Stop British Petroleum Now

by Marc Ash, Reader Supported News

Saturday, 01 May 2010 09:36

A Northern Gannet bird, normally white when full grown, that is covered in oil, 04/30/10. (photo: AP)

Reader Supported News | Perspective

n absolute environmental catastrophe is unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico right now. British Petroleum (BP), with their "international headquarters" listed as 1 St James's Square London, has opened up the sea floor 40 miles off the Louisiana coast allowing millions of gallons of crude oil to erupt into the Gulf. The scope of the discharge is far worse than being reported in the main-stream-media.

The Gulf of Mexico is not a petroleum production facility, it is one of the most significant life-sustaining ecosystems on earth. The impact on wildlife there is unimaginable. This disaster threatens to destroy not only the vast, complex, life-sustaining ecosystem that exists there, but all of the human industries that thrive in the region as well. What that means is the conversion of everything environmentally, economically and socially to an oil production-based paradigm.

This is not just an oil spill or a cleanup - this is a disaster. No different than Hurricane Katrina or the earthquake that leveled Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It must be declared a Disaster Area by the Federal Government, and there must be an immediate Emergency Declaration. It is by every measure an emergency and a disaster.

British Petroleum must be removed immediately from the process, and held fully responsible for everything that follows. If that means freezing their US assets, then they must be frozen and if necessary, subject to seizure.

Let the Army Corps of Engineers bury the damaged and spewing spout under granite boulders and concrete, or whatever other effective emergency measure is needed to bring a stop to this madness at once. BP is buying time in an attempt to find a solution that does not derail their production. That needs to be shut down now.

A massive environmental rescue effort must be undertaken under the Disaster Declaration and it must happen quickly. This is a big problem that requires a big response. Show BP the door now and get busy with serious disaster relief.

Click Here to Read Part 2

Marc Ash was formerly the founder and Executive Director of Truthout, and is now founder and Editor of Reader Supported News.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.

Comments

+30 # Guest 2010-05-01 10:06

Life and food needed more than private profits.

+10 # Guest 2010-05-01 18:20

Well said, Bob Simpson of Auke Bay Alaska, maybe?

Didn't we fight the battle over requirements to have foolproof blowout preventers back 1980? I swear I recall BP saying it can't happen. We're very carefull, but, just in case, we do install preventers and extra valves, blah, blah, blah.

Mauri Pelto of Bainbridge Island

+4 # Guest 2010-05-03 03:14

The reason the oil flow is greater than BP said is that they have been understating production and stealing oil from the lease. This is typical oil company policy.

+40 # Guest 2010-05-01 10:36

Big and Bigger oil has proven again they cannot responsibly ensure that the environment will be protected from catastrophic accidents. BP needs to be severely penalized for its malfeasance and NO new offshore rights granted to any company. Let the oil companies invest in solar or wind, greener technologies we all need to develop.

-4 # Guest 2010-05-01 22:14

Too late, but needs to be done anyway until something still worse happens. Still, investing in greener technologies would be accident prone as well, if the required legal frameworks do not exist, which means that just stoping the Bigs won't help much.

+50 # Guest 2010-05-01 10:36

I live in the area. There are thousands of fishermen and shrimpers ready to do whatever is needed, and no one is using them. There is no coherent military plan for emergency help, regardless of the PR fluff released yesterday. One bureaucracy is waiting for another.

BP never planned for this, and their blowout valve failed utterly and completely. There never was a plan B. They always expected that US authorities would bail their asses out, so they never invested in real disaster planning. Throw the whole rotten bunch in prison and freeze all their assets NOW.

+13 # Guest 2010-05-01 16:05

as usual, the us government is in bp's hip pocket, so don't expect any real retribution, from the spineless and the servile, thus the only logical grassroots response is boycott, and if it gets momentum it could rock their world as they're rocking ours, the idea is being bandied about, but requires structure and expertise....

+41 # Guest 2010-05-01 11:08

This is what happens when the government becomes subordinate to the corporations that write its agenda. Their massive power has bought and paid for our politicians and media, and have put Ayn Rand's philosophy of "greed is good" above democracy for and by the people. BP and the oil industry in general have encouraged deregulation for profit, along with the mining and banking industries and we see where that has left us. We are the government, not the corporations, and we can change things with our voices, votes, and dollars. To start, I will no longer buy BP oil products.

+28 # Guest 2010-05-01 11:13

I endorse the statement above. BP should be held fully responsible and any further drilling on their part should be prohibited. Also they should be held accountable for their misleading television advertisements using their initials bp without actually citing that they stand for British Petroleum.

+22 # Guest 2010-05-01 11:43

anybody checked their safety record in the refineries they operate? this is typical bp behavior.

+35 # Guest 2010-05-01 11:48

The whole thing is due to the mad concept of the open market, that Business should be allowed to pursue the almighty dollar without any one watching to see they don't screw the rest of us into the ground while they do it. George Bush and Dick Cheney were the leading preachers of this gospel and they along with the owners of BP Petroleum should be made topay the cost of cleaning up the mess their exploding oil well made.

+17 # cabotool 2010-05-01 12:36

America has done what it pleases to maim and kill the people of Afghanistan and Iraq.

We can do what we please to pass a law to seize all of the profits of companies like Goldman Sachs and Masses Energy and also the pay and all forms of bonuses to the people who engineered our disasters while turning a tidy profit for themselves.

It can be done as an amendment to the US constitution so business's buddies on the SCOTUS cannot undo what we do.

We can call it the "Never Again" Amendment to the US Constitution.

+9 # Guest 2010-05-01 17:24

Ha! Good luck with that! Obama does NOTHING and they still scream socialism and worse.

+16 # Guest 2010-05-01 12:45

once again we sell our souls for greed an profit and and ignore it like it really doesn't matter. When are we going to be truthful with ourselves?

+15 # Guest 2010-05-01 13:52

Once again, our souls (presuming we had one) were sold to the highest bidder, without our input, to the corporate powers-that-be and the moneyed elite of the planet those SAME corporate beasties so readily choose to despoil.

Truthfully, our souls were sold without our permission, and it's not just BP's fault, although THIS time they are the culprits, the extent we are currently aware.

Who will it be the NEXT time, and in which precariously-balanced ecosystem?

+19 # Guest 2010-05-01 13:54

BP needs to immediately go out of business! They need to transform all their assets and name to another industry of clean-up! They must NOT be allowed to continue oil production to even one quark!

Whatthey have done may eventually lead to the extinction of life on this planet -- human inclusive for all of us! (Remember that we had evolved from the sea!

With the ocean currents, no doubt that this mess shall migrate globally thus soiling every pristine (or to what would be considered to be "pristine" at present) waterway, beach, sea on this planet! thus if the life cycle in the water is compromised, then too shall WE be compromised as well! (I.e. non existent)! the beginning stages may now have already been set for our own eventual and timely demise.

British Petroleum (BP) must NEVER allowed to continue. They have caused the ultimate damage that may very well be irreversable now!

+15 # Time2Work 2010-05-01 14:32

They must go into a receivership of sort -- if they go out of business, they will be excused from any culpability. I am thinking more along the lines of tripled damages before they are allowed to worm away from this corporate terrorism. THEN, all they should be allowed to participate in -- in a not for profit incarnation -- is solar or geothermic energy creation and infrastructure, potable water cisterns, especially from rainwater, desalination technology, xeriscape farming/irrigation through tax abatement and/or underwriting to private citizens to help create jobs.

No, I don't have an axe to grind, why do you ask?

+24 # Guest 2010-05-01 13:54

Anyone still wish that we had the "Drill Baby Drill" woman in the White House? Greed and profit...."you betcha" That is what the Republicans are all about.

-4 # Guest 2010-05-01 17:26

We have a Drill Baby Drill President!

+23 # Guest 2010-05-01 13:55

Funny -- Brazil and Norway have been reported as examples of coastal countries that have, and routinely use, devices that work to prevent blowouts. Why was BP allowed into our Gulf without these devices? On their bravado boast that they didn't need them? What measures are now being taken to get this horror corrected competently, at their expense and with further penalties? What makes the administration think that BP is capable of achieving the repairs now needed? How much of this debacle is due to subcontractor Halliburton, the foul-up champ of Iraq (and other projects)? When will we start doing what's right instead of what's right-wing???

+11 # Guest 2010-05-01 14:28

There was a closing device instaled but it did not work when switched on. Such a device should be tested weekly (at least) while drilling and monthly (at least) thereafter. The tsts shold be scheduled in advance so a governmnet emplyee can be on hand to witness the test. Simple?

+28 # Guest 2010-05-01 13:55

Speaking of Cheney, guess who the actually operating company is of the drill rig? BP owns the lease, but a subsidiary of ... wait for the drum roll.. HALIBURTON...actually ran day to day work on the platform. Already been sued by several dozen Gulf coast fishermen, businesses, and people who might be wiped out in this mess..

Considering their less than sterling performance in Iraq contracting, it does not surprise me they screwed this up too..
Hope they die..Sued out of existance, and all of Cheney's stock goes to zero..

+11 # Guest 2010-05-01 19:17

And some thought FEMA was set up to be the shadow government...Haliburton may just be the defacto government.

+14 # Guest 2010-05-01 13:58

So maybe BP stands for Big Pig...that certainly describes those that concentrate on bigger and bigger profits at any cost. They don't give a flying flip about anything else, and they have caused a disaster of gigantic proportions. It is most definitely criminal and they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

+15 # Time2Work 2010-05-01 14:17

BP no doubt actually stands -- since they are British -- for BLOODY PROFITEERS.

+18 # Guest 2010-05-01 14:03

I am so God damned mad at the irresponsibilit y of this damn rich oil company and what they have done to the people, their environment, their jobs, to ALL of us. We MUST somehow show that the people of this world count FIRST, not THEM. They must be punished in the most legal forward big way possible. I can't believe how dumb we are to put up with this disaster. I am fit to be tied. Enough of this corporate travesty, having lobbyists pay our congress to allow them to misuse their equipment so that the safety machinery could be avoided. I'm telling you, it has got to stop, this stealing, lying and screwing our very life source.
Jesus Christ, Mary Mother of God....let's do this right....they have to pay for every business that goes under, every bird that has to be cleaned up, every shoreline that has to be cleaned. I want them OUT OF BUSINESS and their CEO's and lobbyists IN JAIL with BIG fines...that is the ONLY thing that will work for our future. God I'm mad as hell.

+11 # Guest 2010-05-01 15:33

Couldn't have said it better myself, Rosemary. I don't believe in Hell, but if I did, I'd wish every mother's son of them consigned to the deepest pit there.

+14 # Guest 2010-05-01 14:08

I survived Katrina and Rita, that disaster was measured in thousands of human lives lost, hundreds of deaths that could have been prevented if not for a combination of incompetence, politics and racism. This disaster is primarily a financial one. There were eleven human lives lost and that loss must not go unmarked but this is not President Obama's Katrina. Those who waded through waist deep water filled with dead animals, dead humans and sewage for two weeks waiting for a response from the Bush administration can tell you the difference. Bush and the senators and congressmen of Louisiana all were complicit in waiving safety regulations for British Petroleum to drill this well. British Petroleum was negligent in hiring Trans Ocean and their rig, Deep Water Horizon. They were well aware that this rig already had a history of accidents and safety violations that would fill a book. Halliburton employees (yes, we knew Halliburton had to have a hand in this) probably caused the blowout.

+9 # Guest 2010-05-01 18:41

This might NOT be just a financial crisis, but we won't know until there is some good news on stopping the leak. No good news yet. Stopping this might be like stopping a volcano.

+14 # Time2Work 2010-05-01 14:10

BP's to blame this time, at least to the extent of what we are currently aware.

But, who will be to blame next time, and in what delicately-balanced ecosystem will that despoiling be?

Don't just 'round up the usual suspects. Hearts, souls and minds must be aware this isn't just a NIMBY problem.

Corporate avarice and protection from liability must no longer finance (or excuse) the wealth that breeds this selfish contempt for the planet that we, sadly, must share with mindless throwbacks to a socio-political economic Darwinism.

A survival of the most repulsively audacious.

+14 # Guest 2010-05-01 14:22

We must all take our share of the blame for this disaster. Most Americans sit back and wait for someone else to do something, they only have time for watching reality shows and eating themselves to death. I am sick of people rushing to blame Obama, while refusing to get involved. You want to know who's responsible for this horrific state of affairs? Go look in the mirror.

+6 # Time2Work 2010-05-01 14:36

Round up the usual suspects.

+10 # Guest 2010-05-01 14:32

BP is like any other big corporation---make the profits, with as little cost as possible--don't use safeguards, those cost--that would leave less profit. Don't spend much for any cleanup, that would cost. Lives are expendable--profits dependable.

+10 # Guest 2010-05-01 14:50

The bill for not only the cost of cleanup, but for all of the consequential economic damage, including local tourism losses -- restaurants, hotels, vacation attractions, etc. -- Gulf Coast fishing and seafood enterprises, every dollar the U.S. economy loses as a result of this disaster, must be submitted to BP with demand for payment. These oil companies reap bigger and bigger profits year after year and leave taxpayers to shoulder the repercussions of their disasterous acts. Not this time. The U.S. must demand that BP make good every last dollar lost by the U.S. and its residents.

+10 # Guest 2010-05-01 15:19

Corporations with non-regulated operations and who go unpunished when knowingly stacking the deck so that they are the only ones that profit, don't care if the earth is turned into a sewer and we the people are left to scavenge whatever, greasy, radio-active morsel is left behind. Jim Hightower was on the last broadcast of the wonderful Bill Moyers Journal last night and he reminded us that, " Our heavyweight is the people themselves. They've got the fat cats, but we've got the alley cats..." We need to go scratch some eyes out, figuratively speaking of course.

+9 # Guest 2010-05-01 15:56

Yes BP is responsible! But most importantly the Federal & State Politicians who allowed these leases.
They should be stripped of all their financial kick backs.
The voters of Louisiana should also be castigated for allowing those same politicians to hood wink the populace into think that they would share in the wealth als0.

+2 # Guest 2010-05-01 16:24

It seems our govt. is not doing much yet to help cleanup this mess. When Katrina hit the roar was defeaning that the Administration wasn't providing help fast enough. Does this administration get a free pass??

+2 # Guest 2010-05-01 19:31

Does this administration get a free pass?? Paul asks this. For what it's worth, Obama gets no pass from me. He's now a year and three months in office. He's followed a "see no evil; correct no wrong" philosophy from the start. I who campaigned and voted for him cannot stand hearing what has almost become a mantra of his administration. He likes to say: "Terrible crimes have been committed, and no one is to blame." He feels then he has covered all the bases.

+1 # Guest 2010-05-03 14:30

Quoting

It seems our govt. is not doing much yet to help cleanup this mess. When Katrina hit the roar was defeaning that the Administration wasn't providing help fast enough. Does this administration get a free pass??

LIKE THE ILLOGICAL, HYPOCRITICAL TEA-BAGGERS WHO SCREAM NO MORE BIG GOVT, WHILE GETTING SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICARE, UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE ETC., YOU WANT TO WHINE ABOUT OBAMA GETTING A PASS? WHEN THIS DISASTER (LIKE THE FINANCIAL ONE!) IS CLEARLY A RESULT OF CHENEY's LAISSEZ FAIRE POLICIES TO HIS OIL CORPORATION PALS, and THE PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATION'S STRONG OPPOSITION TO ANY FEDERAL REGULATION OF THEIR CORPORATE PALS....

You can't have it both ways! Do you want federal interventions and regulations of such criminals or not?

+10 # Guest 2010-05-01 16:42

It looks like BP has been scrimping on all its other platforms, too. One of which could spill thirty times as much.

+9 # Guest 2010-05-01 16:43

It's time to show our disgust with British Petroleum. Boycott their product - don't buy their gas. The US Gulf coast will never recover, yet BP will continue to reap profits, so lets make sure its not US profits! Lets get this going....

+8 # Guest 2010-05-01 16:46

Toyota has been flooding the networks with apologies and a promise to be more proactive. BP has been silent. It is reminiscent of the Queen who waited over a week to comment on Diana's death. Maybe we should make the first move and apologize for our seafood and ecosystem being above their oil. How much are these British companies paying us for our oil?

+7 # Guest 2010-05-01 16:58

We live in a very sick society. It is time to return to sanity and leave the tech and fast lane made for us by corporate predators. Yes, yes, yes unchecked capitalism is destroying the planet, species by species. If you have a television in your home, it is likely you are a victim as well as contributor to this very, very sick society. It is a totally manipulated society. nothing natural can grow through the cracks. We must flee from this sickness before complete termination hits...We really have little time to respond for survival. Crazy reigns and the human is all too adaptable. No one pays for the BP arrogance and harm anymore...no one...Drop out of the sickness...Do not ask for what will not happen....justice...never gonna happen.

+11 # Guest 2010-05-01 17:20

I wouldn't hold my breath on BP covering the environmental and socio-economic costs of this disaster, if the Exxon Valdez is any kind of precedent. Exxon was sued for damages by various groups in Alaska 20 years ago -- and they're still haggling over the $$$ in courts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exxon_Valdez_oil_spill).

+5 # Guest 2010-05-01 17:54

where is the federal Government?
Where is the US navy.
Where are the tanker ships that should be pumping this mess up?
One of these ship holds several million barrels.
Who is in charge?
unbelievable.

0 # Time2Work 2010-05-07 12:45

Quoting

where is the federal Government?
Where is the US navy.
Where are the tanker ships that should be pumping this mess up?
One of these ship holds several million barrels.
Who is in charge?
unbelievable.

Long time passing ----

When will we ever learn?

When will we
eeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeever learn?

+8 # Guest 2010-05-01 18:00

Some things cannot be measured in dollars. No amount of money will ever make up for this catastophic desecration of Mother Earth and her creatures-- and I don't mean humans. They are fouling their own nest but unfortunately all the other living things must suffer. Damn these greedy jerks and all they stand for.

+5 # Guest 2010-05-01 18:36

Anyone consider this wasn't an accident? Speculators are expert at driving up the cost of oil with every glitch in supply or processing - and this just in time to catch vacation travelers...

+8 # Guest 2010-05-01 18:55

Agreed that this is growing into a stupendous disaster. Now consider that it would be a drop in the bucket compared to one of the nuclear power plants blowing. We have been extraordinarily lucky so far. TMI was very close. There was a rise in cancer deaths shortly , my uncle being one of those stats. Chernobyl with thousands dead and a vast area uninhabitable should tell us all something. Drilling for oil on the continental shelves clearly is not practical. The massive waste of water to extract oil from shale is also not practical. We need the huge investment in renewable energy methods development. It worked to get men on the moon within a decade. We need to make it profitable for businesses and families to install private solar and wind power units. We need retrofits to save energy. We need to develop and use practical fuel solutions that don't include mining and oil extraction.

+7 # Guest 2010-05-01 19:21

Everyone here on this list is complaining about BP and Haliburton and their terrible records... but who here has thought of why this is a profitable business for any oil company??? It is all of us that won't give up our fossil fuel driven toys!!! We have been living in a fool's paradise and until we come to grips with the fact that we can't continue in this manner... we and this planet are doomed. Humans are like a virus and we are well along the way of killing our host... and taking billions of innocent beautiful life forms with us. We have over populated the earth, used up it's natural resources... and yet we continue on and concern ourselves wtih the innane and superficial. Perhaps this disaster will wake us up to what is happening ... and finally global climate change will be seen for the true emergency it is...the choices aren't easy or cheap but we have seen the alternative here with this disaster.

+7 # Guest 2010-05-01 20:35

This mess will cost at least $1B (yes, $1,000,000,000!!) . For that money 1000 wind turbines could have been erected, and that oil would never have been needed. Instead of 'Drill, baby, drill!, we're in 'Spill, baby, spill', but we should be chanting 'Spin, baby, spin'!!!

+3 # Guest 2010-05-02 11:36

The good people of this planet must realise that the patent organisation has been keeping technologies that do not pollute suppressed for the last 60 years.
Did you know we do not need tires anymore? We can run cars with water? or elctric batteries? Look at the price of fuel our days??? Who is behind this capitalist jungle of abuse?
BP is in the control of who you think? Rothchilds and we have the equivalent here in america with Rockfeller, Bush and ...Follow the money.

+1 # Guest 2010-05-02 11:37

...Anti gravity is real, not science fiction. And those who propagandise that people will loose jobs are part of those too ignorant to know and see that the new technologies will create just as much new jobs, but the criminal system mafia that now rules do not want the many to know this. So they keep on feeding us with fear situations that can happen. And when that does not spark the fear they need they create it; just like 9/11, Oklahoma, NYC latest bombing. They want to suppress the truth with false flags so the people remain in there abusive prison system called capitalism for the few.
While a hand full of greedy rich take it all for themselves the many suffer.
These days are about to end. Humanity will be free, free to live in PEACE in a Loving world. This is why the more people wake up now, the less will be victims of these criminals who control our governments and institutions. They are the few WE ARE THE MANY.

0 # Guest 2010-05-02 11:43

Time we take back our powers in Devine Love to ensure Peace in this part of the galaxie.

The bullies do not and will not (indeed, perhaps CANnot) respect those who unthinkingly follow their lead. We already have- or are currently in the process of- outgrowing our need for them.

+3 # Guest 2010-05-01 22:22

What I like, it is the American-style sharp, not-going-round-an-Aussie-bush article's wording.

There is a significant difference between clean usage of natural resources and denying any access to natural resources, favouring factually national dependence on the less regulated practices somewhere in foreign lands: if one denies fossil field exploitation at home, a technology avoiding this fossil should be provided.

Otherwise, all these "green initiatives" useless hypocrisy are.

Of recent MexGulf particulars, your reader dare suggest, in this case of a British Petroleum damage caused, it is a significant illustration rather to a general level of a short-seeing computing-modelling-oriented privileged-to-engineer rather than mistakes presumably occurred during an oil well exploitaition of a geo-active region.

However, who dare argue with BRITISH?

+3 # Guest 2010-05-02 03:23

Why dont you people really tell the rest of us that we are now all screwed becaused of GREED! I was also reading they are contemplating sending down a small nuk to close the hole and that isnt even guarenteed to work. Do they not realize what could happen doing that?? Get enough oil under our icecaps and guess what? our source of fresh water is contaminated,fa ster melt back. They have no known other source of closing the hole,at 5000 feet down and the rig on top of the hole. think about it folks,we are literally F*$%*@. better start rethinking 2012

+4 # Guest 2010-05-02 04:32

This call for showing BP the door and moving directly to disaster relief misses the major issue which is we have to find a way to stem the flow of petroleum 5,000 ft down on the floor of the Gulf.If we don't don that the entire Gulf could be destroyed. Unfortuntately we can't stem that flow without working with BP.

0 # Guest 2010-05-02 06:39

Why isn't anyone here condemning the Obama admin for allowing the spill to get this far, this bad, and, as far as I know, still not really doing anything of any real substance to stop this oil leak. To allow the oil leak to reach the coastal waters of the U.S. after more than a week of allowing the oil leak to continue should be a crime. And, while Obama publicly claims that BP shall pay for cleaning up the mess, Obama is now spending taxpayer's money in doing a lukewarm job by our govt in attempting to stop the oil leak. Will Obama actually charge BP, & get the money, for the total cost of what U.S. taxpayers will be putting out in the effort to plug the leak & implement the cleanup? I doubt it. And, will BP get away with the murder that Exxon Mobil got away with concerning the major oil spill in Alaska where they got their Bill cut down to only $500 million from the multibillion dollar penalty that they were initially penalized? Probably so!

0 # Guest 2010-05-02 16:52

"Drill, Baby, Drill!", Sarah Palen

+3 # Guest 2010-05-02 19:59

To those of you who didn't like my previous posting condemning Obama for his lukewarm response to the Gulf oil spill, it's okay. I voted for the man in 2008 in the hope that he was sincere about real change from that of the Bush admin. I'm not a teabagger. The problem is that people who continue to support Obama, no matter what, for whatever reason, you're almost as bad as a teabagger. I don't believe in labels, either left or right, progressive or conservative. I'm an independent who believes in what's best for the common man, not for corporations. By rationalizing that Obama has been pres for only a short time, or the Repubs are the blame, you're not helping the situation any. As long as you maintain your blinders on & blame everyone else for Obama's actions, or lack thereof, then we will continue on this path to self-destruction & no change, the continued wars, the continued financial crisis, & a continued dictatorship created by Bush.

+2 # Guest 2010-05-04 05:58

Great post! I agree whole-heartedly about the blinders. I reluctantly voted for Obama, because the alternative was too awful to contemplate, but I didn't have much faith in his being a force for change. I devoutly wish I hadn't been proven correct.

+2 # Guest 2010-05-04 11:02

Denise, if I knew that Cynthia McKinney, who was running for pres under the Green Party banner in 2008, had any chance in hell of winning the presidency at the time, I would have voted for her in a heartbeat. Like you, I voted for Obama as the lesser of two evils, & I'm sick & tired of doing that. Just for once I wish someone decent, & who had a chance of winning the presidency, would run for the office. Paul Wellstone, a U.S. Senator from Minnesota, was covertly murdered in a mysterious plane crash, along with his politically savvy wife, just 2 weeks before the 2002 midterm elections by the people behind Bush & the Repub Party because he was a threat to their power, their current power at the time, & their future power. If he would have lived, he would have given the Dems control of the Senate, & he would have probably been the 2004 Dem pres candidate over Kerry. He was honest & he had one thing no other Dem had, a backbone.

+2 # Guest 2010-05-05 09:25

Same here---I'd gladly vote for a third-party candidate who had a chance of winning. I've read about what happened to Wellstone, and I agree completely with your conclusions.

+1 # Guest 2010-05-04 05:55

I'm curious about Mr. Ash's statement that the gusher could be stopped immediately, if only the government were willing to shut down the installation entirely. Where does that statement come from? If it's true, then the Obama administration is as guilty as BP here.

+2 # Guest 2010-05-04 08:37

I was in Prince William Sound after the Exxon disaster and there was no plan there either - it was all show and go - everything was staged to look like something was being done - and believe me, the good ol boys from Pasadena Texas could not have cared less.

+2 # Guest 2010-05-05 09:27

Perhaps they'll care, Jeff, when they find out that the planet---INCLUDING themselves and their families---is doomed because of their greed.

+3 # Guest 2010-05-05 16:32

Denise, have you ever watched an old science fiction film, one that may not be so science fiction down the road, called "Soylent Green" with Charleston Heston? In this film, you had the filthy rich and then you had everyone else. The point that I'm trying to make here is that people that are making a killing on Wall Street, and people that are making a killing in the oil industry or corporate high fliers in any industry, could care less about what happens to the little guy. If the world goes to hell in a hand-basket, they will end up living in their little ivory towers with their paid security protecting them from us, the masses of the world who will be suffering underneath their feet. Yes, they're looking into the future, and could care less about everyone else but themselves and their family. I wouldn't be surprised if something like "Soylent Green" doesn't become reality in our future.

0 # Time2Work 2010-05-07 12:40

REQUIRED VIEWING AT THE ACADEMY.

Kirk out

0 # Guest 2010-05-31 06:06

VOUS AVEZ SEULEMENT A CONSTRUIRE UN MEGA TUYAU DE PIPE LINE LE PLACER PAR DESSUS LA BRECHE ET POMPER LE TOUT 90% EFFICACITE

YOU ONLY HAVE TO CONSTRUCT A MEGA PIPE LINE THE PLACE JUST ABOVE THE BREACH AND PUMPING ALL 90% EFFECTIVENESS - translated by online widget.

0 # Guest 2010-06-01 17:43

BP must be removed from control of cleanup and they MUST be made to pay for cleanup.
There could be no clearer message from the planet that we can no longer rely on oil. Can that actually happen? Will Americans actually be cool with giving up their cars? It seems impossible. And when I drive in my car, windows down, moonroof down, air blowing in the windows, music cranked, it sure is fun. Moving at speeds far beyond what the human body can travel unaided sure is a lot of fun. Don't interfere with that fun, it's a right, by God.
But we CAN live without oil, if we humans are the ingenious species we all tell ourselves we are. (That means a lot of pain and suffering for the people who have been making such obscene profits from oil.)Is it not bad enough, the hundreds of thousands of innocent lives lost in the pursuit of oil? If all the killing of humans in the name of oil has not woken people up, this incredible disaster will not wake people up. We are screwed.

Refresh comments list
RSS feed for comments to this post.

THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community.