BP: Hey, kids!let’s have fun! Let’s play blow up the oil-rig!

Back in the 70’s this board game sported the old BP logo

“The thrills of drilling, hazards and rewards….” sounds like fun for the whole family.

The article on this find comes from UK
so the tone is rather sad about the money loss rather than outraged about the loss of an ocean

But BP Offshore Oil Strike players must also avoid the dreaded ‘hazard cards’, which state: ‘Blow-out! Rig damaged. Oil slick clean-up costs. Pay $1million.’

Unhappily for BP, that is just one per cent of the amount it has spent each day tackling the very real Deepwater Horizon leak, which has seen millions of barrels of oil gush into the Gulf of Mexico and hit the southern US coast.

Yeah, but it was from the 70’s.

So glad to see the Brits have a sense of perspective about this.

Update

In a twisted related story

BP Will Penalize Fishermen For Not Helping To Clean Up Their Toxic Mess. Unbelievable!

this is not a game, but real

BP is claiming is that if fishermen choose not to take part in the oil spill cleanup, BP will consider that as potential income declined and deduct it from their claims.

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Today in Irony: Obama to Borat’s leader: We’re still working on our democracy

It’s another one of those “paging Dr Freud” instances like the times W wished out loud to be a dictator.

To add a bit of fun to this, it was during the meeting with the leader of Borat’s country, Kazakhstan

President Obama said Sunday that the United States is still “working on” democracy and a top aide said he has taken “historic steps” to improve democracy in the United States during his time in office.

The remarks came as Obama met with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev — one of the U.S. president’s many meetings with world leaders ahead of this week’s nuclear summit.

Aparently there was another level of irony I wasn’t aware of

Some observers see a conflict between Kazakhstan’s chairmanship of the 56-nation OSCE, which plays an important role in monitoring elections in emerging democracies, and its own widely criticized human rights record.

But if the Obama administration saw any disconnect, it kept its criticism to itself.

The apex of irony however was reached when his spokesman was asked to comment on this

“Both presidents agreed that you don’t ever reach democracy; you always have to work at it. And in particular, President Obama reminded his Kazakh counterpart that we, too, are working to improve our democracy.”

Asked by a Wall Street Journal reporter if Obama sees any moral equivalency between the two, the PR man chirped

“Absolutely not … There was no equivalence meant whatsoever,” McFaul said. “[Obama’s]   taken, I think, rather historic steps to improve our own democracy since coming to office here in the United States.”

Wow! Where do I even start to unpack this “historic” claim?

First, I’d say, the flunkie was being modest. I say, Obama’s work on our democracy started way before he came to office. How can we not credit him with Michigan, Florida, RBC, the phony roll call, the concept of “clinching the nomination”, having Kerry ask the media not to cover Florida because “they don’t count” and other historical deeds.

I’ll leave it to my readers to find historical improvements since that time. Besides the  “historical” renewal of the PATRIOT Act that is.

I can only think of one, in today’s headlines

Foes of tea party movement to infiltrate rallies

Opponents of the fiscally conservative tea party movement say they plan to infiltrate and dismantle the political group by trying to make its members appear to be racist, homophobic and moronic.Jason Levin, creator of http://www.crashtheteaparty.org, said Monday the group has 65 leaders in major cities across the country who are trying to recruit members to infiltrate tea party events

It’s historical, yet not unprecedented, see Nixon’s COINTELPRO . But we also remember, B0bots aren’t very good at this

But I do want to credit the flunkie for clever use of the words “coming in to office” instead of “being elected”. I think I’ll just update the Obama Lexicon

Katha Pollitt: I voted for a loser, but I spared us misogyny

After exhibiting the now universal buyer remorse for Obama,

How disappointed are the Obama warriors of 2008? “May your love for me not fade as quickly as your love for Obama,” read one pale pink e-card making the rounds on Valentine’s Day.

Pollitt has a strange defense for her idiocy in 2008

I’m still glad I supported Obama over Hillary Clinton. If Hillary had won the election, every single day would be a festival of misogyny. We would hear constantly about her voice, her laugh, her wrinkles, her marriage and what a heartless, evil bitch she is for doing something–whatever!–men have done since the Stone Age. Each week would bring its quotient of pieces by fancy women writers explaining why they were right not to have liked her in the first place.

You see, she was being protective of us, little women – and we should be grateful because now

This way I get to think, Whew, at least you can’t blame this on a woman.

For some reason, Woody Allen’s opening narrative in Zelig comes to mind:

when antisemites were beating him up, Zelig’s parents would take their side and join in the beating.

Let’s remember what were her reasons then?

-the propaganda that they were similar on domestic agenda

– the lie that

But on foreign policy Obama seems more enlightened, as in less bellicose. Maybe Hillary Clinton’s refusal to say her Iraq vote was wrong shows that she has neo-con sympathies;

-the unconscionable illusion that

both would probably be equally good on women’s rights, abortion rights and judicial appointments.

-some good ol’ fashioned CDS

Let’s say goodbye to the Clintons and have some new people make history.

-and finally, the cool crowd of “feminists” is with me

(with link to petition to sign)

Plenty of feminists support Obama, by the way. for example Kate Michelman, former head of NARAL, and Ellen Bravo of Nine to Five. I signed a letter from ” New York Feminists for Peace and Barack Obama.”Other signers include the historians Linda Gordon, Alice Kessler Harris and Ros Baxandall; the sociologist Judith Stacey; the political scientist Ros Petchesky,and writers Margo Jefferson and Meredith Tax. You can read it and, if you are a New York feminist, sign it, here .

So, all together now: thank you oh, enlightened ones! Thank you for Stupak, Nelson, FOCA on the back burner, abortion a moral issue, women when getting the blues getting abortions – and Democratic party breaking into pieces!

At least it wasn’t a woman’s fault… Just a bunch of them, signing a petition.

You did real good! And don’t you ever admit you were fooled or sold out, or anything! Or else, the misogynists will get you!

Me, I am old enough to remember the times when being feminist meant FIGHTING misogyny… But what do I know?

Cartoon of the Day – Irony edition

Moments in pathetic history

Now that Obama marches in full retreat on HCR, this would be a fond memory – but one more item needs crossing in red

Jon Stewart said recently “we need to set the bar lower for the Democrats – leave it on the floor – maybe they’ll trip on it”

and the B0bot discussion at the time, last decade (month)

And on edit – remember the sense of urgency to pass this  on Christmas? remember how anyone opposing it was deemed as wanting the uninsured to die? In spite of the fact it was not going into effect for 3 years? Of course it was not about that deadline, it was all about the SOTU speech. Which wash carefully scheduled so as not to conflict with the season premiere of Lost. I guess they were afraid it would be redundant.

My moral: don’t count your chickens till the eggs run on your face.

..

Quote of the Day

“There are a number of things he was for on the campaign trail,”

Nancy Pelosi answering a question about Obama’s campaign pledges re: C-Span being allowed to film the House Senate negotiations on Health Club for Men