Transparency: Report Reveals Gulf Cleanup Deception and Incompetence, Not Necessarily in That Order
**Written by guest-blogger Doug Powers
No wonder the Democrat congressional leadership won’t let some Republicans tap their member accounts to take trips to the Gulf region to observe the cleanup effort:
(CNSNews.com) – Billy Nungesser, president of New Orleans’ Plaquemines Parish, sensed that a chart showing 140 oil skimmers at work — a chart given to him by BP and the Coast Guard — was “somewhat inaccurate.” So, Nungesser asked to fly over the spill to verify the number.
The flyover was cancelled three times before those officials admitted that just 31 of the 140 skimmers were actually deployed.
The incident is detailed in a report released Thursday by Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Republicans say the report provides evidence that the Obama administration misrepresented the assets devoted to the cleanup, misrepresented the timing of when government officials knew there was an oil spill and misrepresented the level of control the government had over the matter. It also claims the Obama administration seemed more interested in public relations than cleaning the mess and plugging the hole.
If the Obama administration is only interested in “public relations,” they have a strange way of showing it: Vacations, golf, more golf, super soaker fights, more golf, beer pong, a McCartney concert (I was certain singing Hey Jude would plug the hole), etc. Sure, there was that brief alleged search for an “ass to kick,” but that went away as fast as Hillary’s southern accent when she’s flying northbound across the Mason-Dixon line.
Nungesser, you may recall, was one of the parish presidents who waited three hours to meet with Joe Biden and ended up seeing him for 30 seconds. Prior to that, Nungesser said that President Obama “chewed him out” during one visit to the Gulf.
Findings from the report:
Committee staff has discovered the following based upon witness interviews and documents provided by federal and state entities:
• Officials on the ground dispute key White House assertions about the number and timeliness of assets deployed in the Gulf. Local officials describe White House outreach efforts as more focused on stopping bad press than on addressing the disaster at hand;
• The White House’s assurances that there are adequate resources are at odds with the reality on the ground, where those on the frontline of the spill express significant frustration over the lack of assets. Local complaints are supported by the fact that the White House waited until Day 70 of the oil spill to accept critical offers of
international assistance. Local workers and boats could have been assisting more with the clean-up if the Federal government had provided them with needed supplies and equipment;
• While the White House has tried to use the delay in finding a visible leak to explain its early silence on the oil spill, Transocean officials and Coast Guard documents from the scene of the oil spill reveal clear and early indications of a substantial oil leak days earlier than White House accounts;
• The failure of Administration officials to quickly waive laws preventing necessary foreign assets from reaching the Gulf and other regulations are hampering efforts to clean-up and limit damage from the oil spill. Local officials feel the federal government is making the perfect the enemy of the good in cleanup efforts;
• Local officials strongly dispute President Obama’s insistence that the federal government – and not BP – has been in control since day one. One Coast Guard Admiral told congressional investigators that decisions on the ground are made through a “consensus-based” process with BP. In practice, the Federal Government is not in charge of oil spill response efforts through a command-and-control approach;
• Local officials strongly believe the President’s call for a drilling moratorium will significantly compound the economic damage caused by the oil spill and will actually increase risk associated with future offshore drilling projects.
[...]
The White House blog details a number of assets deployed in the region to combat the spill. This includes vessels, boom, and dispersant. The number of assets claimed, however, does not appear to match what is actually in the field. Parish officials maintain that the thousands of vessels cited in the blog are non-existent. One senior official refers to them as “phantom assets.” When asked to elaborate, he explained that when he asks the federal government to provide the location of its assets, it either refuses or cannot do so. Daily helicopter search grids performed by the Parish sheriff’s department confirm to him that very few of the assets claimed are deployed.
Viva la transparency!
Some theorize that the Obama administration is hoarding the containment boom so they can put it around Joe Biden, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi’s mouths to avert a looming disaster, but it’s far too late.
(h/t Weasel Zippers)
**Written by guest-blogger Doug Powers
Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
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Categories: Barack Obama,Gulf Oil Spill,Joe Biden
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High crimes and misdemeanors?
(ahem)
Words, just words, all they have are words. Empty words supply no solutions. A country can not be run by creative visualization.
Sometimes (like now) I get to thinkin’ we should jail people for being stupid in a no stupid zone. At least when it’s chronic, like dear leader’s admin.
They can get away with it, because the MSM will give them cover.
Note the non-existent coverage of the DOJ whistlebloer regarding the dropping of charges against the NBPP voter intimidation perps?
Did you catch that the names of one of the perps appears four times on White House visitor logs.
As was noted this case sends a message to all DOJ employees that voter intimidation by blacks will not be prosecuted next election. If you live in a big city you may have to fight your way into a polling place.
The AG of the U.S. should be arrested for this. Nothing in the MSM.
Obama could beat an old lady to death on the streets and the MSM would cover it up. Those are the rules of the game.
This is all going as planned for this bho and team. Do away with oil and coal so we can go ‘green’. Crater jobs more daily, send money and rigs out of U.S. waters and help soros. I can not understand for the life of me how the American people can not see what is happening.
My daily= I detest this bho.
L
So, Nungesser, how did you vote in 2008?
How did his typical white grandmother die?
The Dems have also deployed their satellite mouthpieces at Factcheck.org to buttress their lies.
This is what YouTube is for — anyone and everyone that can do it — film, film and film. Post it — if you have friends, especially ones that know the oil industry or know anything about what the freaken imbeciles in Wash could have done but did not, have them do the voice over.
According to Nancy Pelosi, the fewer skimmers that are working, the faster the cleanup will be accomplished.
I’m putting a c-note on the old lady…unless, of course Emanuel and Axelrod hold her down.
We could say this every day but again, had this been George W. Bush or any Republican the media, the Socialist Democrats and their evil supporters would have crucified them. These Socialist Democrats are the most unethical, dishonest, least transparant group of politician that have even held office.
Its just politics.
If I were Nungesser I’d burn off the oil choking the wetlands, if the grass and animal life is dead there anyway what better way to get rid of the oil so life can return and better yet large black plumes of smoke will send the media into hyper drive and in turn send a huge message no one can mistake.
If you can’t hold media truth accountable, use their greed to advantage.
I warmly HATE that our Coast Guard has been turned into a pack of liars.
The CG has earned and enjoyed a great reputation…prior to this.
We are assured that the Jones Act has not been an issue in the Gulf. I think that is a lie. There is ample evidence it has been an impediment.
My read on this is that it is not a matter of mere incompetence, but DESIGN.
Bling and photo-ops. That is all you will ever get from democrats, particularly genetic democrats. Get used to it.
It’s as if we are extras loitering in a movie studio. Behind us is a huge green screen where media technicians will project fantastic specials effects for a movie staring you-know-who. We know the democrat constituencies will pay big bucks to see this movie and will demand endless sequels and spinoffs. But some of us also know the reality outside the illusion: we will be fired as soon as our scene, and usefulness, is finished.
Great idea…but for one thing. The Feds would levy HUGE fines from multiple agencies.
I read recently that Salazar fines the Border Patrol for damage to Federal lands, caused by just doing their job. Transfers of funds out of enforcement into Interior…and you know how beneficial they are…
Rags,
I have said this before and I have to again:
I used to be proud to say I am retired Coast Guard…now I just don’t say it.
Frankly, I don’t believe he’d do his own dirty work. He’d get someone else to do it for him.
Sounds more likely, and TEH WON would be leaning over her body and pointing his finger in her face sternly telling her this was all Bush’s fault.
And yes, the State Run Media would cover for him.
I’ve got $100 that says Emanuel couldn’t hold a lady down…
Gotta disagree here. Not saying both sides aren’t using the law for talking points, but in fact as far as I can tell, the law doesn’t prevent anyone from skimming to their hearts content.
Don’t pay’em, what if the EPA gave a party and nobody came?
Better yet at the scene of a burning oil slick erect a sign with the EPA logo and a large single finger salute.
Why doesn’t some organization with resources (cough, cough, News Corp)hire a fleet of private jets to criss-cross the gulf on a single day and do a photo survey of the number of assets deployed. Or pay the French to use their photo satellite to do the same. Publish the evidence and challenge this administration to provide their proof of this phantom fleet’s existence.
And yet, in story after story, it is apparent that the Jones Act WAS an actual impediment. I’ve read the accounts front to back, and understand the two poles. But repeatedly, foreign vessels have been kept off the Gulf.
In early 2008 when I coined the phrase “Barack Copperfield Illusion” to describe BHO little did I know how accurate my impressions were … Not only as a true description of the individual but as a true description of everything about him and those he surrounds himself with …
“All talk” is proven again and again …
He and his corrupt administration of cronies have no concept of how to govern and a total disdain for the USA and all if stands for …
So … the time has come to declare BHO
“The Straw President” …
Um, not quite. Straw is straight, upright, grows in the light, bends in the wind, and is useful even after it’s death.
Obama, is not straight nor upright (not honest.) He operates in darkness, and is deceitful and dishonest. He bucks the wind (dissent), going so far as to call it racist. It remains a question whether or not he will be useful after he is gone (a legacy.)
He is more like the noxious weed, Spurge.
Finally, a benefical use for Agent Orange.
Here’s the applicable law. Not saying Obama hasn’t tried to keep his crisis going, but the law certainly allows foreign cleanup.
Incidentally, the law was originally intended to cover the carrying of “merchandise”, but after the lawyers were done, “merchandise” now means even “valueless material”. Except for sewage, which if I skimmed it correctly can be carried on foreign ships. But clearly, all the on-scene guy in charge has to do is say – “whoa, we need help” and the Jones Act allows foreign ships to help.
right_on …
remember … straw becomes hay … and hay is the first stage of horse s**t …
The point is that the law is being used as the reason to refuse foreign assistance. It doesn’t matter at all what the law says – you know that’s irrelevant to a Democrat – it’s how it is used. Obama will satisfy his union thugs first and worry about the oil leak later.
What did Obama know and when did he know it?
Geez, Aloha, I KNOW what the law says.
I know what Allan has said, and that he’s either been lying in the past or is culpably ignorant.
I also read report after report that shows conclusively that the Jones Act has been an impediment to employing foreign equipment and people. I don’t have time to pour those into this thread…I know you can review them.
This is pretty much all you need to know about how Obama is handling this problem.
He’s a fraud and an incompetent fraud at that. That is an indisputable fact.
I disagree…he is incompetent in any number of areas, but this is happening by DESIGN…
THE TRUTH FROM THE GULF COAST AT PANAMA CITY FL IS THAT NO TARBALLS HAVE BEEN DOCUMENTED, NO OIL IN THE WATER HAS BEEN SEEN OR SMELLED, AND THE BEACH IS AS BEAUTIFUL AS EVER. UNFORTUNATELY THE MEDIA WHICH HAS TO HAVE A CRISIS PER DAY, HAS BLOWN THIS MESS INTO A CATASTROPHE, AND SCARED TRAVELLERS WHICH FURTHER HURTS THE COAST. YES, THE COAST OF LA IS SUFFERING, AS IS SOME OF MISSISSIPPI, ALABAMA, AND A SMALL ARE OF PENSACOLA, BUT EAST OF WESTERN PENSACOLA IS ALL CLEAR. I OWN A CONDO IN PANAMA CITY, AND I CAN ASSURE YOU MY CONDO MANAGER GIVES US REAL INFO EVERY OTHER DAY ON THE CONDITION OF THE BEACH. SO MEDIA, AND GUBMINT, STFU.
“Never let a crisis go to waste.” You can always find a way to use it to help destroy the country!!
And yet we have another reason for Republicans to put a crowbar in their wallets and take a trip down there to see for themselves. Democrats be damned.
That’s wonderful news. As you noted the same can’t be said for Pensacola. My brother and family have a place on the beach. Not pretty!
Federal mismanagement can only be characterized as criminal.
This is what you get from an empty suit, just worthless, empty promises (and lots of lies too).
“Have you plugged the old white lady yet, Daddy?”
Its all part of the plan. None of the stalling, lies, interference are due to ignorance nor incompetence. Obambi and crew intend to damage this country any way they can, and they are doing it with the aid of the media, every Democrat in office, and every government agency under their directive. We are in the hands of our enemy.
…thanks stooopid voters…
Please don’t get them to repeal the Jones Act. If they did, everything would be cheaper here in Hawaii.
That would mean more people moving here, a stronger economy, less monopoly by the freight carriers, and faster services. Can’t have that. Hawaii would become just another state.
ROTFLMAO…classic, babiesgrandma, simply classic.
But not intelligent design…..
And after the US Merchant Marine Fleet goes away – we can supply your submariner brothers (and now sisters) in Guam cheaper from their new resupply points in China! Commie China.
Probably. My point is that it’s rhetoric on both sides. The law itself allows foreigners to help clean up.
Is it your contention that…without a special protective law…there would be no U.S. merchant marine?
I heard Bob Beckel say that we have all the skimmers we need in response to the question of why we didn’t allow some foriegn skimmer boats in. He said it in his usual condensending manner like he is the know everything and we are just the lowly minions that have no knowledge or worth.
Now there’s an @ss I would like to kick.
Message to Bob Beckel……You’re lying.
The biggest sin of all is the EPA preventing the use of “Decanting” Skimmers. In 1993 Aramco had a well blow out, the Saudis company surrounded the oil blow out with decanting oil tankers equipped with decanting oil skimmers and had the problem totally cleaned up in under 2 years. The oil never reached the beaches.
The EPA says in their emergency oil spill plan, containment is most important, and under no circumstances let the oil get in the estuaries and on the beaches … where it now is.
google it … see for yourself.
The “A Whale” ship is a decanting skimmer.
A simple way to envision these skimmers … You want simple cheap decanters, think shop-vac on a barge. The water and oil goes into the tank, the oil floats, the water sinks, a pump pumps out the water from the bottom of the tank — Under the floating oil. Not EPA approved, but the pelicans will love you in the morning. You may note that Gov Jindal was on one of these shop-vac skimmers watching them work. It’s the thing with the PVC pipe sucking up the ‘mostly floating’ oily water.
And why didn’t Obowma’s think tank waive the EPA’s ridiculous 15 ppm oil discharge rule and get on with it from day one. It’s what the Dutch offered, to send to the USA, four of these decanting skimmer ships. Not the little shrimp boat types, but enough to swallow up 100′s of thousands of barrels of oil a day.
Yes why weren’t these offered ships allowed to help? The A Whale is also a decanting oil skimmer.
I’m shocked, I tell you, just shocked that the government and BP would lie about something so serious.
Did anyone happen to notice that as soon as BP changed the guy heading up the cleanup that coverage dropped like a stone? As soon as Tony Hayward’s mug disappeared, and his lovely British accent along with it, suddenly…nothing, or nothing much. Ho hum, can’t lock down the border, can’t stop the oil, can’t clean up the beaches. After more than 70 days, at least someone in DC figured out there were other skimmers that could be deployed, including some from overseas. Over a friggin’ month, folks! Obama et. al. are so incompetent they make “Heck-of-a-job-Brownie” seem like a mastermind.
This has got to be on purpose.
WeDems have elected our own destruction. Nobody could be this incompetent or stupid!la…!
I just figured out Obama’s next plan to stop the oil!!
When putting out a forest fire, they sometimes start a backfire – “Backfire: A fire set along the inner edge of a fireline to consume the fuel in the path of a wildfire and/or change the direction or force of the fire’s convection column.” – from Wikipedia
Obama is going to try something similar to keep the oil off of the beaches – he’s going to use USAF tanker aircraft to coat the beaches in a heavier oil so that the lighter oil from the spill will be kept out at sea!!
On July 2nd, 2010 at 7:18 pm, JHSII said:
Don’t give them ideas!
full stop.
Support for my position from Powerline. Nice to NOT be a lone voice, crying the the wilderness.
You’re not even close to being a lone voice. The point has been made by many, including Rush and other radio guys. I’ve been making the same point, if not so much here, then on other web sites.
Thanks, tx. I’ve taken flak for this notion being “hysterics”, a “conspiracy theory”, and simply “crazy”. None of which was unexpected.
Believe me, I thought long and hard…for days…before posting that piece.
It struck me yesterday, that Obama is trying to govern like he is the head of a monarchy. Let me explain.
Kings don’t have to know how to do things, they just order it to be done. Viola!
Imagine Yul Brenner, as King Ramses, in the movie, The Ten Commandments; “So let it be written, so let it be done!”
He cannot fix problems because he is not very smart. That becomes a problem as well, since he doesn’t have the common sense to hire someone that is smart enough to fix a problem, and he is incapable of admitting fault, or of acknowledging that he isn’t smart enough to tackle simple problems.
If you can’t fix a leaky faucet, hire someone who can. If you can’t pilot a ship of state, hire someone who can!
I thought he already had George Soros?
Notice the above section 2 – I don’t believe the Dutch (or any others) accorded the privileges to the shrimp boats, therefore…
I think Thad Allen has been ‘McCrystalized’, during Katrina he was instrumental in orchestrating the response, but you can’t orchestrate something when all the players are breaking the instruments. It is obvious that Browner, Salazar, and Jackson are either criminally incompetent, criminally corrupt, or both, but charges will never happen. Re BP’s $20B commitment – how many want to take bets that 1) it was done by this administration because going to court would have opened up a lot of embarrassing documents in discovery, and 2) that BP tells the Anointed One to FO when $20.1B in claims occurs – “Sue Us” (see #1 above).
We in Houston love our Coast Guard – Alicia, Claudette, Ike, Rita – you guys are wonderful.
Carol Browner, special adviser to President Barack Obama on energy and climate change, said in an interview that smaller oil firms might no longer be able to drill in the Gulf of Mexico as a result of legislation moving through Congress that would eliminate the cap on their liability for oil spills. Ms. Browner stated “Eliminating the $75 million cap on liability for oil spills will mean that you only have large companies in this sector.”
Small companies have warned that discarding limits would shut out all but the biggest companies from offshore drilling, because obtaining insurance would become impossible without liability limits. The small companies did nothing wrong —and you’re going to shut them down? So the only thing you are going to have left are the big, national oil companies like China? Brazil? Venezula? Is it any coincidence that Venezuela ‘nationalized’ 11 U.S. Companies oil rigs? There was a time when that action was considered an act of war. Between the Obama created shortages and the Obama created hyper inflation, $10/gallon for gas will seem like $0.19/gallon did eon’s ago.
I know you were being sarcastic, but having had 4 friends die from Agent Orange exposure, and 1 whose son is exhibiting the genetic defects I don’t think that is a good option. That said, there may be some rationale behind a back burn of the affected grasses, like a forest fire, nature rebuilds rapidly.
I do have to wonder what this administrations response will be when a Cat 5 Hurricane does a direct hit on Pasadena/Deer Park/Texas City and all the refineries and chemical plants.
Thank you. I’ve been waiting to see when this article got some airtime.
This is disgusting, and *criminal*. Heads need to roll over this deliberate fabrication of information given to people.
To go to the trouble of putting together a map of 140 locations, and then distribute it as an official declaration of the assets locations, and then to find that is a complete fabrication? I’m waiting with bated breath to see how the admin spins this as a simple mistake, or the action of some low level employee.
Rags, Txtvet, you are both Far from alone.
Remember the old saying: Once is circumstance, twice is happenstance, thrice is enemy action.
We passed Thrice months ago.
Deliberate, and calculated actions are in play here. Or as the lawyers would term it: a pattern, and practice.
Sea_Dog, my comments were made with great malice of forethought. First let me say I understand your comments. After leaving Active Duty I was in a RC Infantry unit for a long time. I’ve lost my three of my friends/soldiers to Agent Orange exposure and saw the exposure effect others.
My comments obviously opened wounds for you and perhaps others and for that I am truly sorry.
The point I was making poorly is that these people do need to be erradicated from public life. People like Carol Browner are not stupid. They understand the skimmers while not perfect in terms of EPA standards can reduce dramatically the amount of oil in the water and what gets to shore.
There is no real effort to stop the flow. The cap was put on and then everyone apparently said good enough. All one needs to do is compare the effort and the decisions being made with the damage. What would people like Obama, Browner, WWF, and Sierra Club be saying hourly if this was Bush.
I don’t believe in UFO, the JFK assassination, the one world govenment, and other conspiracies. In fact I am a skeptic. But the evidence that this government is deliberately allowing the damage to contunue while hampering any effort to really contain and clean things is IMHO becoming overwhelming.
The Gulf is dying and the MSM sits silent.
I was lucky – I just had to walk through where it was sprayed, not had it sprayed on me or bathed in it like my wing-wiper friends.
I agree with you that Browner is probably one of the most intelligent dangerous socialist out there, Salazar is just dumb and follows the leader. While also not a conspiracy type, the evidence is overwhelming that they are advancing their agenda on numerous fronts so that no one can play connect the dots. I was a programmer/analyst, connecting dots was my business, and this is beyond scary. We need to get a turnover in at least the House so we can start demanding records and exposing the culprits to charges.
Which is EXACTLY the effect of most regulation, and why large, incumbent businesses actually seek regulation over their industries.
Remember too, fascist economics (which is Obama’s favored form) seeks big business members for the corporate collectives it builds. It cannot abide entrepreneurial companies.
I too do not see you as a lone voice nor needing support for that position. I think Obowma purposefully let the Gulf oil spill get worse, hoping to benefit his crap and tax policy. It’s just gone wrong, now he tries to side step to immigration, which is now going wrong as well.
We have a different kind of person in the white house, someone who genuinely HATES AMERICA and the greatness it has achieved. And in his warped Rev Wright OD’ed mind he has to fix that with destruction.
tarpon;
Thanks, and you’re right. More and more, this is becoming evident.
It will be the main-stream conservative position in a matter of days.
Trouble is, will it matter…?
Something to think about on Independence Day tomorrow…
How about a Government Employee Responsibiltiy Act – one that finds if a regulator did not perform the job he was paid to do, he could be held accountible criminally – as in jail and/or fine – or at least be fired with no benefits or payout.
Instead, we suspend them with pay (maybe) and allow them to return to their desks to watch porn.
No. Obama is going to string the boom from the International Space Station so our astronauts have a way down after the shuttle is retired without a replacement and Russia denies us access to their rockets to get there.