In the days following the explosion in the Gulf Of Mexico of a BP oil rig, the news narrative gradually developed from a curio into a full-blown ongoing crisis. Originally, the worry was the explosion killed a few workers, which it likely did, but as the blow-out preventer on the rig, named Deepwater Horizon, failed to activate, the oil slick has grown and now threatens the entire Gulf area, where approximately 40 percent of all the wetlands in the U.S. are located. But apparently, the possibility of foul play has now entered the story. Former George W. Bush White House Press Secretary Dana Perino, now a slightly less honorable shill for right wing interests on Fox News, said, “I’m not trying to introduce a conspiracy theory, but was this deliberate? You have to wonder if there was sabotage involved.”
Why?
The pill-popping voice of reason Rush Limbaugh pointed to the proximity of the spill to Earth Day, painting environmental “wackos” as the culprits: “The carbon tax bill was scheduled to be announced on Earth Day, and then it was postponed … The cap-and-trade bill was strongly criticized by hardcore environmentalist wackos because it supposedly allowed more offshore drilling and nuclear plant investment. … What better way to head off more drilling and nuclear plants, than blowing up a rig? I’m just noting the timing here.”
Why?
“The question is, why the delay in response?” stammered Fox Business host Eric Bolling on the always painful Fox And Friends. “You guys were pointing out, nine days before it was even addressed, 12 days before [Obama] made a formal comment. The question is, did they let this thing leak?”
Why? Why, why, why?
Why would environmentalists participate in destroying the environment? To prove a point? And even if they could, why would they choose a difficult one? The Deepwater Horizon was the deepest oil well ever drilled. Environmental concerns are always in the news, why would that week be any different? And why would the Obama administration want the problem to get worse? It’s being labeled as “Obama’s Katrina.” So far, he’s had quite a few Katrinas, including the earthquake in Haiti, the Fort Hood shootings, H1N1, and the bankruptcy of GM.
Far as I can tell, he’s doing okay with all those Katrinas. Bush only had one. Obama’s had about seven in 18 months.
Right-wing pundits can run their mouths about energy policy all they want, but just like opposing economic reform and therefore looking like wimps to the American public, pushing for more offshore oil drilling puts the environmental and the economic livelihood of five “Red States” in jeopardy. And the arguments for unmitigated expansion of offshore drilling in the wake of the catastrophe (Sean Hannity is on record saying if we allowed drilling in ANWR, we wouldn’t have to drill in sensitive environmental areas like the Gulf Of Mexico. Huh?) are mindboggling.
How does the “libertarian” angle of small government mouthpieces like Florida gubernatorial hopeful Marco Rubio coincide with relying on government cleanup during catastrophes such as this? How does small government protect the shores by “cutting red tape” or “untying their hands” and eliminating regulation, like making sure safety features like blow-out preventers work? Actually, on a whole, it seems they don’t—there exists numerous documentation on the failure of blow-out preventers, including 117 failures during a two-year period in the late ‘90s. And why would the deepest oil well in the world not have an acoustically trigged safety switch to operate the blow out preventer—a common feature—rather than sending down robots that aren’t working?
Go ahead, show me how you’re going to protect the voters interests by stepping out of the way to let corporations “drill, baby, drill.”
