HASTINGS ON HUDSON 'THANKS' B.P.!!

 

PUBLIC SERVANTS OR CORPORATE SHILLS?

     Environmentally Conscious Hastings                       

          'Puts Their Mouth Where the Money is'

          

        The affluent, "eco friendly" suburban community of Hastings-0n-Hudson has proudly embraced BP, prominently weaving the convicted corporate felon into the fabric of village life.  

         Hastings Mayor Peter Swiderski has not only turned a blind eye to the Gulf tragedy and BP's extensive resume of crimes against the environment, he's given BP carte blanche to use the village as part of it's greenwashing p.r. campaign.  

  

B.P. DOT'S HASTINGS' "I"

THANK YOU B.P.???    Who on earth thanks a corporation responsible for the greatest environmental disaster in the history of the United States?  Watch below as trustee Meg Walker does just that. 

  

  "Wouldn't Be Doing This Without You?"    
Perhaps then you shouldn't be doing it all.  Don't get me wrong I enjoy a street fair as much as the next guy, but if the most prolific serial environmental criminal on planet earth were the only contributor able to make it happen, the boogieing would have to wait.
        Could the village of Hastings' memory really be that short..?  Turns out it's a lot shorter than anyone could ever imagine.

          On May 7th, 2010, as oil continued to gush uncapped in the Gulf,  Hastings was publicly thanking B.P. for sponsoring their "Dancing in the Streets" F.N.L event.  A mere seventeen days following the Deep Water Horizon explosion of April  20th.  

       As all things Swiderski, it gets worse.  B.P.'s infiltration of Hastings doesn't begin and end with Friday Night Live.  

      SHILL BABY SHILL !!!   

        
         For any questions as to just how entwined Hastings and BP are under Swiderski, a simple Google search of either 'B.P.  Hastings' or 'Hastings B.P.' makes clear Hastings and British Petroleum are now quite literally interchangeable. 

 B.P.  HASTINGS / WELCOME     http://oneriverstreet.com

           The website, purportedly designed to update the progress of B.P./Arco's waterfront cleanup, is nothing but a B.P. public relations page.  Hastings' complicity in this hypocrisy evidenced by the unfathomable B.P. photo ops, found by clicking 'The Community' tab at oneriverstreet.com

  

'Under My (Green) Thumb' - let the parade of "big" checks begin.

B.P'S JOE SONTCHI & HIS BOY HASTINGS/B.P. MAYOR SWIDERSKI

      This past July, Business Week reported that incoming BP CEO Robert Dudley hopes to recover the30-odd billion dollars that the Gulf fiasco will cost by sticking to what the company does best: explore risky offshore drilling projects that lead to big profits and inevitably big spills.

TRUSTEE ARMACOST (L) B.P.'S ERIC LARSON (C)

The BP sponsored "Take Me To The River," with "solar powered stage" and "Eco-friendly informational booths" -- The hypocrisy of much of the text approaches  that of a Saturday Night Live sketch.

                  SWIDERSKI POSED WITH HAND OUT, ACCEPTS THE KEYS  FROM BP'S JOE SONTCHI (NOT PHOTO SHOPPED BELIEVE IT OR NOT)

          Joe Sontchi explains the significance of the "BP Buggy." "This vehicle demonstrates our commitment to alternative energy and to harnessing the non-polluting power of the sun...  We are so happy to support the village's interest in reducing it's carbon footprint through the use of solar power."  To date the golf cart has been drastically reducing Hastings' carbon footprint by touring B.P.'s logo through the village at the annual Memorial Day parade.  

BP PUBLICIST FRED YEAGER (R)

B.P.'S SONTCHI (L) FORMER HASTINGS MAYOR KINALLY & SWIDERSKI

        And to make certain Hastings' future is one built on ethics and principals

'Teach Your Children Well' -  BP's Eric Larson throws out first pitch at Hastings opening day Little League Game.  Here's a message for the kids; rape an ocean for profit, kill eleven people and hundreds of thousands of living creatures, lie to save your ass and turn the explosion into an epic catastrophe, and you too can be honored and showcased as a role model for impressionable Hastings youth.  BP's sponsorship of Hastings Little League also includes plans for a scoreboard, complete with BP logo of course.                 Get 'em while their young !!    Play ball!!

       In addition BP also sponsors (believe it or not), Hastings' annual "Cleanup Day", and "Climate Action Week."   







 

         So just how does a village with a history of being environmentally conscious, allow it's reputation to be so blatantly hijacked and compromised by the corporate pariah of planet earth?   

       In 2000 British Petroleum renamed itself BPand kicked off it's 'Beyond Petroleum' campaign.  Thought by many to be ludicrous from inception, BP began contributing to non-profit environmental organizations in support of efforts comparable to the waterfront clean up facing Hastings.

        "Until the Gulf explosion, BP successfully ran a massive p.r. campaign, investing hundreds of millions of dollars into lying to the public," says Kieran Suckling, founding director of  the Center for Biological Diversity.  Suckling describes these dealings with the devil as follows: "Sure, you can get them to give you $2 million. BP pisses away $2 million at lunch. And if you take it, you are literally part of their P.R. campaign.  If you don't comprehend that, you're getting used."
       Getting used.  Getting used now has a whole new meaning.  Clearly Swiderski has sold out Hastings, but the price tag was just a little bit less than 2 million.   All those big paper checks are for 5, 000 dollars each.  Including 35,000 dollars received by the Hastings Fire Department, Swiderski and village trustees have posed for and sang the praises of BP,  for less than 100,000 dollars.   
         Note to Mayor Swiderski: if you're going to whore yourself out and compromise the integrity and reputation of the village you were sworn to protect, at least exercise some leverage and GET PAID!  Particularly given that just months ago Swiderski announced that the village was operating without a reserve fund.   Those checks could just have easily been made out to 'Chump.'

        

         Most disturbing of all perhaps is the silence in which all of this has taken place.  Not one person from either Hastings "Green Team" or Conversation Commission voiced concerns over the cozy Hastings BP relationship, the hypocrisy and corporate arrogance of which clearly compromises the credibility and efforts of both groups.  In a village of nearly 8,000, Hastings resident John Gonder is apparently the only soul paying attention and or willing to stand up and speak out.

                             

         Joel Makower of Greenbiz.com asks, "Is BP's money forever tainted?  I'm sure a number of groups are asking that right now.  Every organization is going to have to look in the mirror and ask this question."  It is a question every resident of Hastings-on-Hudson should be asking of  themselves.  "What does this money say about us?"
 
     Where Mayor Swiderski and the village of Hastings are concerned, the money makes clear that he and his board are void of any real principals.  They are hypocrites, who at the end of day stand for nothing.   Hastings actions are evidence that the village is willing to do just about anything in working with BP to clean-up the waterfront.

         Hastings had best heed the words of Gwen Lachelt, director of the watchdog group Earthworks' Oil and Gas Accountability Project, in moving forward.  "BP likes to say they're a good neighbor, but we see them trying to screw landowners out of every last penny for surface damages and taking shortcuts." 

                                                                                                          NOTE:  Hastings has limited control over BP with regard to the cleanup of the waterfront, however they have NO CONTROL and NO IDEA of what BP will actually do with their portion of the 28 acre parcel of waterfront real estate.   Something the "transparent" Mayor Swiderski rarely if ever mentions.

         

        We leave you with this image of the man currently representing Hastings in it's municipal dealings with BP..   Who's your money on?

 
'Every Picture Tells a Story Don't It' --    "In this corner wearing the red tie, Joe Sontchi of BP! The world's fourth largest corporation, dedicated solely to profiteering at any cost!  And in the other corner, representing the village of Hastings, Mayor Peter 'sit here, stick your hand out and smile for B.P.' Swiderski.

In keeping with Hastings' appreciation of BP we'd like to wish A HAPPY NEW YEAR & OFFER MANY THANKS to, Dick Cheney, Atilla the Hun, Jerry Sandusky, Idi Amin, Jon Corzine, Pol Pot, Ben Bernanke, The Bush Family, Bernard Maddoff, Hank Paulson, Kublai Khan, Karl Rove, Lindsay Graham, Rush Limbaugh, Paris Hilton, Sarah Pallin, Snooki, and of course, the "earthy crunchy" Peter Swiderski!