Interesting Observations

So I voted for change (Obama) and that change included appointing Ken Salazar to the Secretary of the Interior. Under Secretary Salazars department sits the Minerals Management Service. This is the part of government that is supposed to be regulating the offshore drilling industry. Now it's coming out that the MMS was accepting numerous gifts from the oil companies they were supposed to be overseeing including fishing and hunting trips, private jet trips, and job offers from oil companies to MMS staff. I guess this is the change I believed in. What has Secretary Salazar been doing since his appointment? On the other hand I think its interesting that all the right wingers supported G. Bush during his handling of Hurricane Katrina. None of them thought Bush did anything wrong, yet now they're calling the oil spill Obama's Katrina. If Katrina wasn't a bad thing during the Bush Presidency are the right wingers saying its a bad thing now, or are they applauding the way Obama is handling the spill. I thought the right wingers did not want government involved in anything. Libertarians want little to no government at all and firmly believe in individual property rights. My question is if you do what you want with your property and your mess impedes other peoples property, what then. With little or no government you then have anarchy. Witness Somalia, a country with no government for 18 years and counting. There anything goes and only the strong survive literally.

Rand Paul / Kentucky Tea Party

Ok so lets go back about a year to May 1st 2009. Dr. Rand Paul announces on the Rachel Maddow Show that if Senator Jim Bunning (R. Kentucky) was not going to run for a third term that he'd certainly stand in the Republican Primary and soon after the show would form an exploratory committee. The irony is, that here's a douchbag who claims to be a Libertarian, announcing his candidacy on a liberal talk show and when he wins, goes back to the same liberal talk show for an interview and shows his true colors. He then blames his gaffs on the liberal media. In fact the same liberal media that he announced his candidacy on. Where have I heard that before? Now the Republicans have a problem. Do they embrace him and his views, or do they distance themselves. Last night Dr. Paul said in a nutshell, that if you own a business and did not want to give service to someone based on race, religion or national origin, that you shouldn't have to. Today he said that it was the liberal media taking him out of context. In May 2002 he criticized the Fair Housing Act in a letter to the Bowling Green Daily News. In other words if you own an apartment building you could choose not to have a black person live there just based on their race. Here is the Tea Party candidate running on the Republican ticket in November flat out sounding like a racist. And for you people that are saying don't go there, you are the same people that bring up code words and code phrases the last two times Obama has picked a Supreme Court nominee. I guess some of the media have had it right all along, the Tea Party movement is full of racists and until they denounce Dr. Paul, that's how I will see them also. One thing that's really interesting is the guy who lost to Dr. Paul (Trey Grayson) sure missed an opportunity to win that election as Dr. Pauls views haven't changed since at least 2002. Then again maybe that's how divided this country really is. I'd like to think it's not though. Oh and one other thing of interest, Dr. Paul is a medical doctor and about 50% of his business is medicare patients. Dr. Paul criticized his opponent for supporting health care legislation yet he wants more money put into medicare reimbursement to doctors. He claims to be a Libertarian who wants government out of everything but supports a government ban on abortions. Interesting.

Oil Still a Spillin, Drill Baby Drill

Ok its been 28 days and the darned thing is still flowing. If you watched 60 Minutes Sunday night, one of the survivors working on the rig basically said that BP was pushing TransOcean, the operator of the rig, to work faster even though TransOcean informed them of unsafe conditions. Meanwhile we find out the agency set up to oversee offshore was in bed, literally with the companies that they were overseeing (That's a whole story in itself). So what have we learned? On the more serious side we have learned that oil, no matter where it comes from is sold on the world markets subject to speculators. Hence the high gas prices of 2008. In fact this country has only 2 percent of the worlds oil reserves and any new drilling on the outer continental shelf, where the catastrophe occurred, would save us only 3 cents a gallon by the year 2030 according to the Energy Information Administration. Instead if we upped the MPG to 35 on all new cars we would save a dollar a gallon. We learned that drill baby drill without any oversight is a dangerous thing. Especially when safety systems that are mandatory in Europe are made voluntary in this country. We learned that the same people who want less government are asking where the government is on this. On a lighter side we learned that Rush said that oil is natural and nature would take care of itself, and followed it with the oil companies were forced to drill out that far in dangerous conditions because the crazy environmentalists swayed the government to keep them from drilling in close to shore. Two things, just because it's natural doesn't mean it's not a danger. There are a lot of dangerous things in nature (Plutonium, Mercury, and Lead come to mind) but when they're unleashed without restriction, that's what makes them dangerous. Fresh water is dangerous also, just ask the people in Nashville. Joe on one hand keeps asking me where Obama was for that while at the same time he wants government out of everything except national defense. (Off Track) Second thing Rush, BP was drilling there because that's where the oil is. They don't drill where there's no oil, they drill where the oil is. Is he really that dense?

Roberta/Joe is still calling me a Communist

Yes he is still calling me a communist. So lets take a look at the definition of communism from the Websters Dictionary. A theory advocating the elimination of private property, a system in which goods are owned in common and available to all as needed, a doctrine based on revolutionary Marxian socialism and Marxism-Leninism that was the official ideology of the U.S.S.R. Let me make this clear. I do not subsribe to that way of thinking. In the political spectrum there is the left, in which would be communism and there is the right which would be fascism or conservatism, and there is the center. For the most part the left and the right stay the same, but it is the center that moves. Take Justice John Paul Stevens for example. He was appointed by Gerald Ford, a Republican President. As this country has moved from a center left to a center right nation, Justice Stevens decisions looked like they were leaning more and more to the left, when actually they have remained the same as when he was appointed. An example of our countries move to the right, you just have to look at some quotes from the 1956 Republican Platform. "Gradual reduction of the National Debt." Since Reagan both Democrats and Republicans have gone away from this and now look at the position this country finds itself in. "Reduction in taxes with particular consideration for low and middle income earners." That sounds like a quote from the left of today only it was from the right in 1956. "Initiation of a sound policy of tax reductions which will encourage small independent businesses to modernize and progress." Both Democrats and Republicans are guilty of giving tax breaks to large businesses and screwing the small independent business owner. Look at the energy bill (Cap and Trade) John Kerry and Joe Lieberman introduced yesterday. It gives tax breaks to oil companies all of which are based outside this country, so they don't have to pay any U.S. income tax. Why would we give tax breaks to anyone not paying taxes to begin with? It's our oil. They are getting our tax dollars to take our oil and our profits out of our country and not putting anything back into our country, and our government is helping them do it. How much money has Kerry and Lieberman gotten from the oil companies? It sure would be interesting to find out. Big business is basically running our country at this point by paying for politicians campaigns. Once in, the politician then owes the businesses that donated to him or her. This borders on what Mussolini did in Italy in the 1920s. Only Mussolini just replaced the government with business owners. Our Congress might as well be on the payroll of businesses because that's where the majority of their money comes from. On my bio I consider myself fiscally conservative and socially liberal. I love listening to Ron Paul, a true Libertarian and I consider his views excellent. But and that's a big but, he has the mindset that the free market will correct itself. It would, if everyone acted ethically and honest. Instead we have British Petroleum at their hearings on Capitol Hill this week saying that they would be responsible for the cost of the cleanup in the gulf oil spill. B.P. knows full well that the cost will be in the billions even though by law they are only responsible for 75 million dollars. A law signed in 1990 and written with the help of big oil companies. I am against both Democrats and Republicans who were put into office by the people, but get nothing in return, meanwhile big business gets represented getting everything they want. Obama is living up to that saying from a past blog, "Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss."

Gulf Oil Spill Obama's Katrina ?

Sure that's what the Tea Baggers are saying. Only the Tea Baggers are for a free market and less government. Free market they say, keep government out of our lives. Ok so let's look at some facts. BP who leased the well that exploded, and sank, chose not to install a certain check valve that would have shut off the flow of oil. Courtesy of the Dick Cheney summit with the energy companies soon after taking office in 2001. Installing this valve was now made voluntary instead of mandatory. In Europe this valve is still mandatory. Get the government out and we can save a half million dollars per well. Profit to the bottom line. Free market has taken over yeah. Uh oh the free market (BP in this case) has no idea how to stop the flow of oil. Who do you call for help? The government, that's who. Auto manufactures fuck up for the last 35 years, who do you call? The government that's who. Banks bring our economy to the brink of disaster for self described shitty deals, who do you call? The government, that's who. Free market has been replaced by greed and when Gordon Gecko's famous saying "Greed is good" applies, is flooding the Gulf of Mexico with oil a good thing. Tea Baggers, why aren't you protesting at BP offices around the country, instead of blasting the government, whom you did not want involved in anything in the first place? Once again just come out and say it. We know what this is really about and its not big government, or you would have come out of the woodwork long before Obama took office.