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BP gets a taste of the brave, new world

We’re still having internet connection difficulties out here, so I can’t write as much as I wish, but I’ve got to try to chime in on the Oil Spill fiasco at least one more time.  I’m particularly distressed about the idea of retroactively raising BP’s liability cap to cover damages beyond what the law calls for. [1]

The Oil Pollution Act of 1990, [2] introduced by the Democrats and sailing through both chambers of Congress after the Exxon Valdez spill, was intended to “mitigate and prevent civil liability for future oil spills off the coast of the United States.”  It set the maximum amount of civil liabilities for Oil Companies at $75 million, a real sum of money before that idiot spilled hot McDonald’s coffee on his/her crotch, but simply couch change in these sue-happy days.

Obviously, BP has, or will, pay way, way, way more than that because of this leak.  But when Rahm Emmanuel begins talking about how the government is forcing BP to do things it doesn’t want to do, [3] let’s all be mindful of the fact that some of the things the Obama administration is forcing BP to do is in direct violation of the law

Which the President is tasked with enforcing.

I am not at all thrilled about the idea of living in a country where you can be presumed guilty, rather than innocent (BP hasn’t had a trial, there may have been nothing they could have done), and once everyone realizes that you’re being forced to break the law because the old law still thinks you’re still supposed to be innocent until proven guilty (as they did when they realized BP’s liability under the current law wasn’t sufficient), they decide to go back in time and change the law to make you guilty of something.

Once they get rid of the “grandfathered” clause, where you aren’t guilty or liable for something before the current law was passed, mayhem will ensue.  This is always the end result of removing the rule of law and replacing it with the rule of man, which is what Obama and Company are all about.  It will be only a matter of time before someone tries to make certain individual rights criminal and throw people in jail for things they had done and said in the past…