How the White House Public Relations Campaign on the Oil Spill is Harming the Actual Clean-up

Republican Oversite Committee ^ | 7/1/10 | Daryl Issa

[Nachum]

Frontline Accounts of Oil Spill Differ from Official Account on Key Points Staff Report U.S. House of Representatives 111th Congress Committee on Oversight and Government Reform July 1, 2010

I also want to stress that we are working closely with the Gulf states and local communities to help every American affected by this crisis. Let me be clear: BP is responsible for this leak; BP will be paying the bill. But as President of the United States, I'm going to spare no effort to respond to this crisis for as long as it continues. And we will spare no resource to clean up whatever damage is caused. And while there will be time to fully investigate what happened on that rig and hold responsible parties accountable, our focus now is on a fully coordinated, relentless response effort to stop the leak and prevent more damage to the Gulf. – President Barack Obama, May 2, 2010. A View from Ground Zero of the Oil Spill

[Nachum]

The Issa Report comes out.

[Nachum]

http://www.nachumlist.com/bp.htm

[penelopesire]

DEVESTATING! The republicans should call a major new conference with Gov Jindal and expose this crap pronto!
(snip)

“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.”

(snip)

“These bureaucratic breakdowns have forced at least one Parish to take matters
into its own hands. One Jefferson official, who said that “the only thing [Coast Guard
and BP] understand is threats and embarrassment,” commandeered over fifty vessels
sitting idle at docks while oil slicks approached shore. He told committee staff that BP
and Coast Guard repeatedly denied his request to deploy the boats because they had no
fuel or groceries. Despite Coast Guard’s threat of military force, he exercised his
emergency law enforcement powers to seize the equipment. Using Parish funds, he
supplied the vessels and sent them out to sea.’

hmmmmmm...is this what really happened to the dude that was shot and killed in Alabama recently? Inquiring minds want to know.

[penelopesire]

Read and Pass it around PING!!

[lwd]

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 its assets, it either refuses or cannot do so.4 Daily helicopter search grids performed by the Parish sheriff’s department confirm to him that very few of the assets claimed are deployed.

That's pretty damning. Hopefully, this report will get the spill back on the front page. Thanks for posting!