Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Federal response exposed as PR sham

White House officials to Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser: "What do we have to do to keep you off TV?!?"

If you've been following this blog and the Timeline page here, this should come as no surprise.  On July 1, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released a 16-page report contrasting official administration claims on assets deployed and ongoing operations with actual accounts of officials with their boots in the Gulf.

You may remember the "since Day One" garbage claims made by DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and the equally incompetent boob, Ken Salazar, regarding how they've been on top of this from the get-go.   My own amateur record-keeping in the Timeline page blows that out of the water, and I'm just a little part-time blogger.  How stupid do they think the American public is? 

The House Committee report exposes the entire regime's response to be a complete sham.  Those "more than 140" skimmers deployed near Plaquemines Parish?   Try 30-ish, or so.  Here are some key findings of the report:

Officials on the ground dispute key White House assertions about the number and timeliness of assets deployed in the Gulf. Local officials describe White House outreach efforts as more focused on stopping bad press than on addressing the disaster at hand;

The White House’s assurances that there are adequate resources are at odds with the reality on the ground, where those on the frontline of the spill express significant frustration over the lack of assets. Local complaints are supported by the fact that the White House waited until Day 70 of the oil spill to accept critical offers of international assistance. Local workers and boats could have been assisting more with the clean-up if the Federal government had provided them with needed supplies and equipment;

While the White House has tried to use the delay in finding a visible leak to explain its early silence on the oil spill, Transocean officials and Coast Guard documents from the scene of the oil spill reveal clear and early indications of a substantial oil leak days earlier than White House accounts;

The failure of Administration officials to quickly waive laws preventing necessary foreign assets from reaching the Gulf and other regulations are hampering efforts to clean-up and limit damage from the oil spill. Local officials feel the federal government is making the perfect the enemy of the good in cleanup efforts;

Local officials strongly dispute President Obama’s insistence that the federal government – and not BP – has been in control since day one. One Coast Guard Admiral told congressional investigators that decisions on the ground are made through a “consensus-based” process with BP. In practice, the Federal Government is not in charge of oil spill response efforts through a command-and-control approach;

Local officials strongly believe the President’s call for a drilling moratorium will significantly compound the economic damage caused by the oil spill and will actually increase risk associated with future offshore drilling projects.

You can read the whole report here. You should download it and read it.  It is chock full of money quotes, like the one I led this post with.  The federal response to the Deepwater Horizon Incident makes George W. Bush, Michael Brown and Michael Chertoff look like Einsteins.

Local complaints about federal indifference, federal incompetence and federal interference are all well documented. This, however, is the first official confirmation of federal falsification.  The Obama regime has simply been lying about the number of assets it has deployed in the Gulf, misleading the public about the intensity and breadth of its response.  But what's more onerous is that the lack of a competent and coordinated response to the disaster has amplified its impact.

Gulf Coast tourism is in the tank this season.  Beaches that are normally jammed with tourists are nearly empty.  Restaurants close early.  Entire fleets of charter vessels--some renting for as much as $2,000 a day--are sitting in marinas from Grand Isle to Panama City Beach.  Seafood processors, wholesalers and retailers have zero inventory and customers as far away as Boston and Denver are finding other suppliers.  An entire fleet of shrimp boats, oyster boats and crabbers are laying boom and spotting oil instead of plying their trade on the Gulf.

The regime did not cause this event, but it is certainly guilty of letting it grow into a disaster, and now it looks like the most transparent administration in the history of humankind ever is lying about it and covering up its incompetence.

Hat tips to Weasel Zippers and Doug Powers at Michelle Malkin.

Gimme some feedback in the comments.

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