2 Years on, BP Gulf Disaster Proves Obama Just As Oil-Soaked A Political Stooge as Cheney or Bush | Black Agenda Report

2 Years on, BP Gulf Disaster Proves Obama Just As Oil-Soaked A Political Stooge as Cheney or Bush

25 Apr 2012

🖨️ Print Article

by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

When the Gulf Disaster happened, President Obama had solid majorities in Congress and a free hand. Instead of using it to protect the public, he grabbed for the favor of oil companies and protected their homicidal, ecocidal practices. Can there be any doubt who Barack really is?

2 Years on, BP Gulf Disaster Proves Obama Just As Oil-Soaked A Political Stooge as Cheney or Bush

by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

When you knock your cup of coffee over, that's a spill. When a giant oil company orders employees worldwide to evade safety protocols, and incinerates eleven people and discharges anywhere between 300 million and one billion gallons of toxic oil crude and carcinogenic “dispersants” into the air, water, fish, wildlife and people of the Gulf region, it's not a spill. It's a calculated act of murderous, ecocidal vandalism. It's a criminal conspiracy.

When you take pro-active steps to conceal the extent and effects of a murderous criminal conspiracy, steps like lying to the public about the amount of toxins discharged, or using the Coast Guard, the US Navy, federal and local law enforcement to prevent reporters or the public from flying over open waters, wetlands or beaches to gauge the extent of the disaster, you're a participant in the murderous criminal conspiracy.

When you're running for president, and you know giant oil companies have long histories of disregarding public safety, and you make campaign promises to restrict their reckless practices and you shed the promises like old lizard skins once in office in return for big wads of campaign cash you are every bit as much an oil-soaked partner in crime as Dick Cheney and George Bush were when they were in power.

When you restrict the damages recoverable from BP's holdings on five or six continents to just what can be paid for out of its Gulf revenues, you're protecting your cronies, not the public, and ensuring that BP's reckless operations in the gulf of Mexico will continue till more fish, wildlife and livelihoods are destroyed and until more people die in the next preventable disaster. And when you further protect the oil-soaked corporate criminals from liability by appointing the same clown to manage claims against BP that managed claims at the World Trade Center on 9-11, you can't be taken seriously as anything but another oil-soaked corporate stooge yourself.

When the Gulf disaster started and for seven months afterward, President Obama had whopping majorities in both houses of Congress, along with a mandate in the polls to rein in offshore drilling and a host of other homicidal and ecocidal practices of the energy industry. But this president does not use his political capital for the people or the environment or the noble but vague promises he makes on this or that issue from time to time. For another seven months, House Republicans couldn't even call a meeting without Democratic permission, and Senate Republicans could have been steamrolled with minimal effort. But Barack Obama and his Democrats passed no new laws, promulgated no new executive decisions to regulate Big Oil.

Two years after the Gulf Disaster, instead of seeking a corporate death penalty against BP, Haliburton and its co-conspirators, the Obama Justice Department has indicted a single mid-level BP engineer for erasing emails. Can there be any doubt now that our First Black President is nothing but a cynical and relentless liar, a corporate stooge in blackface who expects black and progressive Americans to have his back, while he stabs repeatedly us in ours?

For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Bruce Dixon. Find Black Agenda Report on the web at www.blackagendareport.com.

Bruce A. Dixon is managing editor at Black Agenda Report. He lives and works in Marietta GA, and is a state committee member of the Georgia Green Party. Contact him at bruce.dixon(at)blackagendareport.com.

listen

http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/20120425_bd_oil-soaked_barack_obama.mp3

More Stories

Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Census Undercount Increased in 2020
30 Sep 2022
Kelly Percival is Senior Council with the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. She is co-author of the report Improving the Census. She joins us from New York to discuss the…
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Commemorating Gabriel's Rebellion at the African Burial Ground in Richmond, Virginia
30 Sep 2022
Ana Edwards is Chair of the Virginia Defenders Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project in Richmond, Virginia. She joins us to discuss the 20th annual Gabriel Gathering scheduled for October 10…
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Qualified Immunity for Police and the Death of Andrew Joseph III
30 Sep 2022
Dr. Melina Abdullah is Co-Founder and Director of Black Lives Matter Grassroots. She joins us from Los Angeles to discuss the 2014 death of Andrew Joseph III and the issue of qualified immunity for…
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Biden Lies at the United Nations
28 Sep 2022
U.S. presidents routinely violate international law and the United Nations Charter. Yet every year they appear before that body and proclaim American innocence.
Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
On the International Day of Peace September 21st, The U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination Reaffirmed Its’ Commitment to the Weapon of War
28 Sep 2022
"End Racism: Build Peace" was the theme of the 2022 International Day of Peace. That noble sentiment can't be realized when powerful white supremacist structures are committed to practicing hegemony.