Brooks Equates $20B Restitution Fund w/ War Crimes of Cheney

Wherein New York Times Columnist David Brooks backs up Joe Barton on the "Shakedown" thing.

Brooks: We're a nation of laws, we have laws to protect the unpopular even those who do bad things. We have a set of laws. What President Obama did when he very publicly and very brutally strong-armed BP was that he went around these laws. Well, just imagine if Dick Cheney did it to somebody he didn't like?

I'm not worried about what'll happen with the money, I'm worried about the erosion of the rule of law, the President using the vast powers of the government to strong-arm a company -not matter how unpopular, no matter how badly they may have behaved.

So let me get this perfectly straight, the idea here is that Obama circumvented the rule of law by getting BP to pay for the damage that they caused without first taking them to court? They struck, essentially a "gentlemen's agreement" - the same thing that might happen outside of a courtroom in order to defer or end litigation to accomplish the same goal, which is Restore the people of the Gulf.

Shields nails it (Obama Derangement Syndrome):

Shields: What does Barton do, he takes BP and identifies them with the Republican Party. He puts a Republican face on BP. It's almost an inclination to Blame America First, these people are so consumed with attacking President Obama, they're going to take the side of BP!?

The main objection, and you can see it here in this clip with Bill O'Reilly Grilling Michele Bachman, is that they Obama used the threat of prosecution in order to "extort" money from BP. The thing is this is what just about every prosecutor in the country does when they arrange for a plea bargain for a lesser charge when the accused agrees to admit their guilt and make reasonable restitution.



Even Bill O'Reilly gets it:

O'Reilly: I want Obama to strong-arm these guys, it's one of the best things he's done in this whole thing!

Amen to that.

But when comparing to the Bush Administration, there is not a "Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda" to this - because the Bush Administration actually did the exact same thing with various corporations nearly 100 times.

"Last month, prosecutors and the company reached an unusual deferred prosecution agreement, under which Bristol-Myers has two years to clean up its act and prove it can operate lawfully. If it stays clean, it won't face criminal charges. Also under the terms of the agreement, Bristol-Myers made a $300 million payment to a shareholder-restitution fund and Mr. Dolan (CEO of Bristol-Myers) gave up the chairman's post to Mr. Robinson."

...

...will (not)criminally prosecute Chevron Corporation and its subsidiaries
(collectively, "CHEVRON") for any crimes related to its purchases of Iraqi oil under the United Nations Oil-for-Food Program from in or about mid-2000 up to and including in or about March 2003, that involved the payment by third parties of secret illegal surcharges to the former Government of Iraq, including asset forth in Exhibit A. which is incorporated by reference herein.
..........
It is the intent of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern
District of New York to seek the transfer of $20,000,000 of these funds to the Development Fund of Iraq (sanctioned on May 21, 2003, by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1483) to be used as restitution to the people of Iraq asthe intended beneficiaries of the proceeds of the sale of all Iraqi oil made pursuant to the United Nations 011-for-Food Program.

Contrast all of this with Dick Cheney, because there is no "IF" when it comes to his involvement in Circumventing the Rule of Law against people who may - MAY - have done bad things....



Dick Cheney, with his surrogates Liz Cheney and Marc Theissen who continue to this day to argue that it's inappropriate to apply the Rules of War including the Geneva Conventions to Foreign Enemy combatants, who continue to this day to argue that Waterboarding isn't Torture - even though America has prosecuted people for it for over 100 years, going all the way back to the Spanish-American War.

Comparing Obama getting BP to pay for the cleanup of the Gulf and people who've been impacted by the spill is NOTHING compared to the Presidential Overreach and gross bumrushing of the Rule of Law that the Bush Administration - especially Dick (Halliburton) Cheney - perpetrated.

Whether it was illegal rendition, illegal wiretaps, kidnapping, torture, creating an assassination squad - practically nothing stopped Dick Cheney from completely "Circumventing the Rule Of Law" on a regular basis.


Vyan

Sen. Whitehouse EXPLODES! "America . . must never be on it's knees before Corporate Power"!

Full Transcript

This American government of ours should never, never be on its knees before corporate power, no matter how strong. It should never be in the thrall of corporate wealth no matter how vast.

This American government of ours should never give the American citizen reason to question whose interests are being served. Never.

In this complex world of ours, Mr. President, government must protect us in remote and specialized precincts in the economy. In those remote precincts, few people are watching, but big money is made.

We must be able to trust our government, both in plain view in front of us, and in corners far from sight, to be serving always the public interest, not doing the secret bidding of special interests; of corporate interests, because that's where the big money is at stake.

Have we now learned, have we now finally learned, from the financial melt-down and the Gulf disaster, the price, the terrible price, of all those quietly cut corners?

Have we now learned what price must be paid when the stealthy tentacles of corporate influence are allowed to reach into and capture our agencies of government?

I pray, let us have learned this; let us have learned that lesson. I sincerely pray we have learned our lesson, and that this will never happen again. But let's not just pray.

Where the Slick Is Going...

If this Oil Spill isn't capped before it reaches the Gulf's Loop Current - Computer Model Simulations indicate that it will coat all of the coasts of Florida and the entire Eastern Seaboard, finally pooling in the Mid-Atlantic. Simply Horrible.

Vyan

Biden Blasts Barton

BIDEN: There’s an entire way of life in jeopardy. This is just not about jobs. This is just not about whether or not the waterfowl is polluted and you can’t — this is an entire way of life that’s in jeopardy. And to sit there and say that we’re being — in effect, as I understood the statement — that he was ashamed we’re being tough on an oil company who caused the problem — I mean, I — look, I just think that it’s pretty important to the people of Louisiana all the way through Florida and even in his home state of Texas that people disassociate themselves from that.
That’s not the role — there’s no shakedown. It’s insisting on responsible conduct and a responsible response to something they caused. And I find it outrageous to suggest that if, in fact, we insisted that BP demonstrate their preparedness, to put aside billions of dollars — in this case, $20 billion — to take care of the immediate needs of people who are drowning — these guys don’t have deep pockets. The guy who runs the local marina, the guy who has one shrimping boat, the guy who has one small business — he can’t afford to lose $10,000, $12,000, $15,000, $30,000 a month. [...]
What is wrong with that? How is that a shakedown? I mean, I just — I don’t know, I find it pretty astounding, the comment.

It may be astounding, but it really shouldn't be surprising - it was part of a Republican House Talking Point from the previous day that the agreement made between the White House and BP was a "Shakedown". The kind that the Bush Administration implemented between 85 and 97 Times when it choose to "Defer Prosecution" of a Corporation in lieu of cash settlement.

We have to realize that Joe Barton is a former Oil Executive, one who worked for Atlantic Richfield, which is now ARCO and owned by BP. Just like Barton is currently Owned by BP. Corporate Shills and Lackeys are what these people are. This is where they're leading the Tea Party, right over the cliff.

The GOP Doesn't want a Shakedown of BP, They Want a Shakedown of Tax-Payers - as pointed out by Mike Papantonio.

Joe Barton's Corporatist Wingnut Fans, thinks he had a "Point"

People may want to argue that Joe Barton's outburst expressing sympathy and an apology to BP for being asked, and agreeing, to Pay for all the Shit they Fucked UP was just a one time, one person event. Not really.

– PAT BUCHANAN: “Barton made a very courageous statement in my judgment. … To have anyone stand up and even indirectly defend [BP] and say that they were a victim of a shakedown shows some political courage.”

– INGRAHAM: “I think Joe Barton, before he apologized, had a legitimate point.”

– NAPOLITANO: “That is a classic shakedown. The threat to do something that you don’t have the authority to do. ”

– KILMEADE: “One Congressman calling the BP compsensation fund a ’shakedown,’ but does he have a point?”

– GINGRICH: “The president is directly engaged in extorting money from a company.”

– VARNEY: “It is Hugo Chavez-like, is it not? To sieze a private company’s assets.”

Yeah, it's not like any politician has ever asked a private company for money.

The thing these people seemed uniformly not to understand is that this private company has functionally destroyed the assets and livelihood of nearly every other private company in the region. And they have to be asked, what makes BP so special while all the assets of the Hotels, Resorts, Restaurants, Fishermen and Tour Boats in the area, not to mention the health and safety of their employees and customers - are supposed completely worthless?

Why don't all those other private companies count? Is it because their owned, operated and frequented by "small people"? Obama isn't Taking this money, BP is Giving it Back to those whom they have already TAKEN from.

Small People who it's clear are on Michele Bachman's mind too.

“They have to lift the liability cap,” said Bachmann. “But if I was the head of BP, I would let the signal get out there — ‘We’re not going to be chumps, and we’re not going to be fleeced.’ And they shouldn’t be. They shouldn’t have to be fleeced and make chumps to have to pay for perpetual unemployment and all the rest — they’ve got to be legitimate claims.

“The other thing we have to remember is that Obama loves to make evil whatever company it is that he wants to get more power from. He makes them evil, and what we’ve got to ask ourselves is: Do we really want to be paying $9 for a gallon of gas? Because that could be the final result of this.”

Yeah, like when we were paying $5 for gas just a couple years ago - that was all Obama's doing, not the speculators on the derivatives market trying to cash in.

Obama did not make mortgage companies put out time-bomb loans, he did not make financial companies trade in bogus securities and derivatives designed to fail, he did not make health insurance companies take people's premiums then make up bogus reasons not to pay for their care and he DID NOT Spill this Oil in the Gulf.

These companies did all this Evil Shit - themselves.

This argument, this right here, is the dividing line between the wingnut Tea Bagging Feudal Corporate Serfs, and the sane people in this country. It's not about punishing the wealthy out of spite or jealousy simply for being successful, it's about making them responsible for their failures, which as that company grows larger and larger can clearly be catastrophic.

The Tea Party, knowingly or not, are nothing more than shills and mouth pieces for their corporate overlords, channeled through Right-Wing Radio and Saudi Oil Owned Fox News. Maybe looking at what BP has done to the Gulf, and listening to these little weasels bow and crawl before their feet, will help make it obvious just who the Right-Wing/Tea Party Masters are... or maybe it's already too late for them to be deprogrammed into functionally hating themselves.

Only time and November will tell.

Vyan

Rep Joe Barton - Apologizes to BP for White House "Slushfund Shakedown"

This almost too douchey to be believed, at the beginning of today's BP hearings Rep Joe Barton (R-TX) actually apologizes to BP for having to pay for the damage - THEY CAUSED! Un-fracking-real.

I'm ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday. 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.

In a rare direct response Press Secretary Gibbs shot back...

"What is shameful is that Joe Barton seems to have more concern for big corporations that caused this disaster than the fishermen, small business owners and communities whose lives have been devastated by the destruction. Congressman Barton may think that a fund to compensate these Americans is a 'tragedy', but most Americans know that the real tragedy is what the men and women of the Gulf Coast are going through right now. Members from both parties should repudiate his comments."

Dead Sperm Whale Found in Gulf

Via Fox News Tampa

GULF OF MEXICO - Scientists have spotted a dead sperm whale in the Gulf of Mexico, and are doing tests to see if the oil spill had anything to do with its death.

The whale was found floating 77 miles due south of the Deepwater Horizon spill site.

It is the first dead whale spotted since BP's rig exploded on April 20.

The whale was not found in oiled waters, but scientists can't yet say where or how it died.

They say its condition suggests it has been dead for several days to more than a week, and they are taking samples from it to glean information on how and where it died.

,,,

They live at depth in areas where subsurface dispersants and oil are present, and feed on deepwater squid, which may also be impacted by the oil and dispersants.

The sperm whales are an endangered species, and some scientists say that just a few sperm whale deaths could endanger the long-term survival of the Gulf's entire native sperm whale population.

Obama Gets BP to Create $20B Escrow Fund for Gulf Victims

Less than 24 Hours after President Obama's first Oval Office Address - he delivers on one of the primary promises he made. via Huffpo.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senior administration officials tell The Associated Press that BP has agreed to finance a $20 billion fund to pay the claims of people whose jobs and way of life have been damaged by the devastating Gulf Coast oil spill.

The independent fund will be led by lawyer Kenneth Feinberg, who oversaw payments to families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

It wasn't a spectacular speech, but it seems to have begun to accomplish what it needed to accomplish.



Look, I know that many people are upset that various MSNBCC hosts criticized Obama's address so heavily - but we all have to admit this is good news. It accomplishes a large part of what Congress had been attempting to do for weeks with modifying the Oil Spill Liability Cap.

I think this shows, maybe, that BP is finally starting to get the message after having all the other heads of Big Oil do donuts over them with the bus in front of Capital Hill.

This country, big slow giant boat that it is, just might be turning a corner - and corporations might start to realize they have responsibilities to their customers and workers, not just their shareholders.

Maybe, just maybe, BP might finally begin to realize that you can't buy good publicity by trying to bribe the media, you do it be actually doing good things for the public, rather than nickle and dimeing them to death on damage claims.

We have to remember just what Obama is up against, as the Head of the Republican Party - Rush Limbaugh - complains that there isn't any FEDERAL MONEY included in the Escrow Account...



Meanwhile the Senate just today pretty much tabled the latest Unemployment Benefits Extention. (Why? He asks... silly rabbit because Governmentin' is Hard Work)

Score one for the O-Man, now we move toward getting some kind of serious Green Energy Program going to ensure this can never happen again.

Vyan