06-14-2010, 09:52 AM
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#379 (permalink)
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Super Moderator
Location: essex ma
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c'mon gg--the thread's not that bad.
the magnitude of this seems to be a variable, yes? as aspects clarify or grow so do the adjectives. it's not surprising that a uk paper would be a little bent about this....
Quote:
Barack Obama compares oil spill to 9/11
President's comments on impact of BP oil spill are ridiculous and off-base, say relatives of World Trade Centre victims
* Jenny Percival
* guardian.co.uk, Monday 14 June 2010 18.00 BST
Barack Obama today risked the wrath of September 11 victim's families by comparing the BP oil spill to the 2001 terrorist attacks, as pressure intensified on the White House to show greater urgency over the crisis.
Ahead of a trip to Louisiana and his first televised address to the nation tomorrow, Obama said the spill – the worst environmental disaster in US history – would, like the 2001 terror attacks, continue to influence the country for decades to come.
"In the same way that our view of our vulnerabilities and our foreign policy was shaped profoundly by 9/11, I think this disaster is going to shape how we think about the environment and energy for many years to come," he told the US political website Politico.
Some people who lost relatives in the attacks criticised Obama's decision to compare an environmental disaster with a terror plot in which almost 3,000 people died. "He's off-base," said former New York fire department deputy chief Jim Riches, whose son died at the World Trade Centre. "These were terrorist attacks, not something caused by people trying to make money."
Jack Lynch, whose firefighter son Michael was killed in 2001, said: "To compare an environmental accident, if that's what you call it, to a premeditated terrorist attack is ridiculous. Politicians have no sense of reality."
Sally Regenhard, however, who also lost a son, said she could see some validity to the comparisons.
"Just like on 9/11, there were no plans for emergency preparedness, co-ordination of response," she said. "It's a failure of the system and the government. I'm not offended by the comment."
Protagonists in the oil spill disaster face a crucial week. Amid criticism that he has failed to show enough personal leadership, Obama is embarking on his fourth visit to the Gulf of Mexico and will spend two days visiting other states affected by the crisis – Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. The president will address the US in a prime-time televised speech from the White House on the oil spill . On Wednesday, he is due to hold a crucial meeting with BP executives.
In the Politico interview, Obama vowed to "move forward in a bold way in a direction that finally gives us the kind of future-oriented, visionary energy policy we so vitally need and has been absent for so long". "One of the biggest leadership challenges for me is going to be to make sure we draw the right lessons from this disaster."
Obama said he could not predict whether the US would make a complete transition from an oil-based economy within his lifetime. "Now is the time for us to start making that transition and investing in a new way of doing business when it comes to energy," he said.
"I have no idea what new energy sources are going to be available, what technologies might drive down the price of renewable energies. What we can predict is that the availability of fossil fuel is going to be diminishing; that it's going to get more expensive to recover; that there are going to be environmental costs that our children … our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren are going to have to bear."
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Barack Obama compares oil spill to 9/11 | Environment | guardian.co.uk
and this is a link to the interview obama did with politico:
EXCLUSIVE: Obama talks oil spill, frustration and 2012 - Roger Simon - POLITICO.com
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
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