In his desperation to avoid negative headlines, Obama is making all sort of threats against BP. The BBC is loving this, of course, and not a day passes without it giving BP the most negative headlines imaginable. I hold no favours for BP but nor do I see why the BBC provides such unbalanced coverage on this issue. Maybe it just likes the idea of damaging a very successful British company?
TIME TO ARREST BP EXECUTIVES?
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I wonder how the BBC would have reported it, if gay Lord Browne were still CEO ?
As with the David Laws story, homosexuality does not give one a free pass from the BBC but it is a mitigating factor.
Had BP been an Islamic company however, neither the BBC or Obama himself would have criticized them.
Watching Obama’s America devolve rapidly into same soft tyranny as holds sway across the EU is quite painful.
Agreed. But for once, America is 13 years behind us.
Different perspective from an Apollo astronaut on Watts Up With That
That is a superb article
The US controls the drilling rights, the US knows how deep the sea is there. They did not have to grant drilling rights, but they did!
Will Barry be giving back the money he took from BP as a candidate then?…. i thought not
bama is all mouth.
The cost of preventing this would have probably been greater than the cost of the spill. If this is definitely the case, nothing was done wrong and the lessons to be learned are technical – introduce new practices to reflect new knowledge gleaned from studying this accident. Hindsight is not foresight.
I don’t see how BP could be sued for so-called environmental damage – the herons cannot sue BP in any court.
Litigants would have to prove BP were negligent, probably no where near as easy as the Obama/BBC axis imagine it to be: all the indicators suggest this was unforseeable bad luck. There seems to be no precedent for an accident of this type and magnitude and no definitive cause has yet been found. Some BP executives were actually on board the rig at the time of the accident, making it unlikely that they were hiding information about the rig’s risk.
If anything the ball is in Obamas court- backup systems required by US regulations are reported to be weaker than those required by other countries.
Whatever the outcome, can you imagine the difference in reporting had this disaster happened under the watch of George Bush? A 180 degree shift would be about accurate.
As has been said here before – but never on the BBC , the whole problem arises because of NIMBY restrictions on drilling on land and in shallow waters fairly close to shore. It is the US Congress that has forced the oil industry to go to very deep waters. In shallow waters this incident might not have happened in the first place – or divers could have been sent down to deal with it.
Obama’s threats of legal action against BP are largely because he has failed to take the necessary steps to protect the shoreline. And many Americans know that.
And finally someone hits the nail on the head: Obama’s democratic party is the real cause behind the raising of risk in oil exploration.
The BBC (nor any of the other media) are really exploring this angle. Nor are they making it explicitly clear that the rig was run by a US firm (BP merely own the mineral rights), working under US regulations under the control of the Federal US Government.
BP would have had little operational control. But why let the truth interfere with a good ‘anti British’ propaganda exercie. Obama must be right, he is Christ’s second coming!
Quite right. Unfortunately, not very many United Statesians are aware that the environmentals and wealthy NIMBYs have pushed drilling so far out, or that a drilling site closer in on a different part of the seabed wouldn’t have even been in danger of this kind of accident. Our own supine media has mostly hidden all that information from the public.
This issue is long beyond facts now. All that matters is an evil oil company has once again damaged the environment (it’s always deliberate or willful negligence, isn’t it?), and must be punished. Just listen to the words coming out of our Community Organizer in Chief: “boot on the neck”, “they will pay”, “criminal investigation”, “make no mistake”, etc. These are not the words of someone taking a rational, unbiased approach.
The biggest problem for all of BP – far worse than the costs of any actual environmental damage or disastrous affects on fishing and local industry – is the affect that this has had on The Obamessiah’s popularity and reputation. This President is the most thin-skinned, vindictive man to occupy the White House since Nixon, if not the worst of all time. BP has hurt Him personally, so it’s on. Obviously, He’ll wait until He’s done with his latest vacation before dealing with it further.
BP is done for. There will not only be massive fines and a huge cost and write-down over this, but criminal charges as well. That will lead to even more fines, a parade of BP executives in front of a clueless, grandstanding Congressional hearing, and a break-up of the company.
.and grievous damage to most pension funds in the UK.
The criticims about the lack of action from The Obamessiah have gotten to Him. Now He’ll show us. We want action? He’ll give us action. He’ll be tireless in His pursuit of BP and making them pay or whatever. In this way He thinks He’ll prove His critics wrong. And when it comes to the BBC and their friends at the Washington Post and NY Times, He’ll be right.
I think Obama needs to build a new wing to the White House to accommodate his ego.
One unforseen consequence of US inshore drilling restrictions is that Russian oil companies are planning to operate wells in Cuban waters, much closer to the US coastline than American producers are able to operate.
I doubt that Barry could drag the executives of Gazprom into a US court to face criminal charges should one of their wells spring a leak.
It would provide endless amusement to see him try.
I couldn’t understand Obama’s obvious grandstanding until on another topic, I was reminded by the BBC that it was an election year in the US – says it all really.
Deborah .., all Obama can do is campaign. He’s been campaigning since he moved in to the WH.
Yesterday Rasmussen had him at minus 11 on his daily approval/disapproval ratings.
That’s the diff between those who approve and those who disapprove of the thin-skinned incompetent blowhard.
The other reason for the grandstanding is that Barry has grasped the opportunity to leech billions of dollars in “damages” from a successful privately owned corporation, in this case a “British” corporation, so with zero attendant risk of electoral backlash from employees or large shareholders.
After all, this administration is socialist in all but name, and, to paraphrase one of Britain’s greatest leaders, socialist governments tend to collapse when they have run out of other people’s money.
BP’s riches could keep him hanging on for ages.
Scowling and threatening criminal charges are now His only way of showing action on this issue. His Administration did absolutely nothing for days in the way of preparing for clean-up, and the federal government response has been uncoordinated, with endless delays. Gov. Jindal has criticized the President and the Federal response, and locals are angry with the President and the government as well as with BP. Of course, the BBC – especially Mark Mardell – has made every effort to hide that and make it appear that the anger is directly exclusively at BP.
Attacking the oil industry and a multi-national corporation is an automatic winner with the nomenklatura and Leftoids in general. It’s like throwing herring to trained seals. All He has to do is keep whining about criminal investigations, and the media and His worshipers will be satisfied with His successful action on this disaster.
His own popularity and legacy are infinitely more important than anything else, so He’ll do whatever needs to be done and will not rest until BP has been punished to His followers’ satisfaction.
Don’t expect any astute analysis from the BBC about it, though.
I thought Cameron was superb at PMQ’s today, calm, polite and answered questions, unlike the rambling mad one eyed fool, who still hasn’t bothered to show up at the Commons yet.
Great when Cameron slam dunked Hattie Hatemenperson, she really is going to get annoying with her ‘wimmins issues’ headlining every week
unlike the rambling mad one eyed fool, who still hasn’t bothered to show up at the Commons yet.
Be fair Martin, hasn’t he been sectioned?
All those who were in the Labour government over the past 13 years should be in the tower.
How would the BBC have reported it if it was a Russian oil company ?
Wonder what the BBC parasites will do if their pensions are affected.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mypension/en/sites/scheme/pages/investments.shtml
Are BBC pensions funded?
They closed their final salary scheme some years ago and now make contributions to personal pensions for staff. But I wounder if it applies to all employees. Worth investigating !