If They Were Interested
It’s a good thing the “Village” doesn’t read this On-Line Opinion Magazine or they would find things out weeks before they want to.
Susie Madrak notes that Congress is going to hear about Sinking Oil, which I started writing about almost as soon as BP got approval to use dispersants at depth on May 15th, because the reasons were obvious, to reduce visible oil, which helps them fool the media, as well as reducing the penalties. This was their legal department dictating the spill management.
Rick says that Escambia County is wondering EOC: Where is the $50 million?. As I said two weeks ago the state is using the money to cover its gaps, so the counties won’t see much of it. The Republicans raided all of the “emergency” funds to avoid fixing any of the problems, so they need all of it. The state is one hurricane away from cashing out the pension funds.
McClatchy recognizes GOP’s false talking point: Jones Act blocks Gulf help. I covered that a week ago when LeMieux brought it up. The ships aren’t operating between US ports or withing the three-mile limit, so the Jones Act doesn’t apply. BP isn’t willing to pay for them, so they aren’t here. BP controls the money, so they control access.
In other news, the Pensacola News Journal has an article, At Pensacola Beach, inventors show off sand-cleaning ideas, that features a picture in the upper right of one of the inventors, Kalty Vazquez. In the photo he is using a Dura Fork, the tool I recommended a week ago.
4 comments
I came across this diary entry at dKOS. I don’t go there often, but there are a few diaries that are worth a look now and then. 🙂 It’s quite thoughtful and interesting.
Republicans in the Abyss or why I want a Democratic majority in 2010
I hope people will take the time to read it carefully before commenting. 🙂
If there is no penalty, there will be no change. Obama disenfranchised me and other Florida Democrats, so I will never vote for him, anyone who supports him, or anyone he supports. If there were still a Democratic Party, I would vote for its candidates, but, as moderate Republicans have control of the name Democrat, I will vote for individuals or write in candidates.
The current Congress is not acting in the best interests of the American people. The American people are going get what they deserve for electing it.
I didn’t post an opinion of any kind above because I wondered if that was the kind of prevailing thinking there. I was curious to get your response, and hopefully others, because: 1) I’m not there, 2) Though I have lived in the USA and read widely and have formed my own opinions, I am probably missing many details and there is nothing much I can do from here in any case. 🙂
My reading of that entry posted by ParkRanger is that it’s quite an emotional piece without a lot of actual *substance*. From an emotional standpoint, I can understand and perhaps even agree with it. Unfortunately I think it’s naive given the proof so far to think that even with a bigger majority the Democrats will behave significantly better, if at all, than they have so far.
I posted that because I believe it to be a typical emotional response to the problems you have there that I have seen at several other blogs and online media sources. It seems to me that the reason the USA is in such a mess is because people have been making emotional decisions for just about everything the past decade or so. I really don’t see much getting better until a majority of American people begin to make rational decisions about your future.
I agree that the Democrats will not behave any more responsibly than the Republicans unless they are forced to! It seems to me that too many people have blindfolds on, or are simply willfully ignoring anything that they don’t want to see. Unless that changes, it will never get any better.
There are a lot of dedicated Democrats who don’t like what is going on and don’t understand why things haven’t gotten any better after supplying the party with the Presidency and both houses of Congress. Real Democrats and the principles of the party have been cast aside by the current leadership.
It very definitely is a personal decision in the US because we have such an odd system, from the standpoint of most of the world which have parliamentary systems. The party is isolated from the membership by defined terms of office, especially the staggered six-year terms of the Senate. The House of Representatives is the only way of sending message, and you have to wait two years to do it.
Continuing to back people for no reason other than “the alternative is worse” is not the way you move forward. They have had two years to justify their existence and they failed.
The purpose of the Democratic Party is not to support Republican policy just because a Democratic President proposes it. How long would Rudd have lasted if he had continued Howard’s policies, the way Obama has continued Bush’s policies? People voted for change in policy, not simply for a change in the name of the person in charge.