Tag: Gulf Oil Disaster

Crist Continues to Demonstrate His Special Brand of Leadership

Trish

CristBlue

I have to hand it to Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (NPA), whose wardrobe choice for a recent roundtable with the president in Panama City helped him stand out. Charlie and the First Lady went with aqua, while the business owners, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, and others stuck to neutrals. If you’re going to go, go bold, Crist seems to say, while sitting as far from Obama as possible without leaving the room. No doubt Crist wants to avoid more photos of himself seeming friendly with the president. The endless repetition by Republicans of a shot of Crist doing the one-armed man hug with Obama last year could have been one reason for his departure from their party as a candidate for U.S. Senate. Well that, and the fact that they are soulless jerks.

Crist: Republicans Only Concerned with “Regrettable Glory” of Party Ideology

Trish

matthudson
Today's poster child for Republican hypocrisy, Florida Rep. Matt Hudson
You would think a state with 1,200 miles of coastline, most of it on the Gulf of Mexico, would be prudent to convene its legislature to address the impact of the worst toxic environmental disaster in the country’s history. At least, you would unless you were a Republican.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has called a special session of the legislature to consider a constitutional ban on offshore oil drilling. Republicans are crying “foul,” citing the fact that there are already statutes that determine how close drilling can be to Florida’s shores.

“I think it’s completely unnecessary,” said Rep. Matt Hudson, R-Naples, in a view expressed by others. “There’s absolutely no reason we have to go and create a law for something that’s already unlawful.”

Crist: Republicans have “completely lost their way.”

What Hudson is saying is that there is no need to add something to the state constitution that’s already been dealt with by statute. Kind of like adding an amendment to the Florida constitution banning same-sex marriage when there’s already a law against it. Obviously there’s no need for that, right?

Hudson didn’t think so in 2008, when he and almost every other Republican politician in Florida, including then GOP-er Gov. Crist, publicly endorsed Amendment 2, a Republican initiative to make same-sex marriage double-triple-really-really-quadriple illegal in Florida.

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This Pelican Would Like Its Life Back Too

Trish

pelicant

We applaud the sentiment behind these T-shirts, available now at bitterpelican.com.

We do hope to benefit others such as The National Wildlife Federation and retailers that are suffering loss of income due to the oil spill. We also hope to inspire others to get involved. Our bp bitter pelican T-Shirts provide you the opportunity to express your feelings regarding the handling of the situation and the insensitive comments by BP.

The group is donating $1 from the sale of each T-shirt or coffee mug, along with 10 percent of the proceeds from each “photo art on canvas” print to the National Wildlife Federation.

The bottom line is that we need to pressure the market to come up with alternatives to an oil-based economy

Everyone wishes they could think of something constructive to do about the oil disaster, which is why calls to boycott BP, face the ocean and hold hands, and donate to wildlife groups seem like action. Those things are important but the bottom line is that we need to pressure the market to come up with alternatives to an oil-based economy.

I’m sure that you’re like me, and the only reason you drive a car that runs on gas and oil is because that’s what was available when you needed to buy one. We have to support alternative energy, by using our dollars as votes for the kind of products we expect, and by supporting candidates that facilitate change.

Verbatim

Trish

The only thing worse than a massive oil leak from the bottom of the ocean would be massive radioactive oil leak from the bottom of the ocean.

— Rep. Ed Markey (D – Mass.), Chair of the House Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment and the president’s point man on the Gulf oil catastrophe, responding to calls from Donald Trump and others to nuke the oil spill. Markey was responsible for forcing BP to install its “spill cam” so the gushing oil could be viewed by the public.

Barton’s ‘Shakedown’ in BP Apology Echoed Stance of Committee of 117 Out of 178 House GOP Reps

Jon Ponder

Republican Study Committee photos of members including Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., second from left in first photo and with arms folded at tea bag rally in second photo
Republican Study Committee photos of members from its website, including Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., in first photo and with arms folded at tea bag rally in second photo
Despite his claims otherwise, Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, was not speaking only for himself when he apologized to BP CEO Tony Hayward during a hearing on BP’s Gulf oil disaster on Thursday.

The Obama administration “appears not to respect fundamental American principles.”
-RSC press release

On Wednesday, the day before the hearing, the Republican Study Committee, which claims as members 117 of the 178 of the most partisan Republicans in the House — including Barton Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, and Virginia’s Rep. Eric Cantor, who will likely become majority leader if Republicans win control of the House in November, as well as Barton — issued a press release in which they smeared the Obama administration by inferring that the Obama White House is un-American and referring to the BP Gulf victims’ fund as a “Chicago-style shakedown”:

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Poll: Bad News for GOP, Rep. Barton – 82% Approve of BP’s $20 Bil Victims’ Fund

Jon Ponder

If it struck you as odd that House Speaker-to-Be John Boehner and other top Republicans went into a full-bore panic over Rep. Joe Barton’s apology to BP on Thursday — normally they’d be high-fivin’ over Barton’s smearing the $20 billion victims’ fund the president brokered with BP as a “shakedown” — the answer may lie in a poll that came out the same day:

The poll’s Thursday release comes as top BP executives testify in front of Congress. At the hearing, Rep. Joe Barton, ranking Republican on the House Energy Committee, defended BP and slammed the White House for insisting that BP place $20 billion in an escrow fund to help compensate those affected by the oil disaster.

“I am ashamed of what happened at the White House yesterday,” said Barton at the hearing. “I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation would be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown. In this case a $20 billion dollar shakedown.”

But according to the poll, Americans disagree with Barton. Eighty-two percent approve of the creating of a fund of billions of dollars to compensate workers and businesses affected by the spill.

The CNN article on the poll offers another example of how the Beltway media outlets are in the bag for Republicans this year. CNN buried the lead, ignoring the fact that Republicans are on the wrong side of this issue by a huge margin — just 18 percent of Americans agree with Rep. Barton and and 115 of his 178 House colleagues who believe the victims’ fund is a bad thing — choosing instead to focus on the finding that approval of Pres. Obama’s performance relative to the crisis had dropped 5 points: “Rise in disapproval of Obama handling of oil spill.” This despite the fact that president’s overall approval remained constant at 50 percent.

“Liberal” media — riiight.

Mr. President, Please Appoint Sarah Q. Palin Gulf Disaster Czar

Jon Ponder

See the rest of the conversation between the president and Sarah Q. here.
Art by Betty Cracker at Rumproast.com. Click the image to see the rest of the strip.
While regular Americans see the Gulf oil spill as a tragedy that is devastating the lives of people and animals as well as the economy, ecosystems and natural beauty along the shores of five states, Republicans see the disaster as just another opportunity to play political games and criticize the president.

The problem with putting Sarah Q. Palin in charge of anything is that “Quitter” is her middle name.

From day one, the Republicans’ approach to the crisis has resembled a mob of howler monkeys tossing poo at firemen trying to put out a fire at the zoo. Last week, Sarah Q. Palin, the GOP’s putative 2012 presidential nominee, piled on by flinging her poo at the president in the guise of offering advice via her Facebook page:

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