President Barack Obama has just finished addressing the nation. I’ll post his address as soon as it becomes available.
For now I’d like to make a few comments.
One of the most remarkable assertions the President made was his acknowledgment that the Minerals Management Service was corrupt and not moving fast enough to mend their ways. For a President to say that a federal agency is corrupt seems to me to be no small thing.
He said that MMS was emblematic of “a failed philosophy” that viewed all regulation with hostility. I felt that, by inference, he had rejected the policy of deregulation in place since the Reagan era.
President Obama promised that Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and he would clean up that corruption and see that the MMS acted like a watchdog to the oil industry and not its partner.
He announced the appointment of Michael Bromwich, a “tough” federal prosecutor, to head up the MMS. He expressed his commitment to break the link between the oil industry and the agencies that regulate them.
He asked former Mississippi Governor and Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus to begin the process of planning the long-term restoration of the Gulf of Mexico.
He said that:
- The road to getting off our oil addiction had been blocked time after time by oil lobbyists and a lack of political courage and candor.
- He had supported deepwater drilling previously but had issued a six-month moratorium.
- He had set up a National Commission which he hoped would report quickly on the causes of the disaster.
- The time to embrace clean energy and an oil-free energy future was now. He said he made the commitment tonight to create that future.
I found myself sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for him to endorse scalar energy, but he only went as far as mentioning solar and wind energy. I personally don’t think either has anywhere near the possibility of getting us off oil addiction, as he called it.
He promised to make BP pay for the impact the spill has had. He said that the fund to be created would be administered not by BP, but by a third party. Let’s hope that third party does not siphon off funds to the Illuminati.
He revealed that a mass mobilization of 17,000 National Guard was underway, which we knew, and said he had asked that they be assigned immediately to the Gulf coast.
While the Illuminati could try to subvert that force, I don’t think the President will prove to be part of such an attempt. Moreover, I think that such an attempt, if it does happen, will fail.
And I’m aware of coverage on the Net of the National Guard being trained to keep public order. I still don’t believe that their participation will prove nefarious.
President Obama showed that he was aware of the extent of the spill. In my biased view, since I have great faith in him, he did not attempt to downplay it.
Press Secretary Robert Gibbs answered questions sent in via Youtube.
He was asked why the government had shut down media access. He said that there were some safety zones designed to keep people away from hazardous chemicals. He said that Admiral Allen was taking press parties to the rig site.
He reiterated that President Obama takes media access seriously and would not allow BP to prohibit access to the site.
I got no messages from the body language of either speaker that they were saying one thing but intending another. But only time will reveal if they mean what they say and if they will be successful along the lines they laid out.