BP Gulf Oil Spill

Robert Redford: Obama Should Use Gulf Spill to Push 'Decent Energy Policy'
By Matt Robare | June 28, 2010 | 2:26 PM EDT
Robert Redford interviewRobert Redford, one of the most popular and succesful actors of our age, has joined with other entertainers, including Sir Paul McCartney and Rosie O'Donnell in encouraging the Obama administration to actively politicize the Gulf crisis and use it to push through on energy policy.

In an interview with ExtraTV, Redford said that Obama should "Grab this moment in history and get a decent energy policy." He also said "Here's a moment in our history where he [Obama] should grab leadership and run with it."

He said that "We blew it in the late seventies," referring to laws like the National Energy Act, National Energy Conservation Policy Act and the Energy Policy and Conservation Act made in the wake of the OPEC embargo and the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster.

CNN's Acosta and Costello Parrot Obama Talking Points on Offshore Drilling Moratorium
By Alex Fitzsimmons | June 25, 2010 | 4:45 PM EDT

CNN's Carol Costello and Jim Acosta revealed their disdain for a federal judge's decision to overturn the Obama administration's 6-month moratorium on offshore drilling when the expert they interviewed on the June 25 "American Morning" made a convincing case against the moratorium.

Tom Bower, an author who has written extensively on the oil industry, tried to explain the devastating economic impact the moratorium would inflict on an already beleaguered industry, but Costello and Acosta were blinded by ideology: "But isn't safety more important than money?" queried Costello. "Because, I mean, these oil companies make massive amounts of money each day."

Bower, author of "Oil, Money, Politics and Power in the 21st Century," drew the ire of Costello and Acosta for calling the Gulf oil spill an "aberration" and noting the oil industry's "phenomenal" overall safety record.
    
"But that's what they say, it is just an aberration, but the BP disaster happened," argued Costello. "Nobody thought that could happen either. So, it's just not logical, is it, that argument?"

Paul McCartney Compares Global Warming Skeptics to Holocaust Deniers; Says of Obama, 'I Really Love Him'
By Rusty Weiss | June 25, 2010 | 1:39 PM EDT

Seems the only thing gushing more than the BP oil spill these days is the disaster brewing in Paul McCartney's mouth.  In an exclusive interview with The Sun, McCartney takes a major swipe at global warming realists, er, deniers, by stating (emphasis mine):

"Sadly we need disasters like this to show people. Some people don't believe in climate warming - like those who don't believe there was a Holocaust."

Well that's putting things in perspective.  I'm not sure global warming has been proven to have caused the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion.  Missed that report.  Regardless, it remains unclear how the theory of global warming is in any way similar to the reality of the Holocaust.

McCartney goes on to defend President Obama from any and all criticism concerning the Gulf disaster, culminating with the revelation that he "really love(s) him."

MRC-TV: The June 24 'Media Mash' on Hannity
By NB Staff | June 25, 2010 | 11:42 AM EDT
"The media, for like five seconds, those with thrill up and down their legs, they were a little critical of the Anointed One and what was one of the worst speeches in the Oval Office... but as soon as he fired McChrystal and hired Petraeus, they went nuts," Sean Hannity observed last night at the beginning of his recurring "Media Mash" segment with NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell.

The Fox News host then rolled a montage compiled by Media Research Center (MRC) analyst Kyle Drennen which showed the mainstream media hailing Obama as "brilliant" for the personnel move.

After the montage, Bozell noted that the same media that proclaimed Obama sacking McChrystal as "brilliant" were claiming that the president really had no choice but to fire the Afghanistan commander. "If he had no choice, then it really wasn't really altogether all that brilliant," the MRC president observed.

Bozell and Hannity also discussed  the media's double standard in bashing BP CEO Tony Hayward -- who had been relieved of duty for overseeing the cleanup operation -- for yachting over the weekend, while ignoring President Obama's weekend golfing excursion and MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski admitting she was parroting White House talking points to defend the administration's handling of the ongoing crisis.

For the full MP3 audio of the "Media Mash" segment, click here. For video click here for the WMV file or watch the video embed above.

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough Defended Obama Over Oil Spill, Slams GOP's Barton
By Rachel Burnett | June 24, 2010 | 6:18 PM EDT

While MSNBC's Joe Scarborough has repeatedly defended President Obama's handling of the oil spill, he used his show on Thursday to trash Republican Joe Barton and focus on getting the Congressman removed from his position on the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Scarborough is supposedly the "voice of the right" on the Morning Joe panel, but he conducted a 10-minute, one-sided rant against  Barton and GOP members of Congress.

Scarborough quizzed Representative Eric Cantor, "Why is Joe Barton allowed to keep his job when Joe Barton apologized to a corporation that is destroying my hometown and its economy and destroying the environment across the Gulf Coast?"

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough Defended Obama Over Oil Spill, Slams GOP's Barton
By Rachel Burnett | June 24, 2010 | 6:17 PM EDT

While MSNBC's Joe Scarborough has repeatedly defended President Obama's handling of the oil spill, he used his show on Thursday to trash Republican Joe Barton and focus on getting the Congressman removed from his position on the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Scarborough is supposedly the "voice of the right" on the Morning Joe panel, but he conducted a 10-minute, one-sided rant against  Barton and GOP members of Congress.

Scarborough quizzed Representative Eric Cantor, "Why is Joe Barton allowed to keep his job when Joe Barton apologized to a corporation that is destroying my hometown and its economy and destroying the environment across the Gulf Coast?"

Urgent Priorities and Common Sense in the Gulf
By Charlie Daniels | June 24, 2010 | 5:40 PM EDT
The ramifications of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico have not even begun to surface. We will be dealing with the ecological damage for years as the prime nesting grounds for shrimp, oysters and countless other varieties of sea life are destroyed by the leak at the bottom of the ocean that nobody seems to be able to deal with.

The economic damage is another entirely different animal that is going to rock the Gulf Coast and head inland with reverberations that will be seriously felt around the whole country.

The Obama administration is completely lost on how to deal with the spill and the president seems helpless except to appoint commissions and place blame anywhere except 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

I know that an oil leak at this depth has never had to be dealt with before and is a seriously difficult thing to fix, but somewhere on this earth, somebody knows how to fix it and it's high time to find him or her.

CNN's Carol Costello Hypes Up Greenpeace, Sierra Club, and Liberal Environmental Agenda
By Alex Fitzsimmons | June 24, 2010 | 3:28 PM EDT
On the June 24 "American Morning," CNN's Carol Costello trumpeted a "revitalized" environmental movement that is hoping the Gulf oil spill will "change the way we feel about oil" and is aggressively lobbying Congress to pass radical climate change legislation.

Previewing the "Gut Check" segment, Costello gleefully teased, "Coming up next, environmentalists are revitalized and it's over the Gulf oil spill. Could this disaster be what we need in this country to change the way we feel about oil?"

In lockstep with the Left's environmental agenda, the fill-in anchor pondered whether the Gulf oil spill would crystallize support for a climate bill or would "it be back to business as usual?" Costello articulated the same phrase environmental groups frequently employ to manufacture a false sense of urgency around their liberal initiatives.

Interviewing David Rauschkolb, founder of Hands Across the Sand, a liberal group opposed to offshore drilling, Costello praised the forerunner to Rauschkolb's new group – Earth Day – for "strengthening the Clean Air Act and helping President Nixon create the Environmental Protection Agency." Costello did not reach out to conservative critics who argue that draconian environmental regulations stymie economic growth and breed unemployment.
Media Ignore Ken Salazar's Misleading Case for Drilling Moratorium
By Lachlan Markay | June 24, 2010 | 1:28 PM EDT
As Interior Secretary Ken Salazar prepares a new moratorium on offshore oil drilling after the last one was shot down by a federal judge Wednesday, lost on the media seems to be Salazar's dishonesty in promoting the policy thus far. Very few have reported that he misrepresented the position of a team of experts designed to look into the costs and benefits of the moratorium.

In reality, the seven-member panel, recommended by the National Academy of Engineering, said Salazar's proposed moratorium would be "punishing the innocent." The policy "will not measurably reduce risk further," the panel explained, "and it will have a lasting impact on the nation's economy which may be greater than that of the oil spill."

Despite the panel's clear opposition to the policy, Salazar implied that they supported the moratorium. Salazar was forced to apologize after the panel publicly rebuked the Secretary's implications. "The Secretary should be free to recommend whatever he thinks is correct," said one member of the panel, "but he should not be free to use our names to justify his political decisions."
NBC's Williams Blames Obama's Plummeting Approval on Getting Dragged Into Gulf Oil Leak
By Brent Baker | June 23, 2010 | 9:10 PM EDT
Unlike Katie Couric on Monday night, on Wednesday evening NBC's Brian Williams didn't hide the bad news for President Obama in the network's latest poll, but Williams and Savannah Guthrie sure seemed to lament the public mood's swing against Obama as Williams attributed it to how Obama “had to touch” the gulf oil leak, “he had to own it and now he's getting tagged with how he's reacting to it.” As if Obama had nothing to do with it, Guthrie agreed he's “had a barrage of bad headlines on some of these very issues of leadership, handling a crisis...”

“If you're the White House looking at these numbers we're about to debut tonight, there isn't much here that's encouraging right now,” Williams warned of the NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey findings. Guthrie agreed: “There's not a lot of good news in this poll for the White House. Gushing oil, persistent unemployment the real problem.”

Online, MSNBC.com's headline also ascribed Obama's troubles to the gulf: “Spill drags the President's rating down.” The subhead, over the posting by NBC News Deputy Political director Mark Murray, emphasized a bright spot in areas Guthrie noted declines : “A silver lining for Obama is that his personal scores are still strong.”
Matthews: Canning McChrystal Helps Obama’s Oil Spill Image
By Rachel Burnett | June 23, 2010 | 6:25 PM EDT

Another leg tingle is on the way for MSNBC "Hardball" host Chris Matthews. Wednesday on "Andrea Mitchell Reports," Chris Matthews asserted that the President's image had been tainted because "BP has been the front institution, not the United States government, in this whole horror down in the gulf."

Yet, the White House no longer needs to worry, because to Matthews, the releasing of General McChrystal benefits the President's image of handling the oil spill by creating a "chance for him and somewhat in a way or somewhat in a personnel manner to insist on his role as Commander in Chief."

CNN Mocks Obama Golfing During Oil Spill: 'Just Plug the Darn Hole Mr. President'
By Noel Sheppard | June 23, 2010 | 4:45 PM EDT

CNN on Tuesday actually noticed the absurdity of folks bashing BP CEO Tony Hayward for yachting on the same day President Obama was golfing.

National correspondent Jeanne Moos surprisingly began her "American Morning" piece, "It's the yachting versus golf smack down, round one."

After showing average Americans complaining about Hayward's R&R, Moos quipped, "But before you could spell BP CEO, President Obama's golfing came under attack."

Children were shown expressing their displeasure with the Golfer in Chief, "In the two hours it takes to golf or to go yachting another one to 10,000 gallons of oil can leak out."

This led Moos to marvelously conclude, "Just plug the darn hole Mr. President" (video follows with transcript and commentary, h/t Hot Air's Ed Morrissey):