These Marxist Governors...

BP CEO Tony Hayward told the Financial Times that It now is looking like BP did not have all the equipment it needed to stop the leak from its Macondo well in the Gulf after the oil explosion six weeks ago. Hayward said, "What is undoubtedly true is that we did not have the tools you would want in your tool-kit,” and added it was “an entirely fair criticism” to say BP was not fully prepared. Meanwhile, Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) has asked President Obama to to restart deepwater drilling soon, and at the same time Gov. Bob Riley (R-AL) is pointing fingers at the Coast Guard for not protecting Alabama’s barrier islands from oil. Charlie Crist (R-FL) has asked that Florida’s commercial fishing industry be declared a disaster. This is a fascinating spectacle, with five Gulf coast Republican governors now torn between the big bucks the oil company gives them, their proclamations that they hate "big government," and their demands that "the federal government" declare emergencies - making them eligible for big government federal funds that they used to call welfare - and for "big government" to do more to protect their states. These Marxist governors - that's Marxist as in the Marx Brothers because they can't get anything straight - hate federal money and help when it goes to working people as unemployment compensation or to children as school funding or AFDC payments, but love federal money when it comes to their offices in the form of emergency funds so they can pass it out and look like they're doing something. They love tax breaks for the oil industry like the oil depletion allowance and for hedge fund billionaires like the Bush tax cuts that cut most billionaires income tax rates to a maximum 15%, but freak out when there isn't federal tax money to pay for the resources necessary to protect their states from the oil companies they keep inviting in. It's bizarre enough to even cause Limbaugh to stutter.

Comments

AZZO45's picture
AZZO45 14 years 8 weeks ago
#1

Thom, Finally joined your site. I heard you mention "Seize BP.org" on air... is that an actual live website yet? Perhaps I misspelled seize in my quick Google search. I monitor this spot for details. Thanks

SueN's picture
SueN 14 years 8 weeks ago
#3

Actually, that sends you to http://www.seizebp.org/

kimk 14 years 8 weeks ago
#4

re Al Gore, as a caller just mentioned: Al Gore has never renounced corporatism. We can change all the lightbulbs we want but, as Thom speaks so well about, corporatism is the root of this mess and Al Gore is not the right person to turn that boat around.

kimoliver's picture
kimoliver 14 years 8 weeks ago
#5

As I sit and watch the summer birds in the northeast I keep praying to them not to fly south for the winter. Most of these birds and their fledgings will fly to the Gulf Coast and will never return. My heart is broken, my soul aches. I see death everywhere.

hep2jive 14 years 8 weeks ago
#6

Lady Liberty is Lying Face Down in the Mud, Oil Tainted Mud

an essay by hep2jive

The lady is barely enlightened, hardly free and laden with toxic mud and oil. She is crying out for relief. The wetlands are shouting for justice, and why? One simple word--greed. In the interest of making a "killing" BP Oil moved forward, without a disaster plan that would safeguard our precious land.

Lobbyists and politicians prostituted themselves--and us--and our American land. For what? The almighty profit.

No plan, no safeguards, no concern for communities full of people who have worked and lived their lives dependent on the waters of the Gulf, done what their grandfathers and great grandfathers have done for all this time.

Here we are once again. Watching the suffering of innocent people and the desecration of our beautiful American land-- all because of one word--greed.

There is no "right" way to do something wrong.

After all this new enlightenment and change, America is still living under the effects of colonialism, the dribbling filth of imperialism, the "we know what is best for the foolish masses of "know-nothings" the average man and woman. The middle class do-gooder who will shoulder the burdens for all.

After all, almost an entire political campaign was built with a plumber's toolset, "Joe the Plumber" to be exact.

If "we the people" are truly pursuing the American ideal, this insanity of solving problems the same old way and expecting a different result has to change.

marcus_w71's picture
marcus_w71 14 years 8 weeks ago
#7

Are these Governors Marxist? , Stupid? , Or just plain Hypocrites?? The Republican Party is the party of "Family Values" .. Yet they don't mind taste testing the male prostitutes from "Rent-a-Boy" and billing it to their Religious organizations.. Republicans are "Pro Life"!! >> As long as that life is White, Wealthy, Christian and or a Fetus.. As soon as the miracle of birth is over >> suit that little bastard up into a combat uniform and send him/her off to War OR put him/her on an oil drilling platform or coal mine so they can suffocate, burn to death or drown.. The word "Conservative" means "to Conserve" .. Yet "Conservation" is the last thing on their minds.. The word "Conserve" to a Republican means "CONSUME" .. As soon as that resource is gone >>> So are the Multi -Nationals and everything in it's path is DESTROYED.. (So much for Conservation) Republicans HATE EVERYTHING about a Social Safety Net or a Public Treasury.. That is UNLESS >> BP, Haliburton , Exxon, Bank of America or AIG is in BIG trouble.. Then robbing America of our Treasury is quite ALRIGHT>> Haliburton and Black Water have been doing it for YEARS..

I would surmise that today's Republicans practice a philosophy of FAILURE... When a Republican fails in Governing then they have ultimately succeeded..

marcus_w71's picture
marcus_w71 14 years 8 weeks ago
#8

History repeats itself .. The first time as a Tragedy .. The second time as a Farce...

~~Karl Marx

ron1234321's picture
ron1234321 14 years 7 weeks ago
#9

my first post
with apologies to Pete Seeger and with humble apologies to anyone having said the identical thing earlier,
it would appear that we are now Waist Deep In The Big Irony. since those politicians who previously lectured us about not wanting to have any vestige of big government interfering in their lives are suddenly crying like stuck pigs about Obama not having done enough to fix the oil gusher. as if he was personally supposed to don gear and swim down and cap it himself..
and those politicians who have been demanding Drill Baby Drill are now suggesting that Obama, not them, are too cozy with the oil companies. the irony is overhelming and suffocating. waist deep in irony? we might be neck deep. or worse. :)

sbq's picture
sbq 14 years 7 weeks ago
#10

We need to remind people that the 2010 Oil Drill Catastrophe is what "Drill baby drill " looks like. This is what having no safety or environmental regulations(or enforcing them) looks like.

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