Obama picks oil exec to probe oil disaster (Maddow blog)

[Mari333]

President Obama today promised a full investigation into the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. Obama said the administration will consider whether what has happened amounts to a crime and won't allow new offshore drilling until we know what went wrong.

As Obama spoke, he was flanked by the two co-chairs of the bipartisan National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. The Republican co-chair, William K. Reilly, has spent a career in the industry he'll now probe. A former chief of the Environmental Protection Agency, Reilly currently serves on the board of directors of:

* ConocoPhillips
* DuPont, which provides technologies for oil and gas extraction
* Energy Future Holdings, a Texas-based electric utility company








http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/06/01/4447199-obama-picks-oil-exec-to-probe-oil-disaster

[FiveGoodMen]

1. !

[Swamp Rat]

2. AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[mikelgb]

5. k+r

do you have an op with this graphic?

[Swamp Rat]

7. No.

It's not something of which I am proud.... help us Obama.... :cry:

[mikelgb]

49. Understood.

[mikelgb]

3. Hey it's the cleanest republican he could find.

[NJmaverick]

22. That pretty much sums it up

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. So former head of the EPA, and on the board of one of BP's main competitors...

:shrug:

[noamnety]

10. They are partners.

DuPont partnering with BP: http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&contentId=7018942

ConocoPhillips partnering with BP: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_23/b4181019435790.htm

[Cha]

12. And, Bob Graham is the Democrat. who has been chosen to

lead a presidential commission to investigate the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

<snip> Bob Graham..

"Governor of Florida"

"Bob Graham was elected Governor of Florida in 1978 after a seven-way Democratic primary race in which he initially placed second to Robert L. Shevin. His supporters at the time dubbed themselves "Graham crackers." With this victory, he realized his father's dream: Cap Graham had run unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination to be Governor of Florida back in 1944. Graham was re-elected in 1982 with 65% of the vote, defeating Republican nominee Skip Bafalis.

As governor he was probably best known for appreciating that a quality education is of central importance to the future of Florida and is still now often remembered as the "Education Governor." By the end of his second term the Florida state university system was among the first quartile of state systems in America and it spublic schools and community colleges had substantially improved their academic standing.

In addition to Education Governor Graham's administration focused on Economic diversification and Environmental policies. During his tenure as Goverenor the state added 1.2 million jobs and for the first time in state history the per capita income of Floridians exceeded the US average. For 3 of his 8 years Florida was rated by the accounting firm Grant Thornton as having the best business climate of all states in the union.

Also, as Governor, Graham launched the most extensive environmental protection program in the state's history, focused on preserving endangered lands. During his tenure thousands of acres of threatened and environmentally important lands were brought into state ownership for permanent protection. His keystone accomplishment was the establishment of the Save the Everglades program, which as now been joined by the federal government in a joint effort.

Graham left the Governorship with an 83% approval rating."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Graham

http://antipollutionrevolutioncampaign.blogspot.com/2010/05/former-senator-appointed-to-investigate.html

[emulatorloo]

16. That's great news. n/t

[NJmaverick]

21. Thanks for providing all the facts that were mysteriously missing from the story

:hi:

[Cha]

28. Took one look and knew there would

be more facts to the story.:)

:hi:

[William Z. Foster]

42. that is a serious misrepresentation

Giving you the same courtesy the MSM gave President Bush.

The OP is about the one appointee. There was no attempt at hiding anything.

[William Z. Foster]

37. the revolving door

A board member from an oil company was head of the EPA, and that makes him OK? Wow.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

38. Uh huh.

So being on the board of an oil company makes him bad? Wow.

[William Z. Foster]

39. of course

How can you have public agency that exists for the purpose of protecting the public from an industry and then have those agencies run by people from that industry?

Holy shit, we now have people who call themselves Democrats openly promoting and defending the Reagan approach to "regulation" and beating the crap out of anyone that takes issue with that. This is just so amazing.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

40. beating the crap?

My oh my.

[William Z. Foster]

41. or whatever

As I typed that I thought "they will pick out that one phrase and use it as a distraction" and sure enough.

OK, not "beat the crap out of" then. How about this - "relentlessly throw out snarky one-liners, find any excuse at all for going off on tangents and disrupting the conversation, try everything possible to frustrate and irritate people, work as many insults and personal attacks in as they possibly can - all carefully and cleverly phrased, using inference and insinuation so as to stay barely within the rules - and then disappear without defending or supporting their position as soon as they are effectively countered or have done as much damage to the thread as they possibly can."

Better?

[BuelahWitch]

65. Yeah, it's the whole "fox/henhouse" thing

I would think you'd be able to pick up on that.

[TheKentuckian]

68. Yeah, that is a pretty strong sign. Cheney's folk. Dubbya's folk.

Greedy fucks. Shit on the habitat. Capture and buy alternate vehicle and battery tech to enrich themselves.

Yeah, they're shitty enough to throw out a random baby with the bath water.

[girl gone mad]

70. So Christine Todd Whitman is a great environmentalist, too?

lol.

[Bluebear]

74. lolol

[noamnety]

6. At least he didn't pick someone with a conflict of interest.

;)

[KittyWampus]

8. So who is the Democrat?

[Cha]

18. :)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8464794&mesg_id=8464920

[NJmaverick]

25. shhhhh!!! You're not suppose to think and ask questions

[librechik]

9. "Republican Co-Chair???!!!"""

I GIVE UP!!!

[Mari333]

13. heck I gave up when Rick Warren spoke at the inauguration....

I knew it was bad times ahead back then.

[NJmaverick]

20. You're surprised a BI-PARTISAN committee is co-chaired by a Republican?

:shrug:

[Bluebear]

62. :nodding:

[lamp_shade]

11. I peeked into this thread just to see the heads exploding. I'm not disappointed.

[girl gone mad]

71. So glad to hear you're happy about..

massive environmental destruction and corporate cover ups.

Thanks for sharing.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[PufPuf23]

15. Cover-up and plausible deni ability time.

One cover for BP is the permitting process that will be used by BP as a defense (their actions were approved and monitored) and the systematic mockery of the NEPA process by science turned political in DOI and MMS. The guilty in the Feds are easy to identify by paper trail.

This is the largest environmental disaster in USA history.

BP USA should be in receivership and BP asset's and talent dedicated to the gusher. Other USA oil companies have an obligation to be involved in drilling backup relief wells, skimming ships, no dispersant, and other extreme priority actions.

I see negligent manslaughter and crimes against humanity (and the planet) for decision-makers in the private sector (BP et al) and the lazy ass negligent ass hat Fed employees. I include Salazar as he is no dummy; basically James Watt without crazy Fundie and blatant lying (Watt re:LP) in appointment.

Realistically, I don't expect much.

[emulatorloo]

17. Bob Graham does not do cover-ups. n/t

[NJmaverick]

23. +1 for the truth

[Waiting For Everyman]

72. Yeah, he's a real boy-scout, alright.

So's his 9/11 breakfast buddy, Porter Goss.

[pberq]

73. How about his other 9/11 breakfast buddy?

Lt. Gen. Mahmood Ahmed - head of Pakistan's ISI

Here is some info from Paul Thompson's timeline:

http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a091101mahmoodmeeting#a091101mahmoodmeeting

Around 8:00 a.m., on September 11, 2001, ISI Director Lt. Gen. Mahmood Ahmed is at a breakfast meeting at the Capitol with the chairmen of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, Senator Bob Graham (D-FL) and Representative Porter Goss (R-FL), a 10-year veteran of the CIA’s clandestine operations wing. Also present at the meeting are Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and the Pakistani ambassador to the US, Maleeha Lodhi, as well as other officials and aides. (Goss, Kyl, and Graham had just met with Pakistani President Pervez Mushrraf in Pakistan two weeks earlier (see August 28-30, 2001)).

Graham and Goss will later co-head the joint House-Senate investigation into the 9/11 attacks, which will focus on Saudi government involvement in the 9/11 attacks, but will say almost nothing about possible Pakistani government connections to al-Qaeda and the 9/11 attacks (see August 1-3, 2003 and December 11, 2002). Note that Senator Graham should have been aware of a report made to his staff the previous month (see Early August 2001) that one of Mahmood’s subordinates had told a US undercover agent that the WTC would be destroyed. Some evidence suggests that Mahmood ordered that $100,000 be sent to hijacker Mohamed Atta (see October 7, 2001).

[laughingliberal]

19. I'm shocked!

Oh, wait. No, I'm not.

[NJmaverick]

24. Can you find a cleaner republican for a bi-partisan panel?

[Swamp Rat]

26. Red Herring

[NJmaverick]

29. You didn't answer the rather pertinent question

[Name removed]

34. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[laughingliberal]

30. Clean Republican? Are we playing favorite oxymoron? LOL! nt

[Bluebear]

69. lol

[flvegan]

27. *facepalm*

[phleshdef]

31. So someone who actually knows something about the oil industry and is a former WWF dir, EPA admin.

I'm not sure what the problem is.

[NJmaverick]

32. Plus he is only the Republican half of the panel leadership

the Dem is Sen Bob Grahm

[Radical Activist]

35. So he'll know what questions to ask.

He'll also know how to cover things up so one can only hope.

[phleshdef]

36. I dunno. The guy's background suggests a strong pro-environmental life.

Especially being a WWF president. Hopefully that means he is the kind of guy that takes this incident very personal.

[Bluebear]

33. 'Republican co-chair, William K. Reilly, has spent a career in the industry he'll now probe.' Yay!

[benchwarmer]

46. Sometimes you need evil to fight evil or something like that

It probably helps the effort actually.
This is one of those things where it depends on how you look at it. One hand he's the enemy, other hand he KNOWS the enemy.

[Bluebear]

54. Ah, I see, pragmatic. Forgot about that!

[emulatorloo]

48. B-O-B G-R-A-H-A-M is the co-chair.

A straight shooter if there ever was one.

[Individualist]

51. One of the founders of NDC

[emulatorloo]

53. He had a excellent environmental record as Gov of Florida.

Which says more of what he will do here, than his membership in some dumb useless impotent club.

Also, as Governor, Graham launched the most extensive environmental protection program in the state's history, focused on preserving endangered lands. During his tenure thousands of acres of threatened and environmentally important lands were brought into state ownership for permanent protection. His keystone accomplishment was the establishment of the Save the Everglades program, which as now been joined by the federal government in a joint effort.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Graham#Governor_of_Florida

[Bluebear]

55. Not to mention a Blue Dog corporatist. Yippee.

[emulatorloo]

56. "the most extensive environmental protection program in [Florida's] history"

[Bluebear]

57. OK, what if that state's history is LOUSY on enviromental protection?

Or do you just reprint talking points? Never mind.

[Name removed]

58. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

64. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Subdivisions]

43. OH FFS! n/t

[Smashcut]

44. What a surprise.

[BzaDem]

45. What a ridiculous post.

It is a bipartisan commission, so he had to pick a Republican to be the Republican co-chair. You conveniently forgot to mention he appointed Bob Graham as the Democratic co-chair.

[amborin]

47. Reilly presided over Exxon Valdez invest; picked by poppy Bush

nothing will come of this; just platitudes about being "careful"

[Catherina]

50. More oil execs. How nice n/t

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

52. A Republican oil exec and a blue dog from the corporate wing. How apt.

[Bluebear]

59. I'm sure nobody from the Democratic Environmental Caucus was available.

:silly:

[volvoblue]

60. actually this is someone the president needs.

How can anyone expect someone without knowledge of the oil ind. to know where the bodies are buried and the closets the tricks are hidden in.
You need someone who knows these things and where to look and can smell bs.

[Bluebear]

61. Oh, I think you can have "knowledge" of the oil industry without being in it.

[neverforget]

63. Let me guess: he'll recommend a tax cut and socialized losses for BP?

:shrug: I almost forgot: more offshore drilling!

[rhett o rick]

66. I am totally sick of promises of "full investigations". I want actions from those investigations. nm

[defendandprotect]

67. Sigh . . . getting harder and harder to think about Obama .... we need relief!!

Liberal and progressive relief -- !!!

What Dem can we run in 2012? Not too early to think about that!!