BP: Obama's Do-Nothing "Root Causes" Commission

Truthout - Obama had this frozen, robotic expression on his face when he announced that he'd put his signature on the executive order establishing the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. He looked a bit like he'd been replaced with an animatronic doll, one programmed to speak very eloquently and say precisely nothing. Obama's commission is supposed to carry out a six-month investigation into the reasons underlying the explosion of the Deepwater Horizons offshore drilling rig. Securely informed and enlightened by such knowledge, the United States will be able to "prevent and mitigate the impact of any spills that result from offshore drilling."

Obama has been quite chastened by the tens of thousands of barrels of oil daily billowing into the Gulf of Mexico entailing a multi-billion dollar "clean-up effort." This effort involves burning the oil, removing toxic billows from the water and sending toxic plumes into the air and dispersing toxic dispersants on the even-worse oily gunk coating the waters of the Gulf, even when the government says to use something slightly cleaner. BP didn't listen to the government and the government responded by demanding from BP a good explanation for its refusal to listen to government mandates. This deafness probably has also irritated Obama and contributed to the push for an independent commission to investigate the spill.

Obama's lolly gagging while an ecosystem is slowly being murdered has unnerved some of the commentariat who usually remain silent on his screw-ups. James Carville commented, "I think they actually believe that BP has some kind of a good motivation here ... They're naive! BP is trying to save money, save everything they can ... Somebody has got to, like shake them and say, 'These people don't wish you well! They're going to take you down!'" This is unusually sage advice from Carville, who belongs to the wing of the business party congenitally blind to the logic of corporations. Read more.