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Tuesday, June 1, 2010
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Page designed by: Drew Hampton
Enid News & Eagle
OPINION Publisher Jeff Funk publisher@enidnews.com Managing editor Cindy Allen 580 548-8163 editor@enidnews.com
News & Eagle Editorial Board Jeff Funk, Cindy Allen, Kevin Hassler, Jeff Mullin, Violet Hassler, David Christy The Opinion page strives to present a variety of opinions and viewpoints. Editorial opinions expressed in the gray box below are those of the News & Eagle Editorial Board. Viewpoints expressed by columnists, letters to the editor and editorial cartoonists are those of the writer and artist and not necessarily the newspaper.
COLUMNIST Argus Hamilton
Oil disaster still getting worse
EDITORIAL
Step up to Hypocrites of the leadership week: Palin, Jindal In the category of Hypocrite of the Week, we have co-winners — Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska. Both politicians, potential rivals for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, have made their careers bashing the federal government’s propensity to spend money and regulate business. Yet when oil started gushing into the Gulf of Mexico from a damaged BP well, who were they quick to blame for a slow response? Washington, of course. Here’s Jindal: “We’ve been frustrated with the disjointed effort to date that has too often meant too little, too late for the oil hitting our coast.” Sixteen months ago, he was telling a national TV audience Republicans have a “fundamental disagreement (with Democrats) about the proper role of government.” Now he’s demanding the feds compensate the state’s fishermen and build sand barriers to keep oil out of the state’s marshland. Palin, whose husband worked for BP for 18 years, suggested, incredibly enough, the oil company’s campaign contributions to President Obama were responsible for him “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.” Both have a point. There’s not much Washington can do to plug the leak, but the administration has reacted slowly to its impact. As oil strangles more birds and stains more beaches, the political risks for Obama expand. Still, Jindal and Palin miss a much larger issue. The real problem here is the failure of government agencies to monitor and regulate the offshoredrilling industry. Washington does not have all the answers, and the risk of overregulation is real, but the past few months have reinforced a
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Local elections provide opportunities for service
In just a few days, candidates for various county, state and federal offices will file for the upcoming 2010 election. We expect most local incumbents to file for re-election. None of our state representatives have term-limited out yet, so we expect they will re-file. However, if others think they might like to put their hat in the ring to serve in these positions, now is the time to step up. Serving in public office is a high calling and a high honor. We know most of our county and state elected officials feel that way. Yet, we believe the public is served best when they have candidates to choose from. We know there are good people out there who can serve and would be willing to serve, and we encourage anyone interested in running for office to file during the upcoming June 7-9 filing period. Also, Enid city commissioner and mayoral elections are not that far away. Candidates interested in serving the city will be filing at the end of 2010 with elections in early 2011. Three ward positions are open, as is that of mayor; John Criner has said he will not seek a second term. The city needs good leadership, and we hope to see several individuals interested in running for city offices. Enid has a lot of good things going for it, and we need people with vision and a love of this community to step up to serve in city positions. With all the talk this year about the need for new leadership in government, we hope some folks want to be a part of that new leadership. We know there are people with a lot of good ideas who could serve our communities well. We need people willing to serve who will work hard to bring their ideas to fruition.
NOTABLE QUOTES By the Associated Press “Every fish and invertebrate contacting the oil is probably dying. I have no doubt about that.” — Prosanta Chakrabarty, a Louisiana State University fish biologist, on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. ■ “I think that even though we may be sent back, there’s a lot of people who may need that money, the Hispanic people that are here.” — Paulo Sergio Alfaro-Sanchez, an illegal immigrant held at a detention center in Tacoma,Wash., on being counted there in the 2010 U.S. Census.
Mallard Fillmore®
COLUMNISTS Cokie and Steven V. Roberts basic economic truth: Profitmaking corporations will do everything possible to evade costly rules and maximize their bottom line. And only tough standards, enforced by independent regulators, can hold those corporations accountable and protect the rest of us from their worst excesses. The failure of government regulation only starts with blemished beaches. The dismal performance by federal agencies monitoring the economy has had a far more devastating impact. Consider the following: • Securities and Exchange Commission repeatedly ignored “significant red flags” about the billion-dollar Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Bernie Madoff, according to the commission’s inspector general. “His report,” said Mary Schapiro, the SEC’s current chairman, “makes clear that the agency missed numerous opportunities to discover the fraud.” • The SEC has filed a civil complaint against Goldman Sachs, Wall Street’s most powerful firm, alleging Goldman marketed investments designed to fail to clients. But when the deals were being carried out, SEC lawyers apparently had other concerns. A recent report by the inspector general found 31 cases of commission employees downloading pornography on their office computers. • In the months before a deadly explosion in West Virginia killed 29 coal miners, Massey Energy, the mine’s operator, had been cited for numerous safety violations. But it was never told to stop operating. Ken Hechler, the
former congressman who helped write current mining regulations, said they were never enforced. That makes the Mine Safety and Health Administration “partially responsible” for the disaster, he argued. This same pattern of incompetent, even corrupt, regulation shows up in the oil industry. Testifying before Congress, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar condemned his own agency, the Minerals Management Service: “We need to clean up that house.” Asked if the service had properly monitored the safety procedures taken by BP, Salazar answered bluntly: “No.” A report issued by Mary L. Kendall, the Interior Department’s acting inspector general, fleshed out the details behind Salazar’s harsh judgment. She describes a culture where regulators and the corporate executives they are supposed to oversee trade favors, gifts and jobs on a regular basis. “Of greatest concern to me,” she wrote, “is the environment in which these inspectors operate — particularly the ease with which they move between industry and government.” The importance of government oversight is enhanced by another dispiriting trend: the financial troubles of major news organizations and their growing inability to devote resources to investigative reporting. Holding the powerful to account is an expensive business, and reporters, like regulators, are the essential watchdogs of a secure democracy. There’s one clear lesson here: The feds have to be tougher on corporations, not softer. The watchdogs have to bark more loudly and more often. Otherwise, we’ll have more oil spills, more mine cave-ins, more economic collapses. That’s a truth the Hypocrites of the Week refuse to recognize. United Feature Syndicate
By Bruce Tinsley
HOLLYWOOD — God bless America, and how’s everybody? President Obama held a press conference Thursday to address the Gulf of Mexico disaster. It was getting worse each hour. After the press conference the president met Bill Clinton for lunch, which was the first sign that the slick has reached Obama. ■ Tiger Woods will tune up for the U.S. Open in this week’s Memorial in Ohio. He’s pursuing two golfing records. He needs five more majors to break Jack Nicklaus’s record and a divorce settlement over a hundred million dollars to break Greg Norman’s. ■ NFL owners voted Tuesday to hold the firstever cold-weather Super Bowl in New Jersey’s Meadowlands Stadium in four years. It’s just as well. By then they will need the 25 degree weather to preserve Paul McCartney for the halftime show. ■ ABC’s “Nightline” interviewed Jesse James Tuesday, drawing huge ratings. He cheated on Sandra Bullock with Nazi strippers. To beat him in the ratings Jay Leno would have to have sex with his motorcycle and Dave Letterman would have to cheat with Eva Braun. ■ German pharmaceutical maker Boehringer Ingelheim is submitting the first female Viagra pill to the FDA for approval this month. It chemically incites female desire. Today a lot of women need help to get aroused, particularly after they Google a man’s credit score. ■ Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson flew to America in disgrace Wednesday after she was caught on tape selling access to Prince Andrew. She said she wants to be on Dancing with the Stars. That’s her back-up plan if she can’t sell access to Joe Biden. ■ “The Special Relationship” was on HBO Saturday with Dennis Quaid as Bill Clinton and Michael Sheen as Tony Blair. They always stood by each other no matter what. True friends are like British Petroleum: they’re there for you through thick and thin. ■ President Obama addressed the BP oil spill at his press conference on Thursday. He said people who criticize his response don’t know the facts. Someone needs to tell all the people waiting on the roofs in New Orleans they’re in the wrong disaster. Argus Hamilton is the host comedian at The Comedy Store in Hollywood.
Obama’s priority: More than an oil mess Ben Feller Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama keeps reassuring the nation that stopping the Gulf oil spill and limiting the fallout on the region are his top priority. Yet so is protecting the country against attack. And getting people back to work. Presidencies usually don’t allow for a dominant priority — just a list of priorities. During another hectic week, Obama made this promise: “This entire White House and this entire federal government has been singularly focused on how do we stop the leak and how do we prevent and mitigate the damage to
our coastlines.” From the Gulf Coast on Friday, he said making the people and the ecosystems whole again “is our highest priority.” It was not just a policy statement but a communications imperative. Obama had to show that he’s in charge of making it end. BP bears responsibility for the crisis. Obama now owns it. BP’s latest effort to stop the flow by plugging the well with mud and cement was determined Saturday to have failed. Yet what’s next for the president will not be a single focus on the Gulf. His agenda ahead will be what it was: a juggle of priorities. Others will not wait while oil washes ashore in Louisiana. “Clearly, people around here
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AP Analysis would like this crisis to recalculate his agenda,” said Brian Brox, a political science professor at Tulane University in New Orleans. “They see this as nearly an existential crisis, the way the aftermath of Katrina was. I think on the national level, however, this will probably one of those multiple balls that (Obama) has up in the air.” And what’s he juggling? • The Koreas could be edging toward war. The South accuses the North of sinking one of its warships. • The terror threat isn’t going away, as seen by last month’s failed car bombing in New York City
• A international standoff with Iran over its nuclear program is hardening. • The economic recovery doesn’t feel like much of one to the millions who are jobless. • A sweeping overhaul of financial regulation hangs in the balance. The White House hopes Congress can finish it by July. • The president needs GOP support of two big initiatives, energy and immigration, but has little to show so far. • Senators begin hearings in late June on Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court, Elena Kagan. • Fall elections are nearing, with Democrats facing losses and in need of campaign help. Politics never stop, of course.
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Just as Obama finished his Gulf tour Friday, the White House found itself off balance because of an embarrassing admission: It had proposed a political deal, in the form of unpaid job offer, to Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., to get him to back off from his primary challenge to Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa. Sestak said no, stayed in the race and beat Specter. Like presidents before him, Obama is having to work through unforeseen problems: offshore drilling and an environmental disaster, mine safety, the earthquake in Haiti, piracy off the Somali coast. The president is fond of saying he will not rest until the problem at hand gets fixed. The trouble is, there’s always more trouble.