BP: Bureaucratic Prostitutes

By Kelvin Wade

           Today, in a congressional hearing with BP CEO Tony Hayward, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) (  http://joebarton.house.gov/ContactJoe.aspx?Type=Contact    202.225.2002) actually apologized to Hayward saying, “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."

            What? It’s a shakedown to hold BP financially accountable for their spill? Apology to BP? An apology?? This is the corporation that said it could handle a spill three times the size of the spill in the Gulf. It said in its clean up plan that beaches would never see oil and would remain pristine. They said birds would hardly be affected. They said that walruses in the Gulf of Mexico would remain safe. (Safe because there isn’t any!). This company claims its been consulting on oil spill clean up with an expert who has been dead for five years.

            BP has kept a media clamp down on the spill. For weeks they wouldn’t allow pictures or video of the spill. And then they took their time allowing a high-definiton video that would’ve better helped analysts estimate how much oil was billowing into the Gulf. BP’s own estimates on the spillage keep increasing. They’ve turned away help from people who’ve offered their services to clean birds and beaches.

            The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon killed 11 people and injured 17. Thousands have been affected from shrimpers to fisherman to hotels, restaurants and other businesses that depend on tourism. The petroleum in the water has killed birds, turtles, fish and dolphins.

            The soonest they can stop this oil is said to be August.

            And a Congressman apologizes to BP? A shakedown?

            According to published accounts, Congressman Barton has taken $1.4 million from the oil industry to be their lap dog. I understand, having rented out his integrity, that Barton has to get out there and do their bidding. But it’s really pathetic especially when you think about the families of those who lost their lives on Deepwater Horizon.

            For all the talk of socialism and big government tyranny the past two years, BP has given Americans a lesson in what unbridled big corporate power is like. Without regulation, corporations will cut corners, exploit workers, cost lives, and plunder the environment. And they will do it all with the help of whores in the government like the MMS and Congressman Barton, who do their bidding.