Another Milepost On The Road To Oblivion

I wonder what BP was up to this weekend other than trying to lay low...

Alabama Attorney General Troy King said tonight that he has told representatives of BP Plc. that they should stop circulating settlement agreements among coastal Alabamians.

The agreements, King said, essentially require that people give up the right to sue in exchange for payment of up to $5,000.

King said BP's efforts were particularly strong in Bayou La Batre.

The attorney general said he is prohibited from giving legal advice to private citizens, but added that "people need to proceed with caution and understand the ramifications before signing something like that.

"They should seek appropriate counsel to make sure their rights are protected," King said.
By the end of Sunday, BP aimed to sign up 500 fishing boats in Alabama, Mississippi and Florida to deploy boom.

BP had distributed a contract to fishermen it was hiring that waived their right to sue BP and required confidentiality and other items, sparking protests in Louisiana and elsewhere.

Darren Beaudo, a spokesman for BP, said the waiver requirement had been stripped out, and that ones already signed would not be enforced.

Gotta love how corporations look out for the little people.  Especially after they get caught red-handed trying to screw them over.  If BP's willing to dole out five grand a person to entire towns, how much are they afraid they are really on the hook for?

Add a couple zeroes to that per person figure and a couple zeroes to the figure for the number of coastal residents affected by this spill over the next couple of months (hell, years, let's not sugar coat this) and you're starting to get the picture that BP is in a metric crapton of trouble.  So yes, they are trying to con their way out of this before the people really do figure out the true magnitude of this disaster.

What, you think fishing and tourism is going to magically resume in ten days, or however long that fishing moratorium is going to last?  What fishing?  Odds are real good the Gulf coast seafood industry just took a permanent dirt nap.  Maybe even the whole eastern seaboard.

And BP's giving out a whole $5,000.  Yeah, that'll cover the loss of entire industries.  Schmucks.  Drill, baby, drill...