Woke this morning to ‘Breaking news‘ that the Gulf Oil Spill has been capped. Call me skeptical but that seemed a bit too good to be true. Now of course a few hours after this initial assertion, everyone is backpedaling and as President Obama is fond of saying, they are ‘re-calibrating’ their remarks. In other words-Here comes the corporate spin. But that’s either here nor there.
What all of us need to be watching for is to how BP which has had its third so-called accident in 5 years will start compensating people and businesses it destroyed. BP needs to be underwriting every single animal rights and rescue organization that are feverishly plucking oil soaked birds and mammals to clean and care for them and keep them out of harms way. We should all be treated to a breaking news story showing BP CEO Tony Hayward cutting lots of hefty checks to those operations.
Next we should all be treated to Hayward cutting large checks to fishermen and all businesses including tourism impacted by his company’s blunder. Someone suggested that we should take this a step further and make sure all Gulf businesses own a part of BP. That just might be the move. We should also see similar checks written by the other companies involved in this disaster including; Haliburton and Transocean Limited.
It would be nice to see the Drill Baby Drill crowd which includes miscreants like; Michael Steele, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich etc, all apologizing for their gross miscalculations and misplaced advocacy for off shore drilling. Obama was right to put a moratorium in place. It needs to be permanent.
Speaking of which, we also need to see a press conference with President Obama and every other federal and state politician who took campaign money from BP, giving it back. They should publicly return the money let all of us know they are in no-way beholden to the oil giant. Obama says he didn’t take any money, but here’s what’s being reported:
BP and its employees have given more than $3.5 million to federal candidates over the past 20 years, with the largest chunk of their money going to Obama, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Donations come from a mix of employees and the company’s political action committees — $2.89 million flowed to campaigns from BP-related PACs and about $638,000 came from individuals.
On top of that, the oil giant has spent millions each year on lobbying — including $15.9 million last year alone — as it has tried to influence energy policy.
During his time in the Senate and while running for president, Obama received a total of $77,051 from the oil giant and is the top recipient of BP PAC and individual money over the past 20 years, according to financial disclosure records.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/36783.html#ixzz0p9e1qXmw
BP CEO Tony Hayward needs to hold press conferences with him writing hefty checks for all the people who's lives he ruined
All the key folks involved and rightly so made it a point to be constantly be on TV to give us around the clock information and updates. We should all demand that they continue this process when it comes to recovery and compensation. After all, it’s when the cameras are off and our collective attention is redirected elsewhere that big companies start to toss-up all sorts of red tape and road blocks and pull all types of shenanigans resulting in people not getting their money…
These companies should do the right thing and not hide behind caps limiting what damages can be collected. Their should be no shortchanging the people. We’ve heard way too many Rush Limbaugh type pundits brag about how ‘private’ should be left to their own devices and they will do right by the American people. Well, here’s their chance. BP needs to handsomely compensate everyone. It’s the ethical thing to do..
Failure for these companies to properly compensate people will be an indication that this so called ‘free market, unregulated business environment that conservatives and Tea Party types crow about is a complete failure. We should also keep in mind that almost every single Gulf Coast state Senator is against removing or raising the 75 million dollar liability cap.All those Rush Limbaugh/ Glenn Beck types who claimed the market can take care of itself need to be leading the charge making sure all those private businesses involved are stepping it up BP, Haliburton andTransocean Limited and don’t hide behind their political friends.
Something to Ponder.
-Davey D-
Davey,
If you already haven’t check out the interview on Democracy Now title, CoastGuard Grounds Ships Involve in Spill Cleanup After 7 Fall ill: BP Reportedly Preventing Fishermen from Wearing Respirators. I live in the Gulf Coast area that will bear a major burnt of this diaster and the national news isn’t reporting the half of it.
Oh yea I forgot to include that adekunle.. good point
“We should also keep in mind that almost every single Gulf Coast state Senator is against removing or raising the 75 million dollar liability cap.”
WTF? If we really want a free market then BP needs to be liable for all damages, the cap is a form of protectionism. If i’m cooking and all i have to clean is the milk, i’m going to make a big mess. If i have to clean up the whole thing, i’ll be a little careful.
I love Obama, but he is in a bad situation. The politicians should wear logos and advertisments much like they do in NASCAR. Obama recieved alot of money from the banks and that’s why he isn’t putting anyone in jail. Therefore, he isn’t going to put any pressure on BP either. This is sad and I hope that politics changes soon.
Obama wanted to expand offshore drilling before the leak happened. Will he make the moratorium permanent? I think he is just waiting until things die down before resuming the expansion.
@LL
I’ve been thinking the same thing. The alternatives are there, but don’t seem to be ready for showtime as of yet. I was looking through old issues of magazines I had around and they were talking about the hit & miss of electric cars (1990’s). Fast-foward to current times and we have these hybrids running around…almost there, but not quite!
I agree, If we want to get off foreign oil, we’ll have to supply our own. If we can’t meet our energy demands domestically, then we’ll have to rely on a foreign power, which means more involvement in the mid east. So i’m weary on doing a permanent moratorium right now. We need to go from foreign oil, to domestic to sustainability.
As far as hybrid cars, they’re a farce. Where do you get electricity from? fossil fuel powered plants. So there really not any “greener” than a full fledged gas powered car. I’d prefer to see hemp used a bio-fuel. If were going to pollute, it might as well be from a source we can regenerate.