So CNN interviewed a salty old guy in Louisiana who was saying that Obama has

[gateley]

done 'zilch' and that less has been done than was done after Katrina. Obviously, he's anti-Obama, but my question is -- is that a sentiment that's widely shared in that area?

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[TriMera]

2. Most likely.

It's a very politically conservative area. However, in their defense, they have been waiting for 2 months. I imagine it is very frustrating.

[City Lights]

4. Waiting for what for 2 months?

:shrug:

I'm still confused as to what these people want. They blame Obama for BP's gusher, and yet they still want drilling to continue. Elected Republicans in Congress are siding with BP against those living in the Gulf, accusing Obama of a BP "shakedown." What, exactly, do they expect Obama to do?

[TriMera]

10. First of all

you need to figure out what people you're talking about. I'm talking about the people in the Gulf, not the politicians that "represent" them. Also, make no mistake, I am not putting this all on the President.

[City Lights]

13. I'm talking about people like the "salty old guy" referenced in the OP.

What do people like him want?

[aquart]

19. They want their lives back.

They want to be able to continue working in the businesses they inherited from their father or grandfather. They want not to breathe poisonous air. They want to be assured the land they own isn't poisoned forever.

They want to hear that the fouled wetlands that protect them from the force of hurricanes will be restored before their houses are destroyed.

They want to know that they will not be reduced to handouts and beggary when they have worked hard all their lives.

Is it clearer now?

[SoCalDem]

24. Sadly, they want what they cannot have

They spent too much time, and too many years letting republicans sell them out, and now the lax regulations have ruined their lives. I understand why they are angry, but they are also delusional..

[gateley]

6. My heart goes out to them - I can only imagine the frustration and fear they

are experiencing.

The reason for my question is I've heard others who you can tell begrudgingly admit that Obama has helped (and they seem surprised!), so this one stood out.

[Name removed]

29. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

36. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Uzybone]

37. I somewhat agree, I don't feel sorry for the conservatives

this is life as they have wished it. No regulations, capitalism run amuck and little government oversight.

The chickens come home to roost.

[sinkingfeeling]

7. What have they been waiting for? The US government has been involved with this since day one.

There were folks right here on DU demanding to know when FEMA was showing up. None of them could answer why FEMA should be there or what they should be doing.

[Mimosa]

14. What have the Feds done for those people left without jobs or customers for businesses?

The burden is on the accusers, I see that on DU posts all the time.

I guess a whole lot of people here are financially secure. many don't understand the majority of people on the Gulf Coast are self-employed since government subsidised big business off-shoring low to medium skilled manufacturing jobs.

Self employed people cannot get unemployment funds afaik. So when their work suddenly disappears what are they to do?

They beg for relief from their mortgage holders. They go to food banks for food.

Tell me what do the feds do for self-employed independent contractors when their work disappears? It happened to my partner and i after katrina. The deds did nothing for us but a tiny SBA loan which covered our expenses for 1 month. We are still repaying it!

I'd really like to know what federal help there is for the fishermen, charter boat owners, convenience store operators and employees now laid off How about the restaunters and their cooks and waiters? Independent truckers who drove seafood inland? Seafood processors? I bet they would like to know what help is available too.

[sinkingfeeling]

17. The Disaster Unemployment Assistance should help. Declared disaster on April 30.

Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA) is a special program that provides unemployment benefits to eligible workers and self-employed individuals who've become unemployed or can't work, as a direct result of a major natural disaster. Qualifying disasters include severe storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, straight-line winds, mudslides, earthquakes and tsunamis (tidal waves).

http://employeeissues.com/dua.htm

[Lost4words]

22. Should have been used on December 12th 2000

although that was a man made disaster.

[Lost4words]

23. wrong place sorry

[NoPasaran]

3. I wonder what name he uses on DU

[gateley]

8. ...

:spank: :rofl:

[Enrique]

5. here's a good article on public opinion

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100615/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_ap_poll_obama_oil_spill

(...)

Disapproval of Obama's handling of the environmental crisis is similar to the percentage of Americans frustrated with Bush's handling of Katrina — even though in this case, people have an entity other than the White House to blame. In November 2005, two months after the hurricane hit, an AP-Ipsos poll found 53 percent disapproved of the job Bush was doing on hurricane recovery. And his overall approval rating suffered some, sliding to 37 percent.

"I'd say Obama is doing a better job than Bush, but not by much," said Cassie Carter, 28, of Nauvoo, Ala., which is about three hours from the Gulf coast.

"People are still dealing with Katrina stuff," said Carter, a Democrat. "It took Bush forever to get those people any kind of help. Obama has recognized this is happening and tried to make the oil companies get on top of it. But he should have given them a time limit and if they didn't do it, he should have stepped in."

Still, people don't have the type of emotional response to the oil disaster that they did to the hurricane; 32 percent say they feel strongly shameful about what has occurred since the rig explosion. That's compared with 40 percent who felt that way after the debilitating hurricane that killed at least 1,800 and left countless others homeless, many poor and black

(...)

[gateley]

9. Interesting - thanks! nt

[Cleita]

11. I'm disappointed that Obama isn't seizing the opportunity to win over

those red state good old boys. Getting that money from BP that will benefit them in the future and it's a good first move. Now he's got to go in and make sure that they understand it's him and the Democratic White House, and not Bobby Jindal or Haley Barbour that's going to take care of them in the future.

[Mimosa]

16. Cleita, as a Katrina survivor I can tell you nobody 'took care of us.'

If my partner hadn't been able to scrounge for work, if we hadn't charged ourselves into big debt, there were no Federal programs to help us (self-employed)after Katrina took away our work.

It's the same today. The self-employed -from advertising related businesses to waiters- are left high and dry. Most people on DU seem clueless about what happens after a catastrophe because it's never happened to them first hand. They imagine there is 'help' from the government. There is only if you were connected to the welfare system, receiving benefits before, or if you were 'employed' and can file for unemployment and foodstamps. If not you're on your own.

That can be a good strengthening thing IF you survive. But the safety net is porous.

[Cleita]

20. Katrina was under Bush. I'm hoping once the bureaucracy gets in place to

help the people ruined by this disaster, that you won't have the same experience.

[Uzybone]

38. Dream on...as long as he is a black man

the good ol boys aren't gonna support him.

Let him and govt just do what is right. We aren't getting the conservative white vote in the deep south for decades.

[polichick]

12. I've heard countless people on NPR and msnbc guests say that clean-up is chaotic...

...and they're not getting what they need, either in terms of skimming offshore or clean-up onshore. They all seem to think the gov't doesn't get it - that they trust BP too much.

Obama has never been popular there, though I did meet a very old black woman in New Orleans who wanted a campaign button back in 2008. We sent her some.

[gateley]

21. It's understandable that there's chaos, and it's difficult to really "get" anything

until we experience it ourselves.

That being said, I think there has been more than enough proof that the clean up just isn't happening. It's gone on too long and even I'm frustrated and angry way up here in Seattle. I don't understand why we don't take that over - we can DO that, as opposed to working on diverting the oil.

I don't think Obama trusts BP at ALL any more, which is why this puzzles me even more.

[polichick]

34. I'm puzzled too - according to guests on msnbc with orgs. that have tried to provide...

...respirators for clean-up workers, BP is telling them they'll be fired if they wear that kind of protection.

The U.S. should've taken over clean-up way back in early May.

[FLPanhandle]

15. I would say the feeling here is that Obama has done "zilch"

When your own county has to defy BP and the government to put in place a decent oil prevention and cleanup plan, when people are losing their businesses without any compensation, when efforts are actively held up by the government, then, yes, I've seen little to nothing on the ground I can praise him for.

The first and only thing tangible is getting the dispersement of money out of BP's control and that took until now.

[Mimosa]

18. FLPanhandle, imagine what could be done if our military wasn't in the middle east.

And if we weren't spending billions we don't have in Afghanistan and iraq. When our own people need help we're too broke! *grr*

[Lost4words]

26. what could a killing force do in the gulf. Gun down escaping dolphins?

[Catherina]

28. Clean up. Lay booms, pick up booms, save birds

The military can do almost anything.

It's not a killing force according to neoliberals remember? It's a humanitarian force that we send all over the world for humanitarian purposes.

[Lost4words]

31. Oh yea I forgot, Remember David Motari? Puppy cliff tosser?

we have a world we need to dominate, we cant spare troops green activities.

[gateley]

+1

[gateley]

25. I can understand the time it took to get the money agreement, we had more

ammo the more proof we acquired. I think if we just made the demand without the backup, they'd have told us to fuck off. This is HUGE that Obama was able to get them to agree to this and the other stipulations. Those in the know said a payment like this up front (relatively speaking) is unheard of.

I don't understand why we haven't taken over the clean up. If WE know that BP just hires 'extras' for Presidential visit photo ops, that there are miles of beach where there's not a boom or a worker in sight, that the workers are prohibited from talking to the press, then certainly the WH knows. I firmly believe that Obama doesn't trust BP at all any more, so I honestly am flummoxed as to why we're not in charge of the clean up.

[FLPanhandle]

30. The really sad thing is we'd do better on our own.

The fact is that BP and the Government actively try to delay activities. It's not that we have bad ideas either. A BP rep or CG rep coming here for 1/2 day and determining our plans is negligent, people here know these waters/tides/inlets/waves better than these guys will ever know. EVENTUALLY our plans get approved but only after huge delays. Delays we can't afford.

Right now, until they have something constructive to add to the situation, we are better off without any government or BP reps in the way.

[gateley]

33. How maddening! Just give you people the protective gear and send you out,

and pay you! You guys care and as you said, you KNOW the waters. I wonder if it's some type of liability problem (it's always the $$$) or if something happened, the administration would be blamed (...and, it's always the politics).

There's nothing we can do to hurry up stopping the spillage, I'm convinced they're doing all they can. Why on earth don't we take on what we can affect? :grr:

I can't imagine how angry I'd be if some government/corporate know-nothings prohibited me from trying to save MY land and water! :hug:

[riskpeace]

27. Yes

We are 58 days after Day One, and oil will hit Panama City Beach, FL in a day or two. There is absolutely no protection today for the beach and none being implemented. There are no berms and not one skimmer in sight. There is one layer of booms in St. Andrew's pass to protect the entrance to St. Andrew's, North, East and West Bays.

[FLPanhandle]

32. Are you trying what Okaloosa is going with

In addition to standard oil absorbent boom, Okaloosa County Commissioners have approved plans to build a large foam-filled pipe, similar to the one under construction in Alabama's Perdido Pass. They have also adopted a strategy of lining up barges along the pass to form a solid barrier against approaching oil, similar to a contingency plan developed by the town of Magnolia Springs, Alabama to protect Weeks Bay.

Anything is better than a single line of booms that BP/Government propose.

[riskpeace]

40. I have not heard about BayCounty doing that.

The Bay County EOC head was quoted today that the oil is out there and it's just a matter of time and physics before it's here. Sad times for sure.

“It’s time to make sure our citizens are aware that they’re going to see (oil) product,” he said. “And to make sure people are grounded in that, as long as the release of oil continues, there is no measure of prevention that is going to be able to mitigate this — that’s simple physics.

“We are going to deploy the absolute maximum that we can but, inevitably, we’re going to see some of it on the beach.”

http://www.newsherald.com/news/ready-84707-city-county.html

[limit18]

35. 100% locals and 90% Americans support the salty old guy!

[Uzybone]

39. read this

dailykos/index+" target="_blank">http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/6/15/876174/-Lou... (Daily+Kos)

"The first thing you see in the cross-tabs is that attitudes towards the response are sharply split along racial lines. While 75% of whites disapprove of Obama's response, 82% of African-Americans approve.

This is largely reflective of Obama's overall job approval ratings (71% disapproval among whites, 90% approval among blacks). As with the country at large, Obama's approval on the spill is a bit worse than his approval overall, but the gap is fairly narrow.

The racial divide is not unique to Obama or the BP spill. On the response to Katrina, Bush's approve/disapprove rating was 41%/50% among whites and a staggering 6%/90% among blacks.