Hear ye, hear ye!!

[ducknwork]

I want to make a formal announcement for the doubters among you, that I officially 100% agree with something the O administration has done! Shocking, I know, but it's true!

Can someone please check Roger's pulse?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101006/...gulf_oil_spill

I think it was an excellent decision by O to not tell the public just how bad it could have been. The media was doing a fine job of inciting panic on their own and didn't need this tidbit of info to make matters even worse.

[dnf777]

I want to make a formal announcement for the doubters among you, that I officially 100% agree with something the O administration has done! Shocking, I know, but it's true!

Can someone please check Roger's pulse?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101006/...gulf_oil_spill

I think it was an excellent decision by O to not tell the public just how bad it could have been. The media was doing a fine job of inciting panic on their own and didn't need this tidbit of info to make matters even worse.

What did you think of his official apology for our gov't intentionally infected Guatemalan patients with syphilis for research purposes? That one even trumped the Tuskegee trials.

[ducknwork]

What are you talking about?

[dnf777]

What are you talking about?

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americ...iref=allsearch

I think profuse apologies are entirely appropriate, although I'm sure some will criticize him for this.

[ducknwork]

Wow, that's pretty terrible...

[Leddyman]

Different time different world. How far back do we have to go to continue trying to make the U.S. look bad? They will go as far as they have to and use whatever they can find to portray this country in the worst light.

That is nothing compared to what is coming under Obama care. At least the people there got treated.

[BrianW]

As reported by CBS this AM;
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/...html?tag=stack
In documents released Wednesday, the national oil spill commission's staff describes "not an incidental public relations problem" by the White House in the wake of the April 20 accident...

For the first time, the documents — which are preliminary findings by the panel's staff — show that the White House was directly involved in controlling the message as it struggled to convey that it, not BP, was in charge of responding to what eventually became the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

"By initially underestimating the amount of oil flow and then, at the end of the summer, appearing to underestimate the amount of oil remaining in the Gulf, the federal government created the impression that it was either not fully competent to handle the spill or not fully candid with the American people about the scope of the problem," the report says.

Citing interviews with government officials, the report reveals that in late April or early May, the White House budget office denied a request from NOAA to make public its worst-case estimate of how much oil could spew from the blown-out well. The Unified Command — the government team in charge of the spill response — also was discussing the possibility of making the numbers public, the report says.

The report shows "the political process was in charge and science really does not have the role that was touted," said Christopher D'Elia, dean of environmental studies at Louisiana State University.

The White House budget office has traditionally been a clearinghouse for administration domestic policy. Why exactly the administration didn't want to emphasize the worst-case scenario is not made clear in the report.

However, Kenneth Baer, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget, said the budget office had concerns about the reliability of the NOAA estimates.
"The issue was the modeling, the science and the assumptions they were using to come up with their analysis. Not public relations or presentation," he said. "We offered NOAA suggestions of ways to improve their analysis, and they happily accepted it." (The BUDGET OFFICE offered NOAA some advice on scientific modeling and they took it ?!? )

Jerry Miller, head of the White House science office's ocean subcommittee, told The Associated Press in an interview at a St. Petersburg, Fla., scientific conference on the oil spill that he didn't think the budget office censored NOAA.

"I would very much doubt that anyone would put restrictions on NOAA's ability to articulate factual information," Miller said. (But 'estimates" are a different matter?)

Anybody remember this statement?
"We will restore science to its rightful place..." PBO said on Jan 20, 2009. Where is that place, only when it supports your political plans?

Is this "blocking" why the Admin was so slow to get skimmers into action and limit the damage? Because political posturing was more important, to show who's in charge, who's gonna kick some ass? You can't justify rolling out equipment to fight a wildfire if you're claiming it's only a little grass fire?
How much unnecessary damage was done to further PBO's "image"?

So, what else is the WH "directly involved in controlling the message" about?
The economy, health care, unemployment ? I think we ALL know the answer to that.

[dnf777]

Different time different world. How far back do we have to go to continue trying to make the U.S. look bad? They will go as far as they have to and use whatever they can find to portray this country in the worst light.

That is nothing compared to what is coming under Obama care. At least the people there got treated.

WHAT?!

Nobody is trying to make us look bad. WE did that. Yeah, they got treated, but WE intentionally infected them, including spinal taps to directly inject syphilis into their spinal cords!

WHO is makings us look bad? These people may still be alive, so its not like the Spanish Inquisition.

I think an apology is in order, BIG TIME.

[Leddyman]

WHAT?!

Nobody is trying to make us look bad. WE did that. Yeah, they got treated, but WE intentionally infected them, including spinal taps to directly inject syphilis into their spinal cords!

WHO is makings us look bad? These people may still be alive, so its not like the Spanish Inquisition.

I think an apology is in order, BIG TIME.

I don't defend what was done. The treatment remark was a bit of hyperbole to point out the fact that people WON'T get treated under the new healthcare system.

My point is it was 60 years ago. It was a different time. We wouldn't do that today, but the blame America first crowd (yes you included). Uses it to say, "See! we told you America was evil".

So we apologize and move on. You believe we are going to be allowed to move on? Don't bet on it.


You don't really believe nobody is trying to make us look bad.