What's with all the BP hate?

i believe they have been offered all the help they want/need. i'm just not sure there's anything anyone can do ecept keep attempting new fixes. as for assigning blame, people have to be punished for their negligence, both monitarily and criminally. i would LOVE to help with that.

 

I have been keeping up with the latest on the oil spill along with everything else on the news.
Despite all the criticism coming from all directions and everyone playing the blame games,
I have found only a small handful of comments that had made any sense whatsoever.
Mike Huckabee made a comment over the weekend that really said it all about the way that
Obama was handling the BP situation. He made a good analogy on his program. It went
something like this:
"Picture yourself driving down the road with your family in the car with you and as you are
driving you come up to an intersection and someone hits you and someone hits them and there
is a huge auto accident where your vehicles are ruined and your family is in danger and suffering
health issues while the other passengers in the other vehicles are also hurt.
What would be the very FIRST thing that you would do to remedy the situation ??
Jump out of your vehicle to scream and yell the S.O.B. that just ran into your vehicle with your family inside ??
Call your insurance company ?? NOPE !!!!!

I'll tell you what Obama did in this situation, he called all the lawyers to arrive at the scene to pass out business cards to the victims because he was so much more concerned with the lawsuits that would arise from this situation than the victim's well being.

He SHOULD have called the parametics and the ambulances to the scene and worry about the politics later."


Bottom line is that they did NOT react as fast as they COULD have. And when they DID react, it was VERY POOR decision making and lack of proper judgement.

This is how he treated the BP Oil spill. You can click the links below to read more about him.

The 1st link is about the Mike Huckabee comments and the
2nd is a comment that Mitt Romney made about Obama.
　
President Obama’s Mishandling of The Gulf Oil Spill | RedState

Romney: We need a leader, not a politician - USATODAY.com

 

Several things come to mind:

The Golden Rule--Whoever has the gold makes the rules. The 4th largest corporation in the world didn't get that way by sitting on the sidelines. The Federal government isn't in Big Oil's pocket. Big Oil IS the Federal government.

"You're doing a heck of a job, Brownie." When amateurs are in charge don't expect professional results. It takes backbone & leadership to lead. I'm afraid those qualities are lacking in our politicians at the federal, state & local level.

From the coal mines before electrification: Better to lose a man than a mule. You have to pay for a mule.

Americans want cheap energy. We don't care whether or not it is safe.

And, yes, Indian lives are cheaper than American lives. India's poverty level is US$150 a year. Jobs paying US$1.00-$2.00 per hour are high paying & held by people with advanced (for them) degrees.

Maybe Castrol should get a BP CEO look-alike wearing a BP helmet & drop sludge on his head or get the Scotsman to whack him with a dipstick.

 

OH Yea,

I'm gonna look towards Mike "I don't believe in gravity" Huckabee or Mitt "I can buy my way our of anything" Romney to solve a technical problem.

Tell you what, let's put a diving helmet on either of them, or anyone for that matter and see how well they can "do something!". I love all these arm chair experts sitting on the sidelines suggesting what the President "should do/should have done" bolstered by the misinformation campaign of the right that is predicated on a whole series of lies an 1/2 truths twisted to sound plausible. Things like "Obama wouldn't let foreign skimmers on site in deference to the Unions" Or "Obama goes on more vacation days than any president in recent history while oil spills". Both are complete falsehoods, and yet, like so much of the rights rhetoric, it seems if you repeat it loud enough and often enough, people will believe it, no matter what their better instinct suggests.

I suggest that people stop getting their news from FOX, MSNBC etc as well as the ideologically based think tank/blogesphere, and at the very least do a bit of fact checking!

Lest I be accused of being an unapologetic Obama supporter, I believe that mistakes are made all the time, by everyone. Could certain aspects of the administration's response have been different? Of course. Might it have been better? Who can say, as this is a once in a lifetime event. I suppose that the next time we allow this kind of S*#t to happen we will be "better prepared" and we will "have learned from our mistakes this time". Funny how it seldome happens that way. The next time is always different, the reaction is different, and the mistakes different. (Not always better).

 

The recent Indian supreme court verdict has brought the memories back ...



Extradite Anderson: Bhopal victims to Obama

http://www.zeenews.com/news633793.html

Bhopal gas victims activists approach Obama for ‘justice’

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal...sts-approach-obama-for-justice_100380360.html

 

Because they don't recognize / don't want to acknoledge some important facts. They find it reassuring to blame someone.
- Current technology can't handle deep water well blowout in a timely manner
- Peak oil is upon us
- Modern civilization runs on oil and there is no substitute

But, they do understand that
- If I order Pizza and if the Pizza delivery guy runs over someone on the way, I'm not responsible for that

 

wasn't costanza responsible when the guy delivering the chinese food got knocked off of his bicycle?

 

While this may be a once-per-lifetime event, one important thing has been carried over from Bush-I's handling of the smaller Exxon-Valdez spill: the President has not made a federal disaster declaration.

Why? According to CNN:

I understand that BP and its contractors have expertise and resources, which the feds lack, for the deep water work to stop the spill. But that limitation does not apply to the surface sludge fouling the coastlines and marshes, or circulating around the Gulf and threatening to move beyond. I think a federal disaster declaration could open up a lot more resources to limit this portion of the environmental damage.

When preserving a clear finger-pointing path for future litigation takes precedence over containing damage during the disaster, then the Administration and Congress are not taking the disaster seriously enough.

If this is our Chernobyl, then we need regime change. Unfortunately, past regimes flunked this same test, and I'm not confident that the most likely future regimes are likely to pass.

 

Fuzzy,

Please explain:

"When preserving a clear finger-pointing path for future litigation takes precedence over containing damage during the disaster, then the Administration and Congress are not taking the disaster seriously enough."


I am not aware that it is, or was, or has been an either/or proposition. What evidence do you have to support that contention? (Aside from right wing propaganda please)

Icarus

 

Let's see . . . when was it that the Exxon Valdez ran aground because Exxon put a drunk at the wheel ... and lobbied for single hull ships?

1989-ish? Seems I recall Exxon ran the plaintiffs up & down the legal system until 2008 ... nearly 20 years. Got their punishment 2.5 billion judgement remanded back down to the lower courts. In any event, Exxon recovered much of their loss via insurance.

And so what changed int the past 2 decades ? . . . other than a spill that's maybe 100X worse ? History repeats itself because almost no one cares to fight the system ... well ... a few of us are buying hybrids and EV's. Other than that - Welcome to reality.

.

 

Last time I checked, nevered ordered a pizza like that (for that matter I don't eat pizzas).

In any case your "logic" is faulty. If someone takes undue risks while delivering a service, the person delivering the service doesn't get the blame. But in the normal business of acquiring and delivering products ordered, damage is the norm (ivory, fur, leather seats) then the person ordering is responsible as well.

 

No. You were responsible, since you watched the episode.

 

+1. You missed the part about how BP cut corners (and overrode proposals by their drilling 'partners') in the drilling process. Although a terrible safety record generally is the by-product of cutting corners.... So, it may be two sides of the same coin.

You have got to love Tony taking time off to go yachting. I guess he got his life back. It is a shame the same can't be said for 11 rig workers who lost theirs.

 

Interesting stuff regarding pensions. I thought 40% of US funds had a strong interest in BP stock. But I happily stand corrected.

Still think it is an interesting point that the whitehouse chief of staff is having a dig at tony Hayward spending time with his son on fathers day whilst Obama has been out playing golf 32 times since in office, yet 661 service men have died in the gulf war since then.

Sure it is terrible what's happening, but having the chairman in his hard hat and spanner in his hand is also not going to resolve this.

 

Your attempt at an analogy might be a bit more compelling if Barry had cheaped out on say body armor or armor kits for humvees and the chickens were coming home to roost, so-to-speak. Slightly different situation, though.

 

Measuring with two yard sticks comes to my mind....

Ultimately the personal attacks that are happening are all about politics and not about the disaster. Just like the protection of union carbide. Can't believe people on here actually made statements that foreign life is worth less, that I'd pretty sad.

At least this CEO makes funds available, has commissioned further rigs to solve the problems and owns up to them. Not hiding. And everybody needs a break in order to reenergise and keep going.

I think the analogy works perfectly well as it was directed towards the insinuation that the bp chairman is not allowed time off whilst a disaster is happening over several months. More people are being killed everyday in that war and more damage and disaster is being done everyday, yet the chairman of the USA takes time off ;-) hence why measure with two different sticks

 

You have my vote - Put obama & the BP CEO in jail, they are both Losers.

 

This thread is well on its way to Fred's House of Politics.

Tom