Gloom, Despair and Agony

You've heard the phrase "the world is too much with us?" Well, that's the way I have felt this week. Maybe it's because I've had a backache, but every time I watch the news, I want to curl up in a ball and try to think happy thoughts.

I'm feeling for those poor people in Louisiana. They still haven't recovered from Katrina, and now, the oil spill. And, that makes me realize that the people in our government, be they Republicans or Democrats are really good at talking but not much good at doing.

So, we have calls for President Obama to "do something." What they mean, of course, is he hasn't been talking about it enough. Because that's what we do. After all, what can he do, but stay after BP and insist that they clean up the mess they created. And, I have no doubt he has been doing that. He just doesn't always tell us about it.

Today, he had a press conference, and took responsibility for failing to tell us, sooner, what he has been doing. Reminded me of JFK taking full responsibility for the Bay of Pigs, and the sign on Harry Truman's desk stating, "The buck stops here."

Now, maybe people will stop whinging about what Pres. Obama is going to do about an oil spill that wasn't his fault, and the cleanup that he can't do anything about, because there is a law, passed in 1990 in response to the Exxon Valdez catastrophe, placing all oil spills on the oil companies, and now he has to figure out a loophole in that law.

I think we need some kind of law allowing the president to take whatever steps are necessary in the face of an emergency such as this, a natural disaster, and then sort out all the details later.

Stay tuned.