Browner Says Oil Spill Worst Ever

In an interview with ABC, Carol Browner, assistant to POTUS for energy and climate change, says the administration is doing everything it can on day 36 to stop the oil leak. The top minds are on the job, including Energy Secretary Steven Chu. The next attempt to stop the leak, called "top kill," comes tomorrow (or later). Browner says that some of the things that Bobby Jindal is asking for would take six to nine months to put into place and the administration is focused on NOW. Could Jindal be using the cover of a crisis to get free government services? Watch the interview here.

Republicans Say They Have a Revolutionary New Tool

The Internet.
At AmericaSpeakingOut.com you can have a debate, says Representative Kevin McCarthy, a republican from California. You can submit an idea. Wow! That's revolutionary! No one has ever started a website for those purposes. I couldn't get the site up this morning. Morning Joe probably crashed their revolutionary servers.

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Obama Heads to San Francisco May 25

Obama will meet with his advisers in Tuesday morning.
At 11:15 am eastern (all times are eastern), Obama hosts small business owners and will speak on jobs.
At 12:05 pm, Obama will meet with Senate republicans.
At 2 pm, Obama will meet with the President of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano.
At 3:15 pm, Obama heads to San Francisco.
At 9 pm eastern, Obama will speak at a fundraiser for Barbara Boxer and at 10:50 pm, he'l attend a reception for Boxer and the DSCC.

On Wednesday, May 26, Obama heads to Fremont, where he'll visit Solyndra.

Meanwhile, On Tuesday at WhiteHouse.gov, there will be a live stream of the presidential task force on Puerto Rico, which starts at 1 pm.

Thad Allen's Interview with PBS

It's interesting that 35 days ago people were screaming for smaller government, spouting off about how business handles everything better. Now that business is failing, everyone wants the government to stop the oil spill single handedly.

It's also interesting that we pollute our ocean each and every day, but no one cares about that, not until oil rolls up in balls on our shores.

See Allen's press briefing at the White House today here.

Watch video of preparations for the next attempt on Wednesday at stopping the leak. More videos at NOLA:

White House Press Briefing on Oil Spill With Thad Allen

Obama speaking to gulf coast Govs. Jindal, Barbour, Riley, and Crist, this morning. WH statement on the call:

The President reiterated the Administration’s sense of urgency for dealing with the oil spill, assured the governors that the federal government is bringing the best science and expertise to the table and underscored his commitment to continuing our strong collaboration with the state and local governments. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano, Rear Admiral Neffinger, EPA Administrator Jackson and Commerce Department Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Oceans and Atmosphere Monica Medina provided the regular daily briefing on operations, leak stabilization, environmental impact and oil trajectories.

For all the local coverage of the oil spill, visit NOLA. Here's a transcript of the press briefing with Thad Allen and Carol Browner, assistant to POTUS on energy and climate change.

MR. GIBBS: Good afternoon. As we get started today we're going to hear from a couple of different people that are working on the administration’s response to the oil spill in the Gulf. First you’ll hear from Admiral Allen, and then we'll be happy to take your questions.

I will say as a point of introduction, though he rarely needs an introduction, he would normally be in Louisiana were it not for today. His vice commandant is retiring. Tomorrow he is leaving the command of the Coast Guard. But the President and the Secretary of Homeland Security have asked him to delay his retirement and continue to serve as the National Incident Commander for the spill in the Gulf.

So let me turn this over to Admiral Allen.

ADMIRAL ALLEN: Thank you very much. Thanks for the opportunity to talk with you here today. I thought I might start out by giving you a little background on the command-and-control system and how oil spills work. But first let me premise -- I would underscore what he said -- I’d much rather be down in Louisiana, the Gulf Coast, dealing with this problem down there because I know it’s of concern to everybody. And as somebody who has worked on the water all his life, nothing is more disturbing than oil on any water in our country.

The current paradigm for responding to oil spills really dates back to the legislation that was passed after the Exxon Valdez, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. It mandated a paradigm by which the responsible party or the spiller would be held accountable. It also created a oil spill liability trust fund to fund responses where there was no responsible party, or to fund operations and have those funds recouped from the responsible party.

It’s premised on the country being divided up into areas for the purpose of developing contingency plans. And we have these areas called captain of the port zones; those are the Coast Guard commanders that are responsible for that area. They get together with the state and local stakeholders and they develop plans to protect the most sensitive areas within those areas, and they’re called area contingency plans. There is one for every single part of the coastline of the United States. There is one that covers the Gulf Coast as well.

When they have to activate a response, the local Coast Guard commander who is designated the federal on-scene coordinator coordinates with the state and local government and directs the responsible party in the cleanup. If the spill was inland, EPA would be the federal on-scene coordinator. The Coast Guard and EPA share that.

This entire framework is called the national contingency plan, and it is how we have prosecuted oil spills ever since the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. That is the way we have been prosecuting this case since the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon on the 20th of April. Even in advance of the sinking of the drilling unit, we were staging equipment that was against the scenario we would have a worst-case spill. And we started actually mobilizing equipment, salvage engineers and everything right after the event happened into the 21st of April.

So the command-and-control structure down there right now is the commanding officer of the Coast Guard in New Orleans is the federal on-scene coordinator for the response. We have elevated that responsibility to Mary Landry. She is in Robert, Louisiana, and she is called an area unified commander. That’s when you take one or more of these zones or these areas and you combine them under a larger command.

So we have a single command in the Gulf. The commander is Rear Admiral Mary Landry. She is supervising subsections. One is New Orleans. The other one is over in Mobile, and Mobile covers Mississippi, Alabama, and the western portion of Florida. There is another command at St. Petersburg, and another one in Key West and around up the East Coast. At this point, they all, for the purpose of this response, report to the area command in Robert, Louisiana.

At a higher level we have what we call a regional response team. Those are all the federal players that have responsibilities for an oil spill response. It would be Department of Interior, EPA, Coast Guard, NOAA. And they look at resource requirements across a regional area. Let’s say if you had a decision of where to put boom between Mississippi, Alabama, or Louisiana, they would coordinate with the regional response team.

If something gets large enough where there’s a national issue about how much boom is in the entire country or where to move dispersants, it would come up to the national response team. And the national response team is the same players, except in Washington in the interagency. So, for instance, the Coast Guard is on the national response team. We co-chair it with EPA -- NOAA, Commerce, DOI, and so forth. So there’s a way to bring up resource issues or policy issues that cannot be resolved at the lowest level, and work those all the way up the chain.

There is also the allowance in the national contingency plan that if the resource adjudication process or the coordination becomes complicated -- and it’s complicated in this place -- in this case -- that the President has the option of declaring something called a spill of national significance. Again, this is contained in the national contingency plan, and also have the option to designate a national incident commander, which the President and Secretary Napolitano have designated me.

Now, this is not a policy. This is a command-and-control structure. It’s actually contained in the code of federal regulations that implement the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. So when you hear us talk about responsible party, or the
federal on-scene coordinator, we’re actually talking about legal definitions that are derived from statute -- the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 -- that are contained in 40 CFR 300.

So there are actual clear definitions, and I think sometimes we’re losing the distinction of what a responsible party or federal on-scene coordinator are. And we’d be glad to go through and answer questions related to the spill response, especially as it relates to BP’s role as a responsible party and the roles of the federal on-scene coordinator.

Would you like me to add anything else, or would you like to --

MR. GIBBS: That's a good intro. We’ll start with Mr. Feller.

Q Thank you. Thanks for being here, Admiral. Let me start on that point about who’s in charge and the quality of the response so far. Secretary Salazar said yesterday, referring to BP, “If we find that they’re not doing what they’re supposed to be doing, we’ll push them out of the way appropriately.” What does that mean, “push them out of the way”? What more could be done?

ADMIRAL ALLEN: Well, I would say that's more of a metaphor. What we need to make sure is they execute their responsibilities, the responsible party, and we carry out our responsibilities and be accountable as the federal on-scene coordinators. This is what we do, is if something is going -- if BP is applying resources, there is an operation being conducted, and we want it to be done some other way, they’re issued an order by the federal on-scene coordinator, and they comply. And there have been adjustments made all the way along. And if I need to, I call Tony Hayward myself. They’re the responsible party, but we have the authority to direct.

This segment is informative:

Q Is there -- to this point, though, whether the government can do more, can it push BP out of the way if it feels like that company is not doing the job? What is your response to that?

ADMIRAL ALLEN: Well, to push BP out of the way would raise the question to replace them with what?

Q Do you think that this government right now is doing the best it can?

ADMIRAL ALLEN: I’ve been involved with the technical decisions made, especially in relation to deal with the leak, and they are pressing ahead. We are overseeing them. They're exhausting every technical means possible to deal with that leak.

Q Is there a solution?

ADMIRAL ALLEN: There are a number of solutions and they're doing them in sequence based on risk. The ultimate solution is going to be to drill a relief well, take the pressure off that well and cap it. That will be sometime in August. We don't want to wait that long. So we’re trying a series of interventions, starting with the insertion tube to evacuate the oil that we can, the top kill shot that will be scheduled for I believe early Wednesday now to try and force mud down the blowout preventer into the well to stop the pressure so it can be sealed.

There’s a series of events. They're trying the least risky ones first and moving on down. But we cannot stop. We’ve got to try every means at our -- every means that we can to stop this leak.

Obama will speak with the press on Thursday:

MR. GIBBS: Let me just add from the President’s perspective for this, Scott. As you heard the Admiral say, the President’s viewpoint is failsafe has to mean that. And if it doesn’t, then we have to examine why it doesn’t and the circumstances around that and have that impact our decisions going forward.

In terms of the reviews that the government is looking through to look back at what got us to this point, we have the President’s instruction for Secretary Salazar and the Department of Interior to report back to him. That will be Thursday. Thursday, the President will receive that report here at the White House.

There is a separate national engineering report on this incident. And as you know, the President set up an independent commission headed by a former EPA commissioner and a former U.S. senator from Florida that will be charged with looked at both the role of industry and the role of government in regulating industry. And the President I think has been very clear that we should not spare any expense in looking at both of those aspects of what may or may not have caused this.

Q I’m sorry, a question for you and also the Admiral. The President is receiving this report Thursday. Should we expect the President to respond to it immediately in some fashion?

MR. GIBBS: I expect that the President will speak to you all about it and answer some questions about it, yes.

The Obamas Host Concert June 2 Honoring McCartney

From the White House:

On Wednesday, June 2nd, the President and First Lady will host a concert in the East Room honoring Paul McCartney, who will be awarded the 3rd Gershwin Prize for Popular Song from the Library of Congress. President Obama will present the award as he did last year when the Library of Congress honored Stevie Wonder. The concert will be broadcast on PBS stations nationwide on Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at 8:00 PM EDT (check local listings) as “In Performance at the White House Celebrating the Music of Paul McCartney: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize.”

The prize commemorates George and Ira Gershwin, the legendary American songwriting team whose extensive manuscript collections reside in the Library of Congress. The prize is awarded to musicians whose lifetime contributions in the field of popular song exemplify the standard of excellence associated with the Gershwins.

Obama In Chicago for Weekend Memorial Day Ceremony

Update May 25: Obama will leave Friday for the Gulf:

On Friday morning, May 28, President Barack Obama will travel from Chicago to the Louisiana Gulf Coast to assess the latest efforts to counter the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The administration has mobilized one of the largest responses to a catastrophic event in history, with more than 1,200 vessels in the region and more than 22,000 people, including many of the brightest scientific minds from both the public and private sector, working around the clock to mitigate the oil’s impact.

Update: There's sweeping judgement going around, by people with nothing better to do than criticize the president, that Obama should be at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day, not Biden. Well, folks, Ronald Reagan had a deputy defense secretary lay the wreath at Arlington. And it's not like he's blowing off the whole day. He's going to the Lincoln National Cemetery.

There is such nonsense out there, such ignorance, that it's a wonder our society functions at all.

And perhaps, Obama would like to spend some quality time with his children and friends in Chicago for two days. It's well deserved.

Obama will speak at 12:45 pm eastern. From the White House:

On Thursday, May 27, President Barack Obama and his family will travel to Chicago, where they will spend the weekend. On Monday, the President will participate in a Memorial Day ceremony at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, Illinois.

Also on Monday, the Vice President and Dr. Jill Biden will host a breakfast for Gold Star Families at the White House. Afterwards, the Vice President and Dr. Biden will participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.

Obama first spoke at the Lincoln National Cemetery in 2005. Read that speech here. An excerpt:

What led these men and women to wear their country's uniform?

What is it that leads anyone to put aside their own pursuit of happiness; to subordinate their own sense of survival, for something larger - something greater?

Behind each stone is one of these stories; a personal journey that eventually led to the decision to fight for one's country and defend the freedoms we enjoy. Most of the Americans who rest here were like my grandfather, a WWII vet who volunteered after Pearl Harbor, fought in Patton's Army, but was lucky enough to came back in one piece, and went on to live well into his twilight years.

My grandfather never boasted about it. He treated the fact that he served in the military like it was only a matter of fact.

White House and Gay Rights Activists Discuss Stepping up DADT Repeal

A proposal to step up the repeal of the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military but still allow the Pentagon time — perhaps even years — to implement new policies was being discussed Monday by administration officials and gay rights activists.
The White House had hoped lawmakers would delay action until Pentagon officials had completed their study so fellow Democrats would not face criticism that they moved too quickly or too far ahead of public opinion in this election year. Instead, administration officials now expect Congress to move ahead this week even though advocates on both sides say it's not clear there are enough votes to lift the 1993 ban. Read more at NOLA

Republicans promised opposition, which is nothing new:

On Capitol Hill, the third-ranking House Republican promised unified GOP opposition to lifting the ban. "The American people don't want the American military to be used to advance a liberal political agenda. And House Republicans will stand on that principle," said Mike Pence, R-Ind.
Pence urged Democrats who control both chambers to wait until the Pentagon completes its review of what a repeal would take.

Oil Agency Ignored Environment to Speed Drilling

"It's a war between the biologists and the engineers," said Thomas A. Campbell, who served as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's general counsel under George H.W. Bush. "They just have a very different worldview, and sometimes the engineers simply don't listen to the biologists."

MMS officials in both Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico have instructed agency scientists to avoid triggering environmental reviews that would delay drilling. Read more at WaPo

This is precisely why libertarian philosophy doesn't fit reality.

Obama's Remarks at AAPI Reception May 24

Obama hosted a reception at the White House tonight for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage month. He talks about the oil spill and immigration reform:

Tea Party is a Little Full of Itself

Now the tea party is set to make signs with Scott Brown wearing a mustache. Tea partiers say they put Brown in office and they can take him out. The tea party hitched themselves to the wrong candidate. Brown is more aligned with moderate republicans, such as Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe.

The tea party is already showing signs of being a flash in the pan. Anger will only take you so far and the media doesn't seem to be as hyped up on the tea party as it once was.

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Gibbs and Thad Allen Oil Spill Briefing Video

Update: Watch the video and read the transcript here.

Robert Gibbs will be joined by Thad Allen, the point man on the oil spill, at the daily press briefing. This is a live stream that's scheduled for 3 pm eastern time. See the rest of Obama's schedule today here.

A Model School: SEED

Obama visited SEED in 2009 to sign the National Service Act.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Financial Crisis of 2008 Led to Job Losses 2009

I've never seen this put so well:

The financial crisis of 2008 made it inevitable that unemployment would rise sharply through 2009. It also caused the budget deficit to skyrocket: Most voters, of course, don't follow these issues closely enough to gain a detailed understanding of cause and effect. They just tend to notice that unemployment and the budget deficit have risen while President Obama has held office.

Republicans have worked assiduously to blame these conditions on Obama's policies even though they were obviously caused by conditions he inherited. At the same time, they have worked relentlessly to create a social stigma around his efforts to push back. The result of this campaign can be seen in things like Politico's weekend article chastising Obama for blaming his predecessor: Read the rest at TNR

Obama can "blame" Bush, if that's what he's doing, so long as the republicans keep saying that the Obama administration is causing unemployment. Republicans know better. But they also know that most people don't know anything about recession cycles or economics.
The awful irony is that it really is like Obama says: republicans drove the car into the ditch and now they want the keys back.

Obama Speaks With Gulf Coast Governors May 24

This is Obama's schedule for May 24:
At 10:20 am eastern, Obama will attend a Federal Judge Association reception, then he'll meet with his advisors.
At 12 pm, Obama will be on a conference call with Gulf Coast governors.
At 2:30 pm, Obama welcomes Prime Minister Saad Hariri of Lebanon to the White House.
At 3 pm, during Robert Gibbs' press briefing, Thad Allen, the point man on the oil spill, will be at the briefing.
At 4 pm, Obama hosts a reception for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
At 4:30 pm, Obama meets with Robert Gates, defense secretary.

George Will Calls Rand Paul Frivolous

George Will calls Rand Paul "frivolous." Will said Paul doesn't understand that he's running for a Senate seat. He also said morality can be legislated, which was good to hear.

The people who supported Paul will continue to support him. But will the independent voters vote for him in the general election? It seems to me Americans are so frustrated with politicians that they're grasping at straws.

Cokie Roberts has it right, voters aren't anti-Washington, anti-democrat, anti-republican, or anti-Obama. They're looking for non-phonies, even if they're wacky, or ordinary, or in Sarah Palin's case, wacky, ordinary and ignorant.

Also, if the democrats were smart, they'd find a replacement for Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut Attorney General running for Senate. Is the pool so shallow that democrats can't even find someone with a bit of integrity?

Tim Kaine and Michael Steele

Salazar Says Team of All Stars on Oil Spill Duty

Ken Salazar says 1,000 vessels have been deployed to fight the oil and 22,000 people helping out. For factual information on the response to the oil spill, visit here.

Drill Baby Drill Herself Says Obama Too Close to Oil

Sarah Palin is an ignoramus. The fact that people listen Palin at all still astounds me.

Pointing to what she termed the White House's relationship with "the oil companies who have so supported President Obama in his campaign and are supportive of him now," Palin wondered aloud "if there's any connection there to President Obama taking so doggone long to get in there, to dive in there, and grasp the complexity and the potential tragedy that we are seeing here in the Gulf of Mexico."

McCain/Palin got twice as much as Obama and her musings are ludricous:

Gibbs said: "My suggestion to Sarah Palin would be to get slightly more informed as to what's going on in and around oil drilling in this country."

The oil and gas industry donated $2.4 million to Palin's running mate, Republican John McCain, in the 2008 election cycle, and nearly $900,000 to Obama, according to the Center for Responsive Politics' opensecrets.org website. LAT

Then she goes on to say something that doesn't even make sense. How would BP's oil spill been different if it was closer to the shore than offshore? Wouldn't the effects have been worse?

"Maybe this is a lesson too for those who oppose safe, domestic supplies being extracted on our shores and on the land," she said, citing regions in Alaska. "Let us drill there where it is even safer than way offshore."

Palin has been a longtime advocate of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which environmentalists say should remain protected.

How the story was framed by anti-Obama publication, Newsmax:

"I don't know why the question isn't asked by the mainstream media and by others if there's any connection with the contributions made to president Obama and his administration and the support by the oil companies to the administration," she told Fox News Sunday.

More than 3.5 million dollars has been given to candidates by BP over the last 20 years, with the largest single donation, 77,051 dollars, going to Obama, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Obama's Interview With Marv Albert Airs May 25

Updated May 25 with video:

From TNT:

TNT’s Marv Albert Interviews
The President shared his thoughts with Albert on what he would do if he were NBA Commissioner for a day, the future of LeBron James and the Phoenix Suns stand against the immigration law in Arizona, among other topics.
TNT play-by-play announcer and Basketball Hall of Fame broadcaster Marv Albert conducted an exclusive interview on the basketball court at the White House with President Barack Obama today to discuss basketball, politics and other topics. The interview will air on Tuesday, May 25, during NBA Tip-Off presented by AutoTrader.com, the network’s pre-game show beginning at 8 p.m. (ET), prior to TNT’s exclusive coverage of Game #4 of the Western Conference Finals between the Phoenix Suns @ Los Angeles Lakers at 9 p.m. (ET).
A sneak peek of the interview will air on NBA TV and NBA.com beginning on Sunday, May 23, and will appear that evening during TNT’s exclusive coverage of Game #3 of the NBA’s Western Conference Finals between the Lakers and Suns at 8:30 p.m. (ET).
The President shared his thoughts with Albert on his history and love of basketball, the future of LeBron James and the Phoenix Suns stand against the immigration law in Arizona, among other topics.
“We are very appreciative the President of the United States took time during the NBA’s Conference Finals to sit with Marv to discuss a variety of topics that relate to basketball, as well as national issues that have recently crossed into the sports landscape,” said David Levy, president of sales, distribution and sports, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
“It is clearly one of the highlights of my broadcasting career, and a great honor and privilege for me personally, to interview the President of the United States at the White House and talk NBA basketball with him,” said Albert.
Albert’s storied career includes more than 40 years of sports broadcasting experience. Currently in his 11th year with TNT, Albert is calling TNT’s exclusive coverage of the Western Conference Finals alongside analyst Doug Collins. In addition to his NBA on TNT duties, Albert also serves as the play-by-play announcer for Westwood One’s Monday Night Football radio coverage and is the voice of the New Jersey Nets on the YES Network. In 1997, Albert was awarded the Curt Gowdy Media Award by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Turner Sports, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., presents some of the best and most popular sporting events worldwide and is a leader in televised and online sports programming. With events airing on TBS ,TNT and truTV, Turner Sports’ line-up includes NASCAR and NASCAR.COM, the NBA, Major League Baseball, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, professional golf, PGATOUR.COM and PGA.com. Turner Sports and the NBA also jointly manage NBA Digital, which includes NBA TV, NBA.com, NBA LEAGUE PASS, NBA LEAGUE PASS Broadband, NBA Mobile, NBADLEAGUE.com and WNBA.com.
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company, creates and programs branded news, entertainment, animation and young adult media environments on television and other platforms for consumers around the world.

Everyone's a Critic But No One Can Stop the Oil Leak

Republicans have been running around all over the place saying the best government is a small government, that business handles everything better, yet now it's targeting the Obama administration, saying that it's not doing enough about the oil spill.

Republican Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana accuses democrats of creating "media events" instead of stopping the oil spill. I didn't know that a democrat could stop an oil spill.

What an arse. Politicians are so easy to read.

I don't think anyone understands the engineering behind the problem, except for BP, otherwise there would be a cap on the oil leaks because the leaking isn't making anyone look good. It will be a long-term nightmare for BP.

And since when did republicans care about oil spills? I've always heard that the economic benefits of offshore oil drilling outweigh the bad.

Scientists have been saying that BP needs to better measure how much oil is coming out before they can find a solution.

Everyone has got something to say but no one can figure out the answer. If Vitter wants to make himself useful, perhaps he should volunteer.
I think the Obama administration is doing everything it can. That may be naive, but Obama's administration actually cares about the environment. They probably jumped all over the spill because of the challenge it presented.

Steven Chu canceled his trip to China to continue to work on the solution. No one knows what's going on behind the scenes, who's offering ideas and how they're being accepted.

Because BP is a business, and they're responsible for the spill, and the Obama administration expects BP to pay for the oil spill clean up and for its economic consequences, it also seems that, legally, BP has to lead the effort.

Visit the Deepwater Horizon response site here. The latest:

BP and federal scientists and engineers continue to prepare for the top kill operation, which is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, May 25. From the command centers in Robert, La., and Houston, Texas, federal officials continue to review BP’s various procedures and contingencies for the top kill. Scientists from Sandia, Los Alamos and Livermore National Laboratories are examining the risks associate, and BP continues to evaluate options for lower toxicity dispersant and alternative supply chains.

Transocean is holding a no-press memorial for those who died on the rig May 25.

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The Meet the Press roundtable on the spill:

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