Oh, the tragedy and irony

It’s no wonder people hate BIG Business and the obscene lobbying efforts of major alliances.

Within the past several weeks newspaper around the country ran a color, one-page advertisement paid for by the American Petroleum Institute. That is the informational, educational and lobbying arm of the “the people of America’s oil and natural gas industry.”

The self-serving ad made several points worth repeating:

1) "The people of America’s oil and natural gas industry are working to help BP (British Petroleum), which owns the spewing well, and the authorities respond to the (Gulf of Mexico) spill."
2) “Clearly, there will be lessons to be learned….”
3) “… we are fully committed to doing everything humanly possible to understand what happened and prevent it from every happening again.”
4) The institute has “already assembled the world’s leading experts to conduct a top-to-bottom review of offshore drilling procedures, from routine operations to emergency response.”

Somebody give me a hanky. I am crying here.

The ad appeared before BP’s CEO Tony Hayward testified before a Congressional committee(or who didn't testify, depending on your point of view), who, if he is to believed, is not in charge of anything at his company and does not make decisions that could adversely affect his company and the world’s environment. Hayward was so bored at the Congressional hearing he kept checking his watch.

“I can’t answer that question,” was uttered by Hayward time and again. He might as well ‘fessed up and declared, “I won’t answer that question.”

If Hayward was the hearing’s mute, then the HIC (Hearing Idiot Child) was Texas Rep. Joe Barton. Barton actually apologized to Hayward for the White House’s “$20 billion shakedown” of BP, following BP's promise of up to $20 billion in restitution for businesses ruined by the underwater oil well blowout.

One would think Barton was snorting BBQ sauce when he apologized to Hayward for saying the White House’s “shakedown” of BP was a “tragedy.”

On the International SIASD Scale (Stupid Is As Stupid Does), with a 10 being Dan Quayle and Joe Biden and 1 being Stephen Hawkins, Barton is way north of Quayle and Biden.

The “tragedy” in regard to Barton’s statement -- which he retracted six hours later -- is that voters in a Texas congressional district elected that mental doofus to Congress.

Back to the main point: In case you missed the irony in the ad message … the ad was paid for by the Institute, which is financed by the oil and gas industry, which gets its money from YOU!

The next time you need to fill up at the gas pump, give a one-fingered salute to a BP station as you drive by. It won’t do any good, of course. But, then again, it can’t hurt either.