But then there are so many side plots and questions that come off of the situation, some of them actually worthy of attention - others, not so much, but the MSM is gonna run with it anyways because, well, many of them suck actually reporting news.
Probably one of the biggest is the blame game between BP, the federal government, and the contractors involved, including everyone's favorite dastardly supervillian organization, Halliburton. As much as I would love to just peg this on them, you can't - everyone involved had some fault. Granted some more than others, such as BP's now-notoriously poor track record and failure to comply when cited with violations over the feds' lack of having any teeth to truly enforce the BP citations, or Halliburton (as usual) doing a crappy job at doing something and ultimately screwing the people who trusted them to make an honest, reliable product. But in the end does it really matter considering that what's happened has happened, and now we have to deal with it? I say it doesn't.
EXCEPT when it comes to who should be in charge of fixing and solving this crisis, and to that I think the responsibility is divided. Stopping the oil from continuing to leak out should lie solely with British Petroleum - it's your rig, fix it. The cleanup of this disaster should be led and orchestrated by the federal government however - this is a disaster after all, and the only body that is big enough to (hopefully) deal with this correctly is the State. However, BP will need to be funding as much of the damages, cleanup, and recovery, as possible. If it means they break the bank doing so, then there better damn well be cobwebs forming in their bank vaults when its all said and done.
Which means don't be dumping money into a PR campaign to save your face after the amount of destruction you've caused, you jackasses! I can understand there being legal obligations to your shareholders to pay out on your dividends, but if not every other penny of your corporation is focused on stopping the oil leak and helping protect the people and wildlife and ecosystems YOU have destroyed with your reckless, careless attitude and policies, then you truly are the foulest collection of scum and may this one event haunt you for the rest of your days.
And don't think I'm I'm actually giving you much of a chance here, I'm not saying that you aren't already the foulest scum in the world - you probably are.
Now the other half of this, the part that we really shouldn't even be talking about, but we are because the "journalists" in the MSM have a hard time filling their airtime on their 24 hour news channels. Obama.
Really, I don't have much beef here - I think he could have been a little more aggressive and blunt with getting BP to get their shit together and hold them accountable, but all in all he's been handling the crisis with the same kind of coolness he's dealt with everything else since he moved onto Pennsylvania Avenue. He didn't fuck up, they aren't his oil rigs, and BP should be the one taking the brunt of this. You look at the polls on it, and they are. Obama is letting the public hold them accountable, and is holding the sword of the Department of Justice behind the voice of the people to keep them honest. But of course, that isn't enough for some people.
DiA does a pretty good job pointing out how the MSM talking-heads want the man to be magical - but that ain't how it works folks:
Something odd is happening here. There is the reality of the spill: thousands of barrels of oil spewing into the sea each day; the most promising fixes attempted without success; 20,000 people working on the mess; over 1,500 boats surrounding it; and the mobilization of thousands of National Guard troops. Then, like an episode of "Lost", there is the side-story: Obama not showing enough rage; Obama not visiting the coast in a timely fashion; Obama, our overly aloof president. As in the TV show, it is difficult to connect the two. The state of Mr Obama's jaw has little effect on the number of ships deployed to the Gulf. Whether he yelled the orders or not, the National Guard mobilized. It is no more likely that "top kill" would've worked had the president been full of rage. But since most pundits find the first narrative too technical or boring (and outside of their expertise), they've fallen back on more engrossing, less relevant political critiques. They are speaking the only language they understand.
Clive Crook has the best take on the press's reaction: "Apparently it is a great idea to elect a president who is calm in a crisis, except when there's a crisis. Then what you need is somebody to lead the nation in panic." It makes for better TV.And I can't even get started on the hypocrisy of conservative politicians and media voices who are jumping up and down wanting Obama to get more involved. You want your small government? He's playing small government in this one, make Big Oil clean up their own mess. But I forgot, you only want government out of people's lives when it effects you personally and someone you don't agree with is in office. That's right.
Anyways, other interesting things that relate to this:
+ I thought The Onion was a fake news organization?
+ The Boston Globe shows it like it is.
+ The Daily Show doing what it does best - making douchebags look like the douchebags they are:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| The Spilling Fields | ||||
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+ Lastly, below are some map images to help you put the size of the spill in perspective. Made a difference to me:
UPDATE: Not that I want to add much more on to this already really long post, but TNC has a video up from The Huffington Post that seem to perfectly demonstrate the contrast between Obama's attitude towards this thing, the people's attitudes toward him and this thing, and the MSM clowns filling air-time:
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