In my latest video commentary, I break it down for you on how conservatives who are now pointing the finger at President Obama are the ones actually responsible for the growing disaster in the Gulf.
I mean, can you believe these hypocrites? Rush Limbaugh has actually tried to blame environmentalists because their support for regulation pushed drilling off-shore to wear it's "less safe". So now conservatives are the ones concerned with safety? Sarah Palin and her posse were the ones telling government to take regulation and shove it and "Drill, baby, drill!" What gives her the right to criticize the Obama administration's response? If Sarah Palin were president, there would be ten-times more disasters like this!
Watch this video and spread it! We need to hold them accountable to the truth!
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And in related news, Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.
Anyone telling you otherwise with respect to these facts is obviously misinformed. :)
Palin and anyone else who tries to politicize or trivialize the spill don't realize it but they have awakened a beast. They under-estimate the political and business clout of those of us who are personally and/or professionally vested in clean energy, natural resourse management, fishing, tourism, and protecting the environment - add all those groups up and the GOP is going to realize they picked the wrong horse at this point in history.
I have been passive about healthcare, the wars, etc. I haven't donated to any Dem candidates or organization in about 6 months. I've let my Surfrider and Riverkeeper memberships lapse. BUT NOW it's time for me to get involved again. Unfortunately, I can't go down to the gulf so I'll blog and donate cash. (Gotta love the times we live in!)
Sarah and her defenders stand in the way of progress and are backing a short-sighted energy and environmental strategy. The energy industry is already moving beyond oil - yet here we are, thanks to the GOP, transported back to 1972. All our attention and resources are being spent cleaning up a lousy oil spill and the conversation has shifted from not IF to drill but WHERE to drill!
In the meantime, can we get back to the conversation of electric cars and alternative energy? Or is our Dept of Energy going to now be consumed with this mess?
Rethuglicans have three rules in their playbook:
1. be as hypocritical as possible
2. blame the dems for the problems that the republicans themselves created.
3. propagate the idea that government is ineffectual by being completely incompetent in office.
Liabilities have been limited to a very low level, and many safety procedures that are mandatory in the rest of the world are optional here (read: they won't be done).
The thing that keeps businesses from making bad decisions is "moral hazard." Bad decisions cost money - usually. So businesses try to avoid them. If the responsibility and cost for poor decisions can be shifted, say, to the American Taxpayer - then poor decisions do get made - sometimes they work and profits are tremendous!
Therefore "Drill, Baby, Drill," - because the unwary taxpayer has been quietly made responsible to pay for lax safety, mega-profitable, quick buck practices!
Moral hazard must be restored by making oil cos fully responsible for their liabilities. If you can't pay for a spill, then you cannot drill, baby!!
Period. Drilling is not a "Mom and Pop" business, anyway.
Let's have an actual "free market," not liability free market.
Moral hazard - you pay for your own mistakes. That is a free market principle.
We Obamabots believe in that!
I am in the energy/oil & gas industry, yet I am also an environmentalist and supporter of State and Federal regulations. I am also a "greenie" in *almost* everything I do. It is possible to be exist in all worlds and if that's being a hypocrite then we are becoming a nation of dogmatic principles and have abandoned our pragmatic American roots.
I am very sympathetic to the good men and women of LA and TX. I've spent a lot of time down there and I appreciate the human ecosystem that exists. The shrimpers, the oil people, the engineers, the restaurant owners...they all rely on each other for their very existance. AND I firmly believe that we should PHASE OUT oil and help the locals replace it with other industries, such as wave energy, solar and yes, nuclear. (South Texas is already a beneficiary of stimulus funds for a nuke plant).
And I do believe the BP people and subcontractors are doing the very best they can. I wish them all the luck and good thoughts in the world.
Having said all that - BP SHOULD pay into a superfund to clean this mess up! They are out there telling the investment community that this won't effect profits! Excuse me? It should!