Reich: Nationalize BP For Duration of Emergency

   Captain Benjamin Sisko, Badass.

This makes sense.

Robert Reich, one of the smartest minds in the country -- and former Labor Secretary (under Clinton) argues that the federal government should hold BP's Gulf assets in receivership for the duration of the oil spill catastrophe.

Key quote?

No president would allow a nuclear reactor owned by a private for-profit company to melt down in the United States while remaining under the direct control of that company. The meltdown in the Gulf is the environmental equivalent.

He's 100% right.

I would add that the U.S. should also freeze BP's assets in U.S. banks, as we would do with any other terrorist or criminal organization -- or rogue nation -- so that we can ensure that justice is done. This is a rogue corporation. Think of it as bail. You fixa the Gulf, you getta your money back. Otherwise, we fixa the Gulf -- and you shit outta luck.

This whole thing, by the way, is what happens when polluters are allowed to externalize the costs of pollution; when we make the polluters pay, every dollar, every time -- there's a fiscal incentive to avoid pollution. The corporation's fiduciary duty, then, requires the corporation to avoid that cost. But typically, we don't make polluters pay every dollar, every time -- the taxpayers pay. And if we don't force BP to pay every dollar, the rest of us will be paying for this disaster for the rest of our lives. So anyone who tries to tell you that environmental regulations are bad for taxpayers is a liar or a fool. And likely both. In other words, a Republican.

BP is not an American corporation (and no corporation is an American corporation). If it can move its assets elsewhere to guarantee that they will not be subject to forfeiture, it will. Just like Exxon. Or Halliburton. Can we please stop calling Exxon an American corporation? A corporation that makes tens or hundreds of billions of dollars in profit, yet pays zero dollars in taxes, is not a citizen. Ain't that right, Tea Partiers?

By the way, here is a list of BP brands: ARCO (here on the West Coast -- and it's pretty sad to see cars lined up at the ARCO in Marin County because it's cheap. ARCO is BP, people.), Castrol oil, AM/PM Mini Mart, Wild Bean cafe -- and in Germany, Aral.

Boycott BP brands.
Freeze BP's assets in US banks.
Nationalize the emergency in the gulf.

Time for Obama to be the badass.