Louisiana Rep. Joseph Cao tells BP exec Lamar McKay to commit ritual suicide

[Ed Barrow]

Source: New York Daily News

Congressman to BP: "drop dead."

Lamar McKay, the President of BP America, was asked to resign when he appeared before House Energy and Commerce Committee today as part of a congressional testimony. But Rep. Joseph Cao went medieval on McKay.

The Louisiana congressman, who represents New Orleans, invoked an ancient Japanese ritual as a suggestion for beleaguered exec at a separate hearing on Capital Hill.

"Mr. Stearns asked Mr. McKay to resign," Cao said, referring to Rep. Cliff Stearns. "Well, in the Asian culture we do things differently. During the Samurai days, we just give you a knife and ask you to commit harakiri."


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/06/15/2010-06-15_louisiana_rep_joseph_cao_tells_bp_exec_to_commit_ritual_suicide.html

[aquart]

1. Oh, he is so confused.

Romans and Japanese would commit suicide with their own swords.

British and Americans would be given a gun and left alone in the library.

[Angry Dragon]

2. I really would not care how he did it.

he could ask his other execs to join him if he likes

[Jennicut]

3. Or one could put them in a jail and actually make them work at something.

Reminds me of Grassley's quote.

[tblue]

4. Glad he said it and not me.

That's not my style, but I admire the spunk.

[HughMoran]

5. Lol - now we're talkin'

Angle says RWers should shoot people they disagree with, Cao is more gentlemanly - he'll provide the weapon, but you must do the rest :D

[Ex Lurker]

6. there's a backstory to this

Cao has a lot of Viethamese shrimpers in his district, and there has been a wave of suicides over the loss of their livelihood. The story was posted here on DU several weeks ago.

[Psephos]

8. wow n/t

[Dappleganger]

14. Oh my

That does bring in an entire different dimension to what he said.

[aquart]

16. I knew they were in despair and threatening to do it.

I am so sorry they felt they had no way out but that. The way things are, I can't say they were wrong, either.

[nc4bo]

19. Thanks for explaining what I saw on BP's homepage...

BP has a claim page available in the Vietnamese language on the front of their home page that had me wondering why.

https://www.bp.com/secure/iframe.do?categoryId=9033799&contentId=7062420

Certainly must be a lot of them making a living off of Gulf waters. Now the Gulf of Mexico is destroyed and so are their livelihoods.

Just horrible.

[Nihil]

23. Some of them decided to risk poisoning people instead ...

... and decided to go fishing in the toxic zone anyway ...

Wonder if Cao thinks that fishermen like Dung Nguyen should commit seppuku
rather than continue to sell poisoned white shrimp to restaurants?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4427547

Or maybe Cao thinks that the restricted zone isn't that important anyway
and that the oil (+ dispersants + other pollution) doesn't affect their
produce after all?

[Crowman1979]

7. Damn! Someone read my mind.

[pitohui]

9. this guy's a total faker, he is NOT from a japanese background, sheeshamatic

he's of vietnamese extraction, i never heard of any suicide samurai from vietnam did you?

if you're from asia now suddenly you're from every asian background?

does this mean i can claim to be from russia because i have some scottish guys in my ancestry? i mean if you're from europe you're european right? maybe i should be auto-entitled to citizenship in stockholm and free health care for life just because i have white skin...and i wouldn't even tell someone to get burned on a viking funeral boat...



i hate a fucking fraud and cao is definitely a fucking fraud

[girl gone mad]

10. Who cares?

I think he got his point across.

[24601]

31. Given that we took control of Congress with the 2006 elections,

what did CAO do to prevent this? Where was HIS legislation that would have prevented the disaster? Lead by example, congressman. After every member of Congress has gone first, not to mention Executive Branch leaders who were responsible for ensuring the right inspections were completed, then we can move on to private sector leaders.

Oops, I forgot - Congress never applies standards to themselves that they demand from others. Never mind.

[eyeofdelphi]

11. jesus dude

chill out.
i think the major point here was that BP did something dishonorable and now they need to pay for it. they need to pay the ultimate price. he chose words that would make an impact. let's not squabble over whether he is technically from a culture that willingly killed themselves when dishonored. way to totally miss the point.

[Dappleganger]

15. Read post #6

[Dogtown]

21. Use a blacklight, pito.

It will help you locate those nits.

Be sure to use the Quell, 1st. Lather, rinse, repeat.

[unblock]

12. pandering to hatred. this is an odious statement for a member of congress to make

sure, people are rightfully frustrated and angry; and sure, the government should do something about it.

but for a government official to suggest the violent death of a subject with whom he is displeased is offensive and bad government.
he should try being big about it and just say that justice will see to it that he gets what he deserves.

nevermind that it's not immediately clear exactly which bp employees and execs should be punished. i'm sure there are plenty who deserve a long time in prison, but we're not even close to having all the facts and this guy wants dead bodies already.


besides, if he actually were to commit suicide, that would probably get people even more frustrated and angry. most people who want punishment want the perpetrator to live long enough to stand trial, answer the questions, and pay the price of justice over time. most people view suicide as the "easy way out" and feel cheated out of justice.

[aquart]

17. Maybe he knows his constituents better than you do.

Maybe "most people" doesn't apply to a community seeing a growth in despair suicides.

[unblock]

18. i'm sure he knows his constituents quite well -- why else would he pander to them?

that doesn't keep the statement from being reprehensible.

[No Elephants]

20. +1. Bloodthirst is never the answer. Neither is faux toughness. I thought Democrats knew that.

[nsd]

34. He's a Republican. /nt

[Dogtown]

22. Politics and hyperbole.

That's a marriage you'll never breeak.

[unblock]

24. hyperbole is one thing, invoking death or bodily harm is another.

i'm still fuming about the kitty dukakis rape question.

[Dogtown]

28. I'm unaware of that 2nd subject.

but politicians inciting violence is pretty much what they are.

[unblock]

33. the kitty dukakis rape question:

way back when poppy was debating dukakis in 1988, a real jerk of a moderator, bernie shaw, asked dukakis, if kitty dukakis, his wife, were raped and murdered, would he change his mind and support the death penalty.


i think it's horrendous for national figures, on television, to describe hypothetical violence against specific individuals. it's a rude enough question to ask in private, but on national television, well, there are enough crazies out there that someone is bound to try to act out on it.

[mbperrin]

26. Try being big about it?

Ah, the famous "might as well lie back and enjoy" being raped; or is this the "look forward, don't look back" version of corporate evildoers cannot be held accountable?

No one will be convicted of anything; what damages are paid will take 30 years to collect; the Gulf will still be dead; companies will still make huge profits.




Let me put it this way - if I could reach out my pinkie finger to prevent horrid bodily damage to a BP exec at any level, I wouldn't. Daydream, that's what poor people get.

[unblock]

27. you've got to be kidding!

i want accountability as much as, if not more, than most people. justice, our economy, and the american way (or what that phrase should mean) strongly depend on it.

what that congresscritter is talking about isn't accountability. it's flailing, irresponsible, dangerous, and possibly even misplaced vengence. he's in a position of power, he's in a position to say justice will exact appropriate punishment from the appropriate people after a careful deliberation regarding all the facts, including facts not yet known.

i'm not on bp's side here in any way. but that doesn't mean i'm willing to support whatever fool thing some congressional loudmouth says. it was a stupid statement, period.


i hope i never have the misfortune of working for a company where someone working for the same company but in a different department, on the other side of the planet, does something stupid and earns your wrath. your daydreams are a crude, violent, and blunt instrument for vengeance, and nothing like what i recognize as justice.

as a former emt, i have saved lives not knowing whether or not the person i was saving was a good person, a bad person, or a bp executive. given the opportunity, i would save anyone's life. anyone's, even if a serial killer, even if a member of the previous administration. then i would turn them in.

but i guess that's just me.

[mbperrin]

29. Glad you have that luxury.

My dad's business partner ran off with the assets of the company in the mid-50s. I was 7. Dad spent the next 20 years paying banks a debt he could have discharged through bankruptcy, and which he only really owed half, since his partner was never found. But he valued paying that debt more than his family. We lost our home, even my mother's wedding ring. She died of worry and work at 52 after raising 15 years of large gardens on cheap sandy soil in a semi-desert in order to feed her family, selling eggs door to door to get school clothes.

Dad died at 62 of work and worry, 2 years after paying what he figured he owed.

My grandfather was a union organizer for the IWW. He was beaten to death by two "representatives" of oil companies he thought he as going to talk with. Nothing was ever done, no investigation, no arrests.

That makes you a better person than I am. But like I said, it's just a daydream anyway that corporate anybodies will be held to account. The Exxon Valdez resulted in no one from Exxon being held to account, and it took more than 30 years for the very limited money that was paid to be paid. Meanwhile, there's still oil there, and fishing has never come back.

This will be just the same, only much bigger. BP dividends will grow, I'm sure.

[unblock]

30. sorry to hear about your family struggles

much of my family tree was pruned during the holocaust, and while "germany" was defeated and punished, the vast majority of the individual perpetrators simply took off their uniforms and blended into the crowd and were never held to account.

i know all about justice that never arrives.

i still prefer to fight for it rather than compound wrongs on top of wrongs.

[awoke_in_2003]

13. the proper term is...

Seppuku

[brendan120678]

25. Commit Harry Caray?

Commit him to where?
He's been deceased for awhile already. :shrug:

[Endangered Specie]

32. For those that are playing the home game... hara kiri (or "seppuku") is a 5 step process

1 - dress in white robes
2 - write death poem
3 - plunge knife into stomach
4 - slice yourself open
5 - your assitant then decapitates you 98% of the way (a small bit of your neck should be left to keep you 'in one piece'

[Mimosa]

35. Remember Rep. Tom Lantos said something similat to Craig Livingston at hearing

Remember Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA)said something similarly stupid at a Congressional hearing? I don't expect people in Congress to be geniuses. Just the opposite in fact. :7

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Lantos

During a 1996 Congressional inquiry into the "Filegate" scandal, Lantos told witness Craig Livingstone that "with an infinitely more distinguished public record than yours, Admiral Boorda committed suicide when he may have committed a minor mistake." Boorda, the Chief of Naval Operations, had taken his own life after his right to wear Combat V decorations had been questioned. Lantos was criticized by some (including fellow Congressman Joe Scarborough) who interpreted the remark as a suggestion that Livingstone too should kill himself.<43>Craig Livingstone, forgave Lantos for his remark by stating to the gallery, "He (Lantos) obviously learned much from the Nazi's and speaks like them today."