The Right Wing Way: Defend BP, destroy ACORN

Despite their “angry populism” grandstanding and the constant “small government” sales pitch, all you need to know about Republican priorities is that they stand up for corporations and they condemn any group as radical and corrupt that is actively looking out for poor and working class people.

There is nothing more telling about the Republican party than comparing how they have behaved following the BP oil spill with how they behaved during the whole Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now scandal.

You might remember last September a videotape surfaced. It was aired night and day on Fox News. It showed ACORN workers seemingly showing a couple, dressed as a “pimp and ho,” how to avoid paying federal taxes.

The Republicans went off. They led a charge to de-fund the group, even before ACORN had been found guilty for any wrongdoing. The Senate blocked HUD from giving ACORN grants. The Census Bureau severed its ties with ACORN, saying it does not want the group’s help in outreach efforts on the decennial count.

The group, which advocates for poor people, conducted a massive voter registration effort last year and became a target of conservatives when some employees were accused of submitting false registration forms with names such as “Mickey Mouse.” Prosecutors in Miami-Dade County, Fla. arrested 11 people for falsifying hundreds of voter applications during a registration drive last year.

But here’s the thing, it was ACORN who tipped the authorities off to the problem.

That supposed “pimp and ho” video was a forgery. The conservative activist, who later was arrested for breaking into Mary Landreu’s office, made it appear as if he went into the ACORN offices dressed as some lavish pimp. That’s not even true. He walked in dressed normally then dubbed in the “pimp and ho” outfit later. He edited out the parts where ACORN staff told him to get out of their office.

In the end, ACORN was vindicated of all wrongdoing. But it doesn’t matter because the damage has been done. The group effectively no longer exists, since its funding was yanked, due to this “conservative activist” lies and manipulation. It has vanished because of the willingness of Republicans to grandstand and point fingers as well as the cowardice of Democrats. Now this group, after 50 years of advocacy that helped countless poor and minority people re-negotiate their home loans and find jobs; this group who has fought tirelessly for living wages in urban communities, has been effectively destroyed.

Now, let’s fast forward to BP. That one contract, the one that’s spilling thousands of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico daily, was worth $60 billion. When its CEO Tony Hayward was questioned at a congressional hearing, he claimed the company had 14,000 active drilling sites. In the past five years, BP has had 760 safety violations and has paid $373 million in fines.

Twelve violations were directly related to the handling and management of highly hazardous materials, including the following litany:

being cited for not addressing recommendations made by the refinery’s process hazard analysis; for not ensuring piping and instrument diagrams were complete and accurate; for failing to provide or update certain written operating procedures; for failing to document each test and inspection performed on process equipment; and for failing to establish a regular frequency for such inspections.

Back in 2005, you might remember an explosion at its Texas City refinery killed 15 people and injured another 170. BP represents more than 97 percent of “flagrant” violations in oil industry. Between 2008 and 2010, BP received 862 violations for two plants — one in Texas City and the other in Toledo, Oh. This recent Gulf spill of course came after 11 workers were killed.

Instead of outrage, instead of demanding that the government severe its ties with BP, instead of pushing for a criminal negligence investigation, the Republicans apologized for the company, blasting the White House for being “un-American, anti-business, and partisan.”

“I’m speaking totally for myself, I’m not speaking for the Republican Party … but I’m ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday,” Republican Rep. Joe Barton, accusing the President of orchestrating a $20 billion shakedown against BP.

So, here’s how it works. They crucify a nonprofit that helps poor people without any credible evidence, in fact as it turns out entirely manufactured evidence, and they do so without a blink of an eye or an apology. But when it comes to a corporation whose negligence has so far killed two dozen and injured hundreds, and entirely destroyed the Gulf of Mexico, they apologize to the company?

Read the story.