Taichiliberal
Shaken, not stirred!
I was listening to 77WABC Talk Radio yesterday (it's new conservative punditry 24/7), and the oft repeated talking point on every show was that the Obama administration outright REFUSED any assistance from friendly foreign nations in dealing with the BP Gulf oil spill debacle. The gist was that Obama is a liar who drives his administration to take over all private industry, and therefore rejects anything from the private sector that would endanger his agenda.
Oh brother!
But as it was since the 2008 campaign, the neocon cabal and peanut gallery are not telling the exact truth on the matter, as one can see when reading the following:
Fox & Friends misleadingly suggests we are not "us[ing] the rest of the world's offers to help us skim up the sludge"
http://mediamatters.org/research/201006110023
In fact, (Coast Guard Admiral Thad) Allen stated that "we are using" equipment from other nations for oil clean-up. In a June 10 press briefing, Allen confirmed that "we are using" foreign technology:
Q: There are many people who say that the best dredgers and skimmers in the world come from countries like the Netherlands and France and that they can't -- they're not being asked to come in because of the Jones Act. Is that the case? And why not get around that, suspend that, so you can bring that other you know technology in?
ADMIRAL ALLEN: Well, first of all, those are source countries. That's correct, they're available. But we are using them. We are dealing with folks like Norway, the Netherlands, Canada and other places. Anyplace that's got skimming capability that's available, we're willing to talk to them, and we actually have, in some cases, actually transferred the equipment down and will continue to do that.
If it gets -- if it gets to the point where there's a Jones Act required, we're willing to do that, too. Nobody's come to me with a request for a Jones Act waiver, but any skimming capability we can bring in, we're looking for.
Q: So are the actual boats being brought in or just the equipment?
ADMIRAL ALLEN: Well, in some cases it's the skimmer itself. In some cases, the skimming equipment is organic to the vessel itself. It depends on what you're talking about. To my knowledge, what we brought in is actually skimming equipment rather than the vessels themselves, but we can give you a detailed listing.
Oh brother!But as it was since the 2008 campaign, the neocon cabal and peanut gallery are not telling the exact truth on the matter, as one can see when reading the following:
Fox & Friends misleadingly suggests we are not "us[ing] the rest of the world's offers to help us skim up the sludge"
http://mediamatters.org/research/201006110023
In fact, (Coast Guard Admiral Thad) Allen stated that "we are using" equipment from other nations for oil clean-up. In a June 10 press briefing, Allen confirmed that "we are using" foreign technology:
Q: There are many people who say that the best dredgers and skimmers in the world come from countries like the Netherlands and France and that they can't -- they're not being asked to come in because of the Jones Act. Is that the case? And why not get around that, suspend that, so you can bring that other you know technology in?
ADMIRAL ALLEN: Well, first of all, those are source countries. That's correct, they're available. But we are using them. We are dealing with folks like Norway, the Netherlands, Canada and other places. Anyplace that's got skimming capability that's available, we're willing to talk to them, and we actually have, in some cases, actually transferred the equipment down and will continue to do that.
If it gets -- if it gets to the point where there's a Jones Act required, we're willing to do that, too. Nobody's come to me with a request for a Jones Act waiver, but any skimming capability we can bring in, we're looking for.
Q: So are the actual boats being brought in or just the equipment?
ADMIRAL ALLEN: Well, in some cases it's the skimmer itself. In some cases, the skimming equipment is organic to the vessel itself. It depends on what you're talking about. To my knowledge, what we brought in is actually skimming equipment rather than the vessels themselves, but we can give you a detailed listing.
