Time was when Republicans would criticize the President for kowtowing to foreign heads of state. Now we’re learning that the problem wasn’t the action, but the recipient:

Rep. Joe Barton , R-Arlington, apologized to BP CEO Tony Hayward on Thursday morning for the “political pressure” his company is facing.

Barton condemned the White House’s handling of a meeting Wednesday with BP officials, in which President Barack Obama pushed the company to create a $20 billion escrow account for damage claims from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The congressman called the account a “slush fund.”…

“I am ashamed of what happened at the White House yesterday,” said Barton, the top Republican on the [House Energy and Commerce] committee. “It is a tragedy in the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown — in this case a $20 billion shakedown.”

Other genuflectors lining up at BP’s confessional include Michele Bachmann, Haley Barbour, the wingnut “Republican Study Committee”, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity. We’re not sure how the spin works on this one, but we imagine it requires a lot of grease.

U.S. Rep. Joe Barton apologizes to BP CEO for ‘$20 billion shakedown’ [Dallas Morning News]

Say What? GOPers Slam White House Over BP Gulf Spill Fund [TPM]

According to the technology site Gizmodo, British Petroleum has just purchased 32 of the oil/water separation centrifuge devices that the brother of actor Kevin Costner developed shortly after the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Costner set up a company to market  his brother’s invention, investing $20 million of his own cash and has been pushing for BP to adopt the technology as it fights the massive oil spill in the gulf. The machines themselves are said to be capable of cleaning 288,000 gallons per day.

This means, of course, that Kevin Costner has already done a whole lot more to clean the Gulf Coast than Sarah Palin. But then, if you think about it, so probably has Trig.

So in recognition of Costner’s noble efforts, we hereby officially forgive him Dances with Wolves.

Meanwhile, we’ll keep a look out for giant meteors hurling towards Earth that might provide Costner with the opportunity to atone for Waterworld.

You may have heard that Sarah Palin wants to travel to The Land That Goalies Failed to meet Maggie Thatcher. You may also have heard that there’s little light in the Baroness’s attic these days, which won’t stop Talibunny from getting a photo op, and may force us to reopen the Human Prop category in the 2010 Stinque Awards.

You probably haven’t seen the photos that accompanied the Daily Mail’s story on the subject, however. We reproduce them above, mainly because it took us ten minutes to come up with our headline, and the sole purpose of this post is to justify it.

Highly favored Spain (though they *did* lose to the US of A a few months ago, thus calling their dominance into question) lost today to lowly Switzerland in a 1-0 upset. The second half of the Spain-Switzerland game is one for the ages as the Spaniards launched an all-out offensive assault and the implacable Swiss batted them away.

While the too-easy and obvious choice for tonight’s Stinque World Cup Hottie of the Day would be the adorable Gelson Fernandes, the Cape Verdean immigrant to Switzerland, the Stinque Department of Lady-Bits and Soccer Correspondents must instead award the honor to a member of the Spanish team who played his heart out today.

Oh, and he posed for naughty-pants B&W photos.

Sergio Ramos, all hundreds of pixels of him, after the jump.

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Anyone responsible, civilly or criminally, should be bankrupted and banished from polite society:

Oil firm BP “manipulated” the Bush administration into softening regulation of oil drilling, leading to the environmental disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico, a lawsuit filed in a Florida courtroom alleges.

…

An inspector-general’s report earlier this year indicated that the federal agency charged with overseeing oil reserves, the Minerals Management Service, largely failed to live up to the most minimal expectations of it. The report showed the MMS to have allowed oil companies to fill in their own inspection reports, and at least one MMS inspector had admitted to a methamphetamine addiction that caused him to be high while carrying out inspections.

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Q: What’s thicker than the orange sludge that’s killing sea-life and washing up on Louisiana shores these days?

A: The nonsensical bullshit spewing from half-term Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s mouth when she’s invited to give her analysis of the President’s recent address to the nation on the BP oil spill.

Indeed, you’ve got to be pretty hopeless if you show up on O’Reilly’s program to slam the president and the host makes you look like an idiot by tossing you a few softball questions and watching as you swing wildly and strike on every one.

Palin begins her absurd denunciation of the president’s speech with a rambling disjointed and often contradictory series of thoughts that makes the typical Mad Lib seem a model of insight, clarity and coherence by comparison:

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“People seeking unemployment benefits or welfare would have to first pass a drug test under a proposal Sen. Orrin Hatch will try to add to legislation extending the social safety net during this time of economic turmoil.” [Salt Lake Tribune]