I'm going to make a chilling and bold statement.
I think you'd better sit down....
Obama is working in cahoots with BP. I know it's a real shocker that someone would accuse a modern president of being so chummy chummy with a heavily subsidized industry which uses much of that subsidization to fill-to-overflowing the coffers of election campaigns. But it becomes painfully obvious once you start to notice how often this administration (as all the other modern administrations would have- I'm not here to hate on Obama, nor do I grade my politicians on a curve) treats the oil which is lost and floating in the ocean as "BP's Oil."
The Coast Guard is making sure that no vessels are getting near it. 125 commercial fishing boats which were retrofitted with oil collection equipment were recalled after 4 members on 3 of the 125 ships reported feeling ill.
Three.... Of the one hundred and twenty five ships.
(3).
It's as if BP's "brain trust" said to themselves: "..... ..... ...... .......... Hey! Wait a second!"
As the USCG is quick to point out, "These are BP's rules, not ours"
The proper response to all this would have been for the president to have invoked that ancient bit of English Common Law- better known as "Finders keepers, losers weepers" from day one of this mess.
A qualified president would have encouraged anyone willing to assume the risk of oil collection to get out on the gulf and collect their treasure, to be sold at current market value.
It's more than just an old adage that "necessity is the mother of invention", it is absolutely axiomatic. The technology already exists for oil collection and water removal. Could you imagine the technological advancement when thousands of newly-unemployed fishermen are suddenly (and quite desperately) figuring out the best ways to collect the most amount of oil, with the least amount of work, and in the least amount of space?
A qualified administration would not leash state and local governments, and citizens groups from acting on their own without prior authorization. The people who will be most affected by this mess should not have to ask permission to protect themselves.
A qualified administration would be pushing for an end to corporate subsidies of this inherently profitable business, and for removing all liability caps from future royal @#$%ups.
A qualified administration would know that subsidies create malinvestment, and add to the severity of the boom/bust cycle. A qualified administration would know that the collective "ass that [he] needs to kick" is attached to the company which receives the corporate welfare checks.
But, then again, this assumes that America knows what a qualified President is. We haven't had a qualified POTUS in nearly a century.
Woops.
