Reason.tv Replay: 3 Reasons Obama Should Kick His Own Ass

President Barack Obama made news on The Today Show when he talked about kicking some ass over the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

If he is interested in punishing those responsible for what is shaping up as one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history, he should think about giving himself a boot.

While BP is ultimately responsible for the spill (and for cleaning it up), the federal government is a major player in the problem for at least three reasons:

1. It owns the property on which the oil well is located.

2. It regulates offshore drilling. And

3. In order to protect small players in the drilling industry, it capped economic damages from this sort of spill at just $75 million, a way-too-low cap that encourages risky behavior.

"3 Reason Why Obama Should Kick His Own Ass" is written and produced by Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie, who also hosts.

Approximately 2:30 minutes.

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Comments

[Marusia]

Nick Gillespie should pull a condom over his head. Practice safe idiocy.

[-]

Did he Nick a nerve, troll?

[Marusia]

Yeah, the combination of the word ass and Gillespie's face creeps me out. You can almost smell the shit on his breath

[-]

You're not a very accomplished troll. Isn't there an AOL chat-room better suited to your nontalent?

[Marusia]

You stupid fucks always say that when you can't think of a clever reply. Think harder, asshole.

[-]

You seem to have some experience with humiliating rejection.

[Marusia]

To have HAD some experience, idiot

[-]

Present tense, as your public humiliation is a work in progress.

[-]

But I grow weary of you. Begone.

[anarch]

How did you do that?

[-]

Magic.

[anarch]

Wow.

Stick around.

[Andrew Lynch]

Huh, that was like watching a painkiller work in real time. Impressive.

[-]

I do what I can.

[Demian808]

"Did he Nick a nerve?"

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

If wit were fish, we would all go hungry if you the fisherman wouldn't we?

[Groovus Maximus]

We would starve if food was a verb and you were the provider.

[Suki]

+1

[Demian808]

Food me no food!!!

[Jeffersonian]

The fact that Reason can't attract better trolls is a sure sign of market failure.

[Suki]

+1

[Suki]

Marusia, show us on the Internet where The Jacket touched you.

[Astrid]

+1

[AA]

+10

[Demian808]

Oh, no Marusia! Can anyone withstand such an ardent assault of wordplay? Surely you must be curled up in a fetal position somewhere, fretting of how you might ever show your psuedonym in public again!

[-]

Fetal position, hell. I think I may have killed him.

[Lo Watts]

LOL< I would love to see Obama kick his own asss, they could sell tickets to that event! Live pay per view!

Lou
http://www.anon-posting.at.tc

[Helpful Linker]

As ever, our anonymity bot continues to make him/her/it?self useful. I, for one, recommend two helpful links for 0bama to help him find that ass he needs to kick:

Here's a clue.

Here's a helpful contraption somebody invented for the purpose.

[skr]

I heard the the 75m cap was only if there wasn't negligence which it seems there was which would mean the cap doesn't apply. But it was NPR so....

[?]

It's only binding until Congress says it isn't.

[Fluffy]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/deb.....itain.html

So these limeys are whining because if BP has to actually pay for the damage they've caused, it might cause British pension funds to lose money.

I hate to tell you this, limeys, but THERE IS NO CRYING IN THE STOCK MARKET. If the pension funds bought the wrong stock, they lose.

And in any event, after what Britain did to Iceland the idea that any living limey would have the stones to complain about a British company being forced to pay for the liabilities it creates is really just too rich.

[Episiarch]

"Geoffrey Wheatcroft". What an utterly limey name. I bet he likes dry ham roasts and watercress sandwiches.

[BakedPenguin]

Spotted dick and prawn crisps.

[Warty]

Watercress sandwiches always make me think of The Trumpet of the Swan.

By the way, my coca tea came. I haven't tried any tea yet, but the coca candy that came with it made the roof of my mouth numb. So...yeah.

[Episiarch]

I had the candy as well, and had two cups of the tea (I reused the same bag to see if it retained potency--it did not). Definite anesthetic effects in the mouth, and stimulant effects as well. I'm digging it so far.

So...yeah.

[Warty]

Three cheers for Jacob Sullum and for lax customs inspections, dude.

[Episiarch]

I'm going to make a vat of iced tea with it. Three cheers indeed. Good find on Amazon, you schmuck. It seems that you're actually useful after all...for a very limited set of functions.

[Warty]

You want me to find you something other than metal and drugs? Good luck with that, fuckwad.

[Episiarch]

You're pretty good at finding mediocrity, right? Find yourself a little more of that.

[Groovus Maximus]

I see the divorce is finalized. Who got the kids? And who got Epi's mom?

[Episiarch]

I did. Incest is best.

[Groovus Maximus]

Your family reunions (in every sense of the word) must be small and intimate affairs. Do you have fisting contests? Further, have you sent uploads to the WH as suggestions of how The Sociopath-in-Chief can self-administer punishment for his idiocy?

[DanD]

DUDE!!! Me too!!! The swan punished them sandwiches.

That's the only thing I remember clearly about that book. Wasn't the swan some sort of metro celebrity or something?

[Groovus Maximus]

Yes. Kinda like Chester the Cricket from "The Cricket in Times Square." The swan, from said story, also had those watercress delivered via room service. It even had soft core swan porn IIRC.

[Suki]

Do you mean Leda and the Swan?

[CALPERS]

"If the pension funds bought the wrong stock, they lose."

Don't bet on it.

[dbcooper]

The Daily Mail is not to be taken seriously.

[Shannon Love]

One of my blogmates pointed out that BP could pay for all the real damages mostly out of petty cash. The company has revenues of $300 billion and annual profits of around $20 billion (7% not bad.) By contrast, the total revenues of all fishing in the gulf is a mere $4.4billion. The actual "damage" to beaches and the like would not be over $2 billion at most. Add the fact that the damage payments would be spread over several years and you're not talking about BP taking a major hit.

The restrictions on payouts for oil spills comes largely from the very real belief that the tort system is broken meaning that companies aren't just liable for the actual damage they cause but also for all for the cost of the punishment one jury anywhere in America might wish to inflict on them. (We got spam for lawyers seeking PTSD cases 11 days after the explosion.) A broken tort system means companies will simply refuse to risk drilling unless they have some protection. This usually plays out that they get way to much protection.

This is one of the easily foreseeable consequences that leftists have such a hard time easily foreseeing.

The real damage to the region would come from restrictions on the oil industry. One spill every 31 years is a small price to for not having an economy like Detroit's. Without drilling in the Gulf, the coast of Texas and the entire state of Louisiana would be utterly devastated economically. Fishing and tourism do not pay well in the grand scheme of things. Most fishermen make poverty wages but most offshore oil workers make 6 figures. There are hundreds of support people on shore for every person on a rig and they all make middle-class incomes.

[Ragin Cajun]

Without drilling in the Gulf, the coast of Texas and the entire state of Louisiana would be utterly devastated economically.

Absolutely. Of course, these jobs aren't "green jobs", so I guess they don't count.

[Suki]

Obama skipped right past the tort fears and his administration announces some new thing "BP will pay" weekly.

He shuts down Gulf exploration for six months, says BP has to pay the people Obama put out of work is the most recent.

[Suki]

Latest threat against BP comes from the Coast Guard. "BP needs to speed up."

That is the same Coast Guard that had to study berms for the shore.

[Astrid]

You mean like this gem?

[Corduroy]

Don't discount all of the other Gulf countries taking legal action against BP as well. I expect BP to be in court for at least the next ten years.

[Ron L]

Marusia|6.12.10 @ 3:50PM|#
"Nick Gillespie should pull a condom over his head. Practice safe idiocy"

Can we presume you're a brain-dead lefty with nothing close to an argument to offer?
I thought so....
Go stick a condom in your mouth, die of asphyxiation and increase the IQ of the world.

[Groovus Maximus]

How do we know she doesn't already have a thriving career as a drug mule?

[Demian808]

Oh,let me play the right/left game too! Somebody from the "left" say something vulgar and hateful, and then someone from the "right" denounce it as nonesense typical of the "left" and then spew some vulgar nonsense of their own. The most ignorant person wins! Fun!!!

[hmm]

Lil' weekend WTF.

"...well, I guess we'll just get arrested."

[Corduroy]

I love the tour guide director's comments. Roughly translated - "Kiss my ass."

[Obama]

Let me be clear...I will not kick my own ass, for fear I will give myself a concussion. Besides, I would probably miss anyway, Wingnuts!

[k-lo]

"While BP is ultimately responsible for the spill...."

Actually it's not. BP is European company and doesn't even operate in the US. It just owns the company that is drilling oil there.

[Demian808]

The Oil Liability of 1990:

http://epw.senate.gov/opa90.pdf

The Louisiana Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act of 2003

http://www.losco.state.la.us/pdf_docs/OSPRA_2003.pdf

Please read these. I think you will find them instructive.

[christian louboutin]

Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. Any way I'll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon.

[Suki]

Would you rather live in Gaza or the Gulf of Mexico?

[Suki]

Yawn. Where is everybody?

[Demian808]

How to be a partisan hack in 5 easy steps:

Step 1) Find a post in which someone poses a viewpoint contrary to your own.

Step 2) See things in black and white. ex: immediately assume that anyone with a contrary viewpoint to your own must reside entirely on the opposite political spectrum. Don't let the fact that someone might actually hold views that run the political gambut confuse you.

Step 3) Once someone has been pigeonholed into the convenient categories of either left or right, or if you want to add some spice to your hackery use the terms "rightist" or "leftist," immediately, and without thinking about it for more than a few seconds, attack this person using terms such as "idiot", "fuckwad," or "troll."

4) Make innane generalizations. For example, if you find that said poster is being too earnest, spin this around into your opponent being humorless. Then mention that this is typical for those residing on whichever end of the political spectrum you oppose.

5) Declare victory. Whether or not you have backed your opponent into a corner or not, announce the complete and utter inability of your opponent to counter your rapid fire wit. You cannot do this soon enough, for you will surely run out of things to say before too long.

Congratulations! Your glorious quest for political hackery is complete. You may now revel in the fact that you have, once and for all, proven the complete and utter futility of holding any viewpoint that resides outside of the tiny bubble of thought in which you choose to reside.

[Warty]

Step 3) Once someone has been pigeonholed into the convenient categories of either left or right, or if you want to add some spice to your hackery use the terms "rightist" or "leftist," immediately, and without thinking about it for more than a few seconds, attack this person using terms such as "idiot", "fuckwad," or "troll."

Do you have a report on drugs, fuckwad? Why the fuck not?

[Demian808]

Excellent hackery!!!

[Jo Denny]

Yup, sure would love to see that.

Lou
http://www.anon-posting.at.tc