Last week, CNN’s Anderson Cooper reported that the federal government was blocking media access to coastal areas around the Gulf, preventing them from taking photos and reporting on the environmental damage of the oil spill. You can watch the video and see Cooper is livid that the Obama administration is treating him and his colleagues this way. Cooper of course compares this to Katrina when media were blocked from…well we’re unsure what the media was blocked from in Katrina, since the photos and video from the Superdome, the Convention Center, …
The oil spill crisis in the Gulf of Mexico gets worse by the day. Oil spews from the broken well, further polluting our water and shores. The clean-up efforts drag on with bureaucratic interference, making matters worse. And what is the Obama administration doing? It continues to push for unrelated responses that will have a disastrous effect on our economy, especially the economy of the Gulf states most affected. In fact, President Obama summoned a bipartisan group of senators to the White House on Tuesday to discuss his climate change …
“We were not prepared to make the best use of foreign support. Some foreign governments sought to contribute aid that the United States could not accept or did not require. In other cases, needed resources were tied up by bureaucratic red tape. But more broadly, we lacked the capability to prioritize and integrate such a large quantity of foreign assistance into the ongoing response.” This quote from the previous Administration’s Hurricane Katrina lessons learned report is (unfortunately) equally applicable to the current oil spill disaster. Prior to Katrina, the U.S. …
News reports today on the oil spill in the Gulf have centered on the president’s crude remarks that he was looking for an “a** to kick.” But what has been largely unreported is the fact that President Obama has not spoken with BP CEO Tony Hayward one single time since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in April. Not once. Speaking to the BBC, Hayward said: “There is no need for that…I have spoken to his key lieutenants.” Whether Hayward sees a need for this conversation is immaterial. Just yesterday, Obama …
According to (confirmed) reports this morning, President Obama will send a bipartisan delegation led by former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to assist recovery efforts in Haiti. The United States has already launched a robust aid operation including Coast Guard and Naval ships and deployed Marines. The U.S. also has floating military hospitals, doctors and medical supplies on the way. President Obama has ordered a “swift, coordinated and aggressive effort to save lives” and by all accounts, that is what is occurring. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary …
The United States is ready for the next Hurricane Katrina according to Admiral Thad Allen, the former director of the FEMA response effort in New Orleans. In an article put out by Bloomberg, Allen was quoted saying “there is nothing right now that inhibits an effective response.” However others seem to disagree. Craig Fugate, director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, and Heritage’s Dr. James Carafano see that more still needs to be done. Policies and procedures still need to be reassessed and improved, plus Congressional meddling and their practices …
