Speech! Speech!
17th June 2010
Jerry Pournelle sums up the President’s speech.
The Speech from the Oval Office didn’t plug the hole. Apparently the teleprompter wasn’t up to the job. The boot on the neck is still in place, and BP will put $20 billion into a kitty to be administered by Obama’s cronies. There will be another commission of people who have no experience in oil production engineering. Months will go past. More oil will flow into the Gulf.
It’s not the end of the world. It’s a terrible oil spill, a financial disaster for the people of the Gulf Coast, and the harbinger of several bad years for the wildlife in parts of the Gulf. It’s a good illustration of the limits of government power. It’s a good illustration of the inevitable problems of electing a president who has no executive experience. It’s not the end of the world.
The Congress is the Grand Inquest of the Nation. If there’s to be a commission to investigate the causes of the runaway oil gusher with a view to preventing them in future (and to aiding in development of cleanup technology) – and there should be such a commission — it should be given the usual investigatory powers, and should be technically competent, not a partisan witch hunt. I suspect the best comment here is ‘Good luck with that.’