings to discover the cause of the explosion and the subsequent leak. Actions will be taken to increase oversight to prevent future accidents. Government can and must play an appropriate role here. If a company was lax in its prevention practices, it must be held accountable. It is inexcusable for any oil company to not invest in preventative measures. They must be held accountable or the public will forever distrust the industry.
This was the position I took as an oil and gas regulator and as Governor of Alaska when my administration ramped up oversight of the oil industry and created a petroleum-systems-integrity office to monitor our oil and gas infrastructure for potential environmental risks. I took a lot of heat for the stand I took “against the oil industry” (which is how political adversaries labeled my actions). But we took tough action because there was proof of some improper maintenance of oil infrastructure which I believed was unacceptable. We instituted new oversight and held British Petroleum (BP) financially accountable for poor maintenance practices. We also filed a Friend-of-the-Court brief against Exxon’s interests for its decades-old responsibility to compensate Alaskans affected by the Valdez spill, and I took other actions “against” the industry which ultimately helped hold it accountable…”
Or, just play hoops?
???