Republicans Say No to Helping Gulf Coast Victims of BP

Republican Party Spokeswoman Rep. Michele Bachmann came out against the idea of helping the victims of the Gulf Coast oil disaster - one of the biggest environmental disasters in American history. Instead, she took the side of BP, defending the company and encouraging it not to be chumps...basically encouraging BP to fight the claims from victims. She frames the compensation of victims as an attempt to fleece the company.

She was basically calling the aid an unjustified welfare program for the lazy, rather than necessary compensation for hard working fishermen & business owners who are trying to save their livelihoods. She describes the $20 billion aid fund as a redistribution of wealth... a government cash grab (despite the fact that the money will come from BP...a private entity, and the funds will be administered by a 3rd party).

Bachmann is one of the few spokespersons for the Republican Party. What she says usually represents at least the leanings of the Republican leadership, if not official policy.

Another Republican, Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, claims that the $20 Billion compensation fund was an unjust "shakedown" of BP, and he even went as far as apologizing to BP CEO Tony Hayward because his company has to pay for the damages caused by the oil leak. Crazy enough for you?

But none of this matters unfortunately. The sad thing is.... Republicans are still going to win coast to coast in November's elections. The voting public in this Country, as a whole, is plain ignorant. As I have stated before... I have no faith in the American voting public. It is ultimately why this nation won't be able to effectively deal with the monumental problems it will face over the next 50 years. It is the reason why the U.S. is basically screwed.

Eugene Robinson's Commentary on Obama's Oil Spill Response Hit the Mark

Eugene Robinson was pretty much on target with his commentary questioning Obama's response to the oil spill in the Gulf, and BP's negligence. It basically mirrors some of what I wrote on June, 4th. The Obama Administration should have been more aggressive in dealing with this disaster earlier on. The administration should have done more to get as much equipment as possible to help with containment and cleanup, and it should have forced BP to do more.

Obama's address to the nation on June 15th, and his follow-up the next day with concrete results were some of the first real indications that at least someone was at the wheel regarding the Gulf crisis. The speech didn't wow me... I think it fell a little short. Dailykos poster and fellow blogger Icebergslim shares some of my views. But at least he's trying. The $20 billion committment that he was able to get from BP is a start.

What happens now will depend on good policy and follow-up. I remain perturbed by the fact that BP still has control over so much of the process... that makes me a little skeptical. But I am willing to give the Obama Administration some time to get back on track (at least on this issue). As I mentioned in my comments under the speech post, the problem with waiting 4, 5, 6 weeks is that it allowed Republicans/Conservatives/Tea Party nuts to grab control of the narrative and poison public opinion. The lack of good advisers and strong PR has plagued Obama for a couple of years now...and I have been screaming about this problem online, via the blog and @ sites like the Dailykos (only to be criticized for not showing blind allegiance to Obama). The PR and media problems are issues for Democrats in general...but especially for Obama. And now it has been laid bare for all to see. The problem has always been there... but this disaster exposed it in a way that other situations had not been able to in the past.

BP and Its Dubious Safety Practices

Investigative reporter Abrahm Lustgarten has uncovered a track record of corner cutting at BP. The company basically developed a culture where safety was trumped by profits. More of the same unchecked free-market capitalism that has been shoved down our throats by Conservatives/Republicans who support laissez-faire philosophy.

Hear detailed interview from NPR.

The Idiocy of American News Media

I find myself agreeing with this point (almost reluctantly) about the fiasco surrounding the BP Chairman's comments & how American media too often diverts attention to the wrong issues, wasting precious time that could be spent educating/informing the public on much more important facts and events. Just to be clear though, I basically hate BP & companies like it and am not a fan of the practices of greedy corporations. (anyone who has read this blog for more than 6 months should know how I view corporations). So i'm not defending them one bit.

But this comes at a time when the mainstream news media (more & more a venue for info-tainment) already spends too much time on nonsensical non-news stories on the level of cats stuck in trees. (this is national news i'm referring to..even in times of crisis/turmoil). I have contacted news agencies on a few occasions over the years to get them to cover real news... only to be told that they weren't interested. This is one reason why I lost respect for mainstream news (or for what imitates news & journalism these days) and decided to start blogging.

This is why Americans are clueless about oil spills in Nigeria, war & genocide in Sudan and Congo (several orders of magnitude worse than in Kosovo...for which Bill Clinton was willing to start WWIII), the ongoing Cold War in Central Asia and the Caucusus, life for troops in Iraq & Afghanistan, modern day slavery, the American health care system and American Democracy as compared to other nations, the time leading up to the financial crisis and how Bernie Madoff Made-off w/ so much money, Americas upcoming day of reckoning regarding its ballooning debt (what could be coming will make 2008-09 appear minor), the shady oil & mining industries, the lack of labor protections/labor regulations to protect workers, etc, etc.

As far as the news business is concerned, I wish we could go back to the days of Ed Bradley, Walter Cronkite & Bernard Shaw. Unfortunately, a lot of the really good journalists who are still left have had to go online and/or independent, and can't reach a wide audience. It just seems that with the Fox News Faux News model leading the way, we are stuck in a race to the bottom in terms of news coverage... and we have a less informed/educated populace as a consequence.

Obama In a No Win Situation Regarding Gulf Oil Spill

And of course I knew this all along. See CNN report discussing the risks of Obama being labeled the 'Angry Black Man' and the whole double standard surrounding it. He will be criticized no matter what he does.... mainly because there is a huge Republican PR and media machine dedicated to this task 24 hours a day, although Progressives (myself included) have also been complaining. But I also believe that there are things that he could have done (and could do in the weeks and months to come) to minimize the damage...both to the Gulf and to his reputation. For the most part, Obama hasn't done much to help himself...at least not until recently.

I have felt from the beginning that simply getting angry would not be enough. Showing anger is necessary in a situation like this. However, anger with no action to back it up, is just acting and pandering. It's empty rhetoric. He needs to do more than that.

His response to the BP mess (and now the Country's mess) has been lacking in both words/emotions AND deeds. So he has to show the anger/emotion, but he must also back it up with some sort of meaningful action.

See previous post on Obama and the Oil Spill Disaster

Related:

McClatchy Commentary - Why Are They Making Obama The Oil Spill Fall Guy?

BP Dodging Responsibility for Oil Spill - Victims Facing Wall of Red Tape

Why Wasn't This Predicted? It Was Certainly Predictable To Me

This is why FEMA or some other Federal agency should be running the claims process. The government should pay the victims and make them whole, then go to BP and ask ...take the money to reimburse the taxpayers. This should have been the plan from the beginning. I never understood the logic behind allowing BP to handle every part of this, from controlling their own crime scene (outrageous), all the way to handling the financial claims for the victims (when the company has a clear incentive and motive not to pay). It makes absolutely no sense. I thought it was idiotic from the start...and that this would be the likely outcome.

It appears that BP intends to create so much red tape that the people simply give up in frustration and go away. THIS is the kind of madness that I want Obama to do something about. He shouldn't just get angry. Anger with no action to back it up is just acting to me. He has to couple his anger with deeds. He has to demonstrate both.



From MSNBC report on BP's mishandling of claims:

GRAND ISLE, La. - Gulf Coast fishermen, businesses and property owners who have filed damage claims with BP over the oil spill are angrily complaining of delays, excessive paperwork and skimpy payments that have put them on the verge of going under as the financial and environmental toll of the disaster grows by the day.

Out in the Gulf of Mexico, meanwhile, the oil company Wednesday captured an ever larger-share of the crude gushing from the bottom of the sea and began bringing in more heavy equipment to handle it.

The containment effort played out as BP stock plunged to its lowest level in 14 years amid fears that the company might be forced to suspend dividends and find itself overwhelmed by the cleanup costs, penalties, damage claims and lawsuits generated by the biggest oil spill in U.S. history.

Shrimpers, oystermen, seafood businesses, out-of-work drilling crews and the tourism industry all are lining up to get paid back the billions of dollars washed away by the disaster, and tempers have flared as locals direct outrage at BP over what they see as a tangle of red tape.

"Every day we call the adjuster eight or 10 times. There's no answer, no answering machine," said Regina Shipp, who has filed $33,000 in claims for lost business at her restaurant in Alabama. "If BP doesn't pay us within two months, we'll be out of business. We've got two kids."

An Alabama property owner who has lost vast sums of rental income angrily confronted a BP executive at a town meeting. The owner of a Mississippi seafood restaurant said she is desperately waiting for a check to come through because fewer customers come by for shrimp po-boys and oyster sandwiches.

Some locals see dark parallels to what happened after Hurricane Katrina, when they had to wait years to get reimbursed for losses.

Continue to full report

Hear an NPR discussion on the failures surrounding the BP disaster.

Deepwater Horizon Workers Blowing the Whistle on BP & Affiliates

Excellent 60 Minutes Segment

Part I



Part II



From nola.com: Workers Describe Failures on Rig Before Explosion

Yet another example of unchecked free market capitalism. There is a clear pattern here (and it gets to the core of why I despise the private sector, corporate culture... corporate greed, don't trust corporations, etc). All of this bad behavior by corporations shares a common theme regardless of industry -- greed and the lack of adequate regulation. The right wing anti-regulation message is crushed over and over, yet Republicans are allowed to control the narrative. The debate about regulation should be over. Each one of these incidents should provide a clear contrast between those who support a strong role for government, particularly in terms of regulation, and those who support unchecked free market capitalism, where corporations are allowed to run wild, lie, commit fraud, etc. The choice should be an easy one. Yet the Republicans and their PR machine, act as if facts and the moral arguments are on their side. Unbelievable! And the media goes right along with the charade... acting as if this is a debate where both sides have equally strong and logical points (when this is so obviously not the case, lol).