Well, as you can see, I've been busy. And I haven't even told you about trying to chase down the sunset tonight. Last fucking time I leave the house without my camera, lemme tell ya, cuz by the time I'd fetched the bugger sunset was all gone. Same thing with the fledgling chicks at work.
Anyway. I just haven't been in the mood for political stupidity. I've kept up on the news whilst trapped at work, and it is, for the most part, Same Stupdity Different Day. But there's a few items I'd like to highlight tonight.
TPM's thoughtfully collected a Top-6 list of Cons blurting out dumbfuck shit about the oil spill. And don't miss Steve Benen's "Leave BP Aloooooone" post. These fucktards amaze me. BP turned the Gulf Coast into this:
...and all the Cons can do is run around bleating "Drill Baby Drill!" and howling that Obama's being a big meanie to poor widdle BP. I knew they were supreme dumbfucks, but do they really think that attitude's popular with the public just now? Seriously? I'm starting to wonder if they've got actual brain damage. Maybe they've been freebasing too much crude oil.
Of course, my personal favorite this week was Rep. Joe Barton's touching apology to BP after that mean ol' Obama forced them to pay up some of what they owe us:
A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee convened a hearing this morning, ostensibly to read BP CEO Tony Hayward the riot act. Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), who has a well-deserved reputation for being the most pro-pollution member of Congress, used his opening statement to apologize to BP. As Barton explained it, he was outraged that the White House pressed BP to put aside $20 billion in escrow to bring relief to those hardest hit by the disaster.
"I'm ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday," Barton said. "I think it is a tragedy of 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." Talking directly to Hayward, Barton added, "I apologize. I do not want to live in a country where any time a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong, is subject to some sort of political pressure that is, again, in my words, amounts to a shakedown. So I apologize."
[snip]
I just never thought I'd see the day when a leading Republican publicly groveled to a foreign CEO, who just happens to be leading a company responsible for a devastating oil spill disaster. It was just a stunning display. That the right-wing Texan has taken in over $1.4 million in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry over his career makes his apology that much more unseemly.
You know, I suppose nothing these fucktards do should surprise me anymore, but that one made my jaw drop. As you can well imagine, it's made Democrats everywhere scream for joy. Talk about fucking Christmas in June.
Things were looking bleak for Dems, a noisy chunk of whom can't seem to remove their heads from their asses long enough to remember which party they're supposed to be in, but if things go on like this, they'll take November in a landslide simply because no matter how bad they are, they are megaparsecs better than the competition. It'll come down to a choice between frothing insane freaks who make you wonder if they're suffering from hydranencephaly and Dems who would've made excellent moderate Republicans, and while I know a friend of mine thinks we should vote third party just to teach the DINOs a lesson, I can't for the sake of my country bring myself to do it. I'm sure I won't be alone. Teaching Dems the hard way that they need to swing left will have to wait until the Con party has incinerated itself with its own flamethrowers of stupid. (Besides, heavy losses mean we'll see Dems running even further to the right, because the ones who are a problem are stupid enough to think they're losing because they're too liberal.)
But there are some Dems who need kicking to the curb no matter how counterproductive it is. Blanche Lincoln's first on my list of Dems I'd Like to See Lose Spectacularly, and Mary Landrieu's a close second:
Holy fucking shit, what an idiot. She sounds just like, well, BP:Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) deflected attacks on BP last week saying that the Gulf region needs BP now more than ever:“First of all, the last company that people in the Gulf want to see go bankrupt is BP because we’re depending on them to clean up our environment and make our people whole,” Lousiana Sen. Mary Landrieu told “Good Morning America” today in an exclusive interview. “One of the more important issues… [is] half of our families make their living fishing, the other half of our families make their living in the Gulf drilling for oil and gas that this country desperately needs.”
Gee, they employ thousands of people and give us gas, so we can't be too mad they destroyed the Gulf of Mexico! I have just one response to BP and all its shills:Last night during an interview with BP executive Bob Dudley on Fox News, host Greta Van Susteren noted that the oil giant has been taking some heat because of its Gulf oil spill. “Your company has taken quite a beating,” she said. Dudley agreed but said his company’s critics should be careful because Gulf coast residents are dependent on BP:DUDLEY: Well, Greta, I know that oil companies are not popular. It has been that way for sometime in the U.S. It’s a company made up of people, many of which live along the Gulf coast, that are integrated into the fabric of the communities there.We have 23,000 people in the U.S., many of which are around the Gulf coast. I think — and everyone is devastated by what has happened today. I think I would look at some of the process today as just making sure that through that sentiment we don’t actually shoot the dog who is trying to bring home the bone and meet its obligations all across the Gulf, and we are going to be there a long time.
FUCK YOU
And that's all I've got to say about that.
I look forward to Dow Chemicals paying for Bhopal, instead of saying $476m closes the matter on 25,000 deaths, and the US Government allowing US board members to be extradited to India for their part in it.
ReplyDeleteOr all those US companies who are still fighting court cases against paying damages for 20 year old oil spills to cough up.
Or Halliburton to put its fair share into the fund to help the Gulf of Mexico Cock Up.
Or Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld and even Obama to have some action taken against them as War Criminals/Terrorists
Y'see, there was a kidney stone to pass (fun!), and then..
ReplyDeleteOMFG Dana, I'm so sorry to hear that. On the other hand you seem to have won the "most casual notice of a fucking kidney stone" award for the year.
Teaching Dems the hard way that they need to swing left will have to wait until the Con party has incinerated itself with its own flamethrowers of stupid. (Besides, heavy losses mean we'll see Dems running even further to the right, because the ones who are a problem are stupid enough to think they're losing because they're too liberal.)
ReplyDeleteIn 2012 we won't want to lose the White House. In 2014, there will be some other giant scary thing the Republicans will do.
There will always be an excuse to wait. If the Democrats lose the House this time, then we'll have divided government. Right now, that's probably the best thing we can hope for.
The Democrats who lose will be the ones with the most power, who tend to be the most conservative. If anything, that will prompt the party in the progressive direction. The only reason to go further right is to chase the big money, and if even the big money won't get them votes, they're going to have to think of something else.
Keep rewarding this behavior because it's better than some imagined alternative, and you will keep seeing this behavior.
We do need BP and all the other oil companies, because this nation runs on oil. The fact that we've hit peak oil, and it's going to get progressively more expensive, will make mandating that the bastards are more hazard-averse in how they get the oil even harder to stuff down their throats.
ReplyDeleteThe whole situation sucks, and congressional grandstanding (with or without egregious apologies) will make no difference whatsoever. I don't see Mr. Speech-maker President doing much, either.
"Mr. Speech-maker President doing much, either."
ReplyDeleteI always wonder what people expect the people at the top to actually do. do the expect Obama and Hayworth to don wet suits and get down there themselves?
I do feel that 24 hour media is making the modern world a less considered place - Some Thing Must Be Done
"7 Decemeber 1942 - The US has been at war with Japan for 12 months. On the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbour Fox News demands to know - Why Have We Not Won Yet"
I want Obama to demand that the appropriate departments of the Department of the Interior (I think) institute the kind of drilling safety rules that the nations bounding the North Sea insist on, to start. Then I want him to savage the government regulators who are in bed with the oil companies they are supposed to regulate, fire the bastards and replace them with some go-getters who will enforce the rules. Of course I don't expect Obama to do the details personally, but can't he at least shake up the MMS and get some top guns in there who will work for the people, not the oil companies???
ReplyDeleteI wanted Obama to not decide a month after the leak started that maybe he needed to get an independent estimate of the size of the spill.
ReplyDeleteI wanted him to not leave BP in charge of the cleanup, in spite of their previous record of incompetence and their evident lack of ability to deal with this crisis.
I want him to not continue to push offshore drilling, despite the rather obvious dangers. Failing that, I want him to propose regulations and an enforcement mechanism that will prevent such disasters in the future.
Obama has failed to do all of these things, or he did them well after he should have. If he can't do better than than that, then yes, I want him to don a wet suit and go wash some fucking pelicans, because he's clearly not doing any good where he is now.