Thomas Lindaman writes:
Just when you think the Gulf Coast oil spill couldn't get any more surreal, Rosie O'Donnell had to weigh in. On her radio program, she said that President Obama should use his authority and seize BP's assets as a means of getting them to clean up the oil spill.
And her sentiment is echoed by any number of Leftists.
Journalism degree, folks!
Which should be the biggest red flag that it's a horrible idea.
Oh, fuck off. When it comes to corporations, you guys never have good ideas.
Let's set aside the logistical nightmare that comes with an American President trying to take over a British company and just look at the reasoning behind the notion that nationalizing BP would somehow make the oil spill get cleaned up faster. As great as Leftists think government is, most of the time government intervention winds up being less effective and more complicated. Just ask the car dealers who participated in Cash for Clunkers how government intervention in a business worked.
Mike Contestable, sales manager at Cortese Ford in Brighton: "It was a good stimulant. I don't see any fallout from it at this point but at the time it helped. It took a lot of vehicles off the road that should be off and it brought more people into the market for new cars."
Mike Jackson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of AutoNation: "We delivered strong double-digit growth in the second quarter, which was driven by both new and used vehicle unit sales and revenue. We continue to expect full year industry new vehicle unit sales to be in the range of 11.5 million new units. We expect third quarter new vehicle industry sales will equal or surpass third quarter 2009 new vehicle industry sales even though the prior year included the highly successful Cash for Clunkers program. We continue to see a solid automotive recovery going forward."
The reason government intervention in business doesn't turn out so well is because it strips the good parts of business out of the equation and replaces it with bureaucracy. Under the influence of a bureaucracy, even the simplest tasks require near-Herculean efforts to complete. If you doubt me, spend a day at the DMV.
Now tell us how the DMV would be better as a non-government business.
The post office is no longer a government job, and I don't see their lines going any faster.
And here's the twist: there are no real benchmarks to hit. When you're in government, your standards are set low enough that you could be dead and still excel. Try underachieving in the private sector, and more often than not you'll find yourself unemployed. Then, you can get a job in the Obama Administration and everything will be fine.
Have you ever worked for the government?
Plus, there's a noticeable lack of innovation in government.
I think NASA would like to have a word with you.
BP has chemicals that they've used to clean up other oil spills, but what has the government done to match that? That's right, kids. Nothing. Not even a bad idea of using a giant sieve.
That's because our government doesn't make oil rigs.
BP made $6 Billion in the first quarter alone this year. BP has had decades to push forward clean-up technologies. BP bought the newest clean-up technologies from Kevin Costner.
Kevin Costner has spent more money and more time on clean-up technologies than BP.
Kevin Costner is the leading authority on new oil clean-up technologies.
Kevin Costner.
Got some fucking perspective now?
Just creative ways to blame others for their own incompetence.
BP, the private corporation, is the one that killed 11 people.
(By the way, the EPA has already told BP not to use the chemicals they would normally use. Brilliant!)
But... you said Obama should have sent the EPA immediately! Even though that wasn't their job! Oh, that's right... you were just making stories up because you couldn't find anything to legitimately blame Obama for in regard to the spill.
Regardless, the reason the EPA leaned on them is because the dispersant chemicals were more toxic than the alternative chemicals they were recommending. I know right-wingers don't give a shit about toxic chemicals in the ocean because swimming is exercise, but other people do.
But leave it to right-wingers to solve an environmental disaster... by creating a new one.
And here's the real twist. We've seen government intervention in the Gulf right now, and for the most part, it's been ineffective. Seriously, sending the Attorney General to an oil spill? That's one of the dumbest things I've seen government do, and given the current crop of Congress-critters, that's saying a lot. What was he supposed to do? Sue the oil?
And if he didn't appear, you would've posted a blog entry saying "So much for all hands on deck! Derp!"
The Attorney General was there to speak with the attorneys general of all the Gulf states and to some locals, getting a sense of the problems people are dealing with because of the crude crisis. You think it's "the dumbest thing you've seen the government do" to have an actual understanding of how the crisis is impacting the states? Figures.
Throw blame at BP all you want, but having the federal government take it over isn't the answer. Let me advance a radical hypothesis for you Leftists reading this.
Get out of the damn way and let BP clean it up.
No, don't get out of the damn way. The government needs to lean on BP to clean their shit up, make sure they aren't fucking around like they did at the start when they were LYING about the amount being spilled, make them pay out the ass for every single part of the cleanup, and then regulate the SHIT out of them when it's over, to help keep this from happening again.
To Big Oil: You have proved beyond a reasonable doubt that you cannot be trusted. Like a reckless driver who got people killed, you should lose your licenses until you can prove otherwise.