Michele Bachmann demands gangster president commandeer boats

[Danny]

http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2010/06/michele_bachman_99.php

Rep. Michele Bachmann is happy to tar President Barack Obama as the anti-American leader of a gangster government.

But evidently there are times when she's all in favor of a little gangster action -- such as Friday on the floor of the House of Representatives when she accused Obama of having a "hands off" approach to cleaning up BP's epic human and environmental oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

    The administration, they were hands off. They didn't do anything. Where were the boats that could have been commandeered by the government to be sent into this region to deal with that oil plume as it was coming up in the water and destroying marine life? Nowhere to be found. Why? The administration was hands off on this policy. (Video below.)

In fact, according to the Deepwater Horizon Unified Command, more than 1,000 boat owners have volunteered their water craft for service to help clean up after BP. No need for gangster government thugs to commandeer private property there.

To check on how the government is handling the response, we went to deepwaterhorizonresponse .com. There's a timeline here. And we checked the logistics today:

        * Personnel were quickly deployed and nearly 2,000 are currently responding to protect the shoreline and wildlife.
        * More than 100 vessels are responding on site, including skimmers, tugs, barges, and recovery vessels to assist in containment and cleanup efforts--in addition to dozens of aircraft, remotely operated vehicles, and multiple mobile offshore drilling units.
        * Hundreds of thousands of feet of boom (barrier) have been deployed to contain the spill-- more than 500,000 feet is available.
        * More than 1 million gallons of an oil-water mix have been recovered.
        * More than 156,000 gallons of dispersant have been deployed--an increase of more than
        * 13,000 gallons since yesterday. An additional 75,000 gallons are available.
        * Seven staging areas (Biloxi, Miss., Pensacola, Fla., Venice, La., Pascagoula, Miss. and Theodore, Ala., Port Fourchon, La., and Port Sulphur, La.) were set up to protect sensitive shorelines.
        * 2,000 volunteers have been trained to assist in the response effort to date--an increase of 1,400 since yesterday.

[Fury]

And yet, despite "all" that's been done, the oil continues to wash up on the shores and is now headed for Florida. What kind of stupid fuck actually justifies foregoing more help? Could have had 1,000 private boat owners AND 1,000 government boats, or something along those lines.

[240 is Back]

yeah, I think bachmann speaks to the far-right basics... this was an odd statement.

She said obama should commandeer boats. 

I promise... if Obama had walked up to 1000 fisherman and said "The US govt is taking your boat for the cleanup effort, deal with it", the repubs would be up in arms.

I don't konw why she made this statement.  I think she, like most ppl, doesn't know how to fix the problem.  She think more boats skimming is the solution, and she thinks taking them from others is the way to go.

[Fury]

She's an idiot, but acting like it's OK that the American populace is shouldering the load for this clean-up is ridiculous. Everyone volunteering to clean-up should be getting paid hourly by BP.

[240 is Back]

Bp is bing VERY VERY selective.... many fisherman are complaining their boat is too big, too small, they're not certified by this organization, they dont have this or that coverage.

My guess is that BP chooses to regulate it so 95% of fisherman aren't involved

[Danny]

yeah, I think bachmann speaks to the far-right basics... this was an odd statement.

She said obama should commandeer boats. 

I promise... if Obama had walked up to 1000 fisherman and said "The US govt is taking your boat for the cleanup effort, deal with it", the repubs would be up in arms.

I don't konw why she made this statement.  I think she, like most ppl, doesn't know how to fix the problem.  She think more boats skimming is the solution, and she thinks taking them from others is the way to go.

That's the problem...one day she's screaming her head off that Obama is a nazi and a communist, next day you WANT the government to ..."commandeer" boats?? You would neeeever hear the end of that if government did something as drastic as she's suggesting.