Posted on 06/08/2010 6:10:06 AM PDT by ecsmceo
In case you were tempted to buy the faux Washington outrage at BP and its gulf oil spill in recent days, here's a story that reveals a little-known corporate political connection and the quiet way the inner political circles intersect, protect and care for one another in the nation's capital. And Chicago. We already knew that BP and its folks were significant contributors to the record $750-million war chest of Barack Obama's 2007-08 campaign. Now, we learn the details of a connection of Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago mayoral wannabe, current Obama chief of staff, ex-representative, ex-Clinton money man and ex-Windy City political machine go-fer. Shortly after Obama's happy inaugural, eyebrows rose slightly upon word that, as a House member, Emanuel had lived the last five years rent-free in a D.C. apartment of Democratic colleague Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut and her husband, Stanley Greenberg.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimesblogs.latimes.com ...
sort of makes me wonder like I did with the Hasan shooting at Fort Hood... What did Obambi know and when did he know it... since he refused to cooperate with the Senate and Congress when asked to give up reports on the situation
BP Controversy
In May 2010, the Washington Examiner reported that DeLauro and her husband, media consultant Stanley Greenberg had provided free rent at their Washington, DC home to then Congressman and present White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. At the time Emanuel received free rent from the couple, Greenberg’s firm was engaged in a public relations campaign for British Petroleum touting their environmental record. Critics had accused Greenberg of greenwashing BP’s true record.
******
Emanuel lived for five years rent-free in an apartment in Washington, D.C. which was provided by a close friend who was under contract with BP.
Stanley Greenberg, husband of Connecticut Democrat and U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro, provided the apartment. Greenberg owns a consulting firm that was hired by BP to revamp its image, shifting its focus away from oil to ‘green’ technology.
The firm received hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars through a committee chaired by Emanuel.
Greenberg’s firm—Greenberg, Quilan, Rosner—details on its website the plan it developed for BP’s ‘rebranding.’
The firm also has close ties to the Democratic Party and some of the most well-known Democrats in the nation:
Greenberg Quinlan Rosner is also tied heavily to the Democratic Party, as it created a sister political consulting company named “GCS,” an acronym based on the last names of the principals – Stanley Greenberg of GQR, James Carville, the long-term adviser of Bill Clinton, and Bob Schrum, the campaign manager for Sen. John Kerry’s unsuccessful 2004 presidential campaign.
Within weeks of Obama’s inauguration to the Presidency, some of the top newspapers in the country had discovered that Rahm was living rent-free in an apartment provided by Greenberg and raised questions about the propriety of such a scenario.
The Associated Press, the Chicago Tribune, and the New York Post all reported the relationship and raised questions concerning possible conflicts of interest.
Yet, at the very same time, the Obama Administration was touting BP as a ‘model’ of safety among oil giants.
Interestingly, Rahm Emanuel served as Chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which awarded Greenberg’s firm with contracts totaling more than a quarter of a million dollars.
In addition, most of the major news outlets are reporting today that over half of the federal judges who will be handling lawsuits against BP are themselves heavily invested in BP, Halliburton, and Transocean.
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, Thursday said she welcomed a criminal probe of BP executives and officials and said her husband’s polling and public relations company no longer has a contract with the energy giant.
DeLauro said her husband’s business is “completely independent” of her work. She said she is a co-sponsor of a bill to lift the cap on BP’s liability for the disaster from $75 million to $10 billion.
Howard Briskin, chief operation officer of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, said they had a “longstanding relationship with BP that dates back to 2000,” but the brand management contract ended in Nov. 2009. Stanley Greenberg, DeLauro’s husband, is chief executive officer of the company.
That would certainly be poetic justice. I wonder if “supporting Big Oil” is one of the issues that the hard-left MSM just won’t budge on. You know, sort of like the way they abandon any “moderate” who voices pro-life sentiments.
He probably insisted she NOT take his name :)
That photo doesn't even do her justice. Saw her at Pelosi's health care reform celebration...yikes.
Rahm mis-slept no doubt.
What about her husband?
Follow The Data, Forget Conspiracy Theory
1. In the weeks prior to the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe BP CEO Tony Hayward sold 1/3 of his BP shares, using the money to pay off his family mansion.
2. During those same few weeks Goldman Sachs shorted 44% of its BP holdings, while Wachovia and UBS sold 98% and 97% of their BP holdings.
3. CEO Tony Hayward made $4.5 million last year = $12,000 A DAY – even since the Deepwater explosion
4. Deepwater Horizon oil rig owner, Transocean, made a whopping $270 million off the explosion and oil leak.
5. Part of BP’s cost-benefit analysis for determining how well to build employee housing included a document comparing employees to the Three Little Pigs, ultimately determining that dead employees were worth more to the company than what the more expensive and safer housing would cost.
6. President Obama just appointed his THIRD Monsanto executive to a top Food/Ag position in US Government. If you want a better understanding of how Monsanto operates, rent the documentary Food, Inc.
7. Carl Casale, Director at Nalco (manufacturer of Corexit) is also EVP/CFO of Monsanto.
8. Rodney Chase, another Director at Nalco was previously Deputy Group Chief Executive at BP.
9. Despite much more efficient alternatives, BP defied EPA’s order to find a more suitable solution than Corexit.
10. While they could have been testing this better alternative, BP and USCG were ignoring it.
11. Scientific data points to the long-term ineffectiveness and damage to overall ecosystem from use of dispersants, demonstrating cases where nature fared far better when oil was left untreated by chemical dispersants.
12. Reams of data testify to the toxic nature of Corexit, including it’s hazardous impact on both wildlife and humans. And still clean up workers are not being provided masks or critical safety equipment for working around it. And The EPA has done no more than a mere suggestion that BP use alternative remedies. Google it. Too many links out there documenting this to list.
13. Corexit has NEVER been used in this quantity, at these depths. This is unprecedented – a giant science experiment we allow BP to conduct in our back yards.
14. This dispersant use may be a direct violation of federal law.
15. Last minute arguments after the rig exploded point to…. well, see for yourself.
16. Since 1990 BP and its employees have given $3.4 million to federal candidates. Their highest paid yet? Obama.
17. The MMS, the branch of government in place to oversee and regulate the oil industry actually considered themselves part of the oil industry. We now know that the MMS spent years accepting lavish gifts from the oil industry and doing drugs while on the taxpayer’s dime (all outlined in this Federal Report).
18. BP insists that CEO Tony Hayward has moved to improve its overall safety. If that’s so, let the record show it: Since 2007 BP has accounted for 97% of all serious safety violations in the industry (that’s compared with all other companies in the entire industry – COMBINED). Is that an improvement? I suppose it could actually be.
19. Whistleblower’s within BP were silenced, not only by BP, but by the DOJ, who shut down an important investigation and gave BP a “slap on the wrist” before firing the lead investigator who had reams of evidence into the criminal nature of BP’s operations. This article is truly a MUST READ. This is investigative journalism at its finest.
20. In 2009 BP was fined $87M for “life-threatening safety failings” where 439 “willful and egregious” safety violations had been found at one of its Texas refineries. The reason for the fine? Not the original safety failing – but rather for failing to make agreed upon safety upgrades to the Texas refinery after the explosion and fire that killed 15 people. Is this progress according to Hayward?
21. BP is now sitting on another ticking time bomb in the Gulf of Mexico. The BP oil rig Atlantis is sitting in 7,000 feet of water, and is in violation of a host of safety regulations. The BP contractor who originally raised concerns about these violations had his contract terminated shortly after he alerted management to the rig’s lack of crucial engineering documents in late 2008. Improvements on safety?
22. The Deepwater Horizon itself had a lengthy history of safety violations. But really, at this point, did you need to be told that?
23. Today is the 46th day since this tragedy began. The clean up efforts along the Gulf Coast remain a fragmented, uncoordinated mess. No branch of the military has been called in to oversee and coordinate coastal wide clean up efforts – a perfect job for the Army. Our military is equipped to orchestrate the take down and re-assembly of a foreign country, but when our shores need protecting our leaders do not call on them. This may be the most baffling, and disturbing, fact of all.
http://cleanthegulfnow.org/archives/follow-the-data-forget-conspiracy-theory/
Bet he also wears “Sulfur Cologne.”
Despicable creature.
Uh-oh, Mr. President. I just found out whose ass you should kick. It belongs to your Chief of Staff.
But Rahm and Obama are so close they are one politically and as ideologues if Rahm goes under the bus so does Obama technically.
My first thought was that Obama will throw Rahm under the bus.
But Rahm and Obama are so close they are one politically and as ideologues so therefore if Rahm goes under the bus so does Obama technically.
“Will America ever have true leaders and statesmen again?”
..................
Not until the head of the snake..The Dum Party is stomped into the ground and is never allowed to have any say in the workings of D.C again. Frankly I would like to see it outlawed..just like Germany did to the National Socialist Workers Party.
Posting that is going to make some FReepers mad you know. They don’t like anything “bad” said about BP or Corexit. ;)
bump
now the Obama administration is literally in bed with BP.
_________________
I’ve been saying over and over and it just pisses some people off for some reason. BP has been in bed with this administration since day one. Follow the money, follow cap and trade.
So I assume that calling for Tony Hayward’s head on a pike is beyond the pale, then.
That pompous, callous lying windbag is the very epitomy of the moving lips lie incessantly type of corporate exec, truth, lives, livelihoods be damned.
May him and his spawn be damned, may the fruit of his loins be bitter, diseased and deformed!
bump
excellent post
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.