Watch The Money, Not The Words
BP keeps telling people how they are going to make things “right”, that they are going to spend whatever it takes to clean up the oil and to reimburse all “legitimate” claims.
They are so concerned that people know how concerned they are that they are spending millions to tell the public. Mother Jones noticed: BP’s Big Ad Buys: At least $5.6 Million
Greenpeace kept track of BP’s ads throughout June and came up with a rundown of how much they likely cost. The company ran 12 ads in the Times, 15 in the Washington Post, and 11 in USA Today.
They also ran full page ads in the local newspapers along the Gulf Coast, with the notable exception of the Pensacola Independent News, which refused the ads, believing that the money would be better spent cleaning up the oil.
It’s “spare no expense” when it comes to the media, but people who have been impacted are seeing something different.
The Local Puppy Trainer wrote about a local business owner: Shalimar Yacht Basin owner: ‘I’m dying’
In the 10 years Steve Peterson has owned the Shalimar Yacht Basin, his business has survived five hurricanes and even more tropical storms.
But none of that compares to the devastating financial impact the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is having on his business. Peterson has lost 38 percent of his income, and 117 of the boats once stored at his facility have been removed by their owners and taken to fresh water locations unthreatened by the oil.
So, Peterson sent in a claim to BP with records to show his loss of $88,000, and they sent him a check for $5,000. To relieve some of the pressure on his business, Peterson contacted the Small Business Administration about converting his existing SBA loan from 7% to a 4% disaster loan, after the President announced that SBA disaster loans were available. The SBA turned him down because there was no physical damage to his business. [I have no idea what the SBA would consider “physical damage” from an oil spill.]
6 comments
Mr. Peterson needs to just count his blessings. The powers that be clearly have their hands too busy protecting Florida from car-raping sorcerer terrorists, who, if he distracts them too much, could come and rape his car.
– Badtux the Snarky Penguin
That guy is going to have turn up the crazy to approach the ads running for the Republican primaries in Alabama.
Least you think I jest, check out Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh, who has been endorsed by Mike Huckabee in her run for the Alabama Public Service Commission.
She is running against the White House and Congress for a position on the board that regulates utilities in Alabama. She actually remembers to make a passing remark in her ads to utility rates, but her ads are all voice overs, so I wonder what her voice sounds like.
Twinkle is her legal first name, it is not a nickname.
Ah, but we know all about her car-raping, toilet-bitten self:
Twinkle tinkles, diddles cars;
How I wonder if it scars…
She’s a lobbyist and writes op-eds for one of the Alabama newspapers. I remember that she is somehow tied to casino gambling, probably as a lobbyist.
Threatening cars isn’t too worrisome, but if the threat was to pick-ups… well, that’s why they have gun racks in the rear window.
The question is, does Twinkle have a good smile?
And some people believe Carl Hiaasen writes fiction. Heh ;).
– Badtux the Easily Amused Penguin
Actually, as befits her “conservatism”, she scowls a lot, which is understandable, given what her parents did to her at birth.