Lordy, Lordy, Our Senate's in Homophobic Overload

Our good Republican Senators want to keep not asking and not telling, and OMG we can’t “out” these warfighters! They might… what?  Resign? I don’t think so. What then, not fight as good? I don’t think so.  Our military is ready to accept people for who they are, but our good Republican senators are not.  They seem to be very content with the notion of having high quality soldiers, regardless of their sexual preference, as long as they all pretend to be straight.  

As soon as a gay or lesbian warfighter does speak up, as if they were a plain ole American living under all sorts of Constitutional rights, like free speech, etc., they’re banished back to the last century, living under defacto Jim (or Jane) Crowe social laws. How stupid is that?! Pretty stupid, but look who’s leading the charge, ready to filibuster if needed to keep our warfighters in the closet- none other than Senator John (I don’t want you in my fox hole) McCain. 

With enough bad press he may very well back off from his filibuster threat, but the gas has already been thrown on the fire. The President wants DADT overturned. So does the military. The House of Representatives has already passed the law. Forty-one holier than thou Republicans seem to know what’s best for America in marked contrast to their mantra- keep big government out of people’s lives – oops, unless you’re gay. 

Achtung, May I See Your Papers?

I’ve been ignoring the Arizona immigration law until I had time to really think about what it means and what the consequences could be.  Besides being a clear line in the sand between how conservatives and liberals (what else is new…) view the issue, the conservatives are railing on President Obama for showing support of President Calderon’s strong opposition of the new law. Many conservatives are accusing Obama of being un-American for not standing up in support of Arizona’s pro-active immigration stance and the recent Calderon exchange threw more gas on the fire.

Obama has been consistent is stating that people immigrate to America, not Arizona, and immigration is a federal issue. Conservatives complain that Obama and the Democrats are not moving fast enough on this issue, but they’ll do everything in their power to stonewall or filibuster any changes the Democrats propose. By the way, isn’t this just another issue that sat on the back steps for eight years under Bush like a large bag of overripe Zucchini in August??

People say unless you live in Arizona you can’t appreciate the “problem” that exists there.  We’ve had Canadians coming into New Hampshire forever and they haven’t created a problem. In fact, they’re an integral part of the social fabric in New Hampshire.  They make New Hampshire special. People say, yeah, but they were legal aliens. I wonder. The New Hampshire border was very porous until 911 came along. My son in law grew up in Colebrook. They could drive across unpatroled country borders like you’d go to a Seven Eleven.  I’m sure many Canadians made a life in New Hampshire “illegally”.

Arizona is the same. Arizona would not be Arizona without Mexicans. The culture and the social fabric of Arizona is defined by Mexican heritage as much as by Native American heritage. By not acting with empathy toward these people and their plight, Arizonians are rejecting themselves.

Least we forget, the US Government took Arizona through a war with Mexico in 1848, ending 300 years of Spanish domination in the southwest. If we take a long view of what happened in history, just who are the illegal immigrants, the Americans or the Mexicans??

I believe we should have an open border policy- let everyone come to America who wants to come here. That’s what made us a great country.  We should stand behind what is inscribed at the base of Lady Liberty:

“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breath free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Give Me Liberty and White Only Restrooms too?

Rand Paul, Republican Primary winner for the senate race in Kentucky and love child of the Tea Party, has a good point. The libertarian in Rand can’t let go of the idea that the best government governs the least. He was genuinely sincere in his views opposing Jim Crowe laws and institutionalized segregation. He squirmed badly on the issue of segregation in private enterprise though. He never answered the question put to him, would he support allowing lunch counters to ban people from being served for any reason they choose?  No answer. He ran around the question by asking should we enforce the 2^nd amendment on private enterprise, by insisting that guns be allowed anywhere?

He just can’t stand to see government getting in the way of private enterprise- even though he abhors actions such as white only restrooms at gas stations. So there you have it. Government intrusion into private enterprise is more despicable than all acts of hatred and bias toward people for whatever reason. 

There were 10 titles in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He endorsed nine of the ten. The one title he would not have endorsed if he were in Congress in 1964 prohibits discrimination in dealing with the general public. Rand Paul endorsed the continued segregation of lunch counters, white only water coolers and restrooms, white only hotels, white only taxi cabs, white only restaurants. He doesn’t like the ADA either. They can stay on the first floor… businesses shouldn’t be required to install $100,000 elevators…

His principles toward less government outranking all else will have a lot of friends in Wall St, oil, gas, coal, nuclear power and many Tea Partiers can iron their white sheets and “take back the government”, what ever that means…

Spill Baby Spill!

We all hate regulations. When we’re very young, rules are everywhere- don’t lean back in your chair, chew with your mouth closed, keep off the lawn, etc. As we grow our rules and regulations become bigger too- don’t speed, conduct yourself with discretion and courtesy, don’t hurt others, etc. Then we have the behavior of groups and companies- be kind to mother nature, don’t pollute the air, ground and water, etc. Group cheating is the worst of all- don’t be Enron or what’s his name, the pyramid investor.

Thirty years ago Exxon spilled oil that took a generation to recover from. Now we’re facing another catastrophe that could well take another generation to mend. President Obama’s recent lift of off-shore drilling got a cold slap in the face with the recent spill, and maybe the wake-up call we needed to remind us all why the drilling ban was imposed in the first place.

We worry about leaving our future generations with unpaid debt. We should also worry about leaving our future generations with a place to live.


Published on Monday, May 10, 2010 by Agence France Presse
BP, US Search for New Fix to US Oil Spill
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana - BP officials desperately searched Monday for a new fix to the enormous Gulf of Mexico oil spill after efforts to cap a gushing leak with a containment dome hit a perilous snag.


British energy giant BP, which owns the lion's share of the leaking oil and has accepted responsibility for the clean-up, is facing the jaw-dropping possibility that, failing a swift fix it has yet to deliver with a containment dome, the crisis could spiral into an even worse environmental calamity.


The White House also was scrambling to contain fallout from the massive disaster threatening to take a toll on President Barack Obama's political and energy agenda.


In Washington, Obama on Monday "will meet with a number of Cabinet members and senior staff in the White House Situation Room to review BP efforts to stop the oil leak, as well as to decide on next steps to ensure all is being done to contain the spread, mitigate the environmental impact and provide assistance to affected states," a White House statement said.


Meanwhile the Minerals Management Service (MMS) said it "continues to work with BP to explore all options that could stop or mitigate oil leaks from the damaged well."


The BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig sank some 80 km (50 miles) southeast of Venice, Louisiana April 22, two days after an explosion that killed 11 workers.


The riser pipe that had connected the rig to the wellhead now lies fractured on the seabed a mile below, spewing out oil at a rate at some 5,000 barrels, or 210,000 gallons, a day.


Sheen from the leading edge of the slick has surrounded island nature reserves off the coast of Louisiana and tar balls have reached as far as the Alabama coast, threatening tourist beaches further east.


Sea life is being affected in a low-lying region that contains vital spawning grounds for fish, shrimp and crabs and is a major migratory stop for many species of rare birds.


The 2.4-billion-dollar Louisiana fishing industry has been slapped with a temporary ban in certain areas due to health concerns about polluted fish.


BP, facing a barrage of lawsuits and clean-up costs soaring above 10 million dollars a day, had pinned its hopes on a 98-ton concrete and steel containment box that it successfully lowered 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) down over the main leak.


But the contraption lay idle on the seabed as engineers furiously tried to figure out how to stop it clogging with ice crystals.


Still, if efforts fail to make the giant funnel system effective, there is no solid plan B to prevent potentially tens of millions of gallons of crude from causing one of the worst ever environmental catastrophes.


Untold damage is already being done by the 3.5 million gallons estimated to be in the sea so far, but the extent of that harm will rise exponentially if the only solution is a relief well that takes months to drill.
Admiral Thad Allen, head of the US Coast Guard, suggested they were considering what he called a "junk shot" to plug the main leak.


"They're actually going to take a bunch of debris, shredded up tires, golf balls and things like that and under very high pressure shoot it into the preventer itself and see if they can clog it up and stop the leak," Allen, who is leading the US government's response, told CBS television.


This could be risky as experts have warned that excessive tinkering with the blowout preventer -- a huge 450-ton valve system that should have shut off the oil -- could see crude shoot out unchecked at 12 times the current rate.
There are also fears the slick, which covers an area of about 2,000 square miles (5,200 square kilometers), could be carried around the Florida peninsula if it spreads far enough south to be picked up by a special Gulf current.
"If this gusher continues for several months, it's going to cover up the Gulf coast and it's going to get down into the loop current and that's going to take it down the Florida Keys and up the east coast of Florida," warned Florida Senator Bill Nelson.
"You are talking about massive economic loss to our tourism, our beaches, to our fisheries, very possibly disruption of our military testing and training, which is in the Gulf of Mexico," he told CNN.
On the dome front, clearing out the slushy crystals is easy -- the chamber just has to be raised to warmer levels, Suttles told reporters. Keeping the crystals out so that a pipe can be lowered into the dome to suck the oil to a waiting barge is another matter.
BP began drilling a first relief well one week ago, but that will take up to three months to drill -- by which time some 20 million gallons of crude could have streamed into the sea and ruined the fragile ecology of the Gulf.
© 2010 AFP