This page was last updated on July 1, 2010.
Put blame for spill where it belongs; Tony DiRienzo; Beaver County Times; July 1, 2010.
Previous letters from Mr. DiRienzo were entitled “Specter’s outrage is too late,” “Lack of respect is well earned” (Both are no longer on the Times website.), “Don’t know me? Don’t judge me,” “Class warfare has gone on for years,” and “Americans had better wake up.”
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“After reading all the letters from the Beaver County oil spill experts, I have to tell you that blaming the president and the labor unions is totally moronic.”
[RWC] You’ll note Mr. DiRienzo doesn’t tell us what makes him an “oil spill expert.”
“If there is any way or any country that has the expertise to stop the reaping [sic] of havoc on the Gulf of Mexico, I am certain without doubt that our president would bring those countries or people in to fix the spill.”
[RWC] But Mr. Obama did not, at least not until recently. You may recall Mr. Obama even refused to speak with BP for almost two months, and did so only when he was getting bad press for this tactic.
“To blame the unions is ludicrous. If a strong union had been present, maybe its members would not have allowed safety concerns to be ignored in the first place.”
[RWC] To the best of my knowledge, the accident investigation is not yet complete but Mr. DiRienzo appears to conclude the cause was “safety concerns.”
As for the union comment, the government MMS inspectors are union members. Oops.
The only context in which I’ve heard unions mentioned is with respect to the Jones Act. The Jones Act “requires that all goods transported by water between U.S. ports be carried in U.S.-flag ships, constructed in the United States, owned by U.S. citizens, and crewed by U.S. citizens and U.S. permanent residents.” Immediately after Hurricane Katrina, the Bush administration issued a blanket waiver to the Jones Act for about a month. Some people speculate the Obama administration hasn’t acted similarly at the behest of labor union management.
“Put the blame on BP and those who put profit before all else. Our world means nothing to them other than to exploit all its resources.”
[RWC] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Businesses want to rape the Earth and kill their customers, employees, and owners. Does anyone buy this BS?
“And as for the people who claim to know everything when they actually know nothing, where are all our drill-baby-drill proponents? They are conspicuous by their silence.”
[RWC] That “drill-baby-drill proponents … are conspicuous by their silence” is a myth popular with lefties like Mr. DiRienzo. Has Mr. DiRienzo missed all the objections to the Obama administration’s blanket drilling moratorium and that a federal court ruled against the moratorium in a suit brought by “drill-baby-drill proponents?”
“Put the blame were [sic] it belongs - on BP and Haliburton [sic], the company that owns the drilling platform, for their negligence.”
[RWC] Halliburton didn’t own the Deepwater Horizon, Transocean did and was the rig operator. Halliburton provides oil field services to drillers; it neither owns drilling platforms nor operates them. An “oil spill expert” like Mr. DiRienzo should know this.
To the best of my knowledge, the accident investigation is not yet complete but Mr. DiRienzo appears to conclude the cause was “negligence.” For the record, I don’t know the reason for the accident any more than Mr. DiRienzo does. The difference is I’m waiting for the investigation to finish before passing judgment.
“Don’t fall for the con game being fostered by the ones who could care less, other than exploit their own political agenda.”
[RWC] I guess Mr. DiRienzo is telling us to ignore his letter.
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