Barton’s ‘Shakedown’ Comment: Tone Deaf … and Correct
There are few occasions in politics which entertain and engage the punditry and opposition party opponents as much as seeing a powerful elected official really shove his foot in his mouth. Such an opportunity seemed to present itself this week when Joe Barton (R-Texas) referred to President Obama’s demand for BP to pony up $20 billion for a fund to compensate those affected by the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in rather sinister terms:
“I’m ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday,” Barton said in his opening statement. “I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown — in this case a $20 billion shakedown.”
To put the remarks in baseball parlance, this one couldn’t have been any better. It was the low, hanging soft pitch over the outside corner just waiting for the president and his Democrat allies to knock it clean out of the park.
It had all of the perfect elements wrapped up in one delicious package. The evil, money-grubbing, richer-than-Midas oil giant is casually dumping millions of barrels of crude into the pristine waters of the Gulf. Tens of thousands of working-class voters are having their health and livelihoods endangered. We’ve even got the iconic, oil-soaked pelican pictures running 24/7 on MSNBC.
And now that the Ass Kicker in Chief has gotten the petroleum tyrants to pony up a pile of cash for the “small people,” there’s a Republican apologizing for it?
The fact that the speaker happened to be a somewhat portly Caucasian over the age of fifty didn’t help matters either. David Letterman quipped, “Nice to see you rich white guys sticking up for each other.”
But while the remarks could certainly qualify for some sort of MTV Music award for inept commentary, and Barton has already been forced into a mea culpa, one nagging problem remains. The Texas congressman’s statements were politically tone deaf … but he was also correct.
It is not unheard of for a company to set aside funds for a third party to distribute to affected workers and consumers after bankruptcy or other corporate meltdown scenarios. In years past I’ve worked on the documentation and public relations for firms that have done just that. But the key difference is that it was generally a face-saving maneuver designed by the failing company in question, not a pound of flesh demanded by an elected official.
It’s no surprise to any thinking person that conservatives get upset when they can no longer privatize their profit and socialize their losses on the backs of the American people.
Prefect, Guard or what? Liberals love sweeping generalizations and the idea of Obama as Emperor it seems.
Wait… you didn’t include the best part of Joe Barton’s quote: the “I apologize” part. Classic. I can’t believe he actually apologized to BP. Just wow.
That said, Jazz, you do realize that BP doesn’t consider it a ‘shakedown’ right? Tony Hayward said as much yesterday. And you do realize that BP doesn’t have to comply right? In fact, BP thinks this will be the cheapest and best possible way for them to move past this disaster.
Man, conservatives have really gotten themselves in a bind with this one… heh heh heh.
…you do realize that BP doesn’t consider it a ’shakedown’ right? Tony Hayward said as much yesterday.
What did you expect him to say?
Yes, BP said they didn’t consider it a shakedown. Said so right out in public and everything. You think they meant it? Great analysis.
Look, BP has to pay – a lot – for these damages. But for the President to command an enormous sum be paid into an escrow account to be controlled by the President’s appointee is simply unprecedented, and a recipe for corruption.
At the very least the escrow account should be under the control of a non partisan judge.
I wonder if this was done so differently because a class action suit across so many state lines would take months, if not years, in an already financially devastated part of the country and the president and even BP (with the hundreds of commercials they are running) recognized this crisis could escalate on a socio-economic level and decided to meet and hash it out. Desperate times and all that…
I do find it interesting because I heard a criticism a few weeks ago that Obama isn’t being aggressive enough. Now it is the other way. I think people just want to complain. Meanwhile people are losing their jobs.
JMN wrote:
That said, Jazz, you do realize that BP doesn’t consider it a ’shakedown’ right? Tony Hayward said as much yesterday. And you do realize that BP doesn’t have to comply right?
Nonsense. The Executive Branch of the U.S. government could shut down every BP drilling operation and refinery in the U.S. tomorrow if they wanted to. And there are millions of “useful idiots” on the left that would love to see that very thing.
Mr. Limbaugh made the comparison of the fund to organized crime. I’ll give all of you credit for being sincere in your heartlessness, but it really is pathetic that the majority of you believe that the real crime with BP’s oil spill is that BP is being held accountable. I’m quite sure the lives that have been ruined as a result of the spill feel otherwise. Like I said, conservatives believe that it’s OK to reap private profit what ever way they can but if in that process they make a mistake or blow it in a big way they simple hand pass the buck to the public, or socialize their losses. That’s not conservative, it’s cowardice.
Any business with a grain of brains, any where in the world is heading for any country but US to do business. When tyrants are the main course, why would a business hang around waiting to be raped and pillaged by the likes of the terrorist in chief and all his marxist cronies.
The terrorist in chief has pretty much guaranteed the demise of the American economy for the long term, massive unemployment anyone?
P: Why do you feel the need to lie? Nobody has ever said that BP shouldn’t be held responsible, not even once.
What people object to is Obama breaking the law to get to that worthy goal.
I understand that most liberals actually do believe that the ends justify every means. Maybe that’s why liberals usually end up killing people by the millions.
Shakedown YES, your lack of comprehension priceless…..what part of “SHAKEDOWN” with Wall$treet and the bail outs did you NOT UNDERSTAND???? They were told sign the contract or get lots of ACORN style legal action and publicity. That’s Chicago THUGGERY and a shake down and the same offer was made to BP….. to deny and continue to drink the kool-aid does not help. We used to be a nation of laws until the Usurper-in-chief took over thank you liberal Marxists lovers. WE have enough regulations to strangle a whale, BP was never going to leave the mess w/o a cleanup and compensation. Our judicial process would have handled it well enough. BUT NO….. you liberals have to continue to destroy private industry. Chairman-Mao-bama has taken over the banking, auto, health care and now the oil business as he methodically kills our economy and nation. Anyone here astute enough to see the bureaucratic bumbling that is a preview of our new health care system……nice going you geniuses….
BTW any of you liberals ever get a job from a homeless person…..yeah thought not….class warfare classic Marxism ……
So let me get this straight…
Mass Murderers deserve Miranda Rights, a Public Trial and all rights and privileges accorded them by the constitution
BUT
A company that has an accident (yes through neglegence) doesn’t deserve constitutional protection, they don’t get Miranda, they don’t get trial, they simply go straight to the punishment.
Is that it?
When Polution is involved the words “nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” are meaningless as regards the shareholders of BP?
I’ll take the Constitution over Obama any day.
With Obama’s fist clenched around his ‘nads, of course he’[s going to play ventriloquist’s dummy
So that is why you take away the jobs then? So that a businessman cannot help a man to make a living for him and his family? I see.
The private sector is a gift to Americans. It provides a job for those who do not want to own their own businesses.
The American people are supposed to be so stupid that they elect socialism-soon-to-be-communism, which will not provide a job for them, and will take away their rights to everything, including private property.
I don’t think so, and neither does America.
f…. Barton and BP. Christ! our coasts are to going to Sh…
people are losing their livelyhood, and Barton is calling this a shake down? what a f…..ing moron? what state he is from? State of
England? may be he should sit in the House of Commons…
BP f;;;;ed up, took short cuts, and destroyed our economy and they got
to pay for it. Period. who gives a sh… if they go bankrupt.
I think Obama should take over BP…
so what BP pays 15% of dividents in England? so let them not pay for this mess, we will suffer and the British prosper/.
This guy really shouldn’t be in congress…
Unfortunately for him he’s correct. This is something you would expect to be done voluntarily or through arbitration after the coast guard et al. cleaned up the mess.
I really don’t believe we elected a constitutional scholar…more anti scholar.
Our system like it or leave it.
“BP f;;;;ed up, took short cuts, and destroyed our economy and they got
to pay for it. Period.”
Well, miriam, thank God we’ve got not only a petroleum engineer but an expert in economics to advise us on this. That you can, without investigation, immediately identify root cause is astounding. And with the “I just inherited this mess from Bush” begining to wear thin, we are sure fortunate that another goat wandered onto the scene.
“who gives a sh… if they go bankrupt.”
After all, jobs, product, and service, not to mention the savings of millions of interested investors, is of completely no consequence next to your righteous rage. Rage on, baby!
“I think Obama should take over BP…”
Especially since his “take over” of GM, AIG, Fannie, Freddie and Bart’s Pet Shop have been such rousing successes. There’s nothing the private sector can do that isn’t immediately improved by a good dose of government control. Just as the DMV. On the other hand, I’m somewhat confused how this serves to refute the Representative’s “shakedown” characterization…
“This guy really shouldn’t be in congress…”
Let’s be honest. Based upon your last comment I would tend to believe that you wouldn’t argue too much with the idea that nobody should be in congress who disagrees with Dear Leader taking whatever unilateral extra-Constitutional action he deems necessary to accomplish whatever goal he desires.
But thank you for playing, anyway.
To a liberal, the world exists merely to provide them with what they want. No one else has a right to interfere with that acquisition.
In the immortal words of many great men: Go F**K yourself.
“He’s a student like you…”
I didn’t know anyone still listened to the Firesign Theater.
You can always tell when liberal is loosing an argument. They go straight for the personal insults.
Of course the first line of defense for the vast majority of liberals is the personal insult.
In the real world, you have to go to court before you can order someone to pay damages.
In miriam’s world, all you need is someone in authority to order it. Who needs due process, we have hurt people to take care. Who cares about the rule of law, chill’ns need to be fed.
It is a shakedown. What else could it possibly be?
All hail the messiah, Ohama, Obama . . .
Hey Miriam! – This is a hard one. Although the vulgarities are not becoming (they reflect more poorly on you than the spelling and typing) I do understand your perspective. I, like you, want to side with the injured parties in this matter – however this specific episode of the Deep Water story is a little more complicated. Let me help if I may.
Look: as it looks now, BP was responsible for the spill, deaths and subsequent damage through negligence. They will be sued – they should be. They will either loose or settle for staggering sums of money – again they should be. BP will probably be real cooperative because they are also being tried in the court of public opinion as well. The amounts of money will be so great that investors will be hurt and it could permanently damage BP in a fundamental way – when you invest with a company you take risks that management will act reasonably – BP didn’t and investors are going to bite the bullet. BP is going to pay and pay big. None of these things are in question – and none of them have anything to do with the issue at hand.
There are mechanisms to recover losses from negligent companies through the courts (or through settlements). However – a US president demanding an unaccountable slush fund is from a private company is completely unprecedented. It does not matter that BP is in the wrong. This is extortion. This is taking an entity that is vulnerable and shaking them down. This is Chicago thug politics. BP is going to pay – and they should. But this slush fund will not reduce the amount they are going to pay. This is extra. This is mob boss Obama going to someone perceived as weak and demanding his cut.
The thing that many people do not realize is that BP ownership is not 5 or 6 fat cats. BP is owned by hundreds of thousands of people – none of whom had anything to do with the spill. They are going to loose – and loose big. They risked – and lost. However there is no legal president for them loosing more than the damages – just because a sitting president wants paid off in the form of a slush fund he can administer to his political benifit.
Obama is not just collecting damages for injured parties. That is for the courts. Obama is demanding payment from someone solely because they are perceived as too weak to resist his demand. That, my friend, is just plain scary.
And I counted tree misspellings in my own post! Spell check doesn’t work as well when you spell the wrong word right!
Good Lord – “Three”
nuts again Miriam.
I agree with Barton.. Also, there is a lot more to this grab..
Barton was indeed correct. It is a shakedown. But, watching the “show” on C-Span yesterday reminded me of a lynching.
Oh, and a question: Why don’t any of these businesses tell the White House to go and “Phuque” itself and say, “See you in court”. I thought we were a country of laws.
Barton is right about the shakedown: Chicago gangsters in the WH, you betcha.
Boehner and the other GOP wimps should be the ones apologizing to Barton for not standing with him against that bloody a$$hole in the WH who thinks he’s king of the world.
Rule of law? What’s that? Due Process? Oh, you mean like in the old days before the radical transformation? Well, Mr. Ass Kicker is going to get his ass kicked out of the people’s house, and pronto. We don’t take kindly to dictators, Chicago-style or otherwise.
darcy to Barton: please retract your apology and tell Boehner he failed the test!
Many people are looking at the BP shakedown as a singularity. I see it as policy. If Obama can call in BP and “discuss” (behind closed doors) the oil leak and then come out and say that BP will provide $20 billion as a first step, then what’s to stop Obama from doing it again with, say, Microsoft or Wal-Mart or Joe’s Diner?
Miriam, I think the problem ist that you are on of the little people who simply cannot grasp the large picture fundamentals. It is just writ too large for you. So, I shall reduce it to a level you can understand, the personal.
Let’s say you own a dog, and he bites some kid’s face. The damage is horrific. Very sympathetic victim, right? The public is in an uproar about it. Maybe you were grossly negligent, because the dog had dug a deep hole and escaped and you had never done anything about the hole as it was developing.
So, tell me, miriam, what should be done to you? Should we follow established procedure? Take the dog away and have it put down. Cite you, perhaps even charge you with a crime? Should the child’s family sue to recover damages? All the above?
No, in your view, the Mayor should personally get involved and demand that you pony the money up, up-front, and put it under his crony’s control, or else. Now, he has absolutely no legal authority to do so, but the damage was horrific, so it is okay for him to go completely outside the law, even though he is specifically sworn to uphold the law.
Is that how you really think, or do you think what Obama did was okay, because he is doing it to someone else? It could never happen to you….
Nice shot, Marc! Spot on!
Unfortunately, there are millions of Miriams out there deciding cases based on emotions and feelings, not facts and logic. Sure, they feel good about themselves for a while, but eventually Obama will come after them. Once the shoe’s on the other foot, it won’t feel so good.
Miriam, Miriam, Miriam-
In this country we have things called “courts,” which are presided over by men and women we call “judges;” and these “judges” together with panels of citizens we call “juries” determine the liability of wrongdoers according to something we call “the law.”
We do NOT have a monarchy or dictatorship where penalties can simply be imposed by imperial fiat or Fuhrerbefehl.
Seriously- your response is classic, classic liberal fascism: you think they’re bad, so they must be destroyed by untrammeled State power.
Quite a few liberals have openly wished that Obama could become a dictator so that he wouldn’t have to worry about opposing voices or opinions anymore.
I have to say, Bohemond, your restraint is exemplary; and your skill at stating the obvious is to be envied.
Who knew all the legal and constitutional scholars gathered in one place. In this country we also have what is called arbitration. In fact David Vitter (R-LA) wanted to set one up to deal with the spill related suits. It would shut down our courts if every injured party filled suit at once. Not to mention how taxing it would be on BP’s law firms. No one wants this to take place in the courts and this includes BP. Not to mention that BP wants to look good in the public’s eye. You constitutional scholars are right, if Obama had actually just taken 20 bil it would violate the due process clause of the 4th amendment. However, BP choose wisely to go with the escrow account. Thankfully republicans are not in power and BP will actually be held accountable for more than 75 million dollars. Obama finally showed some teeth and did something right. Those of you who side with Barton are such a distinct minority it is incredible. The escrow actually insures people will be paid earlier than 8 years from now.
Arbitration is still a legal process with rules of evidence, etc.
Your attempts to provide cover for your boy Barry are failing miserably. As usual.
Classic case of the DFrum thinking-man’s dilemma: Be wrong and romantic, or right and repulsive.
Be patient, we are getting there.
One sector of the economy at a time.
It’s what the marxist subversives call “changing the material constitution” of a country.
This administration is terrorizing the free-market economy.
Slowly, very slowly.
That’s why they didn’t do anything for 50 days to stop the oil spill. They need disasters, they cherish them, they use them.
We need the results of this disaster to be kept up front and personal for the coming elections, from now to 2012.
After such a disastrous showing of authority and lack of concern for Americans in need,
obama needs to be drop kicked out of office.
Barton’s right. Step one in Dictatorship 101
Anne, I agree, the catch is that zero fails to grasp the fact that just the people that voted for him initially are stupid enough to follow the oil spill lead till 2012 and maybe vote for him again. The rest of us had him figured from before the primary was finished and are not follow his scam lead, and the numbers that have gone over to the Conservative side and won’t support him in the future are growing and this clown is toast, hopefully by 2010.
I can dream.
This was the political equivalent by the WH of Eliot Spitzer’s typical bully tactic (when he was AG)of trying people in the press in order to get them to settle before a lawsuit was even brought. Very dangerous precedent, it seems to me. Bone-headed comment, but correct indeed. The WH wants due process… but only for terrorists and our enemies!
Amen to that
Of course Barton was right — it was indeed an extra-judicial shakedown done shamelessly to win the praise of the fawning clowns in the main stream media.
Obama thinks he was elected king, not president.
The real shame is what came after the Barton comments – which I agree with. The republican leaders crawled out of their holes in order to distance themselves with Barton’s comments. I bet they (silently) agree with most of what Barton said.
Big deal that the same guy who distributed the 911 cash payouts to victim’s families is going to be in charge. I don’t trust anyone connected to Obummer with one single $ – this is considerably more. Who’s to say that some of that money won’t find it’s way into the pockets of democrat supporters such as SEIU and the remnants of ACORN? Where there’s a will there’s a way – and with SEIU et al where there’s a dollar there’s a dozen ways to capture it.
Look for massive fraud – but don’t expect it to be widely reported.
I expect Darrel Issa (Politico article) will be quite busy once the repubs gain the house in 2011. Might Obama be on the menu? First stop on that agenda would be the question of Obama’s birthplace if it were up to me. Then on to the question of who bankrolled his education – and his travel to Pakistan.
So many questions – so little time.
Yes, it’s such an outrage that a private company be compelled to pony up after they have soiled and polluted not only public assets but lives as well. Sorry, but the ‘voluntary’ route simply does not work in situations like this (the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history). Barton simply revealed for all to see the sewage that lurks under the moderate veneer of conservative ideology. Yes, conservatives are always “sorry” when their pimps have to pay up (that’s what they call socialism or Marxism). That means less dough for them.
Compel them all you want but do it legally.
Exactly. No one here is saying BP shouldn’t pay up. We are saying the law should be followed. If a company–EVEN and ESPECIALLY one that has an industrial accident–cannot count on our laws to give it due process, then why would ANY company want to invest here?
If BP pulls up stakes and goes to Brazil or elsewhere, I wouldn’t blame it one bit. Nor would I blame any other oil company for doing the same.
Taxpayer….you point out that “Exactly. No one here is saying BP shouldn’t pay up.”….well, shoot. Now you’re taking all the fun out of it for those unwilling or unable to think. (And I thank you.)
Idiots. Of course, these are the same yokels who claim that police who are occasionally forced to fire their weapons at armed gang members only joined the police force so they could kill teenagers. Sure don’t want to screw up their lack of comprehension with any nuance based on reality.
Ah, well, all in a day’s work in Washington. BP was threatened, so they paid up; Barton was threatened, so he backed down. Musical chairs played with the survival of the nation. Gotta love the incompetents running this country.
BP was a leftist sugar-daddy to begin with, including to Obama.
Instead of this being handled legally, now the President has a $20 billion re-election fund to play with.
The Conservative’s pimp? Can progressives be any less self-conscious or less in grasp of simple facts? Campaign contribution records show that it was PimpDaddy Obama flush with BP cash. Furthermore it was the Obama regime who was in bed with BP as one of its cap and trade enablers. Like anyone else who becomes inconvenient, they had to go under Obamas hopey-changey bus. The Golfer-in-Chief simply needed to look as if he were doing something. What he did was just another example of the Chicago way,laws be damned.
I hear noone saying that BP shouldn’t be held liable for its actions or damages caused by negligence. What I do hear people saying is that while it is the President’s duty and responsibility to enforce the laws, it not within his purview, nor should it be, to arbitrarilly enforce rules he just makes up without legal basis. Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase “a country of laws, not men?” This sort of shakedown is exactly what one would expect in some banana republic, where corporations are expected to grease the palms of governent, and is disgraceful to be seen here in the US.
submandave – Yup, we have crossed the river to fully “Banana Republic” status. And the Libtards think this is a good thing, mouth-breathers that they are.
While no one is saying that BP should not be held liable, doing nothing would in fact prevent them from being liable in any meaningful way. Lets not forget that the escrow is better for BP in many ways. Not to mention the fact that there are not enough lawyers to cover all the potential law suits in that region. Lets start with the fact that the current liability cap for BP is at 75 million, and republicans are trying to keep it there. Here is my first example of why doing nothing would in fact keep BP from being liable. ALso, Barton takes BP money even if it is not as much as Obama, but back to your guys do nothing approach. If we do nothing and the thousands of suits go through the normal court process regular people are not going to be properly compensated, instead a bunch of lawyers will take a third of the money that belongs to the people who are already getting screwed. The little money they do see will not come when its is needed but many years down the line. You people are living in a fantasy world. Not even Bill O’riely is willing to go down this rabbit hole with you people. You are just isolating yourselves more and more with your hypocrite rhetoric. The only thing you people actually believe in is that anything Obama does is bad. That is the extent of your political beliefs at this point.
Courts have the power to compell, but only after a full and fair trail, and with the right of appeal.
Last time I checked, the president does not have the power to compell anyone to give up anything.
Though I’m not surprised that you are another liberal who thinks presidents should be dictators. (Unless the president is a conservative, then he should have no power whatsoever.)
As some have already pointed out, this is not benevolence towards those who have been harmed by the oil leak. It is an illegal shakedown of a corporation. Obama can not legally demand that BP (or anyone) fork over cash in exchange for not criminally prosecuting BP.
That’s what Barton was talking about. I’ve already written my rep (Mike McCaul, R-TX) about this. The fact that some Republicans are putting pressure on Barton is disturbing.
Look for Wal-Mart to be the next target (pun not intended). Obama will continue to go after corporations with deep pockets. The trouble with that is that it’s a finite source of revenue. After a while, Atlas will shrug.
‘Compelled to pay up’ would be a valid description, were it done under rule of law. This wasn’t. The extralegal ‘compulsion’ is despicable. It was the sort of thing FDR did in seizing control and assets of private businesses for his own political gain, and it’s no more legal now than it was then. FDR lucked out, in dying before Republican control returned to Congress. Obama and his Chicago mobsters may not be so lucky.
There’s a worse thought. FDR escaped effective public criticism of his extra-legal bullying of businesses, largely through becoming a Great War Leader against Germany and Japan. There’s no overestimating the political chicanery our current administration will apply towards clutching power as long as possible. What sort of ‘war emergency’ would benefit Obama, and who’d be demonized as the Opponent(s)?
No one said that the private company should not be made to pay for damages. That’s the truth. We want it done the American way, and not the european socialist thug way.
Obtuseness is not a virtue.
On the other hand, for a liberal, it’s a necessity.
Praetorian – I think you missed my point – I never said BP shouldn’t have to pony up the $s – and I never mentioned ‘voluntary’ either – your reading comprehension is IMO suspect. They should be made to pay the costs associated with the spill. I just dislike the manner in which they were goat-roped into doing it – and mostly who they turned over the money to.
What’s wrong with an honest and disinterested 3rd party controlling 20B dollars. Does a party hack having a 20B $ checkbook not bother you just a little? I’m sure the shoe would be on the other foot if Bush had done something in this way – something I seriously doubt he’d have done.
Yes, bad politics, but it was absolutely a shakedown. Obama, through Eric Holder, had already threatened criminal prosecution. Holder was sitting at the table with Obama and the BP execs. Bringing a gun to the meeting would have been redundant.
You couched that in terms I believe are inappropriate. Why go the weasel way rather than state outright Barton was both honest and right.
Screw populist perceptions – the public sees through this kind of BS as is quite obvious from Congressional Approval ratings. The cavorting show ponies in Congress and the Grey Headed clowns in the Senate not to mention the media buffoons are fooling only themselves. Forget about Obama’s nakedness, what about all the other buck naked idiots – the bastards and bitches are too old and ugly for the whole comedy to be termed an orgy so how the heck to describe such a grotesque spectacle.
The Tea Party people should try some hard love logic with the General Public on this – they just might strike a very loud chord. Once more Republican leadership is shown as out of touch and craven.
Love the ‘buck naked’ shot.
I fell over when there was condemnation for his comments. The Honorable Congressman Barton is speaking the truth and that is now a censureable offense. Unless there is a law and there are already laws that caps liability then yes, it is strong arming. BP has created this mess and they said they would take care of it. The judicial system is there to make sure they do–Period. How does the president just override the law? And then the media wants him to wisely disperse the $20 billion. And out of the other side of Obama’s mouth he claims the Jones Act prevents him from bringing in better technology in non US union oil skimming ships because it is the law. Are we that stupid to let the main stream media pounce on the honorable congressman?
Barton is the perfect symbol for modern Republican Party. In their world there’s no version of government that suggests that private interests of any kind should be able to pass the bill off to the public for damage they do. You can only think that if your idea of defending the free market has been warped into wanting to give free money away to business; that’s what it would mean to let BP off the hook.
You can buy into the false populism that the GOP sells but most can see this for what it was and who the GOP really represents. While the right hand of the GOP plays a waltz for the party’s dance with big business; the left hand beats out a populist rhythm (i.e. abortion, gays, etc.). Two words appropriately sum up working class voters who vote for conservatives: False Consciousness. Look it up.
One of these days I’ll meet a liberal who doesn’t use lies instead of facts.
Nobody has ever suggested that BP shouldn’t be forced to fully compensate everyone who has been hurt.
The problem is with the president violating the law and constitution in order to short circuit the legal process.
If the law is to mean anything, it has to apply evenly to everyone, even people you don’t like.
Unfortunately liberals aren’t interested in laws, they are only interested in getting what they want, without care as to who or what is destroyed in the process.
Well said. The liberal must always lie because what they want to achieve is immoral, corrupt, degenerate and utterly reprehensible.
The American Constitution is remarkable; highly moral, it lifts people to equal status, so that they can be free, and have the opportunity to achieve much in their life. What does the filthy social/communism offer that can compare to it? Nothing.
The liberal must lie, twist, deceive, and trample on such a thing of beauty to accomplish their selfish and destructive ends. There is no low that is too low for such beings.
Well, not here, and not now. Just wait and see. America is social justice, offered to the world. Everyone knows it, and is not deceived. Capitalism is the most moral form of economy. We are not giving it up. The congressman was right, and America knows it. Just visit the comments sections all over the internet.
November is coming, and if not November, then something else will come. Just wait and see.
Well I’m a libertarian so none of your attacks on conservatives apply to me. But I have to note that “wanting to give free money away to business” is the essence of the liberal’s worldview, and is not consistent with any “conservative” views that I have ever heard (many Republicans are gulty along with Democrats but we are not talking parties right now, which is a whole different issue). Of course, liberals (in both parties) redistribute enough wealth to the bottom half to pose as Robin Hood but the real money goes to the powerful in business and politics. So, that said, the people you are attacking never argued that BP should not pay and you are either an idiot or intentioanlly mistating their views to prop up a straw man (or maybe both). You are a waste of our time. Go away.
Robin Hood robbed the King to give to the poor; there is nothing, by the wildest stretch of the imagination, that equates him with liberalism. He would be here stealing from obama, not the people.
And there is no such thing as a free lunch, which even you know to be true. It will all backfire on you. The modern day Republican party will do against the liberals; and America knows it. Just read the results of the NPR poll, and weep.
No matter what you say, it is twisted, and can be undone.
You seem to be stuck on this notion that ANYONE wants BP to ‘be let off the hook’ instead of seeing Obama for what he is – and is doing to BP. Obama shakes BP down to the tune of 20B $s and turns the checkbook over to an Obama hack and all you can think of is anyone who complains about the process is letting BP ‘off the hook’.
You don’t see anything wrong with the process? It’s the process that can lead you to jail. Get it? No?
I do.
And I have a lot of company – including some in the MSM that understands what happened.
To most liberals, the ends always justifies the means. For people like Praet and miriam, the fact that Obama found a quick way to do something good is all the justification needed. To them, anyone who objects just wants the victims to suffer. They are incapable of seeing past this immediate gratification of need.
Good point, Speedypete: Pres. O picks and chooses the laws he will follow as he determines their expediency value for his “transforming” agenda. Witness the bogus, Huffpo pleasing, federal lawsuit in the works against Arizona’s SB1070 — a law passed by AZ because O refuses to enforce existing federal laws as HE IS REQUIRED TO DO UNDER HIS OATH OF OFFICE.
Any objective observer could only conclude that O’s efforts at “transformation” are in fact acts of “destruction.”
Here is some fleshing out of my assertion that “transformation” is but code for destruction.
http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2010/06/17/all-the-legality-of-a-car-jacking/
NOW HEAR THIS:
“The Tea Party people should try some hard love logic with the General Public on this – they just might strike a very loud chord. Once more Republican leadership is shown as out of touch and craven.”
Definitely. Watching Congressmen become pre-emptively obsequious to the General Public is like watching cats flee from each other. Stupid beasts–they do not realize that the other is mindlessly posturing and is secretly afraid. If Republicans would just start standing by what they said, though there would be an initial disturbance in the public discourse, it would soon be followed by general acceptance. At least among Rasmussen’s “likely voters” (who, in the final analysis, are the only ones that count).
You’ve touched on something here.
Like the tobacco litigation from the 90s; having a huge pot of money lying around is basically a gigantic gift to plaintiff lawyers, who are (not coincidentally) amongst THE biggest financial donors to the Democrat party.
Individual lawyers are inevitably literally going to make life-fortunes from this $20 Billion dollar slush fund, and in many individual cases, its probably going to occur after minimal work (eg filing a few boilerplate forms).
BP shouldn’t cave on this here. Instead of submitting to this Presidential extortion, they should have simply said “Our main concern right now is stopping the leak and minimizing the economic and environmental damage. Of course we’ll compensate the victims accordingly, but its too early to know what amount of money will be appropriate at this time”.
Obama is destrying free market economy? so let BP come
here sh…. on our back yard and the US tax payer will clean it
up!!!! Great!
Let me ask you conservetive geniuses who do you want to pay for it?
Certainly, right after we deduct all the billions of dollars and tens of thousands of middle-class jobs BP has pumped into the economy over the last 30 years since the last major spill. Of course, we should also deduct all the billions in taxes that BP has paid local, state and federal governments over that time.
If we were going to balance the books honestly, even after deducting the cost of the spill, I think that we’d all collective end up owing BP rather a lot of money
miriam, have you ever had even a casual acquiantance with reality?
Do you see a single person on this thread or any other who has suggested, much less stated that BP should not pay for the clean up?
The issue is whether the president is exceeding his authority by ordering BP to cough up the money, and he is. Punishment and compensation are the roll of the courts, not the president.
Miriam, let’s try this thought. BP came here and sh** in our backyard? Okay, how did they get there? Oh, they had to get approval… from the Obama administration. Well they donated oodles of money to them, so they got special treatment. Despite their terrible record of adhering to standards, they were given permission to drill, and then inspections were never done, because, as I said, they gave heavily to the Obama campaign and administration. that means Obama and Company created this disaster!
Obama always says he wants more regulations, but he casts them aside if convenient to do so. Regulations are a cudgel against your political enemies, and waived aside for your friends. They are merely a tool of power, if you have no regard for rules. You get to use them arbitrarily if you are in power. This “shakedown” is also just another violation of the rules.
Hey Miriam, what should Obama pay for making the oil spill worst and for being up the Unions A$$? I think maybe we should bring a class action law suit against this Administration, personally, not tax payers money for mishandling the oil spill! The facts are – this oil spill should have never reached the shores, he was too busy playing Golf, having Hollywood style dinners at the White House, flying across country to party with Boxer, instead of waving the Jones Act and all the red tape so that the states could do what they would need to , so that the 13 other countries that had the technology to help skim the oil as it was coming up. How about getting back to companies with the boons in the U.S. instead of getting the cheap ones from China all because he didn’t want to upset the Unions? Who comes first the American people or the Unions? This is a crisis , he has shown the world that he cannot lead anyone out of a paper bag much less a crisis! He is the laughing stock of the world!!!I think all the out of work oil riggers and people that supply the rigs should sue Obama personally for loss of wages because after the six months there will not be a job to go back to!The Rigs will have moved to friendlier waters. Makes you think that Obama has an agenda, to help his rich friend Soros and making the spill worse to pass cap and tax , which has nothing to do with cleaning up the environment! If CO2 is a poison, some one needs to tell the plants that use it to grow with. How do you explain the humans only account for 1% of the CO2 and the sun accounts for the rest 99%. How are you going to control the sun? Cap and tax is just another way for the left liberals and Obama’s friends to get rich off of our tax payers money! This Administration is nothing but a mafia , Chicago style!!! Obama = Hugo Chavez. If we so not change this Congress it will be bye bye freedoms! On top of that , Obama attacks one of our states, lets a foreign President come into our country and tell us we should shut up and accept their citizens that they do not want, and then get a standing ovation! Then on top of all that Obama is too much of a coward to address the problem much less tell Governor Brewer that they are going to sue over the bill. No he has to send a women to do his job and let it slip in another foreign country!!! Obama is out to destroy this country anyway he can!!
NOW HEAR THIS:
Exactly. Now is the time for Victor Davis Hanson to come to the aid of his country. Join me in delivering the message.
By the time Fox News Channel completes its circle jerk promoting McCain, Gingrich, Palin, Guliani, Thompson, Crist, and the list goes on and on, and freezing out Mitt Romney, possibly the only potential candidate of presidential stature, the pot will be so blackened and sticky that only the Magic Mulatto Messiah will emerge. If it’s required, his thugs will take to the streets and declare him re-elected without the necessity of a vote.
The “Tea Party People” are incapable of outing a Communist, Constitution of the United States notwithstanding.
“The Tea Party people should try some hard love logic with the General Public on this – they just might strike a very loud chord. Once more Republican leadership is shown as out of touch and craven.”
It’s pretty clear that this was a “shakedown.”
Just look at yesterday’s hearing (other than Barton’s comment).
The summary of their questioning (esp. Waxman and Dingel [Stupak was an idiot as well]) went something like this:
(Regardless of the status of investigations,)please answer us with information that will criminally implicate you and your sorry-ass company, and, if you can’t answer now, supply us in writing (for the record) of that information that shows you were criminally negligent.
It was an embarrassment to the United States of America how these Democrat “I’m against all oil companies” congressmen acted and treated the BP CEO. They berated him, interrupted him, and generally told him he was lower than whale shit.
Isn’t it obvious … they won’t criminally prosecute BP in return for $20 billion.
They won’t criminally BP in return for $20 billion….today. Next week, next month, next year, however….
I totally agree with Congressman Barton. He was brave enough to call it as he saw it — a shakedown. Now we see that most of the Republican Party are still limp-wristed and spineless for not supporting him. OK, GOP — do not bother to contact me for any more donations.
This fund is not being overseen by an independent party, but rather by one of Obumbles’ administrative personnel. Let’s see when the dust settles if that $20 billion actually goes to those who were affected by the rig explosion and ensuing spill or if it goes to Obumbles supporters, union workers and/or other bureaucratic entities who are in need of more funds.
Now we see that most of the Republican Party are still limp-wristed and spineless
—
Nothing new here.
Pretty funny when a Congressman accidently speaks the truth and is punished for his transgression. I wonder why the public has less regard for Congress than the Mafia.
I would take all this gnashing of teeth about protecting the little people against economic deprivations of big evil corporations if Obama’s drilling ban wasn’t going to prove more economically devastating in the long run than the oil spill itself.
You will note in all the coverage about the economic damage, there is intentionally never any mention of how much of the total of the economy of the Gulf states relies on the oil industry. It is somewhere north of 50% total. All fishing by contrast is in the lower single digits ($4.4 billion yearly revenue) and tourism in the low double digits. More importantly, oil field jobs provide a solid middle-class lifestyle for most workers whereas the majority fishing jobs and tourism service jobs provide only minimum wage. Fishing towns and tourist traps are improvised communities.
The yearly revenue of the oil industry in the Gulf is measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars. $20 billion dollars is a drop in the bucket. The oil industry could easily compensate every other affected industry without breaking stride. However, shutting down the oil industry will make the communities of the Gulf coast ghost towns.
Perhaps more importantly, shrimping and tourism are luxury products. We can do without them if we must. Oil by contrast, is the lifeblood of the economy and literally keeps billions of people alive. We can’t do without oil. If we had to choose between luxury foods and luxury tourism and keeping people alive with oil, we must choose oil.
I am begging all you self-appointed do gooders to please think about the millions of ordinary people who depend on the gulf oil industry before you destroy their lives and communities in a fit of self-rightousness.
Crap, the line: “The yearly revenue of the oil industry in the Gulf is measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars. $20 billion dollars is a drop in the bucket.” should of course read “The yearly revenue of the oil industry in the Gulf is measured in the hundreds of billions of dollars. $20 billion dollars is a drop in the bucket.”
Thank you for a very sane analysis.
Folks, prosecutors do this every day of the week in thos country. BP did not fight this because they know they had a decent chance to be criminally indicted, and it is likely that they know they have behaved in a criminal manner. So they rolled over like a capo after he hears the wiretaps.
The real scandal might be that Holder promised to not indict for a mere 20 billion.
“Let me ask you conservetive geniuses who do you want to pay for it?”
From what I’m reading here, it appears that the “geniuses” would prefer the people on the Gulf coast and the feds start the litigation, and, as commenter “looking closely” points out, create “basically a gigantic gift to plaintiff lawyers” as was done with tobacco litigation in the ’90s.
Or am I reading you guys wrong? Help me out here…escrow account or litigation?
You’ve probably summed it up nicely. That’s generally the way it works. The lawyers payouts will be offset somewhat by fines and restitutions. However, in the shake-down route, you have to deduct for the money that will line the politicians’ and bureaucrats’ pockets. Ultimately, less money will make it into the hands of those affected by the spill because of what Obama has done. And then there’s the silly argument about constitutional authority and rule of law. How archaic can we “geniuses” get?
I can’t see where you get the idea that it is a choice between “escrow account or litigation?”
As I understand, litigation will take place no matter what. It will take place without the escrow or with it. The question seems to be, what is the purpose of the escrow and on what authority it is being set up?
Litigation, if necessary. It is the American way.
The so-called “escrow account” will never put a penny into the hands of those damaged on the Gulf coast. It is a slush fund, or will be, the minute the criminal obama starts dipping his blood-covered hands into it. obama waded in the blood of those killed in this disaster, when he refused to do anything about this problem, except to play golf, attend music shows, eat snowcones and shrimp, and PARTY – which is the only thing he has done since he went to the WH.
Th congressman was right, and America knows it.
Barton was exactly on point!
As I watched Obama on Tuesday night and he came to this fund concept, I couldn’t help but visualize the Rev. Jesse Jackson smiling at the possibilities. So now, in addition to the hundreds of czars that we now have, we are also going to have a corps of appointed administrators helping to manage and distribute BP’s money. You KNOW that some of those folks are going to be living high off the hog. Now Obama has some tangible opportunities that he can put on the table to convince candidates to drop. Maybe, Mr. Greene (with an “e”) of SC will get involved.
The ACORNers and other folks that will dip in to this fund for adminstrative purposes only, will gain some experience for when the are employed on Obama’s death panels, rationing healthcare to those who deserve it oor can pay the bribes.
The yearly revenue of the oil industry in the Gulf is measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars. $20 billion dollars is a drop in the bucket.
Uh, flaunting your innumeracy won’t make you any points in the long run. Hundreds of millions are a drop in the bucket, compared to $20 billion.
That was an obvious typo. The oil industry produces revenues in the Gulf of hundreds of billions of dollars a year. I think it says a lot about you that you couldn’t even interpret the context and immediately recognize the typo.
It won’t win you any points in the long run.
Markthegreat has a great idea!!! let’s take them to court!! have them drag it for years.. and have the people of Lousiana suffer.
Several liberal commenters have already broached the subject of making Obama a dictator so that he can just order people to do the right thing.
Who needs something as trivial as laws when we have people like miriam and obama to tell us what the right thing is, and force us to do it.
Of course, Id figure the communist idiot Miriam wouldnt have known(or doesnt want to know) that BP has ALREADY paid out over 100 million in claims, and Id imagine its just getting started. Tell me Miriam, how much is Soros paying you out of the Obama slush fund?
And like the people haven’t suffered already for how many days because of the lack of leadership from the mighty “o”!? Get a clue, troll!
miriam, do us all a favor and don’t ever say you didn’t inhale, ok?
To date, BP has been paid out $53 million to 20,000 claimants, and has been working through another 22,000 claims, which is admittedly a whole lot more activity than has been seen from the current administration. Had anyone in the White House been at all serious about this problem, the spill would have been contained a long time ago. But instead they’ve sat on their hands when they haven’t used them to wave away help from other countries and now go outside their legal jurisdiction to create a slush fund that, as goes one of the rumors, will be used to help pay for Obamacare.
Now, consider this (source, Detroit News, of all strange places):
“Obama’s incessant bashing of BP also isn’t helping get the oil out of the Gulf. The company’s stock has plummeted, its bond rating has been downgraded and there are whispers on Wall Street of a hostile takeover or break-up.”
If a hostile takeover were to happen, there goes the money, period, as any obligations would go with the takeover. In fact, if it was a hostile country taking over BP they could walk away from both funding that $20 billion slush fund AND walk away from any further effort and expense to plug the leak in the Gulf of Mexico, too. And then what? Exactly what kind of “victory” will our Nancy-boy in Chief claim by essentially cutting off America’s nose to spite her face? Exactly what words of comfort for the people in Louisiana, Alabama and Florida will scroll across the teleprompters then?
This is why America was founded as a country where its citizens (and corporate entities) are subject to the rule of law, not of men. As distasteful as it may be for a Kool-Aid addict to admit, President Walking Eagle stepped outside the law and therefore Joe Barton was absolutely correct in his remarks.
So when the payout are slow or not as much as people want, who gets the blame? Not BP, they made their deposit on time. The blame goes to…FEMA, DMV, government flunky number 5. Already seen Senators talking about using the money to pay for healthcare instead of letting injured parties use funds as they see fit.
The $100 million for lost wages caused by the new drilling suspension? Won’t cover a month of estimated wages for workers on the 33 affected rigs.
Thats not the worst of it unfortunately. The owners of those very expensive rigs aren’t going to let them remain idle for long. They float and can be towed to other locations – like Venezuela and Brazil where offshore drilling is in full swing. Some may find themselves in Cuba if they can swing it.
Building a deep water rig takes years.
Once they are fully employed elsewhere it won’t matter whether Obama lifts his restriction.
Look for him to lift that restriction very soon unless he’s even dumber than I think he is – and I think he’s stuck on stupid.
Well, folks like Barton just do not think before they speak but he is just making sure he butters his own bread. Barton is a big oil lackey from Texas anyway and comments like that ensure a good payday for his campaign, also, the damage caused to the GOP will be minimal as he is off the radar on the national scene. And both parties have their share of loose cannons. Water under the bridge…..
Translation: “blah blah blah..lefty talking point…blah blah blah…oral flatulence…blah blah blah…Obama is my god…blah blah blah…ChimpyMcBushHitler…blah blah blah…Haliburton”
You lefties hate oil companies – perceiving them as evil money sucking grubs – yet you have no problem with the idea of The Goracle (Al Gore) getting fat rich trading what amounts to (hot) air – and at the expense of ‘the small people’ – to paraphrase something I heard a few days ago.
Gore – and companies like GE who are trying to force a jet engine on the Pentagon that they say they can’t use and can’t afford – and are forcing so called ‘green energy’ on us – for which GE stands to make a fortune should their agenda come round to them – and a rat like George Soros who preys on the ills of currencies in trouble are your real heroes.
You must be very proud of your heroes – I know your heroes appreciate you. Tell me – what do you expect they will share with you once they get where they are going?
lefties, on principle, hate anyone who is more successful than they are. For most lefties, that would include 90% of the population.
Markthegreat:
this a national emergency we don’t go to courts to reolve national emergency… the president did not cross the line and did exactly the right
thing.. f……ing BP would have drgged this in court and wind up paying nothing
One constant amongst liberals, is that they have absolutely no use for laws, and they believe that anyone they don’t like has no rights.
No wonder they applauded when Stalin and Pol Pot killed millions.
miriam would no doubt love to kill anyone who gets between her and anything she feels entitled to.
No he didnt lady. This is called extortion-the only ones losing here are the BP shareholders. We are supposed to have something called the rule of law. Go take your “victim” crud somewhere else. Its ObamaPOS who just ordered the coast guard to inspect the skimmers ,taking them off line for 36 hours. The Same ObamaPOS who , along with his statist Interior Sec Ken Salazar, inserted language AFTER the report was written that the experts all agreed to shut down all offshore drilling when then didnt. The same ObamaPOS who wont waive the Jones Act because he doesnt want to upset the unions. The same ObamaPOS who waited 50 days before allowing boom to be used that would have contained the spill. By the way-Are you putting out the same venom towards the environuts, who drove offshore drilling into deep waters. The same environuts that led to the leveee failures in Nawlins after Katrina. BP should ,and will pay. Too bad someone like you cant see the forest thru the trees, or are to caught up listening to MSNBC and NPR, government house organs.
darth vader,
You are spot on. The truth hurts, especially when it hits the liberal lies direct on the chin. Point of correction on the levees. The levees that failed were “temporary levees”, meant to be replaced with ones meeting the same or improved engineering standards as the remaining “permanent levees”. The temporary levees should have been replaced years before Katrina, but the funds, set aside for permanent replacements, were re-directed to other, less critical but politically convenient, projects that helped line the pockets of supporters and friends of the Democrat mayor of New Orleans and the governor of Louisiana. Check out HurricaneKatrinaRelief.com and read the FAQs section.
Obama did a public shakedown of BP. Noone can offer an argument to this simple fact. Of course, Nelson of Nebraska made the comment that Obama had the “moral authority” to do so, not a constitutional authority. Every conservative I know fully supports BP paying for the damages across the board. Not one has argued any other point. What they have argued is that BP is entitled to the same due process of law as anyone or any business operating in America has. BP has the same rights as every illegal crossing the Mexican border in the middle of the night has, guaranteed by our constitution.
Guess the new order of hope and change allows the president, the highest law and legal authority figure in the nation, to arbitrarily change the constitution whenever he perceives the need arises to do so.
My, my, what have we as a gullible nation exposed ourselves to and allowed to occupy the highest and most powerful (no longer) elected office in the free world?
Miriam, this is going to court. That is a given. Some one must formally determine exactly how much, how and when. In that country – that someone is the courts. There is no alternative – this is going to happen. Even a voluntary settlement must be approved by the courts.
The issue is not whether or not BP should pay. They are going to pay. They know that. They do not dispute that. The issue is the president of the United States shaking down a private company for a 20 billion dollar unaccountable slush fund that he will administer as a political asset almost like some government aid program.
Miriam, I have no sympathy for BP management. I have some sympathy for the thousands of BP owners who just bought what they thought was a safe stock and are now going to take it in the shorts – but even that isn’t the point. The issue is Obama shaking down a private company for $20B – completely outside the courts – that he can personally administer for his own political benefit. Obama is beginning to believe he is a king. When I last checked – we were still a representative republic and no where in the enumerated powers of the presidency does he have the power to extract money from private companies to personally administrate without the involvement of congress or the courts.
I don’t recall hearing O invoke the emergency poseurs act. He brought in all his non-experts to evaluate the situation. This administration is just as complicit as BP. I’d love to have been a fly on the wall during their meeting. Is this monumental incompetence or are both parties covering something up?
miriam, as others have already pointed out, BP is already paying out money. The reason for this is simple. They know that they will probably lose in court, so it costs them less to just go ahead and pay legitimate claims.
I’m really not surprised that you believe that laws can be discarded whenever it is convenient.
y the way-BP is not “paying” 20 billion. BP is not paying there dividends for the next 3 months at a minimum. So who gets screwed? The little guy, the BP shareholder. Just like the same thing with GM, where the union thugs got put ahead of the shareholders.
Liberals use government to steal whatever ain’t nailed down.
What else is new?
Joe Barton looked like a giant among men yesterday. We are supposed to live in a country of laws. Barack Obama and his goon squad are making this country look like a banana republic.
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.[1]
This is from the United States Constitution. Barack Hussein Obama has no power to demand money from anyone. He is violating the Constitution on a daily basis, and just as he said one time, “we’re keeping score.” So are we. If he can do this to BP, what can he do to you? Perhaps, he will decide one day, he wants your property, and just take it. After all, laws aren’t for him. We don’t know at this point what even happened. By the way, BP couldn’t do anything without the oversight of Obama’s MMS. Where were they at the hearings yesterday? Where was his CZAR Ken Salazar, who was busy rafting in CO, and was too busy to return when this thing happened? Why did it take Obama nine days to take any action in the Gulf? Was it on purpose, so he could have an excuse to seize the oil business, just like health care, and the financial industry? Did he want it to get worse, so he could try to swindle people, into going along with this phony cap and trade garbage? All so his friends could get rich selling air, on the Chicago Climate Exchange. Barack Hussein Obama is going to be impeached, we are going to see to it. Bravo, Joe Barton. If BP are criminals, so is Hussein, and his gang of thieves.
Impeachment then the tar and feathering. He’s on course to be the most reviled POTUS ever!
The fact that the speaker happened to be a somewhat portly Caucasian over the age of fifty didn’t help matters either. David Letterman quipped, “Nice to see you rich white guys sticking up for each other.”
Takes one to know one Dave. I’m sure you have much more money then Joe Barton. We all know you can relate to the little guy Dave, just like Hussein. Hussein thinks there comes a point when you’ve made enough money? Just who the hell is he to decide who makes too much money. This coming from a guy who claimed five million on his income tax return last year. This guy needs to be removed from office, by impeachment as soon as we can.
Will someone please tell David Letterman that he is a “rich white guy”? Thanks.
No he’s not…he was just drawn that way.
Letterman is a bitter old man with a 13 year old’s brain.
GDT: you have a point here and your point is well taken. I guess I am more
angry at their arrogance than anythin else. If we f….ed in
Europe, the whole Europeans would come down on us like a f…….sledge
hammer…
I am now going up town on 63rd street smoke a cigar, have a
stiff scotch and chase a few W….n!!!
Have a good weekend…
Outstanding! Those (buy the way) are two of the three key business skills. Scotch drinking, cigar smoking and (the 3rd) playing golf well enough to keep up but not well enough to win.
Let’s just review a few facts here. The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 was passed by the 101st Congress, (Senate: 55D, 45R) (House: 261D, 174R) where the Act set the liability for an oil disaster at $75M, never indexed for inflation, in response to the Exxon Valdez disaster. The Feds then pushed the Deep Water Royalty Relief act in ’97-98 (signed by Clinton) to ‘reward’ oil companies to drill in deep water, an inherently more risky process. So the feds have pushed dangerous behavior with both a liability cap and royalty relief and we wonder why such crony capitalism fails. In 20-20 hindsight, less government intervention would have been better.
I’m not excusing BP of their malfeasance, I think they should be held responsible for all damages. I agree with Joe Barton, the administration didn’t let a ‘crisis go to waste’ and with populist consent gave BP the shakedown. Certainly makes us look more like a Banana Republic than I can for.
Kill the messenger, huh?????
I live in Colorado but emailed Congressman Barton telling him he shouldn’t have apologized. He is correct about Obama shaking down BP just like he is shaking down the country.
I am sending a letter to the Republican Party telling them they will receive no more donations from me because they reprimanded Barton.
Barton’s first apology (to BP) scored him points at home, his retraction may hurt him some, but probably not.
It’s very simple really. The law is meaningless to the left unless it can be used to advance totalitarianism. His “O”lliness acted like a banana republic dictator and the left loves it, the Congressman called him on it and the craven fools turn on him when they hear the shrill drivel from the left’s propaganda ministry. Barton is the clear winner here.
Perhaps the leftists who post here would like to see an elimination of all due process (with the exception of course of terrorists, child molesters and honor killers)?
This is another “You lie” moment.
The truth is hard to swallow for these POWER driven Marxists. The truth they cannot handle and won’t. It’s all about dressing up the One to look like he has something to wear and payouts out to their comrades; Soros, the lawyers, etc.
I just wish Barton had stood by his guns, but he caved, too, to the tyranny of the Press, as did the rest of the Pubbies in Congress. He stood up for just a moment. Not long enough, though. He should have been totally unapologetic. He’d've been a hero.
From the NSPE code of ethics:
Engineers, in the fulfillment of their professional duties, shall:
1. Hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public.
2. Perform services only in areas of their competence.
3. Issue public statements only in an objective and truthful manner.
4. Act for each employer or client as faithful agents or trustees.
5. Avoid deceptive acts.
6. Conduct themselves honorably, responsibly, ethically, and lawfully so as to enhance the honor, reputation, and usefulness of the profession.
In my not-so-humble opinion – Joe Barton PE (R-TX) pretty much hit the nail on the head as far as item 3 with his correct statement about the Obama admnistration attempting nothing less than extortion.
Even though Joe Barton made a standard non-apologetic apology for his political faux pas (failure to cheer the lynching of BP for the benefit of the rubes who blame BP rather than the Gov’ment (where the ultimate blame really resides)) he still stands as a giant amongst the Liliputians of our age.
Barack Obama, clueless on the oil spill, moves into his own community organizer/Chicago thug style when it comes to the shakedown and the casting of aspersions.
Dare I say, castigating & shaking down BP (wall street, big banks, fill in the blank) this President could finally “do something” that moved him into his comfort zone.
The shakedown is the Chicago Way, see Obama crony Tony Rezko. Check out Blago travesty, currently underway.
Will the $20 billion turn out to be yet another slush fund for Obama cronies, ACORN/union workers and the like ?
There is no provision for an elected official from the executive branch to simply order such an action by fiat.
A lot has happened by executive fiat during the Obama administration. I’ve often wondered…How can he do that (fill in the blank) all on his own ?
Are checks and balances even working anymore in American governance ?
The checks and balances of the Constitution only work when the three branches of government jealously protect their own constitutionally defined turf. When Party affiliation (ie: ideology) trumps the constitution, this is what happens. It is tautological (In logic: a statement that is true by necessity or by virtue of its logical form.)
This is the end result of the 17th Amendment allowing the popular election of Senators (as opposed to their being appointed by the elected representatives of the several States) and by the fashion of weak-kneed Electors (of the Electoral College) rubberstamping the wishes of a partisan polity. See Federalist #68 for details. The Electors were, in fact, supposed to exercise their superior knowledge and wisdom to ensure that a (possibly) duped polity would not promote to the highest office an ideologue or tyrant.
I really feel for Barton… he’s gotten it right both times he’s called Obama out and he gets slapped around by the Party for it. And the Republican Party wonders why the Tea Party is more popular than they are?
Standard protocol for an oil or gas well fire (for a hundred years!) is to let it burn until the driller can control the gusher at the source, regardless of colateral damage. Had the Coast Guard not sunk the Horizon by swamping it — flooding its inner spaces with jet-hosed sea water — the leak would have been at the surface, not a mile down.
Is BP or the Coast Guard responsible the deep leak crisis?
We do not know all we need to know to assign punishment now.
Barton was right. Obama, as usual, is wrong.
This is really good! In addition to the 20 billion escrow fund (without a cap) BP agreed to put off paying shareholder dividends through the end of the year. Many of those shareholders are generous GOP donors. They will be donating far less as a result. The GOP already has money problems, now they have even more. The best way to deal with and defeat your opposition is destroy their funding apparatus. This is what Mr. Barton is REALLY upset about. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch. LOL!
Man, that is the most reachingly convoluted, absurd explanation I’ve ever chanced to come across.
And that’s saying a lot, given that this is the internet.
So, our empty-headed collegian with his backpack-load of leftist twaddle comes back with more of the same old compendium of ignorance, bigotry and, naturally, hate leavened with hints of violence. But above all, ignorance.
BP’s campaign cash, O bright one, has been going to Obama. Its shareholders, whom you want to see screwed, are primarily British pension funds. I’m sure you’ll cackle gleefully as those old ladies eat dog food in the cold.
But the leading framework of Bezerkeleyite idiocy on display, of course, is this notion that the President is unrestrained by law, and has the power by fiat to impose penalties whenever he likes just because Praetorian’s libtard coterie label them “evil.”
But then, hey! The Praetorian Guard were after all the guarantors (and often the arbiters) of unrestrained Imperial power.
Funny thing though. When a Republican is in the White House, not only does the president have to follow all laws, he has to avoid even the appearance that he might not be following the law.
PS: It doesn’t matter if the law wasn’t actually passed. Merely having a Democrat talk about passing a law is enough to bind all future Republican presidents.
more stupidity from the master of the insane.
Where is your evidence that the majority of BP shareholders are Republican donors.
From what I’ve heard, 40% of BP stock is held by Britains, who are barred by law from donating to political campaigns. (At least they are still barred from donating to Republicans, after 2008, it’s quite clear that the bar has been removed for Democrats.)
The vast majority of stock in all companies are held by pension funds and small investors.
You would know that if you would get your head out of your latest issue of Marx weekly.
Wow, what a difference a day makes. Two days ago, Obama was a helpless, hapless boy who was going to be crying because he just wasn’t able to get anything done and was being overwhelmed by the crisis.
And suddenly…he has become a strong-armed extortionist picking on poor BP. You guys just can’t get your stories straight; can’t decide if he is the helpless, hapless goofball …or…Joseph Stalin. I’m sure that Obama has had his goofball moments, but you guys are trumping him bigtime in goofiness on this one. The “practical” conservatives strike again.
Is it beginning to sink in why the helpless, hapless one may not be so easy to beat in two and half years?
Shouldn’t you choose your battles a little more discreetly? But then, that would take judgement, not bluster…not the specialty of this establishment.
The Liar-In-Chief represents an enormous, heavy-handed federal octupus that, while eagerly and unConstitutionally putting ite tentacles into every aspect of society, is demonstrably feckless, disorganized, and ineffective, particularly in a crisis. If they so desire, they can not only gum up the works of any private entity, but render their life pure hell while doing so.
Meanwhile, Obama himself is a budding tyrant who never misses an opportunity to bully, cast blame at everyone but himself, and takes the advice of Chicago thugs and rabid leftists in his administration.
This distinction is easy for most people to grasp who analyze issues logically and can make useful distinctions in their thought processes. However, by definition, that immediately precludes any progressives, of which you are obviously a prime example.
Extorting money without legal warrant doesn’t do diddly-squat to stop the leak or clean up the spill. Obama shakes down while Rome burns.
Bam and Rahm do love them some crises- never, ever let one go to waste.
Did you get help building that strawman? It’s of higher quality than your usual offering.
Nobody ever said that Obama was a helpless weakling.
This issue is too nuanced for progressives. They are simply unable to make useful, logical distinctions in their thinking processes.
This issue has nothing to do with BP’s culpability, about which no Conservative would ever disagree. Instead, it has everything to do with the Ideologue-In-Chief’s extra-legal, unConstitutional threats against a legal business organization operating under laws and regulations already in extent.
Progressives believe that the morality of their secular religion trumps everything and everyone else. No amount of reasoned discourse will ever convince them otherwise.
For my part, there is only one conclusion about dealing with progressives…
By now it should be obvious that they belong to a religion that is completely incompatible with the traditional Judeo-Christian ethos. Their religion is evil, and they are evil. The only solution is to have two different geopolitical entities, two different countries. They can move to theirs and turn it into a progressive hell, all the while patting themselves on their collective back that they are “making a difference”. Everyone else will stay in this country, and turn it into a paradise.
What’s most interesting is how the GOP leadership came down on Barton. It really exposes the difference between the parties, and why the Left is so successful. Had a rogue Dem said something similar, the Dem leadership would either backed the congressman in a loud chorus, or would have ignored it. The GOP has always hamstrung itself, and then wonders why they can’t win the arguments. It’s the perennial party of incompetents.
You make a great point. If the republicans had a loyal lap-dog press like the progressives do they’d not need to apologize for Barton’s comments.
Just a little while longer and there won’t be a lap-dog MSM for the progressives. They are yapping themselves out of their collective jobs and I for one can’t wait for that to come about.
Regardless of who Obama claims to be the front man for this fund, where is the money going to be parked? Goldman Sachs? What are the odds that it will wind up anywhere other than with serious Obama campaign donors?
Who is going to decide how the money is disbursed? Bill Ayers is probably too well known to be on the board but there are a lot of former ACORN employees who are looking for jobs these days.
Kick ass or buy gas?
http://www.grist.org/article/2010-06-17-kick-ass-or-buy-gas/
It very well could have been a shakedown … a threat that they would lose their military business.
However, let’s put this in some perspective. This kind of ‘shake-down’ happens (and has happened) all the time between big gov and big bus.
I thought “shake down” was the primary fund raising strategy of such community organizers as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, Obama’s role models? Indeed, the whole sub prime, liar loan, mortgage industry was predicated on a civil rights shakedown. Barton just didn’t use the correct term,” reparations” by executive fiat rather than judicial due process, and had he done so everything would have been kosher, especially with the Nation of Islam.
MSM praising Obama for the so called 20 billion dollar shakedown of BP.
How much is his donations?
Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, will lose 20 billion in property/hotel/gambling casino/local/state/county tax values just this year.
Hundreds of thousands of tourists jobs gone,
Bye, Bye, Walt Disney World.
The East coast/Myrtle Beach/Carolina Beach etc. hasn’t been touched yet, but try advertising your Carnival smelly oil cruise/breezes next year.
This disaster will finally cost trillions, but the MSM will still shuck and jive their poster boy and his 20 billion dollar glory hole.
I’m surprised he didn’t do a little dance and weave and bow.
Oilbamas dream comes true, Socialism for the White Southern peasants and crap and tax for the rich folk.
This is a shakedown pure and simple. Why is this congressman being demonized for being the only one with the guts to tell the truth. Do any of you liberals out there living in Disneyland riding the cups and saucers honestly think that any of this money is going to find it’s way into the pockets of the victims of this disaster? It is just a small part of the slush fund already stolen by this thug president and his minions in their quest to destroy the private sector. The goal is to bankrupt BP and nationalize the oil industry Hugo Chavez style. After they destroy BP who do you think will be on the hook for the clean up? Where do you think the 20 billion will be? Safe in the pockets of his thug cronies in ACORN or the SEIU.
You nailed it. “The emperor is strolling around buck naked”. Never said better. Thank goodness for Joe Barton.
Obama’s Simmering Summer of Discontent
… Bestriding the narrow world like a twenty first century Colossus, Obama was hailed as little short of the Second Coming, the Obamassiah, feted in world capitals from Berlin to Riyadh to Accra, worshipped by massive crowds in the streets, idolized by the international press.
Like a too-bright comet, like Icarus flying too near the sun, the deflation was bound to happen.
Obama’s return to Earth didn’t start on Earth Day, April 20, 2010 since there were rumblings the world over that this Colossus was less than colossal long before that fateful day when Deepwater Horizon exploded in murderous flames in the Gulf of Mexico.
What also exploded that day was what remained of the Myth of Obama. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1741)
Or, as Shakespeare said,
Now does he feel his title
Hang loose upon him like a giant’s robe
Upon a dwarfish thief.
Lori is correct, this is SOP between Business and Government. This is a Foreign Company so the distinction is a bit more than if a US company, like Exxon in Alaska. The Exxon Valdez spill never did pay out the money promised, many of the people hurt by the spill died without receiving a dime, while most was taken by lawyers. It may have been BP that offered the money to USA to agree not to prosecute or seek criminal charges, it appears that BP went ahead with the drilling against its own onsite engineers counsel.
20B may not be enough if Methane is as high as indicated, the gulf will deplete its oxygen and take a decade+ to recover.
Doc Zero wrote on this topic today:
http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2010/06/18/the-helpless-titan/
Of course this was a shakedown of the Spill Victims! What I don’t get was the GOP leadership making such a big deal out of it after the apology. MOVE ON! No, the GOP has to pick the scab, make it bleed so the liberal media will be appeased. Now asking Barton to step down from his position. PLEASE no more Trent Lott actions. Perhaps Barton didn’t say it so good and BP is the deep pockets but there were more deep pockets on that rig than just BP and we don’t actually know who is the responsible yet….all of the above but what bothered me is that Obama held a gun to BP’s head and served as Mr. POlice Man, Prosecutor, Judge and Jury all in 20 minutes. Now, personally, I think the $20 Billion is probably getting off light and this whole thing went down by phone with lawyers before they ever arrived for the Perp Walk. The whole thing is distasteful and suspect. Yeah, we want to see BP suffer but hmmm, this kinda stinks. The GOP leadership shows yet again it will ALWAYS tuck tail and whimper everytime one of their members misspeaks. Perhaps they should take the lead of the Democratic Majority and simply minimize or ignore their member’s transgressions…..even felonys. They always allow the Democrats to transfer their guilt to them. Time for a turn about. Cast doubt on the Obama deal ……I don’t think it was in the best interest of the Spill victims and we don’t yet have a clue or the extent of the damage……why so quick to settle????? Sounds like Chrysler, GM and CitiBank, Bailouts, Stimulus and Health Reform……hurry up rush and screw it all up and make matters worse. This was a low-down shake-down and it’ll probably end up costing us taxpayers yet again!
So much of the Truth has yet to be uncovered and exposed re this Oil Rig explosion and the resulting nightmare of the endless oil spill! But regarding Barton, he spoke out honestly, albeit somewhat insensitively, considering all the people who have been negatively affected, as well as the fact that such a remark would NOT go over well in Congress, among the LSM or, of course, in the homes of the so-called “little people!” Bottom line: It was a Joe WILSON moment of speaking out honestly, during Ali-bamma’s State of the Union, with those immortal words, “You lie!!”
Meantime, Obummer’s moratorium on drilling anywhere PERIOD, along with his authorization of giving Soros just under $1B for drilling offshore in Brazil (!!), is pretty much a slap in the face not only to the people in the Gulf region (whose lives and livelihoods are tied up with the oil & drilling industries), but to ALL Americans who can rightfully expect to pay much more at the pump for gas. Which begs the question, “Was the explosion in any way related to this rotten deal for drilling off the coast of Brazil?”
As for the so-called “slush fund,” dollars to donuts much of it ends up in the hands of the leftist politicos for NObama’s re-election campaign in 2012. Help for the intended victims may have to wait a while longer…
My only hope – and possible consolation – is that the one victim MOST DESERVING of the consequences of this tragic accident has probably lost his political Mo-Jo and can expect to be a much-diminished POTUS. He can share worldwide funeral duty with his sidekick Biden!
O’Reilly had someone, Michelle Bachman maybe, on last night to give her a shot a defending the “extortion” lines. She had to keep back-pedaling in the face of his saying that he was glad that Obama strong-armed BP. She realized that in the face of that bottom line argument there was no real response other than, “Well, how do we know how this money will be spent?”
To say that Barton was “tone deaf” is putting it mildly. It means taking a position which could cost MILLIONS of votes nationwide, votes in the center (where I happen to be) which the GOP must have.
Obama hit a home run with this one. It doesn’t stop the damned oil from coming out which is the real disaster which trumps all the political palaver on either side, but it does get $20B out there the quicketest way possible. There will still be stories of x who had to wait far too long for his/her money and y who scammed the system and you guys will blame Obama and bureaucracy.
Palin should be giving Obama some props, but of course she won’t. She has acknowledged that the courts permitted Exxon to grossly underpay for the EV spill, and then we all know that they went on to make record profits. Get the $20B while you can and go for more later, if necessary.
Right now, it works for Obama, the country, and BP to make this deal…so they did it. Is that nuanced enough for you?
Er, underpay. She has acknowledged that Exxon UNPERPAID, after court settlements got greatly reduced. That dodge has been taken care of by Obama in this case…apparently. We can do a little multiple choice here; select one.
a. BP will never pay all of the $20B
b. BP will pay it, but not a cent more
c. BP will pay it and much more before this is done.
d. You guys will despise Obama under any of these scenarios.
e. The green left will criticize him for being in the pocket of big business and not banning all oil drilling everywhere forever..
OK, d. and e. are givens; the other three are up for grabs.
“Obama hit a home run with this one…”
Wow folks…we are honored today to have with us a real rarity: one of the 41% who supports Obama…aka drooling lefty moonbat.
And what exactly does Palin owe ‘props’ (whatever the f_ck those are) to Obama for?
BP PLC and every multinational company on the planet — and every American company that has the option — will now flee America’s fascistic-administrative-branch created Sovereign Risk.
Welcome to the Third World, my fellow Americans.
Barton is and has never been more than a GOP standard issue, anti-science, corporate toady. Nothing he says has any relevance to reality.
anti-science? You mean he buys into man-made Global Warming like the rest of you lefty morons?
Dear Dr. Bones,
Despite the lowly neoself-characterizin’ of Ms. Moddie Vox, her Voice is not quite Moderate enough for me.
More urgently and perhaps in a slightly different direction, I wonder if she completely satisfies the Party-and-Ideology Paymasters either– “the PIP People,” as it were — though of course that is no business of yours or mine.
Q. But what is more fun than making scurrilous remarks about the blessèd and mysterious Secret Sector?
A. Not a hard question! More fun is to watch ’em scramble when their secrecy fails ’em.
Mizz Moddie is not enjoyin’ the “Screwed by Crude” show much, unless I am wildly mistaken. Boston is only the beginnin’ of a very long list of places she would like to prevent any such scandalum magnâtum as has lately befallen poor Neocomrade A. B. (“Tony”) Hayward, Freelord Beepee.
Tony is now past all merely mortal help, I fear, though that point will matter far less to your proper sweet puppy of Party and Ideology than to lieberals and demonocrats like ourselves. The pious know in their hearts [1] by Neofaith that secret-sector business corporations are people too — far nicer people, in fact, than one is likely to run into flyin’ the friendly skies even in Firstlord Class.[2]
Let’s face it, Dr. Bones: organisms suck, mammals especially.
Unfortunately, the work of an agitpropper (as conventionally understood, anyway) like Ms. Moddie Vox lies amongst mammals. Steel-claptrap-minded ideological wind-up toys like Miss Rand’s John, Freelord Galt, don’t need that sort of attention much. And naturally a genuinely postorganic Higher Bein’ like Beepee does not require to be agitpropped at even in the slightest.[3] ¡Quelle idée!, that it should.
Bein’ only another pajamatarian fifth- or sixth-rater, Mizz Moddie does not venture any recursion to first principles, unless you should very charitably call it that when she scribbled as follows:
Up to a certain point, that is rather clever. Again it is ‘pragmatic’ in the degraded and self-servicin’ way noted in [3] below: “President Summers and Mr. O’Bama must at all costs be prevented from dumping on poor Tony, so THEREFORE I shall now solemnly set up as a great fan of Rulalaw in the sense of ‘Let’s everybody leave it all to the courts!’”
So inferior a Party-and-Ideology dingaling as Moddie Vox is must be taken to be 100.03% sincere when she resonates like that. At the same time, decent political grown-ups who have watched the kiddies in action know that Moddie will be wantin’ some completely different brand of Rulalaw about five minutes hence.
Furthermore, we can chuckle to ourselves when we reflect that if WE had the misfortune to be wingnutettes and wingnuts ourselves, there would be so such facile ignoring of what is happening. WE would remember that Rio Limbaugh has broken with the shyster community, who are all a bunch of ambulance-chasers nowadays, and that we snort with contempt and revulsion every time an exalted Corporate Person is obliged to pay out damages to some scuzzy mammalian plaintiff who happens to have found an equally scuzzy attorney. That is the real First Principle of the matter, and if we were wingnuts, we would be incapable of superseding it for eleven minutes a day in favour of First Principle B, call that one currat lex, perhaps.
For that matter, there is a sort of “Zeroth Principle” in back of First Principle A that we would not lose sight of either: BeePee, and the Secret Sector generally, are ideally not to be interferred with by anybody at all, not even by John Roberts and Perry Mason and King Hammurabi of Babylon, acting together.
There are problems about full instantiation here, insofar as the exalted Corporate Persons undoubtedly would like the courts to help them collect from the Bad Poor and other organic (and even possibly a few postorganic) deadbeats and Bernie Madoffs from time to time. Exactly how to make sure that the Secret Sector can never, ever lose a case is admittedly no easy matter. the ascendancy of the Campaign-Contributin’ and AstroTurf™baggin’ Classes is very great, but not so great as to attain to complete perfection in this matter. The immediate complication that BeePee happens to be an alien Corporate Person, significantly handicapped when it comes to campaign-contributin’ and ’turf™baggin’ can perhaps be set aside for Zeroth Principle discussion purposes. Once it is established that our own Daddy Warbucks and Uncle Scrooge and all other such holy-Homeland™ic entrepreneurial neoheroes cannot be treated as shabbily as poor Tony has been treated, it will almost certainly be easier to work out how to provide foreigners also with genuine GOP Brand F®eedumb as well.
Neocomradess (Sixth Class) J. X. Shaw, dba “Moddie Vox,” is perhaps to be commended for bestowin’ her kind neo-attention upon a hard case like that of BeePee. We, however, were we sound wingnuts and devout neocomrades, would definitely try to start pimpin’ for the Zeroth Principle on more favorable ground than “Screwed by Crude.” A bit too like “The Charge of the Light Brigade” is Moddie’s show. Too hard a case to make really satifactory whight-wing Rulalaw out of.
Still, to say that is also to say that we would definitely NOT lose sight of our own purposes, and never propose measures in the heat of one isolated skirmish inconsistent with that all-sublime Zeroth Principle for which Hooverville and Wingnut City fundamentally contend. If we were ever to recommend Currat lex and “Let the courts decide!”, we would have made sure in advance that the said courts will always decide everythin’ the Right way.
This Miss Moddie has pretty egregiously failed to do. If I had to guess why, I suppose the reason is, or may be, that the Party of Big Management and of the AEIdeology still control five-ninths of the holy-Homelandic™ judiciary at the very top level. A brand of Rulalaw that allows Neocomrade J. G. Roberts, C. J., to do the Right thing unobtructed by King Hammurabi and Mason, Esq., is hence at least mildly plausible.
But that is awfully thin ice to skate on. I betcha if Miss Moddie ever overcame her collective neonarcissism a little and could begin to look at herself and her faction less self-servicin’ly, she would think so also.
The pajamatarian kiddies won’t remember Miss Moddie more than a couple of political minutes, come what may, and indeed, neither shall I. Should those dearly belovèd courts of hers eventually go wild and make the BeePee nobility and gentry pay through the nose for “Screwed by Crude,” as is far from impossible, I wish now that I shall remember Miss Moddie Vox then and remind her that I gave warning.
But this is not going to happen: De minimis non currat lex, and what more minimal than Moddie?
Healthy days.
___
[1] Presumably they feel the superiority of Corporate Persons in their minds (if any) as well.
That half of the synæsthesia goldwaterensis is mentioned so much less often than “In your heart, you know He [was R]ight” that I hesitate to pronounce. Beyond the obvious, that is, namely that the whole crosswise jazz must have been destructively creationised to excuse kiddies selfsertives from anythin’ so unpleasant as rigorous criticism of what they themselves are neodoin’ and why.
[2] Of travel via the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority I cannot, perhaps, speak fairly till I get over what happened to us yesterday a little more. Still, Mizz Moddie and her singalongs can take some comfort in the fact that there was not a corporate person in sight, apart from the so-called ‘Authority’ herself, which does not count for them, being nonsecret and unprofitable in the extreme.
[3] Perhaps it would better befit our inorganic Betters to call their superiority ‘unnatural’ rather than ‘natural’? ’Tis not as if only Father Zeus can charter a corporation, after all. Why, even Delaware . . . !
The Kiddie Selfservative Mind is sadly ahoo, I fear, about most questions involvin’ Natura sive Juppiter. What usually happens (as I conjecture on the fly) is a sort of joke version of Mr. James of H*rv*rd’s notorious Pragmatism gimmick. The kiddies’s kiddiemasters above all things want their precious Secret Sector to be a zone of zero interference, an arrangement can easily be likened to conservation of a primæval forest or the like by the spinster for Party and AEIdeology who knows her business adequately. Think of Freelord Beepee — or rather of his freelordship’s demesne — as a threatened whale, if you like, sir, or possibly a lonely saltmarsh in very delicate balance with Natura sive Juppiter already, and certainly doomed, should a certain species of uppity mammals start mucking about with it.
As to Mr. James, think of the kiddies neothinkin’ “BeePee is not to be tampered with! THEREFORE BeePee must be a natural phenomenon. Q.E.D.”
About as silly as even KSM silliness and vulgar pragmatism can get, that is. Yet what shall a few sillinessess and vulgarities matter amongst Foxcuckoolanders?
Furthermore, as I keep repeating to you, Dr. Bones, no amount of silliness and vulgarity — and flat-out nonsensicality — means of itself that kiddie selfservatives do not believe every word of their own stuff with complete subjective sincerity. Sometimes they really are just plain lyin’ and no other account of their neodoin’s would be accurate, but such occasions are rare, and they can never be demonstrated from internal evidence only. “We couldn’t possibly say such a thing unless we were liars” counts for simply nothing at all.
Jazz Shaw, Good article. Was it a shakedown? Yes. Does this stuff go on between elected officials and corporations all the time? Yes. Are both the Obama administration and BP corrupt? Yes. Was some kind of a backroom deal done before the so-called “meeting” the other day? Yes. Will a bunch of the set aside money end up in the pockets of Democrat politicians, local elected officials, outfits like Acorn, trial lawyers and unions? Yes.
Joe Barton’s real stupidity was to just not keep his mouth shut until this deal failed like everything else Obama has tried to do and then, when the chickens come home to roost, he and the rest of the Republicans would have had a huge club to beat the Democrats over the head with. I don’t expect elected Republicans to be geniuses, I just want them to be endowed with some political common sense and maybe figure out that when your enemy is hanging himself with his own rope just let him go ahead and do it. Yeah, Joe Barton was telling the truth but there are winning and loosing ways to do it.
I have been thinking of something relating to the whole BP gusher (a spill is what happens when you knock over a glass. This is not a spill) question that would probably be what the American people want right now.
How many times have you heard the phrase “America is addicted to oil”. If America is addicted to oil then oil must be an addictive substance. If we are talking about death and destruction caused by an addictive substance and the people who produce and distribute it then perhaps BP can be charged with some of those draconian laws produced by America’s “war on drugs”.
Just think of it, there are drug laws calling for seizing of assets without a trial. There are extradition laws that could get every BP executive in Britain sent to American jails.
I don’t know which state laws would apply here, but I have heard that many states call for the death penalty for pushers when people die from using their product. Those 11 workers who died when the rig blew up could mean the death penalty for Tony Haywood.
Joe Barton is from Texass. He might get re-elected as the candidate in the pocket of big oil, but if he was considered soft on drugs he’d surely be defeated.
Yes indeed, I’m kidding. However, after watching Mr. Haywood I can’t help thinking Americans might be pleased by his execution.
What you lefties can or will not understand is the adage PM Margaret Thatcher said, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”
You folks of limited vision praise O for his take over of private industry; his public trials of private industry like Toyota, Wall Street, and now BP. You exhalt O for “asking” BP to set aside money for damages; you overlook his doing so without legal basis; what you are in effect and tacitly approving of is that the law is only used when it meets with your approval or for the good it will serve you. You praise O for the direction he is taking the nation. What happens when he takes over the computer industry-pretty much one of our last major exports left?? Do you not see the precedent he is setting? Suppose the next drug used causes a death; will you ask him to take over the pharmaceutical industry “for the good of the people?” Where does it end?
What does happen when private industry is no longer private or here? Seventy percent of our economy is service related which means we are just passing money around between ourselves. We are creating less and less. So now more private industry leaves our shores because captialism is being overtaken by socialism. Where is the wealth created to keep you folks on the government dole? The Treasure cannot just keep printing money or we become a larger version of Zimbabwe and pay $1 million for a loaf of bread…. Wealth creation and socialism are not compatible.
So miriam, BC and others think about our nation as one with no industry and therefore no wealth creation.
To Blotto, no. Right wingers and Republicans in general constantly confuse and conflate competitive markets, which are conducive to free enterprise, as well as an efficient and progressive economy, with oli/monopolistic markets, which are not so beneficial to overall economic health. What’s good for the likes of a BP or Microsoft is usually not so good for the country. Corporate arrogance and misbehavior is and has been a chronic problem, and modern Republicans have tended to have a wink-wink, nudge-nudge attitude towards it, to say the least.
BP’s cavalier, can’t do, can’t be honest, and overall reckless attitude towards this whole crisis is what has led to its problems. No more, no less.
BC is so stupid that he actually thinks any big company is a defacto monopoly.
I guess the fact that there are a dozen oil company makes each of them a monopoly.
There is none so stupid as a liberal.
BC is the type that squeals with delight when the jobs numbers go up but can’t comprehend the fact that when the majority of them are government jobs, there are that many less private tax dollars available to pay all those three-times-average government-worker salaries.
Such a lack of both math and reading comprehension skills are a big reason this country is in so much trouble.
What do you expect from a top-down-run department of education whose chief raison d’etre is Leftist indoctrination? The three Rs? That’s SO yesterday.
“What’s good for the likes of a BP or Microsoft is usually not so good for the country. ”
Perception is reality. The reality of business that conducts itself in the public eye must have some modicum of fairness and decency or they will eventually fail.
Like it or not blotto has a very good point – a service economy will eventually fail. The fanatical democrats and their minor minions of useful idiots have been very successful in driving manufacturing out of this country through onerous environmental laws that often make no sense at all. Case in point is the California laws that have all but made it impossible to paint a car – either a new one or one being repainted citing air pollution as the reason. So…cars are made elsewhere – and the air pollution – as minuscule as it is – is being done elsewhere – and thats where the jobs go – elsewhere. Mexico – Canada – China – Korea – and other places on the planet.
The USA is slowly but surely bleeding it’s equity out in order to take in imports. We don’t even make enough toilet paper to wipe our collective arses these days. How pathetic is that?
We can ‘service’ each other only so many times – when the money runs out we will be a third rate nation – and the likes of you will be cheering the loudest until you realize (if it even crosses your leftist brain) that we’ve let something slip out of our grasp in the search for the ultimate Nanny State. But Nanny States run out of other people’s money to tax and all hell breaks loose when that happens – just ask Greece.
This bears emphasizing as it typifies how this administration does things.
Obama cited a report commissioned by the Interior Department that purported to recommend the ban (on offshore drilling). …“The recommendations contained in this report,” declared the document, “have been peer-reviewed by seven experts identified by the National Academy of Engineering.”
Except that was untrue.
“The Secretary should be free to recommend whatever he thinks is correct,” wrote the scientists, “but he should not be free to use our names to justify his political decisions.”
Barton just had the moxie to call a spade a spade. Remember, extortion comes after the shakedown. The ass-kicker-in-chief promised that BP will have to pay more tribute down the road. We need more Barton’s to call Barry out like the SC rep. who yelled out “you lie”. He may have been out of order, but HE called Barry out; it was lies he spoke and now that we now know what Obamacare entailed since Nancy Pelosi promised we’d know what was in the bill when it passed, we KNOW what Barry H. said WERE lies. George Washington said,”Honesty is the best policy. And when we start calling the typical mob racket “protection money” money shakedown/extortion “status quo” because “it goes on all the time”, we’re fundamentally transforming into something other than America; because we’re not abiding by the principles that made America exceptional in the first place.
Exactly so, Steve. One could argue, and I will, that the demand for polite discourse is nothing less than a demand for opponents to abandon principle. That polite discourse should (to the eyes of the watching public) concern Boehner, Cantor, and Pence more than the act of presenting a unified front against thugs, is very telling.
A tongue lashing is the VERY LEAST that our side (you got that right, us versus them) should be directing at the gangster in the oval.
Darrel Issa — I can hardly wait until the 112th Congress!
The $20B fund was nothing more than a publicity stunt. BP is the 4th largest corporation in the world,$20B is pocket change to them and they will have no problem paying whatever claims come up unless Obama stupidly drives them into bankruptcy first.
This was simply a desperate attempt by the Obama administration to deflect attention from their astonishing incompetence. Plugging the leak is hard, but oil spills have happened and been cleaned up for at least 30 years, there is nothing extremely hard about cleaning up an oil spill once it has happened. Why in the world did anyone expect that a man who has never managed anything as large as a Dunkin Donuts franchise could coordinate multiple agencies of the federal government.
Did I finally hear someone say the truth in Washington DC? Then flogged by the political machine in DC. especially flogged hard by his own Republican Party leader John Boehner. It is no wonder people can not really tell the 2 parties apart, both are just as corrupt and have no integrity. This whole political act of making Barton apologize for speaking the truth, was for show and for our politicians to get another big pile of money to play with. I ask the average American when was the last time that our US government did anything for you? Only if you are on welfare or an illegal immigrant, so they can control you. Other than that you are bought off by the US government for your vote, and very cheaply at that. The only difference between the Washington Political Machine and the Mob is that the Mob could at least tell you where all their money is.
Don’t tell me anybody’s really surprised by all this?
We have been losing the rule of law in this country for decades. More and more power over every detail of our lives has been steadily concentrated in the executive branch since at least FDR, and in the numberless unelected agencies, authorities, panels, commissions, boards, committees and offices that wield that power, often with no meaningful oversight at all, and half the time in complete anonymity. And what control over us the bureaucrats didn’t commandeer, has mostly been seized by the courts.
And here is the really horrible part: nobody is even screaming. We have become so used to the arbitrary exercise of government power at every level that by now we don’t even notice. We think it’s normal for somebody in Washington to simply give orders, never mind what the law says. We don’t even add ask questions anymore. Hell, it’s got to the point where many people assume it’s their duty to ask for instructions.
The frogs are now completely boiled.
Mark please refrain from calling name
miriam, please refrain from making anti-semitic comments.
Looks like Rosie O’Dumbell stumbled in here and is using the name miriam rove to post. Both think the same, but I am unsure about miriam’s weight and sexual preference.
In “A man for all Seasons”, Thomas Moore asked his son-in-law “Would you give the Devil, the protection of law?” His son-in-law said that he would not. Thomas Moore then asked “When, in your pursuit of the devil, you have cut through the last law, where will you look for protection, when he turns on you? I give the Devil the protection of law, not for his protection, but for my own.”
All of the people who support Obama for his extorting of money from BP, ignore the fact that existing law provides for compensation claims against BP, by affected parties. The courts can determine whether criminal prosecution of BP officials is justified.
By circumventing existing law, in a manner which is popular, because the victim is unpopular, the administration is effectively abolishing the protection of law. The next party to be deprived of legal protection will, doubtless, also be unpopular. Ultimately, however, protection by law, will be abolished. Americans will be powerless, when confronted with the power of the state, administered by partisans of a particular idealogical agenda.
Sooner or later, everyone within America may have cause to regret that they acquiesced in allowing the executive of the state to ignore law, when the state deemed that to be expedient to the pursuit of the agenda of those who hold office.
Great lines from Thomas More, at least as he is quoted in “A Man for All Seasons,” BUT..
I love the righty double-speak when it comes to our courts. Most of the time they are groaning (and not without some justification) about lawyers and how frivolous lawsuits are bringing the country to its knees. But now, horns are blaring that someone, or is it millions, should sue BP, because that it the legal way to do it.
Is the larger point that BP should be able to dole money out WHEN and IF it wants to, and if people don’t like it, THEN they can sue them and wait ten years until all the appeals are settled to get their payments. You guys sure have a winning position on this one.
Palin’s acknowledgments about the Exxon Valdez payments, or lack thereof, pretty much seals the deal here.
And on another bright note, BP collected a record amount of oil yesterday, or the day before. Is it just me, or does anyone else think that this well should be corralled and put to work, not killed? I don’t want to sound like the goofball here who implied that we all should be cheering because we had found a well strong enough to pour so much oil out into the gulf, but I also do not like to waste things.
If it weren’t for the lawyers, 99% of whom support Democrats, it wouldn’t take 10 years for cases to move through the courts.
As others have pointed out, BP has been paying legitimate claims for weeks now.
Ha, ha, indeed. What kind of free market would we have if we didn’t socialize the losses of our corporate overlords? Especially when those losses are the destruction of the environment the rest of us have to live in? We, of course, should bear the brunt of every error made by corporations like BP. Our communist President thinks otherwise, but that’s obviously because he’s crazy. Yeah.
77. Principal Levine
“Ha, ha, indeed.”
Yes indeed Mr. ha ha.
Wow, The Principal Liar sleazits is resurrected! What’s going on in the Modern Liberal Cesspool anyway? Where the hell is that Kick Me signed sleazits? Did Mr. Communist President give sleazits such a tough ass kicking that $20 had to be contributed to the Mr. President Shakedown Breakdown Oil For His Machine trust fund? Yeah, it’s different when the Mr. President rips you off.
“What kind of free market would we have if we didn’t socialize the losses of our corporate overlords?”
No kidding? Are you referring to Wall St. and some automobile manufacturers? And where are all those billions of stim $$$? I notice several “much needed” road repairs going on around the ‘hood. Interesting, it looks like the local city fathers have taken to paving with silvers dollars. Mmm, mmm, mmm.
“Ha, ha, indeed.”
No LOL? No “you people are hilarious”? Are hillbillies out of fashion? Nice to see that your “thinking” can be so easily modified.
Did any of those stim $$$ reach the cesspool yet? Word has it that Mr. and Mrs. President use 20s for toilet paper. Jackson was white, therefore racist, right? Lame Change and Hope a Dope Grope!
You know, sleazits was better looking than you. The black lettering on red and white used with it’s Kick Me sign just has it all over your green on yellow. Chic Hitler vs. Modern Liberal Vomit. What a choice! Where’s Rosie? And Anvil? And Pee Wee moho? Can you Frankenstein them too?
And say hello to fellow Kick Me Cesspool alums Wiggie Wigglebotten, Skid Marks, Kyber, and Pray Torn A New One. They’re more popular than you are too. Did I miss any raw sewage? Flush, there you go!
Why is Mr. President sooooo unpopular? Could it be that the white half is racist? Could it be The Manster redux? Whose going to win, Rosie Greer or Ray Milland?
You made your cesspool. Levine it or leave it.
Bark bark.
Whatever.
One of these days I will meet a liberal who doesn’t have to lie in order to make a point.
Nobody has suggested that the loses be socialized. That’s the lie that you and those who want to excuse Obama’s blatantly illegal behavior have frequently fallen back on.
And these “corporate overlords” exist nowhere outside your fevered imagination.
Its often a disappointment to me when the only idiot to write back is an illiterate with cognitive dysfunction. Someone else may be able to decipher that rain-manesque passage. Let me know if and when you do.
What? You replied to yourself?
As to the lack of other people responding. You posted on Sunday, on a article that had already drifted far down the stack?
Why are you surprised at the lack of response?
Typical liberal, demanding that the world operate according to his schedule.
Mark: Apologies. There are two senseless idiots that seem to stalk my comments like toothless, retarded beasts of prey. Again, sorry for the offense Mark.
Notice something similar? Like “socialize” “losses”
1. Praetorian
“It’s no surprise to any thinking person that conservatives get upset when they can no longer privatize their profit and socialize their losses on the backs of the American people.
June 18, 2010 – 9:40 am
Yes sir Pray Torn A New One, nothing like socialized losses!
7. Principal Levine
“Ha, ha, indeed. What kind of free market would we have if we didn’t socialize the losses of our corporate overlords?”
June 20, 2010 – 6:33 am
Hey The Principal Liar sleazits, check this out. Mr. Multiple Personality cesspools all over The Universe!
“You people”. No half-life here. Just a constant flow of Rage. In it’s own words.
139. Principal Levine
“One day, when you people …”
May 21, 2010 – 2:04 pm
35. skeeziks:
” You people are such chickenshits.”
Jan 30, 2010 – 12:55 pm
69. skeeziks
“You people are children. You remind me of my granddaughter who yesterday got caught feeding chocolate to Kyber our dog. She knows she’s not supposed to do that. She said, “You don’t know what Kyber likes, only Kyber does.’”
Jan 29, 2010 – 9:05 am
30. skeeziks:
“You people need to raise your standards.”
Feb 22, 2010 – 6:24 pm
43. oscar le grouche
“You people are hilarious
“You’re just two dumb to know it.”
May 5, 2010 – 12:31 pm
Need more Little Jenny: [crying] Liar?
Liar Intro!
161. Principal Levine
“Little Jenny: Mommie/Daddy what were you doing when the country fell apart?”
May 23, 2010 – 5:27 pm
Then…
skeeziks
“Just so you know, I mean, it’s only fair to tell you. I’m worse than a liar. I’m Satan, the Horn-ed One, and I’m here to infiltrate your righteousness”.
May 14, 2010 – 7:32 am
162. Principal Levine
“If I were you, I’d lie…”
May 23, 2010 – 7:39 pm
Kyber Bitches…
72. Principal Levine
“Collar too Tight.”
May 20, 2010 – 1:35 pm
Was that Kick Me sign nailed to your ass made in China? Boom! Mr. President scores again.
Van Jones been around lately? Gone Commie slumming with him?
You made your Cesspool. Levine it or leave it.
Whatever.
Mark. That was the other retarded beast I was telling you about.
A former oil lobbyist and neocon such as Barton ’86ing’ a positive approach(es) to protect USA citizens and kowtow to BP? What a surprise.
A liberal who believes that violating the law is ok, so long as the “right” people benefit. What a suprise.
Markthegreat: if you want to meet a liberal the does nor lie in order to get to the point, then take a trip to New York city. I will be glas to take you out for a cigar and a scotch….
the only people that violated the law are the BP people and they should pay for it. period. we don’t need to take to the courts and for those bastards to drag it for years and walk away from it all laugh all the way to the bank!! you keep calling me ati semite, did you read Ms. Carol Gould article. it is still postrd on the site.
she calling British a big anti semite, and I am wondering then why
are you sticking up for BP.