Obama's Oil Spill Speech is Pissing Me Off

[mainejeff]

Isn't it ironic that the big SOCIAL disaster (Katrina) happened on the Conservative Republican President's watch........and the big BUSINESS/OIL disaster happened on the Liberal Democratic President's watch?.........would have been interesting to see it happen the other way around. Both political parties have been exposed for what they really are........money grabbing, ineffectual dinosaurs that only care about getting re-elected.

[Appaholic]

Isn't it ironic that the big SOCIAL disaster (Katrina) happened on the Conservative Republican President's watch........and the big BUSINESS/OIL disaster happened on the Liberal Democratic President's watch?.........would have been interesting to see it happen the other way around. Both political parties have been exposed for what they really are........money grabbing, ineffectual dinosaurs that only care about getting re-elected.

You are correct. Poetic justice would have it reversed for sure...reap what you sow...

[native]

From Michael Goodwin, New York Post:

"...No matter the crisis, Obama can't resist the temptation to exploit it in his quest to grow the government. He did it during the financial meltdown, arguing the economic crisis proved America suddenly needed an idea he'd pushed all along, universal health care. It didn't, and still doesn't. Yet Obama showed last night he is ready for The Sequel...."

"...Lacking management experience, and self-absorbed with transformational ambition, he treats details affecting millions of Americans as a distraction...."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/c ... 67wBRTCe7L" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[UCABEAR]

Isn't it ironic that the big SOCIAL disaster (Katrina) happened on the Conservative Republican President's watch........and the big BUSINESS/OIL disaster happened on the Liberal Democratic President's watch?.........would have been interesting to see it happen the other way around. Both political parties have been exposed for what they really are........money grabbing, ineffectual dinosaurs that only care about getting re-elected.

+1

[93henfan]

From Michael Goodwin, New York Post:

"...No matter the crisis, Obama can't resist the temptation to exploit it in his quest to grow the government. He did it during the financial meltdown, arguing the economic crisis proved America suddenly needed an idea he'd pushed all along, universal health care. It didn't, and still doesn't. Yet Obama showed last night he is ready for The Sequel...."

"...Lacking management experience, and self-absorbed with transformational ambition, he treats details affecting millions of Americans as a distraction...."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/c ... 67wBRTCe7L" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And again, the irony shows under the various administrations. Bush's daddy drew down the military and contracted out to a point where when his son started an unprovoked war with Iraq, we ended up with private contractors having their burnt corpses strung from a bridge and Halliburton electrocuting soldiers in their own barracks due to shoddy, hurried construction with the goal of getting the check signed quickly and then boogying out of town before the defects could be noticed.

[native]

... Bush's daddy drew down the military and contracted out to a point where when his son started an unprovoked war with Iraq, we ended up with private contractors having their burnt corpses strung from a bridge and Halliburton electrocuting soldiers in their own barracks due to shoddy, hurried construction with the goal of getting the check signed quickly and then boogying out of town before the defects could be noticed.

Quite the semi-clever bit if disinformation, gyrene.

Bush Sr took a peace dividend. Clinton took it too far and caused the problems.

The negligent contractor was KBR, and by all means they must be held accountable.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/washi ... ocute.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Privatization is not the problem, and you have certainly not made the case for it.

[kalm]

... Bush's daddy drew down the military and contracted out to a point where when his son started an unprovoked war with Iraq, we ended up with private contractors having their burnt corpses strung from a bridge and Halliburton electrocuting soldiers in their own barracks due to shoddy, hurried construction with the goal of getting the check signed quickly and then boogying out of town before the defects could be noticed.

Quite the semi-clever bit if disinformation, gyrene.

Bush Sr took a peace dividend. Clinton took it too far and caused the problems.

The negligent contractor was KBR, and by all means they must be held accountable.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/washi ... ocute.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Privatization is not the problem, and you have certainly not made the case for it.

Privization is part of the problem. Not everything needs to be for profit, war being the grand example.

Good Republicans like Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower are rolling over in their graves right now.

[93henfan]

The negligent contractor was KBR

Like I said. Halliburton.

And let's not try to revise history. BRAC was GHWB's baby.

[native]

Quite the semi-clever bit if disinformation, gyrene.

Bush Sr took a peace dividend. Clinton took it too far and caused the problems.

The negligent contractor was KBR, and by all means they must be held accountable.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/washi ... ocute.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Privatization is not the problem, and you have certainly not made the case for it.

Privization is part of the problem. Not everything needs to be for profit, war being the grand example.

Good Republicans like Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower are rolling over in their graves right now.

The purpose of privatization is to provide efficiency and flexibility, not profit. Profit should be the "applause" received only after providing a job well done. The extent to which this is not happening is a mangement problem. There are no solutions on your New Deal menu that will fix the problems. We need better management and regulation, not more management and regulation.

[native]

The negligent contractor was KBR

Like I said. Halliburton.

And let's not try to revise history. BRAC was GHWB's baby.

BRAC was not privatization. BRAC was Base Realignment and Closure. Bush deserves GREAT credit for accomplishing this deeply productive and meaningful process with minimal politicization. Hell, considering our over extended presence around the world, we need more BRAC, not less.

A76 is DoD privatization. It has had a mixed record of success and failure over the past couple of decades, but lots more success than failure. And it's not kalm's hysterical "war for profit." What a crock.

I didn't realize that Halliburton was a subsidiary of KBR. Thanks for the correction.

[93henfan]

BRAC was not privatization. BRAC was Base Realignment and Closure. Bush deserves GREAT credit for accomplishing this deeply productive and meaningful process with minimal politicization. Hell, considering our over extended presence around the world, we need more BRAC, not less.

A76 is DoD privatization. It has had a mixed record of success and failure over the past couple of decades, buit lots more success than failure. Blackwater was not one of the failures.

I never said BRAC was privatization. Not sure what that retort was about.

And A76's, yep I deal with those all the time. It's kind of my job. A lot of them end up costing the taxpayer more. Facts are facts.

[kalm]

Privization is part of the problem. Not everything needs to be for profit, war being the grand example.

Good Republicans like Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower are rolling over in their graves right now.

The purpose of privatization is to provide efficiency and flexibility, not profit. Profit should be the "applause" received only after providing a job well done. The extent to which this is not happening is a mangement problem. There are no solutions on your New Deal menu that will fix the problems. We need better management and regulation, not more management and regulation.

The purpose of the private company is to provide profit.

The government run health care systems operate at a 5% overhead. Why? Because they don't have to pay bloated management salaries and share holders.

And somehow we managed to win WWII without private contractors and security forces.

But I agree, we do need better management and regulation first before increased regulation.

[native]

...The purpose of the private company is to provide profit. ...

The purpose of the company itself is not the main point. The main point is privatization as a public policy. The purpose of privatization as a public policy is efficiency, flexibility and effectiveness.

Sometimes the privatization provides net value, sometimes not. We should be honest in all cases.

[native]

BRAC was not privatization. BRAC was Base Realignment and Closure. Bush deserves GREAT credit for accomplishing this deeply productive and meaningful process with minimal politicization. Hell, considering our over extended presence around the world, we need more BRAC, not less.

A76 is DoD privatization. It has had a mixed record of success and failure over the past couple of decades, buit lots more success than failure. Blackwater was not one of the failures.

I never said BRAC was privatization. Not sure what that retort was about.

And A76's, yep I deal with those all the time. It's kind of my job. A lot of them end up costing the taxpayer more. Facts are facts.

Concur. Sometime A76 actions provide net value, and sometimes not. We should be honest about the facts, but not just in one or two FYDPs, but across the entire tooth-to-tail life cycle.

[AZGrizFan]

From Michael Goodwin, New York Post:

"...No matter the crisis, Obama can't resist the temptation to exploit it in his quest to grow the government. He did it during the financial meltdown, arguing the economic crisis proved America suddenly needed an idea he'd pushed all along, universal health care. It didn't, and still doesn't. Yet Obama showed last night he is ready for The Sequel...."

"...Lacking management experience, and self-absorbed with transformational ambition, he treats details affecting millions of Americans as a distraction...."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/c ... 67wBRTCe7L" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And again, the irony shows under the various administrations. Bush's daddy drew down the military and contracted out to a point where when his son started an unprovoked war with Iraq, we ended up with private contractors having their burnt corpses strung from a bridge and Halliburton electrocuting soldiers in their own barracks due to shoddy, hurried construction with the goal of getting the check signed quickly and then boogying out of town before the defects could be noticed.

The negligent contractor was KBR

Like I said. Halliburton.

And let's not try to revise history. BRAC was GHWB's baby.

As long as we're not trying to revise history, BRAC was GHWB's baby, but like any good politician (see GW's "stimulus" spending), the follow-on Donk president took it and beat it to a bloody pulp.

GHWB closed 45 bases/facilities/installations in 2 rounds of closures in '88 and '91.
Clinton comes in and closes 63 MORE bases in his two rounds in '93 and '95.
GW closed 14 and slated 9 for "realignment" while in the middle of two wars.

[houndawg]

Like I said. Halliburton.

And let's not try to revise history. BRAC was GHWB's baby.

BRAC was not privatization. BRAC was Base Realignment and Closure. Bush deserves GREAT credit for accomplishing this deeply productive and meaningful process with minimal politicization. Hell, considering our over extended presence around the world, we need more BRAC, not less.

A76 is DoD privatization. It has had a mixed record of success and failure over the past couple of decades, but lots more success than failure. And it's not kalm's hysterical "war for profit." What a crock.

I didn't realize that Halliburton was a subsidiary of KBR. Thanks for the correction.

All wars are fought for money, nate. You can't be on here telling us to be "honest about the facts" while trying to ignore the truest fact of war.

[Ursus A. Horribilis]

Since some of you are talking about the privatization of the Military and it's pluses and minuses...I watched this movie a while back and there were some very interesting points in it. Have any of you seen it and what were your thoughts on it?

[youtube][/youtube]

[CID1990]

My encounters with KBR in Iraq were on the whole pretty good.

They had good chow halls. Privatization of military food services goes back a long time. I think it started happening around the early 1980s. We had a private food service contractor at Corry Station in Pensacola in 1988... also, lots of military bases like the Charleston Naval Base had private security manning the gates in the mid-1980s. As the military gets smaller, more jobs that were traditionally covered by military pogues are being handled by private contractors. This frees up what military forces you actually still have to do the warfighting.

It is an inevitable result of the peace dividend. Also, the other NATO members (with the exception of Great Britain) do not have any sizeable support mechanism for their military forces. If we had to go into a global conflict tomorrow, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and all the lowcountries and Scandinavian countries would be unable to deploy for longer than a month without the support and logistics services of the US military. Just another example of how we are carrying water for the rest of NATO and a damn good reason for us to kick those fvckers to the curb and remove ourselves from what has become a silly club that benefits all of its members except us.

THEN we wouldn't have to use companies like Halliburton to keep the beans and bullets moving.

[AZGrizFan]

My encounters with KBR in Iraq were on the whole pretty good.

They had good chow halls. Privatization of military food services goes back a long time. I think it started happening around the early 1980s. We had a private food service contractor at Corry Station in Pensacola in 1988... also, lots of military bases like the Charleston Naval Base had private security manning the gates in the mid-1980s. As the military gets smaller, more jobs that were traditionally covered by military pogues are being handled by private contractors. This frees up what military forces you actually still have to do the warfighting.

It is an inevitable result of the peace dividend. Also, the other NATO members (with the exception of Great Britain) do not have any sizeable support mechanism for their military forces. If we had to go into a global conflict tomorrow, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and all the lowcountries and Scandinavian countries would be unable to deploy for longer than a month without the support and logistics services of the US military. Just another example of how we are carrying water for the rest of NATO and a damn good reason for us to kick those fvckers to the curb and remove ourselves from what has become a silly club that benefits all of its members except us.
THEN we wouldn't have to use companies like Halliburton to keep the beans and bullets moving.

[mrklean]

And perhaps the dumbest and most anti-american quote in the history of american politics. :

not even close "I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear"..........

that is the dumbest and most anti-american quote in the history of american politics

From the person who still support Traitors.

[grizzaholic]

Atleast Obama has been trying.

[Appaholic]

As the military gets smaller, more jobs that were traditionally covered by military pogues are being handled by private contractors. This frees up what military forces you actually still have to do the nation-/school-building....

fify

[native]

As the military gets smaller, more jobs that were traditionally covered by military pogues are being handled by private contractors. This frees up what military forces you actually still have to do the nation-/school-building....

fify

Let me make sure that I understand you, Appy. Sometimes you fire just to make noise and create confusion.

Do you really think you know how to do nation buidling? Specifically, do you really think it appropriate for the offensive line to trade places with the marching band at halftime?

[Appaholic]

fify

Let me make sure that I understand you, Appy. Sometimes you fire just to make noise and create confusion.

Do you really think you know how to do nation buidling? Specifically, do you really think it appropriate for the offensive line to trade places with the marching band at halftime?

Not at all. Neither does the military nor should they be...yet they are tasked with that on a consistent basis. I would rather my "pogues" be guarding our own bases & serving food to our own soldiers instead of building a school for an ungrateful populace that has neither the stomach nor cajones to take care of their own problems (or at least keep them within their own borders.) Our military is trained to fight & should be used as such when needed....

[native]

Let me make sure that I understand you, Appy. Sometimes you fire just to make noise and create confusion.

Do you really think you know how to do nation buidling? Specifically, do you really think it appropriate for the offensive line to trade places with the marching band at halftime?

Not at all. Neither does the military nor should they be...yet they are tasked with that on a consistent basis. I would rather my "pogues" be guarding our own bases & serving food to our own soldiers instead of building a school for an ungrateful populace that has neither the stomach nor cajones to take care of their own problems (or at least keep them within their own borders.) Our military is trained to fight & should be used as such when needed....

Points well taken. Thanks for the clarity.