Congressman to BP: "I apologize"

[grandmama]

he's right, it is a shake down. if BP doesn't re-reimburse legitimate claims like they say they will, the courts will go after them and THEN maybe the govt will have to intervene.

a shake down? do you think BP is the good guy here. I have friends and family down here that are getting the run around from BP. They have destroyed our beaches, tourism is down 80%, busniess are closing, etc, and you have the audacity to say its a shakedown. I'd like to hear you say that to someone on the gulf coast without getting your teeth knocked out. you are really out of touch with the pulse of the American heartbeat. BP is not the good guy here, and its far from a shakedown. We all know they're trying to find ways to weasel out of this mess. husker, if had good conversations with you in the past, but it makes me sick that you would defend these maggots just because of your unbridled defense of the free market. You owe me and everyone on the gulf coast a sincere apology.

[vitterd]

well said. all he does is make things up, and then tell people to prove that what he says isn't correct. i guess he believes all the lies he posts, so everyone else should also.

proved you wrongall year... caught your lies and showed u a simple google search that disproves your statements...real shock that u agree with a complete idiotlike jman

[wayne1218]

proved you wrongall year... caught your lies and showed u a simple google search that disproves your statements...real shock that u agree with a complete idiotlike jman

JMAN got a week off for name calling and now it's your turn. We're sick of this shit from everybody who is doing it. If you can't discuss things like adults, shut your mouth.

[husker]

a shake down? do you think BP is the good guy here. I have friends and family down here that are getting the run around from BP. They have destroyed our beaches, tourism is down 80%, busniess are closing, etc, and you have the audacity to say its a shakedown. I'd like to hear you say that to someone on the gulf coast without getting your teeth knocked out. you are really out of touch with the pulse of the American heartbeat. BP is not the good guy here, and its far from a shakedown. We all know they're trying to find ways to weasel out of this mess. husker, if had good conversations with you in the past, but it makes me sick that you would defend these maggots just because of your unbridled defense of the free market. You owe me and everyone on the gulf coast a sincere apology.

don't damage claims get settled by the COURTS in this country? why is govt sticking it's nose in? where does govt's foot on the throats of business stop?

where did i say BP was the good guy here? i am disappointed at you, stooping to others level by putting words in my mouth to make your point.

when has bp said they weren't going to pay legitimate claims?

do you think a govt agency can do a better job than the courts, if BP doesn't follow through on it's promises?

[husker]

Degeneration of democracy

Thomas Sowell - Syndicated Columnist - 6/22/2010 7:55:00

When Adolf Hitler was building up the Nazi movement in the 1920s, leading up to his taking power in the 1930s, he deliberately sought to activate people who did not normally pay much attention to politics. Such people were a valuable addition to his political base, since they were particularly susceptible to Hitler's rhetoric and had far less basis for questioning his assumptions or his conclusions.

"Useful idiots" was the term supposedly coined by V.I. Lenin to describe similarly unthinking supporters of his dictatorship in the Soviet Union.

Put differently, a democracy needs informed citizens if it is to thrive, or ultimately even survive. In our times, American democracy is being dismantled, piece by piece, before our very eyes by the current administration in Washington, and few people seem to be concerned about it.



The president's poll numbers are going down because increasing numbers of people disagree with particular policies of his, but the damage being done to the fundamental structure of this nation goes far beyond particular counterproductive policies.

Just where in the Constitution of the United States does it say that a president has the authority to extract vast sums of money from a private enterprise and distribute it as he sees fit to whomever he deems worthy of compensation? Nowhere.

And yet that is precisely what is happening with a $20 billion fund to be provided by BP to compensate people harmed by their oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Many among the public and in the media may think that the issue is simply whether BP's oil spill has damaged many people, who ought to be compensated. But our government is supposed to be "a government of laws and not of men." If our laws and our institutions determine that BP ought to pay $20 billion -- or $50 billion or $100 billion -- then so be it.

But the Constitution says that private property is not to be confiscated by the government without "due process of law." Technically, it has not been confiscated by Barack Obama, but that is a distinction without a difference.

With vastly expanded powers of government available at the discretion of politicians and bureaucrats, private individuals and organizations can be forced into accepting the imposition of powers that were never granted to the government by the Constitution.

If you believe that the end justifies the means, then you don't believe in Constitutional government. And, without Constitutional government, freedom cannot endure. There will always be a "crisis" -- which, as the president's chief of staff has said, cannot be allowed to "go to waste" as an opportunity to expand the government's power.

That power will of course not be confined to BP or to the particular period of crisis that gave rise to the use of that power, much less to the particular issues.

When Franklin D. Roosevelt arbitrarily took the United States off the gold standard, he cited a law passed during the First World War to prevent trading with the country's wartime enemies. But there was no war when FDR ended the gold standard's restrictions on the printing of money.

At about the same time, during the worldwide Great Depression, the German Reichstag passed a law "for the relief of the German people." That law gave Hitler dictatorial powers that were used for things going far beyond the relief of the German people -- indeed, powers that ultimately brought a rain of destruction down on the German people and on others.

If the agreement with BP was an isolated event, perhaps we might hope that it would not be a precedent. But there is nothing isolated about it.

The man appointed by President Obama to dispense BP's money as the administration sees fit, to whomever it sees fit, is only the latest in a long line of presidentially appointed "czars" controlling different parts of the economy, without even having to be confirmed by the Senate, as Cabinet members are.

Those who cannot see beyond the immediate events to the issues of arbitrary power -- versus the rule of law and the preservation of freedom -- are the "useful idiots" of our time. But useful to whom?

[musclemann]

a shake down? do you think BP is the good guy here. I have friends and family down here that are getting the run around from BP. They have destroyed our beaches, tourism is down 80%, busniess are closing, etc, and you have the audacity to say its a shakedown. I'd like to hear you say that to someone on the gulf coast without getting your teeth knocked out. you are really out of touch with the pulse of the American heartbeat. BP is not the good guy here, and its far from a shakedown. We all know they're trying to find ways to weasel out of this mess. husker, if had good conversations with you in the past, but it makes me sick that you would defend these maggots just because of your unbridled defense of the free market. You owe me and everyone on the gulf coast a sincere apology.

One guy wrote how this administartion is the worst ever. I guess he missed 2000-2008 in which the biggest financial meltdown since the depression era. How curious george was reading dr. seuss during the worst attack in american history, how the three auto makers all were on the brink of folding..............

I guess he spent those 8 years with rudy giuliani who said there were no major terrorist attacks in the bush years.


How can he call himself unbiased


Kepp ripping the current administration because you all had on blinders for 8 years, all you did was make excuses for that clown. Where was im moving to mexico then

[grandmama]

where does govt's foot on the throats of business stop?

promises?

your sentece above shows that you care more about corporations and big business than govt. BTW, I want gov't regulations when I step on a plane, or when I open a can of tuna. Don't act like Gov't doesn't solve anything. Gov't is set up to serve peoples needs. Corpoations are set up to make a profit, and that's it, and it doesn't matter what or who gets knocked over so they can make a profit.
GOV'T HAS TO STEP IN BECAUSE A LOT OF THE PEOPLE ARE NOT GETTING THEIR CLAIMS. BP WILL DRAG THEIR FEET THE SAME WAY EXXON DID IN ALSAKA IF GOV'T DOESN'T STEP IN. Please don't act like Gov't is on the throats of corporations in this country. they are already treated like an indiviual, thus enabling these jerks from paying the amount of taxes the should be paying.

[grandmama]

BTW, it doesn't surprise me that you would copy and paste an article from someone that works for the Hoover institute: Thomas Sowell. he's a free-market fixes everything economist that is easy to dismiss because of his unbridled faith in the free market. NEWFLASH: the free market doens't fix everything: see the housing bubble, the collaspe of too big to fail institutions, etc. If the free market worked correctly everytime govt wouldn't have to step in repeatedly to save its ass. the free market works when there's regulations in place to keep a check on people that only want to manipulate the market. BTW, Rush is a big fan of Sowell. IMO, the past ten years and the 1920's should be obvious examples to anyone with half a brain that the free market doesn't work when govt isn't there to keep a check on it.

[husker]

your sentece above shows that you care more about corporations and big business than govt.

bingo!

please show where i have said there should be NO govt regulations.

your posts clearly show that you would like to see a communist country where everything is govt controlled and people are lazy because there is no businesses to incentivize people. look at all the successful countries that have gone that rout.

[grandmama]

bingo!

please show where i have said there should be NO govt regulations.

your posts clearly show that you would like to see a communist country where everything is govt controlled and people are lazy because there is no businesses to incentivize people. look at all the successful countries that have gone that rout.

that is completly false. I believe in govt, but I also believe in business, educated people can believe in both. I just don't understand how some people simply think that the free market fixes all problems.

[BettorsChat]

Joe Barton Will Keep Energy Committee Post After Apologizing To GOP Colleagues

The Huffington Post | Nick Wing First Posted: 06-23-10 10:39 AM

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) convened privately with his GOP colleagues Wednesday and apologized for the controversy he created last week by expressing public sympathy for BP during a much-awaited hearing with the oil company's CEO. The apology appears to have done enough to convince his party's leadership to allow Barton to maintain his position as the leading Republican on the House Energy Committee.

According to the Washington Post's Greg Sargent, House Minority Leader John Boehner recently made it official, "telling reporters that Barton will be keeping his committee slot."

Democrats, still intent on hammering the issue until the November elections responded with a release from DNC spokesperson Brandi Hoffine:

Joe Barton can't seem to stop apologizing -- but the only apology that Barton actually owes is the one he has yet to offer. And that's to the residents of the Gulf Coast who've suffered at the hands of the company that Barton has went to great lengths to defend.

Joe Barton Will Keep Energy Committee Post After Apologizing To GOP Colleagues

[BettorsChat]

I guess this guys Republican Colleagues didn't agree with him apologizing to BP.