Couple of my friends on Facebook recently were discussing BP and the oil spill. Honestly it’s sad in the US how so many stories can be so totally distorted by the US media (especially FOX “NEWS”) that people can’t see the big picture – and often aren’t even aware of it.
I think it is sad, hilarious, disgusting, whatever, that people are content to blame Obama for this more than BP. That or say something crazy like “I’d rather willingly pay BP to clean up this mess, than have Obama come in and raise taxes to hell to pay for this.” Are you serious? Do you even read the news or only the headlines?
- Barack Obama plans to punish BP with tax hike as Gulf spill worsens
- Obama plans to “punish” BP with tax hike as Gulf spill worsens
- Obama to Punish BP with Tax Hike
Each of the links above talks about Obama raising taxes by 1 cent per barrel of oil for oil companies. What motivation would Obama have to raise taxes on US citizens to pay for BP’s mistake? Oh, that’s right. Because Obama’s Hitler right? Seriously, sometimes I fear for my country.
Another great comment I saw was, “BP didn’t do this intentionally. The Middle East is trying to destroy us, and people are more willing to pay for their oil than BP’s. That really pisses me off. I’d support BP in a heartbeat just because of that fact.” So why support either of them? Help Obama end our dependence on foreign oil – let’s get some “green tech” going on over there. It’s time to prepare for a Clean Energy Future. Oh, that’s right. Obama’s a Muslim and a Maoist right? Seriously, sometimes I fear for my country.
Enough about Obama. It’s just sad to see a very vocal, loud, and angry percentage of the population continue to create stories, make “Seven Degrees of Kevin Bacon” connections, and ignore the ignorance of the past administration (one post I read said, “With GWBush, we had jobs, when Obama came, we lost all our jobs” – oblivious to the fact that the GW’s policies created the current situation, and Obama has been busy pulling us out of another Great Depression and trying to put some checks-and-balances back in place in our lobbyist friendly, turn-a-blind-eye to corporate greed and corner cutting, government).
Now, before anyone holds up BP as a martyr for their cause, check out some of these links:
- “It turns out that BP has one of the worst worker safety records in the country.”
- This one written in 2007 about a completely different event in Texas City in March 2005:
- BP fought safety measures at Deepwater oil rigs.
It’s my opinion that BP got what was coming to them – and unfortunately caused the rest of the US to suffer with them. They’ve botched the whole thing from before the very beginning. They have a track record of cutting corners and weaseling out of safety regs. They’ve had other accidents and incidents that were preventable in the past (like the one in Texas City in March 2005). They didn’t include a remote system on this rig that would have allowed them to clamp shut the wellhead so it wouldn’t continue to gush oil. The cost of such a remote is $500,000. And they haven’t brought in supertankers like those used to clean up similar sized oil spills in the Arabian Gulf. (http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-05-25/shocking-bp-memo-and-the-oil-spill-in-the-gulf/3/)
And possibly the funniest, latest news is a note about their stock on the BP homepage that declares they are “not aware of any reason which justifies this [drop in US] share price movement.”
Poor BP.
- If you weren’t an idiot in the first place, this wouldn’t have happened and could have been prevented.
- If you weren’t an idiot in the second place, you could have stopped this or cleaned it up sooner and better.
- If you weren’t an idiot in the third place, you might understand that causing a massive environmental disaster would probably have something to do with a falling stock price.
Poor BP.
Thank God our eyes are finally opened. Well, some of them anyway. “If logic is Obama’s god, effective communication is his Achilles’ heel. The president faltered in his essential responsibility to explain complex issues to a Fox News-addicted electorate.” (NJ.com)
Seriously, sometimes I fear for my country.
(But I’ll give you a hint BP – and Obama, flash enough greenbacks, and we could probably be persuaded to forget about any minor upset).
http://ifitwasmyhome.com/ –> Very good site, showing the size of the oil spill relative to other places on Earth.
