Another major private corporation has been brought to its knees, as the giddy Jennifer Loven of the White House Press Corps reported in an AP article today. "President Barack Obama wrested a $20 billion compensation guarantee and an apology to the nation from British oil giant BP Wednesday, announcing the company would set up a major claims fund for shrimpers, restaurateurs and others whose lives and livelihoods are being wrecked by the oil flooding into the Gulf of Mexico."
Applause broke out during a community meeting in Orange Beach, Ala., on the news. "We asked for that two weeks ago and they laughed at us," Mayor Tony Kennon said. "Thank you, President Obama, for taking a bunch of rednecks' suggestion and making it happen."
Yeah, right. They laughed at you? The president has been talking about this 20 billion love nest for some time now. He wasn't thinking about you when he was grilling the BP execs. I'm sorry to say he didn't take your suggestion, as you are suggesting Mayor Kennon, though sucking up to the president did manage to get you some face time on national media and a mention in this worthless AP piece.
"Obama had said he would "make BP pay," and the company's chairman said after four hours of intense White House negotiations that BP was ready."
What did you expect BP to say? Go screw? BP had a gun held to their head, and this bozo writing for the AP thinks its time to celebrate. Look, just read a little farther down in your own article and you'll get it:
"In yet another jab at BP, the deal was made public by Obama aides even while the much-anticipated White House confrontation was under way."
See?
"The deal also adhered to what Obama had said was his non-negotiable demand: that the fund and the claims process be administered independently from BP. It won't be a government fund, either, but will be led by the administration's "pay czar,"
Oh, great. Another pile of money under the control of another of the administrations czars. That is sure to result in an equitable distribution of funds.
By the way, I hope you are not heavily positioned in BP.
"Svanberg announced the company would not pay dividends to shareholders for the rest of the year, including one scheduled for June 21 totaling about $2.6 billion. "
I guess of all the little guys this president is working hard for, the little guys that invested or had jobs through BP are just too little.
"So far, 66,000 claims have been filed, $81 million awarded and 26,000 checks cut, said Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen."
So far, we have Coast Guard admirals reduced to reporting on claims made and pay out checks cut.
What in the world?!
It is quite reasonable that BP would expect to have to make compensations for the damage.
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine what took four hours of intense negotiating. It must have gone Obama's way pretty much from the get-go, since there's no mention of him leaving to have dinner with the wife and kids.
But he can look proudly on this agreement as a major triumph of his presidency.
Real life makes me sad.
The focus of the president should be to get the oil leak under control and minimize the damage to the local community. Of all people able to get the leak under control, BP is the president's best ally. They have the expertise and equipment best suited to get at the job. To this the president could add the help of outside experts from across the globe, including Haliburton, the oil experts from Suadi Arabia and help from the Netherlands and Denmark in oil clean up equipment. The natural first step for the president would be to sign a waiver of the Jones Act of 1920 to allow foreign manufactured vessels to come in and help with the clean-up. Instead the president waited for thirty, forty some say fifty days to involve himself, and it still isn't clear what actual direction he is providing to the effort to minimize the damage. The cynical among us suspect that he has been looking to make this spill politically useful, in terms of hamstringing further US oil exploration and drilling efforts and pushing his alternative fuels agenda, along with taking the opportunity to tax energy consumption. The result will be a command control economy unable to react efficiently to market changes, and an energy starved industrial section unable to grow and expand. As bad as that sounds to you and me, I believe in the mind of the the president of the United States, that sounds like a good thing.
ReplyDeleteIf getting his pound of flesh from BP is a triumph in the mind of the president, he clearly does not comprehend the very real problems we as a people are facing.
Thanks for your comment, Cathy.
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