Think Progress

Obama To Hedge Fund Manager Who Complains Of Being ‘Whacked’: ‘Most Folks On Main Street’ Feel Beat Up

Today, President Obama participated in a live CNBC townhall event. Recently, Obama has been feeling the “rage of the rich,” as Paul Krugman describes it today. One top Wall Street executive recently compared Obama’s tax proposals to Hitler’s invasion of Poland. During today’s discussion, Anthony Scaramucci, a CNBC contributor who is also a hedge fund manager, stood up to represent the aggrieved “Wall Street community.”

Scaramucci told Obama, “We have felt like a piñata,” complaining that “we certainly feel like we’ve been whacked with a stick.” Obama responded that Scaramucci needs to put things into perspective:

Now, you know, I have been amused over the last couple years, this sense of somehow me beating up on Wall Street. I think most folks on Main Street feel like they got beat up on. … There’s — there’s a big chunk of the country that thinks that I have been too soft on Wall Street. That’s probably the majority, not the minority.

Obama went on to note that the top 25 hedge fund managers took home $1 billion in profits last year. “If you’re making $1 billion a year after a very bad financial crisis where 8 million people lost their jobs and small businesses can’t get loans,” Obama said, “then I think that you shouldn’t be feeling put upon,” Watch it:

Indeed, 54 percent of respondents in a recent WSJ/NBC poll said Obama has “fallen short” on improving oversight of Wall Street and the banks, despite his signing of a new law that will put in place the most significant improvements to the nation’s regulatory framework since the New Deal.

The Wall Street Journal notes today that business groups are working with the GOP to compile a wish-list of regulations they’d like to see stopped or repealed. It’s no surprise, then, that Wall Street executives have been contributing upwards of 70 percent of their political contributions to Republicans.

PG&E Never Used $5 Million Rate Hike It Touted For Repairs To Fix Pipeline It Admitted Was ‘High Risk’

Last week, a natural gas pipeline exploded in a San Bruno, California, neighborhood. The explosion, which let loose “a thunderous roar heard for miles,” destroyed scores of homes and killed at least four people.

Now, a consumer advocacy group has discovered that the company that operated the faulty pipeline, Pacific Gas & Energy (PG&E), had classified it as “high risk” and failed to utilize the funds it had collected from a rate hike to repair it. The Utility Reform Network (TURN) has obtained documents detailing the energy giant’s request to the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) for a rate hike in 2007. PG&E asked the PUC for permission for a $5 million rate hike to “replace a section of the same pipeline that blew up in San Bruno.” The PUC approved PG&E’s request, allowing it to hike its rates so that it could repair the line in 2009.

Yet the energy giant failed to go through with its scheduled repairs. And in 2009, it once again requested a rate hike from the PUC, again for $5 million. In its request, PG&E warned that if “the replacement of this pipe does not occur, risks associated with this segment will not be reduced. Coupled with the consequences of failure of this section of pipeline, the likelihood of a failure makes the risk of a failure at this location unacceptably high.” Despite these admitted risks, the company could only promise to make its repairs by 2013.

Local news station KTVU asked PG&E President Chris Johns why his company failed to make the repairs on schedule, despite recognizing that the pipeline was a considerable risk and using a rate hike on consumer to do it. “Some things happen when we’re going down, and a year later maybe some other item becomes more emergent that we need to fix,” replied Johns. “And so that’s why we will redirect funds to take care of the things that are urgent today, and then go back and say what are the things that are urgent tomorrow.”

While the company failed to spend the $5 million it took from customers in 2009 to repair the faulty pipeline, it did spend that exact same amount in the same year on bonuses for its executives, according to TURN. Many California families are worried about future pipeline disasters, but the company is refusing to reveal the locations of its other underground pipelines, citing possible terror threats. Assemblyman Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) is considering legislation to force PG&E to reveal the locations.

REPORT: Mariner Energy Cited For Two Violations In Past Six Months, Totaling $55,000

A mile-long oil sheen is now reportedly visible where an offshore oil and gas platform exploded this morning in the Gulf of Mexico. The Vermilion Oil Rig 360, owned by Mariner Energy — which was recently purchased by Apache Corp. — was producing about 58,800 gallons of oil and 900,000 cubic feet of gas per day.

As ThinkProgress noted, just yesterday Mariner Energy said the Obama administration’s moratorium on offshore drilling is “trying to break us.” Mariner Energy also made a recent filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission saying its operations “may be impacted in the future by increased regulatory oversight, which may increase the cost of” Outer Continental Shelf wells “and delay drilling and production therefrom.”

But if today’s explosion wasn’t enough evidence, government safety records indicate that Mariner Energy and Apache Corp. are desperately in need of regulation. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s Outer Continental Shelf Civil/Criminal Penalties Program cited Mariner Energy for two violations just in the first six months of this year, and once more in 2007.

A summary of the fines assessed against Mariner Energy:

– Two violations in 2010, totaling $55,000.

– One violation in 2007, for $30,000.

Apache Energy has been cited for 22 violations since 1998, totaling over $1.74 million in fines, including a $435,000 fine this year for removing a key piece of equipment from a sump system, which then “could not automatically maintain oil at a level sufficient to prevent discharge into the Gulf of Mexico.”

A summary of the fines assessed against Apache Corp.:

– Two violations in 2010, totaling $690,000.

– Two violations in 2008, totaling $135,000.

– Three violations in 2007, totaling $486,000.

– Five violations in 2006, totaling $216,000.

– Three violations in 2005, totaling $122,000.

– One violation in 2004, for $5,000.

– One violation in 2002, for $13,000.

– Four violations in 2001, totaling $70,000.

– One violation in 1999, for $6,000.

Mariner Energy is probably right that the company will be “impacted” by “increased regulatory oversight.” But its workers, and the Gulf ecosystem, might avoid being impacted as they were today.

One Day Before Its Gulf Oil Rig Exploded, Mariner Energy Said Obama ‘Is Trying To Break Us’ With Moratorium

The U.S. Coast Guard said this morning that a natural gas and oil drilling platform exploded 80 miles off the coast of Louisiana. A Coast Guard spokesperson said the platform, Vermilion Oil Rig 360, is an oil and gas platform in 2,500 feet of water and is owned by Houston-based Mariner Energy. It is not currently producing oil or gas. (The AP updates its story to note the platform was in production at the time of the fire.) Apache Corp. recently purchased Mariner in a multi-billion dollar deal.

Just yesterday, however, the Financial Times reported that employees from Apache and Mariner, along with thousands of oil industry workers, rallied in Houston to protest the Obama administration’s offshore drilling moratorium that was designed as a safety precaution after BP’s disastrous Gulf oil spill. A Mariner Energy employee chastised the Obama administration for its drilling moratorium, which would not have affected the rig that exploded today:

Companies ranging from Chevron to Apache bussed in up to 5,000 employees to the Houston convention centre to underline to Washington the industry’s contribution to the country. [...]

“I have been in the oil and gas industry for 40 years, and this administration is trying to break us,” said Barbara Dianne Hagood, senior landman for Mariner Energy, a small company. “The moratorium they imposed is going to be a financial disaster for the gulf coast, gulf coast employees and gulf coast residents.”

Apache Corp. recently agreed to buy BP assets in order to help the British oil giant meet its financial obligations as a result of its Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Thirteen workers were on the rig when it exploded; the Coast Guard has said that “all 13 workers involved in the production platform explosion are accounted for, but one person is injured.”

REPORT: CEOs At Top 50 Companies That Laid Off Most Workers Raked In Millions In Compensation

The Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) released its annual report on executive compensation today — “CEO Pay and the Great Recession.” “I’m afraid that this year’s report will raise just about everybody’s blood pressure,” lead author Sarah Anderson said. Indeed, the report found that “CEOs of the 50 firms that have laid off the most workers since the onset of the economic crisis took home nearly $12 million on average in 2009.” Those CEOs’ combined compensation totaled $598 million, while at the same time, their companies eliminated 531,363 jobs despite reporting a 44 percent average profit increase for 2009.

More staggering is the level of executive pay, according to IPS:

[A]fter adjusting for inflation, CEO pay in 2009 more than doubled the CEO pay average for the decade of the 1990s, more than quadrupled the CEO pay average for the 1980s, and ran approximately eight times the CEO average for all the decades of the mid-20th century.

American workers, by contrast, are taking home less in real weekly wages than they took home in the 1970s.

The Kansas City Star took a closer look at some of the CEOs and companies in IPS’s report:

Fred Hassan, former CEO of Schering-Plough, presided over announced layoffs affecting 16,000 workers after a 2009 merger with Merck. He resigned after the merger, receiving “golden parachute” compensation in 2009 of more than $49.6 million to rank as the highest-paid layoff leader.

The top five companies announcing the most layoffs for the study period were General Motors (75,733); Citigroup (52,175); Bank of America (35,000); Caterpillar (27,499) and Verizon (21,308). Among those top five, the biggest compensation package — nearly $17.5 million — went to Ivan Seidenberg, CEO of Verizon.

According to IPS, American CEOs make 263 times the average compensation for American workers, up from the 30 to 1 ratio in the 1970s. For comparison, the average compensation of a Japanese CEO is less than one-sixth that of their American counterpart and 16 times more than the average Japanese worker.

But on top of the lavish CEO pay at the expense of the American worker, many of these top-layoff firms received money from the taxpayer bailouts in 2008. Of these, IPS notes, “American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault took home the highest 2009 pay, $16.8 million, a sum that included a $5 million cash bonus. American Express has laid off 4,000 employees since receiving $3.39 billion in TARP funding.”

“These numbers all reflect a broader trend in Great Recession-era Corporate America,” the IPS report says, “the relentless squeezing of worker jobs, pay and benefits to boost corporate earnings and maintain corporate executive paychecks at their recent bloated levels.”

What You Need To Know About Rick Scott: The Corrupt And Fraudulent GOP Gubernatorial Nominee In Florida

Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Rick Scott

In his victory speech last night, Rick Scott, the 57 year old former health care executive and founder of the health care attack group Conservatives For Patients Rights, assured Republicans that the “party will come together” after a particularly bruising primary challenge against Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum. Scott entered the race in April and proceeded to spend approximately $50 million of his estimated $218 million fortune on a negative campaign that sought to deflect attention from his past business controversies and smear McCollum as a product of the establishment.

That outlandish sum, however, is not nearly as shocking as how Scott came to acquire it — as the chief executive of one of the largest and most controversial for-profit hospital chains in the country, Columbia/HCA.

In 1987, Scott, a mergers and acquisitions lawyer who “had cut his teen on deals involving radio stations, fast food businesses, and oil and gas companies before focusing in on the money to be made by acquiring hospitals,” didn’t enter the health care business for the sake of improving the quality of care, but rather wanted to “do for hospitals…what McDonald’s has done in the food business” and “what Wal-Mart has done in the retailing business.” The goal, as Maggie Mahar explains in Money Driven Medicine, “was to combine volume with low cost.” This quote is demonstrative: “Do we have an obligation to provide health care for everybody? Where do we draw the line? Is any fast-food restaurant obligated to feed everyone who shows up?” he asked.

Indeed, through an aggressive strategy of rapid acquisitions and consolidation, Scott turned Columbia/HCA into one of the largest health care companies in the world. Forbes magazine noted Scott ruthlessly bought “hospitals by the bucketful and promised to squeeze blood from each one.” HCA/Columbia executives saw health care as any other commodity. “This industry’s not any different than an airline industry or a ball bearing industry,” said David T. Vandewater, Columbia’s chief operating officer. “You run at 40 percent of capacity or at 60 percent of capacity you’re not getting the maximum value out of your assets.”

Under Scott’s leadership, Columbia/HCA pled guilty to an massive array of fraud charges — which resulted in a fraud settlement of $1.7 billion dollars, the largest in U.S history. Columbia/HCA systematically defrauded taxpayers, charging Medicare $15,000 for Tiffany pitchers and other luxury goods, “exaggerating the seriousness of the illnesses they were treating,” and engineering a program where doctors were granted partnerships in hospitals as a kickback for referring patients. In 1997, “disaster struck in the form of an FBI raid.” In July of that year, “federal agents swarmed Columbia/HCA hospitlas and offices in five states. Within weeks, three executives were indicted on charges of Medicare fraud, and the board had ousted Scott.” Scott left in disgrace, but not before walking away with “a $9.88 million severance package, along with 10 million shares of stock worth up to $300 million at the time.”

During Scott’s tenure at Columbia/HCA, his cost cutting methods threatened patient care and safety:

– Susan Marks, a technician at one of Scott’s hospitals, was forced to monitor 72 heart monitors by herself. Marks explained, “I have to. I’ve been told you either do it, or there’s the door.” [ABC News, 9/26/97]

– Scott downsized nursing staffs, created conditions where “babies were attended as infrequently as every three hours. Once, the only nurse caring for seven ill infants was so busy she failed to hear an alarm when a baby stopped breathing. A parent dashed to the baby and stimulated breathing, the state report said.” [New York Times, 5/11/97]

– Hospital workers in Florida complained, “gloves come in only one size, and rip easily.” In addition, California employees protested “filthy conditions,” and being “stretched to the limit” as Scott’s company slashed “the ratio of nurses to patients.” [Money Driven Medicine, pg. 119]

In 2001, Scott would return to health care and the “McDonalds model,” with a chain of urgent care clinics all over Florida. And as Tristam Korten explained in this two part series for Salon, it quickly replicated many of Columbia/HCA’s favorite business practices.

Crosso-posted at the Wonk Room.

Pickens Laments That He Failed To Convince Bush And Obama To Take Iraq’s Oil

Oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens made headlines late last year as he openly advocated to members of Congress that the United States seize the oil fields of Iraq and use them for its own benefit, arguing that our country is “entitled” to the oil.

Speaking at the American Renewable Energy Day conference in Aspen, Colorado, last week, Pickens once again lamented the fact that the United States failed to take Iraq’s oil, and even revealed that he personally lobbied former President George W. Bush and current President Barack Obama to seize the country’s natural resources. The oil baron explained that President Bush, though interested in how such a plan would be structured, ultimately failed to agree to enact Pickens’ scheme, fearing that it would make people “think we’re there for the oil.” Pickens also said he told Obama to stay in Iraq to appropriate the country’s oil fields, but failed to convince the president of the merits of his idea:

“I’ve heard people accuse President Bush of going to Iraq for their oil,” he began, in a public conversation with CNN founder Ted Turner and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. “That didn’t happen. We didn’t get the oil.”

Pickens argued that the American blood shed in the war was reason enough to take the oil. But, he said, Bush was too concerned about his image and appearing as if the war were a ploy to get the oil to follow Pickens’ plan. [...]

The 82-year-old Texan recalled a conversation with President Bush as his days in office waned, in which Bush asked about how they could bring the oil to market and battle the public perception that Operation Iraqi Freedom was a war for oil.

“He said, ‘People will think we’re there for the oil.’ And I said, ‘That was eight years ago, a lot’s happened since then — a lot of money spent, a lot of lives lost.’ And he said, ‘How would you price it?’ I said, ‘Price it on the market every day.’”

Bush then asked more detailed questions about the pricing structure, and Pickens recalled pushing those concerns aside and telling the president, “That’s a high-class problem. We can figure out how to get it in the hands where it’d do best for America.” He made a similar plea to Obama, Pickens said, with similar results. “I went to Obama and said, ‘Don’t leave Iraq.’ Look where we are now.”

It is difficult to understand how Pickens squares his view that the United States should have continued to indefinitely occupy Iraq to take its oil with his much-touted “Pickens Plan” designed to “break America’s addiction to foreign oil.” If what Pickens says about his lobbying of two American presidents to try to seize Iraq’s oil is true, it calls into question his sincerity in pursuing his stated goal of energy independence.

BP Pulls Ads On ThinkProgress After Wonk Room Reports On Its Greenwashing Campaign

Yesterday, ThinkProgress climate editor Brad Johnson reported on The Wonk Room that big oil giant BP has been engaged in a “massive greenwashing campaign, which includes months of full-page advertisements in national and regional newspapers, radio spots, television commercials, and Internet ads on websites including ThinkProgress.org.” Pursuant to Johnson’s posting, BP has decided to pull its ads from ThinkProgress.

Here’s what happened. BP purchased advertising on ThinkProgress through Common Sense Media, our outside ad company. Common Sense Media services a whole network of liberal sites, including Firedoglake, Crooks and Liars, AmericaBlog, Eschaton, and others.

BP has an agreement with Common Sense Media to be notified about blog postings that are critical of its advertising campaign, and BP reserves the right to pull ads if they are offended by the posts. ThinkProgress was aware that BP would in fact be notified of our post. Nevertheless, we felt the story of BP’s massive ad campaign was an important issue that deserved attention on our blog.

Today, our ad provider notified ThinkProgress that BP has asked that all its ads on the ThinkProgress sites (TP, Yglesias, and Wonk Room) be pulled through the end of their campaign.

When I informed the ThinkProgress community in Aug. 2008 that we were introducing one paid advertising spot on our site, I stated: “Please rest assured that our advertisers will have absolutely no bearing on determining or influencing what we do or don’t write about.” The commitment, of course, cost us some advertising money from BP in the short-run. But the cost for maintaining our long-term credibility, our progressive identity, and your readership is well worth it.

EXCLUSIVE: Coal Barons At Industry Retreat Plot To Indoctrinate Children About Wonders Of Coal

This past weekend, coal company executives convened for the annual West Virginia Coal Association meeting in White Sulphur Springs, WV. The event, which was closed to the public, was held at the lavish Greenbrier Resort, where an overnight stay can cost upwards of $6,000 (plus tax). One panelist at the meeting, state Senate Finance Chairman Walt Helmick, pointed out the exclusivity of the resort hotel: “I used to drive by the Greenbrier often when I was young, but I never had the money to come in because I’m a former coal miner.”

During the event, over 100 attendees collaborated on issues from hiring industry lobbyists to fighting federal regulations. However, one of the biggest concerns on the minds of coal executives was how to ensure children would be taught an industry-friendly approach to coal issues in the classroom.

During a membership meeting attended by ThinkProgress, attendees took the opportunity to vent about their poor public perception and accused teachers of turning children against them. One coal executive, Jim Bunn, summed up the general sentiment:

BUNN: There’s so much negativity in the classroom, and I really don’t understand that. I can tell you that every industry has negatives throughout. I don’t care what it is. The education system has negatives. We need to get them to understand that we are not Darth Vader, we are good people. We’re just like you in that we come to work every morning.

West Virginia Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin concurred, saying, “I agree with you that those kind of programs could be expanded” because West Virginia children are being unduly influenced by “what they hear on the national news…on how bad coal is.” Coal executives and state legislators continued their mutual admiration for changing the state curriculum to be more pro-industry. A coal executive named Joe proposed the idea of a statewide “Coal Day”:

JOE: There’s a West Virginia labor day recognized in public schools. I think something like that could work in the coal context as well. Pick a day of the year that West Virginia public schools would discuss mining, its concept, its history, its contribution to the state of West Virginia. Food for thought.

STATE SENATE ENERGY, INDUSTRY & MINING CHAIRMAN MIKE GREEN: I remember in the 8th grade getting a lot of information about coal, about the history of coal. Is that still being done?

UNIDENTIFIED AUDIENCE MEMBER: Actually, it’s just the opposite. They get taught how bad coal is in our schools.

Some at the meeting weren’t satisfied with just a single day devoted to coal. A coal executive named Michael went further, proposing an entire week of coal-friendly lessons for kids:

MICHAEL: Is there a way for the legislature to have a course ‘natural resource week,’ where coal, natural gas, other topics can be taught? We have national history week in this country, everybody creates a national week of something. Is there a way to create a standards of learning that the legislature would passed that the activists could not keep out of the schools so we could get that education across?”

GREEN: I think we should. I think that’s a great idea. I think we need to check with our colleagues in Virginia and see if we can get that done. I don’t think my colleagues disagree with that, do you? [All shook their heads in agreement.]

The coal industry has indeed made headway in altering West Virginia’s classrooms. In October 2009, the Raleigh County school board approved “a pro-coal curriculum designed by retired teachers and the Friends of Coal Ladies Auxiliary.” As part of the curriculum, fourth-graders at Stratton Elementary were taken on a field trip to the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine where each student was given “a coloring book, compliments of the auxiliary, illustrating how coal is mined and how it is burned for energy.”

One of the groups that has made significant progress enacting a pro-coal curriculum is Friends of Coal, the coal industry group that sponsored the Greenbrier retreat. Its education affiliate, CEDAR (Coal Education Development and Resource of Southern West Virginia, Inc.), is a “partnership between the coal industry, business community and educators.” Its stated mission is “to facilitate the increase of knowledge and understanding of the many benefits the coal industry provides in daily lives by providing financial resources and coal education materials to implement its study in the school curriculum.”

With coal industry executives united in this effort, and state legislators working on their behalf to implement such changes, West Virginia’s revisionist education curriculum may soon put even Texas to shame.

EXCLUSIVE: Sandra Bullock Disowns BP-Backed Greenwashing Campaign

Academy Award-winning actress and New Orleans resident Sandra Bullock has severed her involvement in a campaign to call attention to the BP spill, after learning from ThinkProgress that it was a greenwashing effort by the oil industry. Bullock is prominently featured in the Restore the Gulf campaign, run by Women of the Storm and sponsored by America’s Wetland Foundation.

In an online video with other major celebrities, Bullock called for American people to “speak up” and “sign the petition” for Congress and President Obama at the campaign website, which demands that “a plan to restore America’s Gulf be fully funded and implemented for me and future generations.” The YouTube video makes her the face of the campaign:

Unbeknownst to Bullock, America’s Wetland Foundation is a front group established by Shell Oil in 2002 and funded by the American Petroleum Institute, BP, and a host of other oil companies. Women of the Storm was established after Hurricane Katrina by Anne Milling, the wife of America’s Wetland chairman R. King Milling, who is part of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s (R-LA) team to lift the offshore drilling moratorium. This greenwashing campaign, first uncovered by DeSmogBlog.com’s Brendan Demelle, subtly includes mentions of “safe domestic energy” and oil industry factoids, while implying that American taxpayers, not the unmentioned oil industry, should pay for restoring the region BP has poisoned.

Sandra Bullock’s publicist tells ThinkProgress the actress was never informed of the campaign’s big oil ties. In a statement issued to ThinkProgress, Bullock’s representatives indicated they would immediately ask “for her participation in the PSA be removed until the facts can be determined”:

Ms. Bullock was originally contacted through her attorney to be a part of the PSA in order to promote awareness of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. At no time was she made aware that any organization, oil company or otherwise had influence over Women of the Storm or its message. We have immediately asked for her participation in the PSA be removed until the facts can be determined. Her commitment to the Gulf region has been apparent for many years and she will continue to pursue opportunities that will bring awareness and support to the plight of the Gulf region.

With its deep pockets, BP’s focus should be on supplying necessary funds to restore the Gulf region, not secretly supporting greenwashing campaigns to redirect blame. The people of the Gulf of Mexico don’t need the toxic influence of the oil industry, and the American people don’t need its toxic pollution.

BP Chairman: Tony Hayward Did A ‘Great Job,’ Ouster Was Simply To Help ‘Rebuild’ The BP ‘Brand’

Over the weekend, news broke that three months after his oil company’s rig set off the largest oil spill in American history, BP CEO Tony Hayward would be stepping down. In his resignation statement, Hayward stressed that, “BP will be a changed company as a result of” its oil spill in the Gulf.

As the Progress Report today details, “Hayward’s departure will mark the end of a disastrous legacy that was spent botching the company’s response to its oil spill in the Gulf.” Almost a month after the gusher released 32 million gallons of toxic oil into the surrounding ocean as well as an unprecedented amount of chemical dispersants, Hayward told Sky News that “the environmental impact of this disaster is likely to be very, very modest.” In May, Hayward told a reporter who asked him about the victims of his company’s oil spill, “We’re sorry for the massive disruption it’s caused their lives. There’s no one who wants this over more than I do. I would like my life back.”

However, BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg, who has previously told the American public that he cares about the “little people,” appeared on CNBC this morning to celebrate Hayward’s record at BP. “Tony Hayward has done a great job for the company,” Svanberg said proudly. He then admitted to CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo that the change in leadership at BP is simply cosmetic. Hayward’s presence at the company, Svanberg explained, hurt its image, so replacing Hayward was based simply on “rebuild[ing]” the BP “brand and reputation”:

SVANBERG: Tony Hayward has done a great job for the company through his almost thirty years and he has done it very well, greatly as a CEO. He has driven the company’s performance and developed the company in many, many ways. He has also led an unprecedented response in the Gulf of Mexico. But it became obvious to him and to us that in order to rebuild our position, in order to rebuilt our brand and reputation, we needed fresh leadership and that is why we are doing the change.

BARTIROMO: Of course on Hayward’s watch, the company suffered and the country in America suffered the worst environmental disaster ever.

Watch it:

Given the golden parachute pension Hayward received — “an immediate £600,000-a-year ($930,000) pension when he leaves the firm in October” — it’s no wonder his fellow executives at BP think highly of his tenure at the oil conglomerate.

Target Donates $150K To Group Supporting Candidate Who Wants To Cut Waiters’ Minimum Wage

Earlier this year, Republicans were overjoyed when the Supreme Court overturned “a 63-year-old law designed to restrain the influence of big business and unions on elections.” As Common Cause noted, January’s Citizens United decision enhanced “the ability of the deepest-pocketed special interests to influence elections and the U.S. Congress.”

Thanks to Citizens United, Target is now a major Republican donor, giving $150,000 to MN Forward, a “Republican-friendly political fund staffed by insiders from departing GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s administration.” The AP reports on the retail chain’s new activism:

A Target spokeswoman said the company supports causes and candidates “based strictly on issues that affect our retail and business objectives.” Spokeswoman Lena Michaud said Target has a history of giving in state and local races where allowed, but wouldn’t provide detail on those donations.

She added that TargetCitizens, the company’s federal political action committee, has spread donations evenly between Democrats and Republicans so far this year. Political action committees contribute money collected from employees and shareholders, not from corporate funds.

Target’s donations to MN Forward – $100,000 in cash and $50,000 in brand consulting — slightly exceeds the total amount the company has given this year to all campaigns and causes at the federal level. By contrast, individuals can give a maximum of only $2,000 to candidates under Minnesota law.

MN Forward is running ads supporting Tom Emmer, the presumptive GOP nominee for Minnesota governor. Target spokeswoman Lena Michaud said the company gives money to candidates who are focused on making “economic growth a priority.”

Emmer’s — and, apparently, Target’s — idea of “economic growth” involves slashing the wages of working Americans. This month, Emmer proposed cutting the minimum wage for service workers who receive tips, such as bartenders and waiters. Attempting to justify these cuts, Emmer claimed that some of these employees earn “over $100,000 a year” and often make more than the people who employ them:

“With the tips that they get to take home, they are some people earning over $100,000 a year. More than the very people providing the jobs and investing not only their life savings but their families’ future,” Emmer said. [...]

“Government can only inhibit business, can only keep it from growing, as opposed to creating jobs,” he said. “Right now, we have too much of it, guys. We’ve got to pull government back.”

Of course, most Minnesota food and beverage service workers don’t earn anything near $100,000 a year. Emmer’s other extreme views include advocating nullification of certain parts of the Constitution and declaring health care reform unconstitutional. He also embraces Arizona’s far-right immigration law and once proposed chemical castration for sex offenders.

Target’s support of Emmer and MN Forward is also angering LGBT activists, who viewed the company as progressive on gay issues. The retail chain is “one of the largest sponsors of LGBT events around Minnesota each year.” Emmer, however, has supported a “constitutional marriage amendment that protects traditional marriage.” In light of its corporate giving, Twin Cities Pride said it is “reviewing its partnership with Target.” OutFront Minnesota released a statement reading, “Emmer stands alone among candidates for governor in opposing equality for GLBT Minnesotans. Target should not stand with him.” (Change.org has a petition demanding that Target stop donating to anti-gay politicians here.)

Target also recently hired the chief of staff to Sen. John Thune (R-SD) to become its new head lobbyist.

Koch Industries Takes Credit For The ‘Spontaneous’ Tea Parties: We’re Glad We ‘Helped Stimulate’ Them

As ThinkProgress has documented, the lobbyist-run Americans for Prosperity (AFP) has been instrumental in orchestrating the Tea Party movement. The group coordinated “grassroots” protests around the country and provided organizations and communications support to the Tea Parties. AFP staffers are also regular presence at Tea Party rallies. The man behind AFP is David Koch, who is one of the richest men in the world thanks to his oil, chemicals, and manufacturing conglomerate Koch Industries. In 2009, AFP President Tim Phillips said he “launched our organization.”

Koch Industries and AFP have largely tried to keep their distance from the Tea Parties. From a May 2010 interview with the Frum Forum’s Tim Mak:

Most incredibly striking is Koch’s efforts to distance itself from the Tea Party movement. “We’ve been labeled tea party founders or funders – in fact, masterminds – but that’s not consistent with the facts,” said Fink. “To my knowledge, we have not been approached for support by any of the newer ‘tea party’ or other grassroots groups that have sprung up around the country in the past year or so.”

However, now that Tea Parties are becoming institutionalized, Fink is taking some credit. While still calling the Tea Parties “spontaneous,” he says that Koch would be happy to know that he helped “stimulate” these people into action and acknowledged the role of AFP:

Q: What about the accusations that you are driving these activities – that they’re corporate-sponsored ‘astro-turf’ rather than real grassroots movements?

A: That’s nonsense. … Tea parties reflect a spontaneous recognition by people that if they do not act, the government will bankrupt their families and their country. They’re absolutely right about that.

Now, if our work over the past 30 or 40 years has helped stimulate some of those citizens who are becoming more active, that’s great, but it’s a far cry from pulling strings.

What we have done is support the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, which has been active in various forms for nearly 30 years. … AFP and its state chapters have begun collaborating with tea party groups, and we’re in favor of any group willing to constructively address irresponsible government policies.

Koch Industries communications director Melissa Cohlmia has also insisted to ThinkProgress that “AFP is an independent organization and Koch companies do not in any way direct their activities.” However, both Koch and Fink serve as directors of the AFP Foundation.

AFP has used the Tea Parties to push causes that fit the agenda of its wealthy backers. Even though the estate tax hits only the very wealthiest estates — 99.8 percent are not subject to this tax — AFP was urging its members to lobby Congress to block a reinstatement of the estate tax.

BP Launches Effort To Control Scientific Research Of Oil Disaster

Foreign oil giant BP is on a spending spree, buying Gulf Coast scientists for its private contractor army. Scientists from Louisiana State University, Mississippi State University and Texas A&M have “signed contracts with BP to work on their behalf in the Natural Resources Damage Assessment (NRDA) process” that determines how much ecological damage the Gulf of Mexico region is suffering from BP’s toxic black tide. The contract, the Mobile Press-Register has learned, “prohibits the scientists from publishing their research, sharing it with other scientists or speaking about the data that they collect for at least the next three years.” Bob Shipp, head of marine sciences at the University of South Alabama — whose entire department BP wished to hire — refused to sign over their integrity to the corporate criminal:

We told them there was no way we would agree to any kind of restrictions on the data we collect. It was pretty clear we wouldn’t be hearing from them again after that. We didn’t like the perception of the university representing BP in any fashion.

The lucrative $250-an-hour deal “buys silence,” said Robert Wiygul, an Ocean Springs environmental lawyer who analyzed the contract. “It makes me feel like they were more interested in making sure we couldn’t testify against them than in having us testify for them,” said George Crozier, head of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, who was approached by BP.

These efforts to buy silence and cooperation come in addition to the $500 million Gulf Research Initiative, a Tobacco Institute-like program managed by a panel picked by BP to disburse scientific research grants in the coming years. Louisiana State University, University of Florida’s Florida Institute of Oceanography, and Mississippi State University’s Northern Gulf Institute have already accepted $10 million each.

In contrast, the federal government has failed to coordinate the massive research program needed to save the Gulf, preventing academic researchers from observing the data collected by the NRDA teams that include both government and BP contractors. “The science is already suffering,” Richard Shaw, associate dean of Louisiana State University’s School of the Coast and Environment said. “The government needs to come through with funding for the universities. They are letting go of the most important group of scientists, the ones who study the Gulf.” (HT: The Independent Weekly)

BP Ran Magazine Article Extolling Relations With Libya As It Secretly Lobbied For Terrorist’s Release

BP received a new round of scrutiny yesterday when it admitted that officials had lobbied the British government in 2007 to “conclude a prisoner-transfer agreement that the Libyan government wanted to secure the release of the only person ever convicted for the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing over Scotland, which killed 270 people, 189 of them Americans.” BP was “worried that a stalemate on that front would undercut an oil exploration deal with Libya.”

The new details demonstrate that BP was willing to risk international security for pure profit motives. The UK ambassador to the U.S. issued yesterday stated that the British government “is clear that Megrahi’s release was a mistake,” but denied any link with BP. (The UK justice minister at the time, Jack Straw, had admitted that the BP-Libya deal was a factor in the government’s review of Al-Megrahi’s case.) The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a hearing on the issue, and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) said BP should freeze its operations in Libya because it “should not be allowed to profit on this deal at the expense of the victims of terrorism.”

As BP was privately lobbying the UK government, it was also publicly trying to improve the country’s image and extolling how beneficial an oil relationship between Libya and BP would be for Britain. ThinkProgress found an old BP Magazine (Issue 4 2007) that ran an entire article titled, “Libya: A Commanding Presence on the World Stage.” In the piece, a BP official essentially brushes aside the Lockerbie bombing:

“When you talk to people outside about Libya, Lockerbie is often the first thing they think of — terrorism. In actual fact, it’s probably one of the safest places I’ve been to with BP,” says BP Libya’s business support manager, Ian McGregor.

“Initially, most people ask about security. They think it’s very unsafe, or there are a lot of army and guns everywhere. To be honest, it’s the absolute opposite.” [...]

Speaking at the signing, Hayward hailed the agreement as the start of an enduring and mutually beneficial partnership, which will allow BP and Libya to deliver on their aspirations for growth.

“With its potentially large resources of gas, favourable geographic location and improving investment climate, Libya has an enormous opportunity to be a source of future energy for the world.”

BP is poised to begin deepwater drilling in Libya next month, a deal potentially worth $20 billion. Jim Mitchell of the Dallas Morning News writes, “I’m not so naive to think that BP is the only company that has put profits and business opportunity ahead of justice, but this is stunning especially since Lockerbie was such as heinous act and Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi the only convicted perpetrator for a crime that has provided little closure to families of victims.”

Former Contractor: ‘Cutthroat’ BP ‘Not Worried About Cleaning Up That Spill’

A former contractor has come forward to denounce foreign oil giant BP and the “cutthroat individuals” running the oil disaster response. On Friday, contractor-turned-whistleblower Adam Dillon told New Orleans television station WDSU he was fired “after taking photos that he believes were related to the use of dispersants and to the cleanup of the oil.” As a BP liaison, he had rebuffed reporters’ attempts to observe cleanup operations in Grand Isle, LA, in June, before being promoted to the BP Command Center near Houma, LA. At the command center BP manages the private contractors running practically every aspect of the spill response. Dillon, a former U.S. Army Special Operations soldier, “has lost faith in the company in charge”:

There are some very great, hardworking individuals in there. But the bottom line is just about money. There are some very cutthroat individuals. They’re not worried about cleaning up that spill as it is. . . .

I will never have loyalty to this company. I will always have loyalty to my country. And my country comes first. What this company is doing to this country right now is just wrong.

Watch it:

Before he was fired, Dillon was “confined and interrogated for almost an hour.” WDSU’s Scott Walker will air more of his interview with Adam Dillon on Monday night.

Dillon’s troubling firsthand account joins other reports from the likes of wives of Gulf Coast fishermen and independent scientists who are breaking the media blackout on BP’s private army of contractors.

Cross-posted on the Wonk Room.

BP Sends Local Gas Stations Signs To Post Stressing They’re ‘Part Of The Community’

As BP continues to fumble the response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, many Americans have decided to protest BP by boycotting gas stations around the country. Business owners responded by arguing that such moves were hurting their profits while not affecting the parent company, since the vast majority of the 10,000 BP stations in the country and independently owned and operated.

Some BP station owners are now trying to get this message out by putting up signs saying they are “part of the community.” However, these don’t appear to be homemade signs; the exact same ones have been spotted in multiple locations. A ThinkProgress reader sent in the first picture below, taken at a gas station in DC’s Logan Circle neighborhood. The one on the right was posted on the blog Energy Tomorrow — run by the American Petroleum Institute — and is located in northern Virginia:

ThinkProgress contacted an employee at the gas station in northern Virginia, who confirmed that BP sent them the sign to use. So ironically, in an attempt to distance itself from the parent company, these BP stations are using corporate signs.

BP needs to do more than offer pieces of paper to its local gas stations, which are bearing the brunt of a national boycott launched in response to the actions of the parent corporation. According to the AP, BP gas station owners are getting increasingly frustrated at the lack of support they’re receiving:

Station owners and BP gas distributors told BP officials last week they need a break on the cost of the gas they buy, and they want help paying for more advertising aimed at motorists, according to John Kleine, executive director of the independent BP Amoco Marketers Association. The station owners, who earn more from sales of soda and snacks than on gasoline, also want more frequent meetings with BP officials.

“They have got to be more competitive on their fuel costs to the retailers so we can be competitive on the street…and bring back customers that we’ve lost,” says Bob Juckniess, who has seen sales drop 20 percent at some of his 10 BP-branded stations in the Chicago area.

Many people have begun questioning how much of an effect a boycott of BP gas stations will really have on the parent corporation. Boycotts certainly heavily hurt small business owners — many of whom have very few ties to BP and make most of their money from convenience store items — but they can also influence investors and convince them to sell their shares or put pressure on the company to clean up its act.

Are you seeing signs like these at your local BP station? If so, send photos of them to us.

Update TP reader Chris sends in a sign from a station in Milwaukee and writes, "I have also seen BP's with the digital signage out front stating that they are locally owned, the owners name, and their city of residence. There must be a significant hit to business to go to such lengths":

Update TP reader Chad sends along this sign observed in Minneapolis:

BP Launches ‘Aggressive’ Social Media Campaign, But Disables Comments From Users Who Don’t ‘Like’ It

BP has been making a major public relations push over the past few weeks to burnish its image in the wake of the massive devastation it has caused in the Gulf. The company began buying oil-related search terms to make its official site show up first in search engines, and it spent $50 million on radio, TV, and print ads featuring CEO Tony Hayward pledging to “do everything we can so this never happens again.”

Now, AdWeek reports that BP has launched an “aggressive” social media campaign that includes Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr. The sophisticated campaign, produced with PR firm Ogilvy & Mather, “would make most social media strategists proud,” but BP seems uninterested in the social aspect of social media. On Facebook, the company only accepts comments from people who “like” BP, while comments are disabled completely on the company’s YouTube channel:

A BP spokesperson said of the outreach on social venues: “It’s an additional communication tool [along with] the regular media. They appeal to a slightly different audience. They’re more direct than other channels.” [...]

One thing BP isn’t really sharing is feedback. It turned off comments on its YouTube channel. Its Facebook page is open to comments of those that “like” BP America, and has an extensive commenting policy that warns any “ad hominem attacks” will be removed. While the page still contains criticisms, there are also some supporters.

It’s ironic that BP would disable feedback for its social media campaign, considering that the company is actively soliciting ideas from the public on how to stop the gusher in the Gulf. BP has received “thousands” of ideas, but it quickly became apparent that the company was ignoring the suggestions and that the effort was largely a PR stunt. Moreover, BP has been widely criticized for spending millions on advertising to rehabilitate its image while it should be spending that money to rehabilitate the Gulf.

Shelby Calls On BP’s Tony Hayward To Resign

On CBS’s Face the Nation, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) called on BP’s chief executive Tony Hayward to resign. He said he was appalled at the news that Hayward had attended a yacht race on Saturday in England in the midst of the the oil crisis, calling it the “height of stupidity.” His comments were echoed by Louisiana Republican Congressman Joseph Cao, who added BP is “out of touch”:

SCHIEFFER: You were all over the Gulf Coast region yesterday. Did you run into any yacht racing down there?

SHELBY: I didn’t but I ran into a lot of people, a lot of small medium size businesses… people that don’t have yachts but are concerned about their livelihoods and rightly so. I thought the fact that the chairman of BP had the gall, the arrogance, to go to a yacht race… in England, while all of this was going on here was the height of stupidity. And I believe myself that he should go. I don’t know how he can represent a company in crisis like BP and ignore what’s going on in the Gulf of Mexico…

CAO: I am very disappointed at how out of touch the executives at BP are. Our people are suffering tremendously down here. I just received news from a staffer of mine that a Vietnamese fisherman actually tried to commit suicide. So its a situation that is quite desperate for many thousands of people.

Watch it:

Shelby also called Rep. Joe Barton’s (R-TX) assertion that BP was owed an apology “dumb.” He also invited Barton and Rand Paul — who defended Barton — to come down to the Gulf and “see what’s happening.”

Furthermore, while conservatives have begun attacking the Obama administration for being too tough on big business as a result of the pressure on BP, Shelby pushed back and echoed progressive calls for strengthening regulators:

SHELBY: We need hands-on regulation in this area. Maybe we’ve learned some things — that we can’t take shortcuts. … A lot of it is common sense — and not let the industry run way ahead of the regulators. The regulators have got to be on top of the industry, not the industry on top of the regulators.

BP Executive To Gulf Residents: You Need Us, So Don’t ‘Shoot The Dog Who Is Trying To Bring Home The Bone’

Last night during an interview with BP executive Bob Dudley on Fox News, host Greta Van Susteren noted that the oil giant has been taking some heat because of its Gulf oil spill. “Your company has taken quite a beating,” she said. Dudley agreed but said his company’s critics should be careful because Gulf coast residents are dependent on BP:

DUDLEY: Well, Greta, I know that oil companies are not popular. It has been that way for sometime in the U.S. It’s a company made up of people, many of which live along the Gulf coast, that are integrated into the fabric of the communities there.

We have 23,000 people in the U.S., many of which are around the Gulf coast. I think — and everyone is devastated by what has happened today. I think I would look at some of the process today as just making sure that through that sentiment we don’t actually shoot the dog who is trying to bring home the bone and meet its obligations all across the Gulf, and we are going to be there a long time.

Watch it:

Unfortunately, some lawmakers and the conservative media argue that the Obama administration is being too harsh and have come to BP’s defense with similar arguments. Oil money beneficiary Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) recently expressed concern that BP’s financial liabilities as a result of the spill would cut into its profits and therefore somehow prevent it from meeting those liabilities.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) deflected attacks on BP last week saying that the Gulf region needs BP now more than ever:

“First of all, the last company that people in the Gulf want to see go bankrupt is BP because we’re depending on them to clean up our environment and make our people whole,” Lousiana Sen. Mary Landrieu told “Good Morning America” today in an exclusive interview. “One of the more important issues… [is] half of our families make their living fishing, the other half of our families make their living in the Gulf drilling for oil and gas that this country desperately needs.”

Dependency on Big Oil is exactly the reason the Gulf faces the situation it is currently in. While sustaining BP’s viability is in both the company’s and the public’s interest, long term reliance on dirty fossil fuels like BP’s main commodity is not sustainable.