So Cheney is responsible for the actions of a corporation more than a decade after he leaves it? I can’t wait for the liberals here to defend that asinine proposition.

Stinkin’ Cheney. Always causing oil spills. When is he going to learn?

But let’s lay the blame where it really belongs — on the teabaggers. They caused this spill (as well as Katrina) and everyone knows it. And they did it with racism.

Dick Cheney for President!!!!

Keith Olbermann for hm……………….sewer cleaner. (sorry sewer rats)

Keith Olbermann stole this entire piece from William Galston’s piece in the New Republic. Almost word-for-word.

Here’s Galston’s piece: http://www.tnr.com/blog/william-galston/forget-offshore-drilling-until-we-get-some-answers

Compare Olbermann’s story and Galston’s. He stole it.

What Olbermann is doing is flat out plagiarism. He did no original reporting. He did no original investigation. He did no checking on Galston’s argument.

This isn’t journalism, it’s theft.

Forget about the merits or lack of merits of the story. This is fraud.

Any reporter who did this would be fired.

HM, great catch Steve. I’m sure he will be off the air by tomorrow.

Any reporter who did this would be fired.

Just like any reporter who published a bogus story like Ms. Martel did this last weekend should be fired. But yet she is still working.

When I first heard of the Haliburton connection, I have to admit that I did flash onto Cheney for old times sake, but then I started wondering which divisions may now or in the future start profiting from the clean-up and whether they’ll be given a no-bid contract.

At first glance, it appears to be an attempt to spin the narrative onto Republicans, Dick specifically, after word came out that BP contributed a crap-load of money to the Obama campaign.

After further evaluation, Olbermann hates Dick so much that anything bad that concerns oil gives him an opportunity to attack Dick so Olbermann pounces.

MSNBC will remain in the fringe as long as they think Olbermann is their flagship. One can only hope for the sake of “honorable” debate, ratings and common sense prevail in Rachael Maddow’s favor.

Does anyone take this fool seriously anymore?

Cheney, in particular, I doubt it. Probably still a general beneficiary of this horrid corporation’s malfeasance and misfeasance, but I think he has no decision-making role. Still important to be reminded, however, that the culprit in all of this is not BP but the scorned and despised Haliburton.

Lawls Keith…. Might as well call it Jed Clampetts Katrina, your irrelevance is showing again ;-)

*** Jed Clampett Quote Of the Day ****

Jed Clampett: Boy, I’m gonna give you 24 hours to clean up all this mess.

Jethro: Aw come on, Uncle Jed. I’m gonna clean up. I’m gonna set this world on fire!

Jed Clampett: You’re gonna clean up alright. Everything. Or you’re gonna end up with the seat of your britches on fire.

Rex
———

Sorry Keef…If it’s been your standard practice to blame the guy occupying the oval office when bad shit happens (see katrina) then you’ll have to blame this one on Barry. That’s using YOUR rule, not ours.

I’d like to note, if I may, that nobody knows right now what caused this accident.

To blame Cheney for it makes as much sense as blaming Obama. Or Santa Claus. Or the Tooth Fairy. No one knows what happened.

That Olbermann would promote this nonsense – without apparently doing any original reporting – is really indicative of how non-credible he is.

The same applies to a Hannity or Limbaugh who would, as we know, be blaming Obama or a Democrat if the situation were reversed.

It is remarkable, however, how Olbermann just brazenly lifted his piece from that Galston article.

Why stop there, Keith? Blame Reagan as well. Or Nixon. Hell, go all the way back to Lincoln. Facts have never gotten in your way before.

Let’s examine Olbermann’s thinking:

(1) Halliburton is to blame for this disaster (although, right now, no one knows what caused this accident) because their “cementing process” wasn’t properly done. Let’s set aside who actually did the process because Halliburton usually contracts other businesses to do these types of things. And let’s set aside whether the process was done correctly anyway but failed for reasons that we can’t control. As I said, no one knows what happened and what has failed. Everyone is trying to mitigate the damage right now.

(2) Dick Cheney was CEO of Halliburton more than a decade ago.

Therefore in the mind of Olbermann, Dick Cheney is responsible for the accident.

Folks, this is flatout McCarthyism. No other word for it.

Yes, Limbaugh pulls the same nonsense too. Neither one can be defended.

The Real Royal King says:
May 6, 2010 at 3:23 am

Assuming any of that is true… big assumption… but wouldn’t BP still be responsible, after all it was Haliburton who was working for them. If you hire a contractor to re-do your bathroom… and in the process, he floods your neighbor’s house… aren’t YOU still responsible?

What olbermann’s producers dont even bother to read the Wash post these days. (we know Olbermann couldnt be so bothered)

if they did – how did they miss this piece that said that BP got a safety waiver for this generic drilling area AND this specific rig after days of lobbying the Obama administrations Dept of Interior.

You see,. thats exacty where friendships made by BP with Obama and his staffers – Obama being the largest awardee of BP fundraising in 20 years – kicks in.

heres part of the article -

U.S. exempted BP’s Gulf of Mexico drilling from environmental impact study

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 5, 2010

The Interior Department exempted BP’s calamitous Gulf of Mexico drilling operation from a detailed environmental impact analysis last year, according to government documents, after three reviews of the area concluded that a massive oil spill was unlikely.

The decision by the department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) to give BP’s lease at Deepwater Horizon a “categorical exclusion” from the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) on April 6, 2009 — and BP’s lobbying efforts just 11 days before the explosion to expand those exemptions — show that neither federal regulators nor the company anticipated an accident of the scale of the one unfolding in the gul

The only oil spill Olberman could rename is the one in the dive across the street. He thinks his salad dressing is an oil spill.

Boy that Cheney has a long reach.

It is definitely his fault that the BHO admin had to go buy the only fire boom available from a firm in Chicago that was supposed to be on site under the emergency plans.- snark off-

Could it have made a difference and of what magnitude is fairly certain. The fact that BHO failed to have required necessary equipment in place is not speculative, it is a fact.

Does a technique that is used not always effective or even can cause accidents responsible for this explosion can not be answered now. Of course KO has no problem stating speculation as fact and then stretching that into a knock at Cheney.

This is vintage KO!

In his obsessive compulsion to pin every ill on Cheney KO completely ignored this damming fact:

“The “In-Situ Burn” plan produced by federal agencies in 1994 calls for responding to a major oil spill in the Gulf with the immediate use of fire booms.

But in order to conduct a successful test burn eight days after the Deepwater Horizon well began releasing massive amounts of oil into the Gulf, officials had to purchase one from a company in Illinois.

When federal officials called, Elastec/American Marine, shipped the only boom it had in stock, Jeff Bohleber, chief financial officer for Elastec, said today.

At federal officials’ behest, the company began calling customers in other countries and asking if the U.S. government could borrow their fire booms for a few days, he said.

A single fire boom being towed by two boats can burn up to 1,800 barrels of oil an hour, Bohleber said. That translates to 75,000 gallons an hour, raising the possibility that the spill could have been contained at the accident scene 100 miles from shore.”

It gets worse:

“”They said this was the tool of last resort. No, this is absolutely the asset of first use. Get in there and start burning oil before the spill gets out of hand,” Bohleber said. “If they had six or seven of these systems in place when this happened and got out there and started burning, it would have significantly lessened the amount of oil that got loose.”

In the days after the rig sank, U.S Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry said the government had all the assets it needed. She did not discuss why officials waited more than a week to conduct a test burn. (Watch video footage of the test burn.)”

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/05/fire_boom_oil_spill_raines.html

Is it pure speculation that if it was the GWB admin who failed to have and was late to order crucial required equipment rather than BHO this would be under the press microscope for days or is it a probability that is virtually a fact?

ex political-media hack says:
May 6, 2010 at 12:06 pm

If a BHO tree falls in a sound studio it makes no noise for the MSM.

Perhaps this fact will help Glynnis with her complication.

It’s Complicated: Obama Has Received The Most BP Cash

You see, Glynnis, it’s actually very simple and as old a concept as man’s first government.

ooh – i forgot – and who was lobbying the obama admin. for BP to get the safey inspection waver? none other than uber insider and obam pal Tony Podesta.

now why is it that this story has barely been mentioned?

ex political-media hack says:
May 6, 2010 at 12:47 pm

Good job there.

I think you have given Glynnis enough info to warrant a counterpoint post to her earlier one. I think the following would be a good title for her new post. What do you think, Ex Hack?

It’s Simple: Obama Has Received The Most BP Cash

its amazing how the BP cash to obama and this likely – quid pro quo – in return, has not become central to the coverage of this story.

So Cheney gets the safety featured reduced on his oil rigs to make more money and we have people actually defending him because of their irrational hatred of all things liberal? Just focusing on the BP cash for a political campaign. Pathetic.

Does anyone with any self respect watch Keith Olbermann? He claims the title, “King of the TV Blowhards”.

‘So Cheney gets the safety featured reduced on his oil rigs to make more money and we have people actually defending him because of their irrational hatred of all things liberal’

I’ll repeat again – No one knows what caused this accident and whether that safety valve would have mitigated this disaster.

No. One. Knows.

Yeah, there’s irrational hatred of all things liberal by some folks. And there’s irrational hatred of all things Cheney too.

And no one here is ‘defending Cheney’ from the allegation that he played a role in preventing extra safety measures from being added. Safety measures that no one knows would have worked.

What we’re condemning is Olbermann accusing Cheney of being resonsible for this disaster.

Because once again – No. One. Knows.

“Any reporter who did this would be fired.”

Keefy descibed as a journalist=Cheney’s Katrina. They are both equally ludicrous.

HanzoSword says:
May 6, 2010 at 1:41 pm

So, Hanzi, what do you think of the actions by the BHO admin related to this re their BP contributions and their failure to have the proper equipment called for in a disaster plan and then waiting EIGHT days to go looking for the absent equipment?

The Tea Party Network has been covering the connection between Dick Cheney and the BP Oil Spill:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO-kdhTTkkk

God, I wish I had that 2:26 back. Doesn’t this site have an ignore feature?

ImNotBlue says:
“Does anyone take this fool seriously anymore?”

Unfortunately, yes.

There’s an oil-drilling platform sitting at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico today. Eleven British Petroleum employees’ bodies are also buried there.

The three major sources of crude oil spewing into the Gulf is being compared to the devastation caused by the Exxon Valdez, requiring perhaps billions of dollars in cleanup – not to mention the livelihood of thousands of fisherman. One of the leaks has been capped and workers are toiling feverishly to cap the other two.
Meanwhile, BP is assuming total blame for the devastation, having sent twenty-five million dollars to each of the states directly involved in the loss thus far. A down payment, as it were, against what is certain to be a multi-billion dollar tab.

One might reasonably ask if all of the federal regulations were adhered to and “just how did this BP platform come to be?” The answer(s) are sickening.

While the BP oil geyser pumps millions of gallons of petroleum into the Gulf of Mexico, President Barack Obama and members of Congress may have to answer for the millions in campaign contributions they’ve taken from the oil and gas giant over the years.

BP and its employees have given more than $3.5 million to federal candidates over the past 20 years, with the largest chunk of their money going to Obama, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Donations come from a mix of employees and the company’s political action committees — $2.89 million flowed to campaigns from BP-related PACs and about $638,000 came from individuals.
On top of that, the oil giant has spent millions each year on lobbying — including $15.9 million last year alone — as it has tried to influence energy policy.

During his time in the Senate and while running for president, Obama received a total of $77,051 from the oil giant and is the top recipient of BP PAC and individual money over the past 20 years, according to financial disclosure records.

What did BP get for its cash? The Washington Post wonders the same thing, reporting on a waiver on a required environmental analysis for the very rig that blew:

The Interior Department exempted BP’s calamitous Gulf of Mexico drilling operation from a detailed environmental impact analysis last year, according to government documents, after three reviews of the area concluded that a massive oil spill was unlikely.

The decision by the department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) to give BP’s lease at Deepwater Horizon a “categorical exclusion” from the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) on April 6, 2009 — and BP’s lobbying efforts just 11 days before the explosion to expand those exemptions — show that neither federal regulators nor the company anticipated an accident of the scale of the one unfolding in the gulf. …
The MMS mandates that companies drilling in some areas identify under NEPA what could reduce a project’s environmental impact. But Interior Department spokesman Matt Lee-Ashley said the service grants between 250 and 400 waivers a year for Gulf of Mexico projects. He added that Interior has now established the “first ever” board to examine safety procedures for offshore drilling. It will report back within 30 days on BP’s oil spill and will conduct “a broader review of safety issues,” Lee-Ashley said.

BP’s exploration plan for Lease 206, which calls the prospect of an oil spill “unlikely,” stated that “no mitigation measures other than those required by regulation and BP policy will be employed to avoid, diminish or eliminate potential impacts on environmental resources.”

While the plan included a 13-page environmental impact analysis, it minimized the prospect of any serious damage associated with a spill, saying there would be only “sub-lethal” effects on fish and marine mammals, and “birds could become oiled. However it is unlikely that an accidental oil spill would occur from the proposed activities.”

Kierán Suckling, executive director of the environmental group Center for Biological Diversity, said the federal waiver “put BP entirely in control” of the way it conducted its drilling.

The fact that BHO failed to have required necessary equipment in place is not speculative, it is a fact.

So are you saying that the government had a fire boom and it was somehow lost or stolen or sold on January 20th, 2009?

This guy whines about Rush, Hannity and anyone else not foaming at the mouth Left of Left Liberal, and is the single most useful fool in the Republican tool bag. Please keep him tied to a mic somewhere every min of the day.

I was talking about him with a cousin ( not a political bone in his body) and he said it sounds like KO is just one of those insecure bed wetters. AND we should cut him some slack. OK Im cutting slack. But KO, you need to keep your tongue still and mouth shut before you go so far you are committed.

AND KO, keep your eyes on Cheney, He will be killing Liberal efforts for the next 200 years. I love it.