Joe “the BCS is like communism, you can’t fix it” Barton actually said this today:
“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.”
Maybe he’s just frustrated that Obama won’t really pressure Jim Delany.
Get The Picture 
Re: the new quote of the day: I think Jones just gave us the theme song for the new Georgia D.
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Great Moments in Redistribution of Wealth: Joe apologizes to Tony
http://www.oliverwillis.com/2010/06/17/republican-joe-barton-i-apologize-to-bp/
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6614#more
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Joe’s just trying for a franchise.
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Where does Barton rank the oil spill on his tragedy scale?
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Joe would probably score it a zero because when a slick hits the Houston Ship Channel, they already know how to clean it.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6638416.html
Besides how could that make things any worse there than the air pollutants have already made them?
http://www.uthouston.edu/distinctions/archive/2007/may/archive.htm?id=795285
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Barton – and also, Michelle Bachman, btw – taking a pro-BP position is not the smartest move, imo. I get that they want to be anti-Obama everything, but this might be one case where not saying anything might be a better way to go.
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Don’t hurt your brain, Chuck. Common sense and politicos have no business being together, ever.
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All they did was spill their coffee.
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I think Rep. Barton wasn’t actually comparing the BCS to communism. He was saying that, like communism, it cannot be fixed. Nevertheless it was a stupid statement.
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This escrow account exists for one huge reason: to prevent BP from filing a pre-packaged re-organization under the bankruptcy laws to sever assets from liabilities. That’s why their stock actually rose when the escrow account was announced — it’s assurance to investors that the current management does not have bankruptcy plans. That’s also why management readily agreed to it. It sort of protects it from a corporate takeover by a competitor that sees the pre-packaged bankruptcy opportunity.
Joe Barton is a complete idiot of magnificent proportion.
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While it is easy to make fun of some of Barton’s comments on the BCS, there are tens of millions of Americans who feel we should apologize for the actions of our government over the past year and a half. The treatment of BP pales when compared to the snubbing of our allies while bowing and apologizing to our enemies. The Leftist in the White House cares nothing about our Constitution, our values, and all the good we have done around the world.
We could begin working with BP to solve problems rather than using the crisis to advance a radical agenda. Two months and not even one phone call from the Oval Office to the CEO of BP? Now there is leadership. And why did we turn down offers from other countries to help within days of the explosion? There is plenty of blame to go around AFTER we address the more immediate problems. This is all grandstanding and photo ops for the left.
My question is when will we ever get around to looking at why anyone is having to drill miles below the surface of the Gulf when we are sitting on a huge supply of oil we are not allowed to tap in the Northern areas of our land? Or why we stopped the development of nuclear energy 30 years ago? Both of these options would have prevented the need for offshore drilling and not fueled the bank accounts of those countries who wish to destroy America. BP is the current whipping boy, but when will the idiot environmentalists be held accountable? My guess is not until we have a regime change.
Barton is harmless, as is any single Congressman, but the totality of the effort by the Leftists is a very serious threat that renders the BCS discussion far below insignificant, and is no laughing matter. (Remember, I didn’t start the political comments, and won’t get into any prolonged discussions, but Barton’s comments about how this has been handled isn’t without merit. Added to how the Leftist in the White House has already insulted Great Britain’s leaders, it is certainly going to cause concern abroad.)
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Mac, funny you should bring this up, because my first thought upon reading Barton’s nonsense is that in today’s Republican party, bowing to foreign leaders is a threat to the Republic, but apologizing to a foreign company whose behavior has caused billions and billions of dollars of damage to Americans is good form.
My second thought was how a guy who, along with kindred spirits like Hatch, has had no problem trying to strong arm the BCS can suddenly get all Miss Manners about BP. It’s pretty nervy, even for a pol.
But then again, I can’t figure out whether Obama’s an apologetic wuss or a Chicago-machine thug, so maybe it’s just me. 😉
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Both, depending on if he’s courting Arab leaders or pissing on American citizens.
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That would be 58 if you include the territory of Puerto Rico which in a forward-thinking move just invalidated certified copies of birth certificates.
http://www.usmc.mil/news/messages/Pages/MARADMIN334-10.aspx
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Coulda predicted two things seeing the blog topic.
1. A characteristic wordy response from McCallan.
2. That it would include lots of talking points irrelevant to the subject at hand.
As Rush said, oil is just as natural as sea water. What’s the big deal?
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I don’t blame you, when you can’t deal with big issues, just keep your head in the sand and hope some big boys will come along and save you. Life isn’t a spectator sport, wake up and get involved. This is the biggest crisis you will ever face (and no, I don’t mean the Gulf.) Stick to the one-liners you can hear from the shallow dummies on late night shows, no one is forcing you to read things that require compound words, or to participate in the discussion.
And if you don’t think those points are relevant, you had better go dig out a history book and see what happens to citizens who didn’t think it could happen to them. America is somewhere between complacency and apathy on the development scale of powers that have gone under in history. It is all in front of you, but this isn’t the forum for it.
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“dig out a history book and see what happens to citizens who didn’t think it could happen to them.”
I did dig out a history book and re-read the ‘Rise and Fall of the Third Reich’
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?cc=genpub;view=toc;idno=ABZ0764.0001.001
during the Bush-Cheney regime because what those two were doing and not doing
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/04/10/august6.memo/
reminded me of what it must have been like to have been living during the construction of the 1930’s German Fatherland with its Homeland Security Department complete with color-coded warnings the default color of which was always orange just to keep the little people on edge.
Fortunately, after eight years of disinformation, Bush grew tired of it all. Even trips to the staged play ranch in Crawford to ride his bike and pose for electric chainsaw pictures were no longer fun.
In fact he was so disinterested he didn’t even bother to invoke martial law. Much to the chagrin of some, the November 2008 elections went on as scheduled. Most were not even close enough to steal.
So one of the great lessons in history teaches that those who supported the Bush-Cheney looting system of government by the corporations today, by the corporations tomorrow and by the corporations forever got exactly what they deserved:
a black President with the middle name of Hussein.
And the moral is that corporate segregation of government from the voters does not work and just because you capture one Hussein, does not mean another Hussein won’t pop up somewhere. Kind of like the proverbial al-Queda #2 guy who too is always replaceable.
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I think you’re a DGDFan, Mac.
I could argue (like a “big boy”) with you till the cows come home.
But we need a few places on the webs to escape the left/right flames and their abject predictability.
No one’s ever convinced or converted.
Barton’s proclamations are usually so stupid they’re laughable, his political affiliations notwithstanding. I think that’s what Bluto was getting at.
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“Senator”,
you’ve made it clear re: three things:
(1) you’re an attorney
(2) you’re jewish
(3) you’re a liberal
I would recommend keeping your blog relevant to college sports, but of course it is your blog and you can do whatever the hell you wish.
But rather than focus on Barton, you could have just as easily focused on Obama’s complete and utter lack of real leadership in this situation. Even Chris Matthews would have agreed with me on this.
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I must not have made it as clear as I thought, JD. I’m not a liberal – unless you mean a classical liberal, a la Adam Smith.
The reason I focused on Barton is because he’s tried to do the same thing with the BCS that he’s accusing Obama of doing with BP. That’s pretty hypocritical in my book. Whether Chris Matthews agrees with me or not. 😉
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I stand corrected – you are not a liberal. And not picking on you about your religion, it’s simply something you’ve made clear before. Others like to make it an issue, and to me it’s not.
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JaxDawg, that’s a load of crap. This isn’t the first time you’ve brought it up.
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Yeah if I was going to make a list of 3 things that the good senator has made clear I dont think that being jewish would make the list…
1) He loves a college football playoff that consists of 2 teams
2) He loves Animal House
3) He loves the Dawgs
Your love of college football’s playoff is really what endears you to me.
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What does the fact that he’s “Jewish” have to do with any of this? Maybe he also likes beets, but that’s about as relevant to the discussion as whether he’s Jewish, which is to say — it’s not.
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Yeah I’m really wondering how the Jewish factors in at all other than as a personal attack, because it’s definitely not relevant to any conversation that’s been going on here.
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It’s a well known fact that Jews (along with the Pentaverate) control everything.
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Are you now, or have you ever been, right handed?
I have a list of 205 members of the State Department who are right handed as well as our esteemed “Senator”, (if that is YOUR REAL TITLE).
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If Joe Barton had wanted to stay out of the news, he should have just assaulted a couple of teenager for asking him a question.
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‘Cause you’ve seen no video from national media of that episode?
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Uh yeah, it’s been all over the news moron http://is.gd/cU7gR. Where have you been?
In addition Etheridge admitted to it and apologized.
But of course he’s a liberal so there was no arrest and the story went nowhere. Evidently it’s not a big deal that a Democrat assaults 2 teenagers. But God help a Republican who tells the truth & calls Obama the thug that he is.
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Turn your sarcasm meter on, dude.
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“a Republican who tells the truth”
Now that’s funny, I don’t care who you are.
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I was waiting for this to take off…I love the “I care the most” rhetoric from the people who really care the least about people.
I am surprised that we haven’t gotten anything about the blood of the patriots or the tree of liberty or any quotes from Ed Harris in The Rock.
And when did the senator make it clear that he was jewish? I must have missed that part.
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“I haven’t heard this much praise since the rabbi at my Bar Mitzvah…” or something to that effect.
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I let the cat out of the bag on that a while back.
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reminds me of an ole SNL skit mid-90’s featuring a faux political ad with the tagline: Dianne Feinestein….she’s a Jew.
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