Oil, Water, Dispersants, and Booms

"I refuse to acknowledge this as anything like an accident. I think that this is the result of gross negligence. Not just B.P. B.P. operated very sloppily and very recklessly because they could. And they were allowed to do so because of the absolute failure of oversight of the government that's supposed to be our government, protecting us. It turns out that -- you see this sign on almost every commercial vessel in the United States -- you know, if you spilled a couple of gallons of oil, you would be in big trouble. And you have to really wonder who are the laws made for, and who has gotten above the laws. Now there are things that we can do in the future. We could have the kinds of equipment that we would really need. It would not take an awful lot to anticipate that after making 30,000 holes in the sea floor of the Gulf of Mexico looking for oil, oil might start coming out of one of them. And you'd have some idea of what to do. . . .

"But I think we have to understand where this leak really started from. It really started from the destruction of the idea that the government is there because it's our government, meant to protect the larger public interest. So I think that the oil blowout, the bank bailout, the mortgage crisis and all these things are absolutely symptoms of the same cause. We still seem to understand that at least we need the police to protect us from a few bad people. And even though the police can be a little annoying at times -- giving us tickets and stuff like that -- nobody says that we should just get rid of them. But in the entire rest of government right now and for the last at least 30 years, there has been a culture of deregulation that is caused directly by the people who we need to be protected from, buying the government out from under us.

"Now this has been a problem for a very, very long time. You can see that corporations were illegal at the founding of America. And even Thomas Jefferson complained that they were already bidding defiance to the laws of our country. Okay, people who say they're conservative, if they really wanted to be really conservative and really patriotic, they would tell these corporations to go to hell. That's what it would really mean to be conservative. So what we really need to do is regain the idea that it's our government safeguarding our interests and regain a sense of unity and common cause in our country that really has been lost. I think there are signs of hope."

TWO STEPS to Voting in the Texas Dem Primary

The primaries in Texas will be held on March 4, 2008.

Per Texas Dem party rules, there are TWO steps. Texas has both a New Hampshire-style primary AND an Iowa-style caucus.

1. Go to the polling place and vote.
2. Return to your polling place at 7:15 PM and sign in at your party convention. You do not have to stay and caucus, you just need to sign in.

Only 3/4 of the total Texas delegation (126 delegates) will be based on the primary returns. The other 1/4 (42 delegates) will be distributed based on the number of people attending the precinct convention. To "attend" you need only sign in (at which point you indicate your candidate) and then you can leave.

Of course, if you want to stay -- and if you want to actually run to be a delegate -- you can do that, too.

It's vital to go and sign in, because that sign-in number determines the percentage in attendance for Obama vs. Clinton vs. Undecided, and delegates are allotted based on that number alone. The choosing of delegates is a subsequent step that's based on the sign-in sheet, but separate from it.

Sign Now in Support of Impeachment Hearings

Congressman Robert Wexler has called for impeachment hearings to investigate Dick Cheney. As his website puts it, "There is credible evidence that the Vice President abused the power of his office, and not only brought us into an unneccesary war but violated the civil liberties and privacy of American citizens. It is the constitutional duty of Congress to hold impeachment hearings."

You can't have a functioning democracy if apparent "high crimes" by some of the highest officers in the land aren't even investigated. You can't have "truth and reconciliation" without truth.

It's high time we knew as much about what our employees in the gummint are up to as they know about us.

In the first five days after Wexler's call for hearings, over 100,000 people signed his petition in support. Please add your signature here.

Plan Now to Vote in the PRIMARIES

The perfidy of our current elected officials in Congress, both Republican and Democratic (see, e.g., Salon), has made only too plain the importance of participating in party primaries to try to ensure we’ll have the chance to vote for candidates who might actually prioritize the will and the Constitutional rights of the people over the interests of big business.

So please find out how to vote in the primary in your state and DO it.

In my own state, the primaries are scheduled for March 4, 2008, and if you’re registered to vote, you can vote in a primary merely by showing up at the appropriate polling place on the date of the primary, so long as you haven’t already voted in the primary for the other party (which would have been marked on your voter registration card). [UPDATE for Texas Dem voters HERE.] Primary dates and the requirements for voting in them vary from state to state, however. Primaries in some states take place as early as January 3, 2008; so check it out NOW.

You can find the date of your primaries at Wikipedia or The New York Times.

We vastly outnumber the bad guys; their power persists only through our inaction. At this point, I plan to vote for Edwards.

Strike/Protest on September 11, 2007

Do you feel guilty about missing work or school?

Maybe it's time to rethink what it means to be responsible.

Take one day to strike from shopping, work, and school in order to stand up to an administration that's wrought more devastation than any other in our nation's history -- decimating our fundamental human rights, our financial well-being, and our children's future; lying us into a war that's killed thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousand of Iraqis; etc. etc. (article here).

The material below is a quick n' dirty reconstitution of a post at democraticunderground.com -- thanks to the inestimable AUTORANK.

GENERAL STRIKE on 9/11, 2007

“No School * No Work * No Shopping
Hit the Streets”

Michael Collins
Scoop Independent Media
Washington, D.C.

A general strike is proposed for the United States on September 11, 2007, the sixth anniversary of the 9/11/2001 attacks on New York City and Arlington, Virginia. The general strike movement has no clearly named leadership. It’s described as an Internet viral effort.

* * * * *

General strikes, more common in Europe, are events that shut down the normal operations of a city, state, or nation for a period of time. These strikes aim to force awareness and action on a single issue or broader set of concerns.

The 9/11/07 General Strike has a central location on the Internet, which is linked to and reproduced on a variety of other internet sites. The site states the rationale for the effort:

"The General Strike is a national call to action, from citizens to other citizens. It is not about a single issue. It is not an anti-war protest, a civil rights protest, an election fraud protest. It is not about torture, surveillance, corporate media, the 9/11 coverup, or the environment. This strike is about all these issues and more.

"We all have different concerns, but we all have the same concern: we are being lied to and this government does not represent us. Join other Americans in demanding truth, justice, and accountability.

"This is our country.
"And our world.
"We just have to stand up.

"A National Call to Action: Tuesday, September 11th, 2007
No school. No work. Buy nothing. Hit the streets [* * * * *]"

LOCK-DOWN USA -- NO Answers (to anything)
The strike targets key issues facing the American public, issues that have not been addressed in any meaningful way by any branch of government. These include enduring questions and inconsistencies about 911, the Iraq War; violations of civil rights; and election fraud. As the statement above indicates, one key means of the coverup is the corporate media.

* * * * *

Reflecting the disquiet of the American public, Bush popularity is in free fall. As low as 26% approval in recent polls, his decline has been steady and unending since the peak after the 9/11 attacks (with an odd spike on Election Day 2004).

The strike campaign argues that these and other issues rarely covered in any depth by nearly all of the corporate media leave only one move for citizens -- a general strike to protest the policies plus the lack of recognition and response.

Call to action: We just have to stand up.

Flyer from here (flyer number 5)

Standing up includes no work or school on September 11, 2007. It also includes “no shopping;” a suspension of all purchasing during the strike. One strike web site claims that this can have a substantial impact even with just a small percentage of the population participating.

The general strike calls for participants to “Hit the Streets.” Significant activity is expected to focus on New York and Washington, DC but, in the viral spirit, the venues of protest can’t be predicted.