Just read the comments at NOLA.com, and you’ll see how seething mad the people are down there:
Corporations being regarded as people by our laws and courts seems to be back firing a bit. If you operate a hot dog stand and sell contaminated hot dogs that get people sick you are out of business and get sued. If you operate an oil drilling operation and cause an eco-disaster you collect insurance money for you losses, you have limited liability and the profits keep rolling in. We need some fundamental change.
Yet the last I checked, Mary Landrieu was still going to bat for the oil companies. It’s not bad enough that her position is wrongheaded, she’s doubling down and taking the politically stupid one, as well.
I really do not understand blue dogs.
Mumphrey
But, clearly you don’t get it, John. In a capitalist system, like the one we have, any time a company does something bad for society, Adam Smith’s Invisible Penis beats them down hard. Since Adam hasn’t been doing any dicksmacking lately, we can conclude, ipso facto, that these companies are blameless at worst, or, far more likely, are providing an important service to our society. I don’t know what that service is, but I’m sure Adam could tell you; he knows everything.
Yutsano
And you already know what their reaction will be: to vote for the Republican cause, well, at least they will keep down teh ghey. I have zero doubt Vitter is right there along with her, he’s just choosing to be more discreet about it.
Culture of Truth
If the Democratic Senator from Louisiana won’t challenge destructive oil companies, who will?
Keith G
Well, hurt can be quite a fertilizer for populism.
The greatest trick the Devil ever played was to convince working class Southern whites that liberals would help the “Coloreds” take their women.
Step by step we may win these people back, but at such a cost and such a waste of time and resources.
Corner Stone
I wonder if the girl from the Evony ad knows her boobs go right to left and left to right.
freelancer
Offshore drilling cannot fail. It can only be failed.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Culture of Truth:
Republican Darrell Issa, California
Stooleo
So the folks over at Transocean, have decided to give themselves a dividend.
Shareholders also authorized the Board of Directors to make a cash distribution to shareholders in the form of a par value reduction in the aggregate amount of 3.44 Swiss francs (“CHF”) equal to approximately USD 3.11 per issued share to be calculated and paid in four quarterly installments.
So they are going to loot the company before the lawsuits start.
cat48
It must be jobs…..90 working rigs in Gulf……35,000 employees is all I can figure or they are simply conservative or bought off. Just don’t know either
Short Bus Bully
You know the rules of Teh Free Market: Capitalist profits and socialist losses. It’s all right there in Dick Armey’s memo!
New Yorker
@Mumphrey:
Krugman had a comment on this the other day:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/why-libertarianism-doesnt-work-part-n/
Yes, it would be nice to be able to sue BP into oblivion, but as long as we have our wonderful Senator from the Venezuela-with-Glaciers we know as Alaska preventing any real punishment for companies like this, we need serious regulations.
Stooleo
hmm, b-quote fail.
Corner Stone
@Stooleo:
Yep. And get ready for legislation that will somehow shield ownership from damages.
Maude
@Culture of Truth:
Obama.
A BBC story says that US is making sure that BP pays for this.
Not bad.
This beats nobody said the levies could fail.
cat48
@Maude:
The WH press nearly fainted when Gibbs said they “had to keep the boot on BP’s throat.” I don’t know how he words it now. Poor delicate flowers. Couldn’t believe the pushback he got from those pricks.
Elizabelle
H/T must go to Linda Featheringill for bringing the nola.com (and other) Gulf residents’ comments to attention!
Kudos.
And double kudos to you, Senor Cole, for bringing this to a widely read, pet-friendly blog.
valdivia
@Maude:
because our media can’t report it it has to be the BBC!
Yutsano
@cat48: One would think the “party of personal responsibility” would extend that to corporations that are also superpersons under the law. Silly me for thinking so. Obama is holding BP and Transocean responsible. I find no fault with that. But I could also just be an Obot.
Culture of Truth
Cool. I just think it’s sad that a Senator who is supposed to represent the people, and does represent people most hard-hit, seems oblivious.
Citizen_X
That is my new motto. Any other iterations–keep the boot on Goldman Sach’s throat, keep the boot on ExxonMobil’s throat–work just as well.
Could we get that in the rotating saying thingie?
Eric U.
I never really understood why libertarians think that regulation is bad, but legal remedies through the court system is good. Judges have been corruptible forever, and the courts are a fairly weak and slow method of gaining justice.
Elizabelle
Agree re comment about the blue dogs and their political timidity.
A lot of voters are furious because they didn’t realize how bought and paid for their new Democratic overlords were as well. Probably more obvious, from watching Bush and his crony capitalists.
We have a perverse system that puts personal interests (re-election) way above constituents’ interest (Harvard study of 45,000 preventable deaths annually, due to under- and no insurance/affordable healthcare).
And I say that as someone who generally supports Blue Dogs, as alternative to Red Dogs.
Corner Stone
@Culture of Truth:
/bought and paid for, natch
BTW – your hyperlink in your handle is missing an O
I mention it because I’m a big fan of your shit, and want others to sample it.
*Your work that is, not your shit.
cat48
@Yutsano:
I know I’m an Obot. The press is out of control though. Guess Gibbs will have to have another tea & sympathy party with them like he did when Politico wrote a story about their complaints………..the whiny WP story today calls for another pity party. Gibbs should wear boots…….
Corner Stone
Money Never Sleeps!
Bitchez!
El Cid
It’s worth remembering that policies which actually make the most sense and help the vast majority over the super-elites aren’t “populism” — “populism” is really a style, not substantive versus batshit-crazy, society destroying policies.
It’d be more accurate to call 90% of politics “ultra-elitist”, or, more accurately, class warfare.
Yutsano
@El Cid: Yes, and we is still losing.
TenguPhule
Improved.
TenguPhule
Because white people get justice in one, colored folk, not so much.
Violet
@cat48:
Jobs, definitely. What are all those oil industry workers going to do if the oil companies don’t employ them? Louisiana is poor enough without losing those jobs too.
Oh, and the oil companies buy off politicians. No surprise Landrieu’s in their pocket.
jefft452
“I never really understood why libertarians think that regulation is bad, but legal remedies through the court system is good.”
Simple, because –
“Judges have been corruptible forever, and the courts are a fairly weak and slow method of gaining justice. “
JR
Mary Landrieu has too many stupid-ass quotes about the wonderful offshore drilling regime to possibly be re-elected. What Jon Stewart did was but a mere amuse bouche compared to what a moderately well-funded primary or GOP opponent would run. So the best she can do now is position herself for an executive position within an oil company (and, in the process, poison any chance Mitch might have of salvaging the family’s name).
shell goddamnit
Landrieu is a dem because although she is a bought and pd for coroorate shill, she’s not a goddamn loon – and these days to get thru primaries as a rep in LA (or anywhere else, really), you need bull goose looniness.
Culture of Truth
Thanks!
I was watching CNN the other day and they did a fact-check calling out outrageous statements re: the oil spill.
They included Rush Limbaugh for saying the ocean would clean itself and the statement the Admin would “keep its boot on the neck” of BP.
The reason was,”do real want to say that about someone who is trying to work with you to clean up the spill?”
Words failed me.
Shell Goddamnit
“Trying to work with you” – huh. That doesn’t seem to imply any you know *responsibility* on the part of BP. They’re just workin with the feds. No need to bust their asses fixing the shit, just work with the gov instead of getting in its way and all is good; and if the feds don’t suck your dick then quit cooperating, eh? Nice, Rush.
Ruckus
@Citizen_X:
Throatbooted.
Ruckus
@Eric U.:
It’s the least offensive to them to try things in a court. It employs lawyers, there are delaying tactics, insurance, the value of the problem can be paid with future dollars instead of current profits. And the two biggest reasons are:
1. They might not get caught
2. They might win in court
Another way to say it – The odds are better to make a profit. Everything else is unimportant.
Oscar Leroy
“I really do not understand blue dogs.”
What’s not to understand? Landrieu’s president wanted more offshore platforms, because they don’t ever leak and we need to move past these tired arguments about safe drilling. And when Blue Dog/ conservative Democrats face primary challenges from liberals, Obama backs them, not the upstart. So why not full steam ahead?
“The WH press nearly fainted when Gibbs said they ‘had to keep the boot on BP’s throat.’”
So what does a boot on BP’s throat entail? Is it the 3-week delay of video evidence concerning the oil leakage, or allowing them to drill in the Gulf without environmental impact studies?* This has happened 27 times just since Deepwater Horizon crashed and burned.**
*http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/us/14agency.html
**http://www.truthout.org/since-spill-feds-have-given-27-waivers-oil-companies-gulf59343
Zuzu's Petals
@cat48:
Actually, according to this 2006 NOAA map it looks like there are closer to 4,000 active platforms in the northern GoM.
mai naem
Mary Landrieu is a cee u next tuesday kind of gal.
Joe Buck
Mary Landrieu is lining up her next job. When she loses her Senate seat, she’ll become an oil company lobbyist and making far more money.
Albatrossity
Steal a little and they put you in jail
Steal a lot and they make you king.
Bernard
landrieu’s brother just got elected mayor in New Orleans. her
Father was mayor too.
i hope all the Democrats lose this fall. no snark here. with Democrats like Landrieu, who needs Republicans.
what i really wonder is what this spill will do to the politics here. will there be a conservative re-grouping/defensive support for the oil industry? still to early to say. i just can’t imagine how these previously all Republican good ole boys will stay the course. but stupidity is an American trait, as well as a defensive response since the Civil War.
most non-Southerners have no clue how the whites down here in New Orleans and the south in general are still in a time warp. Johnson was right when he said he just lost the Southerners with the Civil Rights Act. aint pretty, but it is true.
bob h
Blue Dog or Petro-whore?
Landrieu seems not to understand that even if you impose stringent safety requirements and new regulations on the drillers, they will still come to the Gulf and still provide jobs for Louisianans.
Nick
More than 60% of the population in the South want more drilling DESPITE the spill.
Louisiana is in the south
She is being populist here.
It’s not her fault her constituents have a death wish
Spazzman Spliff
Bernard:
with Democrats like Landrieu, who needs Republicans.
We Dems do, that’s who needs the the Republicans.
We need “real” Republicans to take “credit” for the results of all the coming FAIL, instead of Rahm-spawn, DLC-Dem “stealth Republicans”.
After all is said and done, if we really have no choice but to take it in the ass by way of corporate-friendly rightwing policy options, then can we at least make sure that infamy for the resulting fiasco/fiasci gets apportioned to the “right” party, as opposed to progressive Dems having to take responsibilty for the inevitable failure of said right-wing policies?