Straight From the Horse's Mouth

      Whenever a catastrophe occurs, people in high places are cast into the limelight, some unwillingly, and others because they want to beat everyone else to their fifteen minutes of fame. When that happens, they often come out with pearls of “wisdom,” sometimes speaking with insufficient information; at other times engaging their mouths before their brains are in gear. A classic example, of course, is the well publicized Bushism,…”Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.” The Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill is no exception. Here are a few examples:

Tony Hayward, BP CEO:
"What the hell have we done to deserve this?"
(Is he kidding?)

“I'd like my life back.”
(So would thousands of Gulf Coast residents who depend on the Gulf for their livelihoods.)

After arguing that safety has always been his top priority, “…that is why I am so devastated with this accident.”
(BP has had 760 safety violations in the past five years, and paid $373 million in fines.)

Carl-Henric Svanberg, BP Chairman:
"We care about the small people,…"
(If you are over three feet tall, are you out of luck?)

Haley Barbour, Governor of Mississippi:
"…isn't anything like Exxon Valdez."
(He was right, it's much worse.)

"If they take a huge amount of money and put it in an escrow account so they can't use it to drill oil wells and produce revenue, are they going to be able to pay us?”
(On the other hand, if they keep blowing up more wells, how are they going to pay anybody?)

Rush Limbaugh:
“But this bill, the cap-and-trade bill, was strongly criticized by hardcore environmentalist wackos because it supposedly allowed more offshore drilling and nuclear plants, nuclear plant investment. So, since they're sending SWAT teams down there, folks, since they're sending SWAT teams to inspect the other rigs, what better way to head off more oil drilling, nuclear plants, than by blowing up a rig? I'm just noting the timing here.”
(SWAT teams? Blowing up a rig?)

“You do survive these things. I'm not advocating don't care about it hitting the shore or coast and whatever you can do to keep it out of there is fine and dandy, but the ocean will take care of this on its own if it was left alone and was left out there."
(Of course, it might take a few hundred years, but who’s counting?)

Sarah Palin:
"The Dutch and the Norwegians, they are known for dikes and for cleaning up water and for dealing with spills.”
(Maybe they could send us someone to stick his finger in the hole.)

“But handily we can thwart this mysterious cabal of environmentalists by doing... nothing. Because oil is supposed to be in the water.”
(Huh?)


Joe Barton, Texas Congressman:
"…a tragedy of the first proportion, that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown, a $20 billion shakedown.".
(Joe Barton, a tragedy of the first proportion.)

Rick Perry, Governor of Texas:
"From time to time there are going to be things that occur that are acts of God that cannot be prevented."
(Like Tony Hayward said, "What the hell have we done
to deserve this?")

There you have it, folks. Any questions?

******

      Eventually it became apparent that most of the attempts to control nature were not working. This did not erase the idea that nature had powers; it merely showed that they were vastly superior to man’s. Nature was now controlled by gods operating behind the scenes.
      Man Takes Control – The Spirit Runs Through It.

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