Daily Graphic: Cute Turtle on Federal Oil Spill Response Site Pisses Me Off
This cute turtle is the federal government's representation of how wildlife in the Gulf are being affected by BP's oil spill. PR or Reality?
If you’re looking for a lot of information on the BP oil spill and what the government is doing, this site has its pluses and minuses. For instance, you can find the disposition of some U.S. Coast Guard assets and transcripts of media briefings. On the minus side, when you click the link for Oiled Wildlife, you’re taken to a page with no pictures or statistics of the devastation, but there is a phone number to call if you encounter an oiled bird or other animal. Even more manipulative than the dearth of information on oiled wildlife is the cute picture of a pristine, baby sea turtle on the homepage of this PR-driven site.
One way to kick someone’s ass over this tragedy would be to put the whole truth out there for the American people. Federal government fails with this site. It’s so benign it’s ludicrous.
The Daily Graphic: Which Company More Able to Pay? $200 Billion BP or $100 Billion BP?
It’s totally reasonable and inevitable that the share price of BP would suffer mercilessly from the company’s gargantuan liability in the Gulf of Mexico. Earlier this week I created the following chart of BP’s daily closing share price for it’s U.S.-listed shares.
When Interior Secretary Ken Salazar opined publicly that the company ought to be responsible for all unemployment claims related to the federal government’s six month moratorium on offshore Gulf drilling, BP’s stock took an especially nasty dive to a 14-year low on Wednesday. I hope that the Obama Administration’s efforts to turn public opinion back in the president’s favor on this mess don’t backfire and kill what this country needs to be the proverbial “Golden Goose” for the next several years. A heavily-regulated and monitored BP – in a strong financial position – is the company that will be able to afford the tens of billions of dollars needed to make the people and environment of the Gulf Coast whole.
