Frank Rich On Oil Spill: Obama Must Come Clean And Clean House

New York Times:

In this 9/11, it's not just the future of the gulf coast, energy policy or his presidency that's in jeopardy. What's also being tarred daily by the gushing oil is the very notion that government can accomplish anything.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[Ljilja]

11:20 AM on 06/22/2010

I agree. Obama would do well to listen.

http://graciouslivingdaybyday.com/

[rview]

10:36 PM on 06/21/2010

Thank you Frank Rich. You are a self-reflective dem, showing us that we don't have to mindless sycophants of the president.

Kudos to Rachel and Keith as well. We can now be free from our debilitating mind traps.

Thank you.

[BannedNBoston]

05:46 PM on 06/21/2010

Right now BP is using Corexit a PESTICIDE to disperse the oil watch the video its the only way.
People in the south will get poison rain for years.
http://video.godlikeproductions.com/video/Simmons_Says_Nuclear_Device_Only_Option_to_Stop_Oil_Flow?id=0010887cc7d849469a1

[Overtone]

03:24 PM on 06/21/2010

FRANK RICH MAY WANT TO EXAMINE THE POSSIBILITY THAT THIS MAY PROVE TO BE THE GREATEST CATACLYSM SINCE CHERNOBYL

See: Life Threatening Danger at http://www.aesopinstitute.org

Also, What to Do! on the same website.

This may prove to be a dire emergency! Far greater than has so far been generally understood.

Recognize the dimensions of this extraordinary set of problems!

A scientist has stated that if a thin film of oil from this geyser covers the surface of the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans, it will raise the temperature sufficiently to accelerate the melting of the permafrost, releasing huge additional amounts of methane and accelerating the possibility of reaching a Tipping Point.

If that occurs most life in the Northern Hemisphere may be at hazard.

Methane may have all but eliminated life on earth twice before in the history of the planet. In one case only single celled animals survived. Recovery took millions of years.

This may become the most threatening event in history.

Wise leadership will seek to confirm or refute this information. If it is accurate, we need an all out effort to do what we can to keep the oil from spreading into the Atlantic.

There is no sign that is a priority at this time.

Frank is on target in advocating much better leadership from the White House - fast!

For far more detail and information, see: What to Do at www.aesopinstitute.org

There may still be sufficient time to take significant action!

[Henri101]

03:09 PM on 06/21/2010

Frank Rich is providing unsolicited advice to this administration while The New York Times has been saddled with debts for years. Maybe removing him from their payroll will help the Times get out of the red.

[Manx]

04:53 PM on 06/21/2010

What does Frank Rich's punditry have to do with financial problems at the NY Times? Frank Rich is a critic, doing what he is supposed to do. It seem you only believe in "advice" if you agree with it - in other words, it depends on whose ox is gored. The departure of Frank Rich wouldn't help the NY Times at all. He is talented and brilliant, one of the most popular columnists at the NY Times today. Long may he wave!

[Coloradogary]

01:25 PM on 06/21/2010

Fat cats will always be fat cats. They have an uncanny instinct to go for the cream.

Just ask Garfield.

[Pablo175]

12:55 PM on 06/21/2010

Golf anyone?

[meede]

12:49 PM on 06/21/2010

To hear all the ra_nts of the governors and senators in the southern states about the moritorium on drilling and their crying how it will hurt the region tells me that they all need the boot first off. There is more whistleblowers than ever before reporting and providing proof of all the false reports provided to the government how safe all the rigs are. To lift the moritorium as they want is an invite to another dis_aster.

The southern government seems to want to play the odds like in Vegas - double down for another dis_aster.

[rview]

10:53 AM on 06/21/2010

Why aren't the dems proposing that we terminate all the leases in the gulf and have the government take over the oil drilling business? If corporations can't govern themselves and we need oil, how about the government take over the business and do it itself?

[friedfish2718]

01:12 PM on 06/21/2010

"government take over the business and do it itself? "

yep and then we are all equally f**ked.

[ZeraLee]

07:00 PM on 06/21/2010

Contrary to popular propaganda, Democrats are not interested in socialism. The government should be collecting more than token royalties from the leases, and it needs to get serious about regulation, but the biggest problem is in the corporate culture. Nationalization will not fix that, only morph it into something equally bad.

[Hallucinocynic]

10:49 AM on 06/21/2010

If Obama isn't compelled to replace Salazar (and Salazar is no more complicit than Geithner or Bernanke or Paulsen, whose tenures continue without threat of firing...) after this, then the mantra for change was just another disingenuous political carrot.

Suggesting that only the current players can correct the mess in the Gulf is BS. Rich is correct, a new lineup is long overdue.

[Grim Truth]

11:49 AM on 06/21/2010

Totally agree. Keeping Salazar (and the others, for that matter) just shows passive agreement with their actions. Salazar should have been ejected over a year ago after his petition to the Washington DC federal court of appeals.

[Dangerous Dan]

09:40 AM on 06/21/2010

Fore!

[bascombe]

08:35 AM on 06/21/2010

Obama has ignored the science:
Gulf sand berms a bad idea

Robert Young, professor of coastal geology and director of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Western Carolina University explains to Rachel Maddow why constructing sand berms in the Gulf of Mexico to keep the oil away from the Louisiana shore is a bad idea.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/37744259#37744259

"trust in prayer, 'cause we don't know schitt about this" - BHO

[piobaireachd]

09:00 AM on 06/21/2010

oh, lol, hadn't seen this

you answered my question from our other exchange

thanks

[Gaylord P Farqua]

08:32 AM on 06/21/2010

No matter what the President does or does not do the oil industry is best suited to fix their own mistakes. Obama did respond quickly and found out real fast that no one in the federal government knew how to stop an oil leak a mile down in the Gulf. The regulatory agencies need to be house cleaned and a strict and enforceable set of safety requirements developed. If we are fair we could ask what Bush or Clinton would have done in the same situation. The President has negotiated a big fund to immediately help the residents of the coastal cities and his reward for that was Republican criticism. The attacks from the right were so lame as to imply he should have shown more emotion and ridden into Louisiana on horseback with six guns blazing. He decided instead to start solving the problem. It is noteworthy that the 75 Million dollar cap on liability was handled and even that annoyed the GOP. Republicans and some Democrats contnue to block moves to increase the liability cap with 100,000 barrels of oil bubbling into the Gulf daily. Incredible.

[Kate Emery]

07:14 AM on 06/21/2010

We're clearly seeing what bad corporate citizenship looks like - so let's either strip the miserable excuses of personhoods of their rights under the constitution, or simply throw the bastards in jail which is what would have happened to you or I. Look at how they treat an individual arsonist when they find him - jail and charges of murder. Why are these thugs still not only continuing their business as usual, but calling the shots!

[tuam49]

07:44 AM on 06/21/2010

this is bad corporate citizenship

[duxguts]

03:54 AM on 06/21/2010

The people of Australia should go and see The Great Barrier Reef while they can.