A Blog Version Of The Inside Of My Head. The place where politics, film, the media, music, pop culture, and random topics collide in an orgy of neo-philisophical randomness that would make your mother scream.
Should he have recused himself for this? I think so.
The federal judge who overturned Barack Obama's offshore drilling moratorium reported owning stock in numerous companies involved in the offshore oil industry — including Transocean, which leased the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig to BP prior to its April 20 explosion in the Gulf of Mexico — according to 2008 financial disclosure reports.
U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman issued a preliminary injunction today barring the enforcement of the president's proposed six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling, arguing that the ban is too broad.
According to Feldman's 2008 financial disclosure form, posted online by Judicial Watch [pdf], the judge owned stock in Transocean, as well as five other companies that are either directly or indirectly involved in the offshore drilling business.
Considering that conservatives are drooling all over themselves claiming that Obama himself is benefiting from the negligence of British Petroleum, that he is using this natural disaster for his own personal gains, I find it quite curious that they are not going after a member of the judiciary that has direct and verifiable ties to BP who has been successful at usurping those that are out to protect the better interests and safety of Americans.
But he can't seem to bring himself to use O'Reilly's name. Interesting.
And while Levin has been known to attack people like Glenn Beck when he's angling for some internet and talk-radio "face-time", Levin dives headlong into the shallow end of the pool and acts as yet another conservative apologist and shill for BP and completely misrepresents donations to the Obama campaign.
Once again, accountability be damned when it comes to corporations.
Fox"News" continues to provide covering-fire for BP and allow executives airtime to either make excuses for their inaction that lead to this disaster or simply claim that they are being victimized.
The unblushing way in which Fox"News" and conservatives are more than willing to turn a blind eye to corporations that rape the ecology and economy of America is simply mind boggling. We hear them continually preach accountability, to "trust but verify", and when the time comes to back up their words we get nothing - not one ounce of honesty or credibility.
When it comes to the gulf oil spill, there is such rank hypocrisy within the conservative movement that your head begins to spin before you can even get through your morning coffee.
First, the government isn't doing enough, then they are doing too much. The safety of workers cleaning up the spill is never mentioned by conservatives and when steps are taken to ensure safety, then it's all "a bunch of bureaucratic read tape slowing the operation down". There is nothing that will satisfy these wretched creatures known as Republicans. Yet people continue to try and appease them, even in the face of their own ridicule.
Make no mistake about it, Fox"News" and the conservatives enslaved to that network are in this to see that not just Obama fails on some level but that the people of the Gulf Coast fail on some level. No matter what the cost, conservatives must win, even if their own country which they claim to love suffers.
Conservatives have continually insisted that Barack Obama has apologized to other nations and kowtowed to foreign leaders. The reality is that Obama has admitted to the realities of what America has done in the past, but never once apologized for it. It's a very simply concept that conservatives simply either can't grasp or are just refusing to.
Congressman Joe Barton of Texas gave a really great example of what an apology is, and it was seriously the wrong time to do so.
He might as well have just taken a massive dump all over every person that is now unemployed, every business that is struggling, and the families of the 11 men killed when the Deep Water Horizon exploded due to of BP's actions - or inactions. This is classic conservative posturing in full bloom - espousing love for corporations over the average American.
The sad part of this is that there are actually more people than him that think this was an appropriate statement to make. Not only that, but he'll likely be re-elected. Just. Plain. Pathetic.
This is like saying that since your mom told you not to play in the parking lot and you went into the street instead that she would be to blame when you got ran over.
Just another in a laundry list of examples where conservatives are not holding BP accountable in favor of making it look like the company was forced to take risks and completely ignore the potential for a disaster such as this.
Within the conservative community, there is the continued call for accountability - being responsible for you actions, admitting what you have done, and taking corrective steps. This, however, doesn't apply to everyone and most certainly not to anyone within the conservative realm. When it comes to BP and the ongoing disaster that they caused, it seems that accountability has an expiration point.
Michelle Bachman keeps up the "Chicago Gangster" meme with her latest "Constitutional" argument against the Obama administration.
Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.) said Tuesday that President Barack Obama is exceeding his legitimate constitutional authority in telling BP it must set up an independent fund, not controlled by the company, for compensating victims of the Gulf oil spill. She described the administration's policy as an action "that's all about extortion."
"Private companies need to be held accountable but not necessarily to the executive branch," said Bachmann. "It seems to me there’s a misreading of the Constitution and a misunderstanding of jurisdictional limits from this White House on what the extent of executive power is. They don’t seem to understand that and it—now it seems that it’s all about extortion--and that what they want to do is create a pot of money for themselves that they can control and that’s not what the Executive is supposed to do. There is a real misreading of jurisdictional limits, and they continue to stretch those limits beyond all bounds."
Bachman's insistence that the Obama administration is violating their Constitutional authority simply reeks of her inability to see two feet past her own nose. Any time she or any other conservative bring up the Constitution in relation to Obama, it's often a stretch of the actual language contained within the document.
What do people like Bachman expect the administration to do? First they scream and cry because government isn't doing enough and now they are screaming because they are going too far. Not only that, but is Bachman claiming that BP should be liable for their own negligence - that they are free from any recourse when it comes to the need to compensate for the ecological disaster they have caused?
Conservatives have a serious problem with fact-checking before they start speaking.
Those "booms" that Palin and Hannity are speaking about weren't used because they failed quality control tests.
“There were concerns with material and end connectors,” LaBrec said. “BP has inspectors who visit facilities and regularly test boom. In addition to testing boom from new suppliers, boom from existing manufacturers is also tested/inspected. The Coast Guard also inspects boom that we purchase from suppliers. It is important because poorly designed boom may not work as intended.”
Listening to NPR yesterday afternoon, I heard a report that many of the booms already in place are being overrun by waves and actually washing up on beaches and not performing as they should. Why are Hannity and Palin so certain that these booms from Maine will behave any differently?
And to address O'Reilly's boast that Palin has effectively dealt with oil companies prior to quitting her post as Governor of Alaska, reports are coming in that the BP oil field in Alaska are facing serious problems.
According to internal BP documents obtained by Truthout, and after interviewing more than a dozen employees over the past month, the Prudhoe Bay oil field, in a remote corner of North America on Alaska's north shore, is in danger.
After two serious oil spills and other mishaps, the BP employees fingered a long list of safety issues that have not been adequately addressed, making the Prudhoe Bay oilfield vulnerable to a devastating accident that potentially could rival the havoc in the Gulf.
But I thought Palin had that all under control when she left office. Will she address this or even be asked by her adoring fanbase? Don't hold your breath.
And Rand Paul gets the Fox"News" softball treatment.
Let's look at this from a few angles.
There's a "concerted effort" to make Rand Paul ( and by extension the Tea Baggers ) look bad? Truth-be-told, they do a pretty good job on their own without any assistance. There's this bizarre concept that conservatives ought to look into, considering they preach it on a daily basis - it's called accountability. If Rand Paul is seeking to blame his opposition for his own, well documented, statements, then he'll likely only have a few people on his side come election day in November. The problem is that we are talking about Kentucky Republicans, some of whom really don't care for blacks in America at all.
And you notice how he said he "presents himself" as this kind, gentle, understand person that wants to have thoughtful discussion? It's fairly clear that he really isn't this type of person underneath that facade. This is a common tactic of the conservative movement - create this caricature of a considerate and understanding individual while projecting your own faults and shortcomings on your opponents while offering no verifiable information to back up your statements. It works because most conservatives are willing to buy into the lies, the hype, and the hysteria as they lack the intellectual honesty to move to the "verify" portion of Ronald Reagan's "trust, but verify".
And while Rand is actually being true when he pointed out - though not directly - that he never claimed he would vote against the Civil Rights Act, what he's not admitting any longer and doing he level best to distance himself from is the very real aspects of what he said - that he favors private businesses being able to discriminate on the basis of race, or for any reason for that matter. And yes, Mitch McConnell was quite vocal about his displeasure with Paul's statements and you'll notice that Rand did a little word salad shuffle when pressed on whether or not he was asked to "stay low". Any guess on what McConnell really said to him?
So why is he now in favor of what he had earlier deemed "government intrusion" into private business? Well, to protect his ass for one reason. But the damage is already done, so no amount of back-peddling or revision of the previous weeks statements is going to help him out with people that are legitimately concerned about what he could potentially do if he makes it to Washington. The talking-point about public transportation in Boston is not only redundantly silly, but really doesn't help his cause. He's essentially calling people in the South lazy, racists. He's not far off in that regard, as I've met my fair share her in Western Kentucky throughout my life. And if there's one things racists don't like to be called is a racist.
There was, despite the semantics that Paul is trying to utilize, a shake-up in his campaign after the Rachel Maddow interview. He did hire a former campaign consultant and it was a pretty poor choice, considering his ties to Rand's father's Presidential bid and his sympathy to white supremacists and neo-Nazis. So to state that there wasn't a dramatic shift within the campaign is a blatant lie.
As Paul, again, tries to distance himself from his "that's so un-American" comments regarding BP, I'm reminded again of how conservatives love to tout accountability but rarely, if ever, require that people be held accountable - that is, unless they aren't Republicans. It's a wonderfully transparent little dance that Rand Paul is doing, shift in his seat, swallowing hard, and visibly aching to get his new script out there to all the Fox"News" viewers so they can spit it out at the water-cooler or at Denny's on Sunday morning before church. There should be and there will be villains in every aspect of American life. Right now, Rand Paul is a villain of not only the truth but of progress in America.
- Seems that there has been another major oil rig disaster - this time in Northwestern Pennsylvania being operated by EOG Resources. A blogger over at Micheal Morrill over at Daily Kos tried to get video footage of the rig and the unfolding scene and was told that if he didn't leave the property that he may be shot and was hauled away by, whom he would only assume, were employees. I'm thinking that we aren't going to hear a great deal about this rig as the company likely did some pre-damage control for "just in case" purposes and has already got their narrative together. Wait a second, did Palin just say that inland drilling was uber-safe or something?
- Apparently knowing the little-known lyrics of the National Anthem mean that you far more patriotic than anyone else on the planet. Kind of like the same rationale that if you have a bigger flag that you are more patriotic. Wonder if this guy knows that last verse of the Beverly Hillbillies theme though.
- On most days this year, the Democrats are really good at doing the job of being a Republican. I think this has a lot to do with Obama's polling numbers at this point. But again, we have to remember that a great deal of this has to do with perception versus perspective. I'm fully aware that a large cross-section of the American media is more than willing to sit on their collective asses and virtually kowtow to conservative tactics, but there's also the reality that a fair portion of what Democrats are doing is literally in the same vein. I for one think that the government should, like Robert Reich correctly pointed out, put BP-North America into receivership in order to take more steadfast control over the Gulf oil spill. Likely that CEO will be removed from his position, but this should have been done weeks ago.
So far in 2010, the oil and gas industries have contributed $12.8 million to all candidates, with 71% of that money going to Republicans. During the 2008 election cycle, 77% of the industry’s $35.6 million in contributions went to Republicans, and in the 2008 presidential contest, Republican candidate Sen. John McCain received more than twice as much money from the oil and gas industries as Obama: McCain collected $2.4 million; Obama, $898,000
Conservatives are already rallying to Palin's defense, even though her abject ignorance is so blisteringly obvious.
One can't but laugh at Palin even trying to pass this off as fact - that Republican's somehow aren't the party of "big oil". I mean, this is the woman that coined the "drill, baby, drill" mantra and she says that Obama and BP are in bed together. I'm certain that even Todd Palin knows that Sarah prefers to spoon with the oil execs over him most nights.
Sarah Palin ( or her ghostwriter ) is making even less sense now.
Her latest entry into the "tweet machine" is something that I think needs some analysis.
Gulf: learn from Alaska's lesson w/foreign oil co's: don't naively trust- VERIFY. Livelihood affected by spill?Don't sign away remedy rights
There's the obligatory nod to Reagan ( the whole "trust but verify" schtick ) and her sad homage to Alaska and what appears to be a healthy dose of boasting about how she "took on the evil oil companies" when she was governor. But what does she mean by not signing away "remedy rights"?
I'm guessing that she's not referring to settlement agreements that were recently stopped by an Alabama attorney general, as those documents were designed to prevent people from filing suit against BP for the oil spill and how it will likely affect coastal regions. After all, conservatives don't look kindly upon the average American suing corporations.
What, precisely, does she think is a "remedy" for this anyway? I'm honestly thinking that this is just more glittering generalities from the conservative spokesmodel. But here's something that must have slipped Palin's mind before she ( or that other person that operates the keyboard in her place ) posted her tweet - Todd Palin worked for BP for almost 20 years.
It's not just Rush that's in on this ridiculous idea.
Yeah, Dana. You're not trying to introduce anything, just push a conservative meme that isn't very thought out.
And take a look at how quickly Kilmeade leaps to BP's defense by stating that "they just lease the rig". Considering that BP likely has profits in mind over worker/environmental safety, one would think that they would be pushing this theory more. The opposite is true, as BP execs are taking full responsibility for this.
But back to this notion that some environmental group sabotaged the rig. Not only would that be extremely difficult to do, but the very notion that a group who's sole purpose is to protect the environment would cause one of the worst ecological disasters in recent history really points out that conservatives have a serious cognitive dissonance problem they need to deal with.
