What's with all the BP hate?

The key difference between this thread and the usual Fred's House of Politics drivel is that this thread is discussing politics as a whole and how it relates to our system of government. So far we have avoided one side bashing the other. We are bashing politics as a whole, but then both parties deserve it. George Washington, at the very start of our democracy, expressed concern that political parties would ruin the government. It may be that he was correct.

Tom

 

Did you notice the Right Wing ad at the top of this page? Trying to blame Obama for BP's folly. I've seen this in Yahoo chat groups, too.

All this unbalanced advertising that goes unchallenged by Obama and the Democrats is hurting them. Obama should have brought back the Fairness Doctrine that the FCC removed during the Reagan years. That would have eliminated this garbage.Now you can say anything if you can pay for it. And they do.

Wake up, Obama, before they eat you alive.

 

Too late for that...

 

So what do people think now a local man bob has been appointed as the man in charge?

 

I don't hate BP. BP screwed up and are paying the price. But I do hate the BP apologists because they would excuse or forgive the screw-up.

I hate those who ignore "responsibility" either personal or corporate. I hate those who are trying to excuse or otherwise take what is happened and make it into "an accident." Liars, thieves, and cheats, they are the bullies of the world who take from the weak and vulnerable to pander to the powerful.

Bob Wilson

 

+1.

 

Nothing has changed. BP has to stop the leak. Hopefully the new guy won't whine about wanting to have his life back. But the prime objective is to stop the leak.

 

As long as the CEO is the one held accountable for the company, then let's hope the new guy gets things in the Gulf done as fast as possible. When it comes to spending the money needed to upgrade the BP refineries and fixing the other BP sites (e.g. Alaska pipeline), only the CEO can make that happen. So don't let the appointment of the local guy distract from the heat staying on the CEO.

 

I think it's all just sleight of hand. All involved are more interested in fighting over who is responsible than they are in stopping the leak and cleaning up the mess.

And yes I do consider this an accident, and like almost all accidents it could have been avoided, or at the least the impact could have been minimized.

 

Interesting, considering the CEO has made that all available yet the heat stays on.....Then again it is cooled off a little funnily enough with the other stuff going on on the market...Amazing how quickly peoples interests change...

 

in all accidents, there is negligence or not. in this case, there was. and that is criminal.

 

Agreed, unfortunately our government decided that they would allow and support the negligence, effectively making it immoral and wrong, but not criminal. So as I tried to point out earlier, who really is to blame, those that did what they were told they could do or those who told them they could do it? BP is absolutely responsible, but what is criminal is that our government could have prevented this, or at least minimized the damage, and they did not.

After all this there is the chance BP could go bankrupt and disappear, but what of our government?

 

The government which was negligent and complicit in spoiling the Gulf coast is gone.
It was Dick Cheney's philosophy and energy bill which set up the mechanism for lax regulation.
Theres your criminal .

 

Not denying their involvement, but why didn't the current power mongers do anything to prevent it, or get off their asses earlier to stop the leak?

This is not a one party is worse than the other thing to me, they are both responsible. The foundation of corruption and corporate influence that our current government is built on was put in place and support by both parties. ANY time spent blame one party over the other while the oil is still spilling is time wasted, and that is criminal.

 

This comment puzzles me. I am wondering what you would have expected our government to do to stop this leak? Our government lacks the expertise and equipment to deal with deep underwater oil leaks. All they could do is contract with the same people that BP are using to do the same things that are being done.

There is no question that the government could fund a research program to develop deep water drilling safety equipment and techniques, but that would be a long term project, not a short term fix for the current problem.

Tom

 

Just based on some of the things I have learned over the last couple of months, some of which I am still trying to corroborate,

Don't exempt a company with history as negligent as BPs from doing doing environmental impact analysis, and comprehensive proven contingency plans.

Don't push for more off shore drilling.

Don't turn away help, ANY HELP, when it is offered. Especially if that help comes from groups that have the experience and expertise you refer to.

Don't spend ANY time blaming the other guys or holding hearings until AFTER the leak is permanently fixed.

Don't allow any bureaucracy to get in the way of helping the animals, plant life or people in danger from the spill.

Do something to spread some of that hope we were promised to the people. Worked well enough to get elected, why isn't this important enough to pull that magic back out of the hat?

 

That makes sense. From your earlier post I thought you might be one of these people that thinks the government has a magic bullet for every problem, but perversely refuses to use it. The conspiracy theories get a little thick after a while.

Tom

 

Why the hell should we have the government "fund a research program to develop off shore drilling safety equipment"? Why don't we require the drilling/oil companies to provide iron clad/failsafe techniques for safe drilling? Follow that with a large enough response capability to gather 100% of the oil that leaks when that failsafe technique fails (as it will). Why not require the people who benefit directly from the drilling be required to pay at least as much in R&D for off shore safety as they do for marketing? Why don't we tax carbon to the point where people begin to realize the costs of our energy addiction?

Sheesh!

 

My local BP has a shop with an amazing bakery and the best coffee. I often fill up there and grab a coffee and cinnamon roll. So I was thinking, maybe Starbucks should drill for oil and BP can sell coffee?

He?

To be fair, BPs woes could have happened to ANY oil company. I just hope they can get it together and just clean it up or at least cap the damn well.

Also, oil companies are responding to demand. If we demand less oil they wouldn't have to go to such extremes to extract it. Simple.

I was also gob-smacked when they showed on CNN how clean-up operations were halted because of permits! Hello?

 

Actually that is one thing I am curious about and have not seen too much on. What equipment were they using, how did it fail, and is this common??