Obama To Aides: 'Plug The Damn Hole'

Let's not just focus on BP here ... the entire US Oil Industry is implicated in this mess. Does anyone think that if any rival oil company had the capacity to address this problem they would just allow BP to twist in the wind? All oil companies drilling in American waters, thanks to Bush/Cheney elimination of sensible regulations and enforcement, are incapable of addressing blowouts at depth ... all of them.



Every American Oil Company needs to demonstrate to the Federal Government their capacity to swiftly intervene and stifle a blowout like this, Not in theoretical terms, but in practical terms. If the Oil Company cannot demonstrate this then they forfeit the rig and the lease, and the well must be sealed. It doesn't matter what the safety record for drilling in the sea is for the Oil Industry over the past 40 years ... that record is now meaningless.



This Deepwater Horizon failure is the US Oil Industries 911 ... nothing that happened before this incident matters. Drop the hammer.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Rand Paul: Obama Sounds 'Un-American' For Criticizing BP Over Gulf Oil Spill (VIDEO)

I think Dr Paul should show us how silly we are being about the oil spill and BPs culpability ... I say he bring a camera crew to Louisiana, put on his Speedos and swim in the stew of oil, toxins, and dead wildlife that BP gifted the people of the Gulf coast with. Then he could finish his exhibition with a sumptuous seafood dinner, provided from the catch of one of the region's sickened fisherman. That would be the American thing to do.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Bill Kristol: Campbell Brown For Senate

I remember when Campbell Brown was coming to CNN and it was like some big, amazing coup, and I was like ... "Who's Campbell Brown?". Then we get her stoic resignation from CNN, and I'm thinking ... "She still had a show?"



Now Kristol is throwing out Campbell Brown as a Senator and, frankly, I'm thinking "Why not?"



She has to be one of the most forgettable and mediocre individuals to flop onto the scene in a long time, and with Kristol backing her you a have to assume she sports the same regrettable character traits that inflicts the majority of Senators of either party.



The Titanic is sinking anyway, one more lump of ice can't make a difference.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Rand Paul On 'Maddow' Defends Criticism Of Civil Rights Act, Says He Would Have Worked To Change Bill (VIDEO)

Rand Paul is absolutely neolithic in his thought process here, but that's besides the point, he should have been honest and said what he meant straight out. That he believes the US Government doesn't have the right to discriminate but Private Industry does. Why is that so hard? The Pauls like to present themselves as men of conviction ... why should Rand hedge on this? It's deceitful.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

'Naked Keynesianism' At The University Of Texas, Says Fox News (VIDEO)

The thing that makes me laugh is that the Fox "News" meat puppets will throw around terms like "Keynesianism" as though the chittering nitwits that gobble up their programming would know what it means.



"Keynesianism, Clem, naked Keynesianism!!!!"



"You mean them, thar Radish Talibanis are running around naked now? What more do our troops needs to take? Filthy radish Talibani, communist, socialist, fascist, libral perverts!"



"Keynesianism is part of the Global War on Terror?"



"Course, ya moron! Keynsianism is one of he top five or nine leaders of Al Qaeda and is a founding member of Greenpeace to boot!"



"econ-nazis"



"Exactly, Clem, Ruthless Radish Talibani eco-nazis taking orders from the Kenyan in the White House and nakedly tormenting our troops!"



"Wait, Keynesianism ... Kenya ... it fits!"



"Damn, straight."
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Breaking the Public Sector Unions' Stranglehold on State and Local Governments

Mr Zuckerman, the problem is that Unions aren't strong enough. What is needed in the Global Era is a unified Multinational Labor/Consumer party to counter balance the abuses of Multinational Corporations.



So if Chinese workers, for instance, are being tormented in factories that supply goods to Europe and America, then American and European members of the Multinational Labor/Consumer Party ... will engage in economic boycott of the products and stores that sell them, until Union leaders in China verify that the problems in the factory have been corrected. Sure it might put some bad companies under and drive some investors into bankruptcy, but that is okay. It's a Free Market after all, and a responsible company, meeting it's obligations to its employees will be rewarded by the world's Labor/Consumers and step into the abusive company's place.



The problem with Unions is that their footprint has become so small that the Chamber of Commerce sees an opportunity to completely wipe them out. Should that happen a Multinational Labor/Consumer Party with a really lousy disposition needs to take their place.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Stocks Fall On Europe Fears

Had Wall Street not gotten so greedy that it used its leverage to eliminate every regulation that was implemented to ensure the economy wouldn't collapse because of malicious behavior then we wouldn't see the problems we are seeing.



I don't see how this mess is corrected. I think we need to develop a new economic system entirely. Repudiate all debts. Start from scratch. The current system is going to seize anyway. It's pretty obvious at this point.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Afghan War Costs Now Outpace Iraq's

Absurd.



We lost these wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as soon as we engaged in them. I believe George W Bush was a big fan of William McKinley. McKinley got us into the Spanish American war and, as byproduct of that war, the Philippines. That action set in motion events in the Western Pacific that led to WWII, ultimately. As well as our current Korea problem. If anyone noticed, we don't talk much about our forty-eight year Colonial/Commonwealth relationship with the Philippines in US history class ... there is a reason for this ... it was a failure.



Enter Afghanistan, and Iraq.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

BP Oil Spill Underwater Video Shows Oil Gushing Like Steam From Geyser (VIDEO)

Ok, here's my idea. In order to stop the leak you make, what amounts to a huge bathtub stopper...



No, no ... wait ... hear me out.



You go to a foundry and make a huge disk, about 75 feet in diameter with a massive spike on the bottom at the center. On the opposite side of the massive steel plate you build a twenty foot tall steel wall reinforced with re-bar and steel cross beams.



So you basically have a huge, reinforced steel pie plate with a spike on the bottom.



You lower this plug to the bottom of the sea and line the spike up with the leaking well.



You then fill the pie plate with concrete and other objects of massive weight until the plug seals the hole.



I'm not certain of the pressure coming out of the well but I'm guessing the guys at Haliburton or BP know ... and I'm certain of you dump enough focused weight into a large enough spiked, pie-plate you could plug the well up.



Anyway, that's my idea and BP, Halliburton can feel free to cut me a huge check if they use my idea and it works ... though I won't hold my breath.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Cut Spending Today to Save Tomorrow

A couple of observations, Mr. Blankley.



"About a third think President Obama is moving in the right direction, with many of them impatient for the president to be bolder with his leftist agenda."



President Obama is a self proclaimed "New Democrat" who is surrounded by DLC Clintonistas ... where did you get the idea he was a Leftist?



"Somewhere in the vicinity of 40 percent to 50 percent of Americans are shocked and appalled at the nation's rush toward bankruptcy, socialism, fundamental transformation of our way of life and the permanent weakening and impoverishing of America."



Are this 40 to 50 percent otherwise known as "Rip Van Winkle Americans" who slept through the Reagan-Bush41-Clinton-Bush43 years when the process you describe was implemented ... or is the proper term "Boiled Frog Americans"? Oh, and I think you have a typo in that paragraph. I think you meant to say "Corporate Socialism", rather than socialism. but mistakes happen.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Rudy Giuliani: Obama Administration's 'Political Correctness' Led To 'Missed Signals' On Terrorism (VIDEO)

Wasn't it a Republican Administration that oversaw the loss of four airplanes, the World Trade Center, part of the Pentagon, and 3000+ human lives on September 11th 2001 because it couldn't be bothered to take seriously a August 6, 2001, President's Daily Briefing Memo entitled:



"Bin Ladin determined to Strike in US"



Which included ...



"Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.



The FBI is conducting approximately 70 full fieid investigations throughout the US that it considers Bin Ladin-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our Embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group of Bin Laden supporters was in the US planning attacks with explosives."



What, exactly, can Giuliani, or any Republican or Conservative, have to say on the way the Obama Administration is dealing with terrorism that isn't a case of throwing rocks in Glass Houses?



If the GOP hadn't lost the WTC, that would be one thing, but the GOP DID lose the WTC.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

On Prop 13 -- Time to Amend and Correct

All that Prop 13 was a spasm of selfishness from voters during the 1970's that has undermined the quality of life in California for decades. I remember what California was like BEFORE Prop 13 ... lots more services, and far better schools. Prop 13 is a cancer on the state of California.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Go Easy on the Blue Dogs

Mr Shows, I think everyone learned tonight with the vote on "Too Big To Fail" that there really isn't any difference between Blue Dogs and Republicans. There are a good number of DLC in the list of "No" votes tonight.



I prefer Democrats to Vichy Democrats. Let them fall.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Expect Nothing: Why We Need a New Approach to the Chaos in Europe

Are Governments complicit in this? Of course, because they allowed themselves to get sucked into this fatally flawed and inhumane "free market" economic model. I don't begrudge any Government that does what it can to benefit the needs of as many of its citizens as possible, Addiction to amassing wealth and power has always been problematic with mortal men. Thinking one can find a hedge against mortality is a fool's errand. We, all of us, skitter about the surface of a wet rock in the middle of nowhere for a limited number of days ... with nowhere else to go ... and are ultimately gone forever.



That being the underlying reality of all, I prefer to eliminate any economic system that harms the many to benefit the few during our limited ride on earth. If Greece went bankrupt trying to help as many of its people as possible more power to it.



And a reminder ... Governments aren't Corporations nor or they supposed to be.
About Europe
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Expect Nothing: Why We Need a New Approach to the Chaos in Europe

The main problem is since the dominant Anglo-American financial model, which the bulk of the world is encumbered with, decided to become a cut-rate, fraud, chop shop over the last thirty years, thanks to irresponsible deregulation, it has left nations around the world trapped in the international Ponzi with no fallback position.



First it was Iceland. The regional banks of South Korea nearly collapsed after the fall of Lehman (I'm sure some of the Fed's backdoor money found its way there). Now we are speaking of Greece ... maybe Portugal, Spain ... Ireland ... Italy ... one by one the dominoes fall. My instinct tells me that the excrement will hit the spinning blades when the problem jumps the Euro Zone and re-emerges in Asia or South America. Then it will be Japan, England, and other nations perceived "healthy" currently ... and right back to the United States again.



Outside of nations like Somalia, North Korea, Cuba, and Myanmar ... name me a country that is free of this "Greek Contagion"?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Modern Day Slavery in America -- Welcome to the World of "Guestworkers"

The only answer to this problem is to make participation in human trafficking at any point after the victim enters the United States, a capital crime. Whether you are transporting the trafficked individual, providing them false documentation, housing them during their transit, or ultimately exploiting them for their labor ... the reward should be death.



I had a friend who went to Malaysia years ago and commented on the anti-drug billboards he saw there. Skulls and Crossbones with the slogan "Dada = Death".



Malaysia has no problem executing drug traffickers ... the United States should not be squeamish about the same penalty for those involved in human trafficking.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Michael Brown: Obama Wanted Oil Spill (VIDEO)

It's laughable ... BP and Halliburton cause a massive ecological disaster and these Bush persons squirm out of obscurities' woodwork to try to draw comparison to their former bosses' disastrous and callous response to Katrina.



Folks like Brownie and that "lying-sack-of-cute" Perino can't fathom that Obama's response to this Oil Company Created Nightmare has been absolutely stellar when compared to George W. Bush's response to Katrina.



And for the record, Mr Brown, President Obama didn't want an oil spill and President Bush didn't care there were people suffering in the aftermath of Katrina.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Gulf Oil Spill: At Least Another Week For 'Underground Volcano Of Oil'

""It's probably easier to fly in space than do some of this," Charlie Holt, BP's drilling and completion operations manager in the Gulf of Mexico, said Sunday."



I don't know, but I would think the Oil Industry should have presented their disaster plans to the Federal Government for scenarios like this BEFORE they were allowed to sink a well a mile under the water. I'm not going to blame only BP in this regard.



This is the failure of an entire industry and of the Federal Government's responsibility to regulate it effectively.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Arizona and Our Future

Shakira, the difficult thing with America is there are many Americans that are afflicted with xenophobia. The same Americans that are ranting about undocumented aliens in the United States would absolutely fill their diapers if they had to pay $10 at the supermarket for a head of lettuce or tomato ... or had to make their own bed when they stayed at a Hotel. In hard times immigrants are always the focus of ire. It happens all around the world, and in the United States everyone arriving in the country has had the chance to be the whipping boy ... Irish, Italian, Eastern European, Chinese, Latinos ... name it.



I hear the argument "This is only because of illegals ... it isn't anti Mexican or Hispanic!"



Sure. How many illegal Irishman do you think the Arizona Police will pullover for probable cause?



Americans have to come to terms with reality. There are millions of illegals here because Business wants them here ... and without them, the cost of many staples of American life will shoot through the roof.



Shakira, the United States needs address the need for comprehensive immigration reform and recognize that the racial profiling and marginalization of individuals who, like it or not, are an indispensable part of the US Economy is pointless, cruel, and stupid.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost