BP Needs to Write Hefty Checks & President Obama Needs to Give Back BP Campaign Money

Woke this morning to ‘Breaking news‘ that the Gulf Oil Spill has been capped. Call me skeptical but that seemed a bit too good to be true. Now of course a few hours after this initial assertion, everyone is backpedaling and as President Obama is fond of saying, they are ‘re-calibrating’ their remarks. In other words-Here comes the corporate spin. But that’s either here nor there.

What all of us need to be watching for is to how BP which has had its third so-called accident in 5 years will start compensating people and businesses it destroyed. BP needs to be underwriting every single animal rights and rescue organization that are feverishly plucking oil soaked birds and mammals to clean and care for them and keep them out of harms way. We should all be treated to a breaking news story showing BP CEO Tony Hayward cutting lots of hefty checks to those operations.

Next we should all be treated to Hayward cutting large checks to fishermen and all businesses including tourism impacted by his company’s blunder. Someone suggested that we should take this a step further and make sure all Gulf businesses own a part of BP. That just might be the move. We should also see similar checks written by the other companies involved in this disaster including; Haliburton and Transocean Limited.

It would be nice to see the Drill Baby Drill crowd which includes miscreants like; Michael Steele, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich etc, all apologizing for their gross miscalculations and misplaced advocacy for off shore drilling. Obama was right to put a moratorium in place. It needs to be permanent.

Speaking of which, we also need to see a press conference with President Obama and every other federal and state politician who took campaign money from BP, giving it back. They should publicly return the money let all of us know they are in no-way beholden to the oil giant.  Obama says he didn’t take any money, but here’s what’s being reported:

BP and its employees have given more than $3.5 million to federal candidates over the past 20 years, with the largest chunk of their money going to Obama, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Donations come from a mix of employees and the company’s political action committees — $2.89 million flowed to campaigns from BP-related PACs and about $638,000 came from individuals.

On top of that, the oil giant has spent millions each year on lobbying — including $15.9 million last year alone — as it has tried to influence energy policy.

During his time in the Senate and while running for president, Obama received a total of $77,051 from the oil giant and is the top recipient of BP PAC and individual money over the past 20 years, according to financial disclosure records.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/36783.html#ixzz0p9e1qXmw

BP CEO Tony Hayward needs to hold press conferences with him writing hefty checks for all the people who's lives he ruined

All the key folks involved and rightly so made it a point to be constantly be on TV to give us around the clock information and updates. We should all demand that they continue this process when it comes to recovery and compensation. After all, it’s when the cameras are off and our collective attention is redirected elsewhere that big companies start to toss-up all sorts of red tape and road blocks and pull all types of shenanigans resulting in people not getting their money…

These companies should do the right thing and not hide behind caps limiting what damages can be collected. Their should be no shortchanging the people. We’ve heard way too many Rush Limbaugh type pundits brag about how ‘private’ should be left to their own devices and they will do right by the American people. Well, here’s their chance. BP needs to handsomely compensate everyone. It’s the ethical thing to do..

Failure for these companies to properly compensate people will be an indication that this so called ‘free market, unregulated business environment that conservatives and Tea Party types crow about is a complete failure. We should also keep in mind that almost every single Gulf Coast state Senator is against removing or raising the 75 million dollar liability cap.All those Rush Limbaugh/ Glenn Beck types who claimed the market can take care of itself need to be leading the charge making sure all those private businesses involved are stepping it up BP, Haliburton andTransocean Limited and don’t hide behind their political friends.

Something to Ponder.

-Davey D-

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50 Cent Loses 54 pounds for an upcoming movie role…He looks pretty damn sick

%0 Cent lost 50 pounds for his upcoming role in a film..

This just appeared in the latest edition of US Weekly.. Its 50 cent looking pretty gaunt and sickly. He lost 54 pounds for a role in a upcoming movie which according to US was inspired by a pal who died of cancer… 50 Cent penned and stars in Things Fall Apart, a flick about a football player stricken with the disease.

“I lost 54 pounds for it,” the 6-foot rapper, 34 — who dropped from 214 pounds to an astonishing 160 with a liquid diet and three-hour-a-day treadmill walks for nine weeks — tells the new Us Weekly (on newsstands now). “I was starving.”

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Oakland Gang Injunction? Maybe We Should Have One Against Out of Control Police?

Update: This is footage from the rally just before yesterday (May 27th hearing) in which a temporary injunction was issued…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b4kJG5WIXQ

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Today at 2Pm a hearing will be held at the Oakland Courthouse to see if the City of Oakland should have a gang injunction. There will be a rally at 12:30 opposing the injunction in front of the court house

.This measure is being pushed by the City attorney John Russo who doesn’t exactly have the most exemplary record in town. Translation, many feel dude is shady. He’s trying to push an Oakland version of Arizona’s racial profiling law..which is what gang injunctions ultimately wind up doing.. How about getting competent officers on the streets who respect the community and  know’ the residents of that community? Can we do something like that?

What’s even more shady than this proposed gang injunction which seems to be motivated by extra money coming into police coffers more than granting us safe neighborhoods, is that this gang injunction won’t apply to the city’s biggest gang. Many feel an injunction needs to handed down to out of control members our police department. And before folks start making excuses and rushing to their defense, take a look at this video showcasing their behavior the other night.. Members of the department decided to handle business by throwing blows and acting a fool at a boxing match in Sacramento.. and we wonder why are kids are out of wack. If those who we pay to protect and serve act a fool, what do we expect the rest of us to do.?

Something to ponder

-Davey D-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8edsNXKT2Y&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7OFJST-LmE&feature=player_embedded

Oakland PD banned from police boxing matches after melee Friday night

By Mike Taugher

http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_15144729?nclick_check=1

A boxing match for law enforcement officers turned chaotic when supporters of an Oakland Police Department fighter escalated trash-talking into what turned into a shouting and shoving match that involved dozens of spectators.

Fight fans and organizers were harshly critical of off-duty Oakland police at the Sacramento Radisson during Friday night’s “Badge vs. Badge” fights, and while fans said they were unsure whether those rooting for Oakland police fighters were officers or simply friends and relatives, event organizers said the troublemakers were police.

As a result of the fracas, Oakland police officers are banned from fights sanctioned by the International Association of Boxing until a review of video footage is complete, said Steve Fosum, the association’s president.

“It was totally instigated by Oakland PD, no doubt in my mind,” said Fosum, who was in the ring Friday night. “They chose to be jerks instead of law enforcement. This was not an embarrassment to Badge versus Badge. This was not an embarrassment to law enforcement. This was an embarrassment to Oakland PD.”

According to organizers and witnesses, the fights went off without a hitch until the end of the main event, a heavyweight title bout between Larry “Psycho” Ward, who works at the California Medical Facility, a state prison in Vacaville, and Casey Johnson, a police officer in Oakland.

A section with a few dozen supporters of Oakland fighters — there were three fighters from the department on the fight card — were particularly loud and taunted Ward throughout the night, according to Fosum and others.

After Ward and Johnson fought, Ward returned to his corner, which happened to be near where the Oakland fans were sitting.

Fight promoter Tom Gaffney said he took out a second mortgage and spent five years planning the event. He said three fans stood up and started yelling and pointing at Ward and things quickly got out of control.

Witnesses said no punches were thrown but there was a lot of yelling as well as some pushing and shoving. About 10 people were at the center of the action, either shoving each other or trying to pull antagonists apart, Gaffney said.

A YouTube video of the skirmish shows dozens of spectators scuffling. The scene includes a tossed chair.

Gaffney said he was told the three fans who started the disturbance were Oakland police officers and that at least one of them served on the SWAT unit. He said Johnson apologized to Gaffney after the fight and confirmed they were from his department.

“He was embarrassed. I said, ‘Man, you work with those guys?’ He said, ‘Yeah,’ ” Gaffney said.

“I was shocked,” he added.

“I didn’t think they were officers, the way they were acting.”

Johnson told Gaffney that the three apologized to Johnson for their behavior.

When contacted Saturday evening, Oakland’s brass said they were unaware of the incident but promised they would investigate.

“Any time we are in the public eye, we need to conduct ourselves in a professional manner,” Oakland police spokesman Officer Jeff Thomason said. “At this time there is not enough information to comment on what may or may not have happened last night, but we will conduct our own internal investigation.”

Oakland mayoral spokesman Paul Rose expressed confidence the department would handle the incident properly.

“We are going to work with the Police Department to investigate the matter and the mayor is confident that the chief is going to deal with this matter appropriately,” Rose said.

An Oakland police officer who was at the fight, but who did not want to be identified, said Ward started it by making a throat-slashing gesture toward the Oakland fans.

The officer said Ward came out of the ring, but another fan said Ward simply opened up the ropes and invited his taunters into the ring. The Oakland officer said his colleagues were only defending themselves after Ward taunted them and backers of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation confronted them.

Fosum said he would not have blamed Ward, whom he described as cocky, for parting the ropes, though he did not see that happen.

“I guess they wanted to be a tough guy,” Fosum said. “Whenever I see stuff like that, I think, if you guys really thought you were tough, you have a chance to be in the ring. All they did was heckle.”

A Sacramento-area police officer called the incident “a disrespect to the badge.”

The officer did not want to be identified.

“I don’t want to tell on my brothers,” he said. “On the other hand, I think they should be held accountable.”

Although a couple of witnesses said they thought there were more fights on the card, Fosum said the heavyweight bout was the last of the night.

Alcohol was served at the fights, but Fosum said he thought it was passions in support of their fighter and not alcohol that fueled the raucous behavior.

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