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Making America Dumber
Sarah Palin released this ad: This was all I could think off after sitting through long enough to hear this ad out: Tell me that no one is paying attention to her anymore, please tell me that no one in this country is as stupid as she is, or worse yet stupid enough to listen to her. I honestly look at her and think if she can do what she is doing then just about anyone can make it in this world, she almost became vice president. One can only hope that even her most loyal followers are starting to question her IQ.....Miss Piggy strikes again.Repukes Need to Wake Up
President Obama can't win. He gets the residents of the Gulf Coast $20 billion, thats BILLION with a B and the out of work oil workers $100 million to tide them over till the moratorium on deep water drilling is over and the Repukes come back fighting and whining saying that we have to keep drilling, so they go get themselves a judge who over turns the moratorium.</p>
The government appealed and then another judge up held the previous decision. How is this making any sense. The president wants a moratorium to make sure that the 33 deep water wells, 33, not all of the platforms, there are hundreds of rigs in the gulf, the president just wants to shut down 33 of them for 6 months to insure they are safe.
Does Bobby Spindle (as I like to call him) really think this is a bad idea?
Dude, workers from 33 rigs have $100 million to dip into for the next 6 months. Shutting down 33 rigs for 6 months if it prevents a second oil disaster and the loss of one more life on one of those rigs to make sure they are safe is worth it. Repukes need to stop over reacting, their facts are wrong, they are doing nothing more than what they have been doing since day one for this presidents term, falsifying their talking points to see this president fail. After this spill and the loss of 11 lives I would hope that the average oil worker would want to return to a safe rig. To one that has been inspected and deemed safe. The repukes are twisting this and care about nothing more than the money that big oil is throwing at them to continue to put lives and the environment at risk.Spill Linked to Cheney
Anyone who argues the fact that the previous Bush/Cheney administration had their heads up the collective asses of big oil companies needs to check their facts. There is no denying it and the evidence is building that Cheney may in fact be the one who made the decision to make the acoustic shut off switches optional because of their HUGE price tag of $500,000
$500,000 could have saved this thing from ever happening and it was Cheney who called the shot. Read the excerpt below from this article:
"As the Wall Street Journal, reports, after a spill in 2000, the [Minerals Management Service] issued a safety notice saying that such a back-up device is "an essential component of a deepwater drilling system." The industry pushed back in 2001, citing alleged doubts about the capacity of this type of system to provide a reliable emergency backup. By 2003, government regulators decided that the matter needed more study after commissioning a report that offered another, more honest reason: "acoustic systems are not recommended because they tend to be very costly." I guess that depends on what they're compared to.
The system costs about $500,000 per rig. BP is spending at least $5 million per day battling the spill, the well destroyed by the explosion is valued at $560 million, and estimated damages to fishing, tourism, and the environment already run into the billions.
The Minerals Management Service is the part of the Interior Department responsible for offshore drilling. Towards the end of the Clinton administration, MMS officials wanted rigs to have the acoustic shutoff switches, but by 2003, the agency had changed direction.
What happened in those three years? Well, for one thing, the MMS in the Bush/Cheney era became one of the most corrupt government agencies in American history. The Minerals Management Service proudly embraced an anything-goes atmosphere that led to literally Caligula-like corruption and debauchery -- federal officials traded cocaine and sex for lucrative oil contracts, for example.
For another, Dick Cheney's secretive energy task force concluded that $500,000 for remote shutoff was simply too great a burden, and the former V.P. and his team didn't want to force BP and other oil companies to spend the money."
Well, I know the president is a little busy right now but if the above is true this is definitely worth the tax dollars to investigate and hopefully slap a pair of cuffs around Cheney's wrists. Yet another in the list of long messes that Barack Obama was handed by the previous administration.BP Still Concerned About Shareholders
I couldn't believe the report yesterday that BP had to assure investors of their ability to pay for the mess in the gulf and that BP would have money for dividends.
Stop right there. I don't think BP really realizes how much they are on the line for here. They not only have years if not decades of clean up costs ahead of them, they also have years, if not decades of covering losses suffered by tourism and fishing industries as well as any other related losses incurred by gulf coast residents.
And why are they worried about profits for their investors and themselves for that matter? The biggest environmental disaster probably in human history at this point and their investors are worried about profit?
BP cheif executive Tony Hayward needs to get his head out of his ass and stop worrying about investors, profit and getting his life back and focus more on the clean up of the mess that his company caused.
It was greed and want to save the almighty dollar that led to the lack of safety measures that caused this mess, so to see this trend continue is disturbing
At this point BP shouldn't be worried about profiting their investors, their investors should be worried about BP surviving this mess.
Category: News | environment | money | oil/gas
Classic Rush
No not the band. Maybe Im making him look too good by using the term "Classic" when referring to the gasbag Limbaugh. Maybe I should have re-thought the title of this post.
I dare one repuke to come on this site and try to justify what this bastard said in this audio clip.
So, if I got this straight, Rush thinks that The Sierra Club should pay for cleaning this up? Of course Rush would not in any way blame BP for this. hell he probably owns a ton of their stock. I have listened to his show every day for 5 minutes or so to hear what he is saying and not once have I heard him blame BP or the oil industry or the lack of regulation on this mess. He is either going after Obama, anything BUT big oil.
Maybe Rush Limbaugh should pay for the clean up of the gulf out of his own pocket. He has billions.
Mathematical Mayhem
I was up this morning at 2:30 AM, not by choice, it was our precious baby girl Olivia having really her first bad night in quite sometime, she has been the perfect baby all things considered, the kid sleeps up to 11 hours a night without a sweat, never cries and goes about her business. Tonight the heat and humidity got to her.
So while I was up I checked out the news early to a report talking about the national debt. Its hit the $ $13,000,000,000,000 mark. Thats $13 TRILLION.
The US Debt Clock breaks it all down for you into smaller yet still mathematically chaotic numbers for one to stare at around 4:30 in the AM. The numbers are moving on there and while I was watching it in 30 seconds the national debt went up $1 million give or take a few seconds/hundred thousand bucks, at $13 trillion whos counting right? Heres how it broke down at approximately 4:44 AM this morning:
1. National Debt per citizen $42,049 per person, to put that in perspective that is roughly double what my wife makes at her current job and probably the average salary for most professionals in the country.
2. State Debt was around $1.1 trillion, that wasn't even factored into the national debt.
3. What is really frightening was the TOTAL US DEBT, that is combined federal, state, local, business, financial institutions and household debt are a combined $55,732,000,000,000 in debt. Thats $55.7+ trillion for those of you who care not to understand that many zeros. That breaks down into $180,000 or so PER CITIZEN and $688,000 or so PER FAMILY. My daughter can't work for another 14 years or so unless she babysits, but she won't officially be on the books at least until then with working papers and she already owes $180K.
That leads me to three things:
1. Maybe there is something to the idea of allowing illegals to work and get them on the tax roll. Why are we so against making what they do for us legal? How many of us would settle for minimum wage if that picking lettuce? Not I. I have a good job and most of us who are legal can do better than that. What draws illegals here is that they can't get even what farmers pay here to do that work, so why not get them on the payrolls and get that income to count toward the debt and in the process make a national living wage?
2. As much as the teabaggers and repukes want to bitch and complain that the democrats spend too much, this is not and has not been a democrat problem. This is a BIPARTISAN problem and lets face it, if not for George W and Dick we had a budget surplus goiing 10 years ago, they squandered it by coughing up tax credits and lowering taxes on the wealthy. They spent too much on Iraq without budgeting for it and they ran up debt on a shitty war not to mention running programs like Medicare part D which was a money eater and a total train wreck.
3. When are we upping the tax rates on the wealthy. When the wealthy were taxed this country was humming. Its 36% now, it was 39% under Clinton who got a surplus out of it, its been as high as 90% and things were fine. Time to tax the rich.
Category: Miscellaneous | News | money
BP Wants Their Profit
I saw an interesting take on the whole mess in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday and it got me thinking that there may be more truth to this than not.
Why hasn't BP just blown this well up yet and shut this leak down? They could have done it weeks ago but they didn't.
The fact is the greedy bastards at BP and all these stinking oil companies involved want their profit that is leaking up from the ocean floor. They don't want this thing shut down.
Right now BP is sitting there with a pipe going to the well sucking up whatever it can and its going into a tanker. Has it stopped the leak? No, but BP is going to get every drop they can before they absolutely have to.
They are greedy bastards, every last one of these oil companies. They are risking killing the entire ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico for a few dollars in profit and for that I hope they go bankrupt cleaning this thing up. Who needs this company doing business if they are going to blatantly disregard safety for profit.
When does President Obama step in and say look, you guys simply are not getting the job done, therefore we are going to make the decisions based on my scientific advisors/engineers and you guys will do what we say, not what you feel will stop this thing.
Furthermore, what are we doing leasing a rig in American waters to a British company who would have taken OUR oil. Does anyone find that fishy? Sounds like a Bush/Cheney deal, lets face it BP didn't find themselves on that rig overnight they have probably been there for some time setting it up and drilling.
Category: News | Politics | environment | oil/gas
If You Have a Question At Least Be Smart
WIVB Channel 4 has been airing questions people would ask the president when he is here today. Here is one idea for people, if you are going to ask a question at least be smart and knowledgeable about what you are asking or at least in the case of channel 4, edit it for proper content. Two questions this morning were just awful.
The First:
The next time the president comes can he stay longer so he can be exposed to more people in WNY?
Come on seriously? What do you want a whole day? First, this is the president of the United States, not the governor, and certainly not a senator or congressman who might have the time to address the area and provide more time. The president is going to be here for 3 hours, maybe a little more than that. How much longer would you like? I think he will get the picture in 3 hours, WNY isn't that complicated, we need jobs and population growth and lower taxes which leads me to the next dumb question:
Can he lower taxes, our taxes are too high, school, property and federal......
Okay, there is nothing to the best of my knowledge that the president can do about property taxes go see your local town supervisor, school board, or mayor but there is not much the president can do there...I may be wrong. School taxes? maybe more federal money for the schools but how about the state chip in what it should. And on the federal level 95% of this country got an income tax cut from the feds last year. So know what you are talking about when you comment on taxes.
And Then There Is Limbaugh
How this guy has survived and garnered the listeners he has over the years is simply amazing especially when Limbaugh insists on saying things like this oil spill is..... ready....."Natural", if left alone he thinks the Gulf will heal itself, it will take care of itself, the wild life, the fishing industry...he thinks Prince William Sound in Alaska is "Pristine" again......Its a good thing he wasn't calling the shots when we were moved out of Love Canal, he might have told us to "continue living there, dioxin is candy."
Lets review:
The oil is still there Rush, its still doing damage Rush. This won't go away Rush. But I forgot, there is nothing we can do to fuck up this planet is there Rush. This planet will heal itself....sure in hundreds of years after the oil has broken itself down and we disappear and stop polluting the shit out of it, maybe.
At what point to we hold Rush Limbaugh accountable for lies like this? There are listeners to his show that follow him like sheep, like he is a god or something. Hes not folks, hes a fat, drug addicted shit who spews crap out of his mouth and his followers buy it.
Id like to think even some of his most loyal listeners, at least the educated ones will call him out on this. This oil spill is not natural Rush and it ain't gonna clean itself up.
If you choose to continue to believe that it will I have a great Idea, lets fill your multimillion dollar condo up with oil and you let us know if it cleans itself up. If its as natural as you say it is you should be able to do okay with it around for awhile.
Here is a great Psychotalk with Big Eddie who caught wind of Rush's absurd statements:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Category: News | Politics | environment
Big Stinking, Oily Mess
What the hell is wrong with this country? First of all, if you saw the CEO of BP talking about the spill stating that they would be responsible for cleaning up the oil but not for the accident and it didn't make your head spin and green vomit come out of your mouth after hearing him then you are not an American.
First of all, I don't care if you were drilling of your wifes left tit and it was too floppy to hold up all the black sludge you guys were claiming for BP's profit, the fact is you knew what you were getting into when you sent your people onto the rig, you knew what safety devices it had or in this case did not have therefore you are cleaning it up and re-imbursing the people of the gulf coast of the United States of America with your British pounds if it means that BP fails.
Thats right, if BP has to go under to pay this thing off, to make sure that each and every person who loses their job over this, the tourist industry, the environment that suffers over this that needs to be cleaned up, BP will pay the bill.
If person A takes my car and goes and plows into someone at an intersection its not my fault, its the jackass who took my car, especially if I told him about the blind spots.
Why aren't some of our politicians not making more of a stink about this? Lets get one thing out of the way on the political side of this, the Obama Administration has done everything right to this point, if anything he hasn't been tough enough with demanding BP forks over every dollar they have to this and insuring the people of this country that they will get reimbursed for this. Lets face it, directly or indirectly, whether you live in Seattle or New Orleans, this thing is going to have lasting impacts. BP has fucked this country up for not years but DECADES.
Don't believe it? Take a look at the most recent video of the Exxon Valdez mess from 1989: Lives were ruined and the environment is still suffering 21 years later. The biggest difference is that the Gulf is highly populated and there are even more lives to ruin from this. So what really up this catastrophe? These oil companies are cheap. They made record profits yet were too cheap to install or make sure the proper safety devices were in place. Dick Cheney and George W. Bush helped them do that. They deregulated the oil industry allowing them take shortcuts on safety features that could have prevented the whole thing. Want more? Check out who actually leased this rig to BP and what their involvement is in this, Big Ed Schultz hits on all cylinders on this on the Ed Show and he was talking about it on his radio show. I respect the hell out of him because he doens't hold back and neither should we, BP doesn't care about cleaning this up anymore than they do about reimbursing this country for the damage they did, pay attention for who Trans Ocean is in this clip:Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Yeah, Trans Ocean, the biggest oil drilling company in the world, home office in Houston, Texas and they DON"T PAY TAXES. It doesn't matter who pays for this mess as long as who ever does A) isn't us, the American Tax Payer and B) They pay for not only the oil clean up but the long term environmental costs/cleanup and reimburse everyone who is damaged financially by this mess. If it means this Trans Ocean or BP or both go under and never return then so be it. Ed is right, its time we listened and followed finally, what this man said years ago now and actually mean it, no more oil!:Category: Energy | News | Politics | environment
