*promote

Self promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued Tuesday, June 1st, 2010 10:58am PDT - promote requested by original submitter dystopianfuturetoday.

I'm fairly certain the people of Louisiana would like their gulf back, too.

It's just a figure of speech used to express his own personal urgency in getting it all sorted out. I wouldn't read too much into it myself.

he looks absorbent, put him to good use

Then he could have easily said " There's no one that wants to get this all sorted out more than I do."

But no, he said he wanted his life back. What do you think his life consisted of before this?

1. Caring compassionately for sensitive ecosystems and the families of impoverished fishermen?

2. Makin' money.. insulated from any blemish or fuck off he is directly responsible for as CEO.

..and possibly maybe giving a lecture or two on how to boost BPs image with "green" branding

I bet the 11 workers would like to be able to say that too.

Preventive measures should have been followed to the T. Then you wouldn't have to ask for your life back.

>> ^deathcow:

he looks absorbent, put him to good use


Lulz. He's absorbent alright, like a sponge. A green, money grubbing sponge.

"and return people's lives to normal as fast as we can."

Which is when, 30 years from now? A friend of mine from Texas says there's still oil on the beaches in her hometown from a spill decades ago.

>> ^NordlichReiter:

>> ^deathcow:
he looks absorbent, put him to good use

Lulz. He's absorbent alright, like a sponge. A green, money grubbing sponge.


BP and its executives have experienced huge losses from this, so the problem doesn't seem to be so much that they pursued profits, but that they did a terrible, irrational job at it (for their bottom line and for ours).

This whole thing is a stupidity tax on the world. They will continue to fuck up huge sections of environment every few years. We will continue to allow our congress to be bought and sold by large corporations. We will continue to create laws which make businesses more important than humans or the Earth. We will continue to fund alternative energy less than weaponry or wars.

We broke it, we buy it.

On another video I posted a link to a table of blowouts. They've been happening since 1955. You would think, that this kind of thing would have been planned for by now.

http://videosift.com/video/BP-Responds-to-Comparisons-to-30-year-Old-Oil-Spill


For those of you who aren't old enough to know about Ixtoc I oil spill; myself included.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ixtoc_I_oil_spill
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowout_%28well_drilling%29

Look at this table below. Proof enough that Humans do not learn from their mistakes, and are doomed to repeat them. Un-fucking-believable and un-fucking-acceptable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowout_%28well_drilling%29#Notable_offshore_well_blowouts

>> ^chilaxe:

>> ^NordlichReiter:
>> ^deathcow:
he looks absorbent, put him to good use

Lulz. He's absorbent alright, like a sponge. A green, money grubbing sponge.

BP and its executives have experienced huge losses from this, so the problem doesn't seem to be so much that they pursued profits, but that they did a terrible, irrational job at it (for their bottom line and for ours).


>> ^deathcow:

This whole thing is a stupidity tax on the world. They will continue to fuck up huge sections of environment every few years. We will continue to allow our congress to be bought and sold by large corporations. We will continue to create laws which make businesses more important than humans or the Earth. We will continue to fund alternative energy less than weaponry or wars.
We broke it, we buy it.

I had an idea, engineers are saying the only way to really stop this leak is to drill extra holes and collect the oil...since BP lost their chance to do it lets give the contract to whoever says they can do it the fastest. It could be any American oil company who could win the contract with a superior idea of how to get the job done fast. It would make the Democrats happy because it would make Obama look like a man of action and it would make the Republicans happy because it would be oil for the US doled out by who wins the contract. It would make all the residents happy because they would finally stop the f*cking oil from coming out into the gulf.

The only hitch I see is BP has the lease on the land in question. I say take it away from them! If I bought a piece of property in my city and turned it into a landfill they'd take my property away because I didn't follow procedure or safety and the residents simply don't want a landfill there because it's ruining the place. Take the lease away from BP because they screwed up, don't allow them to keep trying new things, that would be pointless.

Poor chap. Somebody give that man a bailout.

[redacted]

^He didn't choose his words very well, and it comes across as a little selfish and insensitive. Unless he goes to jail for this (HA!), his life will be just fine. Even if the board fires him, he'll still be stinking rich with nothing to worry about. His kids will want for nothing. In the mean time, back in the Gulf, environments will be ruined, jobs will be lost, and coastal communities ravaged. And like Pong said, 11 people have no lives at all to go back to.

So before he opened his mouth he should have chose his words better. A LOT better.

Looks like John Q Public has finally been able to put a face on the whole misery. Ahhh, if only the world was really that simple... This guy probably had more stress in the last couple of weeks than most of you had in your entire life, but hey, let's take one poorly phrased statement and burn him at the stakes!

"I'd like my life back"

Uh, too bad?

*news
*politics

Adding video to channels (News, Politics) - requested by NetRunner.

I'm willing to bet that most of us have had just as much stress in our lives at some point or another. Statistically speaking, surely there have been some members here who have battled cancer or another life-threatening ailment, others who have lost someone close, others who've had to file for bankruptcy and possibly faced homelessness, others who have battled crippling mental illness, etc. So no, his current stress levels don't impress me, because most of us who've been alive for a while have already had very stressful events in our lives to contend with.

Also, let's not forget that the company he helmed is largely responsible for this, so he deserves every bit of stress that he has right now. How many lives has this avoidable accident fucked up? How much stress are those people facing?

I can tell you one thing: There would be no shortage of oil to burn him at the stake with.>> ^campionidelmondo:

Looks like John Q Public has finally been able to put a face on the whole misery. Ahhh, if only the world was really that simple... This guy probably had more stress in the last couple of weeks than most of you had in your entire life, but hey, let's take one poorly phrased statement and burn him at the stakes!

>> ^kronosposeidon:

I'm willing to bet that most of us have had just as much stress in our lives at some point or another. Statistically speaking, surely there have been some members here who have battled cancer or another life-threatening ailment, others who have lost someone close, others who've had to file for bankruptcy and possibly faced homelessness, others who have battled crippling mental illness, etc. So no, his current stress levels don't impress me, because most of us who've been alive for a while have already had very stressful events to contend with.
Also, let's not forget that the company he helmed is largely responsible for this, so he deserves every bit of stress that he has right now. How many lives has this avoidable accident fucked up? How much stress are those people facing?
I can tell you one thing: There would be no shortage of oil to burn him at the stake with.

I was talking about workstress, not stress induced by events in private life, which he has just as much as any other person. Bankrupcy aside, his family members are probably just as prone to cancer and mental illnesses as the next one, but that's not the issue here.

Yes he's the head of a company partly responsible for the oil leak, but let's not forget that BP is a publicly traded company, so the real power lies with the shareholders. If he's not doing a "good enough job", aka making money faster than anyone could print, he's gonna be replaced. That's his sole purpose, to make the stock rise, with any means neccessary. Normally there'd be laws and regulations to limit the mostly destructive greed that every (yes, EVERY) publicly traded corporation exibits, but since the system is so incredibly corrupt and politicians are more than happy to accept bribes in any imaginable form, these safegurads fail miserably.

This guy did exactly what he was supposed to do and should not even be close to being the first person to blame for the desaster. But that's what people will do because it's so damn easy and it perfectly shows what kind of crowd TPM caters to.

>> ^kronosposeidon:

Poor chap. Somebody give that man a bailout.

Oh! I thought you said "... give that man a bullet." And I was all excited for a moment.

>> ^campionidelmondo:

Looks like John Q Public has finally been able to put a face on the whole misery. Ahhh, if only the world was really that simple... This guy probably had more stress in the last couple of weeks than most of you had in your entire life, but hey, let's take one poorly phrased statement and burn him at the stakes!


I don't give a damned about his statement, poorly worded or not. But I can certainly get behind the idea of CEO flambe! IMO, CEOs -should- be held personally responsible for every single fuckup a company commits, and mass murder seems like a valid case for a capital sentence. Maybe if this were the case, we could justify those outrageous salaries.

>> ^Stormsinger:


I don't give a damned about his statement, poorly worded or not. But I can certainly get behind the idea of CEO flambe! IMO, CEOs -should- be held personally responsible for every single fuckup a company commits, and mass murder seems like a valid case for a capital sentence. Maybe if this were the case, we could justify those outrageous salaries.


CEOs are not the problem. We live in a world that above all rewards greed. That's the real problem. CEOs are only behaving natural to their environment.

>> ^campionidelmondo:

CEOs are not the problem. We live in a world that above all rewards greed. That's the real problem. CEOs are only behaving natural to their environment.


...which is why so many of us want to make responsibility for the way they fuck up our world an element of their environment that they need to adapt to.

Becoming the focus of nationwide scorn seems like one of the many ways to let them know that shit like this isn't okay. Criminal charges and court-ordered compensation for damages done should also help focus their mind, but those take a little more time.

@campionidelmondo
The CEO is the man in charge, is he not? It's kind of the definition of the position. If you compare the best and the worst companies in an industry, it certainly seems to support the idea that corporate culture and actions, are heavily driven by the stances of the executive-in-charge. That means he -is- responsible for the actions taken by the company, no? If not, then what in the hell justifies those hyperinflated salaries?

Sadly, it's apparent that nationwide scorn has no effect on the type of person who reaches the CEO position...clearly we need bigger guns to get the point across. It's time to make it clear that stockholders are not the only people whose opinions should be counted...the rest of us are also affected by their actions and should have a fair say in setting the rules of engagement.

>> ^deathcow:


We broke it, we buy it.


True, and we've got to demand reform before this sort of thing happens again! I think the next political generation (40/30 somethings today) has a chance to make a significant positive difference once we start getting elected. (at least I hope; I'm willing to try...)

I guess this type of dry humour doesn't go down very well on the other side of the pond.

Wow, take away bank regulation, you get one effect.

Take away oil companies regulation, you get a similar effect.

Yup, Republicans have the right idea, LESS GOVERNMENT! BIGGER BUSINESS!

@Stormsinger

That's the problem, shareholder's opinions are the only ones that count for a CEO, that's not gonna change. As long as the US government is on big oil's payroll, oil companies such as BP can act very irresponsibly without having to fear serious repercussions. The CEO is doing what he's supposed to do, it's the government that should protect its citizens and the country they live in, but they're mostly protecting their own asses. Why do you think the government has not stepped in yet even though BP messed up more than a couple of times at trying to seal the leak?

@NetRunner

I get that you're pissed. I'm angry, too, but I think that anger is misdirected when you solely direct it at BP. Yes, they should pay damages, but that's not gonna prevent the next spill. Trust me, BP is just as pissed about the spill as we are, the only difference is that they'll continue to take high risks as long as it is financially feasible and tolerated by the government. Besides, it's mostly in the interest of the american people as well. Hell, you could probably stop offshore drilling entirely, if you'd adjust your oil consumption and gasoline prices to european levels. Give people that choice and see what they'll answer...

@campiondelmondo

So you think it's reasonable for the CEO of a large company to act like (if not -be-) a sociopath? You really think that's what he is supposed to do? And here I thought -I- had a dim view of the human race...my view is all sweetness and light compared to yours. How in the world do you justify to yourself being an apologist for sociopaths?

Let me be blunt, putting short-term profit ahead of human lives and decades of economic damage is -not- what anyone is "supposed to do". I do not think it unreasonable to assume that every person, and especially every person in charge of a huge company, can understand that their actions can and do have an effect on others. If they only consider that when the government forces them to do so, then they really need to be removed from contact with the rest of the race, and certainly should never be allowed the power to inflict their sociopathy on millions of innocent bystanders.

@Stormsinger

No I never said it was reasonable and I never passed judgement either. What I said was that CEOs behave natural and in the way they were hired for. If they don't they'll be replaced. You and I might be willing to pay twice as much for gas or see our stock portfolios plummet for the benefit of the environment, but unfortunately most people, including the powers that be, won't. I don't think the CEO of BP is a sociopath but I don't know much about him, so if you have any specific stuff about him that you would like to share, please do.

Intentional or not, dude came off as an asshole.

I'm pretty sure the CEO can't take the brunt of the blame for this.

The rig itself is owned by a contracting company called Transocean, who admitted anomalies in the pressure readings and the valve for shutting off the well - Transocean also owns all the equipment for the rig.

Another contracted firm, Halliburton, had done work on cementing drilling areas to prevent natural gas from escaping just hours before the blast, Halliburton were also responsible for cementing the well to secure it after it had been drilled.

Most of the workers on the rig/BP are contracted in from other firms, this was on a recommendation from ex-prime minister Gordon Brown.

Very few of the core workers or people involved on the rig appear to be actual BP staff, the majority being workers from Transocean and other firms. Yet it seems people are more angry at the sticker on the product than the actual components.

Yes, we get it, you're pissed. But try and be pissed at the collective failure rather than just one scapegoat figurehead pencil pushing numbers man.

>> ^campionidelmondo:

I'm angry, too, but I think that anger is misdirected when you solely direct it at BP. Yes, they should pay damages, but that's not gonna prevent the next spill. Trust me, BP is just as pissed about the spill as we are, the only difference is that they'll continue to take high risks as long as it is financially feasible and tolerated by the government.

I've got plenty of anger to go around. I'm mad about the fact that there is an entire political party whose purpose is to eliminate responsibility for the rich, and eliminate rights for the poor. I'm mad that their opposition party can often be bribed by corporations to water down any attempts to fix things into near meaninglessness, and that a media-led populace of morons will condemn them all the way up one side and down the other for daring imply that corporations do evil things because, well, the corporate owned media doesn't like it when anti-corporate sentiments break out.

Even after all that, I've still got more than enough anger left over to direct at the people who actually inflicted this particular wound on us, and who're whining about how it's really made them have to put in a lot of long hours.

As for why the government hasn't "stepped in", this is actually part of the rub. See, we don't have a government-run oil company in America (even though virtually all other oil producing nations do), so we have to rely on private expertise in fixing the damn thing. Even as it is, I don't think people grasp this, but if there were easy ways to plug the leak, or even expensive ones, I guarantee it would've been done by now. We're looking, I believe, at the limits of what man can do, and apparently we can't plug a damaged well under water of this depth.

Maybe this will change people's opinion about the risks involved, and our need to get off oil. My read on how the media and the right is talking about this is that it hasn't really had that effect. Other than partially strengthening the left's resolve on the topic, I mostly see people who once proudly chanted "drill baby, drill" still saying the same thing, just slightly less brazenly.

>> ^NetRunner:

>> ^campionidelmondo:
I'm angry, too, but I think that anger is misdirected when you solely direct it at BP. Yes, they should pay damages, but that's not gonna prevent the next spill. Trust me, BP is just as pissed about the spill as we are, the only difference is that they'll continue to take high risks as long as it is financially feasible and tolerated by the government.
I've got plenty of anger to go around. I'm mad about the fact that there is an entire political party whose purpose is to eliminate responsibility for the rich, and eliminate rights for the poor. I'm mad that their opposition party can often be bribed by corporations to water down any attempts to fix things into near meaninglessness, and that a media-led populace of morons will condemn them all the way up one side and down the other for daring imply that corporations do evil things because, well, the corporate owned media doesn't like it when anti-corporate sentiments break out.
Even after all that, I've still got more than enough anger left over to direct at the people who actually inflicted this particular wound on us, and who're whining about how it's really made them have to put in a lot of long hours.
As for why the government hasn't "stepped in", this is actually part of the rub. See, we don't have a government-run oil company in America (even though virtually all other oil producing nations do), so we have to rely on private expertise in fixing the damn thing. Even as it is, I don't think people grasp this, but if there were easy ways to plug the leak, or even expensive ones, I guarantee it would've been done by now. We're looking, I believe, at the limits of what man can do, and apparently we can't plug a damaged well under water of this depth.
Maybe this will change people's opinion about the risks involved, and our need to get off oil. My read on how the media and the right is talking about this is that it hasn't really had that effect. Other than partially strengthening the left's resolve on the topic, I mostly see people who once proudly chanted "drill baby, drill" still saying the same thing, just slightly less brazenly.


Requiring the $500k acoustic switches that are required in Norway etc. would seemingly have prevented the spill.* If the far left hadn't defected from Gore in 2000 we would likely have had that regulation of the industry.

So the repercussions of that 'push even if it means we lose' strategy aren't just obvious things like the Iraq war and Alito and Roberts on the supreme court for the next 10-30 years.

*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77pBcf0o444&feature=related
*http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/joe_conason/2010/05/03/norway

>> ^NetRunner:

I've got plenty of anger to go around. I'm mad about the fact that there is an entire political party whose purpose is to eliminate responsibility for the rich, and eliminate rights for the poor. I'm mad that their opposition party can often be bribed by corporations to water down any attempts to fix things into near meaninglessness, and that a media-led populace of morons will condemn them all the way up one side and down the other for daring imply that corporations do evil things because, well, the corporate owned media doesn't like it when anti-corporate sentiments break out.
Even after all that, I've still got more than enough anger left over to direct at the people who actually inflicted this particular wound on us, and who're whining about how it's really made them have to put in a lot of long hours.
As for why the government hasn't "stepped in", this is actually part of the rub. See, we don't have a government-run oil company in America (even though virtually all other oil producing nations do), so we have to rely on private expertise in fixing the damn thing. Even as it is, I don't think people grasp this, but if there were easy ways to plug the leak, or even expensive ones, I guarantee it would've been done by now. We're looking, I believe, at the limits of what man can do, and apparently we can't plug a damaged well under water of this depth.
Maybe this will change people's opinion about the risks involved, and our need to get off oil. My read on how the media and the right is talking about this is that it hasn't really had that effect. Other than partially strengthening the left's resolve on the topic, I mostly see people who once proudly chanted "drill baby, drill" still saying the same thing, just slightly less brazenly.


I'm kinda glad to hear you don't buy into the whole "Democrats are saints, Repubs are sinners" bullshit, because enough people on here do. Like Seric said in the post above yours, many different companies were involved on and around the offshore drilling platform, so it will take a while to figure out whose fault it was. In any case, accidents happen, and those are the risks we take in echange for a steady oil supply.

I believe the government hasn't stepped in, because they don't want any blame to be directed at them. Right now the general public are aiming at BP and their incapability to secure the leak. You might be right when you say that BP may very well be doing everything humanly possible to stop the leak, but there might just as well be more capable people outside of BP who could do a better job. However the government would rather keep their hands relatively clean and instead scrutinize BP for their failing efforts. Typical behavior of politicians.

It would be great if this would indeed get people thinking about our oil dependency, especially since it is becoming more of a coffin nail every day. Unfortunately that goes way beyond the grasp of the general public and would first and foremost require people to look at their own squandering of resources and how it creates such an enormous demand for oil, which corporations will always look to profit from.

Nah, too complicated. They'll just blame BP's CEO for everything.

@chilaxe total agreement there.

@campionidelmondo, nope, no subscriber to the idea that Democrats are saints, just a subscriber to the idea that Republicans are wholly lost to the kind of evil that gets us into these situations.

I'm not so sure the theory that Obama is staying out of it to keep from getting the blame holds much water. For one, Obama keeps coming on TV to take responsibility for this. For another, everyone in the media is already ramping up to call this Obama's Katrina, and a lot are already taking the "what did you expect BP to do other than maximize profits?" line to defend BP against punitive measures taken by the government.

I'm at a loss to describe anything more that Obama or his administration can actually do at this point that he hasn't done already. A lot of what I hear these days are some variation of "take control of BP, and hand it over to <insert government agency here>", with "the military" being most often suggested as the branch of government that should take control. Of course, there's no suggestion on what more they could actually do if they took control, other than dig up more dirt on BP's negligence.

Mostly I think at this point he needs to run more of a PR operation to make sure people are more acutely aware of what he's already doing, so people stop pretending like he's doing nothing. Kinda sad, but at this point it seems like the only way to fend off the media narrative that's being built.

^But BP hired a bunch of fake workers to help out, so surely it's not their fault, brother Netrunner.

Then you haven't any idea of what you're talking about. The gov't "stepped in" since day one. Actually every single expert from every corner of this planet has been there since day one, but instead of oh i dunno, doing a bit of research before criticizing someone else, is too hard for you.

Maybe learn sommething before you make these dumb mistakes next time:
http://www.theoildrum.com



>> ^campionidelmondo:


I believe the government hasn't stepped in,