this is why everyone hates americans.

remember in april how obama was all like "i'm reversing the ban on oil drilling off U.S. shores!! hurray for me!"

obama said then: "this is not a decision i've made lightly." he said that he was responding to not just the need for more oil, but the desire for it. americans don't really need as much oil as they think they do, they just want more.

obama said it would produce more jobs and keep american businesses competitive.

he said lifting the ban was part of a bigger plan to expand nuclear power and "clean energy sources".

yeah, then there was a huge deep water offshore drilling catastrophe. a spill that is still spilling. and now we all know what "clean energy" is because we can see it being scrubbed off of flailing herons with tiny little toothbrushes.

it took obama a year in office to make the decision to lift the ban. will it take a year for him to actually do something about the consequences of such decisions? as guest blogger C pointed out in this post, the oil is still spilling--more oil than we can even imagine. and BP is quietly collecting that shit("recovering", which means preparing for sale).

thankfully, some people in the government weren't just staring into space doing nothing for the past month. in may, the u.s interior secretary kenneth salazar imposed a moratorium on oil and gas exploration in waters more than 500 feet deep.

this is a pretty decent step i think.

but now, the evil gas and oil industry is suing salazar!! hornbeck offshore services inc and a few other service and supply companies not only sued salazar last week, they also sued the head of the minerals management service, and both federal agencies. they're asking that the ban be lifted post-haste!

hornbeck and the other companies are saying that they will suffer "irreparable economic harm" if the moratorium isn't lifted.

this is where i think obama should step in. i mean, i understand that he can't stop the lawsuit, but shouldn't he step up and give a speech about how we shouldn't put the economy in front of the environment? and how big oil and gas companies should just step off for a little bit??

isn't it just a tiny bit shocking that there are people(lawyers) out there who are actually like "oh boy, this is a good opportunity to benefit from disaster!" and then they give eachother high fives and kill an endangered bird for fun?

today obama had a meeting with BP executives and he emerged saying that BP agreed to set aside 20 billion dollars "to pay economic damage claims to people and businesses that have been affected by the oil spill."

what about the fucking ENVIRONMENT, you assholes?! what about how BP is responsible for this catastrophe?!

look at these jerks, in their stupid meeting, with place cards and glasses of water. there shouldn't be meetings. there should be TRIALS. is obama playing footsies under the table with them? seriously.

like what the fuck world?? obama, punish BP. make an example of them!!!! because as long as you're dithering about how to deal with this, greedy freaks are taking advantage of your complete lack of leadership and transparent subservience to the corporate lobby.