British Petroleum....had better cough up the cash!

Oleg Bach · April 29, 2010

It's better that the Queen and Prince Charley declare insolventcy instead of letting thousands of barrels of oil destroy the gulf coast. Let the arrogant secretive mother f**kers drag out all of their money and send a thousand ships to clean up the oil spill with damned tea spoons if neccesary. Instead of doing what they are supposed to do they want to burn the stuff..as if oil and water burn easily and as if I want to breath the crap that keeps them rich.

punked · April 29, 2010

Drill baby Drill. HA!

Oleg Bach · April 29, 2010

Drill baby Drill. HA!

YOU mean kill baby kill..... this is not the way to run a civlized world...so what is it like to be a plundering barbarian?

Shady · April 29, 2010

Why is this in American politics? I had no idea an underwater explosion was political.

Smallc · April 30, 2010

Why is this in American politics? I had no idea an underwater explosion was political.

Really? I expected you to blame it on Obama.

Shady · April 30, 2010

Really? I expected you to blame it on Obama.

Nonsense. Obama should only be blamed for things he's responsible for.

Smallc · April 30, 2010

Nonsense. Obama should only be blamed for things he's responsible for.

Or, alternatively, trivial things that have no bearing on anyone that you and other right wing radicals think are important.

Edited April 30, 2010 by Smallc

Shady · April 30, 2010

Or, alternatively, trivial things that have no bearing on anyone that you and other right wing radicals think are important.

Examples?

Smallc · April 30, 2010

Census forms....birth certificates (nonsense that is)....bowing....apologizing....being black....etc, etc, etc.

Edited April 30, 2010 by Smallc

BubberMiley · April 30, 2010

You forgot out-of-context misleading snippets of longer sentences. :lol:

But of course the topic is political. Drilling on the coast was a bit political issue in the last election. It's surprising that someone who is so caught up in U.S. politics would be unaware of that.

Smallc · April 30, 2010

You forgot out-of-context misleading snippets of longer sentences.

Yeah, those are my favourite.

Shady · April 30, 2010

Census forms

Oh, you mean his lying. Even the Washington Post had a story about his incorrecly filling out the census form.

birth certificates (nonsense that is)

I've never said Obama wasn't an American citizen. Another swing and a miss.

bowing

No idea what you're talking about.

apologizing

Apologizing to dictators around the world is far from trivial. But it doesn't suprise me that you think so.

being black

I've never blamed Obama for being black. I'm not sure exactly how one would do that anyways.

Smallc · April 30, 2010

No idea what you're talking about.

Really?

http://www.mapleleafweb.com/forums//index.php?showtopic=13809

sharkman · April 30, 2010

Is that how it is now? A preemptive, "You were going to blame it on Obama", to protect Obama from blame? A little defensive, aren't we? :rolleyes:

At any rate, Obama is no more to blame for the oil spill than Bush was for Katrina hitting. The aftermath is something else. He was distracted by his race baiting efforts regarding Arizona. So far he's been under performing on this and only recently has been trying to appear that he's all over it like white on rice.

When the slick hits the shore he will be blamed for opening up drilling and needlessly menacing the environment with just these types of disasters. Not really. The vacuum created by the media not being in any way critical of Obama will in itself suck up the slick and save the day.

Meanwhile, apparently Halliburton may have poured the cement for this particular rig. No doubt Cheney will be savaged up by the media for weeks. I wonder how many ducks that will save?

Topaz · April 30, 2010

Gee, I wonder if the gas prices will go up again because of the oil spill, we all know it doesn`t take much for a reason for them to do it!!

Shady · April 30, 2010

Gee, I wonder if the gas prices will go up again because of the oil spill

Well, if it cuts into supply, then yes, prices may go up.

Moonlight Graham · May 1, 2010

Apologizing to dictators around the world is far from trivial. But it doesn't suprise me that you think so.

Like who? When did this happen?

August1991 · May 1, 2010

I thought Climate Change was the most major threat to humanity. Now, it seems to be an oil well off the Louisiana coast.

Or is it simply "how we are destroying the environment"?

Between Climate Change, Global Warming and Offshore Oil Spills, which catastrophe should we deal with first? Or all of them simultaneously?

Should rich people pay for this? For example, should all Canadians (rich in the world context) pay a special 10% tax?

It seems simplistic to say that BP (British Petroleum) should cough up the cash. Retired Ontario teachers, for example, are shareholders in BP.

Who should pay?

Edited May 1, 2010 by August1991

sharkman · May 1, 2010

I suppose one would want to find out who is responsible for the spill. What I don't get is it's been gushing for several days, why has so little been done about it?

WIP · May 1, 2010

Who's responsible for the spill? Offhand I would say the blame starts with either the owner of the rig - Transocean, or the company that leased the oil rig - BP, who lied about the capabilities of their safety systems.

Why has so little been done? Looks like Limbaugh and Glenn Beck are ahead of the curve on this one. They've already started blaming Obama for the oil leaking into the Gulf. Nothing new to see here....this is the same strategy they used on the subprime mortgage meltdown -- as soon as Barack Obama was elected president...even before the Inauguration, it was all his fault, and George Bush never existed!

Well, never let the facts get in the way of a good argument. Since this crisis is hardly more than a week old, it is still a fresh memory that BP lied about the existence of a leak in the first 24 hours, and then claimed only 1000 barrels of oil a day was leaking afterwards. When NOAA and the Coast Guard started challenging that estimate, they claimed the Feds were exaggerating the volume of oil leaking. It wasn't until the attempt to use a remote sub to shut off the wellhead switch failed that they would admit the extent of the leak. Seems obvious that BP was hoping they could shut it down early before the size of the oil leak became an issue.

And ofcourse a heaping helping of blame should go to a government more concerned about doing the bidding of corporate interests, rather than assuring public safety. The Republican strategy of deregulation which has gutted the effectiveness of government agencies responsible for food and product safety, workplace safety -- such as those coal mines are caving in lately, and the toothless SEC, has a compatriot in the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, which went along with the Industry line that their other backup plans were good enough:

The U.S. considered requiring a remote-controlled shut-off mechanism several years ago, but drilling companies questioned its cost and effectiveness, according to the agency overseeing offshore drilling. The agency, the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, says it decided the remote device wasn't needed because rigs had other back-up plans to cut off a well. Leaking Oil Well Lacked Safeguard Device

A deadman switch, that was supposed to automatically close the valve, didn't work and nobody knows the reason why yet. But why was the owner or the company leasing the oil rig too cheap to spend $500,000 for an acoustic backup switch, and why didn't the regulators demand that they add an additional backup that could have prevented this disaster?

Now that oil is washing up on shore in Louisiana, the Obama Administration owns this disaster now, and has the responsibility of coordinating the cleanup. Bill Maher has a good idea for drafting some volunteers:

BILL MAHER TODAY VIA TWITTER:

"Every asshole who ever chanted 'Drill Baby Drill' should have to report to the Gulf Coast today for cleanup duty."

Shady · May 1, 2010

'Drill Baby Drill' is still the best short term answer. And drilling doesn't necessarily mean only offshore. It means on land as well.

This particular oil rig is an older model. Using this situation to minimize new technology is dishonest, and ridiculous.

And using this accident to suggest we shouldn't be drilling anymore is tantamount to using a plane crash to suggest we shouldn't fly anymore.

eyeball · May 1, 2010

Who should pay?

The animal communities that rely on the ecosystem that's about to be wrecked.

GDP will go up though. That's all that counts.

Shady · May 1, 2010

Looks like Limbaugh and Glenn Beck are ahead of the curve on this one. They've already started blaming Obama for the oil leaking into the Gulf.

Yeah, just like Bill Maher! :lol:

MAHER: "So, why isn't Barack Obama getting more shit for this? I think he should."

http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/checker.aspx?v=Xd6U4znzQu

Smallc · May 1, 2010

'Drill Baby Drill' is still the best short term answer. And drilling doesn't necessarily mean only offshore. It means on land as well.

For example, in wildlife refuges.

eyeball · May 1, 2010

I suppose one would want to find out who is responsible for the spill. What I don't get is it's been gushing for several days, why has so little been done about it?

There's little they can do, sort of like in Chernobyl. There's some 4000 such drilling platforms in the Gulf. It's always been a matter of when not if.