Remember the unremitting and often hysterical criticism leveled at Obama, BP and anybody else who challenged him, from Governor of Louisiana Plyush "Bobby" Jindal? The guy who demanded that the federal government authorize, and BP pay for, the construction of 40 miles of sand berms off the coast of Louisiana to "stop the oil?" The price tag of $360 million that expert after expert and federal advisory panel after advisory panel said would be ineffective and ridiculously expensive? Well, "Bobby" raised enough hell on CNN, Fox and the rest of the 24/7 hysteriasphere that the Corps of Engineers eventually "caved in to political pressure" as the most recent federal commission has found, and approved the boondoggle. Eventually ten miles of berms were built at a staggering cost of $220 million, paid entirely by BP shareholders' foregone dividends ("earmark," anyone?). It stopped maybe 1,000 barrels of oil, at a cost of $220,000 per barrel. A more outrageous Poster Boy for waste, fraud and abuse would be hard to find.
If BP had offered 10,000 people who lost their jobs as a result of the spill and the hysteria of the reporting over it, the choice of the berms, which were guaranteed NOT to work, or $22,000 each to tide them over until the hysteria subsided, what do Ned's friends think they would have said?
Now, the feds have sued BP, and at long last the other companies equally at fault for the disaster are to be held to account as well. But BP has already been extorted to the tune of about $25 billion with no end in sight.
And Plyush keeps calling for "less" government, "fewer" regulations, and an end to "waste, fraud and abuse" on the part of the feds.
You just can't make this stuff up.
(h/t NYT: "Berms Built to Stop Oil Are Seen as Ineffective.")
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