Obama Has A New Policy!

Attorney General Eric Holder was discussing the BP Oil Spill on the TV machine yesterday and he had this to say:

"We will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law anyone who has violated the law. We will prosecute anyone who has violated the law."

No offense... but no you will not! I was paying attention last spring/summer when some of us were looking for the Obama administration to maybe, just maybe, hold the Bush administration officials who sanctioned an illegal torture program accountable. Nothing happened. Well, unless you count some tepid rhetoric from AG Holder and even less from President Obama. We all remember Obama's "I am more interested in looking forward" rationale. Wasn't that the logic that got Mark McGwire rightly ridiculed back in 2005? I expect more from our president!

Well, believe it or not, I am actually more interested in looking forward with regards to the oil spill than I am with regards to the torture policy of the Bush administration. I certainly do not mean that I want to let BP off the hook. I guess my point is that the oil spill did not happen in a vacuum. It happened in the context of massive corruption of the MMS. I want to see that that is addressed. I mean REALLY addressed... not just finding a few scapegoats and hope that everyone will believe that the problems have been resolved. (This, of course, very much mirrors my opinion of what needs to happen with regards to financial regulatory reform). Moreover, I want to know that the oil companies currently operating in the United States have up-to-date safety inspections - meeting U.S. standards NOT the standards of the countries with so-called "flags of convenience". I want to know they have legitimate plans in place to deal with an emergency (which BP clearly did not). I want the tax-system addressed that lets junk like this happen.

So, overall, I guess my priorities are:

1) stop the leak
2A) clean-up the oil (BP pays - not US taxpayers)
2B) address the systemic failure and culture that allowed this to happen
2C) for christsake... let's invest in clean, renewable energy
5) hold BP/Transocean/Halliburton accountable with criminal/civil penalties (as the facts of the investigation dictate)