Hello---
This week Mr. Rich writes another must-read Op-Ed. It is something I pointed out in my previous diary but taken to a much more erudite level.
Over the Fold, Please and Thank You:
The Gulf Oil Spill is the worst environmental disaster in modern history.
The Facts:
>11 tragically lost their lives
Amid the frenzy of attention over the disaster, the media seems to be giving the smallest mention to those 11 men who tragically lost their lives from this awful accident. They traveled from Louisiana, Mississippi, and even Texas to work hard and provide for their families. Unfortunately, these families now have to suffer the unimaginable sadness of having lost their loved ones.
>Hundreds of Marine Species could be lost
Many species are currently nesting and reproducing in the area, and an entire generation of hundreds of species could be lost as a result. Countless marine birds could also be affected, as the area is a primary flyway for many species, currently in its peak migratory period. Though the cause is still unknown, the numerous dead sea turtles and other creatures that have washed ashore is perhaps an early ominous sign of the marine crisis the oil is causing in the deeper waters offshore.
>The oil turning into vapor and polluting not only the water, but the air and people of the Coast
Oil can turn into a heavy vapor that can then be inhaled by humans in the surrounding areas. The volatile chemicals in oil can cause minor immediate health problems, but have been linked to cancer over longer periods of time.
>Devastating impact on the sea-food industry
Federal officials have shut down all fishing between the Mississippi River and Florida Panhandle until early-mid next week at the soonest. Fisheries in Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida are threatened from the effects of this disaster. Louisiana's $2.4 billion sea food industry accounts for approximately 1/3 of the shrimp, oysters, crab and craw fish in America. While the temporary fishing ban only halts 1/4 of Louisiana's seafood production, this could easily change if the oil begins to spread west.
>Loss of Tourism
The Gulf Coast has long been home to pristine beaches, admired for their purity and cleanliness. Countless resorts and thriving tourist economies flourish from this natural beauty, with tourism pulling in $100 billion a year in the region. Unfortunately, the oil spill perilously threatens this vital industry with the potential to paint stretches of unspoiled beach black.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
and many, many more...
People are angry. People want action. People want an apology and want this sh*t fixed now.
Instead what have we gotten?
President Obama has been strongly criticized by some of those on both the Left and the Right for his lack of emotion and anger. They want to see President Obama take BP to task for the what they have done. They want to see America's emotion emulated by their leader and they want to see heads roll.
Rich:
IT turns out there is something harder to find than a fix for BP’s leak: Barack Obama’s boiling point.
The frantic and fruitless nationwide search for the president’s temper is now our sole dependable comic relief from the tragedy in the gulf. Only The Onion could have imagined the White House briefing last week where a CBS News correspondent asked the press secretary, Robert Gibbs, if he had "really seen rage from the president" and to "describe it." Gibbs came up with Obama’s "clenched jaw" and his order to "plug the damn hole." (Thank God he hadn’t settled for "darn.") This evidence did not persuade anyone, least of all Spike Lee, who could be found on CNN the next night begging the president, "One time, go off!"
Not going to happen. Obama will never unleash the anger of the antagonists in "Do the Right Thing" or match James Carville’s rebooted "ragin’ Cajun" shtick. That’s not who Obama is. If he tried to go off, he’d look ridiculous. But the debate over how to raise the president’s emotional thermostat is not an entirely innocuous distraction. It allows Obama to duck the more serious doubts about his leadership that have resurfaced along with BP’s oil.
...
If Obama is to have a truly transformative presidency, there could be no better catalyst than oil. Standard Oil jump-started Progressive Era trust-busting. Sinclair Oil’s kickback-induced leases of Wyoming’s Teapot Dome oilfields in the 1920s led to the first conviction and imprisonment of a presidential cabinet member (Harding’s interior secretary) for a crime committed while in the cabinet. The Arab oil embargo of the early 1970s and the Exxon Valdez spill of 1989 sped the conservation movement and search for alternative fuels. The Enron scandal prompted accounting reforms and (short-lived) scrutiny of corporate Ponzi schemes.
....
That doesn’t require a temper tantrum. Nor does it require him to plug the damn hole, which he can’t do anyway. What he does have the power to fix is his presidency. Should he do so, and soon, he’ll still have a real chance to mend a broken country as well.
It's not time to ask for "veins in the forehead" or a "Fuck You" Memo from the Whitehouse to BP. Turn this crisis into an opportunity to break America's addiction to Oil. So Don't Get Mad, Mr. President. Get Even.