The Gulf Oil Spill day 54

To start this blog I wish to address the Gulf Oil Spill (though technically its not a spill more on that later) and the complete ineptitude of our current administration. On 20 April 2010 the Deep Water Horizon drilling rig had an explosion which resulted in the loss of eleven lives and started the most horrific man made ecological disaster in the history of our country. After 54 days we still have oil spewing out of a pipe 5,000 feet below the surface with no end in sight. Local governments are unable to respond to the immediate threat because the federal government must approve every action prior to implementation.

The federal government is unwilling to accept help offered by at least 13 nations with experience in dealing with sort of catastrophe. The Jones Act of 1920 ( also know as the Merchant Marine Act of 1920) was instituted to regulate maritime commerce in U.S. waters and between U.S. port outlaws use of foreign flagged or owned vessels between U.S. ports and demands 75% of crew members to be U.S. citizens. This protectionist law is hampering clean up efforts since most skimmers and recovery vessels that have been offered are not U.S. owned or flagged. While the Jones Act has been waived before in times of crisis (most recently during the aftermath of hurricane Katrina)

the Obama administration has been unwilling to up to the time of this writing. It has been reported that Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom all offered assistance within two weeks of the rig explosion.

Maybe Mr. Obama should quit looking for someone's ass to kick and start listening to some people who have actual experience with this issue. He has yet to even talk with the BP leadership almost two months into the disaster. This is a glaring example of an inexperienced and sophomoric view, the inability to own the situation and deal with it instead of trying to pin blame for it. It is unfortunate that your vacation and spring concert series may be interrupted but this is the JOB you ran for to, LEAD the country and the government. Perhaps Mr. Obama you don't have the knowledge base or the intestinal fortitude to handle this position and you should step down and let someone who actually has had a job try to clean up your mess. If you can't do the right thing then at least allow others to do it.