The Interior Department justified the latest moratorium in familiar terms, stating that it’s different from the old ban because now this decision is “…the product of a new decision by the secretary and new evidence regarding safety concerns, blowout containment shortcomings within the industry, and spill response capabilities that are strained by the BP oil spill.” Actually, that sounds an awful lot like the justification that Salazar relied upon to impose the previous moratorium: there was an accident, nobody knew how to deal with it, so every company and every worker involved with the industry must be penalized. Feldman and the appeals court firmly rejected the idea that guilt can be transmitted by association, but the arrogance of the Obama administration knows no bounds. It’s as if, in the wake of the Exxon-Valdez accident, President George H. W. Bush had issued an executive order prohibiting oil tanker traffic within American waters. The phrase “cutting off your nose to spite your face” comes to mind.
In fact, there’s nothing new about the latest drilling moratorium. It’s the same tired, discredited argument, repackaged in the hope that some judge, somewhere, won’t notice that the Obama administration has just slapped a new set of pearls around the neck this particular swine. Progressives understand, better than anyone, how this game is played. They don’t actually have to win in court. Sure, an actual victory gives them a reason to thump their chests, but the process is the penalty in and of itself. As long as one has the resources to exploit the legal system – and nobody has more ability to do so than the federal government – one can keep going back to court time after time after time, until one emerges victorious or until the other side throws in the towel.
It’s possible that Ken Salazar actually believes in the moratorium, but I rather doubt it. His actions smack more of tactics than principles. If the Obama administration can’t legally justify a drilling ban, all they have to do is propose an endless string of legally unjustifiable drilling bans. The net effect is the same in either case. Environmental groups learned, a long time ago, that they could manipulate the system to impose so many delays that most industrial developers will eventually become exhausted and exasperated and will thus abandon their projects. The Obama administration understands that and – worse – not only do they know how important it is to manipulate the system, they actually are the system.
Deep Water Horizon was the natural death of deep offshore drilling with current technology. With BP faceing liabilities of up to 100 billion and possible bankrupcy, no insurance will be willing to cover the risk of further projects of this nature and subsequently, no goverment will be in the position to issue drilling permits. The free market will take care of this issue.
The most alarming fact underlying this Presidents obvious disregard of the rule of law is that everyone is just allowing it to happen! This is dictatorship in it's infancy. Am I the only one who sees this?
Arrogant scumbags are at it again. Next, we'll be confined to our homes unless given permission to do otherwise. WHAT? I didn't say except to go to work? ha ha ha. These BOOBS are seeing to it we don"t have jobs to go to.
Actually, hussein's contempt for the law became apparent when he usurped bankruptcy law and put unsecured creditors ahead of secured creditors in the auto bailout, and fired GM management. When he got away with that, it was a green light to rule rather than govern, and he and the dp congress have been doing so ever since on every issue they can't win politically.
Please, please, please vote these bums out, Eric Holder, Barry Soetoro your unworthy for the positions you hold, both of you should be run out of town.
It’s Their Game & They Make the Rules
It’s taken decades and we all helped them. Before they could actually change the rules, they had to gain total control. You call them ‘politicians’, ‘judges’, ‘senators’, ‘republicans’, ‘democrats’, ‘liberals’, 'progressives', ‘conservatives’, etc. They have for decades brilliantly hid behind these labels as they invaded and took control of our country. They now control the legislatures, the courts and the executive branches of ALL local, state, and the the federal government.
They are Lawyers. They now have Total Control. They Now Make The Rules.
Please see: http://gloog.us/wordpress/?p=1296
But don't you know it is for our own good!?! They know what is best for us even if we don't. Of course, having a friend that will reap untold rewards for getting the oil rigs and drilling companies to move there operations to Brazil wouldn't hurt none. Hey, its a win win for the Administration! All in the name of helping us. Awwwww.
MANY OF YOU WANTED A "CHANGE" RIGHT????
NOW YOU GOT IT AND IT IS SHOWING YOU IT IS THE SAME "CHANGE" CASTRO
OFFERED THE CUBANS, CHAVEZ THE VENEZUELANS AND GOD ONLY KNOWS HOW MANY MORE…
IT WAS JUST A JUMP OFF THE FRYING PAN AND INTO THE FIRE, BECAUSE THE HOOF IN MOUTH OF THIS MUSLIM "SOCIALIST" DEMAGOGUE AND HIS CLIQUE WILL BE HOUNDINGTHIS COUNTRY UNTIL THE SEVENTH GENERATION…
Should the country that elected a Marxist to the highest office in the land be surprised by the contravention of the law with the ban on offshore drilling, and the ramming through of unwanted "stimulus" and healthcare bills by putting constitutional law through hoops of fire? This is yet another example of the deception to which we were all treated through the abomination of Hope and Change. Where it stops nobody knows … and we have no place to go but tyranny of the Castro/Chavez variety unless We the People make a collective effort to stop this circus.
Simply one more way this man is trying to bring down this country from the inside. The repercussions of this are going to be long lasting and extremely detrimental to this country. It is becoming increasingly obvious we have an enemy of the state occupying the White House. I really do hope, when he is voted out, serious investigations are conducted into what his REAL agenda is, and has been.
So what is new with Democrats? Remeber Clinton and "Stroke of a pen"
I have been banned from commenting on this board and I don't know why. The only thing I can think of was I said that Helen Thomas was scary looking and she is. But I didn't have to say so.
The facts are basically irrefutable. I’m getting REALLY sick of the left playing the politics of division and trying to tear conservatives apart. Mitt and Sarah have both been relatively close and certainly cordial for years now. No matter which one of them wins the nomination in 2012, I have no doubt that the other will do whatever they can to help the other become president. We’re all on the same team and both camps of supporters need to remember that!
Get beyond the spin and the slander/libel at http://mittromneycentral.com/2010/07/18/romneys-s…
Exit – The Rule of Law
Enter – Cesar Obama
I thought the Obama administration was supposed to be all about the rule of law. Isn't that what they told us?
The elites in media and govt. continue to distort what is a genuine resistance movement in this country. Some of the mischaracterization comes from denial, some is just cluelessness, and I suspect a lot is desperate propaganda. But they're all going to get caught with their collective pants down when they finally grasp the fact that ordinary Americans are not some peasant class rabble of servants and peons.
The ruling class media, by their lies of omission, keep Obama's polls above 10%. Don't forget the New Black Panthers, the refusal to allow foreign help in the gulf, the refusal to allow burning off oil for over 40 days, the support of a communist in Honduras. Oh well, the outrages are daily and too nauseating to go on. My liberal friends know none of this.
I can't believe what I'm reading! A whole ocean is murdered and the people who depended on it for food and money for there families are impoverished beyond compare, and this person is saying that government controls by the people for the sake of the people are evil. This writer is an out and out anarchist, pure and simple. He believes the rich and powerful should always have a free hand, poorer people be damned! If the government that governs least is best, we have the best government in the world and the best president! But we won't even have that level of anarchy if this writer has his way which is "Rule by Jungle". He is just another worshiper of the selfish god they call the 'invisible hand'.
no, that's not what he is saying, that is what you want to hear. He is saying that the rule of law pertains too public servants as well as ordinary citizens and Obama is challenging that. If the admin was doing it's job, this well would have been shut down and there would have been no spill. And what do you have if they do close up drilling and all the rigs are sent packing to other countries? There will still be drilling, there will still be demand, and what do you accomplish? Putting thousands more Americans out of work and raising the costs of energy, just what the environmentalist anarchists desire.
Free hand for the rich?
You are off your socialist brainwashed rocker.
You missed the whole point of the article.
No one is against sensible restrictions, but banning all drilling, instead of prompt, targeted inspections to assure existing drilling rigs are in compliance with standard safety procedures (which could have been completed within 30-40 days of the original blowout) is simply piling onto the gulf states tourism woes.
Moving the drilling rigs out of the gulf to less restrictive areas, is the only option open for the rig owners who have to get a return on their investments (the rigs) or go bankrupt.
The resulting increase in unemployment due to loss of the drilling rig jobs helps no one. Could this be a pay-back strategy for the Obama administration that failed to carry any of the gulf states?
Nothing about this administration would surprise me any more…
So you believe that destroying the oil industry in the gulf and elswhere in the US is an answer to this single incident? This of course would entail the destruction of jobs in the oil drilling industry, the loss of future energy resources to sustain our way of life, and the increased dependence on foregin energy sources.
BTW, have you missed the fact that the best oil recovery ships/processes in the world (over 95% effective) have been banned from the Gulf because the effluent from the process still contains trace amounts of oil? HMM, Lets consider this: 95% removal of all spilled oil, or 5% removal of all spilled oil? Let's use the Obama decision and leave 95% in the Gulf, then push a carbon tax on everyone as "a solution to the oil spill in the gulf", thus destroying the rest of our economy.
Yet you say this writer is an anarchist? Look no further than the potus.
Totally irrelevant. Everytime the government does something, anything, the first question to ask is, "Does the constitution delegate that power to the federal government by enumerating that specific power?" If the answer is no, or if the constitution is silent on that issue, then the government does not have that power and it is the end of the discussion.
So throw more people out of work by shutting down drilling. not to mention the oil that will have to be imported to make up the loss. Dig your head out of the environmentalist/progressive/communist propaganda you are in. If you want to live in a cave and eat roots fine, don't expect me to follow. I for one will not tolerate the tyranny of the left much longer.
Congratulations, you got the hat trick. Denial, cluelessness, AND desperation only a crackpot could appreciate. Bazinga!
Henry – Did you fall off your skateboard and hurt your head. I think you have a concussion.
Hey Henry, You are obviously an ignorant Yankee. There are more people down here in South Louisiana dependent on work related to offshore drilling than to fishing. Each deep water rig supports approximately 1,400 jobs. I suppose that you want us all to return to a hunting and gathering lifestyle down here.
Naturally thousands of oil workers who "depend on the gulf for food and money" don't concern you too much.
It seems you have drawn a lot of conclusions uinrelated to the article but have not learned anything from the past two years.
This admonistration is a lot closer to totalitarian than anarchist. Do the words "regulation", "control" and "takeover" mean anything at all to you?
By the way, many of the "rich and powerful" are in the Senate and Congress.
A ban on offshore drilling?
Oh my Gawd–nooooooooooooooooo!!
Ironic considering Obama and Salazar insisted the Deepwater Horizon drilling go ahead despite reservations of the courts. They even granted their favorite rig special exemptions!
"In 2009, the Obama administration intervened to support the reversal of a court order that would have halted offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Obama’s Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who has long had close ties to the industry, specifically cited BP’s Deepwater Horizon operation as one that should be allowed to go forward, according to a group involved in the court case.
A Washington DC Appeals Court ruled in April 2009 that the Bush administration’s five-year plan for offshore oil and gas drilling (covering 2007 to 2012) was not based on a proper review of the environmental impact of the drilling. Only days before the ruling, the Obama administration had granted BP a “categorical exclusion,” exempting it from an environmental impact study for the Deepwater Horizon project." http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/may2010/oilr-m1…
In 2009, the Obama administration intervened to support the reversal of a court order that would have halted offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Obama’s Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who has long had close ties to the industry, specifically cited BP’s Deepwater Horizon operation as one that should be allowed to go forward, according to a group involved in the court case.
A Washington DC Appeals Court ruled in April 2009 that the Bush administration’s five-year plan for offshore oil and gas drilling (covering 2007 to 2012) was not based on a proper review of the environmental impact of the drilling. Only days before the ruling, the Obama administration had granted BP a “categorical exclusion,” exempting it from an environmental impact study for the Deepwater Horizon project.
No one living in America is "impoverished beyond compare". Just making such a statement shows how isolated from real suffering you/we are.
In 2009, the Obama administration intervened to support the reversal of a court order that would have halted offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Obama’s Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who has long had close ties to the industry, specifically cited BP’s Deepwater Horizon operation as one that should be allowed to go forward, according to a group involved in the court case.
All and all your post is irrelevant, even if it were true. We don't have government controls, by the people and for the people. The government's power is limited by the powers enumerated to it by the constituton.
I was one of the very few conservatives hoping that Obama WOULD be elected president. Why? Because prior to his election radical socialism (Marxism) had been creeping into America incrementally – but successfully. I understood that in order to awaken Americans to this peril it was going to take a hard slap in their faces to awaken them. Obama and his Marxist comrades are now delivering that hard slap. This is a blessing.
Anyone with a modicum of research skills could have easily discovered Obama’s ideological identity long before he was elected. And make no mistake; socialism, liberalism and progressivism are nothing more than Marxism dressed in costumes.
Americans are now getting a colossal dose of Marxism and even though many still have not managed to accurately identify the ideology that they are resolutely rejecting, they are rejecting it. Moreover, Obama will not back away from his radical agenda. It has been the cherished dream of Marxists worldwide to destroy America’s freemarket and freedoms. Obama sees himself as a great Marxist messiah, the anointed one to accomplish this great Marxist feat. As time goes along, Obama’s thin veneer is going to become continuously stripped away until his Marxist identity finally becomes totally naked in the light of day.
“Progressives” (Marxists) should not be confused about villainy. It is they who are the villains. Anyway, only Marxism’s useful idiots are actually confused. Environmentalists have become the new communists. In their efforts to destroy capitalism, they have taken environmentalism to radical, destructive extremes that threaten this nation’s economic survival. This is their goal.
The idea that we are facing a “peak oil” scenario is utter nonsense. Vast new oil and gas discoveries are continually being made all over the world and America may well be sitting on one of if not the greatest petroleum energy reserves in the world. And, we are the Saudi Arabia of coal. Far from needing to import our energy needs, we should exporting energy. A crash program to develop out energy resources would pay this nation’s debt and cause our economy to soar.
We will eventually have much cleaner energy solutions. The race to achieve this is taking place all over the world in everything from sophisticated laboratories to home garages. The rewards for success are astronomical and this is a massive competition that will not subside. Success will be had!
But for now, we need to tap our energy resources with a passion. Doing so will push this nation back up to the top.
Dictators create a common enemy for the people to hate to gain backing for the dictator. With Nomobama. there is 'The Rich' to hate, 'Glen Beck' to hate and of course Fox commercials to hate. It's not politically correct yet to hate Christians and Jews. Jews will be first, I think, but I'm not sure. Good luck, Jews.
I am speechless
The Government tactic sounds like 'abuse of due process'.
The courts can and should order the Government to never bring up the issue ever again.
I think the term is 'dismissed with prejudice'
It not too surprising that Obama's administration hates business. And it's no surprise that they hate the citizens of the United States. After all, they want to impose european marxism on "Shining city on the hill." Obama's going to be a one term president, but can we, as a nation survive the rest of this term?
Did you fall off your skateboard and hurt your head?