Oil Spill

[panthera]

Polarization

Tom,
You are so very, very right.
I think it is a part of the black/white, yes or no, with me or my arch-enemy culture into which we have turned.

Actually, several idiots of the rethuglican persuasion already did say this morning that it doesn't look that bad after a first fly-over.

These people reject anthropomorphic global warming, they believe gays "chose" to be gay, why would they even know what the food chain is?

Besides, lying through your teeth and saying the alternative is socialist, fascist, gay, communist, Marxist and will increase your taxes is all you need to win elections in much of the US.

 

[tomturbomatic]

K, I don't know how could they see the slick from a fly-over. The weather is stormy. Oh, maybe they flew over it last night! That would improve the view for those who want to see little harm. Even the President could not take a helicopter flight out to see it because the weather was so bad. I wonder what Gov. Jindal was thinking about on Sunday as they rode together?

 

[rapunzel]

So you guys think that this oil slick is going to be the mot

of all man-made disasters? Well, how about you try this one for size (follow link). Not trying to diminish the seriousness of what is happening in the Gulf. Though, this particular problem can't be contained with plugs, booms or dissolved with chemicals and washed away. Though, not one environementalist in sight anywhere; funny that.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/mudvolcano/

 

[lordkenmore]

For those irritated with the "drill drill drill!" crowd, a petition asking Sarah Palin to donate money to help clean this mess up.

Link to petition:

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/palin_drill/?rc=tw

 

[tomturbomatic]

Asking her to take responsibility for for something she helped foment?! Hand me my oxygen, I am going to be laughing a while.

At the dinner Saturday night, Leno looked around for Wolf Blitzer and remarked that would be a good name for Palin's hunting helicopter.

I know how she could raise funds for the restoration of the Gulf. She could sponsor a shark hunt using submarines firing torpedoes.

Sorry; it must be the Tilapia I had for dinner.

 

[panthera]

Wonderful

Turns out the Republicans pushed through a $75million dollar cap on BP's liability for this a while back.
Yee-Haw.

I mean, private industry is always better than government, right?

The gain is private, the risk is public.

Why should I trust private industry to fix this?[this post was last edited: 5/4/2010-03:01]

 

[panthera]

Former FEMA

head "good job Browne" announced last night that Obama wanted this to happen to drive his liberal agenda.

Puh-lease.

I do find it interesting that the only comments from conservatives and tea-baggers right now are to say Obama did this himself or to run to Washington for money.

Goodness, I thought "I am from the government and I am here to help you" were the scariest words in the English language. Why are all these rethuglicans now running to Washington for help?

Shouldn't they be fixing this problem all on their own with volunteerism?[this post was last edited: 5/4/2010-04:48]

Who Pays For The Oil Cleanup?

So who pays for an oil-spill disaster like this one? Matthew Wald offers some context. Big, wealthy oil companies like BP are usually expected to pay to the cleanup costs themselves. But that still leaves the cost of all the indirect damage to fisheries and wildlife habitats in the area. In that...

www.tnr.com

 

[hunter]

Panthera...

...it is no more bizarre than what all the left wingers said about Bush after Katrina.

The fedgov is filled with idiots so idiotic things happen.

 

[sudsman]

The fedgov is filled with idiots

Oh I am sure that are some that are not

Will that one please stand up!

 

[tomturbomatic]

Well, in this case, I will have to admit to being glued to my seat.

 

[panthera]

Oh, I don't know -

I traveled a lot in Eastern Europe back in the day and, frankly, the US government is not all that bad.
This may well be the end of small businesses in that area of the US. Terrible. I hope Obama has the courage to put in place some sort of WPA or similar to get them back on their feet.

 

[panthera]

Hunter,

I thought this was interesting. Can't say it completely assuages my suspicions (as you can see around here, even the paranoid have real enemies) but it is worth mentioning.

The Washington Post is sort of the very last stop on the moderate-right-leaning media in my lights (except for their opinion page which is to the far right of the Wall Street Journal and makes McCarthy look like a flaming liberal-commie-pinko-fascist.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/04/AR2010050405168.html?hpid=topnews

 

[panthera]

Disgusting. It just gets worse and worse

Here's a good summary of which administration mandated safety systems for bore platforms, which administration decided they weren't needed and why.
Read it and weep - we taxpayers get to pay for the whole mess.

Sex, Lies and Oil Spills

A common spin in the right wing coverage of BP's oil spill is that the gulf blowout is Obama's Katrina. In truth, culpability for this disaster can be laid at the Bush administration's doorstep.

www.huffingtonpost.com

 

[toggleswitch]

Disasters that are AVOIDABLE are truly gross.

Change the law such that safety devices and methods are MANDATORY and shut-down ANY drilling rigs YESTERDAY that do not have them.

I still say the good of the people and the country comes before the philosophy of either/any political ideology/philosophy/party.

As an aside, when our political parties were founded/begun, do we not see that they were set-up purposely as the extremes? They were meant as a system of checks-and-balances intended to keep the government from becoming too powerful and too efficient (in enacting radical fast-moving changes). Clearly then, the "proper" way of thinking is somwhere BEWTEEN these two ideologies (party-lines).

All I have to say is, the last time businesses and corporations were so unregulated and favored (i.e. before the current admministration and the one before that one) the same (near) collapse of the economy came about. Do we not learn?

BOTH POLITICAL PARTIES ARE INHERENTLY NOT PERFECT. Any of you who think so and believe FERVENTLY in one way or the other REALLY scare me.

And there is no need to try to convince me. As Mrs. Slocombe would say: 'That is my opinion, and I am unanimous in that!'

GREEK PHILOSPHIES:

Moderation in all things.
In all things and by every measure be the best.

These two ideologies alone would solve so many problems...

[this post was last edited: 5/5/2010-14:26]

 

[panthera]

I like the German

Das Perfekt ist feind des Guten.
Doesn't really need translating.
And yes, Toggles, you are right - no party is anywhere close to having even some, never mind all the answers.

That said, the 1990s saw a tremendous growth - under Clinton - in the belief that the industry would regulate itself because it was in its own best interests so to do.

Boy oh boy are we finding out how wrong that was. Housing. Derivatives. Oil spills.

Unfortunately, we have a situation right now in which one party is determined to bring down the government, regardless of the harm to the country.

 

[hunter]

Industry regulating itself...

...is like government regulating itself.

Only with a strong sense of ethics will this happen.

Unfortunately, we are dealing with humans. Therefore, a regulatory body is necessary.

In my libertarian perfect would folks would have ethics.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Yes, Hunter, it is a shame about the lack of ethics. If the ones braying the loudest about how religious they are behaved as if there were a life after this one where you have to answer for what you have said and done, things would be a lot better here in this one. Somehow they think that they can sow all of their wild oats and then get a crop failure just by saying the name of their savior. My father, may he rest in peace, learned one thing quickly once he started doing business in the South. He used to say, "When they start telling you how religious they are and how many times a week they are in church, watch out. You're about to get yentzed."

Mark Twain said that America had no distinct criminal class except Congress. To that I would add a lot of power-mad people who go into the ministry. I don't know if anyone here saw it last night, but George Alan Rekers, the Baptist minister from Miami who helped James Dobson found Focus on the Family and, needless to say, is a vicious homophobe, was photographed returning from a vacation with a rentboy who has a business profile on a Rentboy website. Rentboy was hired to help him with his "luggage." He charges $800 for an outcall so you can imagine the expense for 10 days of "luggage handling." The wonderful thing is that all of this was paid for with contributions from the faithful and bigoted. Thinking about this slime makes the oil spill seem almost clean by comparison.

 

[panthera]

So that's what they call it now-a-days...

And another one bites the dust.

These christianists are doing everything in their power to deny gays and transgender basic human and civil rights.

It is always a good thing when they are exposed.

I can't wait for the blow-by-blow, penetrating discussion of their on-their-knees sessions by Lucien. The rent-boy is the real looser in this whole situation. Like all small business people, he lives from his reputation. This can't help but ruin him.
This guy runs a "tax-free" organization. I really, really want to know why 10 days having your bags carried your rent-boy in Europe should be financed by tax-payers?

 

[sudsman]

I guess it all depends on

just whos luggage he is carring and how BIG their "luggage"is..

 

[panthera]

Lucien

is qualified for the hung jury.

This is big - denying us the right to adopt or even keep our own children over the last years has been based to a great extend on the lies of this christianist.

Of course, the usual suspects are denying even knowing him. A typical christianist tactic when one of their own gets caught with, um, his pants down.

But, heh! I just had a thought. You know how they always send their "fallen" comrades off to be "heterosized"? This guy, at least, knows how to get his bags packed. And here's his bag-handler.
Oh, joy, joy, happy, happy, another one bites the dust.