I was glad to see this, it’s just what I was thinking needs to happen:
The greatest environmental disaster with no end in sight! Eleven workers dead. Millions of gallons of oil gushing for months (and possibly years) to come. Jobs vanishing. Creatures dying. A pristine environment destroyed for generations. A mega-corporation that has lied and continues to lie, and a government that refuses to protect the people.When the bill comes due, BP will pick up and leave town. The corporation will be “reorganized” or dissolved with its assets handed over to some other conglomerate before it has to pay out. Its executives will be paid handsomely; the people whose lives it has destroyed will be left to suffer.
From Thursday, June 3 to Saturday, June 5, actions will take place across the country to demand: Seize BP! We will be organizing demonstrations in more than 50 cities to protest the mounting economic and environmental damage from BP’s offshore oil drilling and to demand that BP’s assets be immediately seized and put in trust.
Go to “SeizeBP.org” to read more and sign the petition.
We should still all continue to drive right past our local ARCOs to the next station, but a movement like this is more what’s needed. Still, it’s pretty hard to imagine President Obama and/or the Democratic Congress having the balls to do what needs to be done here, and of course the Republicans will be worse than useless if he tries it, accusing him of “socialism” again and painting BP as a big victim. But if we press for this ideal solution to the crisis, maybe we could at least end up with a compromise such as Robert Reich suggested this morning: putting BP under “temporary receivership.”
It’s time for the federal government to put BP under temporary receivership, which gives the government authority to take over BP’s operations in the Gulf of Mexico until the gusher is stopped. This is the only way the public will know what’s going on, be confident enough resources are being put to stopping the gusher, ensure BP’s strategy is correct, know the government has enough clout to force BP to use a different one if necessary, and be sure the President is ultimately in charge.
If the government can take over giant global insurer AIG and the auto giant General Motors and replace their CEOs, in order to keep them financially solvent, it should be able to put BP’s North American operations into temporary receivership in order to stop one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.
The Obama administration keeps saying BP is in charge because BP has the equipment and expertise necessary to do what’s necessary. But under temporary receivership, BP would continue to have the equipment and expertise. The only difference: the firm would unambiguously be working in the public’s interest. As it is now, BP continues to be responsible primarily to its shareholders, not to the American public. As a result, the public continues to worry that a private for-profit corporation is responsible for stopping a public tragedy.
read more here!
Meanwhile oil pumping continues from wells off the coast of California and nobody seems worried about how safe are those operations. A lot of differences but a crucial similarity in that the same mentality and attention went into the design and installation of the safety devices used off our shores.
Trip down memory lane.
Jimmy Carter Iran Hostage 444 days
President Obama 44 days and counting.
While the local elected parish leaders of LA want to sand bag their shoreline we once again have environmentalists worrying about the impact of that suggestion instead of seeing the big picture that will linger long after this disaster is dealt with.
When are the “hand-wringers” going to take their personal automobiles to a shredder and have them destroyed? And stop using everything else (that they can’t live without) that is made out of OIL.
Just like the argument that the “Drug War In Mexico” is the USA’s fault because Americans (junkies) get their drugs from Mexicans (?) (Pusher man).
Two similar stories, One the USA is blamed for the acts of the “Pusher man” in the drug business, and the other one the BP oil business is blamed for the acts of the OIL addicts in USA.