The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
Reporting from Houma, La. — Engineers have at least temporarily stopped the flow of oil and gas into the Gulf of Mexico from a gushing BP well, the federal government's top oil-spill commander, U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, said Thursday morning.
The "top kill" effort, launched Wednesday afternoon by industry and government engineers, had pumped enough drilling fluid to block oil and gas spewing from the well, Allen said. The pressure from the well was very low, he said, but persisting. The top kill effort is not complete, officials caution.
just in time of course, for Obama to tout the success of his administrations handling of the event at his 12:45 news conference (the first in nearly a year)
Government can play a roll in oil spill cleanup, but as far as stopping the leak, the only choice a president has is which oil company should he hire to fix the problem.
BTW: Obama had five news conferences at the White House last year,(2009) one more than President George W. Bush had in his first year in office.
Obama held two full press conferences this year. (If you only watch Fox you may have missed them since Fox refused to cover them) on April 13, Obama conducted a news conference at the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, and he held another Full Press Conference on February 9,.
Besides these Full Press Conferences, Obama has has several "press opportunities" for questions from the press: ~April 28, on Air Force One. ~ with Mexican President Felipe Calderón, where both heads of state answered reporters' questions. ~ on May 12, he had a joint press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, ~ and with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and French President Nicolas Sarkozy where Obama also took reporters' questions.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
This is the first news conference in 308 days where President Obama will confront the White House press corps in a full-blown news conference. You can play with dates all you want, but this is the first time in NEARLY a year. Every major media outlet is reporting that same statistic.
Quoted Text
President Barack Obama on Monday signed a press freedom law while refusing to take questions from the press, but he helpfully told reporters he would be having a press conference later this week to take their queries.
That happened today, in the Rose Garden with Mexican President Felipe Calderon. What was originally to be two questions from American reporters and two more from Mexicans became one question from each.
One question, each from two reporters, does not a press conference make.
As I posted, President Obama had a "FULL PRESS CONFERENCE" on Feb9th and April 13th, 2010.
Again, if your a Fox Fan, you probably missed it since Fox refused to air it.
Below is the FULL TRANSCRIPT of the April 13,2010 press conference, complete with questions from CBS, ABC, The Washington Post, AP, etc... but None by Fox News. The press conference lasted for around 50 minutes.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
I heard the same on the Maddow show and I am amazed how corrupt the Interior department is. Interesting is how many of them became oil company employees after working for the governmental department that is supposed to be investigating them.
Oil Pollution Act of 1990 Spill Response Authority: “Oil spill response authority is determined by the location of the spill: the USCG has response authority in coastal waters, and the EPA covers inland oil spills.
“As the primary response authority in coastal waters, the USCG has the ultimate authority to ensure that an oil spill is effectively removed and actions are taken to prevent further discharge from the source. During response operations, the USCG coordinates the efforts of federal, state, and private parties. “Coast Guard response efforts are supported by NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration. NOAA provides scientific analysis and consultation during oil spill response activities. “Assistance can include oil spill tracking, cleanup alternatives, and knowledge of at-risk natural resources. Moreover, NOAA experts begin to collect data to assess natural resource damages during response operations.” National Contingency Plan: “OPA expanded the role and breadth of the NCP. The 1990 law established a multi-layered planning and response system to improve preparedness and response to spills in marine environments. Among other things, the act also required the President to establish procedures and standards (as part of the NCP) for responding to worst-case oil spill scenarios.”
Tank Vessel and Facility Response Plans: “As a component of the enhanced NCP, OPA amended the [Clean Water Act] to require that U.S. tank vessels, offshore facilities, and certain onshore facilities prepare and submit oil spill response plans to the relevant federal agency. In general, vessels and facilities are prohibited from handling, storing, or transporting oil if they do not have a plan approved by (or submitted to) the appropriate agency.”
Liability Issues: “OPA unified the liability provisions of existing oil spill law, creating a freestanding liability regime. Section 1002 states that responsible parties are liable for any discharge of oil (or threat of discharge) from a vessel or facility to navigable waters, adjoining shorelines, or the exclusive economic zone of the United States (i.e., 200 miles beyond the shore).”
“OPA broadened the scope of damages (i.e., costs) for which an oil spiller would be liable. Under OPA, a responsible party is liable for all cleanup costs incurred, not only by a government entity, but also by a private party. In addition to cleanup costs, OPA significantly increased the range of liable damages to include the following:
injury to natural resources, loss of personal property (and resultant economic losses), loss of subsistence use of natural resources, lost revenues resulting from destruction of property or natural resource injury, lost profits resulting from property loss or natural resource injury, and costs of providing extra public services during or after spill response. “Mobile offshore drilling units (MODUs), like the Deepwater Horizon unit involved in the April 2010 incident in the Gulf of Mexico, are first treated as tank vessels for their liability caps. If removal and damage costs exceed this liability cap, a MODU is deemed to be an offshore facility for the excess amount.
“Offshore facility liability is capped at ‘all removal costs plus $75 million’; onshore facilities and deepwater port liability is limited to $350 million. Although these limits are much higher than under the pre-OPA liability structure, Congress did not alter the limits with the tank vessel increases.” The government has to assume some of the cost for this disaster as they placed a cap on the liability which any oil company can be charged for a spill cleanup plus damages, it may have seemed like a good idea then, but this spill will cost much more than the 75 million that BP is liable for and may cost more than 20 billion before all is said and done.
This board links to Fox News often... should my reply be: "oh yea! Faux News is Biased"... Then run away from the story? What part of Maddow's report do you disagree with??? Or do you just disagree because Maddow has a story?
She stated what is news on all networks today, and then she posted clips of what was news back in the 70's.
Being on MSNBC, just like being on Fox, does not make a story true.
Your post about "no one watches"??? If you want to go by "what everyone watches"... then lets go by ABC, NBC & even third place CBS. CBS has 4times the viewers of Fox News. NBC & ABC have even more.
Does ratings make a story true for you???
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
There was a bill before Congress to raise the cap but REPs shot it down saying that it would hamper small companies from getting into oil drilling.
Quoted Text
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) has echoed the American Petroleum Institute, a trade and lobbying group, with her concerns that a permanent unlimited liability — or even one as high as $10 billion — could exclude all but the richest oil companies from drilling offshore because of excessive costs to insure oil rigs. That, they claim, could lead to foreign "supermajors" harvesting America’s offshore resources.
Whether it does or not, the White House is adamant in asserting that it will hold BP financially responsible for the costs of the oil spill containment and cleanup.
"They are fully liable for cleanup and recovery costs per the Oil Pollution Act of 1990," says presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs. And he points to an exception in the law that eliminates the limit on liability.
"The cap is not in place if somebody is found to be either grossly negligent... involved in willful misconduct, or in violation of federal regulations," said Gibbs at his daily press briefing yesterday.
Further, Gibbs made it clear that administration officials are also working on legislation to lift the $75 million liability cap and raise it.
"Obviously we've got a situation where (liability) could easily top $75 million in a short period of time," he said.
There was a bill before Congress to raise the cap but REPs shot it down
Oh, silly me, I thought DEMS controlled both houses with a near supermajority ... now you tell me REPS have that much control?? I wish I'd have known.
Quoted Text
The $75 million limit approved by Congress in 1990 looks grossly small 20 years later during a spill that could easily lead to billions and billions of dollars in economic claims, Pettit noted.
1987 - 1990 Dem control of Congress again. Gee. Coincidence that they passed a $75 million limit less than one year after the Exxon Valdez spill?
Logged
Quoting from both Rachel Maddow AND LSDNBC? WOW! Two real unbiased news sources-that no one watches. MT is right as usual.
