BP AND WASHINGTON MAKE POOR DANCE PARTNERS

The tragic accident at the BP deep water drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico nearly two months ago is one of the top stories around the world and it is destined to have consequences for the economy and environment for years to come. Any reasonable individual can recognize that BP did not intend for this spill to occur, but they hold the responsibility to stop the flow of oil, and make every possible effort to halt it and address the after effects. That includes paying the bill for all remedial costs.

Our Washington based government also has significant responsibilities in this accident, because they clearly failed to provide appropriate over-sight in accordance with existing federal legislation. Washington issued the permits for BP to drill the well, and they required BP to go to deep water to explore in accordance with environmental pressures. Washington also failed to provide appropriate safety requirements during the drilling process, and in fact recently awarded BP a citation for excellence regarding this specific site.

All that said, we are now fifty some days into the accident and the politicians are performing their typical after the fact dance deflecting all responsibility away from anyone currently in Washington. The “George did it” and “it’s Georges fault” contingent has tried, but seems for a change to be unsuccessful in having the public by that line once again. Just yesterday on Fox News Channel Judge Andrew Napolitano said accurately in my opinion, “Our government has little or no concern about the financial consequences of the spill to BP, but they are only addressing the political consequences.”

I find it most disturbing that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar recently said that the government would keep their “boot on the throat” of BP, and those same words were repeated by dunderhead White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. Is that the way in the relative early days of this ecological disaster to refer to the responsible party that you MUST work with to solve the problem? To date BP acknowledges responsibility, willingness, and ability to pay for clean up and compensatory damages. However, in the long term that remains to be seen, but a corporate promise is on the record. I believe the Obama administration should look at not only the competence of Sec. Salazar, but take a look at the entire Interior Department and think of cleaning the bureaucratic house. The Department of Interior has ultimate authority over drilling and countless other issues and it is now crystal clear that it had zero plans in place for a deep water drilling incident. Who knows if they have a Plan A (never mind a Plan B) for anything else under its jurisdiction.

President Barack Obama has further cast shame on his office when he said today that he wanted the appropriate information so he could “Kick Ass.” Utterances of this nature are beneath the Office of the President of the United States and only display the depth that this inexperienced administration will reach to deflect their responsibilities. This is typical ill-advised Chicago-style thug political behavior. What could we really expect with individuals such as Rahm Emanuel (noted Congressional foul mouthed “enforcer”) and David Axelrod in the back-office of this President?

Recent polls clearly indicate that the American public does not trust our government to solve this problem. BP is responsible and they have the professionals who are best qualified to redress this terrible accident. This is a time for calm heads to prevail. The recent actions of the Obama administration have clearly proven that they want to control every single thing the citizens of this country do, think and say. The original writers of our founding documents clearly indicated that government should stay out of the day to day lives of its citizens as much as possible, but look what we got when we elected a leader with absolutely no leadership experience with a phony agenda of CHANGE.

Team Obama is not qualified to solve this problem, and they are now doing every possible thing they can do to deflect our attention from their duplicity in this devastating incident. Anyone who does not think BP wants to solve this spill quickly is a fool. This and the many problems that have developed since Obama’s election suggest our serious consideration to term limits in both the Senate and House of Representatives, because Congress has huge responsibility and complicity in this spill, too. You best remember all the things jammed down our throats in the past sixteen months come November 2010 and when the 2012 election comes around.

Your Commander has said it before and let me repeat it because it is most appropriate at this time: The Obama administration reminds me of an old cowboy expression… “BIG HAT, NO CATTLE”.

COMMANDER GRANGER