" "These big oil companies, they have a different view of time and politics than we do" ... Two decades of litigation and appeals resulted in [Exxon's] punitive damages being reduced from $5 billion to $500 million."

And yet, these corporations are 'people', in the eyes of our Supreme Court. Truly is justice blind.

"Two decades [later] punitive damages [were] reduced from $5 billion to $500 million."

If anyone thinks Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan, would have voted differently on that 10-cents-on-the-dollar award, you're not paying attention.

Of course if the US government actually represented the
American people it could fix this with a single executive
order. Obama could nationalize BP's US based operations.
Then the assets would be available immediately to cover
the liability. Of course the US government does not
represent the American people, and hasn't since Camelot..

Since when, Brian, did "You are just f--ked" become a "legal term".

I am not into violence,BUT, if ever there were a case for storming the bastions of OIL POWER, now is the time. BP's CEO is asking for protection for his family. Would that it were true, and his security force had family in the Gulf. Wonder how that would work out?

I am Committed to Oneness through Justice and Transformation
peace,
st john

The observation about anarchy deserves some attention. It is not anarchy proper, per se, but the oily shadow of that degree of freedom residing in the dark cavities of the corporate body - an archetype of biblical proportions. A schizophrenic golem-type vampiric flag-draped mirror entity.

It believes it(self) a master yet is slavish to an adoration of strangulating limitations handed down through generations knowing only agression and usurpation. Shriveled mummies of freedom, sacred responsibility, truth. Future generations of life are strung around its body wrapped in burial cloths in its cultish circling of prey for blood money.

This is the core of the myth of the vampire being immortal, the handsome youth (seducing oil dependant society) turning into a werewolf under the full moon, a soulless cypher deadened long ago, the walking dead. The death breath can only utter lies, its wish for actual personhood rendered a linguistic parasite on the spoken word.

Its profits scribbled on the mirror it causes other creatures to die on, again extending the soulless propagation of poisons. The delirium tremons applying cosmetics to itself, a corpse with brittle posterboards about the alternative energy it also sucks life from as legitmate efforts keep an eye peeled to get out of the way of the giant's heavy tread before it falls. Convinced it will never fall, it stumbles and smashes claiming the faint sputter of consciousness to be the sunrise, the oil soaked tides to be springs of good fortune.

Time to revive the Brothers Grimm. The stortelling potential of this should go viral.

From "The socialist response to the Gulf oil crisis" -- http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jun2010/pers-j01.shtml

"There remains a vast gulf between the immense scale of the disaster and the response from the government and the mass media. From the beginning, there has been a systematic attempt to downplay the significance of the event. The Obama administration did nothing for weeks. Its main concern was to prevent the BP disaster from disrupting plans for expanding offshore oil drilling, which Obama, like Bush, has aggressively supported.

"In relation to BP, the administration has displayed a complete paralysis, once again unable to take any action that interferes with the interests of the giant corporations that control the American and world economy.

"BP has been left in control of the response operations, with the administration repeating the line that only BP has the scientific expertise to handle the situation. The company has employed one maneuver after another, all of which have been intended primarily to cover up the fact that neither BP nor the government had in place any contingency plans."

"The Obama administration operates under the assumption that all that is required is the mouthing of meaningless phrases about being “angry and frustrated,” that mass popular outrage can somehow be managed through well-tested media techniques and public relations stunts.

"Popular anger, however, is growing by the day. This anger and opposition must be armed with a political perspective, directed not only at BP and the other large corporations directly responsible for this disaster, but at the entire political and economic system that made such a catastrophe all but inevitable.

"Despite the attempts by BP and the US government to present the disaster as unforeseeable, it is the product of the decades of “free market” policies aimed at eliminating all constraints on corporate profit making. ...

"No confidence can be placed in the Obama administration or any section of the political establishment to do anything but continue to cover for BP and the oil industry.

"As the days and weeks pass, the impact of the disaster will escalate, as the unanticipated consequences come to light. One thing is certain: the ultimate cost of this disaster will be in the hundreds of billions of dollars. The resources for this must come from the oil companies themselves. BP and other energy companies must be immediately nationalized and placed under democratic control."

See also "The Gulf oil spill and the case for socialism" -- http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jun2010/pers-j08.shtml

And for you "soft-left liberals" who still see Obam as your saviour, see "Frank Rich on Obama: Liberal fears and illusions" -- http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jun2010/fric-j08.shtml

Quoting from that article:

"The political domination of big business and Wall Street has grown far beyond even what it was in the heyday of the robber barons, along with a staggering growth of social inequality.

"Moreover, the middle-class intelligentsia at the turn of the 20th century was far more oriented to the working class and sympathetic to socialist and revolutionary ideas than its counterpart today. Within radical and even certain liberal circles it was taken for granted a century ago that social justice, equality and genuine democracy were incompatible with capitalism.

"Via a long historical process since then the political and moral makeup of the middle-class intelligentsia has undergone a profound change—overwhelmingly for the worse.

"The embrace by most of the American liberal intelligentsia of anti-communism after World War II, which signified its lining up behind the hegemonic aims of American imperialism, did immense damage to the political life of the country and irrevocably compromised American liberalism.

"Over the past three decades, substantial sections of American liberals have seen their incomes rise as a result of the reactionary, anti-working class policies of Reagan and his successors, including Obama. As a result, their political views have shifted further to the right, with the open embrace of “free market” nostrums and repudiation of any social reform program.

"Rich is very much an expression of this process. He is an example of contemporary American liberalism, fixated on questions of identity and life-style, indifferent to the fate of the working class. The intellectual and political impotence of his analysis, and its elements of cover-up and evasion, are an expression of the bankruptcy of liberal thought as a whole."

-- And "comtemporary American liberalism" can find no better representative than the likes of The Nation magazine, the Huffington Post, Common Dreams.org -- and all the other soft-left liberals who urged America to vote for "the lesser of the two evils." ... Well you got your evil. ... Same soup, warmed over.

Obama is just another servant of the ruling elite -- doing their bidding, covering up their corporate criminality -- as instructed, as bought and paid for.

True enough, SEAGLASS.

Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."

This article is the most honest piece I've read about legal ramifications of the the oil deluge since it began. It says pretty much everything you need to know about 21st century Amurka, Louisiana (the State most likely to screw itself repeatedly into its toxic mud by its own shortsighted ignorance) and Big Oil.

So... the concept that "justice delayed is justice denied" should become a part of the fight.

Joe

from the article:

The irony, as O'Neill tells it, is that the law Congress passed in the wake of that spill -- the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 -- may end up hindering the type of relief that Gulf residents can expect currently. Under that legislation, a $75 million cap was placed on economic damages that an oil company can pay as a penalty for a spill (this isn't true, O'Neill notes, in states that have passed their own liability caps -- of which Louisiana isn't one). Congress is currently trying to lift that cap. But there are constitutional questions about whether it can do so retroactively to cover BP.

"Constitutionally, I don't know whether you can do that. I don't know whether it is ex post facto," O'Neill said. "It will likely be challenged. I would, if I was representing BP."
+++

If they can prove that the blow-out is the result of gross or criminal negligence, they would have a good arguement to set aside the liability cap.

If is proved only to be an "accident" or simple negligence $75M it is.

I have no doubt whatsoever that BP will fix up the Gulf problem every bit as well as Union Carbide fixed up Bhopal (India, remember that one?), and in as timely a fashion. Oh, and how's that Exxon Valdez stuff coming along?

This follows in the great Amerkan tradition of You-can-do-anything-you-like-even-kill-people-so-long-as-you-give-the-innocent-victims-a-few-thousand-dollars-afterwards-to-make-it-right. And if you have enough money and the right lawyers, hell you don't even have to do that.

Not to worry, President Obama is about to "kick some ass."

Oh, BP, you just ruined thousands and thousands of lives, and an entire world environment, and you want protection for your family? I guess that protection for the environment and the humans and creatures which live within don't count?

This is not going to end well for anyone. When the RULE of Law becomes the DROOL of profits, then all bets are off.

You're probably right CEO corporate person, Hayward, as I'm sure that people really do want to kill you. You've killed their land, their jobs, their environment, their traditions, their future....

The Magna Carta, upon which much of our law is based, is worth any number of CEOs, and so is the planet.

You see, you've stolen peoples' lives, without actually killing them. Beware of those persons that have nothing left to lose. Marleys in chains do manage to break free and get their messages across; a literary allusion and reminder that the Scrooge Corporations can change, but only if they really listen.

Everyone's talking as though the Exxon Valdez spill is long over. The area it devastated is still hurting from that spill. Not we, nor our children, nor our grandchildren, nor their children will see that area going back to what it was. These huge oil disasters are very long lasting to the environment. The oceans are resilient, but fragile as well, and don't expect our oceans recover in our lifetimes. The only sane thing to do is to halt oil drilling in the oceans at once. But greed has it over sanity, every time. I'm hopeful but realistic, and frankly I don't give the human race a chance in hell. The picture in this article says it all.

Heard Mr. John Horseface-Heinz Kerry the other day on a video sayin' that there's no way we're goin' to stop drillin' in the Gulf... a third of the country's oil comes from the Gulf. I believe he alluded to the fact that were 48,000 producing wells in the Gulf. THAT nearly floored me - anyone got a fact check on that stat???

Keep voting, keep supporting the way the government is operating.

Obama will not resign, nor will he be impeached. 95 percent of the representatives and 100 percent of the political parties will be re-elected.

The system is closed, rigged and corrupt. So keep voting for it.

Turn your back on it, and get others to stop voting. Soon the political elite will not have a credible number of voting public to claim legitimacy.

Don't vote, the system collapses.