BP in a press conference this afternoon announced that their “Top Kill” method of stopping the oil from ruining our coastline and fishing industry has failed. It’s another frustrating day for Alabamians in the fight to save our shores and our economy while our elected officials run for cover and hope no one points their own failings to protect our shores and vital fishing industry.

In my last position in the technology arena one of my responsibilities was to take the lead during catastrophic crisis events and lead them to resolution. If I was asked to rate the performance of our current leadership from our local government officials all the way to the President I would easily give them a failing grade. The first thing I teach to crisis managers is to remove anyone from the process that has a financial stake in the outcome. Money tends to cloud everyone’s judgment and it’s apparent that has happened here as well. Although I’m not exactly sure of the legality of nationalizing a foreign company like BP, I would be definitely asking if it was a viable option and if not at the very least I would seize their assets in the U.S. immediately to cover any potential cost down the road to clean up the oil spill and compensate the individuals affected. BP who has a largest financial stake in this crisis has no business leading the efforts to stop it much less control the information that is provided to the public on their success or failures.

I’ve been wondering why no local politicians have been publicly calling for the nationalization or the seizing of assets of BP yet. I started with my opponent Joe Faust and found out why. In looking over campaign contributions from 2002 and 2006 I found major financial contribution to his campaign from Bil Oil.

How can we expect our leadership to do the right thing for us the voters when they are beholden to the puppet masters that donate to their campaigns. This was the reason I made the decision from the beginning of my campaign to accept no contributions from any special interest groups or corporations. I am not elected to represent them I am elected to represent the people, period.