World-News

Scott West, Truthout: "The Obama administration is beginning to do some damage control relative to what we have been saying and asking lately. Why was a criminal investigation not launched early in the BP crisis and why has one not been launched to date? As I suspected, we are seeing some articles appearing and some pundits grandstanding with the notion that stopping the flow is first and foremost, so, a criminal investigation can either take a back seat or even be counterproductive to the top priority of stopping the flow. Of course, stopping the flow is priority number one. But the idea that a criminal investigation can or should wait is ludicrous."

https://www.truthout.org/bp-gulf-disaster-is-a-crime-not-accident60025

 

Gulf Oil Spill Threatens Louisiana Native Americans' Way of Life

Joseph Goodman, The Miami Herald: "There is an ages-old expression among the people of southern Louisiana's Indian bayous. 'Pas tout la,' they say with smiles. 'Not all there,' it means. As in, 'not right in the head.'"

https://www.truthout.org/gulf-oil-spill-threatens-louisiana-native-americans-way-life60028

 

Why Obama Should Take Over BP's Operations in the Gulf of Mexico

Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog: "It's time for the federal government to put BP under temporary receivership, which gives the government authority to take over BP's operations in the Gulf of Mexico until the gusher is stopped. This is the only way the public know what's going on, be confident enough resources are being put to stopping the gusher, ensure BP's strategy is correct, know the government has enough clout to force BP to use a different one if necessary, and be sure the President is ultimately in charge."

https://www.truthout.org/why-obama-should-take-over-bps-operations-gulf-mexico60032

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Steamboats and oil rigs

Independent Institute
by Willliam Shughart

05/31/10

Finger-pointing predictably is now the order of the day. Who is to blame: BP, its contractor or federal regulators? There should have been a plan in place to respond to the disaster in the Gulf, or so says the conventional wisdom. But new technologies foster new hazards, all of which fallible human beings cannot reasonably be expected to anticipate. That failure certainly is true of governmental regulatory agencies. No bureaucrat has incentive to prepare for or to respond quickly to disasters of any kind, as Hurricane Katrina amply proved. The pro forma policy recommendation on the part of statists is to fire the head of agency responsible for lax oversight and then to impose more stringent regulations on the firm and industry to which liability opportunistically can be shifted. Ignorant hope apparently springs eternal...

https://www.independent.org/blog/?p=6326



BP and the bankers

Huffington Post
by Robert Kuttner

05/31/10

Question of the Day: What do the oil catastrophe and the Wall Street collapse have in common? Three big things, I’d say. In both cases, a powerful, politically protected industry invented something that could not easily be repaired when it broke. … Secondly, in both cases the proverbial ounce of prevention was not applied. … But the worst common element is this: both crises are teachable moments that our president could be using to transform public opinion. Yet despite these gifts from the progressive gods, President Obama seems congenitally unable to rise to the occasion...

https://tinyurl.com/389tfrt


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

 

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