OilBama is Outraged!

Fearless leader is unhappy.  With the news that the BP "top kill" procedure has failed, Obama is now "enraged."  On top of that, the AP reports, this comes after "Obama interrupted a long holiday weekend at his home in Chicago to visit the Louisiana coast on Friday and show its angry residents that he is in command of the situation."

In command?  Not so much, I think.

You may have seen pictures of Obama's visit to the coast Friday.  There's one where he is stooping down in his slacks and dress shirt inspecting a tiny tar ball on the beach.  Apparently the hundreds of BP workers bused in to clean up the beach before his visit left a few tar balls for just such a photo op.  The residents on the coast would have loved for those workers to stay and keep on cleaning their beaches, but as soon as Obama left, they were out of there.

"The level of cleanup and cooperation we've gotten from BP in the past is in no way consistent to the effort shown on the island today," [Jefferson Parish Councilman Chris] Roberts said by telephone. "As soon as the president left, they were immediately put back on the buses and sent home."

I don't think for one moment that Obama gives a damn about the coast or the people in south Louisiana who are losing their livelihood because of this spill. Such a narcissist can not be concerned about others to the level he would have us believe he is.

The responsibility belongs to BP.  To be fair, I don't think we can hold the government responsible for what happened anymore than we could hold George W. Bush responsible for Hurricane Katrina.  But it is imperative on Obama's administration to provide everything necessary for the protection of the Louisiana marshlands and coastline.  

Appearances count for something.  Obama batting off to Chicago for the weekend, his second vacation since this spill occurred, sends a message opposite of the one intended by his handlers with the staged photo of him inspecting a tar ball.  One says, "I don't care!  Solve it yourself!  I'm outta here!"  and the other says, "I care.  Look at this foul tar ball on American shores.  I'm enraged."

Governor Bobby Jindal was on ABC This Week and HE is outraged.  Politco quotes him as saying:

Now, we have said for weeks now we'd much rather fight this oil on a sandy barrier island than fight it inside our wetlands. We've got miles and miles of these islands… [and w]e proposed a plan, 24 segments, to rebuild or refortify these islands.

“After weeks -- and if they had approved this when we first asked, we could have built 10 miles. Ten miles… Yesterday, the Army Corps of Engineers approved six segments out of 24, over 40 miles out of 100. But here's where our concern was. The federal government only ordered BP to pay for to do one of those six segments. That's two miles out of 100. Our message to the president today was, make BP pay for this. The federal government shouldn't be making excuses for BP. This is their spill, their oil. They're the responsible party. Make them responsible. 

Jindal rightly laments the lack of urgency on the part of the federal government to provide what he's asked for.

Needless to say, this story will continue to play out through the weeks and will only get worse.  The politics aside, people are losing their way of life and their way of making a living.  The wetlands are dying.  No amount of federal dollars can replace what will be lost there.

Obama can keep his outrage.