I know that back during the spill certain well intentioned folks were scratching their head at Slabbed’s oil spill coverage.

Yeah, we did some BP bashing and such was richly deserved, but we concentrated on the local politicians, their stooges and projects like the bermdoggle for a reason:  If you wave money in front of most politicians the results are preordained as most of ’em would sell their own mothers into slavery if the price were right.

After Katrina we had a multitude of scammers, grifters and con artists descend upon the coast looking for people to fleece, many with the blessings of our political leadership. The spill was not much different from Katrina’s aftermath in that respect.

Now I’ll be honest and say the lesson in all this is that grant programs and claims funds are strictly for the schmucks.  The folks that ate the best at the oil spill trough may not have had losses but they got there first and took their money off the top as this AP story on how local government’s spent BP spill money indicates. A reader sent me a companion link to an AP graphic on the same topic which is also very good. Here is the AP Youtube  companion video for this story.

We’ll have more on this topic down the line.

sop

3 thoughts on “I know that back during the spill certain well intentioned folks were scratching their head at Slabbed’s oil spill coverage.”

  1. Is AP afraid to criticize Barbour? How can they not mention that most of that money went through the state and BP let the state decide what local requests to fund?

    Remember the Haley Barbour TV commercials produced by the state and paid for by BP? Did they promote Mississippi tourism or did they mostly promote the Governor?

    1. I think that omission was because the reporters never saw the advertising or didn’t remember it. Like you I remember those BP paid ads featuring Mr and Mrs Hogg. They were shot at Mary Mahoney’s in fact and a Sun Herald photographer, John Fitzhugh, was impolitely escorted from the public sidewalk by Barbour’s security detail because he was filming the filming of the commercial. Shortly thereafter the then Commish of Public Safety Stephen Simpson went MIA.

      Boss Hogg is a special player in this whole deal. Jindal and Nungesser got lots of cheap mug time in front of the camera but neither were thinking more than a few months into the future with how they played the spill in the media. You may remember Barbour went on Fox News Sunday and attended a GOP picnic in Central Park New York while the spill was ongoing.

      And of course his choice of words was impeccable. Remember the nice words he used to describe the oil coming ashore such as “mousse”. Boss Hogg is one slick MoFo.

      So the BP money he used to promote himself and the Missus was just a piece of a coordinated communications strategy which frankly was masterful IMHO. But there is also a story to be told such as the whitewash when the Barrier Islands were being slimed – 2 full weeks elapsed if memory serves from landfall on Petit Bois until the public was told.

      Maybe the AP reporters will take an interest in that topic as there is a great story there IMHO., I suspect someone will as we ramp into POTUS 2012.

      sop

Comments are closed.