Posted on 07/01/2010 12:47:54 PM PDT by dennisw
Issa’s report on the Gulf cleanup
By: David Freddoso
Online Opinion Editor
07/01/10 1:10 PM EDT
The full PDF is available here. The report asserts that federal officials have exaggerated the cleanup effort, falsely represented the placement of cleanup assets, and misrepresented what they knew and when on the official White House timeline of events. It also asserts what many on the Left have long maintained, that the White House has been excessively deferential to BP since the spill began, and it’s not clear down there who is in charge.
For example:
“The White House blog details a number of assets deployed in the region to combat the spill. This includes vessels, boom, and dispersant. The number of assets claimed, however, does not appear to match what is actually in the field. Parish officials maintain that the thousands of vessels cited in the blog are non-existent. One senior official refers to them as “phantom assets.” When asked to elaborate, he explained that when he asks the federal government to provide the location of the assets, it either refuses or cannot do so. Daily helicopter search grids performed by the Parish sheriff’s department confirm to him that very few of the assets claimed are deployed.
This is corroborated by Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser, who shared a similar story with investigators. BP and Coast Guard provided Mr. Nungesser with a map of the Gulf allegedly pinpointing the exact locations of 140 skimmers cleaning up oil. Sensing that the chart may have been somewhat inaccurate, Mr. Nungesser requested a flyover of the assets for verification. After three cancelled trips, officials admitted to Mr. Nungesser that only 31 of the 140 skimmers were ever deployed. The rest were sitting at the docks. According to Mr. Nungesser, the chart appeared to have been fabricated.
I’m still going through this, but if you’re wondering why Louisiana residents frown on the federal government’s action in this crisis even more than they do on the response to Hurricane Katrina, this will give you a pretty good idea.
Fits right in with the PHANTOM President....
Padded payroll, raids on the public treasury to pay for services not rendered, corruption, malfeasance and shoddy work— all the symptoms typical of a public works project in Chicago? Who would’ve thunk it?
I suspect what BP pays for and what is done is far from the same numbers and they know this as well.
Same as many of the republicans and posters here. When I said BP had not tried to stop the flow only capture it, I never seen the like of Pis* and Moaning from posters here. They have all taken the oil lobby's money so you can only expect hand wringing.
It’s not certain that the assets are being being paid to sit idle. But they sure aren’t out there skimming oil the way BP and Coast Guard are claiming. An 0bama authored tragedy....Our Kenyan saboteur who despises America. He’s laughing at us as he eats his wagyu beef and arugula soup
I they really want to unleash capitalism, BP should open a collection terminal and pay a set amount of money per barrel of oil recovered. You would see everybody with a boat in the gulf coast region collecting oil. And, if they opened it up to all nations there would be a gold rush to the gulf!
Brilliant idea!
I = If
That’s the same as a $100 bounty for all illegal aliens you can catch at the border....That + a fence would end illegal immigration
Is the bounty dead or alive?
knowing this group they’d be loading up barges with oil from texas and delivering it to BP to be paid the bounty.
"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power."
--Benito Mussoliniand"COMMERCE BETWEEN MASTER AND SLAVE IS DESPOTISM"--Thomas Jefferson
73 days and the idiot Obama is still clueless as expected.
From the report:
“In some instances, it appears that equipment is provided simply to quiet public criticism. Mr. Nungesser, who has frequently appeared on local and national television, was apparently visited by two White House officials at his office on Fathers’ Day. According to Mr. Nungesser, the purpose of their visit was to find a way to keep him
from calling attention to the lack of equipment. Specifically, they asked him, “What do we have to do to keep you off tv?” He simply replied, “give me what I need.”
On another occasion, Placquemines Parish officials requested 20 skimmers at a town hall meeting held by the Coast Guard. According to Mr. Nungesser, “They gave us
two skimmers to shut us up.” These accounts raise serious questions about whether the Administration is more concerned with fighting a public relations battle than combating the oil spill.”
It seems that the Administration is more interested in managing the PR than managing this disaster.
It might take a few weeks or months, but NObama ain’t going to be able to keep a lid on all of this forever.
This is not an area where he can “freeze’ the records like he did with his birth certificate, school records, etc.
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