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Thom - The appropriate regulatory agency should fine BP $100 Million a day for failure to prevent the spill and failure to have adequate proceedures for handling the spill. If BP refuses to pay up for the last 30 + days within 1 week all of their other leases should be frozen until the spill is cleaned up and the fine is paid. $ is the only way to move things ...
Once again, the root of all evil, the core element of private and national dysfunction is the cozy relationships of corporations and elections. As you all have consistently pointed out on this program, CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM is the what all 'reasoning', 'decision-making' and 'explanations' and "excuses" return to. One can easily trace this oil drilling disaster back to 'who really chooses the winner of our national campaigns' and that is corporation. Those who deal have a chance of being re-elected, while those who don't will surely lose. I believe there is a hope in hell at this juncture that if Obama broke away from this usual destructive path, he could win again with an intense personal money campaign and at the least, go down in history as a president with genuine courage as oppossed to just another player, that was 'oh well atleast he was better than Bush'. No doubt your information and venue is one powerful source that even makes this possibility even a possibility. Knowledge is power forever and ever. It is so hard to keep the fight going when there power is already so so so embedded and big. I fear only a few will truly understand and hear how and why this oil disaster and response is what it is!
How symbolic - the British are getting back at the US for the Battle of New Orleans, just about the only battle they didn't overpower during the War of 1812. They really held the upper hand all along, always being the largest "foreign" owner of property in the US, and persuading the US to establish trade with them instead of France. It isn't a coincidence that Eisenhower, Reagan, Bush I, Ted Kennedy [actually by Prince Charles] and Alan Greenspan were all knighted by the Queen, or that the UK did not adopt the Euro, or that the Fed Reserve Banks are connected to the Bank of England.
We've been had, and it's been a long time in the making - the screws are nearly all tightened down. No wonder we can barely budge to do anything about it.
Thom, wondering if anybody has talked to the Brazilians about this leak. My wife's cousin works for a company that sells deep-water drilling equipment to Petrobras, the Brazilian oil company, which has a presence in the Gulf. He(the wife's cousin) said in a recent conversation that Petrobras engineers could help with this. He himself is an engineer that develops this deep-water drilling equipment, and remarked that they've got him working on equipment to drill 3000 meters now. As you remarked today, Brazil is on top of this stuff.
UnAmerican for being tough on a foreign corporation for destroying our natural capital.
One of reasons that oil companies drill off-shore is to drive UP the average cost of oil out on the world market. Since all oil is pooled in the commodity markets . . . having an expensive source off-sets the price of pumping cheap oil outta the Middle East . . . BUT worse, the average price of method of procurement is cross applied to ALL oil . . . regardless of actual production flow from each source resulting in an artificially inflated bottom line . . . Reasonable folk see the base-line price and are willing to pay more per barrel.
I am still trying to find a home in the political arena.
Thom has mentioned the selfishness of the libertarian blind support of business and the free market, of which I agree. What is the libertarian position regarding global empire? We know that beyond the rhetoric, that the actual policies that the republicans & democrats are pretty much the same. Obama's actual policies are very similar to Bush. We have expanded the war in the middle east, Guantontomo is still open, Obama agrees with Bush's use of signing statements, and the right to detain people with no habeas review. Both republicans and democrats believe in big government, and both parties are beholden to the corporations.
We also know that after the "close call" with Ross Perot that both the democratic and republican parties agreed to band together to prevent the threat of another third party candidate rising to power.
My questions are; what other practices of the libertarian party are bad? What is the libertarian position regarding global empire, the Federal Reserve, the bailouts of banks & corporations and tariffs? How many libertarians are in the back pockets of the corporations? I sometimes wonder if it is the libertarian party that we need to "take over".
Gee! Thom stop calling on Eric Holder to do investigation for crissakes!
He is another Mukasey.
Eric Holder will do nothing just like Obama will do nothing.
All these guys answer to Corporations.
@Golden (from yesterday): The 'un-left' to carry is a choice and action. Skin color is a state of being. To exclude an idiot for enacting a social/legal malfeasance is the legal obligation of a business person and discrimination is the illegal excluding/oppression of a person for condition of birth or legally protected state of belief. There is no relationship and the analogy does not hold. To be clear, broken logic is NOT reason.
An apt comparative statement would be:
‘Meet the Press’ is to Rand Paul like Vietnam is to Dick Cheney.
Both are fear-driven members of the actual socio-economic elite who ran from a social responsibility to the public at large. Rand Paul, like Ayn Rand, is a sociopath committed to disassembling society. Defending sociopathic statements with bad analogies only serves to irritate those folk who took rhetoric classes in high school.
@Harry- Laura Flanders had it right in 2006- 'they are a bunch of four year olds.'
Say, California State Senator pro tem Steinberg's staffer called me back after having faxed in a copy of that Hawaiin resolution to say the corporations are not persons. I told them the Hartmann Show was behind the push and that I was half way through getting my book report on the to be re-introduced UnEqual Protection in on my early copy as there is a little window of concentrated opportunity for me to do its richness justice. The staffer said he would be glad to be in reciept of that as soon as I have finished it!
don't ya know those who were yelling loudest for "smaller government" are now yelling loudest "where's the government?"
1. yes
2. yes
3. no (or at least I am in denial)
4. because the sheeple let them
Privatized Government may not be working for President Obama (or the rest of us or, in fact, anybody), but he and the DLC White House remain eternally committed to it. This is the Obama Administration’s pony to ride into hell and, dagmabit, they’re gonna.
@Golden: The 'un-left' to carry is a choice and and action. Skin color is a state of being. Broken logic is NOT Reason.
Rand Paul, like Ayn Rand, is a sociopath committed to disassembling society.
Please play again later.
We have all made mistakes. Forgiving yourself is very, very important.
Forgiveness
Poetry and Quotes to Inspire
Life without forgiveness is unbearable.
- Jack Kornfield
Between a stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. The last of human freedoms is to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances.
- Viktor Frankl
I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.
- James Baldwin
The person who betrayed you is sunning themselves on a beach in Hawaii and you're knotted up in hatred. Who is suffering?
- Jack Kornfield.
When you forgive, you in no way change the past - but you sure do change the future.
- Bernard Meltzer
Forgiveness and reconciliation are not just ethereal, spiritual, other-- worldly activities. They have to do with the real world. They are realpolitik, because in a very real sense, without forgiveness, there is no future.
- Desmond Tutu
FORGIVENESS FOR YOURSELF:
Just as I have cause suffering to others, there are many ways that I have hurt and harmed myself. I have betrayed or abandoned myself many times in thought, word, or deed, knowingly or unknowingly.
Feel your own precious body and life. Let yourself see the ways you have hurt or harmed yourself. Picture them, remember them. Feel the sorrow you have carried from this and sense that you can release these burdens. Extend forgiveness for each act of harm, one by one. Repeat to yourself:
For the ways I have hurt myself through action or inaction, out of fear, pain, and confusion, I now extend a full and heartfelt forgiveness. I forgive myself, I forgive myself.
Oh yes, they do know their taxes are lower, if they filed a tax report. They would protest at the White House with their assault rifles if he had raised taxes. President Obama is offering white americans an insight as to their twisted behavior. Black and Brown people all over the world are watching the tragedy. American Companies pollute as part of their business here and abroad. They scurry back to the states when they pollute abroad killing tens of thousands and leaving dead earth and water. There are only monetary consequences when it's done in America. British Petroleum, in partnership with other companies, is operating as if there was a coal mine disaster / a fiery airliner crash killing all on board. Bobby Jindal doesn't make the rules. Was this oil platform closer to Louisiana than Russia to Alaska? Only white americans and broken, as in horse, negroes would believe the oil spill is the president's Katrina. The president shows great resolve to allow the Tea Party Hate Groups, Racist Radio Talk Show Hosts / Governors to insult him before the world, and etc., to enter his political rallies / to come to Washington to protest with rifles, handguns and spare ammunition. Hanging the president in effigy, threatening government officials with murder, spitting and screaming nigger, nigger, nigger; and with white musicians and corporate executives threatening to murder the president. The few brave Blacks and Whites in America walked in peaceful marches to show America its inhumanity to man. They were mangled and murdered without consequence. How is it white americans can label a man as a nigger, gook, spick, kite, jap; and lose sight of the man in order to kill? It is so amazing that white americans can be so twisted as to believe everyone is deceived by their blame game. Apparently there are no consequences for the poor behavior of white americans only in the U.S.A.
In my world Jesus is more of a philosophy then he is a prophesy.. As far as using the word "heed" as in heeding his advice I would disagree.. I have read most of The New Testament and Jesus seemed like a fluid thinker.. He was a Pisces after all "Note the use of Fish" in his symbolisms" .... I respect his teachings and as far as most church goers are concerned I would probably respect him more then the Christians do..
"Moreover I would like the government to stay within the bounds of this document and not intrude into my life as long as I am not intruding upon other people's rights."
But here's the rub, so to speak. The libertarian view fails to consider that without rules, there is no way to ensure that doing what you want to do will not intrude upon someone else's rights. If you want to drill an oil well and it leaks into my drinking water, how will this be handled? Perhaps we need rules to govern the drilling of oil wells and agencies to enforce those rules. Unless you live on your own private island or in the back woods far from other people, it is unlikely that anything you do will have no effect on others. And this does not even consider those benefits and protections offered you by the society at large. In my view, libertarians are as naive children intent only on their self gratification oblivious to the impact of their actions on others. When one chooses to live and work in a society, availing oneself of the benefits of living in such a society, limits on absolute personal freedom are imposed by necessity. In fact, every interaction one has with friends, family, and others imposes some constraints on personal freedom. That is the price one pays to associate with others. As Thom points out, only Kings are able to indulge themselves thusly -- that is until those subjected to the resultant tyranny decide to unite to secure for themselves a bit of the libertarian goodies. We know where that leads.
Sorry, I didn't realize you actually think vegetarianism is a good thing. Thank you.
Let the liars lie so that we can better see their lies. Let the ignorant voice their ignorance so we can better see their ignorance, and let us be rid of the lot. If that's the libertarian view then I can see as how it has merit.
Frameing the question. The banks are gaining. To an extent they are infusing cash into the domestic sector but also to a measuarble extent they are realizing gains being promoted as "recovery" by betting / shorting in the global market in the negative, an ongoing bear market. Prospering out of gaining from the down side in other words,------ promoting the down side in further words.
Short term profit to be sure but long term you have a dragon chewing on it's own tail.
Seems to me they have it right but only to the extent they know when to head for cover and I expect we'll see more of that soon enough. Hopefully the experience will be harrowing enough for those that survive they will change their ways abruptly, the rest get dashed on the rocks, $#!+ happens, you play you pay.
Jesus is just good advice. You can praise his name till the earth merges with the sun but it is meaningless if you don't heed his advice.
Our country is heading in a very sad direction.
I listen to Thom and I enjoy his shows. However, when he says that the United States of Hell has a future, I awake screaming from a cold sweat nightmare. We do not always keep our windows closed on warm nights and I wonder what the neighbors will think and will they call the police.