There are 33-deep water oil rigs under US jurisdiction in the Gulf of Mexico and president Obama has just shut them all down. Operations are over, suspended, for six months or until a presidential commission into the Deepwater Horizon disaster has completed its work.
America's Petro-Porn Queen, old "Drill Baby, Drill" herself, hasn't responded just yet but it shouldn't be a long wait.
I watched part of Obama's press conference and I have to say it was impressive. It looks like he will be taking full advantage of the public momentum following the horrors of the Gulf oil spill to push hard for his climate change bill. As he said, oil drilling will be necessary in the transition to renewables, but only after assessment and evaluation of the risks we are willing to take to extract dirty oil in inaccessible sites.
ReplyDeleteI hope Americans realize how lucky they are to have Obama. He makes Harper and Ignatieff look totally out of step with the changing times.
The reaction from Republicans should be interesting. As one recently stated, he doesn't blame the Industry because it's the governments responsibility to set the rules.
ReplyDeleteThere are more than 33 rigs in the Gulf. They are all going to be shut down. The economic impact of this will be beyond severe. Each rig employs approximately 100 people, and each of those jobs affects roughly 4-5 jobs on shore. Staggering math, especially if you take into consideration that petroleum is in almost everything. First sign of impact will be at your gas pump. Expect $4.00 per gallon gas just to start with.
ReplyDeleteI am not a Republican, by the way, I am a Constitutional Libertarian. We are no longer a free people in this country. It's amazing that if you study about classic Liberalism, their first tenet of belief was for a people to be free. A government that regulates everything only enslaves people. Par for the course for Progressive Liberal Democrats - they were the primary proponents of slavery and fillubustered the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for 57 days.
Those who do not learn their history....well, you know the rest.
Gulf oil rigs will go the way of the nuclear energy stations "temporary" shut down. They've never been turned back on.
Wow ConMon, you've woven the complete ideological tapestry there in just two paragraphs.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, those that do not learn their history just make it up as they go along. It was southern Dems who opposed the Civil Rights Act because they knew it meant the Repugs would sweep every goddamned Cracker vote to claim the South - and they did.
Americans have been so buried in bullshit, have swallowed so damned much crap, that they can't grasp the distinction between capitalism and corporatism. Mussolini proudly proclaimed corporatism as the backbone of Fascism. It was and it still is and it's alive and well today in your country.
Oh my, the poor oil rigs. Here's an idea, ConMom. Why don't you put down your ideological prayer book for a while, at least until you see how the Deepwater Horizon fiasco plays out, how many jobs that oil spill is going to cost and for how many decades, before you go apoplectic over a 6-month suspension of the oil rigs.
Libertarians, as we know, run the whole gamut from rabid free enterprisers and unwitting corporatist dupes to outright anarchists. Add a good dollop of religious fundamentalism to that and you have a true Witches Brew.
Oh well, as your prophet Glenn Beck reminds us, America isn't a democracy, it's a republic. That's the mentality that fosters the ascendancy of oligarchy to supplant democracy. Good luck with that, you're going to need it. Wait till you see what the rightwing oligarchs think of your constitutional libertarianism. Oopsie!
I'm laughing so hard right now at your response Mound of Sound...you are so ignorant! I cannot even go forward with any backlash to your comments because I feel sorry for you...learn to think for yorself and not repeat everything you've been told! Question - how long did it take you to look up all those big words? Wikipedia is not an accurate source to copy and paste!
ReplyDeleteLet's not forget the most important element when it comes to this Gulf oil gusher...it is not a spill by the way...the ATLANTIC OCEAN produces 45% of the oxygen we and every other animal breaths on the face of this earth. Why is it people refuse to HEAR that? ConMom are you saying business has the right to do just as they please? Have you gone for a little boat trip on the Gulf? You ought to do that before defending oil companies or the out right greed practiced by corporatism which by the way also makes slaves of people.
ReplyDeleteAnon 9:40.... Are you saying only people who write-speak the way you do are intelligent? You could learn a little from MOS.
ReplyDeleteConMom, since you asked, here's the answer. I didn't look up any of those words. Highly educated, accomplished people don't need to do that. Nor do I rely on Wiki to bolster my views. "Cut and Paste"? Oh please. And thank you for playing.
ReplyDeleteAnon 9:40 a.m.
ReplyDeleteC'mon, take the time to give us a real response. We would really like to hear your arguments. Really! Some of us save that stuff for future use.
That copy and paste, one size fits all response you gave really isn't becoming of your advanced knowledge and intellect. Is it?
BTW mound, your "America's Petro-Porn Queen" was good. Very good. I saved that for future use too.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I don't understand about Pallin is how on earth she gets anyone, anywhere to listen to her. Everything else about her is completely transparent.
When she came onto the "stage", it soon became clear what the intended purpose was, but once she had made an absolute fool of herself and McCain, I thought she would drift into obscurity immediately. Not so apparently.
That's one political phenomenon that eludes my somewhat advanced skills on political analysis.
Okie, she's just another manifestation of a weirdness that has gripped the US for the past decade and left the rest of the world utterly bewildered and their mass lunacy. They might as well be from a different planet. I have taken a look at a few papers written on mass psychosis and that does indeed appear to have taken hold in a significant portion of the American public. When you combine an astonishingly low level of curiosity and a somewhat high level of ignorance and add to it some powerful and manipulative institutions, this is what emerges.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is - it can't last. It's built on falsehoods and empty rhetoric and it will, eventually, collapse under its own weight. What's unclear is who will be scapegoated for it when tthat happens.
Scapegoated, yes is so. The human condition it seems.
ReplyDeleteReading your words made me think of Canada. Utterly bewildered, mass lunacy. Folks from different planets and especially the mass psychosis. Low levels of curiosity and high levels of ignorance being no less applicable.
To that list I would add myopic, needlessly greedy and dangerously naive.
Having bitched that up, I guess the only availble option is to continue being the most disliked political and social entity of all, the true Centrist.
During a down spot in my past lives, I once entertained a position with Prudential as a "Financial advisor". I quickly realized it was a front for recruiting life insurance salesmen, but I took this one comment from the trainer forward with me. He said one had to learn to embrace this thought, "I love my no's"
As a Centrist one has to come to be pleased when the right calls you a leftie, and the left accuses you of being a rightie. That's when you know you have achieved some measure of balance and thoughtfulness.
Thanks Okie. You've given me a couple of thoughts to mull over this weekend. It is curious how left and right see centrists - as though it's somehow invalid. They don't grasp the significance of balance and measure. That's who so many of their policies fail so badly when put into practise.
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to invite you all to follow the link to ConMom's blog. It's all there. She's a total Beckerhead. It's no wonder she comes across as borderline delusional.
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome. I had a glance at Mom's place earlier, and there are some flags flying for sure, and I'm not referring to old glory.
ReplyDeleteShe does appear to be a wordy soul. I flinched a little when I saw this among Obama supposed crimes against the State.
"Obama Administration Reprimands Israel"