A Senator apologizes on to BP for the "shakedown"? What Bullsh*t!

[Gerry]

This is absurd!

A Senator apologizing on to BP for BP being "subjected to a shakedown" and "ashamed of what happened in the White House" (meeting with BP execs) calling the escrow fund a "$20 billion slush fund".

http://fieldnotes.msnbc.msn.com/_new...l-including-bp

Of course, this "honorable Senator" from Texas (which could have easily been covered in coastal oil with different wind and water currents) who has also been the recipient of $100,470 in contributions for 2009-2010 from oil companies.

Now, when the Hurricanes come barreling through the gulf and picks up all that oil and pushes it towards the Galveston/Houston area in a massive surge, lets see how apologetic Joe Barton becomes when he asks for a large portion of the "slush fund" to clean up the Texas coast, shoreline, and ecosystem.

I do, however, am hopeful that he carries through with his statement that he does not want to live in a country that conducts a "shakedown".

[katherine]

The oil industry also contributed a lot to Obama right ?

[Gerry]

The oil industry also contributed a lot to Obama right ?

Yes.

But for someone to sit on a committee and apologize to BP for being put in the situation that BP finds themselves is, to me, a disgrace.

Apparently I am not a minority in this matter.

Read some of the comments entered on that site, along with a great many of them from his constituents in Texas.

This person does not speak for the State of Texas, does not speak on behalf of the GOP, but is speaking totally on behalf of himself and his own pockets.

This escrow fund is hardly a shakedown. It is assurances that BP does in fact accept responsibility for the accident, the fund is to be funded over the next 3.5 years, and there is NOT a cap place on the amount of responsibility. This is assurances that the US taxpayers and US governmental agencies are not going to have to cover the bill for stopping the leak, cleaning the water, stopping the spread of oil, and ensuring the clean up effort. In addition, according to documents released yesterday, BP is also going to establish a coastal restoration fund in addition to the fund already established.

Reports also indicate that the escrow and particulars involved thereof were already established and ironed out between BP execs and the Administration prior to the meeting yesterday.

For this assclown to apologize as a person elected by the citizens of the state of Texas should be and is a disgrace to the people he represents. He is now on record as opposing the fund's establishment as a "shakedown". The escrow fund being established is an absolutely marvelous idea. We can only hope that it is run as smoothly and efficiently as possible.

---------- Post added at 04:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:32 PM ----------

And you can damn well guarantee that when a tarball washes up on the coast of Texas Barton will be singing a different tune, if he remains in office.

[bmugford]

Joe Barton is not exactly known for his intellect or integrity. No real surprise there.

Brad

[H2FC]

Joe Barton is a total disgrace to the State of Texas as well as to the GOP. He should be blacklisted....or better yet tarred and feathered and rode out of town on a rail.

20 Billion is a lot money but its just a drop in the bucket for the total cost of the gulf cleanup and restoration let along paying to restore all the human lives that are being destroyed by the selfishness of one greedy oil company. Barton shines a disgraceful light on the Republican Party by going against his government and supporting greed and corruption.

I am absolutely convinced BP will fight with everything they have to keep from paying the total cost which is very likely to be over 100 Billion$. The taxpayers will lose again and it will be because of Joe Barton and other republicans just like him.

And lets not forget the Rush Windbags, Glenn Becks and all the other greed and corruption supporters.

[enterpryzman]

I stand on my earlier statements that what BP has done is/should be criminal. The execs are worse than or at least equal to those of Enron. I agree with making them put at least that much asside, I am sure they are moving assets as we speak ( and have been since the second this happened ) to hide them and protect them for as long as possible. BP will spin off this division to one that is under financed and will be too broke to pay damages, that is how big business works.

Oh well, we all speculate.....I am anxious to see how this settles in 6 months from now and who will have been right.

Enterpryzman

[Gerry]

I stand on my earlier statements that what BP has done is/should be criminal. The execs are worse than or at least equal to those of Enron. I agree with making them put at least that much asside, I am sure they are moving assets as we speak ( and have been since the second this happened ) to hide them and protect them for as long as possible. BP will spin off this division to one that is under financed and will be too broke to pay damages, that is how big business works.

I read last night that BP is going to be selling $10billion in bonds. Personally, I have a feeling that the oil spill, control, stopping, compensation to businesses and fishermen, making up for lost wages, and wetlands/bayou restoration will take at least every bit of $10 billion in the short term.

One thing that struck me funny, and I kind of agree with it, is the government wants BP to compensate those affected by the 6 month deep water drilling moratorium. BP does not think that is their task to burden. And I kind of agree with this. The purpose of the moratorium was to inspect/reinspect these rigs. All the rigs (whether they are compliant or not) are not controlled by BP. Shallow water drilling is not affected by the moratorium. Plus, the owners/operators of the rigs are already threatening to move them down to Brazil. So, is BP responsible for the actions of other oil companies? rig owners? I have to think not.

As for Barton, he has already been called on the carpet of the GOP leaders concerning his comments.

Republican forced to apologize for BP apology
Texas' Barton called deal with Obama a 'shakedown, isn't alone in GOP

If there is an award of the most blatantly private interest and taking care of self, Barton takes that award hands down.

I could not believe my ears when I heard him speaking today. Initially, I was really puzzled for what he was apologizing for and a bit confused. Then he went on and on and wouldn't shut up. It all became very clear that he was right up in the ass crack of Tony Hayward giving him a good tongue licking.

Big Oil contributions
Barton is the biggest recipient of oil and gas industry campaign contributions in the House of Representatives, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Honestly, I hope his actions come back to haunt him at he polling booth. Most of all, I don't really wish this on Texas, but should a massive storm or surge push this oil onto the Texas coast I want that sound byte to play over and over and over again to let people in his home state know what a disgrace he is. His actions and comments have, in my opinion, hit a new all time low in the political arena having totally disregarded the loss of eleven lives in the explosion.

I doubt we'll be seeing Barton vacationing on any of the beaches along the Gulf Coast other than the great state of Texas.

[enterpryzman]

Perhaps Barton is the " B " in BP , he is acting like it.

[Raider]

Jee Doc, I'd be far more concerned about the Congressman in your own home State of North Carolina, the one who likes to beat up on college students.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwtaZf9_kFY

This guy should be in straight jacket, NOT in the House of Representatives.

As far as Joe Barton is concerned, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, even Congressmen and Women.

[Tia Wood]

As far as Joe Barton is concerned, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, even Congressmen and Women.

You are barking mad. Seriously, where do you learn about politics? Crayola coloring books?

[Gerry]

Naw, I'm not concerned about an elected official from my own state smacking a kid. His career us over.
Nor am I concerned about an episode of another elected official from NC smacking a protester's husband on camera when the husband came and stood between the official and his wife. His career is offer.
Nor am I concerned any more about Barton. His career is over.

What is baffling to me is why this POS Precious Raider who want's to suddenly make this thread about me.
She defends the Senator's right of expression and entitlement to opinions BUT, she thinks my opinion should only be limited by my state's borders.


Nice try, Bltch.
Once more you display how truly ignorant you are, how much of a mental case you are, and how outright stupid you can be.

You must really feel so lonely because no one is giving you enough attention that you have to come onto a thread and try, once more, to discredit me or poorly attempt to make me look like a fool.

Well, you now have the attention you so much desire with the total focus on you making genuine mental case that you are.

Why?

Your obsession of trying to discredit me and disgrace me is outright a psychosis being played out right in front of every one.

Your psychotic behavior is disturbing to see.
You have attempted to portray me as a male nurse and now someone in my 60's.
What's more disturbing is how you have tried to convince others of these same dillusional feelings you have.

Psychosis does not work that way - psychotic behavior is a personal illness meaning not everyone sees what you see nor lives in the same world you live it.

Why do you have this delusional reality about me?
Why must you feel it is your life's mission to expose me or portray me as something I am not?
Your obsession with me is unhealthy and downright sicko.
Your are so obsessed with one-upmanship that you make a fool of yourself at every turn.

You are one sick fuked up individual.
Why you don't and won't admit it to yourself and seek qualified help is anyone's guess
Then again, that is part of the psychosis - the belief that it is not you who have the sickness but every one around you is crazy and mad because they do not see what you see.

In the meantime, we can all see it eating away at you in every thread you are in.
This thread suddenly turns into you once more trying to disrupt this into a thread about something wrong with me.
All of a sudden, its about Doc and how he should have expressed an opinion about his own state's elected official and not one from Texas. (Hint: To me, that was old news and someone else _ Vision _ had already started a thread on the incident)

You really need to take a Doc/Gerry break.

You need to quit worrying about me, what my credentials are, what my specific profession is, what I do and don't do for a living, how old I am or how young I am not, what my degree(s) are in, where I got my degrees, where I practice, where I have lived, visited, or studied, where I served in the military and what I did in the service, who I know and who I do not know, and how many friends I have or don't have.

In other words, quit the Doc/Gerry thing you have and get a life of your own.
You really need to get some psychiatric help and medication.

Either that, or you need to find a forum where you can post this nonsense and people act like they give a damn about you and what you have to say.
Or take all that energy and hatred and start your own forum or blog.

[Raider]

Naw, I'm not concerned about an elected official from my own state smacking a kid.

Really? The picture you painted of yourself caring for kids must of been a complete LIE then;

I don't wish any kid to be shot. I don't wish harm for any person in the performance of their duties.

I don't want someone roughing up kids and taking out his gun and shooting it at some kids fleeing simply because he feels he can.

So much for your heart felt caring for kids.... I knew it was a LIE when you wrote this, Thank you confirming what a low life lying sack of sh*t HYPOCRITE you truly are Doc.

I suppose your going to tell us that as long as YOUR Congressman didn't pull out a gun and start shooting at these kids, that's it's perfectly OK for a elected official to physically abuse and humiliate college students in public.

This is absurd!

A Senator apologizing on to BP for BP being "subjected to a shakedown" and "ashamed of what happened in the White House" (meeting with BP execs) calling the escrow fund a "$20 billion slush fund".

I think Joe Barton was a 100% correct when he made the statement.... But only time will tell if it's true or not, We will certainly find that out when the Obama administration starts dispersing the MONEY....Just follow the FOLLOW THE MONEY from now until November.

For those who think this money is primarily going to go to cleaning up the spill and to the people financially impacted by this, THINK AGAIN! This money couldn't come at a better time for Democrats who are at risk of losing their seats.


Now I have a question for you Doc... Why are you so outraged about a congressman expressing his own opinion during a hearing and your NOT the least bit outraged or concerned about the OUTRAGEOUS and DESPICABLE comments made by Michael Posner (Obama's Messenger Boy) to China last month?

Let me refresh your memory on that OK?

There they go again -- bashing America on the world stage
Last Updated: 1:02 AM, May 18, 2010
NY Post


Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner reports that in recent talks with China, US officials put America's human-rights record on a par with Beijing's.

"Part of a mature [US-Chinese] relationship is that you have an open discussion, where you not only raise the other guy's problems, but you raise your own, and you have a discussion about it, about your own [problems]," Posner said.

"We did plenty of that."

Moreover, he said, "experts from the US side" talked about America's "treatment of Muslim Americans in an immigration context."


AFP/Getty Images
A man sits bleeding on a street in Urumqi.

They even ripped Arizona's new immigration law "as a troubling trend in our society." Bragged Posner: "We brought it up early and often."
No doubt they did.

It's hard to know where to begin here.

Perhaps with the way China deals with its Muslim population -- the Uighurs?

Last year, Chinese riot police killed hundreds of them.

America, by contrast, freely admits Muslim immigrants (Pakistani-born Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad comes to mind) -- and the White House can't bring itself to use the term "Islamist terrorist" even as Islamist terrorists are doubling down on their efforts to kill Americans in the streets.

More misguided moral equivalence?

Posner notwithstanding, Arizona is merely trying to enforce a federal law meant to track lawbreakers who sneak across US borders -- by requiring immigrants to carry papers.

China, of course, ships North Korean refugees found on their side of that bleak border back to Pyongyang -- where certain, agonizing death awaits them.

There are no valid comparisons here.

China is one of the most flagrant violators of human rights on the planet, and for the Obama administration even to hint that America is on the same plane is despicable.

Once more, for emphasis.

Despicable.

Posner shames America.


Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion...#ixzz0rN5pB6Xp

---------- Post added 06-20-2010 at 12:41 AM ---------- Previous post was 06-19-2010 at 11:49 PM ----------

You are barking mad. Seriously, where do you learn about politics? Crayola coloring books?

Hey MegaNerd, I see you changed your user name..... Looking for more sex appeal to sell your names? That seems to be the way domaining is going these days.

Your post is quite funny though, YOU have to be one the most Politically illiterate members on this forum and your questioning my knowledge of politics? LMAO!!!! I think the only knowledge you displayed in this section in reference to politics is; "I'm voting for Obama" Yeah, your no match for me Tia.

And please stop being a HYPOCRITE OK? You cant flame a thread and then go whine and complain to everyone that I started it. Don't think your trouble making on this forum doesn't go unnoticed.

[Tia Wood]

*yawn*

You're like the little clueless forum troll that just won't go away and find something better to do. Things would not be the same around here if you suddenly got a life.

Doc Com, she goes away if you start ignoring her.

[mediawizard]

He apologised for the apology, must be one apologetic person. LOL

20 billion dollars for damage caused to plants and animals, nothing for 25,000 deaths and millions of people affected by the Bhopal gas disaster from the Union Carbide (now Dow Chemicals) in India.

Methinks that US Politicians have double standards for corporate responsibility for the US and the rest of the world. Thought Obama was different, apparently he isn't either.

[H2FC]

I think Joe Barton was a 100% correct when he made the statement.... But only time will tell if it's true or not, We will certainly find that out when the Obama administration starts dispersing the MONEY....Just follow the FOLLOW THE MONEY from now until November.

For those who think this money is primarily going to go to cleaning up the spill and to the people financially impacted by this, THINK AGAIN! This money couldn't come at a better time for Democrats who are at risk of losing their seats.

I'm sure most of us knew your position all along but thanks for putting it in writing. As far as I'm concerned you're no better than the greedy bastards that have destroyed our once beautiful Gulf of Mexico and the hundreds of thousands of hard working families who depended on it for their very livelyhoods....not to mention the untold numbers from all over our Nation who enjoyed relaxing on the white sand beaches and swimming, boating, and fishing the Gulf waters.

To support, defend, or take sides in any way with the greedy bastards who caused all this devastation is totally UnAmerican in my opinion.

[Gerry]

Doc Com, she goes away if you start ignoring her.

Hmm...then it could rant all it wants and thinks someone really gives a shlt?

I likes that.

[draggar]

A Senator apologizing on to BP for BP being "subjected to a shakedown" and "ashamed of what happened in the White House" (meeting with BP execs) calling the escrow fund a "$20 billion slush fund".

And people are surprised over this??

[Gerry]

UnAmerican in my opinion.

I get a big kick out of the assertion that it is already corrupt and the dems will steal it and we'll have to follow the money.

How quickly she forgets the cleverly crafted Paulson plan raising the national debt ceiling about 3 trillion dollars, withdrawing amounts "up to" $750 billion at a time, and engineered a clause that the dispersion was totally at his discretion and without question or review and answers to no one.

In less than four months from passage of that bill, the $three trillion was spent. Gone.

Where did it go?

Who knows.

And not a single person or court of law can question him.

So now we have some psychotic person who wants us all to be concerned about the dems controlling $20 billion but was never concerned of a single party or person dolling out an amount 150 times that amount in 4 months before leaving office?

[Raider]

*yawn*

You're like the little clueless forum troll that just won't go away and find something better to do. Things would not be the same around here if you suddenly got a life.

Things would actually improve if only ignorant idiots like you educated yourself on the issues being discussed.

Or better yet, educate yourself on the person your voting for the next time you walk into that voting booth, You wanted a young good looking and inexperienced President? That's exactly what you got... YES, BP is to blame for the disaster, NO question about that, But Obama, (that turd you voted for) it's HIS inexperience and inaction that's to blame for the majority of that oil reaching our shores. So the next time you take a stroll down the Mississippi river and see it polluted with crude oil, Think long and hard about that HOPE and Change you voted for OK?

I'm sure most of us knew your position all along but thanks for putting it in writing. As far as I'm concerned you're no better than the greedy bastards that have destroyed our once beautiful Gulf of Mexico and the hundreds of thousands of hard working families who depended on it for their very livelyhoods....not to mention the untold numbers from all over our Nation who enjoyed relaxing on the white sand beaches and swimming, boating, and fishing the Gulf waters.

To support, defend, or take sides in any way with the greedy bastards who caused all this devastation is totally UnAmerican in my opinion.

You really are twisted... Just how does supporting what the Senator said in anyway support BP for their actions?, It DOESN'T.... I have made it very clear that BP is to blame for this spill and is 100% liable for the cleanup. NO H2FC, I'm afraid the ONLY Greedy bastard in all this, is the one who shook down a private company for 20 BILLION dollars... Our President.

A President who could of had tankers skimming the oil from the surface after DAY 3, But DIDN'T. A President who could of had booms out there after DAY 3 and DIDN'T. A President who has shown us that he's LESS concerned about capping the leak and MORE concerned about politicizing it, But yet, YOU always manage to find a way give the President a FREE PASS for his negligence... The very negligence that is destroying the relaxing white sand beaches and swimming, boating, and fishing in the Gulf waters that you talk about. Do you want to see someone who's really UN-American? Go in your bathroom and look straight into the mirror, eyes wide open.

And those hundreds of thousands of hard working families, The ones who are losing their jobs because of Obama's ASININE decision to close down every offshore rig in the Gulf, Why don't you send each and every one of those families a letter and tell them why you support the moratorium? And please include your return address, I'm sure they will give your letter just the attention it deserves.

And people are surprised over this??

Nice catch Draggar... It seems the only members who are upset about what the Senator said are the ones who want to demonize Republicans, A political tactic to deflect away from the Presidents incompetence and sinking poll numbers.

[H2FC]

Just how does supporting what the Senator said in anyway support BP for their actions?

To support the GOP Senator who felt it necessary to apologize to BP because our government demanded they put up money to help defray the cost and damage caused by BP's neglectful and greedy operations is the same thing as supporting BP's shameful, disgraceful and what some, including myself, consider criminal actions.

As usual you're on the wrong side of an important issue. You should reconsider your misguided opinions and determine to stand with the people and against the greedy power structure that couldn't care less about the "small" people as they refer to them in their immoral and endless quest for higher profits. If enough people like you continue to support these criminals they will eventually destroy our environment and everything else, including the people, who stand in their way. We mustn't let that happen.

Our world and everybody in it should set a course for the development of green energies and away from dirty fossil fuels. It won't happen over night but we must continually work toward it with real determination. Fossil fuels is a dead end road with disasters like the Gulf devastation all along the way. Green energy will be costly at first but will continue to get cheaper as time goes by and more of it is put into common use. We must set a sincere course to make it happen. The question is not whether we can afford it....the reality is we MUST afford it. We have no choice.....our world and livelyhoods depend on it.