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This picture of wishful thinking is at the beginning of this post to make it known with no uncertainty how much I love and respect Rachel Maddow. I also would like it to be known that my adoration for her is NOT bandwagon-jumping: I have professed my loyalty to Dr. Maddow as early as December 2008 ever since I saw her appearance on Conan O’Brien (and for that there will always be a soft spot in my heart for Coco and his hair…)
To further set my girl crush all ablaze, Maddow gave a “fake” Presidential Address on her June 16 show following the much-anticipated, and laster much-criticized, Presidential Speech from The Oval Office by the Prez regarding the BP Oil Catastrophe. (Ok, seriously, peeps, we really need to stop using the term “Oil Spill”. Thanks.)
Maddow began her show thus:
You know how sometimes after you get into an argument or a confrontation with somebody, you can’t help afterwards thinking of all the things you wish you’d said. You run it over and over in your mind, imaging the perfect comeback or the perfect way to have made your point.
Did I ever?! Yes, YES and YES!!!! She had me at this “OMG that’s exactly how I feel all the time” moment…
But, that’s not all!
She proceeded to give her own Presidential Speech, a speech that she wishes the real President Obama has given instead. Here are some of the highlights in text. Or you can read the complete transcript which MSNBC put up right away due to unusually high demand. Or feel free to watch the video clip instead (after the jump) which is extremely gratifying, to say the least.
I‘m here to announce three major developments in the response to the BP oil disaster that continues right now to ravage the beloved gulf coast of the United States of America…
Never again will any company, anyone be allowed to drill in a location where they are incapable of dealing with the potential consequences of that drilling.
When the benefits of drilling accrue to a private company, but the risks of that drilling accrue to we, the American people, whose waters and shoreline are savaged when things go wrong, I, as fake president, stand on the side of the American people and say to the industry, “From this day forward, if you cannot handle the risk, you no longer will take chances with our fate to reap your rewards.”
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The second major development I‘m announcing tonight, my fellow Americans, concerns another oil industry assurance we can no longer believe. The industry has long assured us that they were capable of handling spilled oil…
The same low-tech ineffective equipment and techniques are being used to respond to this oil disaster today that were used in the 1960s and ‘70s to respond to spills back then.
That‘s because the industry has not invested in any new containment and cleanup technology in all of these decades, because they haven‘t cared too much about it as an issue and it shows. It shows both in the inept technology that we have to deploy, to contain, to clean up a spill like this.
And it also shows in the lackadaisical, uncoordinated, unprofessional way this inept technology has been deployed by BP. Beaches have been fouled. Wetlands have been destroyed. Wildlife has been killed that should have been saved. Pensacola Bay in Florida, if properly boomed, should never have been breached by oil. Perdido Pass of Orange Beach, Alabama should never have been breached by oil. Queen Bess Island, the pelican nesting ground and Barataria Bay in Louisiana – Barataria Bay itself – none of these areas should have been breached by oil even given the sad state of existing technology to stop it. But the fact that those areas were breached is BP‘s human error.
And tonight, as fake president, I‘m announcing a new federal command specifically for containment and cleanup of oil that has already entered the Gulf of Mexico with priority of protecting shoreline that can still be saved, shoreline that is vulnerable to all that has not yet been hit.
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And finally, the third development I have to announce to you tonight in the response to this oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is about how we got here and how that will change.
I no longer say that we must get off oil like every president before has said, too. I no longer say we must get off oil. We will get of oil and here is how. The United States Senate will pass an energy bill this year. The Senate version of the year will not expand offshore drilling.
Every president in the modern era has complained that America must get off oil. Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and now, I, fake President Obama – we have all intoned solemnly that we must get off oil.
Now that we have, at the hands of the oil industry, experienced the worst environmental disaster in American history, the time for talk is over. The world is different now. Our country is different now. The scales have fallen from our eyes.
People say we‘re not ready. They‘re right. We‘re not ready. We also weren‘t ready to fight in World War II before Pearl Harbor happened. But events forced that upon us and events have forced this fight upon us now…
If there are elements of a bill that cannot procedurally be passed by reconciliation, if those elements can be instituted by executive order, I will institute them by executive order.
The political cowardice that has kept politicians from doing right by this country, finally, on energy – finally, standing up to the oil industry – that cowardice has been drowned in oil on Queen Bess Island.
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Although I am not so naive as to believe that any president will ever be able to pass an Energy Bill and have it executed just so that will have any real impact on the environment in my lifetime, like I said, it is gratifying to imagine what it would have been like to hear these same statements from the real Commander in Chief (assuming he has not lost his mind and decided to wage a war directly against the 50% of the country that considers Fox News a reliable news source). Naturally, depressing at the same time to imagine what could have been…
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Here’s to you, Dr. Maddow. Thank you for the Perfect Comeback.
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You inspisre me to be more aware.
That is not an easy thing to do my good woman!
A Vapid Blonde recently posted…Dear Mike- You Are The Wind Beneath My Wings-
My husband loves Rachel Maddow. I have to keep reminding him that she doesn’t swing that way.
Diane Laney Fitzpatrick recently posted…And the Winner of the Longest Receipt Contest Is
LOL. Love YOU BOTH!
I’m just curious as to who would be the third party in this threesome with Elly and Maddow?
Brilliant Sulk recently posted…Meine Lieben Klaus…
She is taking bids now. 😉
Yep. Smart=hot. AWESOMENESS!
Jennifer recently posted…DC Beehive and unschooling swings the pendulum too far
See? Now I am all hot and bothered.
I adore her. Ever since Air America. Smart, funny and her own self. Awesome.
Anastasia recently posted…Why you all wet- baby
You had me at Air America. You, m’lady, are a true fan! 🙂
She’s on our threesome list. Oh how I heart her.
Elly Lou recently posted…My Face Weighs Forty-seven Pounds
Can’t wait!
” (Ok, seriously, peeps, we really need to stop using the term “Oil Spill”. Thanks.)”
Amen! Amen! Amen!
I love that cartoon. Spewing is more like it. Still going on. *sigh*
Waving both hands wildly! YES!
You can be VEEP.
Mary Lee recently posted…Taking What He Says With a Grain of Rice
XXOO
I can’t have them coming after me for my birth certificate. LOL. Did you know that the birthers went so far to dig out the birth certificate (from Hawaii) of the Founding Father of modern China as proof? Amazing.
amen! and yes, it’s an oil disaster of the greatest magnitude not an ooopsy spill.
pattypunker recently posted…pimpin a painter
What Mr. Monk did to my laptop WAS a spill. This is not…
I really love this, I also feel that the real POTUS could definitely stand firmer and make this a pivotal moment in our nation’s environmental history. If only………..
Wicked Shawn recently posted…I Am Not In Colonial Williamsburg, And Other Important Details
His mistake was to believe BP in the beginning, that they have the resources and expertise to stem the tide. To be fair though, imo he kind of HAD TO when it first happened: BP does employ a lot of experts with experiences and know-how from the field. And it’s unthinkable that BP would have NO fucking idea how to stop the spewing or clean up their shit. It’s beyond comprehension. It was. Now it’s like, Oh, of course they have no idea. Srly WTF? So he allowed BP and the “experts” to handle the situation, he was blamed. When he stepped in and convinced BP to put $20B for the victims, he was called a Pinko commie. I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes right now. I wonder whether he sleeps at all? How do you as POTUS sleep at night when there is no known solution to this catastrophe? *sigh* I wouldn’t want to be Michelle right now either…
She’s so smart. I love our prez and am a total lib dem, but he should’ve been able to come up with that. With thought and deliberation, he shoulda.
Linda at Bar Mitzvahzilla recently posted…Escaping From Our Kids
I know that his hands are tied & I actually don’t fault him for making the speech the way he has. Those crazies out there are threatening the country with “The 2nd Amendment kind of resolution” if they don’t get their way. Scary shit.
Word.
Naptimewriting recently posted…Contrarian. Rhymes with Librarian.
🙂