#1 on the Democratic Party’s list of “BP Republicans,” that is…
When asked about BP, Ron Johnson — the GOP Senate candidate in Wisconsin — told Wisconsin Public Television that he was “disappointed that the uh, you know, the Obama administration is just, you know, kinda doing an all-out assault now on, on, uh, the oil company before we have the problem fixed.”
Let’s not forget that Ron Johnson’s defense of BP came right before it became public knowledge that he owns hundreds of thousands of dollars of BP stock – stock Ron Johnson still hasn’t sold, as he said he would.
The largest single donation by BP — $77,051 — went to Obama.
Nuff said as to who is really in BP’s back pocket
Citation please.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64420A20100505
Thank you. And, from the same article:
The top congressional recipients of BP campaign cash include Republican Rep. Don Young of the oil-intensive Alaska delegation, who has received almost as much as Obama, raking in $73,300 during his congressional tenure. Also on the list is Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio), whose state has a BP refinery in Toledo and who has raked in $41,400. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has received $44,899.
To place things in even better perspective here are the top contributors to the Obama campaign in 2008 (from OpenSecrets.org):
University of California $1,591,395
Goldman Sachs $994,795
Harvard University $854,747
Microsoft Corp $833,617
Google Inc $803,436
Citigroup Inc $701,290
JPMorgan Chase & Co $695,132
Time Warner $590,084
Sidley Austin LLP $588,598
Stanford University $586,557
National Amusements Inc $551,683
UBS AG $543,219
Wilmerhale Llp $542,618
Skadden, Arps et al $530,839
IBM Corp $528,822
Columbia University $528,302
Morgan Stanley $514,881
General Electric $499,130
US Government $494,820
Latham & Watkins $493,835
$77K doesn’t seem like so much now, does it?
and…..? Obama had just approved deep water drilling a few days before the incident. It took this administration >100 days to get the oil to stop and they are making things much worse for the local economy buy putting a moratorium on deep water drilling.
You progressives believe that the government should be in control of every aspect of our lives so then by your reasoning the government failed allowing for the worst natural disaster in our countries history.
November is coming but not soon enough!
My vote is for Ron Johnson.
Not so fast there, Sparky. It didn’t take the administration 100 days to stop the oil. It took BP that long to stop the oil.
And this was no natural disaster. This was entirely a man-made event, from start to finish.
I find that a stated opinion means more when the underlying facts are actually, well, facts.
You have that backwards. Progressives don’t want the government in control of every aspect of our lives. Progressives want personal liberty!
It’s the far right conservatives that want the government in every aspect of your life! Read the Republican Party of Texas’ platform:
*Policing bedroom dictating how you can or cannot be intimate with others.
*Prison time for people who would dare marry people The Party deems as inferior, on a nation wide level.
*The total destruction of the separation of the church and state, because that’s in fact a “myth” to them.
*Government dictating to women how they may care for their own bodies, even opposing abortion long before the brain develops whether or not the women has been a victim of a crime or if her life is in danger.
*Only businesses being allowed to operate as per the discretion of the Republican party, for example all sexually oriented businesses being outlawed (which they specifically have in their agenda).
*”Opposing homosexuality” being fully protected by the law. I wonder how far “opposing” goes.
*An agenda to revise history books to indoctrinate a conservative world view.
Even in Wisconsin we had wackos in the not-so-distant past threatening to prosecute teachers that would dare teach sex education rather than taking the conservative unrealistic abstinence only with a dose of fear mongering approach. Obviously the typical Republican strategy of outright deception was involved, with “concerned parents” not wanting the government to discuss such personal matters with their children. Of course these dishonest people ignored (or were lied to) the option for parents to opt out of the classes for their kids.
I’m really quite aghast that you’d say progressives want the government in every aspect of our lives. That is a far right agenda.
Right… progressives just want to be in our bathrooms regulating shower heads and toilets, taxing us to death, etc, etc, etc.
…except most of my examples came straight from the Texan Republican Party.
In the long run, which is more important? Determining ways to prevent another spill and restore the jobs already lost or at risk due to this one? Or a relatively short moratorium on drilling? Everyone keeps yacking about the oil jobs but totally forget that the current spill possibly destroyed the way of life for thousands of long term permanent gulf residents…
BP Republicans? How stupid.
Fend off truth through… insults! Yeah, that works!
I’m sorry it just seems silly to me to “Blacklist” people for owning oil stock. Oh I forgot, we are supposed to demonize big business. Oil included. Let’s just stop the flow and shut down everything!
I agree, until all progressives start walking to school, work, and the grocery store then they, like Al Gore, will be seen as Hippocrates.
By the way who would like to wager how many Chevy Volts are sold in the first year they are available! Did you know the price is 41k after 7.5k government tax credit. What a great use of tax money, paying for a car that most people can’t afford! See, this is what happens when the government owns a car company.
Oh, and did you hear that GM will be offering an IPO in an attempt to buy back the company shares that tax payers own? Should we wager on how successful that offering will be?
Kent, so you don’t believe we as a society should be trying to find more efficient means of transportation and more reliable (and secure) sources of energy than fossil fuels, of which there’s only a finite supply?
Zach,
Believe it or not this is an issue that I have always been passionate about. I dream of the day that I can drive an all electric car powered by hydrogen which is produced from tap water and solar and wind energy. Did you know there is a company in Topeka Kansas that produces this system for home use?
See the thing is we need to work together. During the Clinton presidency I respected Al Gore because I believed at that time we shared a love for the environment. Now, I think he is an Idiot and a liar. Instead of trying to bring people together to solve a problem he attempted to use the environment as a political weapon. Most Conservatives love the environment and likely are more protective of it than most progressives.
To all you progressives that read this message, we must work together on this issue because we have ultimately the same goal in mind. We differ in how to get there. We need to keep drilling for oil, natural gas… and build hundreds of safe nuclear power plants. Wind and solar energy unfortunately just are not ready for prime time. When that time comes, I look forward to seeing beautiful wind towers and solar panels as far as the eye can see.
“We need to work together,” says the guy who only moments earlier called anyone who doesn’t walk to work, the grocery store, etc. a hypocrite. If you want to “work together,” you can start by not throwing around insults.
Just the reply I have come to expect from you Zach. You don’t see the hipocracy of the left demonizing the oil companies when they use the same oil I do to drive back and forth to work? The same oil to go buy their iphones and “COEXIST” stickers?
Would be nice to work together but with people like you likely that will never happen.
I don’t own an iPhone, nor do I have a coexist sticker, but I’d expect nothing less than a generalization like that from you.
But I bet you drink bottled water and drive a Prius! Those comments are funny. Political correctness has poisoned your mind.
If we suddenly found an inexpensive, plentiful product, that was relatively easy to attain and would make mobility of planes trains and Automobiles, heat homes and be a major product in Plastic manufacturing and would change the world for the better we would all sing it’s praises!!! Guess what folks that product is OIL! we have it! we’re using it! now get out of the way and let’s get even more in America, instead of importing as much as we are. Here is another fact BP is the #1 user of US and North American oil. So buying BP means relying less on The Arabs, OPEC and Shipping of the product to our shores. For all of you who blame the War on Oil..buy BP it’s good for American workers, consumers, investors, retirees and most important American Soldiers!
Hey Kent? Are you aware that Hippocrates was an ancient Greek physician? Or perhaps did you mean to use the word “hypocrite”? My guess would be the latter, since the former used in that sentence is nonsensical.
By the way, are you also aware of an economic principle known as “economies of scale”? That’s the one where, as more goods of a type are sold, the prices of those goods tend to go down as manufacturing capacity comes online. Remember how much your first computer cost? I remember when a 40 mb hard drive ran close to $300. Now the same money will get you multiple terabytes on one drive.
The point is, sometimes it takes a little kick start on a technology that is expensive to build the demand that will eventually lead to the cost effective mass production of that technology. From the macro economic perspective, government investment in (the right) clean energy technologies will actually yield a net benefit to our economy.
Quick trivia note: the Environmental Protection Agency was established by an act of law signed by President Richard M. Nixon.
Yes, damn the spell check and my laziness!
I agree with you about economies of scale but I don’t think it is the governments job to take up the slack until your theory proves true. If GM believes in the same concept and truly believes in their product then they could sell the car for 25 K and hope to make up the difference latter.
Buy the way, most of my life I was a GM owner and was proud of how they have turned the quality of their vehicles around. Since the government spent my tax money bailing out a company that should have restructured under bankruptcy I have switched loyalty to Ford and recently purchased two new vehicles from them.
The IPO isn’t an attempt by GM to buy back the shares…they want to sell the company back to the public and put the $$$ in their treasury.
Exactly – the old shares are worth nothing and they have no interesting buying them back. An IPO is about getting anther chance to cash in and collect billions from the public. Of course this time around, it also works in the government’s interests since it provides a means for them to sell their ownership. Screw over former shareholders, benefit the government and get opportunity to screw over a whole new round of investors – that’s a win-win-win, right? Wish I would’ve come up with a business plan like that.
I’ll give you some cred for saying we shouldn’t blacklist someone for owning a particular stock. But someone who wants my trust and vote to run our government should be smart enough to disclose a vested interest in a company when he is supporting them during a environmental disaster largely of their own making. This is a bigger issue to me. If he’s not pro-active enough to be up front about his position or thinks we won’t notice when two weeks later he discloses his BP ownership, he doesn’t deserve a chance at any elected post.
While this country is being evaded by illegals destroying the very fiber and morals of this country all the libs are worried about are killing babies and special rights for gays. Progressive I have never seen a progressive liberal, there is no such person out there, a liberal is a liberal plain and simple.
I didn’t realize marriage was a “special right.” Do you also believe blacks who fought laws banning interracial marriages back in the 1950’s and 1960’s were fighting for a “special right?”
Are you really serious comparing the gay agenda to the civil rights movement?
Are you really serious that you believe equality is somehow giving same-sex couples “special rights?”
Apparently you ‘evaded’ part of your educational experience…if immigrants were actually evading the US, there wouldn’t be any here.
Bofcudahy,
When you speak of a womans “right” to choose and refer to “liberty”… are you referring to the liberty of the unborn child not to loose their life because of a selfish act by the mother? Just wondering?
Also most conservatives could care less if homosexuals are allowed to have civil civil unions, but are not for marriage between the same sex. It is not our place to judge but marriage is a religious institution and should be respected as such by the homosexual community. Instead they want to rub our faces in their life style choices. This ruling will only make it more difficult for them in the long run.
If marriage is a religious institution, then the government at all levels should get out of the business entirely. And quite frankly, I am tired of followers of religion rubbing their lifetstyle in my face. Go to your respective place of worship on your respective sabbath and stop shoving tracts into my hand on the street or ringing my doorbell.
Ed and others. Let’s get Marriage out of the Government entirely. Let’s no longer register our Marriages at the Courthouse, just a church, chapel, or public place with no connection to Govt. at all. Remove the status from Tax records, and for all public employees reduce their Health Insurance benefit to cover only the Employee. Independent Health care companies can thus market Family and Co-habitational plans to the employees at their own cost. This will save the taxpayers Billions of dollars and will also reduce the cost of Health Insurance and health care, because it will be more market driven. It takes the issue out the Govt. entirely and puts the Marital Liberty back in the hands of the citizen..and most importantly it’s EQUAL.
Wow….just wow.
I can’t say I’ve ever heard – or read – of anyone who advocated for eliminating all the legal rights that go along with marriage. That has to be one of the more extreme positions I’ve ever seen someone take.
Marriage is a state sanctioned secular act. I had to apply to the state for a marriage license when I got married to comply with the law. If you are going to create laws to regulate or control an act, then that law must pass Constitutional muster. As Judge Walker ruled, to exclude one class solely because they are thought to be inferior by another class is a violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment.
Well said!
Rich,
Marriage is not state sanctioned. Just because you had to apply for a marriage license just means that the government has tried to co-opt the process. Marriage is a gift God. By the way I do not think that homosexuals are inferior to me or to anyone else. I think that Judge Walker might be bias, don’t you?
kent, marriage is absolutely state-sanctioned. I’m not legally married unless I get a marriage license from the state (or the county, etc.), which means that in order to be married, the state has to sanction my marriage.
As for Judge Walker’s supposed bias, am I to assume you’re not a big believer in the Equal Protection clause of the Constitution?
Zach,
Again you show little imagination. What would happen if the US suddenly outlawed marriage? In your mind then would marriage no longer exist? Government is not my God! I don’t remember making a covenant with the government when I was married?
Zach, how can there be “equal protection” regarding marriage when different states can regulate it differently: age of consent allowed to be married, who you can marry when it comes to closeness in relation (some states allow first-cousin marriage, some do not), etc. Marriage as far as the state is concerned is simply contract law, not a civil right. Contract law varies among the states; it’s not a constitutional right. Judge Walker ruled the way he did because he feels that gay marriage is/should be socially acceptable.
I’m betting the illustrious Democrat(ic) Party wouldn’t be rating Johnson the #1 anything if the race wasn’t competitive. Looks to me to be a good sign!
Yeah, it has nothing to do with Johnson’s vociferous defense of BP in the wake of the Gulf oil spill, coupled with his ownership of BP stock, a fact that he tried to delay releasing to the public for as long as legally possible.
Well let’s be realistic, the Dem Party isn’t going to waste their time making Johnson a #1 target if he was way out of the race.
Must be very disappointing to the left and especially Obama that the spill is not near the disaster they were hoping for. Deep ocean drilling is safe and BP has shown that when a problem arises they were able to take care of it. This was resolved quicker then expected and damage has been held to a minimal.
It’s the worst oil disaster in US history. Let’s not try to ignore the facts.
You are actually praising BP for taking this long to stop the leak?