dale Headley, May 30 at 5:41 pm,

The last I heard, President Obama has stopped all off shore oil drilling.

As for Jindal, he is the Governor, he can do something himself more than sling rhetoric and propaganda, but that is all he is doing.

“BP is a convicted serial environmental criminal,” West said. “So, where are the criminal investigators? The well head is a crime scene and yet the potential criminals are in charge of that crime scene. Have we learned nothing from this company’s past behavior?”

http://www.truthout.org/ex-epa-officials-why-isnt-bp-under-criminal-investigation59936

Greg Palast says the same about BP:

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/838.html

Darn, this reminds me of 9/11—— with the criminals being in charge of the crime scene, again.  This seems to be a Right-Wing trait and they reeled President Obama in..

We can make news-worthy repairs in space, didnt we send men to the moon over forty years ago?...right, but this is what? The fault of the tea party? You’re kidding, I know you’re not. Pitiful EJ if thats your real name just pitiful. Get fired like you should.

As a people citizen of the USA, if my crack house blows up a whole city block and kills a few people along with it, the three little piggy formula may work on paper, if I was a crack corporation with some integrity, but no… I label myself as a citizen so I take my lumps or hightail off to some foreign land like Mexico if this would happen. (I only have employees work in my crack houses)  But now the damn beaches may be covered in oil at Mexico?

Very few citizens of this great country can afford 10 mill per person killed out of their own pockets from an accident like this, and do you know how hard it is for crack-houses to obtain liability insurance?

I know I should feel empathy for neighbors, but what the hell am I doing this for my health…... and to feel good? Why would I care about stinking neighbors anyway, they are always complaining about the smell of the smoke coming from my crack house chimneys.

Payoffs the American way!

Let the fire department take care of everything and they can pay all the bills too, because I was able to get the people in charge to say if something happens, it will not go to the courts because I do not live there. 

I like being people too!

What is really fun to watch, and I am sure many on these
threads have, is when…

They have to take a vote to raise the debt level just to
keep the government functioning, it is usually a trill
at a time.

there will be some that object, the usual token ones..
always Repubs during a Dem majority, knowing that it is
going to pass, so they are safe.

It is a good C-Span watch…when is the next vote,
anyone know, this oil spill had to push the date up quite
a bit.

we are all going to be Tar Babies Now.

AmeriCorp a wholly owned subsidiary of Big Corp & Big Oil

”Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen is to retire at the end of this month. He was named as national incident commander for the oil spill and President Obama has stated that Allen will continue in his position after he retires. However, WMR’s sources in FEMA report that Allen has been in post-retirement employment discussions with BP. Under his watch, the Coast Guard has been accused of shilling for BP’s public relations efforts, including having armed Coast Guard personnel chase away a CBS camera crew from filming the oil spill’s effects in Louisiana and claiming that tests of oil tar balls in Florida have not come from the Deepwater Horizon disaster.”
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_5923.shtml

‘Top kill’ halts flow of oil and gas, admiral says
http://www.chicagotribune.c<om/news/ct-oil-spill-stopped-top-kill-link,0,1045555.story?track=rss

OPPS!

”the company’s chief executive cautioned it will be two more days before anyone knows if the latest fix attempt will end the uncontrolled flow of crude…”
http://www.denverpost.com/frontpage/ci_15181049?source=rss

New Carly Simon song: “Externalization”

”BP is trying to block an attempt by some fishermen to get a federal judge to oversee the claims process. BP says the 1990 Oil Pollution Act gives the Coast Guard oversight responsibilities.

Read more: http://www.thesunnews.com/2010/05/26/1496292/bp-says-it-has-paid-29m-in-oil.html#ixzz0pF75IDwk

”Transocean Ltd. made its arguments in Houston after the federal court there accepted the company’s petition to limit its liability in the oil spill to less than $27 million, the amount the company says the sunken rig is worth.

Read more: http://www.thesunnews.com/2010/05/25/1494382/transocean-seeks-delay-of-oil.html#ixzz0pF7lkGtP

Federal Gulf Cleanup Costs At $87M And Rising
http://www.wdsu.com/news/23700738/detail.html

“An externality,” says economist Milton Friedman, “is the effect of a transaction . . . on a third party who has not consented to or played any role in the carrying out of that transaction.” All the bad things that happen to people and the environment as a result of corporations’ relentless and legally compelled pursuit of self-interest are thus neatly categorized by economists as externalities literally, other people’s problems.’ – Joel Balkan, “The Corporation”

“The structure, says Kernaghan, “the whole system, just drags everybody with it.“ At the heart of that structure is a simple dynamic: a corporation “tends to be more profitable to the extent it can make other people pay the bills for its impact on society, as businessman Robert Monks describes it “There’s a terrible word that economists use for this called ‘externalities ‘“ – Joel Balkan, “The Corporation”

And as if we needed more proof of just how amoral a corporation and those functionaries within it are, there’s this breaking news from TDB:

”… the heart of BP procedures, demonstrating that before the company’s previous major disaster—at a moment when the oil giant could choose between cost-savings and greater safety—it selected cost-savings.”

…And BP chose to illustrate that choice, without irony, by invoking the classic Three Little Pigs fairy tale. (click on link below to see copy of the memo and read all about men being allegorized as “little piggies.”)

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-05-25/shocking-bp-memo-and-the-oil-spill-in-the-gulf/?cid=topic:mainpromo4

Get ready to take it up the old yazoo America!

leefeller:
“grease gun is inserted into the tit of the pork barrel”

YOU HAVE WON THE 2010 MIXED METAPHOR AWARD!!!

It happens all the time,.... like the other day, I had a major argument with myself and I lost!

Oil is still spilling into the Gulf of Mexico at an unknown rate.

“Plug the damn hole,” says the nation’s chief executive to his aides. Why does he bother? His aides don’t know anything about plugging oil leaks under the ocean. And those people who do know something about it have been unable to fix the leak.

Mr. Obama is not only America’s president. He also presides over the biggest single user of oil in the world - the US military. The pentagon uses twice as much oil as the entire nation of Ireland. It sends soldiers in oil-burning airplanes to places of no apparent importance where they drive around in oil-burning machines for no apparent reason.

Naturally, oil becomes not just another commodity, but a strategic commodity…worth fighting for. Then, foreign wars use up the oil they were expected to protect.

But geopolitics is far beyond our understanding…and even farther out of our range of interest. We will just observe that the law of diminishing returns applies to just about everything. The farther offshore the roughnecks go…the deeper the sea and the higher the waves…the more the costs, the greater the risks and the lower the marginal returns. The return from Deepwater Horizon must be starkly negative…

The farther afield US armies go, too, the greater the costs, the higher the risks, and the lower the marginal returns.

“Why not just buy oil on the open market?”

Well, it’s clear you don’t know anything about geopolitics either, dear reader…don’t you know that our enemies might try to cut us off from vital oil supplies? That’s why Germany and Japan lost WWII! We were able to cut of their fuel…

“But weren’t Germany and Japan fighting for access to oil? Didn’t their politicians say they had to invade Poland…and the Philippines…to protect their vital supplies?”

No…they were aggressors. They were bad people…

“But if they hadn’t been the aggressors they wouldn’t have been bad people, right?”

That’s right…

“Then, we wouldn’t have cut off their access to oil!”

Oh, never mind. You’ll never understand geopolitics, will you?

Regards,

Bill Bonner,
for The Daily Reckoning
Thursday May 27, 2010

A Liberal arts graduate using knowledge of how liberal arts ‘think’.

http://home.comcast.net/~bpayne37/whitman59/bushschool/bushschool.htm#layne

Can you say Lobbyist?

As a person who is not happy with how government and how it makes decisions according to how the grease gun is inserted into the tit of the pork barrel. My personal ability at lobbying consists of trying to pay my bills and figure out all the medical insurance not covered letters I receive.

My personal bail out requests has been answered as have my prayers to the Pope.  In Fact my requests of anything from the government have been received with crickets, guess my letter and phone call lobbying techniques are not quite up to K Street standards?

From what I have read, it would seem that the American Government’s right to intervene have been severely restricted once these drilling permits are signed.
There should be an investigation into the reasons why such freedoms, for the oil companies, were inserted into these contracts, to be followed up with action taken against the individual/s concerned, with full and open disclosure given to the general public.

It just blew , I am pretty sure.

THE BRITISH ARE COMING,  THE BRITISH ARE COMING !!!!

they won.

Anarcissie:
At the risk of sounding like a liberal, I think regulation is necessary and effective. Theoretically, that is. While I am a mouthbreathing free-market capitalist, I still think that regulation has its place in modern society. The major difference between today’s economies and those of Adam Smith’s day is the existence of synthetic, “unnatural” if you will, materials and processes that can potentially wreak havoc on the environment. The problem is that the environmental costs of petroleum production and use are not fully factored into the price of the products. Regulation and taxation (I feel like such a traitor) are necessary to capture the cost of protecting the environment from the damage those industries cause.

To the extent that regulators are currently in bed with regulatees, I must regretfully agree. The problem is $$$$.

I.

By rfidler, May 27 at 4:44 pm

”Except that if public interest is ignored too long, the public will lose interest in the company’s products and profits will suffer. It is in the company’s interest ultimately to satisfy the public interest, or their venture will fail.”

Not exactly. Especially not in an oligopoly which is exactly what Big Oil is today. Even if it became impossible for BP to sell a drop of gasoline in the U.S. they can and often do sell to other dealers. They can sell it under a subsidiary corporation and still make tons.

By rfidler, May 27 at 4:44 pm

”Do you think BP has taken a big hit in the eye of the public? I do. Do you think BP cares about the negative publicity it has garnered from all this? I do.”

Yes and yes. Would you prefer—as politicians do—to blame America’s being hooked on oil as the reason that BP and others didn’t comply with safety regulations?

By rfidler, May 27 at 4:44 pm

“’Profit’” is NOT a dirty word. It is profit that allows companies to hire workers.”

I never said that it was. Employee payroll and benefits are not profit, they’re cost; about 75%-85% of costs. Without employees there is no product or service provided from which to make a profit. The problem is when you have Big Corp eating up all the Little Corps out there the overall effect is not only oligopoly and monopoly but fewer employees hired because of fewer employment opportunities, increased workload with little or no compensation, etc.

By rfidler, May 27 at 4:44 pm

“Corporations don’t hoard capital. That would be unproductive and a waste.”

They don’t hoard cash but they sure as hell hoard wealth and they are constantly accumulating more wealth. Isn’t their goal to always get a bigger market share? Corporations are anti-free-market. 

By rfidler, May 27 at 4:44 pm

“ The companies that are listed on the stock market have lost a trillion dollars in value over the last several weeks. Is that a good thing? It’s possible that quite a few unemployed workers might have been hired but for the mini-crash.”

That depends on one’s point of view. If I’m looking to buy stock in one of those companies now might be a good time to buy, isn’t that how it’s supposed to work?

Your allegory is a simple generalization. The fact is that many companies already have been and are going to continue to be called in to help with the clean-up, drilling relief wells, and all that peripheral activity that is going to be needed to resolve this crisis. That means increased employment opportunities. Even though this additional opportunity for other businesses falls into the “broken window” allegory it may end up helping local economies much more than had this not happened. Had there been no disaster it’s doubtful that the money that will now have to be expended in order to resolve this crisis would have been spent in local economies. The Katrina devastation caused a small boom in the oil industry of the Gulf Coast. It’s the silver lining on a dark cloud. 

Our unemployment problems are not due to a well not having blown up. Besides how many of the companies that you mention actually produce or provide a service? Our current speculation market doesn’t produce or provide anything but lucrative profits for a select few usually while destroying our entire economic system and the lives of many tens of thousands or millions.

II.

By rfidler, May 27 at 6:00 pm

“Given your past involvement in industry, I’m puzzled by your hostile outlook on industry, and your simplistic suggestions for fixing it.”

I’m not hostile toward industry. I’m hostile towards unregulated oligopolies and monopolies. I’m hostile to lobbyists writing the legislation on behalf of their corporate clients and handing it over to elected legislators who then vote it into law. I’m hostile to the façade of a free-market gamed for the benefit of the few.
My suggestions seem simplistic because I’ve neither the time nor the initiative to write an entire theorem on how to fix our broken economic and political system. There is a limit of 4,000 characters here. More importantly, I don’t have all the answers! But I do recognize a broken system when I see one. 

By rfidler, May 27 at 6:00 pm

“You can’t hold corporate bigwigs personally responsible for accidents!”

Why not? If there was criminal negligence on their part why shouldn’t they be held responsible?

By rfidler, May 27 at 6:00 pm

“How would you have felt if the company you worked for put you personally on the line for mistakes? You wouldn’t be able to make a move.”

I’ve never worked where I wasn’t personally responsible for the tasks that I performed plus those—at times as many as 50 men or more—that were under my supervision. That’s why I said in my first post to you that I know of the pressures applied to contractors and inspectors to pencil-whip safety. I’ve been fired for refusing to perform a task that the customer wanted done by bypassing safety shutdowns rather than pull equipment out of production. I respect Murphy’s Law.

A drilling rig cost over a 100 grand a minute to operate. That’s every single minute of each and every day. Most people can’t believe that it costs so much but it does. So think about that. There’s a contractor company checking safety devices on your drilling rig or platform. While they’re performing safety checks no drilling can take place. It’s not so bad at first because these inspections are usually scheduled. But if there are problems and the time needed to repair those problems exceed the time allotted or if it’s an unscheduled problem then the pressure begins to mount to get around it any way possible. And what’s driving all of that? Profits!

[B]In BP’s defense; from what friends have told me, they’re one of the strictest companies there is when it comes to safety. I personally have never worked for them but from what I’ve been told they’re really strict. This may even work out where it isn’t BP at fault but rather a sub-contractor that worked on that site that may be responsible. I recall reading that Halliburton had been on the platform the day before. So who knows?

III.

By rfidler, May 27 at 6:00 pm

“I’m a retired airline pilot. Do you think I’d allow one passenger on my airplane if I knew I would be financially responsible for any accident I got into?”

We’re talking about criminal negligence. If you would have killed people due to having purposely ignored safety regulations and/or warnings you would have been personally liable as well as your company.

And being a pilot you know full well that the pressure to cut corners and meet deadlines is always there.

By rfidler, May 27 at 6:00 pm

“And what’s this about seizing BP’s assets? What good would that do? How many citizens of the Gulf coast would that help?”

Externalization! BP—as all corporations do—will attempt to externalize those costs as much as possible. That means externalize as much as possible to the backs of the already overburdened taxpayers. Grab the assets until full and satisfactory restitution has been paid. If the government doesn’t act in a way that makes them hurt when they’ve finally returned to business as usual BP’s lawyers are going to make a shambles of the court system avoiding all that they can. You know it and so does everyone else.

Relax; it isn’t going to happen because the U.S. government is a wholly owned subsidiary of Big Corp and Big Oil.

Also, if it’s any consolation to you; I don’t agree with Dionne’s statement: “It was trusted to know what it was doing with complicated equipment that, it turns out, BP either didn’t understand very well or was willing to use recklessly. Where the hell does he come up with that? From what I’ve read—and admittedly it’s very little—they either believe or know that inspection of the BOP was pencil-whipped. If this is the case then I suspect there is going to be criminal charges forthcoming because there were lives lost as well as ruined.

I also agree with you that this will probably halt further oil exploration at a time when we really need to be moving forward with it. I know where many of the products that we use and would be hard-pressed to live without come from.

rfidler, May 27 at 6:00 pm:
’... And what’s this about seizing BP’s assets? What good would that do? How many citizens of the Gulf coast would that help?’

If the liabilities coming out of this disaster are what I think they are, the residents of the Gulf Coast may already own BP’s assets.

The larger question, though, is what to do about this sort of thing.  Regulation doesn’t help: the regulators are easily seduced and are often the same as the regulatees anyway.  Government ownership doesn’t help: the Soviet Union was (and probably still is) a standing ecological catastrophe.  Maybe there’s just no hope; we’ll keep going until the last S.U.V. drinks the last drop of gasoline, and then find something worse to do.

Leefeller:
Do you think BP is happy that you are boycotting their oil? Why would they intentionally risk pissing you off?

In what specific way can YOU demonstrate from your daily life that YOU give a crap about the general public? My point is, “giving a crap about the general public” is irrelevant and beside the point. Nobody gives a crap about the general public! So what?

On the lighter side, I just read a good post.
it said

The live stream should be on a big screen
on the White House lawn, next to the
organic garden

(Nemesis, thankyou)

Yes Rfidler, I refuse to buy fuel from BP stations and any affiliate, infarct I am going to ride my skateboard to work, except it will make it kinda hard when making hay.

Like BP really gives a crap about the general public, just like the coal mine industry does and of course Goldamn Saks doing gods work.

K street like rats running through the halls of Congress, give a crap about the general public, maybe profit is a dirty word when it is manipulated to the extent it ignores something called integrity.

nemesis:
Given your past involvement in industry, I’m puzzled by your hostile outlook on industry, and your simplistic suggestions for fixing it. You can’t hold corporate bigwigs personally responsible for accidents! How would you have felt if the company you worked for put you personally on the line for mistakes? You wouldn’t be able to make a move.

I’m a retired airline pilot. Do you think I’d allow one passenger on my airplane if I knew I would be financially responsible for any accident I got into?

And what’s this about seizing BP’s assets? What good would that do? How many citizens of the Gulf coast would that help?

nemesis:
“When profit and the public interests are opposed it’s profit that wins out.”

Except that if public interest is ignored too long, the public will lose interest in the company’s products and profits will suffer. It is in the company’s interest ultimately to satisfy the public interest, or their venture will fail.

Do you think BP has taken a big hit in the eye of the public? I do. Do you think BP cares about the negative publicity it has garnered from all this? I do.

“Profit” is NOT a dirty word. It is profit that allows companies to hire workers. Corporations don’t hoard capital. That would be unproductive and a waste.

The companies that are listed on the stock market have lost a trillion dollars in value over the last several weeks. Is that a good thing? It’s possible that quite a few unemployed workers might have been hired but for the mini-crash.

By rfidler, May 27 at 11:11 am

”Dionne concludes by saying, “we have ... handed vast responsibilities over to a private sector that will never see protecting the public interest as its primary task.”
The “private sector” he alludes to is of course BP. BP of course, wants to make money. What most non-capitalists don’t understand is that one of the most important things a company can do to help itself make money is to been sensitive to, if not actively pursue, the “public interest”. Why would a company intentionally piss off its customers, or its regulators?”

Great attempt rfidler but no cigar! Everyone is a capitalist whether they accept that fact or not because no goal can be accomplished without capital. Not even your morning constitutional.

That “public interests” goes only so far. By law corporations have to place profit above all. That’s the convenient law that those amoral bastards most desire to follow. Their interest in the “public interest” has to do with profit, nothing else. When profit and the public interests are opposed it’s profit that wins out. It’s Big Corp that has K Street filled with many thousands of lobbyists “lobbying” Congress for ever more “deregulation.” Laissez-faire—leave us alone—economics.

The answer is no that BP did not want this to happen; they did not want to be the cause of drilling coming to a halt or losing 40 billion in value. What they wanted was to continue to make huge profits while short-cutting costly compliance with safety regulations and pressuring Congress for less regulation at every turn. The pressure behind that is the extremely high cost of drilling. Every minute is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. So pencil-whipping a safety check can mean hundreds of thousands of dollars saved IF you get away with it. (Remember the Ford Pinto?) I’m a retired industrial control systems engineer and have seen this crap all my life. Every time equipment is thrown into service—especially internationally—the last thing permitted is to remove the equipment from service regardless of the reason. Many producing companies—especially in the 3rd world—are the #1 income for their governments and you had better well have checked the safety systems 3, 4, and even 5 times before putting any equipment into service because once it is producing you’ve no permission to remove it from service.

The BOP is arguably the most critical safety device in a drilling operation. It’s not only an environment saver it’s a life saver! When you have several hundred feet of drill pipe, chemical mud, a bit, high pressure gas and crude being blown out of a hole at tremendous velocities and into the immediate area of a drill floor there is neither time nor place for those workers to run and hide. Accidents do not happen in slow motion. If it is proven that inspectors were influenced to look the other way with respect to those BOP inspections those responsible—as well as all of BP’s executive corps—should be held personably responsible for this disaster.

Have you a clue to the number of families in southern Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama that have instantaneously lost their livelihoods? Their shrimping industry was already under tremendous pressure from foreign competition and the destruction of their wetlands due to oilfield activity and needs. How many years before their livelihoods are restored?. Then there are the fishermen, the crabbers, all those whose living is made by providing us with the abundant resources of the Gulf of Mexico. What about those places that have resort beaches? The real costs of this disaster will be astronomical and inestimable. The U.S. government—IMO—should seize all BP assets in the U.S. immediately.

By gerard, May 27 at 8:35 am

”A large part of “private enterprise” is controlled by scientists. Science has developed very rapidly in recent decades; and science has become so powerful and so complicated that it is far beyond government officials’ meager intellects.”

Scientists?

Scientists don’t control private industry Gerard. The super-wealthy class owns almost all of private industry that is worth owning. They in turn pay for scientists and engineers to develop the needed and/or desired technologies. Scientists are human beings just like everyone else; I seriously doubt that they don’t feel the same disgust that we do. The government can offer competitive pay and benefits and get the same high quality scientists and engineers that private industry has. But for about 40+ years now the über-right have mounted a consistent attack and cast serious doubts in the minds of the people about government’s ability to accomplish goals. Unfortunately 40 years of republican/democrat rule has provided solid evidence that republican/democrat rule is totally inadequate to accomplish much besides selling the country down the drain for lobbyist money and Big Corp campaign “donations.”

This problem isn’t due to science or scientists; it’s corruption and the amoral objectivist ideology that reigns supreme in Washington and all those Big Corp corporate boardrooms. It’s corruption between businessmen and those charged with the responsibility of ensuring that these “Too Big To Fails” comply with safety regulations that are at the root of all this mess. At the very least corporate personhood has to be obliterated and the immunity that CEOs and board members have enjoyed needs to be removed. Hold those at the very top personally responsible for the actions of their companies and you’ll see a much different attitude when it comes to compliance of safety regulations and functionality of safety equipment.

Most haven’t a clue what is really taking place during a drilling operation. In this case because of the depths of this drilling the pressures being dealt with are in the many thousands of psi. These high pressures are countered by a chemical solution called mud. The “mud” is constantly being monitored and chemically altered to meet the need of the pressures encountered. If there is an incident such as this one, where the drill bit opens a pocket of trapped high-pressure gas there isn’t time for the mud engineers to react and weigh the mud to counter the pressure. The pressure of the gas will blow everything in the drill hole out to the surface. It’s simply physics. That’s why there is a BOP—Blow Out Preventer—on the casing. When uncontrollable pressures are encountered the BOP shears everything and seals the hole shut. That’s the safety device that failed to operate and reportedly had not been properly function checked.

That said, I don’t see how they’re going to cap that well until those two relief wells are drilled. If they do it’ll be a marvelous engineering feat. The task is not to simply lower something of sufficient size to counter the pressures on top of the well but to stabilize it and guide it to the well opening while doing this. That’s a gargantuan task that no one on earth is properly prepared to execute.

You can thank science and engineering for not seeing disasters like this more frequently.

if one can render following simplicity simpler or more elucidating, s/he’ welcome to it:

Once civility-civilization had been destroyed ca 8k yrs ago by clerico-noble class of people and with the same people still in charge of making sure that that civilzation we once had preclerical and/or prenobility rule, one can expect more, much more uncivility of all kinds: wars, exploitation, overuse, diminishment of the underclass,etc.

Dionne concludes by saying, “we have ... handed vast responsibilities over to a private sector that will never see protecting the public interest as its primary task.”

The “private sector” he alludes to is of course BP. BP of course, wants to make money. What most non-capitalists don’t understand is that one of the most important things a company can do to help itself make money is to been sensitive to, if not actively pursue, the “public interest”. Why would a company intentionally piss off its customers, or its regulators?

BP lost $40 billion in stock value over this disaster. Does anyone think this is a good thing, or something BP wanted to happen, or was willing to let happen?

Off shore drilling will come to a grinding halt over this. Is this what BP wanted to happen?

“The strength of America is not found in our government,” Jindal declared in his response to President Obama’s 2009 address to Congress. “It is found in the compassionate hearts and the enterprising spirit of our citizens.”

Yes, in the compassionate hearts of the enterprising opportunists, the money spirit!

We see and saw the compassionate heart of Goldman saks doing gods work, Aig compassionately giving hearty bonanza’s to their cronies, and other now hearty spirits recently declared as people who show the enterprising spirit of greed.

How about the mine killings, oh~ I mean again accident, so much enterprising compassion one would hope it would spirit away!

How about enterprising this Jindal! BP is being compassionate with all their hearts using crocodile tears to kill the alligators.  Must never talk about, it should never have happened in the first place, that would be unenterprising….. Jindal?  So after the fact,  you can sue the enterprising heartless bastards into the ground, for all the good it will do, but it will make you feel so spirited and enterprising with all your heart!

Key sentence:  “But the truth is that we have disempowered government and handed vast responsibilities over to a private sector that will never see protecting the public interest as its primary task.”
  This is why “private enterprise” and “democracy” are always at odds and the former cannot be happy unless it has completely de-fanged the latter—which is where we are now. Apparently the Republicans and right wing factions do not realize—or won’t acknowleldge—this obvious truth.
  A large part of “private enterprise” is controlled by scientists. Science has developed very rapidly in recent decades; and science has become so powerful and so complicated that it is far beyond government officials’ meager intellects. 
  Anyway, politicians would doubtless prefer to “leave it up to the specialists” and get on with the business of winning their re-election.
  Think nuclear bombs and power.  Think vast sums spent on space exploration.  Think hi-tech, brutal weapons of mass destruction.  Think environmental destruction.  Think how to get scientists and technologists to act as ethical human beings.
  They don’t “have to” do the things they do. They do it by choice.  Whistle-blowers are all too rare.