Bush vs. Obama, Katrina vs. BP

According to the public policy center, Bush wins.
Our new Louisiana poll has a lot of data points to show how unhappy voters in the state are with

Barack Obama's handling of the oil spill but one perhaps sums it up better than anything else- a majority of voters there think George W. Bush did a better job with Katrina than Obama's done dealing with the spill.

Oh, hilarious.

50% of voters in the state, even including 31% of Democrats, give Bush higher marks on that question compared to 35% who pick Obama.

Thank you Democrats for at least some consistency.

If Obama were a security guard

Picture, for a moment, that Obama was a security guard.

A massive theft occurs under his watch. When it happens, Obama blames the security guard who was fired 15 months ago. He tells us that the former security guard had lax security measures and poor security practices, which is why things were stolen under Barack's guard. He further tells the owner of the stolen goods that he's really going to get tough now. That he's learned from this theft, and he won't get fooled again.

How would you react?

But is it true?

I read that a BP spokesperson had said this quote:

Louisiana isn’t the only place that has shrimp

And something smelled, well, fishy to me about it.

It didn't help that when I googled the phrase, every lefty website in America had it. But when I restricted the hits to "News" websites, only commentary articles appeared from very left leaning organizations stating that it was 'reported' that he said the phrase above.

So I started digging.
Newsweek reported it as 'fact', in an article about the spoofed twitter feed on BP's PR. So I kept digging, and followed Newsweek's link.

Newsweek used a blog as their source. Oooookay. This kinda explains why Newsweek is going out of business. So then I followed the blog, and found this article:

Five years after Katrina, the return of disaster capitalism?

Disaster capitalism?
Pardon, but when you read a quote like that, it should give you pause. It did me. Anyway, if you find a real link to a real story where the PR spokesperson said that, please let me know.

The utter double standard of the left

Picture this:

A year into his presidency, George W. Bush announces that he's expanding offshore drilling. His decision removes a ban that spans decades.
In his speech, he tells us:

Under the leadership of Secretary Salazar, we’ll employ new technologies that reduce the impact of oil exploration. We’ll protect areas that are vital to tourism, the environment, and our national security. And we’ll be guided not by political ideology, but by scientific evidence.

A couple of months later, an oil rig blows up, killing 17 people.

'Bush' avoids any press conference where questions can be asked about the rig for the first month of the impending crisis. Instead, he issues reassuring messages telling us that the government is taking care of things. On May 3rd, he says:

Your government will do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to stop this crisis

In the meantime, it is discovered that 'Bush' has received the most amount of cash from BP of any candidate in the previous election. The candidate recieving the 3rd most amount of cash is a 'Republican' senator from Louisiana.
It is then revealed that president's administration did not inspect the oil rig as it was supposed to. AP, using a Freedom of Information act, discovers that part of the inspection report on the rig seems to be "whited out" without any explanation.

Under pressure from the press, 'Bush' takes questions regarding the oil spill. During his press conference, the president denounces the 'scandalous' relationship between the agencies that regulate the oil industry, and the people who drill for oil. In response to a question about how involved he is, he tells the press that he is "briefed every day" on the progress in the gulf.
When he's asked why the government isn't more involved, he tells the press that the technology of BP is superior to what the government has.

As oil begins to wash ashore, the president goes on vacation. Right before the president leaves, he gets his photo taken with two different sports teams for photo ops. His announced vacation plans are cut short to include a 4 hour visit to the oil slicked coast. While there, he says that 'mistakes are possible...but a lack of urgency about plugging the leak and restoring the region is not'.


As a side note, the president will be skipping the tradition of the president laying a wreath in Arlington on memorial day, with two wars going on overseas.

The president I'm talking about - of course - is not president Bush. However, it begs the question:
What would the reaction be of the left if the president were not named Obama?
Why isn't the left really, really upset at the clear financial connection between the current president and BP?
-And just as importantly, why isn't the left upset that the president is going on vacation during this crisis?

The WH is finally getting blamed for the BP spill

Which only makes sense, since they were the ones who pushed for more drilling. If Barack's name was Cheney, people would be marching down Michigan Avenue with his picture on it with his hands soaked in oil.
From Nola.com:

More than month into the spill -- and with no end in sight -- this past weekend may mark the moment when anger and frustration about the spill overtopped BP and began to splash on the carpet in the Oval Office.

Outside of the really bad pun, Nola.com is very accurate. There finally is some blame being put on the administration for not 'doing enough'. Now I should start here by explaining that I'm not one of those people who blames an administration when anything goes wrong. Further, I literally don't think its the administration's problem. But since they (Barack, etc.) went around blaming Bush for that hurricane in New Orleans, its only fair to blame this administration for not responding to this disaster in a timely manner.

The president's polling is down. Again.

Its happened once again. According to Rasmussen, he president's poll numbers are down.

Overall, 42% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the president's performance. That is the lowest level of approval yet measured for this president. Fifty-six percent (56%) now disapprove of his performance.

There could be many reasons why his performance numbers continue to plummet, but this could be a big one: the president approved of more drilling just months before a major oil disaster happened in the gulf. Oooops.
Oh, and it gets worse for Mr. Obama. It seems that he was the biggest recipient of BP cash before it happened. According to Open Secrets:

During the 2008 election cycle, individuals and political action committees associated with BP -- a Center for Responsive Politics' "heavy hitter" -- contributed half a million dollars to federal candidates. About 40 percent of these donations went to Democrats. The top recipient of BP-related donations during the 2008 cycle was President Barack Obama himself, who collected $71,000.

You have to hand it to Open Secrets. They are normally associated with exposing financial connections between Republicans and corporations. But they were completely up front about who was taking in money They even give a complete break down here:

Senate	Obama, Barack	$71,051
Senate	McCain, John	$36,649
Senate	Landrieu, Mary L	$16,200
Senate	Stevens, Ted	$10,150
Senate	Begich, Mark	$8,550

Those are the top five. Note that number one is Barack. Number 3 is the representative from the state where oil is coming up on their shore.
Is it any wonder that Barack's numbers are declining? Some democratic regular voters are finally figuring Barack out. It took long enough.