Barbara Boxer is all over the BP Chairman. Go Boxer !!!!

[dixiegrrrrl]

Boxer: " Can you guarentee something like this will never happen again?"

BP..... " Uh.,,,, no, no one can promise that"

Boxer: " How much of your money do you spend on trying to develop new safety techniques?"

BP: ".....uh.....I can't answer that".



Boxer: " How would you describe your safety record overall?"

BP: " I'm pretty satisfied"

Boxer: Then reads the long newspaper article on the WHOLE FREAKING list of all of BP's
accidents and fines and failures!!!!!

Then she tells BP guy his whole story is a house of cards, "there is no *there* under what you say"

Now she turns the poor bastards over to Senator Udall to question !!!

[malaise]

1. I'm watching on CSpan1

Do you see the protester in the Pink hat marked Boycott BP

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. Yep.

Couple of threads up with protest pics.

I am watching on the Senate Comm live feed.

Boxer is such a wonderful Broad In Total Control (of) Herself.

[madmax]

25. Can you see Carly Fiorina handling this

the way The Boxer can. No.

[malaise]

2. This Probert guy from Haliburton

is a piece of scum.

[gateley]

3. Maybe it's the British demeanor, but you get the feeling he really doesn't give

a damn.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. But you gotta admit he IS nicely tanned.

Hope he has his papers.

[gateley]

7. I love that Boxer said to the American President, 'will you try..." and he said

'we will conform to any regulations' -- she essentially replied, you asked for an exemption.

She's the best! I'm so glad you gave us a heads up with your post! Thanks!

[truedelphi]

30. can you type out a little more of what you are referring to.

I can't watch TV today - what exactly did she say to the President about regulations and exemptions.

What exemptions?

Much appreciated.

[gateley]

33. Yikes -- I'm the worst one for relaying info like this. But you may have heard

that BP requested and received an exemption from using a piece of safety equipment (as I understand it).

So, Boxer asks the guy What are you going to do to make sure this doesn't happen again? Will you do anything to avoid another accident like this?

The guy responded (very sneakily, I thought), we will certainly comply with any REGULATIONS.

And she said -- but you asked for an exemption! (to not have to comply with the regulation they requested to be exempted from.) So she was hip to his sly little way of saying they'd do what was required, but no more.

I hope that gives you the gist of it. It went much more smoothly than my rendition, believe me. :7

Oh! And it was the President of BP, I think, not THE President.

[truedelphi]

34. Ah - the last sentence clarifies a great deal.

It is a rare thing for the President of the USA to come before Congress to be asked questions. I am heavily medicated this week (prednisone for poison oak) and once my brain got it wrong, that got my imagination going.

Anyway thank you. Cannot do much TV till I am not scratching and not prednisoned.

[Scuba]

5. Rachel's gonna make hay tonight...

...wish it was the kind that soaks up oil.

[gateley]

8. She always summarizes so concisely and clearly - she helps me understand

the topics better.

I hope she's ruthless.

[Scuba]

10. She's the cat's pajamas - smart, prepared, articulate, firm and fair

[gateley]

19. Well put. And welcome to DU, Scuba!

:hi:

[Scuba]

22. Thanks

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. OK. color me impressed with Boxer.

I am so hoping some changes in energy policy will happen now.

[Vincardog]

11. What energy policy? Did someone institute an energy policy without telling me? The next thing you

know there will be an industrial policy. Then what next a rational environmental policy?
Think if the children.

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. Lots of hints during both hearings today that

the whole EPA/MMS process was going to be re-thunk
AND
quite a few comments by Boxer and other of the "good guys" that it is time to r"re-examine"
our energy policies.

I hope the dolphins in the Gulf have not died in vain.

[Vincardog]

15. This oil volcano will have served its' purpose if it ends the RW never ending quest to destroy the

planet

[amborin]

13. let's get someone after Salazar, too

for exempting BP's Deepwater Horizon from EIS, in 4/09



KO interviewing Suckling, of Center for Bio Diversity, asking for Salazar's resignation:



http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/vp/36976376#3697637...

[gateley]

20. Did Congress have to vote on that? And, do you suppose Obama is pissed at

Salazar for encouraging that exemption?

Obama needs to clean house. I can understand him getting people in with 'experience' - that's smart. But once they show their true colors, they need to be ousted. We could send him a list if he's interested. :7

[amborin]

26. alas, Salazar had shown his true colors before Obama selected him

I believe DU was against that choice

[gateley]

27. I think DU's take on many things usually turns out to be correct. nt

[Old Troop]

14. And what does that actually do?

She'll quietly take her check from BP as they all seem to.

[gateley]

21. They don't ALL do it, and I think Boxer is one of the ones who doesn't. She'll

do what's right.

[Mojeoux]

16. Go Boxer!!! n/t

[Obamanaut]

17. If he calls her "ma'am", he's toast. nt

[Boxerfan]

18. Again-this is why I am a Boxerfan

Ever sionce she chewed Condoleeza a new one I was a big fan. I wish the men of the Senate had her cajones!

[SoCalDem]

23. Huff & Puff Dog & Pony Show

This whole "hearing thing" never changes, no matter which party is in power or which "bad guys" are in the hot-seat.

Anything of consequence is handled discretely behind-closed-doors...and that's why real change takes so long (if it ever happens).

There is BIG MONEY at play here, and the ones who HAVE the money, never let it go easily.

The ones questioning, know that their future campaign money (and perhaps employment) may be at stake here, so they know how to walk it right up to the edge, and when to ease off.

People watching, can view it all as 21st century politikabuki theater , and enjoy the show as they root for "their team", but forget that the wheels of justice often grind to a halt.

Oil companies have been "spilling" as long as they have been drilling...car companies have been turning out defective cars forever, pharma kills people every year because of laxity in testing, etc.

Big business is all in favor of big business, and congress is also all in favor of big business.

The "little people" have no real advocacy, and have not had it for a very long time (if we ever did have it).

I've been watching this "show" for decades and the plot line is always the same, even if the actors change:

scene #1...something horrible happens

scene #2... media tosses accusations all-round

scene #3... pollsters say the public is outraged..outraged I tell ya

scene # 4...senator so-an-so from anywhere USA demands hearings

scene #5... hearings commence

scene # 6..each in turn, the senators bloviate with personal invective/praise depending on the connection with-to the "invited/subpoenaed guests" in the hot seat....leaving 1 minute for the "response".

scene # 7... all parties agree to write reports and the problems eventually drop from the media

scene # 8...months/years later, lukewarm legislation is attempted...to right the wrong, and after much tweaking, a loophole-laden bill is signed by the president, and all is right with the world until the next catastrophe

scene #9 ...a new congress, years later convenes hearings to criticize congresses past for non-attention to problems that caused THIS catastrophe.

scene # 10...replay..starting with scene #1

[truedelphi]

32. Only part you failed to mention -

And it is a bit important - usually the entire call to arms for the sake of writing up regulations is really just a call to the industry in question to send over the lobbyists with their

One) Money, and bags of it

or

Two) Promised jobs for the future.

So some little dummy freshman in the House of Reps gets promised an assistant VP-ship at some oil company for his complicity in watering down the legislation and then voting it in. It doesn't always end up being money, often it is just the revolving doors between Washington and the industry.

[the future]

24. He will sleep like a baby tonight

since he knows our government will do absolutely nothing to him.

[gateley]

28. Yeah, you're probably right. But I bet he's got some pissed off stockholders. nt

[gateley]

29. And welcome to DU!

:hi:

[truedelphi]

31. A big grateful K &R. n/t

[Citizen Kang]

35. A stern talking to

Thats all our elected officials who are on the take are ever able to do... lecture these criminals.


How about pass some friggin laws to protect our planet instead?

[Joe Chi Minh]

36. I believe that one's of the Chief of the Fed or the Treasury Dept, so is not so funny.

But I love such little visual aids so beloved of the media nuts, though presumably for different reasons.

I particularly remember one very similar to that one in your photo, on one of our UK current-affairs programmes on the box; and, for some reason, the anchor asked this chap, quite nerdish-looking (never judge a book by its cover), if he'd seen that illustration he'd given a few moments earlier. To which he very quietly replied, " Yes. Very impressive." The anchorman went slack-jawed for a moment and gulped.

Another funny incident the other night. Will Hutton, an economist of the first water - would be, even if economics wasn't mostly bull - and former Economics Editor of the Guardian, among other jobs, was the studio guest for a while of a very good Welsh newscaster called Huw Edwards, while they were waiting for some news about the progress of the talks going on between the Lib-Dem and Tory teams of negotiators.

Will was high on the excitement of it all, and enthusing mightily on its being the big prize, momentous, awesome. When he finished his second such encomium, Huw responded, 'Thank you for spelling that out for us, Will.' And I don't think he meant it facetiously at all, but the humour of it wasn't lost on Will, even though he might not have been quite sure if it was so intended or not.

[northernlights]

37. Waxman and Stupak have gone beyond that, I think

evidence of criminal negligence, even manslaughter -- they've blown away any "caps" on liability today. They have senior BP officials admitting that the pressures were wrong...not only that it was leaking...but they *knew* it and went ahead anyway. They *knew* there were problems with the BOP -- they went ahead anyway. Admitting they *knew* shears weren't strong enough to cut through the pipe joints -- that's why they failed. Documentary proof -- and now testimony -- that they *knew* what they were doing could come apart.

It can only lead one to believe they've been doing this all along. They've just been *lucky* so far...and like so many gamblers riding on *luck* until their luck (and ours :() ran out.

BP is going down. So is MMS. Halliburton. Transocean. And the government's own porn-dogs, MMS. It's all documented. They can't deny it. They can't get out of it.

Maybe now the government will take the reins and do what it takes to shut down that fucking BP Gusher. Fine the hell out of BP, and jail the criminals. And then re-instate serious regulations on existing and any new rigs.

[JNelson6563]

38. Yeah, I remember her well with the Enron business.

She gave Skilling a grilling! T'was awesome to behold. Wish I weren't working and could catch her taking these guys to the woodshed. I think she's fabulous.

Julie