Better lay off that yard sign.

via Mesablue over at The Hostages

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 04:18 PM | Comments (49)
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Full, unreserved pullback.

He's sorry not only about apologizing to BP but also for calling it "a shakedown".

Part of the statement.

“I apologize for using the term ‘shakedown’ with regard to yesterday’s actions at the White House in my opening statement this morning, and I retract my apology to BP.

So much for the idea that he wasn't apologizes to BP directly that some floated in the earlier thread.

Looks like Boehner laid down the law.

House Republican leaders told Rep. Joe Barton that he would be stripped of his ranking member status on a key committee Thursday if he did not immediately apologize for comments earlier in the day accusing President Obama of a “shakedown” of oil giant BP, sources told the Daily Caller.

If they really threatened him with pulling him from a committee spot, they wanted to knock him down. Hard.

I gather there will be many who will be upset about this and think this is unfair. But you know what? November is the prize. Repealing health care is the mission. Unforced errors that even hint at defending BP, the most hated company in America at the moment (and not without some cause) isn't helping that. This kind of smackdown shows just how serious leadership is about enforcing message discipline.

Related enough: I put this in the comments of the earlier thread but it's worth noting...Sen. Chuck Grasley says he has a letter from BP saying they didn't test the Blowout Preventer (which BP CEO Tony Hayward is the most important fail safe device on these rigs). See, they knew that federal law required it but MMS never asked about it so they didn't do it.

On the issue of the blowout preventer's capabilities, Grassley asked BP to show that it is in compliance with the Code of Federal Regulations Chapter 30, Section 250.416(e), which requires oil companies to provide the Minerals Management Service with proof that the massive safety devices they use to close off wells are "capable of shearing the drill pipe in the hole under maximum anticipated surface pressures."

The company responded that it applies for permits to drill oil wells "in accordance with the process prescribed by MMS officials," but goes on to say that it was not "MMS practice" to require anyone to comply with that particular section of the law.

If the blowout preventer is found to be defective, that $20 billion, shakedown or not, is going to be a drop in the bucket of what it's going to cost BP.

Posted by: DrewM at 01:01 PM | Comments (423)
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I don't feel like dealing with this, so here's a thread. Go for it.

I don't really have anything interesting to say, anyway, because apparently the only opinion one can offer is rhetoric and cant, and I don't really have that in me, but a lot of people do, so they can offer their doctrine and cant here in my stead.

By the way, since I apparently am required to say this, what Barton said was 100% right, and we absolutely must stand behind this stalwart, and it's pure communism if we don't.

And BP's awesome too. I think we should run on the plank that whatever BP did here they should keep on doin'.

Posted by: Ace at 12:47 PM | Comments (430)
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From the Upright Citizens Brigade.

Of course that means that they must focus on BP alone -- no gags here at the expense of the White House.

Oh, they do get one in on Halliburton. (Update: Weirdly, they get a knock in on... Kevin Costner, who, as far as I know, is actually a hero in this, right? Even if his machines don't work (and they probably will), how do you knock a guy for spending $20 million dollars to clean up oil spills?)

Ah well. Anything to keep the stink of failure and fecklessness away from the White House.

Thanks to redbrewer and Jenjis.

Posted by: Ace at 12:28 PM | Comments (84)
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And by "Hitler" I mean Scott Rasmussen.

The delightful thing about this is that they seethe with anger at his methodology (polling likely voters! How insane!) and then later note that he was the only guy to get the rise of Scott Brown right (and much earlier than anyone else).

So, essentially: They're arguing that the less-accurate methodology is the one to be preferred. And, not coincidentally, that less-accurate methodology just happens to paint the electorate as far more liberal and Democratic than it actually is.

Posted by: Ace at 11:28 AM | Comments (136)
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Look, I get that the Obama administration is pulling off a cheap shakedown on BP with the $20 Billion 'escrow' fund. The propriety of that is certainly open to debate and attack but actually apologizing to the CEO of the company responsible for a disaster of this magnitude? That takes a special kind of cluelessness.

Behold, Republican Congressman Joe Barton of Texas.

I'm ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday," Barton said. "I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown, in this case, a $20 billion shakedown."

He complained that "the attorney general of the United States, who is legitimately conducting a criminal investigation and has every right to do so to protect the interests of the American people, [is] participating in what amounts to a $20 billion slush fund that's unprecedented in our nation's history, that's got no legal standing, and which sets, I think, a terrible precedent for the future."

"I apologize," Barton added. "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. So I apologize."

"I'm speaking now totally for myself," he noted. "I'm not speaking for the Republican Party."

Yeah, let's make that last bit clear. Very clear.

Naturally, the White House didn't let this crisis gift go to waste.

What is shameful is that Joe Barton seems to have more concern for big corporations that caused this disaster than the fishermen, small business owners and communities whose lives have been devastated by the destruction. Congressman Barton may think that a fund to compensate these Americans is a ‘tragedy’, but most Americans know that the real tragedy is what the men and women of the Gulf Coast are going through right now. Members from both parties should repudiate his comments.

Again, there's plenty to attack in the Obama approach but calling it a 'tragedy' and apologizing for it is not the way to do it. It's stupid and bad politics.

You want to save off shore drilling and stop the spread of government thuggery? Great, do it by making the other side the bad guys. Shape the narrative to your advantage (prosperity, jobs, cheaper energy), don't reflexively defend the indefensible simply because Obama is on the other side. Barton could have been tough on BP and Obama but instead chose this tactic. It's mindless and self defeating.

UPDATE: Barton is not the most popular guy in the GOP cloakroom at the moment. But hey, they are just a bunch of RINOs.

Boehner disagrees with Barton.

Posted by: DrewM at 08:23 AM | Comments (749)
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I have become a convert on the Cap And Trade thing. I am all in; pedal to the metal; go for broke; shoot the moon; a true fracking believer now.

This C&T shit has more revenue generating potential than prohibition ever did. You'll generally be dealing with a better class of people who aren't as inclined to settle their differences with machine guns, which is a big plus. Another big advantage over bootlegging is there's no actual product involved, so all the usual logistics and end point sales issues involved with smuggling vanish.

It is truly a beautiful beautiful thing; even better than selling lots on the moon or mars, because the government doesn't force people to buy real estate on the moon and mars.

...director of Carbon Harvesting Corp., and charged him in connection with an alleged scheme to bribe officials in the African country of Liberia. Foster was reportedly ready to pay $2.5 million to "rent" a fifth of Liberia's forests and profit by selling the credits that could be obtained from the carbon-absorbing trees...

...tax fraud associated with carbon trading cost $6.5 billion over 18 months, and in some countries up to 90% of total trading volume was a result of fraudulent activities...

...The European Union has had its Emission Trading System in place for five years, and this extremely complex effort to reduce the continent's carbon burden has been hit with a huge amount of fraud and corruption...concerned that the same pattern of fraud could mar emissions trading in the U.S...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 05:26 AM | Comments (226)
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It's a love story, baby.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:15 AM | Comments (39)
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Stocks were flat in trading over the day. The Dow closed up slightly at 10,409.56 and the S&P 500 close down a bit at 1,114.61. CNBC assures us that all is well in the equities world.

Fannie and Freddie were delisted from the NYSE, which makes me wonder: given that Joe Taxpayer shelled out $145 Billion or so to bail them out, what are the chances that money is ever going to be repaid? Between slim and none, as the old saying goes, and slim left town.

More after the jump. more...

Posted by: Monty at 03:00 AM | Comments (98)
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Well I'll be. Gov. Patrick decides maybe it'd just be better to avoid taking the "you dummy" hit over this one.

The Massachusetts Governor signed a bill on Wednesday afternoon that saves the job of a retired Marine and public high school ROTC instructor who refused to pay teachers union fees.

Gov. Deval Patrick signed a supplemental bill that included language added as an amendment by state senator Richard R. Tisei that exempts Junior ROTC instructors at public high school across the state from having to pay union fees. Juan Martinez, Patrick's press secretary, confirmed that the ROTC provision was signed.

Not trivial, considering the amendment was introduced by the running mate (Tisei is running for Lt. Gov) of Patrick's opponent for Governor.

Wouldn't it be fun to hear Deval explaining to the union bosses how he really didn't need this bullshit from them right now?

I think so.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 07:04 PM | Comments (42)
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