Coast Guard Grounds Louisiana Oil Skimmers
[Guest post by DRJ]
ABC News reports the U.S. Coast Guard refused to let 16 Louisiana skimmer barges return to the Gulf for 24 hours pending confirmation the barges had life vests and fire extinguishers.
If this had been the Bush Administration, wouldn’t everyone demand that the Coast Guard waive these requirements or provide life vests and fire extinguishers that met its criteria? It’s even worse in this case because money isn’t a problem — BP is paying.
Heck of a job, Barry.
— DRJ
Perfect example of Government.
Navel gazing at his best.
HeavenSent (a9126d) — 6/17/2010 @ 9:05 pmThe governor said he didn’t have the authority to overrule the Coast Guard’s decision ….,
Did he have carbines?
nk (db4a41) — 6/17/2010 @ 9:15 pmThis is a case study at the Harvard Business School someday. The students will be assigned exercises on how to do all these things better. Talk about a target rich environment !
Mike K (82f374) — 6/17/2010 @ 9:30 pmThere is no problem that a thirty aught-six and a roll of duct tape can’t fix.
GaleH (4fbede) — 6/17/2010 @ 9:31 pmI think they teach you in Ranger school that no problem on Earth cannot be ameliorated by the proper application of high-explosives.
AD - RtR/OS! (76c972) — 6/17/2010 @ 9:43 pmBarak Obama hates white people.
Arizona Bob (e8af2b) — 6/17/2010 @ 9:59 pmWhat we used to refer to as a SNAFU…
Gazzer (d79016) — 6/17/2010 @ 10:26 pmthe LA ARNG should have either Javelins or at least TOWs….. either would outgun anything on the CG vessels at those ranges, along with a couple M-240’s and an M-2 or Mk-19.
i love the Coasties, but WTF?
the Feds seem to be deliberately stuck on stupid with this event….. i wonder why?
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 6/17/2010 @ 11:20 pmI’m not a conspiracy person but I also have two eyes, common sense, two ears,a bit of logic and am suspicious by nature (detective for 35 years). Based upon my observations this Administration is absolutely playing some type of game, taking some type of gamble, or coldly calculating that after a certain amount of damage is done or a certain amount of time passes they will be able to pounce on some type of opportunity to achieve some type of legislation, some type of “emergency” power, or something. Nothing this Administration has done has made sense until I have put on my “devious dirty bastard power grabbing left wing glasses”. Then it has all made sense. I’m starting to think the President is just one of many pawns for someone or some group who got him elected and is actually pulling the strings. Is he told when to act and when not to do so? It doesn’t make sense any other way. The guy has a brain, he’s no dummy so how else do you explain what he has done with this? It’s starting to feel like whoever is really in charge has decided to risk sacrificing the President’s second term and a bunch of Democrats for some type of larger purpose and this is the small window of opportunity they’re using. I’m starting to suspect that certain key individuals in his Administration aren’t as stupid and inept as they appear, they just have been told to play stupid for the time being. Even the people chosen for key positions worries me. Where’s the pragmatic moderates? They’re all “true believers” of far left wing socialistic type government. Police officers are trained to observe what “is”, not what they expect to see. I know I can’t be the only cop seeing this stuff, that’s impossible. There’s something else going on here and it’s big because we have important members of all three branches of government participating. What we “expect to see” are politicians that want to please their constituents and represent them. We got the opposite. What we “expect to see” is a government that does things to grow the economy. What we are getting is the complete opposite. I could go on and on. They’re not that dumb or out of touch, there’s something else going on.
Dave B (58a07e) — 6/18/2010 @ 12:28 amSupposably this mess started with cutting corners in some safety issues and what a stink that has made. Now some of those same people are saying it is OK to not follow the safety rules and regulations for boating in the clean up.
Cliff B (a9c753) — 6/18/2010 @ 1:06 amCliff: I get your point but it’s almost like a fire truck trying to find a vacant parking space in the public lot while the building is on fire and people are burning to death inside the building. Actually it’s worse. It’s like store security ordering the fire truck to park at the end of the lot because they have a store policy that big red trucks park in a certain area while people are burning to death and the idiot driving the truck actually does it. While our President is declaring “war” on the oil spill he’s allowing his soldiers to hesitate and inhibit allies in this war? Common sense? If they’re worried about life jackets then supply them with twice as many as they might need and send them to do their mission ASAP. We don’t let babies choke to death because we’re checking the manual to make sure we can’t be sued for slapping the baby’s back or sticking our fingers in their throats.
Dave B (58a07e) — 6/18/2010 @ 1:34 amthe LA ARNG should have either Javelins or at least TOWs….. either would outgun anything on the CG vessels at those ranges, along with a couple M-240’s and an M-2 or Mk-19.
i love the Coasties, but WTF?
the Feds seem to be deliberately stuck on stupid with this event….. i wonder why?
Comment by redc1c4 — 6/17/2010 @ 11:20 pm
Back in 1858, some governor of some state, Missouri or Kansas maybe, looking to incite a Civil War, wrote to another “Have 150 carbines”.
nk (db4a41) — 6/18/2010 @ 2:11 amThis is a failure of leadership, pure and simple.
Obama is the CinC, he can order the CG to suspend these pointless “inspections”.
If he’s looking for whose ass to kick, maybe he should look in the freaking mirror.
Dr. K (146193) — 6/18/2010 @ 3:21 am“I also have two eyes, common sense, two ears,a bit of logic and am suspicious by nature”
This is treason, Thad Allen, Barack Obama, et al., are obstructing the clear and obvious best interests of America. No, giving the EPA 55 days to study whether pumping the separated water back is not justifiable. This is a “high crime” and incompetence or poor judgement or defective ideology is no defense.
gary gulrud (790d43) — 6/18/2010 @ 4:25 amAside from the intitial incident that created the oil spill, the party most responsible for the failure to clean up the oil spill is the federal government and its subordinate agencies.
When BP proposed a controlled burning of the oil immediately after the spill began, it was the federal regulators who denied permission citing clean air standards.
The oil siphoning equipment can not be used because the federal regulators will not allow any discharge of oil into the ocean. Thus, a system that extracts 99% of the oil from the ocean but allows that other 1% to return to the ocean is rejected by the “brain-dead’ regulators and 100% of the oil remains to polute our shores.
The responsibility for the continuing oil polution is not BP’s, it is our dinosaur government – big size but tiny brain.
Longwalker (996c34) — 6/18/2010 @ 4:28 amWhy do we never get a name of someone in the Coast Guard that told them to stop. I assume a real human being told them to stop and not some anonymous e-mail from CG headquarters.
This allows the stupid individuals to escape responsibility for their stupid decisions. Maybe Rep Etheridge should go down there since he’s very good at asking for names.
MU789 (2db1e4) — 6/18/2010 @ 5:30 amits official. This is all Barry’s fault.
Let’s review.
The Obama administration:
1) pursued policies that drove the wells into deep water (don’t ever tell me we can’t drill in ANWR again; the worst case scenario drilling there is better than this);
2) approved of the well;
3) gave it a safety commendation;
4) knew from the beginning of the spill that it would be this bad;
5) did nothing in response to that news;
6) refused to accept foreign aid because they failed to waive the jones act;
7) refused perfectly good boom which might have contained the spill in a considerably smaller area;
8) left requests from governors to approve of action on hold for weeks at a time; and
9) now actively halted clean up because the coast guard couldn’t verify that the ships had enough life vests and fire extinguishers. mind you, for all they know, they might have enough, they just don’t know.
am i leaving anything out?
When i decided to hold my nose and vote for McCain (i still consider McCain-Feingold to be an appalling assault on my right of free speech), I said that Obama was not qualified for the job because he had no executive experience. McCain wasn’t much better, but he was better having led a fleet of aircraft in Vietnam. Forget any other issue, Obama was not ready to do the job.
Am i going to crow now that I am vindicated? no. I am going to simply say, that sometimes, I hate being right.
Aaron Worthing (e7d72e) — 6/18/2010 @ 5:42 amThe story says the CG had to confirm there were life vests and fire extinguishers on board. If some were missing, a warning could have been issued. No need to shut down the operations.
Maury (96ea7e) — 6/18/2010 @ 6:29 amRegs, Regs, everywhere a Reg,
Oil’s destroying scenary, I’m losing my mind
Do this, don’t do that, can’t the read the reg??
Maybe there’s conspiracy, maybe it’s just that his arrogance will only delegate decision making ability to those handpicked with his mindset, everybody else has to say, “Wait, I’ll check on it”, and then wait in line until the golf game or shooting buckets or “eating with his family” is over.
I hope that the MSM will not assist in full effort spin on this to clear Obama.
MD in Philly (5a98ff) — 6/18/2010 @ 7:11 amThus, a system that extracts 99% of the oil from the ocean but allows that other 1% to return to the ocean is rejected by the “brain-dead’ regulators and 100% of the oil remains to pollute our shores.
Definition of being a liberal.
HeavenSent (a9126d) — 6/18/2010 @ 7:31 amIf memory serves, the CG has the absolute authority to board any boat (in coastal waters, not sure about high seas) and do an inspection. The bit about “needing to contact the owners” and the extreme difficulty that LA had in finding someone who could make a go-nogo decision tells me that Dave B’s #9 comment might be close to the mark.
I like today’s Day by Day cartoon on the issue.
Red County Pete (a21645) — 6/18/2010 @ 9:02 amDRJ, I think you missed this news report … 😉
SPQR (26be8b) — 6/18/2010 @ 10:46 amThe Coasties authority is absolute in territorial waters, and is the same against U.S.-flagged vessels on the high seas.
AD - RtR/OS! (3b92f0) — 6/18/2010 @ 11:08 amThat they “couldn’t confirm”, just means that they were too lazy, incompetent, or personnel strapped, to send a Vessel Inspector to actually inspect these barges to ensure they were in compliance with Federal Regulations.
The Coasties even have volunteer personnel in the Auxiliary who are certified to perform VE’s on commercial vessels; why haven’t they called out these people?
During Katrina, a very large amount of the rescues of people from flooded roof-tops, etc, were accomplished by members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary,
using their own boats with just the promise that they would be re-imbursed for fuel/damage/meals…but no pay!
Hell, they (and I count myself within those ranks) even have to buy their own uniforms.
Comment by SPQR — 6/18/2010 @ 10:46 am
Priceless!
AD - RtR/OS! (3b92f0) — 6/18/2010 @ 11:09 am24.Comment by SPQR — 6/18/2010 @ 10:46 am
Priceless!
Comment by AD – RtR/OS
Second that.
MD in Philly (5a98ff) — 6/18/2010 @ 11:28 amOh, those barges had life jackets and fire extinguishers and the CG knew it. You will never find a commercial vessel that does not have those inexpensive items.
The real reason was to break Jindal’s momentum in the news media. WH didn’t want to see headlines “Jindal Saves the Day!” or “Bobby Does What Barack Cannot” with the governor standing strong and triumphant over a fleet of skimmer ships. Now to anyone who wasn’t paying close attention to the story, the skimmer ships are a day late and a dollar short, and don’t have nearly the same public appeal as they would have without the taint of needing to go through the Federal government first. Hardball media manipulation at its hardest.
Mike (b3914e) — 6/18/2010 @ 1:41 pmMike
i don’t know. i don’t think this is helping Obama when its all over drudge that the FG is doing this. i have even seen liberal bloggers pissed off all to hell.
But i could be wrong.
Aaron Worthing (e7d72e) — 6/18/2010 @ 1:53 pmObama is saboteur!
He is sabotaging anyone’s effort to minimize the damage so he can:
1) Shake down as much money as possible from anyone having to do anything with oil.
2) Use this crisis he created to further curtail our liberties and freedoms.
3) To take over control of oil industry, like he did with auto industry, banking, health insurance, student loans,…. This is a definition of fascism, look it up, exactly what Mussolini did 70 years ago.
Peter (5b60dd) — 6/18/2010 @ 9:56 pmPeter, Obama could be that bold, but I wonder if he’s that capable.
There is something obnoxious and repellent about how the Coast Guard did this and then Obama called them off instantly a day later. I’m not sure what his goal is, because I think this makes him look completely incompetent and makes Jindal look like someone who is on the ball and being obstructed (which isn’t 100% accurate, but he’s definitely a massive improvement).
I hope you’re wrong, because whatever he would have in mind would have to be amazing to justify the damage he is taking. I’m sleeping easier assuming he is simply unable to manage this effort. Most men would fail at this job, which is why we shouldn’t have had such a weak slate of choices and we had better have a better one in 2012.
Dustin (b54cdc) — 6/18/2010 @ 10:01 pm“You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”
Ag80 (1b8eea) — 6/18/2010 @ 10:08 pmTo Clean up the Gulf Oil or not; that is the question
It is hard to believe that on suspicion of not having fire extinguishers on board the Coast Guard shut down the Oil Barges. What prevented them from boarding and performing a visual inspection? They have the power and the law on their side and make such a blatant error in judgement??????
lessir (166c56) — 6/19/2010 @ 1:42 am