One Year After The BP Spill

April 20th, 2011, marks the one year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

I mark the BP Spill as a point in time which it became even more clear to me that the United States government is invested in protecting corporations and industry over protecting its citizens from harm.

The reckless disregard for both human life and the environment of BP and Transocean has not met with any criminal prosecution. Serving as an example that a company is free to cause death and mayhem without any consequences but an individual who caused the death of eleven workers and poisoned the Gulf for decades to come would receive no such special treatment.

America continues to be a cowardly nation when it comes to holding the people responsible for the industrial homicide that took place one year ago.

Add atop all this that the government lied to the public regarding the location and magnitude of the spill on multiple occasions and approved a toxic dispersant that has been banned in the U.K. to be sprayed into the environment in quantities previously unheard of for use in an oil spill clean up.

Considering all this I don't trust the EPA or the federal government when they proclaim the seafood as safe as the Gulf as non-toxic. The health and safety of the public is secondary to promoting the needs of the private sector industry forces, so if the feds and the EPA have to lie and cause a few people to get sick as a direct result then that is exactly what they will do.

As a single solitary citizen there is not much I can do to bring the inhuman monsters responsible for this to justice nor can I hope to see those in the EPA and the federal government who would lie to public be fired and replaced with people who would actually do their jobs rather than bend knee to the oil industry. Beyond voicing myself on a blog the only avenue I have to act upon is this: boycott BP forever.

A corrupt government we can change, though I don't see it as an easy road it is entirely possible if people only stand together in a common cause. But changing a multinational corporation is much more difficult than changing a government and in all reality corporations are beyond all laws and beyond taking responsibility for the death and destruction they bring about in their narrow, greedy quest for ever-increasing profits. When faced with such a power the only recourse of a ordinary person is to not contribute to the empire of death with everyday purchases like gas or food.

When every former BP station has rebranded itself and the company is treated like the pariah they are in the United States then I might consider reviewing their corporate policies and considering put an end to the calls for boycott, not a moment before.

If consumers continue to reward corporations guilty of industrial homicide with business then there shall never be any hope of a private sector that doesn't cause these horrific disasters in the first place.

"American Right Wing Distaste for Government" by Stellaa

(This is a post from Stellaa's blog that I think deserves consideration.) 

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Although this is indirectly about the healthcare debate, I want to step back and ask my friends on the right about their ideas on "government" and the Reagan cry that you hold dear: "government is the problem, not the solution" 

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I am confounded by a paradox in thinking by conservatives and libertarians.  Let me see if I can break it down and not fall in the pit of confusion and distortion that they come seem to embrace with gusto.   

This is how the conservative thinking goes:

• American conservatives seem to own the symbols of patriotism.  The flag, the national anthem, the militaristic rituals, statues, songs and just patriotic bravado-- oh, they own the "founding fathers".  

• Yet, these same people despise their government.   The very government, that is the instrument the US Constitution, the mechanism by which our democracy is implemented.   The thing that has kept the "democracy" alive.  

• They deem this "government" incapable of any competence, except of course when that government goes to war, puts people in jail   or executes them.  Somehow, in their minds, government does that just fine.  

• They seek to strip the government of all powers and privatize all activity.  This sentiment, of diminishing powers is only when the other side wins.  Privatizing the government services is a constant theme, public goods should be for private gain.  

•  They cite the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, yet, they do not tell us, if we did not have a government, courts, legislators etc, who and how would that Constitution  be protected and or enforced?  Yet, unlike me, who only has a distaste for the second amendment, they would gladly trim the sails of all the other amendments.  So, why should government define marriage?  Why should government be involved in their reproductive decisions?  Why should government be entrusted with god?  Why should government control what we see, hear or read?  

• If it's the size of government they dislike, then why do embrace corporate bureaucracies?  The corporate bureaucrat does not have a public process where at least the citizen can file a complaint and get a hearing.  Public bureaucracies have provisions for change of unjust rules.   

So, Mr. Reagan and all his followers who blindly believe that "government is the problem", pray tell, how do you suggest we manage this democracy, this nation?  What are you offering to replace government?   Why do you trust and embrace government when it comes to imposing your values and yet you distrust government in mechanical functions?  

Think of a simple thing like building codes.  If we stripped those powers, tell me, tell me how the free market would make sure that the materials and the builders built habitable and safe buildings?  

 I have worked in government and have fought with government for decades.  I have little faith in the talk of change as long as we have elected officials who receive contributions and depend on being reelected.  

Of course I am cynical about many aspects of how this nation is governed, but damn if I am willing to give it up to a bunch of looneys with guns, corporate boards and "that void of the conservative alternative".   

What the f*** do you guys want?   How do you suggest we do this?  If tomorrow we eliminated all government in the US, what would this world look like?

Yes, there is the odd anarchist who will chime in and tell me how the whimsical free thinkers of the world will all hold hands and make sure, because they are such spiritual and righteous beings.  Trust they say  people will just do the right thing.  Yes, right, now go off and do a pantomime and wear some fairy wings and as soon as you are done, get married and become a meaner and nastier bourgeois pig than I could ever be.  

 

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I often find that for all the claims of "godliness" that the right-wing in politics and specific people on the internet / media are some of the most hostile, mean-spirited, spiteful and unhumble people one could find.

 

I have posed the similar questions as well, when confronted with this.

With no coghent reply, ever.

 

I've decided this is all fine and dandy. The day they all burn their Social Security Cards, State Identifications, and Passport--then swear off all government roads and all government connected service--is the day I will start taking them seriously.

 

As for now they are acting as nothing less than unpatriotic traitors exchanging politics for fear-mongering.

Partisanship Revisited

It occurs to me that many people in America care little to perceive and discern political partisanship in both the media and coming from representatives of their party.

Partisanship, better described as political hatred, is the driving force in the televised media and has been the bread and butter of radio broadcasting for as long as one cares to recall.

No person who advocates bipartisan coverage in the media is asking others to forego their own conclusions nor to silence their tongue in terms of political commentary.

Those who request a more bipartisan government and a more bipartisan media are only asking that the rancor and untruths spread by both sides be called out as such. We only ask that a person of any political stance be mindful of the simple fact that using slander, propaganda, and biased reporting does not contribute to the body politic of the nation.

The need to declare one’s self as part of any group is also an element of bipartisanship known as ‘full disclosure.’ This fact does not allow any person to call themselves ‘balanced’ and ‘fair’ in their dialogue while they proceed to make vast assumptions and baseless assertions about another group that they do not belong to nor share any common ideologies with.

The value to the nation is lost. These endless left versus right debates with no mutual respect and no interest in reviewing facts in the process is only serving to tear the nation further away from attaining mutual goals.

We the people did this to ourselves, lest someone feels the urge to blame the media.

The people of America seem to enjoy staying perfectly ‘safe’ within their respective spheres of politics and dare not to stray away from the ‘status quo’ generated by whatever biased programming they choose to absorb.

The media only responds to what it perceives the public wants. The public seems to want to drowned in slanderous, untrue, and vague reporting coming from pundits who make their careers off of lying and obfuscating facts about politics.

The bottom line is that media pundits have tied their own noose around their neck. If even one of them were to admit that they say these slanderous remarks and hateful comments to boost their ratings or book sales they would be thrown away by the very people who currently pay them respect.

I assert that if true honesty and true patriotism were to be included in the modern political media that people would reject these current figures in the media and exchange them so others who would not ever be honest and straight forward with the public could take their place.

In a world where each political camp is dedicated to the notion that the other is ‘evil’ and ‘immoral’ we shall never do anything worthy of the name American in this country.

We shall forever be a nation divided and shall never be a nation united.

Tracking The Stimulus Money

The most obvious choice for a tax-payer who is interested in learning more about the stimulus money and how it is being spent is Recovery.Gov.

There is also the addition of the website Recovery.Org to the mix.

But the most open-sourced transparency and best place, in my opinion, to address this issue while using the internet as a source would be at the George Mason Unversity's Mercatus Center who recently released the website StimulusWatch.Org.

If you desire to take a more direct approach to tracking the funds you should visit ShovelWatch.Org.