CW actor/male model: Handling BP oil disaster more effectively than Pres. Obama

[ohinternets.livejournal.com]

Ian Somerhalder, star of Lost and the hit CW series The Vampire Diaries, has vehemently called out the Hollywood eco-elite and the President for their shameful deafening silence regarding the Gulf Coast oil spill. The longer segment was shown tonight on E! News.

Somerhalder is a Louisiana native and has spent the last month or so (with a break for a press tour in Europe) in Louisiana, helping local human societies to clean off and house affected wildlife, including the endangered brown pelican, as well as seagulls, dolphins and turtles. For the last few days, he has been living out of his car (really!) on Grand Isle, because the hotels are overflowing with [non-famous] volunteers. Grand Isle is a small island on the tip of Louisiana whose economy is almost entirely based on tourism, fishing, and oil industries, aka they have no economy left.

Today, Somerhalder invited his friend from E! News, Kristin Dos Santos and her crew to visit him in the Gulf to raise awareness about the area, and he is talking to Larry King to attempt to organize a telethon to raise money for the victims of the spill from the area, which he says is linked directly to the destruction of the local ecosystem. He is reporting that oil has started to wash up on the shores of Alabama now as well, ack.

Over on Twitter, Somerhalder is now railing against Obama and suggesting the President may be a psychopath who is enjoying the attention he's getting from the disaster. He's also criticized his fellow Hollywood actors and musicians for being utterly paralytic in its response to the disaster.

Somerhalder previously endorsed Obama in 2008 on his blog.

Comments

[ohinternets.livejournal.com]

He's good at playing douches, but in real life, Ian is reportedly a really sweet, gentle guy by all accounts.

I think Obama's faux concern and oblivious silence have been totally inappropriate. This is a national and possibly international disaster. SOME kind of response needed to have happened... and I don't mean the bland soundbytes we got yesterday - on DAY 57!!

[tigress35.livejournal.com]

What can the government do? True conservatism doesn't look favorably on bailouts or welfare from the government but from the private sector in the form of charities and personal sacrifice per Ian's example. I agree with what you said above, the reaction to this on our own soil as compared to Haiti is puzzling, however, we need private solutions to this problem, not government intervention.

The problem is, really, that instead of celebrities and others with influence organizing a telethon a la Haiti, they're just crying that Obama doesn't seem to care enough. Instead, THEY'RE the ones not caring enough, because instead of most DOING something, they're only complaining that the government isn't doing enough.

The big problem is people expectig the government to have a magicial solution.

[ohinternets.livejournal.com]

I would definitely hedge on trying to define what "true conservatism" is - a rhetorical slippery slope. I would also not say that the government has NO responsibility, ethically or constitutionally, to get involved in this situation. Unless you (general you) are an anarchist, you believe that government is sometimes useful in some scenarios and I'm not sure anyone EXCEPT anarchists will be satisfied with a government that says "Destruction of the earth's oceans - perhaps indefinitely? Not my problem. Let charities sort it out. Good luck with that!"

The oil is already spreading itself around (http://www.businessinsider.com/oil-spotted-waves-alabama-2010-6) in the Gulf coast. This is rapidly going to turn into an international disaster, for which other nations can hold us accountable fiscally and otherwise, and at the very least, for that reason, the government should be involved at some level. The least invasive level possible, but we are past the point where it can just opt out of participating altogether. The problem is that liberals will try to say it's not a unique situation and that whatever the government's involvement is in this will be a precedent, or a template.

The bulk of Ian's argument is that currently there are no large-scale charitable efforts taking place that could displace the need for government intervention. And that is pathetic. YMMV!

[w0rdinista.livejournal.com]

I'm a bit baffled at the "What can the government do?" question -- what Obama can and should do is lift the Jones Act (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Marine_Act_of_1920), which Bush did post-Katrina to aid in the oil cleanup in the Gulf. Some of the most advanced skimmers aren't American boats, and aren't allowed in our waters.

Currently Florida Republicans are working on a petition to get the President to lift the act to allow these boats into the Gulf to assist in cleanup efforts. No one's said a thing about the Jones Act -- not a one, short of Fox News and local talk radio (oh, the local radio guys here have been frothing at the mouth, lemme tell ya). The general opinion in this neck of the woods is that he hasn't lifted the Jones Act for union-related reasons, which is both frightening and sickening.

Or, y'know, he's waiting for hurricane season to really kick in so he can have another disaster to take advantage of. (That's what we're all holding our breath over -- if a hurricane comes in over the Gulf? Oh we are all so very, very, completely screwed.)

[w0rdinista.livejournal.com]

we need private solutions to this problem, not government intervention

Unfortunately, in this case, we do actually need some government intervention to allow for private solutions.

The Jones Act (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Marine_Act_of_1920) is designed to protect US interests within US waters, but it's also what's keeping some of the world's most advanced skimming ships out of the Gulf right now. It was lifted after Hurricane Katrina, allowing foreign oil-skimming ships into US waters, but hasn't been lifted yet (which, speaking as a Florida resident, is infuriating a whole lot of people down here).

[ohinternets.livejournal.com]

This!!!!!

I think the role of the government at this point could be helping to facilitate the working together of private investors, donors and think tanks on how to SOLVE this . The bulk of the work itself can be done by private entities (and probably will anyway) but the federal government can be a powerful facilitator and organizer.

Another way Obama could be doing something: BP is denying scientists and even the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - a federal agency - from scanning the underwater video footage to assess what the needs are and what the situation really looks like. I don't think it's anti-conservative to say that the government should be pushing for far greater transparency from BP right now. We don't even know the full scope of what needs to be done because they're not letting anyone look. I think that's unfathomable.