What an ass.... GOP lawmaker apologizes for apologizing to BP exec By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer Laurie Kellman, Associated Press Writer – 17 mins ago WASHINGTON – Who's sorry now? Rep. Joe Barton, that's who. The Texas Republican, the House's top recipient of oil industry campaign contributions since 1990, apologized Thursday for apologizing to the chief of the British company that befouled the Gulf of Mexico with a massive oil spill. His double mea culpa plus a retraction, executed under pressure from fuming GOP leaders, succeeded in shifting attention from the tragedy, ***********0b5fa8]***********0B5FA8 ! important]***********0B5FA8 ! important]BP'[/color][/color][/color]s many missteps and the stoic British oil chief at the witness table, to his own party's close connection to the oil industry. The subject of Barton's ire was the $20 billion relief fund for victims of the spill sought by the White House and agreed to by BP. "I apologize," Barton said to BP CEO Tony Hayward, who was sitting at a witness table for another of Congress' ritual floggings of wayward corporate heads. "I do not want to live in a country where any time a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong is subject to some sort of political pressure that is — again, in my words, amounts to a shakedown," Barton said. "So I apologize." Cue the outrage — from Republicans, who came close to stripping Barton of his post as chairman-in-waiting of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. GOP leaders summoned Barton to the Capitol and demanded he apologize in specific terms. The leaders threatened to launch a process to strip Barton of his seniority on the powerful panel, a particularly painful threat to any long-term lawmaker, according to two knowledgeable Republican officials who demanded anonymity so they could speak freely about private meetings. But it was the notion of an American lawmaker apologizing to a foreign head of a corporation that had caused great hardships for millions of Gulf Coast residents that incited rare Republican-on-Republican rage. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., became the first in his party to demand that Barton be stripped of his seniority. During a House vote later in the day, other Republicans pressed their leaders for Barton's punishment — and at least two in the leadership were still considering that option, the officials said. As Barton returned to the committee, the leaders issued their own statement: "Congressman Barton's statements this morning were wrong." Vice ***********0b5fa8]***********0B5FA8 ! important]***********0B5FA8 ! important]President [/color]***********0B5FA8 ! important]Joe [/color]***********0B5FA8 ! important]Biden[/color][/color][/color] weighed in — lightheartedly at first, red-faced by the end. "I find it incredibly insensitive, incredibly out of touch," Biden told reporters. "There's no shakedown. It's insisting on responsible conduct and a responsible response to something they caused." Democrats, eager to tie Republicans to the oil industry during this midterm election year, piled on. "While people in the Gulf are suffering from the actions of BP, the Republicans in the Congress are apologizing to BP," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. By midafternoon, Barton was back on the dais with a statement that was something short of what the leaders had demanded. "I want the record to be absolutely clear that I think BP is responsible for this accident," he said. "If anything I said this morning has been misconstrued, in opposite effect, I want to apologize for that misconstruction." Barton then issued, and House Republican leader John Boehner's office forwarded out a somewhat different written statement. "I apologize for using the term 'shakedown' with regard to yesterday's actions at the White House this morning, and I retract my apology to BP," it began, and finished: "I regret the impact that my statement this morning implied that BP should not pay for the consequences of their decisions and actions in this incident." Barton has received $100,470 in campaign donations from oil and gas interests since the beginning of 2009, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
The title alone says it all Loki - "GOP lawmaker apologizes for apologizing to BP exec". Seriously maybe you should also post this in the 'WTF' thread?
What makes me laugh is that the enquiry into the Oil blow isn't even over yet and these guys are in a court making decisions about whats happened, how can they decide without all the facts? apparently it's going to take a while to figure out why as the only people who could tell them unfortunately lost there lives in the Tragedy, was the Blow out Valve at fault? if it was who's responsible then, the company that made it? which happens to be American, anyway whoever is at fault, shouldn't they actually wait to see what the enquiry finds before it starts to make judgements, that would be common sense right? With the words out of Obamas mouth about British Petroleum this British Petroleum that, seems pretty anti British to me, makes him sound like an arse, what will be funny is if he makes so many demands on BP all at once that they crash as a company and then no fucker gets nothing, slow and steady wins the race.
BP clearly is at least partially to blame. Just because other people fucked up too doesn't mean cutting corners was a good idea. They are further to blame for repeatedly being devious and nontransparent since the spill began, and over and over and over underestimating the problem. Also they're to blame for underestimating the potential danger. And they're to blame for using dead guys for references. They're to blame for a lot of shit, that much is already very very clear. It's no more anti British than the many years of wise British people correctly calling out Haliburton for all-around evilness is anti-American.
Shouldn't it be clear about where they are to blame in great detail down to the final point before you start having Court proceddings, dragging some guy to make him look a wanker just so they can look like there doing something with your Tax Dollars, why not tell the truth and say "we are powerless to point fingers, untill all the facts are in" otherwise we'd just make ourselves look like a bunch of Horses arses.
Because you would lose your job. lol This isn't england. The people over here control the government and if enough of them don't get their way from you then your butt is gone. I will agree your way is the better but that is not how everyone will see it. You plug up the hole first and then start blaming.
francie1982, you need to understand how corporate America operates. If BP is allowed to take this case to court, which is what they would prefer, this case won't be litigated for DECADES, through endless motions by BP's lawyers. It shouldn't take 25 years to assess blame and force those responsible parties to pay restitution. BP drilled the well, the well blew. BP is responsible. It's really not that hard.
We are investigating precisely by holding these hearings. If they are blameless, they have about a billion opportunities to tell us so, because they're right there. They have the opportunity to tell their side of the story. Which, so far, is "it has nothing to do with us!" A good deal of the information we have so far has come from these hearings. We don't have to make this guy look like a wanker, he is one. Meanwhile, we continue to suffer, and they continue to focus on covering up. There are things we *do* know, and they are plenty damning. We have more than enough information to point a finger at BP. If there are other fingers to point, and there are, we can do that too. But in the meantime, we're still loosing coast, and they're still more interested in PR, more interested in covering up, more interested in avoiding paying out. Fuck 'em. If we could tie the CEO to a stick and use his gawdawful haircut to mop up the oil, it'd be justified. Sadly, that won't work. In the meantime, we are every bit justified in pulling these guys in front of Congress and demanding that they stop lying. They won't, of course, but we're justified in demanding it. --------------- If we really didn't know *anything*, perhaps you would have a point. But we do know some information, and that is that BP has clearly cut corners, covered up, and mishandled the entire situation. We could let them continue to do that, out of some misguided "fairness" to them, but as long as they *continue* to act in this manner the situation in the gulf is made worse. Action must be taken to make continued misbehavior inconvenient for them, if nothing else.
The way you do things over there is all arse about face and as far as I'm aware BP wasn't trying to shrug a financial duty to those affected, since this started they have openly promised financial recompense, what else is there to promise untill all the facts are in? and as to the "Evidence" from a bunch of rival companies who are probably just pissed because they didn't get to drill the well themselves. America's system of laying blame is entirely faulty, seems to me Obama was railroaded by a bunch of angry vigilantes, he will pay for it eventually when none of it goes as planned the same voters will be blaming him for counting his chickens before they've hatched. My point is.....yes BP is the company in charge of that well, but isn't it in everyones best interest to find out what went wrong in a clear concise manner to make sure nothing similar was ever to happen again, for all we know something that BP did is being practised by all it's competitors as well.
They're supposed to be paying out some of those claims now. They're intentionally holding it up. The Evidence is not coming soley from a bunch of rival companies, I don't know where you're getting that. You seem really focused on "laying blame". This is not what this is about. The situation is continuing right now. BP is mishandling it *right now*. It makes all the sense in the world to do all we can to encourage that they stop doing that. But, if it's blame you want, there's clearly plenty for BP: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/16/60minutes/main6490087.shtml?tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel
The asked a board of rivals to give there opinion on BPs methods and they all as exspected of course said that there own companies would not have drilled at all "Whatever" if there was money to be made i'm sure they would have. But they also admitted they would not be able to cope with the blowout had it happened to them. There opinions weighed heavily on the hearing with Tony Hayward. http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Rivals_slam_BP_admit_to_emergency_response_flaws_999.html As to money being distributed I'm sure we could all see that was going to be a problem, managing the scale of people that are going to have there hands out is a Mammoth task in itself. What you don't want is everyman and his Dog getting a piece of the pie when he doesn't deserve it, what you don't need is someone who owns a rubber dingy and lives in the vicinty say he made his livelihood chartering out the aforementioned dingy.
It's not like that's all the evidence they have. There are MOUNTAINS of evidence of BP's talent at failing. And, reasonably, yeah, ask other companies in the industry. They're clearly better prepared to asses security risks, after all: http://www.businessweek.com/news/20...-teeters-as-ceo-lawmakers-clash-update3-.html
Huh? The name of the company for a half century before their recent dishonest rebranding exercise was "British Petroleum." How is referring to it by that name, which many people besides the President are still wont to do, anti-British? BP is one of the worst and most negligent corporations on the planet. How that incontrovertible fact is being spun into some sort of nationalistic pissing contest is beyond me.
[YOUTUBE]cLJHTTOSkpg[/YOUTUBE] [YOUTUBE]skDR0h2EsyU[/YOUTUBE] [YOUTUBE]sxFtnQdKwXk[/YOUTUBE] [YOUTUBE]FC1MmMM60HM[/YOUTUBE] [YOUTUBE]XuJtdQOU_Z4[/YOUTUBE]
whatever! BP was good enough before why not now, all of a sudden we highlight the British, how many times did obama say British petroleum, I think he should be a bit more tactful with his allies, people are pretty pissed of here about it, obviously you don't get our TV/Press but the man on the street feels like it's a personal attack against Britain, not to mention the effect it's having on our economy which is taking a beating as it is, a few more problems like this and we will be on our knees like Greece and Spain.
Your man on the street isn't in the usa where so many people have lost their jobs and we have lost so many wild life. The only reason they feel like that is because they have not been affected like we have. That's why I Heard Your Prime minster talking more about stocks of BP than how many people have lost their jobs for the rest of their life time. Some of these comments are so inconsiderate to the people who have lost their jobs in america. The brits need to realize that an attack on a company is not an attack on the people. We trashed talked on GM and Ford. That didn't mean we were attacking the country. If Britian was so concerned about it then they are always invited to try and use their money to stop the oil spill. We do get your news. We watch it so that we don't get bias american news but guess what ! Your news is bias on your side as well. You need to find another source out of brit to see the truth. They got many of you thinking some company is the whole country. They are not. They are crooked and unsafe. The only reason they got a chance to dig is because they had more crooked people to help them that were still in the mms from the BUSH years. BP had over 700 safety violations and many many more problems. I can't believe how some of you ignore BP's problems. As long as your section of the world is fine then all is ok. It doesn't matter how bad the other places are. That's the sad truth about most people even in the U.S.A. This guy who apologized to BP should be fired. He would have never said things like that if he was a congressmen from LA. They were never good before. They just had BUSH to help them.
What Money, for love of God tell me where is this money coming from, you say you get our news, well you obviously don't! things are bad for Britain right now, really bad, looks like there is going to be mass unemployment on a grand scale and an overall estimated 30% cut on all services, everyone is out for themselves these days mate, maybe america should take a look at it's demand for Oil and see what they could do about that, your carbon emissions are the highest in the world not sure who is in the lead now cus China draws kneck and kneck with you. You can't be the big angry Bear country who shouts the loudest and gets your own way anymore, do you think we would be hearing this much out of you if this was an eastern blowout, nope! Maybe if Obamas people are suffering so much he should try doing something about it himself, instead of plonking his arse in a chair making a debacle of Court Proceedings when the hole isn't even plugged yet, the mans a Twatt.
This is never going to be a fair discussion there is like a Million Americans on here and then there is ME! I'm just going to leave this thread saying most of us over here think ur president is an asswipe and hope that if America ever need our help butting there nose into stuff (Iraq) again we will have the due manners to tell em to poke it rather than be ur poodle/lapdog for another epic fail.
I made that comment about the money for the man on the street(and/or the prime minster) who feels we are attacking Britain and not the company. If this had happen in Britain, you guys would not be making these comments. It is just inconsiderate from you all. caring more about a company over the people. I guarantee you'd be more worried about people who have lost their jobs over the company since you have such a high unemployment rate. Ours from what I saw was higher than yours. Of course, we are upset because this disaster only helped. If it had happened over there, the same comments about how we lost more jobs and how they helped increase the unemployment rate would be said. Our carbon emission are high because we have a bigger population like china. When you have a lot of people, you need to use energy to do it. We have been working on lowering it. What debacles? Why should He have to fix something we didn't break? I encourage the president to fix the problem. That way we can charge BP an uncapped bill for the disaster. Then he'll hear oh we are attacking the country and not the company from the man on the street. It doesn't matter which way he goes people are going to take shots. if He doesn't try to fix it , oh he's a twatt(despite the fact that he didn't make the spill or the government doesn't have the tech because the government isn't into drilling. That company is.) If he fixes it and bills them, oh it is an attack on our country. How could he bill our precious company? pick one! This was the better of the choices so as not to hurt the other countries from a large bill that would come on BP. I say give it to the so call man on the street. Fix the problem and Bill BP for it. That way he won't be known as a twatt!
That was a bad on the previous administration that had big connections with BP. I guess the BUSH administration is ok when you aren't on the wrong end of the corruption with the brits.
