Oil pouring into the Gulf of Mexico -
BP Motto : profits before safety
The Faux Green Grassroots promoter financer Tea parties et al
* In 2004, BP engaged in a "massive manipulation" of the US propane market. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission later ordered the company to pay $303 million in criminal penalties and restitution to victims of its trading abuses.
* In 2005, a devastating explosion and fire at a BP refinery in Texas BP killed 15 workers and injured 170 others. In 2007, BP was fined $50 million for environmental damage caused by the refinery blast. In 2009, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration levied an additional fine of $87 million fine–the largest in OSHA's history–for the company’s "failure to correct potential hazards faced by employees."
* In 2006, more than 260,000 gallons of crude poured onto the Arctic tundra from a BP pipeline near Prudhoe Bay—the worst onshore spill in Alaskan history. Whistleblowers had already revealed that BP ignored warnings about leaking and corroded pipelines and had tried to cover up earlier, smaller spills, and Congressional investigations found that negligence and cost-cutting were factors in the 2006 disaster. BP was fined more than $20 million.
* In October 2007, the U.S. Minerals Management Service fined BP for a series of violations related to a near-blowout at an offshore rig in 2002. The violations included inadequate training of BP workers in "well control."
During the period that all of these human and environmental catastrophes were going on, BP sales rose from $192 billion in 2004 to $240 billion in 2005, and then to $266 billion in 2006. The company’s profits fell in 2007 following the disasters and fines, but began rebounding as soon as BP announced massive layoffs.
Excerpt From Mother Jones BP's Slick Greenwashing — By James Ridgeway Mother Jones May. 4, 2010
And even the Wall Street Journal has a tough time covering for BP :
Oil Regulator Ceded Oversight to Drillers at Wall Street Journal, May 7, 2010
The small U.S. agency that oversees offshore drilling doesn't write or implement most safety regulations, having gradually shifted such responsibilities to the oil industry itself for more than a decade.
Instead, the Minerals Management Service—now caught up in the crisis of the Deepwater Horizon rig that for weeks has sent crude oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico—sets broad performance goals for the industry. Oil producers and drilling companies are then free to decide for themselves how to meet those goals, industry executives and former regulators say.
A Wall Street Journal examination of the MMS's track record found several instances of the agency identifying potential safety problems and then either not requiring follow-up or relying on the industry to craft a solution. In some cases, the industry didn't do its part.
The Journal also found that the safety record of U.S. offshore drilling compares unfavorably, in terms of deaths and serious accidents, to other major oil-producing countries. Over the past five years, an offshore oil worker in the U.S. was more than four times as likely to be killed than a worker in European waters, and 23% more likely to sustain an injury, according to International Association of Drilling Contractors data, which is adjusted for man-hours worked.
BP a Teabagging Tea Partier the company responsible for the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf besides having a poor safety records most explosions etc. the company has been working behind the scenes with Freedom Works and other Faux populist grass roots groups .Could Glenn Beck be a sock puppet for BP ah just wondering -its worst than we thought.
EXCLUSIVE: BP Worked With FreedomWorks And The Chamber To Build ‘Grassroots’ Support For More Drilling by Lee Fang via ThinkProgress,May 6, 2010
BP has long touted itself as a “green” company interested not only in oil and other fossil fuels, but in renewable energy like wind and solar. But as Rebecca Lefton reported on ThinkProgress last week, BP barely invests anything in clean energy — most of its green campaign is actually just a massive advertising gimmick to conceal the truth about the company.
While BP has spent hundreds of millions building its brand, it has offshored the dirty work of promoting expanded drilling to right-wing front groups and trade associations. In a 2007 PowerPoint presentation obtained by ThinkProgress, BP appears to have been interested in fighting to open up protected waters to new offshore drilling. The presentation, organized by the BP-funded front group “Consumer Energy Alliance,” was delivered at the American Gas Association’s marketing meeting in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. The presentation calls for a five-year plan to build grassroots support to open wide swaths of both the East and West coasts to new drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf:
– Slide 5 depicts a map of “undiscovered technically recoverable resources on Federal OCS” along the East coast, from Maine to Florida, and on the West coast, from Washington to California.
– Slide 7 notes that expanding OCS access “provides univeral benefits to all sectors.” The page pitches the campaign to aid both the oil and natural gas industry.
– Slide 9 lists the 5 year plan “strategic priorities,” including “military/veterans groups,” “energy consumers,” “editorial boards/letters to the editor,” and “academia & think tanks.”
– Slide 14 lists the groups involved in doing grassroots outreach. Under “affiliated groups,” FreedomWorks — a right-wing “grassroots” group that helped plan the tea parties and continues to lobby aggressively against clean energy reform — is listed along with the 60 Plus Association, the American Conservative Union, and others. U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Petroleum Institute are some of the trade associations involved. Slide 14 also shows that BP is one of the member companies supporting the campaign.
And BP's Public relations effort to convince the public that they were concerned about protecting the environment- And so it seems they realy have a whole gaggle of Flying Monkeys working for them.
BP's Slick Greenwashing — By James Ridgeway Mother Jones May. 4, 2010
For the last decade, BP has been busily engaged in a multi-million-dollar greenwashing campaign. Changing its name from British Petroleum to BP, the company adopted a new slogan, “Beyond Petroleum,” and began a “rebranding” effort to depict itself as a public-spirited, environmentally sensitive, green energy enterprise, the very model of 21st century corporate responsibility.
It’s going to take more than a name change and a clever ad campaign to erase the image of oil spreading across the Gulf Coast from BP’s offshore rig, and dead wildlife washing up onto beaches. Even as the company magnanimously agreed to cover the costs of cleaning up the mammoth spill, BP on Monday was still insisting that it wasn’t at fault for the accident that caused it—instead blaming the offshore drilling contractor that operated the rig. So much for corporate accountability.
Before the Deepwater Horizon disaster, BP’s green image was nothing more than a scam. While making miniscule investments in things like solar power, biofuels, and carbon fuel cells that backed its PR claims, BP continued to work relentlessly to expand its oil and gas operations. In the last decade, as the world’s second largest producer of fossil fuels, the company drilled (and spilled) vast quantities of oil and gas on Alaska’s North Slope and in the North Sea. It positioned itself to rip up Canada’s tar sands to extract its dirty oil, and grabbed a 50 percent interest in Iraq’s rich Rumaila oil field. BP boasted the highest number of explosions and other accidents at its US refineries (several of them deadly), and made the Multinational Monitor’s 10 Worst Companies lists in 2000 and 2005, based on its environmental and human rights record.
and on Dick Armey's Freedomworks.org and their backing of Big Oil, Big Coal & deregulation & the Tea party Movement the 9/12 projects & Tea Party Express & Town Hall Meetings Paid Agitators (Tea Party Brown Shirts) & the armed revolutionary right wing Oath Keepers et al..
Obama's critics and their Media embedded attack dogs continue to snarl and foam at the mouth with their fact-challenged attacks on him and his administration and his policies. But in light of what a great speech Obama gave and his confidence in the importance of health care reform for America these critics sound even more desperate.But sometimes desperation can unfortunately lead to desperate acts.
So first how Joe Wilson who yelled liar at president Obama has become a Republican and conservative folk hero who said out loud what they all believe.
So the main thing they understood about Obama's speech on healthcare Reform was Joe Wilson's remark which summed up the entire speech for them. To those on the right Obama is still just trying to hide his communistic socialist agenda.
Maddow also talks about Freedom Works and its connections with a variety of extremist terrorists types as I have mentioned such as:
Alarm and Muster ,
ThreePercenter ,
The American Distress Call ,
Citizens In Action ,
Restore The Republic,
FreedomWorks.org (Dick Armey & BP) ,
Contract From America ,
The Family International,
American Principles Project( Dr. Robert George),
The Forerunner Dir. Jay Rogers,
Sponsor A Patriot,
Operation Soldier Assist ,
S.W.A.T. Magazine: Weapons, Tactics and Training for the Real World ,
Alphie Omega Training:Your Source For Survival Training ,
Gathering of eagles ,
JEWS FOR THE PRESERVATION OF FIREARMS OWNERSHIP,
Liberty Rider
, blogtalkradio.com/,
GrizzlyGroundswell ,
Cordite Country,
Oath Keepers
and a variety of militias and patriot groups and survivalists .
Video on home page of Freedom Works in which Matt Kibbe disingenuously blames Democrats for the rowdiness at the Town Halls. Denies Freedom Works is influencing the people who are appearing at the Town Halls.
But then admits they train their people not to just be disruptive and give out commentary on the health care proposed policies of the Obama administration.So the shouting matches didn't start till the Democrats and Nancy Pelosi got involved and made disparaging remarks about the peoples behavior at the Town Halls.
FreedomWorks' Matt Kibbe Talks with CAP Action Fund on MSNBC blames the rowdiness on Democrats and Pelosi who are refusing to listen to people-but merely shouting out slogans & Talking Points -each one repeating each other-
And from FreedomWorks website describe their organization as promoting "aggressive, real-time campaigns " and "FreedomWorks recruits, educates, trains and mobilizes hundreds of thousands of volunteer activists to fight for less government, lower taxes, and more freedom." So not such a benign organization after all.
Founded in 1984, FreedomWorks is headquartered in Washington, DC, and has hundreds of thousands of grassroots volunteers nationwide. The organization is chaired by former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey and the President is Matt Kibbe.
FreedomWorks members know that government goes to those who show up, and are leading the fight for lower taxes, less government, and more freedom. Join us!
What We Do
FreedomWorks recruits, educates, trains and mobilizes hundreds of thousands of volunteer activists to fight for less government, lower taxes, and more freedom.
Why We Do It
FreedomWorks believes individual liberty and the freedom to compete increases consumer choices and provides individuals with the greatest control over what they own and earn.
How We Do It
FreedomWorks' aggressive, real-time campaigns activate a growing and permanent volunteer grassroots army to show up and demand policy change.
What Others Are Saying About FreedomWorks
"Folks, you've got to get to know this organization ... They have been doing a great job all over the country educating people."
-President George W. Bush
George W. Bush and FreedomWorks
"I am an enormous fan of FreedomWorks."
-U.S. Rep. Mike Pence, Chairman of the House Republican Study Committee
Mike Pence and FreedomWorks
"The outlook for America is so much brighter with FreedomWorks people who are on the front line asking for less instead of more."
-FreedomWorks activist Mary Brophy Wilmington, North Carolina
FreedomWorks Crowd
"...the Oregon chapter of FreedomWorks, which has emerged as the state's most potent voice for lower taxes and less government..."
and so it goes,
GORD.
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