BP - KING OF THE GULF OF MEXICO - WHY, MR PRESIDENT?

From Michael Snyder at Business Insider:

There is one question that I would really like an answer to. Who died and made BP king of the Gulf of Mexico? In recent weeks, BP has almost seemed more interested in keeping the American people away from the oil spill than in actually cleaning it up.

Journalists are being pushed around and denied access, disaster workers are being intimidated and abused and now BP has even go so far as to hire an army of private mercenaries to enforce their will along the Gulf coast. Are we suddenly living in occupied Iraq?

How in the world did a foreign oil company get the right to start pointing guns at the American people? The last time I checked, BP did not own the Gulf of Mexico and did not have the right to tell the American people where they can and cannot go. The truth is that BP could have avoided all of this by running an open, honest and transparent operation from the start.

They could have welcomed help from all sources, they could have tried to be open with the media, and they could have tried to be fair with the volunteers and rescue workers. But instead BP has been conducting this whole thing as if we are living in a totalitarian dictatorship and they are the dictators.
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But it is not just the media that are being pushed around. The Louisiana Environmental Action Network is reporting that BP is actually threatening to fire fishermen hired to help with the oil spill cleanup for using respirators and other safety equipment that wasn't provided by the company.

Seriously.

The workers say that they are only using their own safety equipment because BP has not provided what they need. It is a fact that a large number of rescue workers have already gotten sick enough to be admitted to the hospital, so it certainly makes sense that those working to clean up the oil would want to do whatever they can to stay safe.

But no, BP has to be a bunch of jerks about the whole thing.
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So this crisis may keep getting worse for months.

By the time this is over, will anything in the Gulf be left alive?

Even now, hordes of dolphins, fish, sharks, crabs, rays and other sea creatures find themselves trapped between the rapidly advancing oil and the shore. Unprecedented numbers are showing up just off the Gulf coast in an attempt to escape certain death, but once the oil reaches shore there will be nowhere else for them to go. The tragedy will be unspeakable.

Things did not have to turn out this way. BP and the Obama administration could have done things much differently. But they didn't.

Read more: Business Insider.

Good grief! I've heard most of the above information in bits and pieces, but seeing it gathered in one article is truly shocking. Why are these strong-arm tactics permitted?

We intended to visit Grand Isle, Louisiana, today, to see for ourselves what's happening there, but our dog, Diana, is not well. She is avoiding using her right front leg, and she is just not herself, very lethargic, perhaps from pain. She has an appointment with the vet this afternoon. I'll keep you posted.

Image from MadPriest. H/T to Tracie in the comments at the same post for the link to the article.