By know you all know that “Smokey” Joe apologized to BP for any rough treatment received at the White House. But several people have emailed requesting that I post something about it. What I don’t get about this is why anyone would be surprised.
I have nothing to say on the matter other than oil and gas keeps financing his campaigns and someone obviously keeps voting for him. Here’s what I gathered from around the web:
Joe Barton Apologizes to BP; John Cornyn Shares Barton’s Concerns VIDEO
Joe Barton Wins Another Texas Dim Bulb Award
Republican U.S Representative Joe Barton of Texas has said that BP is a wronged party in that it has been forced by the White House to pay $20 billion into a fund to assist persons who have economically impacted by the BP/Transocean Gulf of Mexico oil disaster.
Smoky Joe Barton attempts to go down on Tony Hayward
On behalf of all Texans …
… I apologize for Joe Barton. He is as venal and corrupt as a Texas Republican comes. And since he is so “ashamed” and “doesn’t want to live in a country” where we hold corporations responsible for their mistakes, then I invite his sorry ass to GTF OUT of MY country.
This is why we call him “Smokey Joe”
More about Smokey Joe. And more. And still more. And something thrown in for Cornyn.
About Sharon Wilson
Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.
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As a loyal reader who believes that we desperately need drilling reform in order to protect the environment in Texas, I would ask that you refrain from clearly partisan attacks like this one.
I think the biggest challenge the drilling reform community faces is the drilling companies attempts to paint us as "loony", "enviro-whackos" and "liberals".
I am a life long Republican and have had a hard time convincing people that drilling reform is needed – frankly, because of the great PR job done by the drilling companies to marginalize us. When I talk about the problems with gas drilling, people look at my weird and say "I thought you were a conservative?"
Those in favor of drilling reform are Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, all people who want to protect our environment regardless of political pursuation.
When the articles here go clearly partisan, we only give the drilling companies ammunition to destroy us.
Thank you for the comment. This is not a partisan attack but rather voter information. I did not mention which political party Barton belongs to, nor do I care. Had a Democrat said such a stupidly outrageous thing, I would have written something similar.
One important–no critically vital–thing I have noticed during the many years I've been doing this is that people walk into a voting booth and vote straight party. They only have a vague idea about the top of the ticket and absolutely no clue about the downticket.
Part of my job here is voter education. You might have noticed that I often post examples of campaign contributions and the voting records. Currently, democrats stack up much better in those examples but I am not fooled into thinking that it will remain that way if they are the ones in power. After all, Nixon was one of our most environmentally responsible presidents.
I have learned to work well with people with diverse political beliefs. We all want the same things. This post is about accountability NOT politics.
What do you expect of Joe Barton? He's always been bought off by Big O&G!!
Nixon did do a lot of good things for the environment. Also, there was a whole slew of Republicans who threatened to take Barton off if he did not immediately take back his statement, which he did, in a most expeditious fashion. What I found funny, was Burgess. He sure is singing a different tune these days. Does that have anything to do with endorsing the former Mayor of Flower Mound? He knows we have more than enough votes to get him out, and all politics is local, baby.
I just reread what you posted and it is mentioned twice right there that Joe Barton is a Republican.
Seriously, I love your work and think you are doing agreat service. I wish you would clean up your postings abit so that your "education" does not seem quite so "partisan" to the reader. It marginalizes our movement.
I did not write anything about the Republican party–nothing at all. I gathered up posts that were written by other people. Part of my job here is to tell the facts. What would you have me do? Should I put ___?___ party? It even says what party he is in on the news and in the papers.
I think it's important for people to know that Joe Barton is a Repubican who takes large sums of money from industry and votes accordingly.
Last year there were Democrats who introduced lousy bills that favored industy and I sure let that be known.
I sincerely do not care what party they are in.
I'm a life long conservative myself, casting my very first vote for Ronald Reagan. I've voted for Republicans every time, save for a few Independents. I think Obama is an enormous mistake, nothing more than a rookie politician with zero executive experience. i look for a correction in the next election. I believe in lots of things most Democrats/Liberals do not- but I also know that the only people making gas well drilling a political issue are the politicians, not any of us.
Joe Barton is a Republican, and you'll see the little R next to his name when the news stations show over and over his apology to BP. Barton is an embarrassment, and I could care less that he's also a Republican. This isn't a Republican or Democrat issue, it's an issue of accountability and responsibility.
It wasn't but what seemed like a few days before the spill where Obama, much tot he surprise of millions, opened the Atlantic to drilling. Then BP had the world's worst environmental disaster. Obama is now saying he didn't get all the information and was mislead by Industry. Welcome to the club, Mr. President. I don't think Obama is the wrong person for the job because he's a Democrat, but rather his core beliefs as a Socialist are far different than mine.
Barton is no different. He obviously is on full support of big oil, no matter the results or consequences to every American, as long as he gets paid and continues to cash Industry checks. If Big Oil doesn't get paid, Joe doesn't get paid.
I would also like to add that Joe Barton should consider apologizing to Exxon while he's at it, although we, the American people, certainly the Alaskan folks, never did receive even a two month later apology from Exxon anyone, even to us Small People.
I want to beleive that the Obama administration's meeting with BP execs and 'mutually' deciding on thr $20B fund stems from the fact that Exxon, too, made promise after promise to 'Do everythign we can to clean this up', and 19 years later, not one dime has been paid from Exxon, and you can still dig up oil two feet deep on the Valdez beach.
Assuming this is the motivation, this does not warrant an apology, but more of a guarantee. By the way, $20B is the typical annual profit BP makes, so one year's income is quite a bargain for the mess they've made.
There on the hook for about 60 to 100 BILLION,not yet the biggest spill.One lasted for 3 yrs.in the Persian Gulf but you never saw anything on that one.