Who Is Running The Hen House?

From Think Progress:

Transocean, Ltd., the giant oil contractor that leased its Deepwater Horizon rig to BP, held a “closed-door meeting” with shareholders Friday, “just days after” executives appeared before Congress to explain the company’s role in the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill. As ThinkProgress noted, the meeting took place at the company’s headquarters in Zug, Switzerland, where Transocean relocated two years ago to avoid paying taxes. Though CEO Steven Newman “ignored questions from reporters,” the company said in a statement that it would distribute $1 billion in dividends to shareholders:

The revelation that Transocean is distributing a $1 billion profit to shareholders as one of its drill sites leaks millions of gallons of oil into the sea is sure to inflame an already smarting debate over offshore drilling and the company’s role.[...]

To put the distribution in perspective, the amount of profit that Transocean plans to pay out in the next year is half of what Exxon ultimately paid for the Exxon Valdez disaster off the Alaska Coast.

It’s also more than double what BP has said they’ve spent on the cleanup to date.

Meanwhile, Transocean has “passionately argued” to limit its financial responsibility for the disaster. The company filed a court request last week to cap its liability under $27 million, a paltry sum considering BP has already spent over $450 million on cleanup, and analysts estimate the effort could ultimately cost up to $8 billion. As Raw Story notes, Transocean has actually made money from the disaster, collecting over $400 million from insurers, leaving it with a profit of $270 million after the costs of the rig are subtracted. As maritime attorney Jeff Seely told NPR, “They are the only people who have been compensated for this tragedy. The decedents [of the 11 workers killed in an explosion on the rig] haven’t been the compensated. The injured people who still are suffering, all the fishermen out in the Gulf that can no longer work haven’t been compensated.”

I am at a total loss as to how to put my brain around this. Pay out a billion dollars to the shareholders, now, COLLECT the insurance money, now, have your lobbyists try to limit your liability to others to just twenty-seven million dollars NOW -- but don't give any money to the survivors of the blown-up mother fucking rig, don't give any money to the relatives of those killed from the blown-up mother fucking rig, and above all else, deny culpability.

The piece last night on 60 minutes was an eye-opener. See it here.

The top Interior Department official who oversees offshore oil and gas drilling for the Minerals Management Service will retire on May 31, The Washington Post has learned.

Too little, too late. And to top it off, the stupid, STUPID, stupid Obama administration has put Jonathan I. Katz (called by this administration "one of the best scientific minds") with three others on a panel to look into the BP oil spill and to stop it.

Who is Jonathan I. Katz, you ask? Well, global warming denier, to start off with:

Who is stoking the alarm about global warming? There is Al Gore, an over-the-hill politician who wants to remain in the public eye. His house uses 20 times as much electricity as the average American house and he flies private jets. Obviously, he does not believe what he preaches; it must be an act.

Secondly, an avowed homophobe:

In Defense of Homophobia

Jonathan I. Katz

Homophobia is the moral judgement that homosexual behavior (most of the arguments in this essay refer specifically to male homosexual behavior) is wrong. Homophobia is not like ethnic, racial or religious prejudice, which deny the intrinsic moral rights and value of other people. Rather, it is a moral judgement upon acts engaged in by choice.

Spelling errors left intact!

One of the best scientific minds so says the Obama administration. (scratching head on this one). In what way, say I? Believes global warming is a hoax, yeah, that's up there with the rest of the "best scientific minds." Homophobia is ok and is simply a moral "judgment?" Like cooties? And people who wipe their boogers on walls?

I said it before, and I'll say it again. You really know we are in trouble when the POTUS cannot discern the smart people from the idiots.

UPDATE ALERT: Katz has been dropped from this panel.

Jonathan I. Katz, a professor of astrophysics at Washington University in St. Louis, ''will no longer be involved in the [Energy] Department's efforts'' at addressing the oil spill continuing to spread in the Gulf of Mexico, a Department spokeswoman relayed on Monday night, May 17.

The news came after what the spokesperson, Stephanie Mueller, termed ''controversial writings'' – which included a ''defense of homophobia'' – spread out over the web on Monday, writings of which she said the Department was unaware when it sought his assistance.