If you are voting GOP, do you know what you are voting for? Here is the Republican 5 Step Program:
1) De-regulate, because industry can protect people better than government. (Example: federal supervision of public lands, oil lease program)
2) Capture regulatory agencies that can't be trusted, using political appointees to make sure regulators and the science they depend on are repressed, shuttered, and redacted. (Example: the former Bureau of Management Services, Department of Interior)
3) Divide and Conquer environmentalists by providing exclusive political access to one or two "soft" green or "brown" green groups. (Example: Gulf restoration groups funded by Big Oil)
4) Coordinate media to persuade voters that regulations are bad for jobs, bad for business, and bad for taxpayers. (Example: Fox News)
5) Elect GOP officials to high government positions who reiterate the theme that individual liberty is better protected by private profit than by liberals, unions or the government they trust. (Example: any national Republican official since Ronald Reagan, but especially George Bush and Dick Cheney)
The example of the oil industry is the most visible, of the GOP model. But in Florida, you could take your pick of issues where government regulation runs straight up against land speculators. Take the issue close to EOM's heart: growth management. The GOP-led Florida legislature has been hell bent on dismantling growth management. During the two terms of Jeb Bush, the divide and conquer strategy among environmentalist groups was in full force. Bush officials engaged in active pressure of media on growth issues. Every GOP leader in the legislature-- including Marco Rubio, now candidate for US Senate-- was expected to and did toe the party line in respect to easing controls on regulations protecting water quality, quality of life, and the integrity of land use planning. Special interests associated with Florida's model of growth-at-any-cost have funded the effort to stop Amendment 4.
And for a View How It All Turns Out:
New York Times
October 28, 2010
Firms Knew of Cement Flaws Before Spill, Panel Says
By JOHN M. BRODER
WASHINGTON — Halliburton knew weeks before the fatal explosion of the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico that the cement mixture they planned to use to seal the bottom of the well was unstable but still went ahead with the job, the presidential commission investigating the accident said on Thursday.
In the first official finding of responsibility for the blowout, which killed 11 workers and led to the largest offshore oil spill in American history, the commission staff determined that Halliburton had conducted three laboratory tests that indicated that the cement mixture did not meet industry standards.
The result of at least one of those tests was given on March 8 to BP, which failed to act upon it, the panel’s lead investigator, Fred H. Bartlit Jr., said in a letter delivered to the commissioners on Thursday.
Another Halliburton cement test, carried out about a week before the blowout of the well on April 20, also found the mixture to be unstable, yet those findings were never sent to BP, Mr. Bartlit found.
Although Mr. Bartlit does not specifically identify the cement failure as the sole or even primary cause of the blowout, he makes clear in his letter that if the cement had done its job and kept the highly pressured oil and gas out of the well bore, there would not have been an accident.
7 comments:
How are the Dems going to save us?
Be Objective.
Keep believing in politicians on either side and you'll be living under a tree sooner than you'd like.
Deregulating the mortgage and banking industry almost crushed out economic system and they want to deregulate more. Why are people so easily manipulated.
I always like to go back to Animal Farm....my parenthesis....
Propaganda 3: Although the sheep, hens and ducks may not fully understand what it means, they all memorize the slogan "Four legs good, two legs bad." (Tax Cuts for the Rich/Obamacare) Such a slogan is simple, easy to remember and repeat. The sheep develop a great liking for it and often all lie around in the field bleating "Four legs good, two legs bad" for hours without getting tired of it. The question is, does someone repeating such a slogan really think about what it means, or simply get used to the sound and accept the slogan?
Propaganda 4: Squealer (Beck) uses several clever techniques to persuade the other animals to accept that the pigs (rich) will keep all the apples and milk. He tells the animals that he hopes they don't think the pigs are doing this to be selfish - implying that if they do think this, they are being foolish. He tells them that many of the pigs in fact dislike milk and apples - he says he dislikes them himself - and take them only to stay healthy for the sake of the other animals. He tells them it is scientifically proven that milk and apples contain substances absolutely necessary to the health of a pig (misinformation). He says that because the pigs are brainworkers and do all the management, they have a duty to stay as alert and healthy as they possibly can. He plays off the animals' fears by telling them that if the pigs fail in their duty, Jones (Obama) will come back. All the (Racist) animals are very afraid of Jones coming back, and so if the only way to avoid it is to give the pigs all the milk and apples, they will agree to this.
Propaganda 5: Snowball and Napoleon use messengers to spread their ideas (Sarah Palin, Bill O'Reilly, Fox news) as widely as possible to animals on surrounding farms, and to teach these animals the signature tune, "Beasts of England".
Now I have to read Animal Farm again.
Thanks to Glenn Beck (Some dude with a microphone at 9 AM on a weekday) Marco Rubio hit the magic number of 50% in the latest poll.
I guess we can turn Florida from a purple state to a brown state because Rubio is Hispanic (how dare he roam off the Democratic plantation! It is a good thing he is not from Arizona. Imagine that scandal?)
Bill Clinton came in and tried to pull the black guy out off the Senate race so the lily white guy could beat the brown guy. Incredible, I thought Democrats were champion of people of "color"
I guess it comes with a caveat, you must be a candidate who aligns with the party. Barbara Boxer or Hillary Clinton = good women.
Sharon Angle = Bitch!
Meg Whitman = Whore
Christine O'Donnell and Sarah Palin = Satan
This entire election has unmasked the democratic party & the view of race. (nice new logo by the way!)
If you are really for the "plight" of the minority or women, man up! (a la Sharon Angle) and support them!!!!
Champions of the People...You'll need to go back to the founding fathers of this country to find champions of the people. Vote out the incumbents! Send a message to Washington.
The founding fathers weren't all that perfect either. Let's not over romanticize this stuff. Revisionist history does not exactly help us right now.
However, like I said before, if Jesus were alive today, he would be a socialist.
I will give you one more: Thomas Jefferson would not defund public education. I suspect he would approve of weed and he would be fascinated with stem cell research. Extrapolate. It makes sense - right?
Post a Comment