| Well if this doesn't piss me off, nothing will. AP is reporting today that: The White House blocked efforts by federal scientists to tell the public just how bad the Gulf oil spill could have been, according to a panel appointed by President Barack Obama to investigate the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
In documents released Wednesday, the national oil spill commission's staff reveals that in late April or early May the White House budget office denied a request from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to make public the worst-case discharge from the blown-out well. The Unified Command — the government team in charge of the spill response — also was discussing the possibility of making the numbers public, the report says, citing interviews with government officials.
The big "C word" (that would be censorship) is getting tossed around. Don't get me wrong, I'm not naive. Administrations of both parties are bound to bend the story to their interests. And, when you get to the voting both you have to judge the performance of a politician in the totality, and in comparison to his opponent. But really now, really (as they are won't to say on SNL)! Does this square with the President's public message? Is this what one does when you want to keep the pressure on the company, to bring to bear public outrage? And then folks wonder why liberals are less than energized about the coming elections. Unless of course this entire story is one big plot to repress the base vote, hmmmm.... As of this afternoon the WH hadn't commented on the story. UPDATE: 6:38pm, NBC news is running with this story. Government was "overly casual" about the numbers & took BP's word on the estimates. WH says "worse case data" was "publicly available." |
