“We will fight this spill with everything we’ve got for as long as it takes“, including golf and baseball:
Obama hits golf course with Biden on another hot, humid weekend. Five hours of golf on Saturday, and a baseball game, too, the night before,
Obama attended the Washington Nationals game Friday night wearing a cap for his hometown Chicago White Sox. Sources told the pool reporter that Obama sang “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” and left in the ninth inning, before the White Sox edged out the Nationals 2-1 in the 11th.
Meanwhile, the BP CEO is getting heat for attending a yatch race, even after being
officially relieved of his duties concerning the spill cleanup Friday,
Don Surber has the GOP video,
UPDATE
Larry Kudlow:
BP, the White House and Congress Are All Dirty
What Hayward should at least have done is talk about the progress being made in capping the spill rate, which is gradually going down. To most Americans, and especially those in the Gulf, it’s the spill rate of capture that matters most. Hayward also should have talked about the new BP relief well, which could be up and running in less than a month, to end this disaster. That would be great news for America, and her economy and stock market. Plus, he could have mentioned that BP is hiring thousands of workers to fill new jobs in the cleanup effort.
But Hayward was lawyered to the gills, which doesn’t make anyone happy, including me. And that’s precisely why these congressional show trials leave me bored, tired and depressed.
And oh, by the way, what’s the role of Congress in this catastrophe? What exactly is it doing besides presiding over these show trials? Doesn’t it have oversight authority when it comes to the Minerals Management Service, which utterly failed to regulate the safety of BP’s deep-water drilling operations? Why aren’t more people talking about this?
And why in the world hasn’t Congress suspended the Jones Act, thereby allowing foreign-flag tankers into the Gulf of Mexico area? What is it waiting for? We’re basically two months into this never-ending disaster. The gulf cleanup could have been greatly aided by at least 15 foreign countries that were instead spurned after offering their tankers and other equipment. Why aren’t we accepting these offers of help?
And where, really, is the president in all this? Speaking to the nation from the Oval Office earlier in the week, he failed to declare a Jones Act waiver, and he made no call for a task force of hands-on oilmen from the likes of ExxonMobil and other big oil sisters who actually know what they are doing.
Another problem with Obama’s address was his arrogant announcement that he would inform BP’s CEO “that he is to set aside” an asset amount ($20 billion) for the government-run escrow fund to pay for the spill damages. Trouble is, there are no laws to permit our government to force such financial retribution. Not even a new TARP — at least, not yet. Did someone say nationalization?
The government has no right to interfering with the financial decisions of a private, shareholder-owned corporation. This sounds like GM and Chrysler all over again. Or maybe health insurers, pharmaceuticals, private investment funds and multinational corporations. And it could end up having a serious and chilling effect on corporate investment.
Look, at least BP already agreed to pony up. Why should the government control this? Isn’t this another case of the Obama administration bullying, taxing and regulating business as part of a social agenda to redistribute income and power from private enterprise to government? It’s a war on profits and capital.
Go read it all.
