Now that BP as a corporation has been proclaimed people
too,.... maybe we should send them some money to help them
out in some way, like the people in Haiti?

Now I get it, this was an Israel plot to have the oil
slick make life unpleasant for all the retired unjewish
people in Florida, or was it a CIA plot to piss off
Castro, called the bay of oil.

What is it with these ‘Drill-Baby-Drill’ ‘Tea-Baggers’? Don’t they know by now that the product from any new well does not belong to the U.S. consumer; that the product is sold on the open international market to the highest bidder?

This lie about drilling to suck here so that we don’t have to kill people who don’t like us sucking their stuff over there is BS. In other words; unless the drilling, sucking, processing and distribution of the product is ‘Nationalized’ no amount of new wells established off U.S. coast is going to alleviate U.S. dependence from drinking all the oily milkshake they can find.

Remember the Alaska Pipeline; how the Oil Vampire sold the product to the thirsty American people, with boastful rhetoric that it would alleviate U.S. dependence on foreign oil…yada, yada , yada-doo? Sound familiar? Check it out; from day one, Alaskan milkshakes have all been exported to the highest bidder on the open market.

It’s the same old con, the same old shell game being played out on Wall Street; now you see it, now you don’t.

Peace, Best Wishes and Hope

WikiLeaks—Collateral Murder
http://wikileaks.org/

And where is that talking head Sarah P who spouted “Drill baby drill in the 2008 campaign now? The week prior to this oil spill, she claimed we don’t need any more studies to make certain a disaster like this does not happen, we need to drill baby drill. Since this incident, I have seen Sarah Palin try to back pedal her 2008 mantra and now this week I have yet to hear any comments from her on the drill bit chant-no pun intended.

Besides, any oil that BP would have collected from this off shore drilling would not necessarily go towards Americas oil demand. It would go to the highest bidder of that oil, so drilling off shore America is no guarantee it would help ease our dependency on oil anyway. Under current rules the most BP might pay and probably will is about 75 million dollars for the cleanup and not the full amount as they should be billed. Seems like those responsible for the mess always walk away with clean hands and leave the mess behind for those who live in the area and taxpayers, who would be stuck with the bills, plus higher gasoline costs so BP can still turn an excessive profit.

Just before this spill,the Care 2 Petition site had a petition to sign to stop more off shore drilling just for reasons like this. I signed it as did many others. It is time to stop destroying the very planet we live on. There are other alternatives for the energy we need that are cleaner and safer, it’s time to demand that these sources be developed.

amunaor, May 3 at 9:42 pm,

You are underestimating the power of binary emotional propaganda strife on binary type individuals, as that is what human being are, binary, having two sides and two of most bodily parts.  Hitler’s strife was underestimated and look what he did to Germany and the world.  The populace must not underestimate the damage the manipulation of the populace by these Hitleresque binary emotional strife propagandists can do with their rhetoric against progressives, liberals, socialists, unions, community, socialism, and the populace, and do all possible to control their use of military Hitleresque binary emotional strife propaganda as Rupert Murdoch’s FOX News Network consistently and deliberately stirs up a never ending supply of strife within government and the populace of the United States.  Besides Glenn Beck’s strife propaganda, there is Rush Limbaugh’s outrageous strife propaganda rhetoric as documented by Media Matters for America and many, many more:

https://mail.google.com/mail/?hl=en&shva=1#label/MediaMattersforAmerica
/1285091b1a9311fb

MarthaA,

We all know what ‘air-heads’ Rupert Murdoch and his side kick, ‘bouncy-boy’ Rush Limbaugh are.

It is unfortunate that these bloviators manage to attract the few birds of a feather that they do; even so, they can easily be wiped off the bottom of the shoe when accidentally stepped in, by the unwary traveler.

When ever you see a crowd gather, look the other way to see what is really happening.

Peace, Best Wishes and Hope

WikiLeaks—Collateral Murder
http://wikileaks.org/

amunaor, May 3 at 4:17 pm,

Rupert Murdoch’s Rush Limbaugh, as a leader of the Right-Wing Conservative Republican Movement against liberals, progressives, socialists, community, socialism, unions, the populace, and environmentalists says environmentalists blew the oil rig up, which is more than likely a cover for what the Right-Wing Conservative EXTREMISTS have actually done, because they always say others do what they have done.  Anyone with a brain knows an environmentalist would never do such a thing, but the Right-Wing Conservative EXTREMISTS to cause strife, propagandize a whole different story, because they care nothing about the environment:

https://mail.google.com/mail/?hl=en&shva=1#label/MediaMattersforAmerica/1284b6301115f9f3

Also, here is Media Matters of America documenting Rupert Murdoch’s paid Rush Limbaugh’s Hitleresque propaganda that was actually used in Germany by Hitler’s bunch:

https://mail.google.com/mail/?hl=en&shva=1#label/MediaMattersforAmerica/1285091b1a9311fb

The FOX News Network led Conservative Movement is practicing in Rupert Murdoch’s media in the United States exactly what the Adolph Hitler Administration did in Germany.

EdWatters

Partially right. The $75 million cap is on economic costs, not clean-up.

Under the law that established the reserve, called the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, the operators of the offshore rig face no more than $75 million in liability for the damages that might be claimed by individuals, companies or the government, although they are responsible for the cost of containing and cleaning up the spill.

That’s right, we’ve socialized the oil industries liability for ecomomic damage caused by this egregious fuckup.

In exchange for the limits on liability, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 imposed a tax on oil companies, currently 8 cents for every barrel they produce in this country or import.

The final bill for economic damages (minus $75 million) will be payed for by every oil consumer in the United States

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/us/02liability.html?hp

The implication is that with a liability cap (beyond the clean up costs), the costs of any spill are less than they would be otherwise, giving firms reason, at least on the margin, to be willing to tolerate more risk of such a spill and reducing their expenditures on prevention measures, again at least on the margin.

If this all sounds familiar, it’s because it looks like it works much like bank deposit insurance does. Each bank pays premiums to the FDIC which in turn caps the liability banks face to their depositors if they should fail. There’s a nice long literature on the incentive effects of deposit insurance and the “heads I win, tails I don’t lose” nature of the deal. (I wish I had the equivalent kind of blackjack insurance when I was in Vegas last month!) It would seem reasonable, without having looked at the empirical data, that this Fund would have similar effects. And it would also be interesting to explore the history of the Fund and to see whether the arguments for creating it have as flimsy a basis as did the creation of deposit insurance.

If we’re really interested in preventing oil spills and bank failures, punishing to the fullest those who screw up would seem to be a very effective way of doing so. Why doing so isn’t in play in both cases might have something to do with the political pull of large banks and oil companies. Crony capitalism/corporatism strikes again.

I too wouldn’t put it past such depraved minds to pull such a ‘False-Flag’ in attempt to turn the tide. It’s not like it hasn’t been thought of or pulled off before, even as we speak.

Also, in light of Corporations seeking status of person-hood, I wonder which side BP/Halliburton will present to the public in this case; the fictitious creature of the state; hiding behind the corporate shield, or as a person, bearing the burden of a responsible citizen?

Peace, Best Wishes and Hope

WikiLeaks—Collateral Murder
http://wikileaks.org/

I wouldn’t doubt that the oil rig was blown up on purpose by the Right-Wing Conservative EXTREMISTS, who choose to destroy in order to further the destruction of liberals, progressives, community, unions, socialists, socialism, and the populace; surely oil all over the ocean will destroy President Obama being able to protect Social Security and Medicare, which is what the conservatives are trying to dismantle.  Hopefully, President Obama will collect from BP for the expense the government has in cleaning up BP’s mess and the liberal populace will not end up footing yet another bill for the wealthy for the destruction of Social Security and Medicare.

The Halliburton link and Washington hypocrisy!!!

It was only a few weeks ago that Obama proudly announced he would expand offshore drilling, breaking one of his many now-worthless campaign promises. The lack of outcry from Democrats over this announcement was nothing short of bizarre: If Bush had announced an expansion of offshore drilling, he would have been widely (and rightly) condemned for it by the left. But when Obama announces the same thing, it’s apparently okay with Democrats.

Back on the Republican side of things, the company Halliburton—yes, the same one that rakes in billions of dollars in profits rebuilding things in the Middle East after the U.S. military blows them up—is the company that completed the “rig cementing” just 20 hours before the rig exploded. A federal study, meanwhile, shows that most rig blowouts are caused by problems with rig cementing. So now it appears that Halliburton may be implicated in this environmental disaster.

The San Jose Mercury News is reporting that a lawsuit filed by a rig technician who was injured in the explosion claims Halliburton made crucial mistakes in cementing the well, “increasing the pressure at the well and contributing to the fire, explosion and resulting oil spill.”

FULL STORY:
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/207801-Gulf-of-Mexico-Oil-Spill-Shows-Disastrous-Legacy-of-Halliburton-and-the-Real-Cost-of-the-Oil-Era

Peace, Best Wishes and Hope

WikiLeaks—Collateral Murder
http://wikileaks.org/

“Obama announces his intention that this minor little mishap won’t deter his plans to do more off-shore drilling.

The lying Democrat websites then of course don’t promote this little policy announcement, but only push the press release material that has Obama saying BP will pay for this.”

  This is key, but it is unfortunately overshadowed by partisan charades that frame any criticism or demands for accountability as part of some right-wing agenda to destroy Obama. This us vs them mindset actually provides political cover for Obama by obscuring the issue—i.e. Limbaugh accusation of this being “Obama’s Katrina” - the old MSNBC tactic of targeting Republicans shields Obama’s complicity in Right-wing policy objectives.

garyrose66 claims “Over the past ten years BP has clearly demonstrated they are serial occupational killers, and serial environmental destroyers.”

If true, I’m sure you wouldn’t mind listing dates and short descriptions of each of these “serial” transgressions. These postings are full of general broadsides with hardly a fact to be found to substantiate any of them. You can have your own opinions but you can’t have your own facts. How about some facts, please.

Also: “We should make BP and any other corporation like them use the vast profits they are extracting from us and pay us back in full.”

Nice sentiment but as I stated earlier, it won’t happen. Oh, BP may “pay us back in full” and then recover that cost of doing business at the pump. My guess is that BP will NEVER be out-of-pocket. Facts to follow in about a decade to support my view.

Obama announces his intention that this minor little mishap won’t deter his plans to do more off-shore drilling.

The lying Democrat websites then of course don’t promote this little policy announcement, but only push the press release material that has Obama saying BP will pay for this.

Of course, the devil is in the details.  So, we’ll have to wait and see how much BP really pays and how much the tax payer pays.  Given that the oil companies own the government, you can guess how those details will work out once the lobbyists and the accountants have played games with this for years.

Meanwhile, the big policy decision, the fact that even though McCain/Palin were defeated at the polls their policy of “DRILL, BABY, DRILL”, continues on.

That’s American politics.  One party puts forward the idea of DRILL BABY DRILL.  The people react negatively to that and send that party to a massive defeat.  So, now the other party gives us the DRILL BABY DRILL policy and says we have no alternative.

DRILL BABY DRILL was sure to win in the last election as the oil companies own both parties.

If you didn’t like DRILL BABY DRILL, you should’ve voted Green.

But if you like DRILL BABY DRILL and prefer it just papered over with BS press releases and photops, then I’m sure you are wonderfully happy you voted for Obama and the Democrats.  You should make your plans now to vacation at the Gulf Coast beaches this summer and swim in the results of your vote.

What are the true costs of this kind of global level disaster? Without forgetting that this is yet another case of multiple BP employee deaths, right now we are on the very front end of what will surely become the worst, most devastating environmental disaster in American history. 
It is probable that the devastation will be continental, eventually stretching from Texas to Florida, and because of the Gulf Stream current perhaps even international, with oil crossing the Atlantic to potentially foul the shores of England or Iceland. 
The location for this gusher could not be worse environmentally and commercially.  It will end commercial fishing, oystering and shrimping in the most commercially important region in the US for these activities and devalue the brand of Gulf seafood for a long time.  The oil will biologically devastate immeasurable and uncleanable shorelines and bayou involving the most sensitive and important areas of North America for the life cycles of thousands of species of marine mammals, fish, and both local and migrating birds for years to come.  This loss is going to be priceless and beyond the reach of any amount of money the world can generate, let alone BP.  But one thing we can be sure of.  If we use the Exxon Valdez model, BP will pay pennies on the dollar for direct losses.
BP claims it will pay “legitimate costs,” which is corporate speak for “here come the lawyers to shield the company from paying anything.” 
Beyond the direct costs to the health of the environment, wildlife and people throughout the gulf coast, are the indirect costs that will be borne by both the individuals, cities, states and Federal government.  Besides questions of increased Public Health costs, mostly we can also look at the losses to fishing, tourism and related commercial interests throughout the gulf coast.  There are going to be massive government payouts to assist the devastated commercial interests.  Ignoring for a moment the recent political theatrics in the Gulf Coast states over taxation and fear of “socialism,” all those who are harmed are going to want and likely get some form of government sponsored assistance caused by the failure of one London based private enterprise.
Those who are concerned about Federal deficits are going to have to swallow big time public sector payments to handle this one.  This disaster is going to incur massive long term expenses for time and materials used by several Federal agencies such as the Coast Guard, Navy, EPA, OSHA, Minerals Management Service, FEMA, National Guard and on and on, to assist BP in mitigating the impossible to mitigate.  Will BP reimburse the taxpayers for all these direct and indirect losses and when will it start paying?  Are they going truly hold the US harmless for the full and complete costs of the global scale devastation they have caused by simple failure to manage spill prevention risk?  Irespective of whether you favor heavy regulation of risky industries with strong specification standards or letting them do it themselves, how can anyone favor continued externalizing the true costs of their actions? 
Over the past ten years BP has clearly demonstrated they are serial occupational killers, and serial environmental destroyers. We cannot execute the BP Corporation for this massive crime against our planet, our country and our people, but we should certainly not subsidize them either.  When you watch the news reports over the next few months play out with all the frantic and ultimately useless efforts to corral and sop up oil, think of how much this is costing the taxpayers of this country.  We should make BP and any other corporation like them use the vast profits they are extracting from us and pay us back in full.

The British Petroleum Corporation has, through risk management failure, just created what will become the worst environmental disaster in American history.  Something must be done to prevent this from happening ever again.  If we don’t want to specify regulation to mitigate corporate generated risk, then we must at least utilize the simple and basic principle of risk transfer:  industry needs to hold the United States harmless for the true cost of their risky operations within our borders. 
There has been an ongoing debate over the past 25 years since Exxon Valdez whether it is adequate to have the oil industry itself police their risk.  The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 and Natural Resource Damage Assessment process in CERCLA were designed to both respond to the outrage of the Exxon Valdez and were alleged to make the polluters actually liable for the cost of the damages they wreak.  Will it work?  Clearly, the oil industry will not adequately manage its risks unless we stop shielding them from the true risks of their actions to the life of their companies.  BP should have installed functional blowout protection devices that would automatically arrest the flow of oil out of the well at the ocean floor in the event of disaster at the surface.  There will be deep divisions over whether the right devices were installed or whether whatever was there did, or didn’t work.  The point is not arguing over that because the outcome is more important. Did BP consider non-functional blowout protection devices worth the risk to their entire company? 
Obviously, BP did not consider safety device failure at one of their hundreds of oil production operations a company ending risk.  BP’s own 2009 environmental impact report for this production site insisted that a major oil spill from their project was unlikely. Their leadership still, most damningly, insists that the disaster was “unforeseeable.”  This is pure crap. If they had managed the risk of device failure as if it was a hundred billion dollar decision, perhaps functional devices would be in place today.  But in either case, the oil is spewing unchecked into the gulf and the responsible party must pay because, in theory, OPA 90 and NRDA don’t allow for mulligans. However, if BP and its cohorts in this environmental crime do not pay for the full and true cost, one can argue that we are shielding them from the actual risk of their actions by allowing them to externalize the true cost of a global level disaster. This means the taxpayers of this country will be heavily subsidizing BP and cohorts for their incompetence now and far into the future.

It works to Obama’s advantage that the Republicans are worse and any alternative to the Democrats are shut out and shouted down by partisan cheerleaders (see Huffington Post) who view the world through the same binary lens that Bush used. There will be no corporate accountability from a president who views criminal bankers as “savvy businessman” and staffs his administration with the worst architects of de-regulation.

Yeah! This is all Obama’s fault, I saw a picture of him
walking around with a book written by a Moslem and he
was not even born here, thats why it is his fault and of
course he is half black on top of it all, which means
all black to the bigots are us crowd.

It would be nice to get responsibility from
corporations, but why should they be responsible when
they are calling the shots and regulations would be a
real pain in the ass for them. 

This kind of disaster is preventable and safety needs to
be in place before, not after and if regulations-are
necessary so be it.  Like the mine disaster, we have not
heard what happened, was someone cutting corners?

Learning from experience could help prevent this kid of
thing from happening again, sort of like learning about
going to war for no reason at all.

RAE wrote
“Well, that’s clear enough. Great politics but a little premature. You don’t even know why the platform exploded and sank. Terrorists, perhaps? Perhaps BP had NOTHING to do with it!”
____________________________________________________

Yeah Right! Blaming it on terrorists is a very easy way out for your beloved BP.
BP has a long history of negligence and cutting corners in its operations. Just few years ago a refinery exploded in Texas resulting in the death of several workers, and an invistigation found out it was safety and maintenance violation by BP.
Anyway, don’t worry,in the end, your beloved BP will be “bailed out” by the hapless taxpayers. That is the pattern now. Hey, BP is “too big to fail”.!!

What a load of crap.
The only thing that seems to concern oblivious asswipe Obama is covering his ass from political fallout by claiming that BP will be footing the bill. We know very well that we foot the bill at the pump or through our utility bills. At the same time asswipe claims that he will spare no government effort—which we foot the bill for as well.
Asswipe was actually smirking about his low approval ratings—like it was a joke.
  He must assume we are the same lobotomized suckers he is when the environmental disaster doesn’t even seem to register in his sullen deadpan reaction. How inconvenient it all is for his latest servile watercarrying for offshore drilling.

““Let me be clear: BP is responsible for this leak. BP will be paying the bill.””

Well, that’s clear enough. Great politics but a little premature. You don’t even know why the platform exploded and sank. Terrorists, perhaps? Perhaps BP had NOTHING to do with it!

With all due respect, Mr. President, you are either dreaming or you really don’t know how business operates.

Users of the products obtained from crude oil will be paying the bill, the entire bill, and likely a whole lot more than the bill. When you fine or tax a company you increase its expenses. When you increase its expenses their ONLY acceptable recourse is to increase their selling price. (“Eating it” (the extra expense) is NOT an option.)

With 20-20 hindsight I can confidently state that if we had had any brains (or control of our economies) at all we’d be off fossil fuels almost entirely by now. We don’t, on both counts, so on it goes.

*************

My confidence in o handling this is pretty low, just like change
we can believe in, just like the public option disappeared, just
like hiring the same greedy money freaks to distort the income
levels, just like bailing out companies ‘too big to fail’ but
shutting the door on people looking for jobs.

So the concrete dome will be ready in 8 to 10 days, meaning the
cement needs that long to set, but does is mean that it will
work? This whole thing is beginning to stink of some of the
same vile shenanigans that I remember from 9/11. The essence
here being, would it be to bp and corporate benefit in general to
have this type disaster, after all the shock doctrine dictates a
disaster for capitalism to make mo’ betta moni.

While on that thread, I find in very NON coincidental that there
are so many american made wars and so many american made
crises going on at once. I really do not find THAT coincidental,
especially when the plans for all of this is in the Project for the
New American Century neocon agenda for elite control.

Now the price of gas will rise.

Why do I feel sorry for BP, they may just be to big to
fail.

Is this like the mining accident, accountability after
the fact?  In fact it seems everything is after the fact,
am I seeing a pattern here?

Well, I do not know anything about drilling for oil or
coal mining, but I have an excuse, I am not in the
business. Now that I think of it, I don’t know anything
about making money either!

Have faith! BO will walk across the water, wave a wand, and fix the leak.

Aren’t you glad you voted for BO?

The leak they have is only 145 gallons per minute. 
This could easily be pumped at point of introduction
and tankered away for treatment and actual use.

This whole thing looks like another hustle.  We are
getting bailed again.  What are they thinking that if
they destroy the oceans we will let them drill there
wide open?

Why was this contingency not fully allowed for at the
time of permitting and plan of action immediately
instituted. 

The capture of this leak at point of introduction is
simple so why are they not doing it?

Conrad C. Elledge

Conrad Elledge, May 3 at 3:14 am,

True, but this time President Obama is going to do his best to hold their feet to the fire.

BP needs to go to their bloated coffers and withdraw about $200 Billion, hire subcontractors with sophisticated submarines (or whatever), get the f**k down to the ocean floor and fix the problem. Their platform, their mistake, their disaster, their cost.

After all, isn’t it “socialism” for the government to interfere with the “free market” and a sacred cow corporation? Isn’t private industry “more efficient” and “more accountable” than government?

As I’ve said for a long time: That capitalism thing works great when things are going well, but it’s a bitch when you’re not winning.

The assumption being that money can fix this
disaster.  How will they bring back to life the
wildlife killed by the contaminated environment.

Obama and his corporate sponsers better get building
those nuke plant because its going to take a bigger
disaster to distract the sheople from this disaster.

They could be collecting this oil right now at the
point of introduction if they were willing to spend
the money but they are not because it is cheaper to
pollute and then win the suit.  When you own the
court and the cops justice is cheap.  Look at the
Valdez if you want to see who pays the bill.

Keep looking forward Obama.

Conrad C. Elledge

It’s impossible for the military beast to quench its mighty thirst; the Oil Vampire craves another sip! BP says, “Sure, drinks are on the house”.

After the festive hangover, once again, the swindled public gets the “shitty deal” of paying for the broken bottles.

Peace, Best Wishes and Hope

WikiLeaks—Collateral Murder
http://wikileaks.org/

Since President Obama said they will pay, instead of the populace, if they abscond with their money in some way to avoid paying, the government can track their money and confiscate what is owed the government, so it would be advisable they be responsible; Republicans do have a problem with responsibility to the nation.

Only 3 weeks ago, BP’s CEO stated that they had to cut costs another $3-4 billion across the board, this from a company that makes $1.8 million an hour. Just not happy being number two.

Should be quite interesting how they will not pay anything. It will be tied up in court for the next decade or two leaving the American taxpayer to foot the bill as always.

Really, BP is going to pay like the mining company’s, that shift their profits from shell company’s who operate production, to their off shore corporate holdings so they can file bankruptcy as soon as the bill comes do for cleaning up the mess they leave. They’ll pay when pigs fly. I wonder how many super fund sites got cleaned up this year that were paid for by the corporations responsible for the mess?