They Get the Profits and We Bury the Dead...
By louisehartmann
Pro Publica is reporting internal investigations over the last 10 years show BP systemically ignored its own safety policies from Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico to California and Texas. The classified documents show management neglected aging equipment, put pressure on employees not to report problems and cut short or delayed inspections to reduce production costs. Meanwhile, OSHA reports that two refineries in the US owned by BP account for 97 percent of the most what OSHA called "egregious willful" violations of all the refineries in the country, even after 15 Americans died at the explosion of a BP refinery in Texas City, Texas in 2005. The Minerals and Management Service reports that in the years since George W. Bush was appointed president by five Republicans on the Supreme Court in 2001, Oil spills in US waters have more than quadrupled, with BP being the company with the highest average number of spills - and this was before the blowout in the Gulf. BP's response? They've hired former Huffington Post editor Hillary Rosen to help with PR, and Tony Podesta and The Podesta Group - along with 27 former congressional and White House staffers - to lobby Congress, the White House, and the Press to limit damages to BP and tamp down calls for criminal investigations against BP and its executives. Americans now support pursuing criminal charges related to the Gulf spill and 80% give the federal government’s response a more negative rating than the response to Hurricane Katrina. They're also spending a small fortune buying space on Google and other search engines to make sure when people look for oil spill information the first thing they see is BP's point of view. And they're giving millions now to the big television networks for what they call advertising, but others are wondering if its an attempt to encourage the networks to temper their coverage of the oil volcano and BPs complicity in the death of the 11 men who died on the Deepwater Horizon. This is the problem with monopoly crony capitalism - they keep the profits, we pay the expenses and bury the dead, and the companies get so big that both accountability and competition are destroyed.
Comments
#2
SkyTruth.Org reports on more spills ...
"SkyTruth may have discovered a small but persistent leak or oily discharge from Platform #23051 in the Gulf of Mexico, unrelated to the ongoing BP / Deepwater Horizon oil spill. We see a small slick apparently emanating from the platform location on multiple satellite images taken since April 25, including yesterday's Envisat ASAR radar image.
According to MMS data, the platform is located at 28.938022 degrees North latitude, 88.970963 degrees West longitude. That's about 12 miles east-southeast of the tip of the South Pass outlet channel of the Mississippi River.
If anyone happens to be in the vicinity of this platform it would be great to get some observations, photos and/or video to document this possible leak or discharge. "
#3
1. Set up a detour or structure with acoustics to route wildlife away from the Gulf
2. Set up search and rescue teams to get wildlife out of the area and to safety- fish could be netted and re-located
3. Let James Cameron and his equipment in
4. Get Kevin Costner’s separators in
5. Hold international panels
6. Bring in other teams, make everything having to do with the disaster public.
7. Develop a better blog for everyone to join in with their ideas, and not BP’s pacification hotline.
8. Use BIOGREEN CLEAN instead of DAWN by Proctor & Gamble that performs animal testing and harmful chemicals.
9. Do a full scale surveillance of all the drilling rigs.
10. Allow the foreign countries to help as they have offered with skimmers, technology, intellectual contributions
11. Allow the media more access, what is with the no fly zone.
12. Every single time a platform is set up with a drill, booms and mechanical skimmers should be hired to sit and be there, just like cruise liners have life boats
#4
moved
#5
Help BP Revise Logo
http://www.logomyway.com/contestView.php?contestId=1746
It's funny because it's true
#6
They're already using hay.
If you watch the infamous BP/Hayward appology video, there is a scene that shows them shoveling bails of hay on the beach.
Problem is, hay can only absorb "refined" (or thinned) oil, not this unrefined thick tar-like goop that's belching up out of that breach. So hay really isn't a solution to cleaning up this spill (unless you thin the oil using millions of gallons of toxic "dispersants" (that hay doesn't absorb). And I don't think anyone wants that.
#7
While there may be some negligence as to the cause of the blowout, a lack of a safety shut-off was merely BP following the law.
Their legal mandate is to maximize profits. An acoustic shut-off valve would lower profits. Isn't that why we have regulatory guidelines? They enable a corporation to adhere to the legal mandate to maximize profits...within a framework.
I hate to say it, but BP was merely following the law as it currently exists.
#8
Make their Oil Poducts worthless...
Coulombo Technologies will to deliver 5,000 free home and public electric vehicle charging stations to nine regions in the U.S.A. Does anyone remember these in 1999 BBY (Before Bush Years)? Yeah! We are moving forward again!
www.chargepointamerica.com
#9
We are trying to take action.
Here in the Northern Illinois area, a group that I am involved with will release a 16 point resolution to hold British Petroleum accountable for their actions. Tonight, the MoveOn.org group is holding nationwide candlelight vigils, including one at the BP America headquarters which is right here in Warrenville, Illinois, a mere hour drive from our headquarters in Rockford. We are hoping to have a representative read our resolution draft at the vigil.
This resolution will be released publicly, hopefully, later this week, and will be presented nation wide by the individual chapters to their local Congress-people. We plan to follow the release by our own demonstration at the BP headquarters at a date yet to be scheduled.
If you are interested in viewing the current draft of the resolution, see the following web page.
http://rockfordcoffeeparty.org/OILSPILLRESOLUTIONDRAFTFORCOMMENT6-8.docx
#10
Speaking of burying the dead and let's begin with President Lincoln, who would have avoided the issue of slavery, but could not to save the Union received a bullet to the back of his head. President Kennedy, Senator Kennedy, and Dr. M. L. King received death by bullet. John Brown was hanged by rope. Others have received death by character assassination, speaking the truth, writing the truth, and by becoming a Whistle Blower. Most recently those seeking National Health Care were attacked by Republican Types. Strange how those seeking a kinder America are beaten and murdered, while those spewing chaos are given approval without harm. Those men knew the Closure Fairy was watching over them. They would rather risk their lives than to speak the truth, write the truth, and become a Whistle Blower. All of us live by choices and consequences. Those who follow the good path vs. some other path expect the death sentence by being shunned, financially ruined, and other. Those knowingly gambling with their lives while engaged in shady activities for their employer have more of a 50 / 50 chance of an accidental death. Shots have not been fired at the BP Management, Tea Baggers are silent... I haven't heard the cry, 'Somebody, get a rope'. Whistle Blowing in this country is a dangerous business, when it falls on deaf ears, or the listener is part of the problem. This problem is systemic from the small businessman to state government to .... Few people would rather live on less than to lose their honesty and integrity for a new SUV.
#11
RENAME BP CONTEST. I propose a Contest to Rename "BP." Clearly "Beyond Petroleum," will no
longer do. I suggest "Black Pelican" with the picture of one of the unfortunate birdsas their new logo. I heard that "Blackwater" is for sale. Perhaps BP couldbuy it and become "Blackwater Petroleum."
Any suggestions?
#12
Heard from a friend who heard it on the cable business channel that BP might file bankrupcy because they cannot afford the cost of this eco-disaster. Imagine that; money for shareholders and money for PR campaigns and a media blitz but nothing for our children's gulf of mexico which they ruined because of their criminal acts ? Why am I not surprised ? Corporatist-criminals, once again, privatizing their profits and socializing their expenses and bills.
So whose gonna clean up the gulf and whose gonna pay ? If I were a betting person, I would place my bet on Haliburten's new aquisition, Boots & Coots, with the bill sent to we the slaves.
Watch for rigs to appear on every beach, ooops, former pristine beaches, and the bayous and shallow depths. Already the lie machines are cranking out the propaganda: " if only big oil were permitted to drill in shallow waters, none of this would have happened...it's all the fault of the enviornmentalists who made them go out that far..." as though they are the victims, when IMHO this was their evil plan from day one. Diabolical ? Nothing new there. So if it's gulf seafood you crave, import it from China.
#13
Sadly, many folks are more interested in who is eliminated from Dancing With Stars than much of anything else. Only until something impacts them directly do they seem to react but on a limited basis. Many folks think they're too dumb to understand the political process and even more wonder why they voted for change and got a new boss who is similiar to the last boss. They feel like they don't matter and walk around half dazed wondering how all this happened. Then they go home and hope tomorrow is better than today.
Then the BP oil rupture happened and these same folks have taken notice. The beautiful gulf with it's rich history and cluture ruined and why ? Because they were not made to follow rules and regulations because they're " too big and important.." .
Too big and important. That, along with Tony Hayward's " I want my life back " has not set very well with the vast majority of normally non political Americans. Now there's talk that poor BP might have to file bankrupcy. This is just adding to the fury and resentment levels, considering how many Americans living and working along the coast will now lose their homes and cannot include their homes in bankrupcy protection, thanks to George W Bush's " bankrupcy reform act " Nothing like having your nose rubbed in "it".
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
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This shouldn't surprise any of us. Big corporations don't and won't care about the human element. They are only in the business to make money and will do whatever it takes. Change the system - change the world.