Iowans Applaud “Icky” Award
Alternet.org“But Team Oil did not quit with this bold triple play. Led by Transocean, the culprits have already begun the lobbying and legal ploys to avoid paying for what they did.” by Jim Hightower
It's not nearly as well known as an Emmy or Grammy, but the annual awarding of the “Icky” often produces high drama, fierce competition and gasps of surprise.
This coveted corporate prize goes to the group of CEOs whose performances in the past 12 months exhibit the best combination of greediness, goofiness and grossness.
Of course, top Wall Street Bankers were heavily favored to win the 2010 Icky hands-down, having claimed the prize for two years running and continuing to perform at a breathtaking level of hubris and narcissism. Their assertion early this year that they “deserved” the $140 billion in executive bonuses they grabbed for themselves was a stunner, causing even some of Wall Street's former chieftains to gag at the excess. They looked like sure winners.
Last month, however — from out of nowhere — an upstart challenger for the Icky literally erupted onto the scene. On April 20, the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, and the top executives of BP, Halliburton and Transocean suddenly made themselves contenders.
For example, BP's dapper, boyish-looking chief executive, Tony Hayward, has shown a depth of cluelessness that is making him a star performer on Team Oil. On May 14, with the out-of-control well still barfing massive amounts of oil and gas from four miles deep under the Gulf floor, and with the billowing slick threatening the shores of four states, Tony stepped onstage to announce that this blowout is really not that big of a deal. Indeed, chirped the boss of the world's largest oil corporation, the blotch is “relatively tiny.”
Tiny? Yes, he explained: “The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersants we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume.”
What a boffo performance! No wonder this guy was paid $4,595,453.31 last year.
(click here to read the entire article)
Check out America's #1 Populist at JimHightower.com
Hightower can also be found at Otherwords.org (formerly Minutemanmedia.org), along with commentary by Donald Kaul and other progressive thinkers. “OtherWords distributes commentary and cartoons aimed at amplifying progressive analysis in the national conversation. It empowers readers to become more engaged citizens.”
Blog For Iowa 