Like this, but with oil instead of debris.
So, it looks like the homeland is screwed. Again. That’s a picture of Biloxi, MS, after Katrina. The place was pretty much wiped out. And now they’ve got another disaster looming. We’ve all heard about the “spill” (which is kind of like calling a hydrogen bomb an explosive–technically true, but woefully understated).
What I don’t get is certain people’s reactions. Of COURSE the Palinites are going to use this to call for more drilling and less regulation. That’s what they do.
But there are some people, likeCole, who just don’t seem to understand. I like Cole–I read his shit every day. But he’s been conflating being angry about the disaster and wanting the government to do more with the Tinker Bell strategy. I don’t think anyone here is simply wanting the government to yell louder and point fingers. I also don’t expect the government to be able to stop the disaster. What I do expect the government to do is to make fucking BP pay through the nose for cleanup, rehabilitation, and lost wages for the hundreds of thousands of people affected. If that bankrupts and ends them, GOOD.
I don’t want meaningless symbolic bullshit from the government–I want them to hold the shitheads at BP accountable for their actions. Like, you know, kidnapping motherfuckers and holding them against their will.
The Gulf is fucked. Period. If it takes two days or two months to stop the petroleum spewing out of the sea floor, it’s still fucked. BP can’t stop that. The government can’t. But the government can make ’em pay.
Oh, and I have no idea how Cole approvingly linked tothis. Fuck Al Giordano on this one. If you want to start the “we’re all guilty for being born into an industrial society and not choosing to move to fucking Walden Pond and build our own shanty” argument, just shut the fuck up. I’m not responsible for BP half-assing a drilling operation. BP is. Don’t equate my actions with theirs.
And, if you can, chip in some scrilla for the birdies.
Giordano is making an implied metaphor of priority and consequence, just because you feel offended doesn’t disqualify the
relevant political analysis
I don’t feel offended. His analysis is for shit. I normally like his work, but he’s wrong on this one. My use of a computer isn’t the problem. Unregulated corporate activity is the problem.
I don’t want anyone yelling and pointing fingers. I want BP to pay for the consequences of their shoddy bullshit, and I want more and better regulation of offshore drilling.
We’re not going to change our oil-dependent society; for the last couple of centuries, human economic activity on this planet has been dependent on the burning of fossil fuels. That’s a fact. It may not be ideal, but it’s a fact. Until the cost of extracting and using those fuels is greater than alternatives, it’ll continue to be a fact.
The question, then, is this: How do we extract and use those fuels in the safest possible way, and with the least long-term adverse effects? Coming up with solutions to that isn’t pointless wanking, and educating people about the choices and consequences isn’t, either.
It is becoming clear that BP recklessly gambled with this in order to speed up the process (spend less money to earn more profit). At this time only BP can stop the oil gushing into the ocean, so I support their efforts, and want nothing to interfere with those efforts. But, once the gushing is stopped, BP, and their executives, need to accept some very extreme consequences, like jail for the executives and bankruptcy for the corporation. I see this as two separate subjects.
people love their cars. god, they might have to WALK!
“We’re not going to change our oil-dependent society”
You can’t say that and then reasonably expect to change he behavior of oil corporations. They are part of society too. You have to pick some angles of attach to the problem, accept some consequences, and act. Wanting the same world only with BP less of a fucking asshole is great but how do you get from A to B?
I’m with Olbermann — where the hell are all those supertankers that belong to all the oil companies, not just BP, that could be shifted in to suck up the oil now, now, now?
I should’ve said that we can’t change our oil-dependent society overnight and without other sources of available energy. Sorry, was being hasty.
Even without that qualifer, though, I can say the original sentence and expect to change the behavior of oil corporations–you do that with strict regulation and monitoring. You can’t count on BP (or Exxon, or Texaco, or whothefuckever) to be less of an asshole–you have toforce those motherfuckers to be responsible. Left to themselves, they’ll cut every possible corner and pinch every penny, and you get what we have today.
And, you know, research and subsidize other energy sources (we subsidize the shit out of the petroleum industry with our road system). I’m not saying that technology will cure all of our ills, but we gotta try.
I’m also sick of reading unless I can say exactly what Obama/gov’t should do, then I can not say Obama/gov’t needs to do more. That’s horseshit
I hear you Jude. I just don’t know how you get Congress to have any balls. For every Bernie Sanders who is bringing up real problems and trying to attack root problems you have a dozen schmucks who only want to ride out today’s bad headlines and run on ending cleavage in video games or removing salt from food. There isn’t a lot of ambitious thinking in our government.
I’m a huge Obama fan but he’s much more suited to steering things in the right direction over a long period of time than being commanding in a crisis. Maybe Joe Biden should be given the central role of responding to the BP spill and regulation in general. Calling BP a bunch of fuckers on TV is the first step. It gives permission to the tepid herd of Dems in Congress to actually pass some serious regulation and address the clean up in a coherent way instead of perpetually saying the middle course is best. The middle course sometimes gets you run over by a fucking bus.
Thank you. The number of shitbirds that don’t believe that BP should be totally put out of business amazes even a cynic like me.
For every Bernie Sanders who is bringing up real problems and trying to attack root problems you have a dozen schmucks who only want to ride out today’s bad headlines and run on ending cleavage in video games or removing salt from food. There isn’t a lot of ambitious thinking in our government.
You mean likeLouisiana’s finest traitor?