BP CEO at yacht race today

[FRE]

:smile:

Easy!

Obama has wonderful PR. He has managed to deflect all criticism from him and from the USA onto BP. He has done it so well that the British backlash is met in the US as some sort of unreasonable assault on the USA. He has done it so well that some US posters on this board get very hot under the collar at anyone even reporting the British backlash. The whole thrust of the response to the disaster has been dictated by Obama's PR. We have wrong decisions for the UK, the USA, the environment and cleaning up the mess - but the right decision for Obama's PR. PR RULES OK!

We all know Obama went & played golf! Just like Bush!

One would expect the rules of conduct to be less stringent for private individuals.:smile:[/QUOTE]

I don't know where you live. However, here in the U.S. of A., we have freedom of the press, which includes freedom of the ether waves. Obama cannot control the press. If he could and did, there would be considerably less criticism of him.

I don't know what your degree is in, or whether you have a degree. However, my degree is in business administration, and to get that degree, I had to take several management courses in addition to accounting, finance, etc. etc. Among other things, we studied the problems involved in making changes to the attitudes and procedures in large companies. The problems in doing so are very similar to making changes in government bureaucracies. Changing the CEO of a company or changing the president of the U.S. of A. has little immediate effect on the bureaucracies under them. Of course they can and do make changes, but rooting out all the inefficiencies and inappropriate procedures is a job that takes years because of bureaucratic inertia and the tendency of bureaucrats to cover for each other.

An additional problem is that under civil service regulations, it is difficult to get rid of employees who are not perform. Therefore, it is common for government bureaucracies to be loaded with deadwood.

If Obama had been in office for more than one term, it could be reasonable to criticize him for failure to clean up the MMS so that it would force oil drilling companies to operate safely. However, the MMS has thousands of employees and even if key managers are replaced, it can take a long time for them to learn what is really happening and make the necessary changes.

 

[maxcok]

As much as Hayward is culpable, it is a fact that right now he won't be able to actually do anything right in the eyes of the US government. Unless he personally swims to the bottom of the sea and plugs the leak, performing mouth to mouth resuscitation on endangered sea life at the same time...he is going to get it in the neck. I suppose nobody at the white house has a day off since Bhopal? They have all been working hard to put things right.
They have cancelled all their holidays whilst their brave soldiers are dying in Afghanistan by their command.
Is the US going to ask us to believe all of these folk have put their normal lives on hold until this incident is resolved?

So what if the guy goes sailing in order to spend some time with his son, I wonder how many other people have worked solid for eight weeks in a different country without seeing their family. I can't understand why it is that only BP that are coming in for criticism. What about the transocean, the company that actually owned and operated the Rig..the MMS, Haliburton et al.
By all means hold bp accountable responsible and culpable and if it is proven they are to blame they should be prosecuted and stripped of their assets. If individuals were responsible for cutting corners - then a prison sentence should be expected and demanded.
Of course Hayward is the CEO it happened under his command, same as Obama is the US CEO and it happened on his watch.

COULD WE PLEASE REFRAIN FROM DIGGING UP EVERY UNRELATED SIN OR PERCEIVED SIN OF AMERICA, AS IF THAT SOMEHOW MITIGATES BP's RESPONSIBILITY IN THIS MATTER? THIS IS COMPLETELY OFF-TOPIC AND IRRELEVANT TO THE SITUATION IN THE GULF. SPEAKING FOR MYSELF AND ON BEHALF OF MY FELLOW AMERICANS, WE'RE GODDAM SICK AND TIRED OF THE BASHING. THANK YOU!!!

P.S. Union Carbide is a multinational corporation, and just like BP is not a department of the UK government, Union Carbide is not a department of the US government. I actually posted on the Bhopal disaster recently to mark the 25 year anniversary. Search it if you're interested.

For my take on the yacht races, please note my first post in the thread, from page 1:

I see no problem with Hayward taking some personal time to relax, but it's a matter of appearances. Coming right on the heels of him stonewalling the Congressional committee when his public visibilty peaked, it just looks bad. It looks worse that he is indulging in a rich man's sport, even worse that it's taking place in clear ocean waters. It's a really bad move from a Public Relations perspective, but then making bad PR moves seems to be the one thing he's really good at that.

I also noted the opinion of Hayward you eventually came around to in that other thread Freya, and I was going to acknowledge you for it. Now that you have backtracked to making excuses for him again, not so much.

Here's your prior post where you called him a "cowardly moron" and called for him to "fall on his sword", certainly much stronger than anything I've said regarding the CEO.

Freya vs. Freya:

Seeing the performance that Tony Heywood gave yesterday.....for fcuks sake don't think he's typical of us Brits! We really really don't want to be associated with him or his company!

he had the opportunity, the forum to tell the world exactly what he thought and felt about the whole situation, even if it was just his personnal views. he did not, he cowered behind corporate lawyers. Of course he has to protect his shareholders and the responsibilities of his company, but jesus he's a cowardly moron.

Why on earth could he not have said....all the time I am CEO I am going to to A B & C, if during the course of the investigations any company or employee is found to be responsible, then civil and criminal charges will be brought against them.

He should have taken personal responsibility and if necessary fallen on his sword. $6mil a year salary + share options small price to pay.

He could have given his personal views, even if they are later proved to be wrong.

He could have named and shamed his own company and anybody else responsible, he did not. That is unforgivable, that shows lack of leadership, lack of preparedness and lack of backbone!

Why could he not have said, "this is my opinion, investigations are on going, but it appears to me that personnel on the rig took x,y, & z decisions that led to this disaster and it was a decision based on the ground at the time, we are still looking at the reasons for their decision making process" with the help of the fed government.

If decisions were made that contraveyened H&S or company policy then civil and criminal charges will be brought against all those responsible. He did not, that is unforgivable

We don't want Heywood in the UK can the US give him a green card and let them have him, lets be clear on this, Heywood is looking for a new job after that performance!

I don't think he's welcome in the US.

 

[maxcok]

I can't understand why it is that only BP that are coming in for criticism. ..... Of course Hayward is the CEO it happened under his command, same as Obama is the US CEO and it happened on his watch.

Unless I missed something the president didn't have any inside knowledge of what was happening at that drill site. Are you suggesting the president is responsible for everything that happens in a technologically advanced nation of 300 million people? Responsible for knowing that the team on that rig was taking all sorts of shortcuts to save time and money that led to inevitable disaster? News flash: he's not omniscient.

This is a discussion board about large cocks not an academic essay. Referncing from me and from most posters is pretty hit and miss.

This is a Politics Forum on a discussion board about big dicks. If you want to lie about how humongous your cock is in the absence of evidence, be my guest, you'll have lots of company. However, if you want to be taken seriously in the Politics Forum, you need to provide some verifiable backup to your "reporting".

PR RULES OK!

Not nearly as well as propaganda apparently.

 

[dandelion]

COULD WE PLEASE REFRAIN FROM DIGGING UP EVERY UNRELATED SIN OR PERCEIVED SIN OF AMERICA, AS IF THAT SOMEHOW MITIGATES BP's RESPONSIBILITY IN THIS MATTER? THIS IS COMPLETELY OFF-TOPIC AND IRRELEVANT TO THE SITUATION IN THE GULF. SPEAKING FOR MYSELF AND ON BEHALF OF MY FELLOW AMERICANS, WE'RE GODDAM SICK AND TIRED OF THE BASHING. THANK YOU!!!

well why dont you let the poor chap have a day off in peace?

This is a Politics Forum on a discussion board about big dicks. If you want to lie about how humongous your cock is in the absence of evidence, be my guest, you'll have lots of company. However, if you want to be taken seriously in the Politics Forum, you need to provide some verifiable backup to your "reporting".

well mines 12in...no, the tape slipped. I mean 15in. Come off it, this is a bit of fun in between wanking, not the UN.

 

[FRE]

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This is a discussion board about large cocks not an academic essay....
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The part about large cocks is true to a degree, but there are threads for other subjects, including this thread. And, so far as I know, there is no rule excluding academic essays. In fact, in the near future, I intend to start a thread that will basically be academic essays.

Sort of an academic essay, there is no other way to cover some subjects adequately.

 

[maxcok]

well why dont you let the poor chap have a day off in peace?

Are you purposely trying to antagonize me, or are you retarded?
Quoted twice now, including in the very post you pulled my quote from:

I see no problem with Hayward taking some personal time to relax, but it's a matter of appearances. Coming right on the heels of him stonewalling the Congressional committee when his public visibilty peaked, it just looks bad. It looks worse that he is indulging in a rich man's sport, even worse that it's taking place in clear ocean waters. It's a really bad move from a Public Relations perspective, but then making bad PR moves seems to be the one thing he's really good at that.

well mines 12in...no, the tape slipped. I mean 15in. Come off it, this is a bit of fun in between wanking, not the UN.

Some of us take this disaster very seriously. If you're just here to stir up shit, which it increasingly appears that you are, you might just consider going back to wanking, which is essentially all you're doing here.

 

[B_crackoff]

I love the way Jason's post has popped up as mine! Did the quote system go funny for a while?

I just love the fact that due process has not been followed, & an adhoc system is in continuance.

I think if the Obama administration wasn't talking about having their "boot on the throat" of BP, and "kicking ass", then the international community would think this US Government is different to the last.

Still, the US Navy has set sail & is swarming around a far away Gulf preparing to unleash far more devastation against Iran, despite them complying completely with the former UN protocols, & IAEA standards.

They are being supported in this by Israel, which of course unlike Iran, definitely has 100's of WMD, & is not a signatory to the non-nuclear proliferation treaty.

Oh - & yes - this is all the current administration's work.

I think we all need to take a day off & enjoy it -soon.

 

[B_jeepguy2]

BP would be better off if Hayward had just stayed in London, UK, and let the BP employees in the USA who are trained to deal with oil spills handle the situation. Having the BP CEO over here so the predatory US news media can follow him around and broadcast everything he says to an American public that by and large is not very bright, knows nothing about oil wells, and has taken everything the BP execs have said out of context is causing a sideshow.

I suspect that at this point after ehat he has been through Tony Hayward probably wishes that he had been on the Deepwater Horizon when it blew up and had gone down with the ship. Being a yachtsman myself, I am positive that Tony Hayward loves the sea, and is completely appalled by the disaster that this accident is causing in the Gulf and is doing everything he can to get it stopped. The only sure way to stop it is drilling a relief well, he is drilling two. He has also tried ro plug the leak in every other way BP engineers can come up with.

He didn't even have to come over here to the USA he did it to show he cared and he has been treated terribly by the US Media, the President of the United States, and the U.S. Congress. Honestly as an American I am embarrassed by the way this gentleman has been treated.

 

[dandelion]

well why dont you let the poor chap have a day off in peace?

Are you purposely trying to antagonize me, or are you retarded?

I think this disagreement between the US and Uk is not at all about BP, which has fucked up and will have to spend shedloads of money to try to put it right, but about how the US has reacted to their attempts to do so. It has given the impression of BP as the victim. The US needs to understand what it has done to make itself appear the guilty party. I do not believe the chairman of BP should be obliged never to see his family while this goes on, and I think it can only make matters worse. Above all I wish we could dispose of the ridiculous judging everything by how it appears rather than how it is or whether it matters one bit.

Some of us take this disaster very seriously. If you're just here to stir up shit, which it increasingly appears that you are, you might just consider going back to wanking, which is essentially all you're doing here.

No one here expects there to be any good comes out of spending hours here posting. This isnt congress' private bulletin board. Nothing posted here is going to make any difference to anything, unless politicians generally have big dicks and like reading about them on the internet. The best I hope to get from this is some fun having a debate and to learn about what a few other random and very unrepresentative people think.

BP would be better off if Hayward had just stayed in London, UK, and let the BP employees in the USA who are trained to deal with oil spills handle the situation.

Perhaps, but I think the dogs would have been nipping at whoever was put up as spokesman. Hayward might really be the best available.

 

[ColoradoGuy]

Still, the US Navy has set sail & is swarming around a far away Gulf preparing to unleash far more devastation against Iran, despite them complying completely with the former UN protocols, & IAEA standards.

They are being supported in this by Israel, which of course unlike Iran, definitely has 100's of WMD, & is not a signatory to the non-nuclear proliferation treaty.

Oh - & yes - this is all the current administration's work.

Beside the fact that you're off-topic (ahem), you are misinformed. You seem to be saying that the US policy towards Iran is single-minded, conceived by the Obama Administration, only supported by Israel, and unjustified.

News flash:

• Iran's political situation has been a problem since the 1950s for the United States and Britain specifically, and the rest of the globe since the late 1970s.
• Israel is not the only country supporting the US in its efforts to curb and control the proliferation of nuclear technology in Iran.
• The IAEA (on whose standards you comment above) is made up of 120 nations. Any action of the IAEA has the implicit support of those 120 nations.
• Iran's record of compliance with the IAEA (and UN sanctions) has always had been questionable at best and when it has implemented controls, it has been in the furtherance of other policies. In other words, adherence was used as a trade-off. Ring a bell? Like North Korea, perhaps?
• IMHO, until the government of Iran represents the people of Iran, I'm afraid there will always be a problem.

So... to your point about this being the "current administration's work"? That is, quite simply, exaggerated nonsense.

In future, crackoff, please focus your comments on the topic at hand. If you'd like to talk about Iran, you will find plenty of threads by simply looking for "Iran" using the Search feature or you could create your own new thread. In fact, may I suggest a thread-topic for you? Perhaps you could start a new thread titled: "I know very little about Iran..."

 

[B_VinylBoy]

This thread is really starting to get ridiculous.

 

[Drifterwood]

This thread is really starting to get ridiculous.

He's a dab hand at the fiddle apparently :wink:.

 

[B_VinylBoy]

He's a dab hand at the fiddle apparently :wink:.

I haven't played a stringed instrument since 5th Grade. Techno is my cup of tea these days. :wink:

 

[Hot stuff]

Again more British right wing anti american sentiment beginning to bug me earlier in the thread led by Jason. Does not seem to make sense that these rightwing british views are slagging off america, but bonds, investments pensions speak louder. Oh and Heywod sailing who gives a flying fXXX. He can do what ever he wants, he is just a total inept idiot. America can kick BP's ass all it needs to clean up the mess, it's just as american as british anyway according to Jason following a merger. Lets begin with safer practices and hopefully less deaths and slicks surely more important in the short and mid term, than the pensions of the richer middle classes in the U.K. Yes I am British and with America and Obama on this one, as long as they sort out those flakey regulatory bodies who are 50 per cent guilty too in allowing BP and subcontractors to be so sloppy in risk taking.

 

[FRE]

Again more British right wing anti american sentiment beginning to bug me earlier in the thread led by Jason. Does not seem to make sense that these rightwing british views are slagging off america, but bonds, investments pensions speak louder. Oh and Heywod sailing who gives a flying fXXX. He can do what ever he wants, he is just a total inept idiot. America can kick BP's ass all it needs to clean up the mess, it's just as american as british anyway according to Jason following a merger. Lets begin with safer practices and hopefully less deaths and slicks surely more important in the short and mid term, than the pensions of the richer middle classes in the U.K. Yes I am British and with America and Obama on this one, as long as they sort out those flakey regulatory bodies who are 50 per cent guilty too in allowing BP and subcontractors to be so sloppy in risk taking.

How can he be an idiot? He has a PhD!

 

[maxcok]

Again more British right wing anti american sentiment beginning to bug me earlier in the thread led by Jason. Does not seem to make sense that these rightwing british views are slagging off america, but bonds, investments pensions speak louder. Oh and Heywod sailing who gives a flying fXXX. He can do what ever he wants, he is just a total inept idiot. America can kick BP's ass all it needs to clean up the mess, it's just as american as british anyway according to Jason following a merger. Lets begin with safer practices and hopefully less deaths and slicks surely more important in the short and mid term, than the pensions of the richer middle classes in the U.K. Yes I am British and with America and Obama on this one, as long as they sort out those flakey regulatory bodies who are 50 per cent guilty too in allowing BP and subcontractors to be so sloppy in risk taking.

Thank you Hot stuff, for providing an alternative view from Britain. The constant barrage of anti-American sentiment, Obama bashing and blame that has dominated these discussions, coming from a few posters in particular, has been disheartening to say the least. So much so, that I had to withdraw from another thread where those voices completely dominated the discussion. I had challenged other Brits to speak up who maybe had different views, and you are the first I've seen to put the situation into what is in my mind a sensible perspective.

I have read coverage in the more mainstream British press that gives a more balanced perspective than that propagated by Jason, Dandelion, Freyasworld, Joll and others, but that doesn't tell me what the British people think. I'd be very interested to know what you think the view of the public at large is, that is, what percentage hold views similar to those prolific and one-sided posters who cleave to the right-wing media vs. what percentage hold views similar to yours. I'd also be interested to know where you get your news and information.

There have already been some changes made by the Obama administration at the Minerals Management Service which oversees drilling operations in the Gulf and was incredibly corrupt, a legacy of the prior administration. The most obvious change is purely cosmetic, changing the name to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOE). The more important change, to put it simply, is to separate the people who collect money for leases from the people who are responsible for enforcing safety regulations. This is a major step in the right direction. There is currently a top to bottom review of the agency going on, and in light of the egregious misconduct that has taken place there, much needed and long overdue.

 

[Drifterwood]

I'd be very interested to know what you think the view of the public at large is, that is, what percentage hold views similar to those prolific and one-sided posters who cleave to the right-wing media vs. what percentage hold views similar to yours.

80% are more interested in the Football or what is on offer at Primark, or the UK tough budget taking away their freebies. Of the remaining 20%, I would guess that you have a spectrum from Jason to Green Campaigners with me and my Cymraeg Hot Stuff somewhere in the middle because we will not overlook other possibly responsible parties.

 

[Drifterwood]

How can he be an idiot? He has a PhD!

It isn't in charm though, is it? :biggrin1:

 

[maxcok]

80% are more interested in the Football or what is on offer at Primark, or the UK tough budget taking away their freebies. . . .

Yes, I've been following this, and I wonder how much the US and Obama will be scapegoated for UK's trouble managing its budget, which was looming long before the Gulf oil spill. I further wonder if politicians and other opportunistic folks may have deliberately blown up the scapegoating in advance, as a distraction from the tough fights in Parliament they knew were coming and a place to shift some of the blame. Your thoughts?