GOP Rep. Barton Apologizes to BP

[beowolfe]

Technically, you're correct. It was done after Obama assumed the presidency. But it was done before he had anyone in place at MMS. It was the Bush left overs that made the decision to give them the safety award.

I hate to burst your blame Bush bubble, (I don't actually, but I am trying to appear nice) but most of the people in MMS are career bureaucrats, and the last guy to inspect Deepwater Horizon was a rookie.

Who were all left over from the Bush administration. I never said the people there were political appointees. So, my bubble is still intact. Ant the Bush political appointees created a culture of corruption at MMS.

Scandal isn’t new to MMS. Perhaps the most notable embarrassment came in September of 2008. MMS Employees, who are tasked with ensuring that taxpayers get their share of oil and gas revenues from companies drilling on federal land, were fired for accepting gifts, favors - even sex - from oil industry employees. Some admitted using marijuana and cocaine on the job.

When so-called “oil for sex” scandal broke Danielle Brian the Executive Director for Project on Government Oversight told ABC News, “They have not only not been doing their jobs, but they have not been doing it because they have literally been in bed with who they are supposed to be overseeing,”

Under the Bush Administration, the Interior Department as a whole was rocked by one scandal after another. Sharon Buccino of the Natural Resources Defense Council told ABC News that for years it was completely mismanaged.

“Unfortunately we had people in control under the Bush administration who really put the interest and the profit of their friends in the oil and gas, coal industry front and center,” Buccino said.

 

[Meister]

Has anyone figured out where the entire 20 billion will end up?

 

[Quantum Windbag]

you know, he's not the first person i saw lie about that. someone actually posted an article with that heading and there wasn't anything about an award i there.

do they really think no one factchecks them?

Would that be the thread where I posted a pic of the actual award after someone came in and said it didn't exist? It was amazing how all the Obamazoids left after I did that. Would you like me to post it again?

I took the silence to mean yes.

Ummm, look at the date

What about the date? It was given because the rig was improperly inspected during 2008, and was handed out in 2009, when Obama was in charge, which is what I said all along. Your claim was that the award does not exist, it does. So again I ask, what about the date.

 

[beowolfe]

Technically, you're correct. It was done after Obama assumed the presidency. But it was done before he had anyone in place at MMS. It was the Bush left overs that made the decision to give them the safety award.

I hate to burst your blame Bush bubble, (I don't actually, but I am trying to appear nice) but most of the people in MMS are career bureaucrats, and the last guy to inspect Deepwater Horizon was a rookie.

I hadn't see the actual award until it was posted. Seems like I'm even more correct than I imagined.

 

[sangha]

Would that be the thread where I posted a pic of the actual award after someone came in and said it didn't exist? It was amazing how all the Obamazoids left after I did that. Would you like me to post it again?

I took the silence to mean yes.

Ummm, look at the date

What about the date? It was given because the rig was improperly inspected during 2008, and was handed out in 2009, when Obama was in charge, which is what I said all along. Your claim was that the award does not exist, it does. So again I ask, what about the date.

When was the rig inspected? Who was president in 2008?

So I ask, was Obama supposed to travel back in time to make sure the inspections were done properly, or will a bush-idolizer like you admit that bush may have had something to do with this?

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Since we're guessing at what happened behind closed doors, I think he told BP to set up the fund as a way of satisfying conditions in the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which states the polluter shall be responsible for clean up and damages. In a way, this will save BP money (which is probably why they agreed to it) there are no attorney fees in the $20 billion. If they had to defend lawsuits on this spill, they would probably pay more with attorney fees on top of that.

I am not guessing at anything, Obama has publicly threatened to prosecute BP, and ordered them, again publicly, to set up an escrow account. That is extortion because he is using his power to get money from them. What he should be doing is working with them to fix the mess, and figure out who to blame, including those in the MMS who were not doing their jobs, later.

The escrow account is a great idea for BP, if they have input into how much it pays out. If anyone who applies to it can get money without proving their case, they would be better off going to court.

 

[Ravi]

So I ask, was Obama supposed to travel back in time to make sure the inspections were done properly, or will a bush-idolizer like you admit that bush may have had something to do with this?

Yes! Obama should have shut down ALL operations in the entire country and combed through all the stupid bullshit that happened under Bush and corrected it.

 

[Meister]

Since we're guessing at what happened behind closed doors, I think he told BP to set up the fund as a way of satisfying conditions in the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which states the polluter shall be responsible for clean up and damages. In a way, this will save BP money (which is probably why they agreed to it) there are no attorney fees in the $20 billion. If they had to defend lawsuits on this spill, they would probably pay more with attorney fees on top of that.

I am not guessing at anything, Obama has publicly threatened to prosecute BP, and ordered them, again publicly, to set up an escrow account. That is extortion because he is using his power to get money from them. What he should be doing is working with them to fix the mess, and figure out who to blame, including those in the MMS who were not doing their jobs, later.

The escrow account is a great idea for BP, if they have input into how much it pays out. If anyone who applies to it can get money without proving their case, they would be better off going to court.

Yeah, anything less than $500,000 this applies to.

 

[Sarah G]

Another Corporatist Republican steps in it.

GOP Rep. Barton: 'I Apologize' To BP For 'Tragedy' Of Obama Admin's '$20 Billion Shakedown' (VIDEO) | TPMDC

GOP Rep. Barton: 'I Apologize' To BP For 'Tragedy' Of Obama Admin's '$20 Billion Shakedown' (VIDEO)
Eric Kleefeld | June 17, 2010, 10:47AM

In the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing today on the BP oil spill, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) said something very remarkable: Amidst a committee slamming BP all around, he apologized to the company for the $20 billion escrow account that the Obama administration asked them to create for paying out damages in the case.

"I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown, in this case a $20 billion shakedown," Barton said.
<more>
****
"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power."
Benito Mussolini

That comment of Barton's is going to make a great attack ad. The voters don't feel that way. Americans in 4 states down there are going to appreciate what Obama is doing.

The faster they get that gusher stopped, the easier things will be for BP.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Who were all left over from the Bush administration. I never said the people there were political appointees. So, my bubble is still intact. Ant the Bush political appointees created a culture of corruption at MMS.

Scandal isn’t new to MMS. Perhaps the most notable embarrassment came in September of 2008. MMS Employees, who are tasked with ensuring that taxpayers get their share of oil and gas revenues from companies drilling on federal land, were fired for accepting gifts, favors - even sex - from oil industry employees. Some admitted using marijuana and cocaine on the job.

When so-called “oil for sex” scandal broke Danielle Brian the Executive Director for Project on Government Oversight told ABC News, “They have not only not been doing their jobs, but they have not been doing it because they have literally been in bed with who they are supposed to be overseeing,”

Under the Bush Administration, the Interior Department as a whole was rocked by one scandal after another. Sharon Buccino of the Natural Resources Defense Council told ABC News that for years it was completely mismanaged.

“Unfortunately we had people in control under the Bush administration who really put the interest and the profit of their friends in the oil and gas, coal industry front and center,” Buccino said.

The MMS was set up in 1982, not 2000. Blaming Bush is a really tired tactic, it is the fault of government in general, who else but a bureaucrat would think it is a good thing to have the same person who collects fees from someone be responsible for regulating and inspecting them? Who else but a partisan would insist that all the stupidity of decades of government is the fault of one person?

 

[Ravi]

Who were all left over from the Bush administration. I never said the people there were political appointees. So, my bubble is still intact. Ant the Bush political appointees created a culture of corruption at MMS.

Scandal isn’t new to MMS. Perhaps the most notable embarrassment came in September of 2008. MMS Employees, who are tasked with ensuring that taxpayers get their share of oil and gas revenues from companies drilling on federal land, were fired for accepting gifts, favors - even sex - from oil industry employees. Some admitted using marijuana and cocaine on the job.

When so-called “oil for sex” scandal broke Danielle Brian the Executive Director for Project on Government Oversight told ABC News, “They have not only not been doing their jobs, but they have not been doing it because they have literally been in bed with who they are supposed to be overseeing,”

Under the Bush Administration, the Interior Department as a whole was rocked by one scandal after another. Sharon Buccino of the Natural Resources Defense Council told ABC News that for years it was completely mismanaged.

“Unfortunately we had people in control under the Bush administration who really put the interest and the profit of their friends in the oil and gas, coal industry front and center,” Buccino said.

The MMS was set up in 1982, not 2000. Blaming Bush is a really tired tactic, it is the fault of government in general, who else but a bureaucrat would think it is a good thing to have the same person who collects fees from someone be responsible for regulating and inspecting them? Who else but a partisan would insist that all the stupidity of decades of government is the fault of one person?

Weren't you just blaming Obama on the other page?

 

[Quantum Windbag]

When was the rig inspected? Who was president in 2008?

So I ask, was Obama supposed to travel back in time to make sure the inspections were done properly, or will a bush-idolizer like you admit that bush may have had something to do with this?

Do you admit, or do you continue to deny, that the award exists? Until you answer that question, and either admit you were wrong, or continue to deny reality, we have nothing to discuss.

 

[sangha]

Who were all left over from the Bush administration. I never said the people there were political appointees. So, my bubble is still intact. Ant the Bush political appointees created a culture of corruption at MMS.

Scandal isn’t new to MMS. Perhaps the most notable embarrassment came in September of 2008. MMS Employees, who are tasked with ensuring that taxpayers get their share of oil and gas revenues from companies drilling on federal land, were fired for accepting gifts, favors - even sex - from oil industry employees. Some admitted using marijuana and cocaine on the job.

When so-called “oil for sex” scandal broke Danielle Brian the Executive Director for Project on Government Oversight told ABC News, “They have not only not been doing their jobs, but they have not been doing it because they have literally been in bed with who they are supposed to be overseeing,”

Under the Bush Administration, the Interior Department as a whole was rocked by one scandal after another. Sharon Buccino of the Natural Resources Defense Council told ABC News that for years it was completely mismanaged.

“Unfortunately we had people in control under the Bush administration who really put the interest and the profit of their friends in the oil and gas, coal industry front and center,” Buccino said.

The MMS was set up in 1982, not 2000.

So obviously, it's Obama's fault

Blaming Bush is a really tired tactic,

But blaming Obama is NEW!!!!!

it is the fault of government in general,

So now it's NOT Obama's fault?

who else but a bureaucrat would think it is a good thing to have the same person who collects fees from someone be responsible for regulating and inspecting them?

Ronald Reagan.

Who else but a partisan would insist that all the stupidity of decades of government is the fault of one person?

Republicans and other wingnuts

 

[Quantum Windbag]

The escrow account is a great idea for BP, if they have input into how much it pays out. If anyone who applies to it can get money without proving their case, they would be better off going to court.

Yeah, anything less than $500,000 this applies to.[/quote]

Can I get $500.00 from the fund, even though I have never lived or worked on the Gulf Coast? If I can BO is better off going to court because every idiot in the world is going to apply.

 

[rdean]

How much money does "small people" need?

 

[Ravi]

The escrow account is a great idea for BP, if they have input into how much it pays out. If anyone who applies to it can get money without proving their case, they would be better off going to court.

Yeah, anything less than $500,000 this applies to.

Can I get $500.00 from the fund, even though I have never lived or worked on the Gulf Coast? If I can BO is better off going to court because every idiot in the world is going to apply.[/quote]

Uh...that's why it was given to the same guy that implemented 9/11 claims.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Weren't you just blaming Obama on the other page?

Nope

 

[Ravi]

How much money does "small people" need?

It really depends. House loses value? People leave the state? Jobs dry up?

Could be a boatload.

Small people have needs, too.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Uh...that's why it was given to the same guy that implemented 9/11 claims.

Thank you for making my point for me.

 

[Ravi]

How many fake 9/11 claims were there that were paid?

How many more claims would there have been if everyone sued in court?