Watching this Gulf Oil spill and realizing that when everything is said and done, the economy and the ecology of the Gulf Coast states are gonna be ruined for years. It’s been 21 years since the Exxon Valdez spill in Prince William Sound up in Alaska and we are still finding contaminated water, so you can only imagine what’s gonna happen here. After all, with the Valdez spill everything was concentrated in one spot. Here with the BP spill its spread over a larger area.
21 years after the Valdez spill, much of the wildlife including, Harlequin Ducks, Sea Otters, Clams and Pacific Herrings have not returned. So as I’m watching this black gooey oil wash up on the shores of Louisiana and Alabama, I’m recalling that the Gulf of Mexico is one of the most fertile fishing grounds in the world and already there is ban on fishing in large parts where the oil has leaked. Its hard not to think about radio host Rush Limbaugh on the air spewing pure ignorance by telling everyone to not worry about the spill. He said we should ‘let the ocean work it out’ and if a few ducks get hurt, then too bad because people are taking a hit as well…
I guess its pretty easy to be so cavalier in the face of an environmental disaster of this magnitude when you make millions of dollars and have the luxury of bouncing out to another state or country when things get too heated. If by chance a guy like Rush has to stick around he has more than enough money to buy what ever scarce supplies of food that’s around. His economic reality is not the same as the millions who will most be effected by this oil spill.. Here’s talk show host Ed Shultz giving a run down of ridiculiness of Limbaugh’s remarks..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzSLBweCgiI
Is it 'socialism' if we go to help those impacted by this oil spill?
The people who are likely to be most affected by this disaster are poor folks who are barely making it. It’s important to keep in mind that many of the Gulf Coast states are among the poorest in the country. What many may find to be a bit ironic is how many of these poor folks have allowed themselves to be seduced by corporate backed, rich media turds like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Michael Savage to name a few, who have railed about the ‘evils of socialism‘ and the ‘redistribution of wealth‘. This has resulted in lots of people who don’t have a whole lot of wealth running around holding signs protesting that President Obama is a socialist and how we here in America don’t need like Cuba or China.’.
Certainly, y’all remember the healthcare debates and Tea Party rallies with all those signs? I’m wondering if all those sign waving folks who are angry and fearful of socialism, tax payer supported bailouts and wealth re-distribution will turn down any sort of financial help being offered by the government in the wake of this oil disaster? If they were upset when tax dollars went to bailout the banks and auto industry, will they be mad if tax dollars are used to bail them out of this ecological disaster?
Is it fair to point out that many of these Tea Party types impacted by this oil spill are also the same folks who told us that they don’t want the government in their business. You’ve heard the rhetoric. The aforementioned corporate backed media personalities have railed and frightened people into demanding that the government NOT put restrictions on big business. They’re the ones that sat up there yelling ‘Drill Baby Drill‘ and were in lock step with politicians like Michael Steele, Sarah Palin, Rudy Guiliani and Newt Gingrich who first uttered the refrain. Y’all remember this right?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRtuKGS-QXU&feature=related
These folks said they didn’t want any government regulation and the end result was a company like BP having one of the worse safety records in the industry. I’m wondering if Gulf State Tea Partiers realize or even care that BP spent millions lobbying politicians so they didn’t have to comply with strict safety standards … The government stayed away, and these idiots went and ruined the ecology and economy of an already fragile system.. People can check out this interview and news story.. http://www.democracynow.org/2010/5/5/bp_funnels_millions_into_lobbying_to.
With all this in mind, should we be helping people who have ferociously campaigned and done everything in their power to shun government help and involvement? If Socialism was bad last summer during the healthcare debates when people were bum-rushing townhall meetings, shouldn’t it be bad a year later even as we are opening the coffers to help victims of this Gulf Oil Spill? The humanity in me says help these people anyway. That’s what someone with any sense of humanity would do. However, should we be reminding folks that the help being offered is what they have campaigned against?
Many who live in these impacted regions are quick to point out that America is a Christian nation and thus it would be Christ-like to help those who are without..My question is a year from now will those folks who getting helped be running with ‘I hate Socialism’ signs? If we are using tax payer money to bail them out from the Drill Baby Drill policies they supported is that a form of socialism? Should we be like Marie-Thérese from way back in the days during the French revolution and tell people suffering in the Gulf ‘Let them eat cake’? Should we insist that people own up to their words? Should we demand that those politicians who who pushed hard to eliminate government oversight take care of this situation sans our tax dollars and will the people in those regions be satisfied?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pZtCzGbsfU
As we close out, it would be wrong for me not ask ‘Where’s PETA in all this? Forget about some actress wearing a fur to an award show, wildlife was and is being slaughtered in the Gulf thanks to this BP Spill… I would expect to see them picketing the homes of BP officials alerting us to the fact that their corporate negligence led this environmental disaster. Next time anyone sees one of their members them ask if they’ll be hitting up these major killers of wildlife? Until then ask yourself. should be ‘bailing out’ victims of this BP environmental disaster-after all we wouldn’t to force any sort of socialist action on them…
Something to Ponder..
Davey D
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Right on, Davey D!
Part of me thinks that the right solution is to charge BP for the cleanup. Send them the bill in the end. But the sad fact is that all they’ll do is pass on the costs at the pump, and we’ll all pay in the end.
“If they were upset when tax dollars went to bailout the banks and auto industry, will they be mad if tax dollars are used to bail them out of this ecological disaster?”
The difference being is that the Gov. isn’t giving BP a million dollars for making a mistake. W/ the bailouts the government said “here, you had bad business practices, we’ll help.” Did it help? no, unemployment is still on the rise.
” If Socialism was bad last summer during the healthcare debates…shouldn’t it be bad a year later even as we are opening the coffers to help victims of this Gulf Oil Spill?”
Is the government going to force us to purchase gas to keep the price down?
like most people, you seem to not realize what the tea party is about. They dislike a large, centralized government, not government in general. They put an emphasis on states right and the rights of the individual, b/c society is nothing but a make up of a bunch of individuals. The statist mentality, that the government is capable of fixing every problem, both social and economic, leads to tyranny. As we are seeing now, from health-care to anti-smoking bans. these are areas that should be left to the individual themselves to decide, not a detached government. When you take choices from people, you take their ability to think, b/c you have made the decision for them.
Mars1102 I know exactly what the Tea party is about.. they are decentralized.. They are everyone with core beliefs about large govt.. and taxes.. I also know from the ones I’ve interviewed during the healthcare.. The ones right here in Cali that were chanting Fuck the Poor.. Trust me I know the Tea Party..and for the record.. I said Tea Prty types..
Now with that being said..The big gripe was socialism… when the auto industry was bailed out..Tea party folks hated it.. They said Nooooo to govt hand out.. In danville they chanted Fuck the Poor..
So is it not a socialist move to bail out any of the industries that will be devastated by this disaster.. Should the Gulf get a stimulus package..which is really what you guys were calling a ‘bailout’.. When the fishing industry in the gulf destroyed because of this oil thing do we start chanting ‘fuck the poor’, and ‘no to socialism’ or are do we give you the money and say ‘the Gulf is to Big to fail’? Maybe I should get all haughty and say ‘I don’t eat no damn shrimp so let em figure it out..
The fact is this.. Tea Party folks did not want regulations..You wanted the choice to think.. Well damn it you thought wrong and now an entire region is ruined..Please don’t backpedal on this like those politicians who demanded that we Drill baby Drill…Own up to it and decline any and all tax monies to save jobs.. To accept any sort of stimulus is to be hypocritical..
Yeah, send the bill to BP. I’m sure they can afford it without a bailout. There’s plenty of other gas pumps to frequent and that oil isn’t exactly ours to begin with, since it usually goes into the world markets.
I am actually in agreement w/ you davey. Not only should tax money be declined, it should not be offered and here’s why:
1. We’re broke. Are we going to borrow the money, raising the deficit? Most would pawn that argument off as putting money over people, but i would like to point to Greece and their current deficit problem and how it’s affecting those people. Debt is a slave system, interest are it’s chains.
2. The federal government taxes private property, which i don’t agree with, and that comes from individuals which may not be directly affected economically and so yes we can get haughty.
i think BP and the owners of the rig should pay restitution directly to the states, make it a lump sum with a % paid over the years. The only tax money that should be fronted is for environmental clean-up and the offenders should compensate the business aspect upfront.
The federal money that is to be spent should be on R&D for hemp fuel and solar energy. I hope this serves a lesson for those in the tea-party that were chanting “drill, drill”.
Well Mars 1102 I’m glad ur sticking to ur guns.. but most of ur peers aren’t..they want bailout and they gonna take it if offered
Forgot to add:
yes CDF if BP has to pay we’ll be charged at the pump. If BP has to pay overtime, you could stage a boycott depleting their profits gradually thus undermining their power.
Obama did announce that those responsible were gonna have to foot the bill. But everybody knows it’s not that simple. Like with supertankers, there are different companies that own or run just a part of the whole operation. For instance here, a company based in Switzerland (tax reasons) called Transocean has a hand in this as well. So by the time the arguing between who mucked what up exactly is over, the sea otters will be back in the Gulf (say in a 100 years.)
Then, there are the gullible courts that gladly allow big bidness to barter down the penalties. Take EXXON. They ended up way less than they were originally sentenced to pay. (http://bit.ly/c5XnSI)
But finally, any administration with a pair of balls should take any measures necessary to dump the whole cost in BP’s lap. Let them bail out the population and scrub sea otters and manatis. Take away BP’s drilling rights in the whole of North America till they’ve shelled out all of that formidable profit they made last year without paying a damn to the US fiscus.
If it wasn’t so damn tragic this whole anti-socialism blabber, combined with big bidness screwing over both the IRA and the little people while the government will end up being the only one semi-reliable could serve as a hilariously ironic textbook case for what’s wrong in this world.
I feel ya on all this.. what I was really looking at are all the businesses now impacted by this oil spill.. they range from fishing to tourism.. many of those folks said ‘No hand Outs’.. My rhetorical question will they turn down any sort of stimulus package..in the name of not wanting socialism.. If capitalism really works.. then in the face of a crisies is when they should let the ‘free market’ reign
I have a very simple answer to your question. Just look at the definition of socialism:
Socialism = my money for other people = hell no
Fair hand-out = other people’s money for me = fuck yes
Don’t expect people to stick to one and the same noble principle when the odds turn against them.
Small government and low taxes only apply when people think they can do better on their own. But when they don’t, it takes a giant ballsack to turn down some of that hated government cash as your family is eating dirt.
On the other hand, spending tax money is fine, as long as it’s used to keep “America Number One.” 3 trillion dollars for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (still counting). What does America have to show for that money, except the sagging pockets of the military-industrial businesses (& Bush administration) that overbilled the federal coffers and stole YOUR money? Money America might use to help those in dire need. But no, it was all about tax cuts for the rich, and tax spending for… uh… the rich (again. Golf club buddies forever!) Halliburton, KBR, Blackwater…
Bush’s two terms were a giant heist on the federal coffers, disguised in wars, against drugs, terror, the truth…
And Fox can spout as much hate about what they think is socialism, but they don’t want the government to stop the wars, or stop subsidising farms, or pray-AIDS-away programs, or the construction of walls to keep the poor in a place where they can be exploited more conveniently, to benefit American bidnesses: abroad.
(Sorry, I got a bit carried away here…)
In a nutshell: it’s all about hypocrisy, the one defining criterion is whether hypocrites think something is going to benefit THEM or somebody else. Yes for the former, “the fuck outta here” for the latter. Case closed. 😉
Good points, andbehold!
I guess you all think that they drill in 5000 feet of water because they want to no its cause they have to all you who think that we should not be drilling for our own oil so that we can be energy independent and create Jobs, love in a fantasy world I suppose none of you drive cars The US has the power if we just took it to demand OPEC lower the oil prices we have the power to charge China and all these other countries an import tax high enough to bring businesses back to the US and we have the power to stop the deaths of millions of children that die from malaria by just spraying ddt yet the environmentalists and the liberal progressives and the oh I dont pay attention crowd vote idiots like Obama, Nancy, Harry and the like into office then sit around and talk about the evils of oil while families starve lose their homes because prices on everything sky rocket over the price of oil