I´m happy people are vandalizing, throwing shit, and attacking the right targets.

Ignore the people above who want to convince you into apathy, or who lie and claim that you can make any meaningful change from the inside. Instead of letting them succeed in shaming you into apathy, use their words to inspire you to escalate your actions.

If we don´t start fighting, actually fighting, soon, there won´t be anything left to fight for.

what you may fail to realize is that BP might not own that station, some poor guy or woman who is trying to make money to feed their family owns that station and it happens to have a BP sign on it. if you really want to help with this oil situation go down to the coast and help clean up or just visit for vacation to help the economy there. hurting the economy and people's income in other places is not helping, it's just ignorant.

I'm as outraged as the rest of you about this oil spill but I'm directing my anger mostly at our government. The politicians who allowed this to happen.

This is for all the pro-business people who say that we should allow companies to self-regulate themselves. Incidents like this and the banking crisis prove that companies are in the business of making money and unless we, through government regulations, establish the rules, they do so without any morals or conscience and a totally disregard for the destruction they cause in order to maintain a profit. I blame BP to a certain extent but this could have happened to any company. Whether it was BP, Exxon, Sunoco or whomever, what does it matter, I squarely place the blame on our government, and not the current administration, but the administration (not sure when it started) that allowed offshore drilling without any contingency plan in place, in case the inevitable happened. This was just a matter of time before one of these accidents happened and to allow these projects without any safety measures in place was our government's fault. Just like our government has checks and balances, business must also have checks and balances and it is our government's job to protect us from their greed, whether we or they like it or not. Time and time again, business has proven that it cannot self-regulate or police itself and this is just more unfortunate proof of that.

I cannot believe that these oil companies did not have a plan in place in case something like this happened, which was just a matter of time. I don't believe that they never imagined that something like this could would never occur. They need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law just to deter other companies from not being prepared to handle a crisis such as this. But an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, there should have been a structure built around these pipes to handle this in case something like this happened. But then again weren't the oil cowboys from Texas ruling things when they decided to cap off liabilities to the oil companies at $75 million? Can you imagine that? Bush & Cheney sold us out! These oil companies make $75 million in a few hours! The oil companies had no incentive to be cautious or have safety measures in place because even if they caused a disaster like this the absolute most they had to pay would be $75 million. Isn't that a sweet deal? And to make matters worse Cheney decided that a valve that could've helped in a situation like this cost too much ($500k) and was therefore not made mandatory.

Unless we hold our politicians accountable to us, and not the lobbyists or these corporations, there will be more disasters like this whether it's another oil spill or a another banking crisis or whatever other disaster is coming. I think the buck stops with our politicians, they need to be moral gatekeepers to these corporations. I will not shed a tear for BP or Goldman Sachs but demonizing them will not prevent the next company from creating another disaster, the only ones that could've prevented these, and future disasters, is our elected officials.

Forget throwing brown paint at BP's signs, let's throw it at Congress, the Senate, the White House, etc. and let them we blame them and they suppose to work for us. I'd like to throw one right at Bush's and Cheney's front doors for selling us out!

Given that there appear to have been serious lapses in judgment, it seems to me that BP is quite responsible.

Regulation doesn't mean shit if the operator is going to be negligent.

Yes, we should blame BP, but pretending the US government is not complicit or without blame is either naive or intentionally deceptive.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/06/07/ex-oil-official-agency-is-a-culture-of-corruption/

The regulations of all business, and even the creation of some laws in this country, have been going to the highest bidders for some time.

Itś true that most of those vocally blaming the Obama administration first are cynically doing so just to attack his popularity, and are actually against any regulation at all. Of course, it was Republican deregulation that started this mess. But Obama has been a horribly inefficient leader, and this is absolutely, at least partially, the fault of the Federal government. This is true no matter who is in charge.

All leaders of people need to understand and even expect that corporations will act in the most irresponsible, easily profit-motivated manner that they can. This is the nature of a shareholder driven, free market run entity. It is only government regulation, or brute force, that prevents capitalist entities from ruining the world as an unintended consequence of their short sighted process. And if you haven´t noticed, the government has been failing badly at enforcing any such rules and regulations.

Time for a new government.

No, the ultimate responsibility always rests with the operator of the equipment. I really don't see how anyone can blame the government for BP not following industry standards. The government is not God.

I care about someone Vandalizing a BP as much as I care about someone vandalizing a McDonalds..They are both evil in the long run..I don't care who owns it..

...which is why children should be beaten periodically whether they've done anything bad or not. They will eventually. Idiot.

the owners should change the franchise to another oil company

That's right, jackasses, just drive your Range Rovers around the corner to the Sunoco station and fill 'er up. You can always boycott them later when they're responsible for the next spill.

oooooooooooh, you guys from THAT group, the one that thinks it is so earthy crunchy peacenicky riding bikes every last friday of the month, are just so freaking way RAD! doooooooooood! this is gunna accomplish so effing much - YEAH!

get off the pavement and back into the basement mixing up the medecine!

oh, by the way, guys, has it ever occurred to you what happens after you vandalize a sign? there's cleanup with nasty chemicals, and, if that does not work or is too complicated, there will be a new sign which likely was manufactured from scratch using oil to make the plastic resin etc etc etc etc.

thanks for contributing to more pollution!

idiots.

Replying to your own lame irony-fail comment: priceless.

We were only following orders! We're only cogs in the machine, bro? Another brick in the wall! (The wall is a giant oil spill)

Come on, you guys! Can't you see that poor multinational corporation has gone through enough?! Tony Hayward hasn't even gotten his life back yet!

Boycotting or vandalizing a BP gas station has no effect whatsoever on the corporate entity that is responsible for this disaster. The gas station is owned by a small business owner who has a license contract with BP, that often extends for many years. Boycotting him only hurts a local business owner. Every oil company has propogated horrible environmental disasters. Get on board with using less gas, reducing demand and get involved in lobbying for better environmental protections if you want to feel better about yourself (which is all this really is about anyway.)

Screw that. Let's get mobilized! I say we poop on their doorsteps!

He should sue that stupid f*cking Operation Pink (the chocolate-covered idiots who protested a franchise) for harassment and damages ot his property.

Convince Google to Donate Proceeds from BP Ads to the Gulf Cleanup Effort

No, this is capitalism, BP is a company and has the right to buy advertisements. If you don't like it too bad.

Also no one ever gave a shit about an internet petition or facebook group.