Why President Obama, just why?

Courtesy of Politico: 

President Barack Obama crushed greens’ hearts Monday by giving Shell the final go-ahead to drill for oil in Alaska’s Arctic waters, just two weeks after he thrilled them by issuing his landmark regulations on climate change. 

In the long run, Obama’s successors will determine whether the industry can tap Alaska’s prized offshore oil — and one 2016 contender, Hillary Clinton, has expressed “doubts” about opening the Arctic to drilling. But it was Obama’s Interior Department that gave Shell its nod Monday, in the face of an opposition campaign that has seen activists dangling from a bridge in Oregon and swarming the company’s Arctic-bound rig with kayaks to try to block the project.

For greens, the announcement was even more galling because it arrived only two weeks before Obama is due to talk climate change during his first visit to Alaska’s Arctic. 

“The president cannot have it both ways,” Greenpeace USA Executive Director Annie Leonard said. “Announcing a tour of Alaska to highlight climate change days before giving Shell the final approval to drill in the Arctic ocean is deeply hypocritical.” 

Now you guys know that I am an ardent supporter of this President.

I have taken his side over and over again, and defended his actions even when I was not sure of the end game.

Here we are moving toward a more responsible energy policy here in America, and then the President acts as if he is taking advice from Sarah "Drill baby, drill" Palin.

The ecosystem in those arctic waters is incredibly fragile, and if there were an event even a tenth the size of the Deepwater Horizon spill is would have the kind of devastating effect that would last for decades.

No Mr. President, this is wrong, and you sir are wrong for supporting it.

No excuses.

P.S. Hillary Clinton tweeted this yesterday, which I think marks the first time that I have found her take on  situation to be more reasonable than Obama's.

The Arctic is a unique treasure. Given what we know, it's not worth the risk of drilling. -H

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 18, 2015

BP reaches settlement for 18.7 billion over Deepwater Horizon spill.

Courtesy of NBC News:  

BP and five Gulf states announced a massive settlement Thursday that resolves years of legal fighting over the environmental and economic damage done by the energy giant's oil spill in 2010. 

Roughly $18.7 billion in settlement money will be used to resolve the Clean Water Act penalties; resolve natural resources damage claims; settle economic claims; and resolve economic damage claims of local governments, according to an outline filed in federal court. The settlement involves Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. 

"If approved by the court, this settlement would be the largest settlement with a single entity in American history; it would help repair the damage done to the Gulf economy, fisheries, wetlands and wildlife; and it would bring lasting benefits to the Gulf region for generations to come," U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a statement.

Yes 18.7 billion is a huge amount, but considering the damage the spill caused, the incredible impact on marine life, and the loss of revenue to the states affected, I still think they got off pretty lucky.

Yeah, very lucky indeed.

Still these five states did a hell of lot better than Alaska did after the Exxon Valdez spill. 

Train carrying crude oil derails, and explodes, causing the evacuation of residents in a one mile radius.

Damn look at that!

Courtesy of the Charleston Daily Mail:  

Residents who were near the derailment of a crude oil train in Fayette County say it shook and rocked their community like a Biblical judgment. 

Around 1:20 p.m. Monday, a CSX train carrying crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken formation derailed in the Mount Carbon area of Fayette County, sending oil tankers off the tracks, with some reaching the Kanawha River. 

The train, consisting of two locomotives and 109 rail cars, was en route to Yorktown, Va. As of Monday evening, it was unknown how much oil spilled from the train. 

According to a statement on its website, CSX is “working with first responders to address the fire, to determine how many rail cars derailed, and to deploy environmental protective measures and monitoring on land, air and in the nearby Kanawha River. The company also is working with public officials and investigative agencies to address their needs.” 

It was also reported that residents within a one mile radius had to be evacuated and the fire burned for over nine hours. 

The Governor of West Virgina, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, declared a state of emergency.

According to NPR two local water treatment plants closed their intakes and have asked residents to conserve water as thousands of gallons of crude oil pour out of ruptured tank cars.

Oil spills, explosions, contaminated water. Gee you know what might be helpful right about now?

A new source of energy.

Geophysicists link fracking to increased number of earthquakes.

Courtesy of the Daily Item:  

The swarm of earthquakes went on for months in North Central Texas, rattling homes, with reports of broken water pipes and cracked walls and locals blaming the shudders on the hydraulic fracturing boom that’s led to skyrocketing oil and gas production around the nation. 

Darlia Hobbs, who lives on Eagle Mountain Lake, about a dozen miles from Fort Worth, said that more than 30 quakes had hit from November to January. 

“We have had way too many earthquakes out here because of the fracking and disposal wells,“ she said in an interview. 

While the dispute over the cause remains, leading geophysicists are now saying Hobbs and other residents might be right to point the finger at oil and gas activities. 

“It is certainly possible, and in large part that is based on what else we’ve seen in the Fort Worth basin in terms of the rise of earthquakes since 2008,“ William Ellsworth, a U.S. Geological Survey seismologist, said. 

Ellsworth said the Dallas-Fort Worth region previously had just a single known earthquake, in 1950. 

Since 2008, he said, there have been more than 70 big enough to feel. Those include earthquakes at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport that scientists linked to a nearby injection well. 

Ellsworth briefed his colleagues on his findings Thursday at the Seismological Society of America’s annual meeting in Anchorage, Alaska. 

Researchers also are investigating links between quakes in Kansas, Oklahoma, Ohio and elsewhere to oil and gas activities. USGS seismologist Art McGarr said it was clear that deep disposal of drilling waste was responsible for at least some of the earthquakes in the heartland.

Well gee now we can have not only flammable tap water,  and virtually impossible to clean up oil spills, we can also have dramatically increased earthquakes and possibly millions of dollar in property damage.

Gee isn't relying on fossil fuels fun?

Activists obtain footage from Mayflower, Arkansas that Exxon is desperate that you never see.

Courtesy of Leak Source:  

Yesterday, activist indy news team JNL RadikalMedia did what the mainstream media won’t or can’t do, providing exclusive video from the scene of Exxon’s oil pipeline spill in Mayflower, Arkansas. The video shows what can only be described as a lake of oil. 

Allegedly Exxon has been pumping the spill into this area. Exxon’s absorbent pads aka paper towels can also be seen scattered across the ground.

Here is the video that they shot.

From all reports Exxon has essentially established a police state, keeping journalists out and even maintaining a no fly zone over the area. 

I am angry that Exxon still has this much power in this country, and I think it is well past time for them to be treated like exactly what they are, environmental criminals!

You can see more gut wrenching pictures here.

The video the Exxon oil company, and the Republican party, DON'T want you to see. Update!

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

An Exxon-Mobil oil pipeline ruptured Friday afternoon in the town of Mayflower, Arkansas, forcing the evacuation of 20 homes and shutting down sections of interstate highway. According to Little Rock’s KATV, a hazardous materials team from the Office of Emergency Management has contained the spill and is currently attempting a cleanup. 

The burst pipe is part of the Pegasus pipeline network, which connects tar sands along the Gulf coast to refineries in Houston. Thousands of gallons of crude oil erupted from the breach around 3:00 p.m. on Friday, spilling through a housing subdivision and into the town’s storm drainage system, fouling drainage ditches and shutting down Highway 365 and Interstate 40. 

Residents were evacuated to avoid health hazards from crude oil fumes and to keep stray sparks from igniting the standing oil. Emergency workers contained the spill by hastily constructing earthen dams.

According to the YouTube link over 84,000 gallons have spilled into the town so far.

You know it is bad enough to have an oil pipeline burst in a remote parts of Alaska but so much worse when the spill is right next door and forces the evacuation of your entire neighborhood.

Perhaps THIS will be enough to get certain politicians to reconsider the idea of building the Keystone XL project.

What am I saying? After all you can bet the pipeline won't be built next to any of the homes of powerful Republican Senators now will it?

Update: This is somebody's backyard in Mayflower, Arkansas.

That is NOT water.

The Kulluk, Shell Oil's antiquated old drilling ship, was ripped from its tow lines by high winds and has become grounded near Kodiak Island. Chances of a diesel fuel leak very high.

Courtesy of the Guardian:  

A large drill ship belonging to the oil company Shell has run aground off Alaska after drifting in stormy weather, company and government officials said.

The ship, the Kulluk, broke away from one of its tow lines on Monday afternoon and was driven, within hours, on to rocks just off Kodiak Island, where it grounded at about 9pm Alaska time, officials said. 

The 18-member crew had been evacuated by the coastguard late on Saturday because of risks from the ongoing storm. 

There was no known spill and no reports of damage, but the Kulluk had about 155,000 gallons of fuel on board, said coastguard commander Shane Montoya, the leader of the incident command team. 

With winds reported as reaching 60 miles an hour and Gulf of Alaska seas of up to 12 metres, responders were unable to keep the ship from grounding, he told a news conference late on Monday night in Anchorage. 

"We are now entering into the salvage and possible spill-response phase of this event."

I received a phone call on this from one of my sources a few hours ago, and from what I understand Shell was essentially warned NOT to go through with putting his drill ship out into these waters. they were told the ship was not prepared for the type of seas it would encounter and that it was literally an accident waiting for  place to happen.

Well now it has happened, and my sources tell me that the expectations are very high that there already substantial leaks, though nothing has officially been confirmed as of yet.

Stay tuned, this is still unfolding.

No more government contracts for BP, and penalties equaling 4.5 billion. I STILL think they got off easy.

Courtesy of Reuters:  

The U.S. government banned BP Plc on Wednesday from new federal contracts over its "lack of business integrity" in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, possibly imperiling the company's role as a top U.S. offshore oil and gas producer and the No. 1 military fuel supplier. 

The suspension, announced by the Environmental Protection Agency, comes on the heels of BP's November 15 agreement with the U.S. government to plead guilty to criminal misconduct in the Gulf of Mexico disaster, the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. The British energy giant agreed to pay $4.5 billion in penalties, including a record $1.256 billion criminal fine.

This very good news, though considering the devastation caused by the negligence of this company there will NEVER really be an appropriate cost which can be levied against them in my opinion.

However I have to say that being forced to pay 4.5 billion in penalties, which is the most EVER paid out by any company in US history, along with having the opportunity to bid on new contracts stripped away, MIGHT cause enough pain to the company to make them put safety concerns front and center from this point forward.

By the way I am not sure if any of you are aware, but the first time there were any allegations that BP cheated while testing those blowout preventers, you know the ones that failed and caused the giant oil spill in the Gulf, was up here in Alaska, was actually from tests performed on the North Slope to be exact.

And do you know who was the manager in charge of testing those blowout preventers on the North Slope at that time?

You guessed it.

Just ANOTHER example of the Palin curse at work I suppose.

Never ones to pass up a free hand out, Todd and Sarah Palin on list of claimants to Exxon Valdex spill fund.

"Look purse carrier, you better come up with some new ways we can get some cash, and I mean right now!"

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch:  

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd, are among 947 claimants qualified for a piece of about $1 million in remaining settlement funds from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in the waters of Prince William Sound. 

The Palins are claimants No. 655 and 656. How much of a claim they may be due is unknown. 

Their place on that list is colored by the former governor's assertions in the 2009 book "Going Rogue: An American Life" that her administration helped those impacted by one of the country's worst environmental disasters. 

In 2009, a lawyer for the Exxon Valdez plaintiffs told Reuters that the former governor's claims of aid were mostly "cockamamie bullshit." 

That lawyer, Dave Oesting, remains lead attorney for Exxon Valdez plaintiffs, and may soon find Palin among those claimants who come calling to collect.

You know there are people who really suffered, or lost their livelihoods completely, due to that spill. The Palins are not among those people.

The fact that this millionaire couple's name is on this list is indefensible.

It will ultimately not really be that muhc money, and it just reinforces what Alaskans have known about the mall along. They are NOTHING but lowlife grifters.

Climate activists decide that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not disliked enough to convince Americans to embrace clean energy so they replaced him in their advertisements with Sarah Palin.

This is the old advertisement that the American Values Network would put on city buses.

Now here is the replacement.

The ads will run on about 100 D.C. buses for at least a month, said American Values Network Executive Director Eric Sapp. The campaign is “well into the six-figure range,” he added.

Yeah I think they made the right choice. Seeing that smug face of Sarah Palin next to an oily bird makes me REALLY want to embrace clean energy and piss that bitch off!

Do you know what my favorite part is about this group?  The fact that they are a FAITH based group comprised of religious leaders and people of faith, as well as veterans and military leaders.  There is no WAY for Sarah to fight back!

What is she going to do, start insulting her base?

Ah Karma, I just love it when you make an appearance!

Republicans lying again that foreign ships are being kept away from Gulf clean up efforts because of "Jones Act".

From Miami Herald:

From former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to Arizona Sen. John McCain to junior members of the House of Representatives, conservative Republicans have accused President Barack Obama of failing to do all he can to help clean up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill because he hasn't waived a U.S. maritime law called the Jones Act.

That statute, established in 1920, requires that all goods transported between U.S. ports be carried on U.S.-flagged, U.S.-built and U.S.-owned ships crewed by U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Critics say that's needlessly excluded foreign-flagged vessels that could have helped.

"It's a little shocking to me that a president that has such a multinational orientation as this president didn't immediately see the benefits of waiving the Jones Act and allowing all of these resources to come in," former House Majority Leader Richard Armey, R-Texas, said in remarks to Newsmax.com, a conservative website.

Maritime law experts, government officials and independent researchers say that the claim is false. The Jones Act isn't an impediment at all, they say, and it hasn't blocked anything.

"Totally not true," said Mark Ruge, counsel to the Maritime Cabotage Task Force, a coalition of U.S. shipbuilders, operators and labor unions. "It is simply an urban myth that the Jones Act is the problem."

In a news briefing last week, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said he'd received "no requests for Jones Act waivers" from foreign vessels or countries. "If the vessels are operating outside state waters, which is three miles and beyond, they don't require a waiver," he said.

On Tuesday the State Department announced that new offers of aid would be accepted from 12 foreign countries and international organizations, but spokesman P.J. Crowley noted that booms donated by Mexico, Norway and Brazil had been in use since May 11,and that 24 foreign vessels from nine foreign countries already have been helping with the cleanup.

To read more simply click the link at the top, the article goes on to spell out exactly how the Right is using this misinformation to attack the President's response to this crisis and to make political points on the backs of those along the gulf coast who are suffering due to this spill.

I find this particular lie especially insidious because it has filtered down even into the progressive community.  I have been confronted by liberal acquaintances who demand to know why the President is keeping foreign ships from helping, when of course that is actually not the case.

So if you hear any of your friends or colleagues saying anything similar please direct them to this post or perhaps to FactCheck.org to help educate them.

The woman who could not even stand up to the local bloggers in her state, and ran away from her elected position, dares to give our President advice.

From the AP:

The former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate told thousands of people at a convention center in Tyler that the president should have been more aggressive in going after BP executives after the spill. The British company was leasing a rig that exploded April 20, causing the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

"You asked for the job, Mr. President, so buck up," Palin said to voracious applause inside the nearly packed Oil Palace. Organizers said the event drew about 5,000 people.

He does not need to "buck up" you "fuck up"!

He is doing the best job he can in the face of constant push back from Republicans and their blatant attempts to protect BP from the financial liability for this disaster. Some Republicans are even going so far as to apologize to BP for what the President has already done to hold them accountable, and yet he continues to stand firm and demand that BP take responsibility for this disaster. In other words he did NOT run away when the job got too difficult.

She also said the U.S. must become independent of foreign oil by using its own resources, but that it must be done responsibly and under government oversight.

"I chant, 'drill baby drill,' because it will help make the country energy independent," she said.

You know lady if you were not a total moron who NEVER understands what she is talking about you might come to realize just how stupid that claim is, and stop saying it in front of intelligent people.

Here let the always factual Rachel Maddow explain it to you once again.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Sarah Palin is a person who found that her job was too much work, and that people were going to demand accountability for the unethical and illegal things that she did, and she quit!  And that is who is she is until the end of her life.  The woman who quit!

I don't care how many books she sells, or how many stupid people pay to watch her circus act on the speaker's circuit, she is now, and forever will be, the half term Governor who quit!

And that is not somebody who should be offering advice to ANYONE!

Keith Olbermann calls Palin out for recommending an article comparing President Obama to Hitler. And now Sarah has again picked up her Blackberry to deny that she did what she did.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

That must have really pissed Palin off because in the middle of that segment she posted the following on her Twitter page:

Lamestream media: I never compared Obama to Hitler. Quit making things up.

Okay well at least we know that she actually wrote THAT!  You know I almost feel sorry for her Blackberry, it must take a horrible pounding on some days.

Stephen Colbert wonders just what is behind all of the bad news coming out of the Gulf of Mexico.

I thought that both the Daily Show and Colbert Report were great last night. But as I watched the segment below it made my ears perk up.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Put the Cursed Monkey Paw Down
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Fox News

You see parts of it kind of reminded me of one of my posts from Wednesday. Only, you know, much better.

Could BP declare bankruptcy to avoid paying for the damage done to the Gulf of Mexico?

From the Atlantic:

There is a reasonably high chance that BP could file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the next few years, or even months, and the result would be an "absolute horror" for the government, according to a bankruptcy expert.

Peter S. Kaufman, the President of investment bank Gordian Group and head of the firm's Restructuring and Distressed M&A practice, told me that if he had BP's ear, "I'd advise them to explore the option of bankruptcy." If he had the government's ear, he'd tell them to stop berating the company to the point where BP would find it appealing to use bankruptcy to limit its liabilities.

The specter of Chapter 11 bankruptcy terrifies Gulf residents because it could allow BP to delay, or even avoid, paying billions of dollars to businesses and individuals affected by the Gulf spill. The chapter is specifically for companies in temporary financial trouble who can reemerge as viable if they receive new funding, cancel burdensome contracts and delay, restructure, or wall off repayment obligations.

What would a BP bankruptcy look like?

It could work a lot of different ways. They could cut loose BP America and it could be BP America that files for bankruptcy. My presumption is that it's BP America that's responsible for the spill. They can wall off the non-BP America assets from the Gulf -- which is about 50% of the company's net value --and try to reorganize BP America. That's likely to take a very long time, and BP would not make good on its promise for the 20 billion [in the escrow fund].

Or they could file all of BP, and do so in London. Wonder how well-received our government and legitimate Gulf claimants would fare in a British insolvency court?

I would hope that making a decision this radical would be completely off of the table for BP, but considering how much the Gulf clean up may eventually end up costing the company it is naive to believe that this will not at least cross their collective minds. And if they DO make that choice, simply put, we are screwed.

And while we are on this subject here are 15 Gulf Oil Spill Myths that you can digest as well.

There is a lot of very interesting and frightening information on that list. Here is just one part that really caught my eye:

Myth. Republicans may scream "drill, baby, drill" louder, but when it comes to political money being spent to influence government, it's more or less a tie. Key Democrats are among the top recipients of political money from oil companies, as are Republicans. The money flows to those in oil-rich states, to high-profile candidates and those with the most power in Congress (ie, the chairs of key committees). Here's a look at the Friends of Earth tally of opensecrets.org data, showing the biggest recipients of money from BP and other oil companies since 2006:

Senate


* John McCain (R-AZ) - $36,649 from BP; $2.43 million total
* Mary Landrieu (D-LA) - $16,200 from BP; $329,100 total
* Mark Begich (D-AK) - $8,550 from BP; $85,958 total
* Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) - $8,500 from BP; 223,326 total
* Mitch McConnell (R-KY) - $8,500 from BP; 408,400 total

I believe that may go along way toward explaining why Alaska is still pushing hard to open new deep water drilling projects while the Gulf is currently hemorrhaging oil.

Is it raining OIL in Louisiana?

From Jalopnik:

So considering the effect of light and crude oil evaporation and seawater emulsification oil from the Deepwater Horizon may be having an effect on the water cycle. An unknown variable on the overall cycle is the introduction of BP's dispersant of choice, Corexit 9500, which may be either helping or hurting the degree of evaporation. Dispersants break up the natural surface tension in oil, sending small droplets into the water column and reducing the surface area which may evaporate, however it also changes the chemistry of the oil which remains on the surface. We have yet to find any science on the subject of the effects these evaporated compounds and their likelihood to come back down as contaminated rain.

In the worst case scenario this sheen is actually oil mixed Corexit, which according to Bellona.org:

"is associated with headaches, vomiting and reproductive problems as sides effects at high doses to clean-up workers. 2-BE has also been documented to cause the breakdown of red blood cells, leading to blood in urine and feces, and can damage the kidneys, liver, spleen and bone marrow of humans – effects not included on the information sheet for workers."

So WTF?  Oil is not supposed to evaporate and end up in the water cycle!  When has THAT ever happened before?

What, did Sarah Palin pray the Corexit laced oil out of the Gulf and up into the clouds so that it can rain down and poison the people along the Gulf more effectively?  Hey lady, STOP trying to help!

Look if this were happening back in the fifteenth century I have no doubt that people would believe that God is mad at them.  And you know what?  Maybe he fucking is! Perhaps it is time to take the hint and start taking care of this planet that so many Christians consider a gift from the Almighty.

Oh Shit! BP removes containment cap dramatically increasing the amount of oil gushing into the Gulf.

From Yahoo News:

Hundreds of thousands of gallons more oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday after an undersea robot bumped a venting system and forced BP to remove the cap that had been containing some of the crude.

When the robot bumped the system, gas rose through the vent that carries warm water down to prevent ice-like crystals from forming, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said.

The cap was removed just before 10 a.m. Wednesday and crews were checking to see if crystals had formed before putting it back on. Allen did not say how long that might take.

"There's more coming up than there had been, but it's not a totally unconstrained discharge," Allen said.

In the meantime, a different system was still burning oil on the surface.

Before the problem with the containment cap, it had collected about 700,000 gallons of oil in 24 hours. Another 438,000 gallons was burned.

The current worst-case estimate of what's spewing into the Gulf is about 2.5 million gallons a day.

Jesus, the news just keeps getting worse and worse.

More evidence that BP's use of Corexit as a dispersant did nothing to get rid of the oil.

Submerged oil at Bon Secour shoreline

I cannot get over how calm this reporter's voice remains while he describes such terrible devastation.

As you can see in this video the plumes of oil are forcing thousands of fish closer to shore in search of oxygen and caking everything it touches in a thick coating of oil that will eventually suffocate and kill the sea life it comes into contact with.

When BP used the dispersant they had to have known that the oil would not really disappear, but simply break apart and kill creatures deeper underwater and out of sight of the news cameras and public scrutiny. 

Oh I think they knew alright, they simply did not care.

You can read the article that accompanied the video here.

For those Christians who believe the Republican party best represents their values. Think again.

I have often wondered how the Republicans, the party of greed and avarice, have been able to co-opt Christianity.  I believe if this really were a "Christian nation", based on the true teachings of Jesus Christ, we would be a more tolerant, more peaceful, and more spiritual nation.

In effort to destroy oil on the water's surface BP is burning rare sea turtles alive and running off people trying to rescue them. Is it my imagination or this the most evil company on the planet?

From Raw Story:

A rare and endangered species of sea turtle is being burned alive in BP's controlled burns of the oil swirling around the Gulf of Mexico, and a boat captain tasked with saving them says the company has blocked rescue efforts.

Mike Ellis, a boat captain involved in a three-week effort to rescue as many sea turtles from unfolding disaster as possible, says BP effectively shut down the operation by preventing boats from coming out to rescue the turtles.

"They ran us out of there and then they shut us down, they would not let us get back in there," Ellis said in an interview with conservation biologist Catherine Craig.

Part of BP's efforts to contain the oil spill are controlled burns. Fire-resistant booms are used to corral an area of oil, then the area within the boom is lit on fire, burning off the oil and whatever marine life may have been inside.

"Once the turtles get in there they can't get out," Ellis said.

Here is an interview conducted with Captain Ellis.




Is this the company that Rand Paul accused President Obama of being un-American for criticizing? And the same company that Republican Representative Joe Barton apologized to after he accused President Obama of engaging in a "shakedown" for extracting 20 billion dollars out of these criminals?

You know I try to give people, and companies, the benefit of the doubt,  but I do not have one bit of sympathy left for this company.  As far as I am concerned they can sell off their stock to pay the people suffering in the Gulf, and close up shop any day now. 

Simply put, fuck em!