The Fireside chat for May 29, 2010 (VIDEO)

Ahead of Memorial Day, the President asks all Americans to join him in remembering and honoring those who have died in service to the country.

TopKill doesn't seem to be working. Why? (VIDEO)

There actually is an answer, as Keith Olbermann's guest, Rick Steiner illustrates...

...and by illustrates, I mean, actually draws on a sheet of posterboard for the interview. C'mon Keith, couldn't you and your staff helped him with some fancy graphics?

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More on the speech...

The key part of the speech, and seeming a make-up for the reservations some had over yesterday's Press Conference.

As I said yesterday, and as I repeated in the meeting that we just left, I ultimately take responsibility for solving this crisis. I’m the President and the buck stops with me. So I give the people of this community and the entire Gulf my word that we’re going to hold ourselves accountable to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to stop this catastrophe, to defend our natural resources, to repair the damage, and to keep this region on its feet. Justice will be done for those whose lives have been upended by this disaster, for the families of those whose lives have been lost -- that is a solemn pledge that I am making.

I think I can speak for anybody here, and for anybody who has been involved in the response and the cleanup effort, and for most Americans, when I say that I would gladly do whatever it takes to end this disaster today. But I want to also repeat something that I said to the group as a whole while we were meeting. This is a manmade catastrophe that’s still evolving and we face a long-term recovery and restoration effort.

America has never experienced an event like this before. And that means that as we respond to it, not every judgment we make is going to be right the first time out. Sometimes, there are going to be disagreements between experts, or between federal and state and local officials, or among state officials, or between states, about what the most effective measures will be.

Sometimes, there are going to be risks and unintended consequences associated with a particular mitigation strategy that we consider. In other words, there are going to be a lot of judgment calls involved here. There are not going to be silver bullets or a lot of perfect answers for some of the challenges that we face.

Understandably, the feelings of frustration and anger, the sense that any response is inadequate -- we expect that frustration and anger to continue until we actually solve this problem. But in the meantime, we’ve got to make sure that everybody is working in concert, that everybody is moving in the same direction. And I want everybody to know that everybody here -- at every level -- is working night and day to end this crisis. We’re considering every single idea out there, especially from folks who know these communities best.

Admiral Allen announced yesterday, for example, that, after a bunch of back-and-forth between state and federal experts, he is prepared to authorize moving forward with a portion of the idea for a barrier island that may stop some of the oil from coming ashore. We had an extensive conversation about this and -- to see whether additional steps can be taken on this barrier island idea.

And what I told the parish president, what I told the Governor, is that if there is an idea that can be shown to work, then we should move forward on it, and they deserve quick answers. But I also reminded everybody that we’ve got to make sure that whatever we do is actually going to work, particularly because we’re going to have not unlimited resources, at least not right now. For example, there’s a limited amount of boom. We’re going to try to get more boom manufactured. But that may take some time, and that means we’re going to have to make some decisions about how to deploy it effectively.

The bottom line is this: Every decision we make is based on a single criterion -– what’s going to best protect and make whole the people and the ecosystems of the Gulf.

And I want to thank everybody in this region who’s rolled up their sleeves and pitched in to help -– from the National Guard putting their experience to the task, to the local officials and every citizen who loves this area and calls it home, every American who’s traveled to the region to lend a hand. If any American is looking for ways to volunteer and help, then we’ve put links to that information on our website, as well -- that's whitehouse.gov.

And, all these governors -- Bobby Jindal, as well as Charlie Crist and Bob Riley, they want -- and I know Haley Barbour is not here but I think he agrees with this, as well -- one of the powerful ways that you can help the Gulf right now is to visit the communities and the beaches off of the coast. Except for three beaches here in Louisiana, all of the Gulf’s beaches at this moment are open, they are safe and they are clean. And so that's always a good way to help, is to come down and provide support to the communities along the coasts.

To the people of the Gulf Coast: I know that you’ve weathered your fair share of trials and tragedy. I know there have been times where you’ve wondered if you were being asked to face them alone. I am here to tell you that you’re not alone. You will not be abandoned. You will not be left behind. The cameras at some point may leave; the media may get tired of the story; but we will not. We are on your side and we will see this through. We’re going to keep at this every day until the leak has stopped, until this coastline is clean, and your communities are made whole again. That’s my promise to you. And that is a promise on behalf of a nation. It is one that we will keep.

And I will make one last point -- and I said this to every leader who is here: If something is not going right down here, then they need to talk to Thad Allen. And if they’re not getting satisfaction from Thad Allen, then they can talk to me. There’s nobody here who can’t get in touch with me directly if there is an idea, a suggestion, or a logjam that needs to be dealt with.

So we’re in this together. And it’s going to be a difficult time, and obviously the folks down here are going to be feeling the brunt of it, but we’re going to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to get this solved as quickly as possible.

And I want to again think everybody here for the extraordinary work that they’re putting in. You shouldn’t underestimate how hard these folks are working, day in, day out, on behalf of their constituencies.

So thank you very much. Thank you, everybody.

What do you want to bet that the President's statement to "come down and provide support to the communities along the coasts" gets compared to Bush's go shopping comment made after 9/11?

Memo to Randi...

Since I've been bringing her up this week, there's this:

What’s more, we’ve stationed doctors and scientists across the five Gulf States to look out for people’s health and then to monitor any ill effects felt by cleanup workers and local residents. And we’ve begun setting up a system to track these efforts -- excuse me, to track these effects -- and ensure folks get the care that they need. And we’ve told BP that we expect them to pay for that, too.

President Obama at the U.S. Coast Guard Station in Grande Isle, Louisiana (VIDEO)

The video from MSNBC is terrible. Not because of internet issues, but because of lighting. Yes, that big glob in your screen is the President of the United States. The audio is perfect, but the video...

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The text of the remarks can be found here. The good stuff begins at about 8:24 on the video.

The President's Press Conference of May 27, 2010 (VIDEO)

This was a good press conference. I thought the questions were tough and fair. I'd give the President a B- or C+ for his presentation. (I'm sorry, I know the man is saying trust us, we're doing everything in our power, acknowledging that there are and will be screw ups...but as long as the oil is coming onshore, you're always going to wonder...which the President acknowledged too.)

Let me take a moment to crack on Randi Rhodes, who spent a good chunk of his air time today complaining that the President didn't address the issue of mobile health clinics for workers who are getting sick. Apparently, a Congressman wrote him him a letter detailing the request. Still he didn't speak of it.

Let me get this straight Randi, you're complaining that the President didn't answer a question he wasn't asked.

Okay.

The only wastes of time in the whole preceding was Helen Thomas' question about Afghanistan toward the middle, and Major Garrett's (Fox Noise) sub-question about Joe Sestak toward the end. Since I just got finished reading a passage in The Promise about the President's war with Fox Noise, I had to wonder if shutting them out wasn't the best policy.

But Helen Thomas demanding to know, with a note of rage in her voice, why we were in Afghanistan, to me, bordered on pathetic. (Part of it was the nature of her question, most of it was time and place.)



P.S. Greg Sargent of the Washington Post wrote on his blog that he hoped that the Press Corps would ask him about pushing on the Energy Bill currently stalled in the Senate because Lindsay Graham is throwing a hissy-fit.

I wrote Greg and bet him five bucks that the question would be asked...

Turns out...I think I owe Greg Sargent five bucks. Because while the President answered the questions, several times in fact, about the Energy Bill...no one in the Press Corps asked the question to begin with.

President Obama's interview with Marv Alpert (VIDEO)

Worry not. I'm still trolling for the complete Oil Spill Press Conference Video. (I can't believe it was this early...at least for those of us on the Left Coast.)

In the meantime, Obama on the NBA, Lebron and the ability to take a hard foul with the Secret Service around...




By the way, he didn't completely advocate for LeBron going to the Bulls, as some have suggested. It was Marv who was advocating the President to advocate for Chicago. He said if LeBron finds a coach he respects, and a stable situation in Cleveland (I'm hoping that the Cavs get Byron Scott), he should stay in Cleveland.

Lines of attack...

The overwhelming feeling I’m getting listening to the radio, specifically Randi Rhodes, is that she wants the Government to do something. Whatever the hell that means. I find this terribly ironic because just before the Rand Paul thing exploded, she had a African-American caller (not me) on the air, saying that we [Black folk] couldn’t get with the Teabaggers because of the the racism. So, figuring that at least part of the Teabagger anger was legitimate and that Government is broken Randi answered back, “what’s your plan”.

I’m afraid I’m left with the same question for the Gulf Oil Spill. What’s your plan? And an answer of “just do something” isn’t constructive, helpful, or intelligent at this point.

In the matter of the Gulf Oil Spill, there are two lines of attack, for now. One is stopping the oil volcano. Two is gathering information (and making it public) about how we got in this mess. Once the oil volcano is stopped, we can get on with a third track, which is clean-up. Once the information is gathered, we can start a fourth track, which is lawsuits and/or Criminal/Congressional investigations.

When we say we want Obama to do something, I want to know how does it fit into the two-to-four tracks I’ve outlined? The Navy may be well equipped to get down to the source of the leak, but do they have the equipment or expertise to fix it? (I don't know, I'm asking). People keep saying they do (Randi) but it seems like they're pulling that out of their asses. Remember, fixing isn’t just a matter of plugging the leak, it’s making sure that all that pressure doesn’t escape elsewhere and make the problem ten times worse.

I think the EPA should force BP from using their toxic dispersant. I think the Energy Department should put a stop to all the new Oil Drilling that seems to be going ahead anyway. I don't think its helpful that Secretary Chu is getting all his information from the damn New York Times, and not his own department. I think Scientists who are affiliated with the Government on their own organizations (as long as they’re not associated with BP) should be allowed free access to the site and come up with an independent estimate of the amount of oil spilled and damage done. While I think James Carville’s rant this morning at its heart came from the right place, I’m not 100% sure that the President being down there will help. In fact, Presidents can often get in the way of recovery efforts.

But past that, I’m left with questions. What about the Exxon Valdez law that is currently guiding Governmental efforts? The Media has been terrible at explaining what’s in it. I don’t know what the Government can and can’t do in this matter, and it doesn’t help that too many of my fellow Liberals are stuck in the belief that the Executive is just as unitary as it ever was under Bush, or worse that it should be.

If the Government were to take over the cleanup effort, would that absolve BP of all claims up to $75 Million (I've asked before). How does the $4000 a barrel fine work?Do we have to prove fraud in order to enact it? The Justice Department said that Congress can impose a retroactive liability cap. What else can the Justice Department do?

Another thing that’s really, really, really annoying me. A biiiiiiig meme for my fellow lefties during the Health Care Debate was that the White House wasn't doing enough (again, whatever that was) during the whole thing. Well, that’s been proven to be bullshit. So when I hear or read people asking what the President is doing, my bet is plenty. We just can’t see it. The bubble is bad, but it’s not that bad.

The difference between Obama and Dubya is that we trust Obama to do the right thing, for the right reasons. We hopefully can acknowledge a screw up (which I think this is), but we have to know he's not liking this, and not just for political reasons.

Bad Boys, whatchu gonna do? (VIDEO)

Pushback, and Vaporizaton... (VIDEO)

It's not great surprise that folks are starting to complain about the Gulf Oil Spill caused by British Peteroleum's, Transoceans and Haliburton's recklessness. It's been a month. Eleven people are dead, and nothing much seems to have been done to fix the calamity that might wind up destroying the Gulf of Mexico.

The fact that those same voices are starting to complain about the President's lack of action is a little surprising, but at the same time justified. Backing that idea is the notion that a competent administration should rush in and kick BP the hell out of there, and there are signs that may actually happen if BP doesn't get its act together. The fact that the President hasn't done this already is generating ire from even his most devoted followers (or should I say Hillary's).

Can't say I blame them. At the same time, I can't say I blame the President either, even though my preference is that he get off his duff and kick BP out of the Gulf, and present them with a bill for services rendered.

But is that even possible?

One problem is might be the language that exists from the Oil Cleanup Bill that was signed into law after Exxon Valdez.

Would kicking BP out, after they've gone public with the notion that they'll clean it all up on their dime, absolve them of all responsibility?

Would the Obama administration be limited in that bill for services rendered I described, in that it could only be $75 Million dollars? (the current cap on exposure to BP -- short of fraud, which I think you can prove. At least I hope Robert Kennedy does.)

Can you imagine having the President rush to the rescue of a toxic spill cleanup, to actually get it done in a timely manner, only to have his Republican opponents, who'll say anything at this point, mutter that the cleanup should have been the responsibility of the Private Industry that caused it, and that any Government intervention is nothing more than a bailout for Big Oil?

At the same time, I hate to say this...I'm a little glad it's happening this way.

No, I don't want to see oily birds, dead fishes, and Gulf Fishermen with their lives ruined, but I want to see the ineptness of Corporate America exposed. And make no mistake, what you're watching is Corporate incompetence writ large.

We are now recieving hard, visual (and if you're close enough to the Gulf, olfactory) evidence of the total and complete epicfail of the idea that Business can solve everything, and do it better than the Government. That notion is dead. It's been dead since Lehman Brothers collapse, but you're seeing it live and in action.

Last week, 60 Minutes did an interview with a survivor of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, and it's the best, and most detailed account of what happened before and after. (Did I hear right that the eleven men who died, weren't so much as burned alive, but vaporized?)

It's a double segment, so it's a little long, but it's worth it, trust me.


Watch CBS News Videos Online

And Part Two:


Watch CBS News Videos Online

The Fireside chat for May 22, 2010 (VIDEO)

The President announces that the independent commission he created for the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling will be chaired by former Florida Governor and Senator Bob Graham and former EPA Administrator Bill Reilly. He promises accountability not just for BP, but for those in government who bore responsibility.

So, my opinion doesn't count in this Rand Paul business?

Yesterday, thanks to Rand Paul, we received proof positive that the rotten racist apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

I am of course speaking of Rand Paul’s not-necessarily disastrous decision to advocate for the repeal of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

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I say not-necessarily, because this is still Kentucky we're talking about. Not the most racist state in the Union (too many nominees to mention), but just about as racist as they come.

Mr. Paul's racism has, of course, generated a lot of chatter on the TeeVee, and in the blogosphere. In most cases, a lot of journalists went out of their way to say that Rand Paul was not a racist. Ezra Klein's post is but one example. There are more.

Why? Because he said so.

But with regard to racism, I don't believe in any racism. I don‘t think we should have any government racism, any institutional form of racism.

That was from the Maddow interview of May 19th.

Guess that takes care of that.

If this douchebag is going to so casually throw my rights (as an African-American) under the bus to serve his ideological aims, while his remain intact (what a coincidence), how does that not make him a racist?

Put another way, a better way by Adam Serwer (first highlighted by Ezra Klein):

Paul's defenders will argue -- as conservatives did with Barry Goldwater -- that Paul himself is not a racist. Indeed, Paul said he finds racism abhorrent and would not frequent a segregated business. And Paul rather incoherently defended his position as being "the hard part about believing in freedom." This is a key statement because it rather poignantly expresses the utter selfishness at the heart of Paul's argument against the Civil Rights Act.

Paul would never face the actual "hard part" of his vision of freedom, because it would never interfere with his own life, liberty, or pursuit of happiness. Rand Paul would not have been turned away from a lunch counter, be refused a home, a job, or denied a loan, or told to sit in the black car of a train because of his skin color, or because of the skin color of his spouse. Paul thinks there is something "hard" about defending the kind of discrimination he would have never, ever faced. Paul's free-market fundamentalism is being expressed after decades of social transformation that the Civil Rights Act helped create, and so the hell of segregation is but a mere abstraction, difficult to remember and easy to dismiss as belonging only to its time. It's much easier now to say that "the market would handle it." But it didn't, and it wouldn't.

But, there is another thing that has bothered me about this debate.

Where are the African-Americans? I mean, it's not like we don't have an opinion on this thing.

For some reason, the debate about Rand Paul, about his beliefs, about his racism, has happened exclusively in the province of white people.

That’s not to say that white people don’t have a say in this matter (in fact, some of my best friends are white people). But they are only half of the equation in any discussion about race in America. Worse still, they are not exactly experts when in comes to suffering under racism. (Though a some are experts at dishing it out.)

Sorry, fellow Liberals. I’m not trying to insult you, I’m just reflecting an honest truth. I know you hate racism. I know you will act against it whenever it’s identified for you. But any expertise you have comes from the outside looking in. You don’t live it like I do, or any African-American does.

It’s the same way I viscerally hate Anti-Semitism, from my gut. Still, I have to acknowledge that any Jew anywhere is better suited to speak to the issue than I am.

Following that, in a discussion about the harm Public and Private Institutions can inflict upon American Citizens of color, and the Government’s role in ending that harm, why weren’t there any African-American (people who are the authority on this kind of harm) on the TeeVee??

Yeah, we had Jim Clyburn. Twice. Both times on MSNBC. Once on Andrea, once on Keith.

That’s it?

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Not that Jim Clyburn didn’t hit it out of the park, he did. He was great. He spoke for me, word for word.

But come on, you’re trying to tell me there weren’t more Black people who could talk about this?

Eugene Robinson? (MSNBC Regular)

Melissa Harris-Lacewell? (MSNBC Regular)

LeBron James? (It's not like he hasn't been in the news).

Tiger Wo--

Yeah, you're right. Scratch that. Bad idea.

It wasn’t until Rachel Maddow (who started his mess by taking an oft-reported local story and putting on said TeeVee) interviewed Benjamin Jealous of the NAACP that we had another black person talking about the subject.

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Child, please.

Listen, it’s bad enough that you have a segment of the population desirous to go back to the “bad old days”. It’s bad enough that a moment of true racial transcendence (the election of the first black President) has become mired in an explosion of racial divisiveness.

But is it too much to ask, that if you have a discussion about race in America that we be a part of it?

Leaving African-Americans out may be the most offensive thing about all this.

The President's Speech on Jobs in Youngstown, Ohio (VIDEO)

This one almost slipped past me. It got almost zero coverage on the national stage.

Not the most extraordinary speech he's ever given, but its a good template for the campaign ahead. If you've been watching him speak, you've heard a lot of this stuff before. The crowd reaction felt a little restrained. The biggest laugh/applause lines seemed to come whenever he talked concrete job numbers (i.e., the people in the next county over, thanks to the G.M. bailout are coming back to work). That's how it should be.

The President read the room. He dispensed with the smiles quickly, and told the people of Youngstown what he did, and how it helped.

Now, we’ve got a long way to go before this recovery is felt in the lives of our neighbors and in all the communities that have lost so much ground in this recession and in years before.

But despite that sobering reality, despite all the naysayers in Washington, who are always looking for the cloud in every silver lining, the fact is our economy is growing again. Last month, we gained 290,000 jobs. (Applause.) So think about this. We gained more jobs last month than any time in four years. And it was the fourth month in a row that we’ve added jobs -- and almost all those jobs are in the private sector. Everybody talks about government was doing this, government was doing that. Now, what we did was we encouraged the private sector, gave them the funding, the financing, the support, the infrastructure support in order to invest and get the economy moving again.

And last month also brought the largest increase in manufacturing employment since 1998 -- (applause) -- 1998, because I believe in manufacturing and I believe in manufacturing right here in the United States of America. We can compete against anybody. Youngstown can compete against anybody. You got the best workers. There’s no reason why we can’t compete with anybody if you guys have the support that you need.

And you know what? I think those critics who have been trying to badmouth these efforts -- they know it’s working. These folks who opposed this every step of the way, predicting nothing but failure, they know it’s working because -- this always puts a smile on my face -- even as they’ve tried to score political points attacking these members of Congress, a lot of them go home and then they claim credit for the very things they voted against. They’ll show up at the -- to cut the ribbons. They’ll put out a press release. They’ll send the mailings touting the very projects that they were opposing in Washington. They’re trying to have it both ways.

I know that’s hard to imagine in politics, that a politician might try to have it both ways, but here’s the fact: If the “just say no” crowd had won out, if we had done things the way they wanted to go, we’d be in a deeper world of hurt than we are right now. Families wouldn’t have seen those tax cuts. Small businesses wouldn’t have gotten those loans or those health care tax credits that they’re now eligible for. Insurance companies would still be deciding who they want to cover and when they want to cover them, and dropping your health care coverage whenever they felt like it.

The Fireside chat for May 15, 2010 (VIDEO)

The President explains how Wall Street Reform will not only end bailouts and bring accountability for big banks, but empower consumers, shareholders and community banks.

"None of our challenges and difficulties are our own fault..."

From a Michael Kinsey piece in Atlantic, bagging on the Teabaggers (and rightly so). Still, this paragraph caught my attention (especially after Andrew Sullivan highlighted it as well).

Some people think that what unites the Tea Party Patriots is simple racism. I doubt that. But the Tea Party movement is not the solution to what ails America. It is an illustration of what ails America. Not because it is right-wing or because it is sometimes susceptible to crazed conspiracy theories, and not because of racism, but because of the movement’s self-indulgent premise that none of our challenges and difficulties are our own fault.

“Personal responsibility” has been a great conservative theme in recent decades, in response to the growth of the welfare state. It is a common theme among TPPs—even in response to health-care reform, as if losing your job and then getting cancer is something you shouldn’t have allowed to happen to yourself. But these days, conservatives far outdo liberals in excusing citizens from personal responsibility. To the TPPs, all of our problems are the fault of the government, and the government is a great “other,” a hideous monster over which we have no control. It spends our money and runs up vast deficits for mysterious reasons all its own. At bottom, this is a suspicion not of government but of democracy. After all, who elected this monster?

Eyjafjallajökull the Video...

Nothing to do with Politics, just...well, just look...

Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull - May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

Scolding B.P. (VIDEO)

It starts as a standard Presidential report on the state of the Gulf Oil Spill, along with usual plea for speedy passage of some legislation.

Then you hit the 3:17 mark...

The President, the Reporter and the Hovercraft (VIDEO)

I know, I know. We're in the middle of two wars, too many people can't get jobs, and the entirety of the Gulf of Mexico is about to be poisoned...

...but stuff like this is fun. It's fun to stop and take a moment, engage in some well-meaning silliness. This is the stuff that makes being President fun, and keeps him from having to "play" Barack Obama.



What do I mean by that? Check out Jonathan Alter's book on May 18th.

Hamsters (still) don't vote.

Caught this on Andrew Sullivan's blog. Worth remembering.

President Obama's commencement address at Hampton University (VIDEO)

Yes! To a historically Black University!

Yes! He did chip on the iPad, though the story's a tad overblown.