Wait Just a Minute!

There are a few things that have floated across my internets that I want to make sure you see and one big point I want to make.

First off, check out this post by Matt Davis, former Portland Mercury editor who's now living in New Orleans, on his personal blog. They held a mock funeral for the Gulf of Mexico. If the people who are at ground zero for this disaster are holding a funeral already, what do you think the odds of this turning out well are?

Second, the jobs numbers for May have come out and it's not too good. Five thirty eight has this post up explaining in great detail. But essentially, about 90% of the jobs added in May were temporary census worker jobs. The good news, even when you subtract the census workers at least we didn't LOSE jobs...

But the big point I really want to make here is that we're overlooking an opportunity. This is a horrible issue that's going on in the Gulf. It has business and environmental impacts. But we aren't using this (black) golden opportunity to push for true policy changes in our country! If there has ever been a better example of why we need to push, both as citizens, and as government policy, for a sustainable energy future with renewable sources of energy then I don't know what it is. This is it people!

I'm Back!

I must apologize for being so quiet as things have continued happening around the world. I have been moving. Across the country if you must know. And it takes a bit to get plugged back into the world. Let along knowing enough to begin making commentary again. Just as a summary:

The BP Oil Spill is continuing after more than a month. We've tried the containment dome, the cut and cap, the junk shot, the top kill, booms of all kinds, fire, and what I'm calling the Pull and Pray (which is just what it sounds like). Now it looks like we're just waiting until the relief wells can be finished. Near the end of August. And this is all as we are heading into what looks to be a very dangerous 2010 Hurricane Season.

Thailand has been facing civil unrest for several months which culminated in a shoot to kill order from the military government in Thailand and the deaths of several of the redshirt protesters. See here.

We are still moving forward with the primaries in many states in preparation for the November elections. Now former Pennsylvania Senator and former Republican Arlen Specter is over and done with. Elections took place in Alabama today as well as Mississippi and New Mexico with South Carolina and some others coming in next week.

Also, at the beginning of my move the President nominated Elena Kagan to fill Justice John Paul Stevens' seat on the court. She is the current US Solicitor General. Some of you probably want to know what I think of her and the truth is that I haven't had the time to do a thorough search and read up enough. But my gut instinct from what I've heard from national media sources is that she isn't liberal enough. She doesn't come close to the "liberal lion" that some have called Stevens. And anything less than Stevens moves the court to the right which is as unacceptable now under the Obama Administration as it was when he nominated Justice Sotomayor. I'm not saying she's not qualified although some have quibbled over her lack of time on the bench. Just that she's to middle of the road for my (admittedly lefty) tastes.

So. Let's start with BP and the oil spill. I shouldn't really call it a spill. I should be calling it a geyser, or a volcano, or a gush, or a spilling. Or something to indicate that there's really no end to this thing. But leaving that aside, it's a wonder to me that we've done as little as we have to try and head off another problem like this at the pass. The President has put 33 exploratory rigs on hold and we're no longer issuing new leases. We've discovered the amazing lack of sense in what is laughably called the Mineral Management Service or MMS. But there are still literally thousands of other rigs in the Gulf and all of the United States pumping away. I understand that taking America's oil production to zero barrels a day may potentially increase the price of gas at the pump. That's a price I am willing, and I hope you are willing, to pay to protect America's environmental treasures. We've already destroyed the Louisiana Marshlands. Do we want to kill the California Kelp Forests and other such aquamarine jewels as well?

BP has made it as clear as any multi-national corporation can (which is not very) that they are willing to pay. While trying to get off the hook for paying. But still. Even if they were willing to write a big, fat, multi-trillion dollar check to pay for everything that doesn't fix it. Everyone is acting like, as long as BP pays then it's fine. Eh. Who cares! And oil spill here or there. No biggie. They could write a check for the US GDP and it wouldn't automagically clean up the environmentally sensitive areas that have already been or will be destroyed. Nothing but time can undo that. And a lot of times even time can't. Just take a look at Prince William Sound 20+ years after the Exxon Valdez. This subject has been beat to death. And so I will stop now with full knowledge that I will be back on this horse sooner rather than later. The only thing we, the people, can do is to keep ourselves informed and pressure our elected government to do right by us, and take care of BP.

And Now, A Post You Should Read.

Just to get this out there, I'm white. I'm really white. I'm never sure if I'm doing what I should be be an ally to people of color. But I know good writing about race and whiteness when I see it. Read this story.

Womanist Musings

Republican Primaries

So, in political news this bit about the Republican Primaries in Utah says a lot to me. The current incumbent, Bob Bennett, who is a three term Senator in a state that is by all real measures very red has come in a distant third to two different challengers for the Republican nomination. This is only really news in that it says to me that the upcoming 2010 midterms aren't inherently and anti-Democratic year. What they really are is an anti-Incumbent year. While this may not seem like a huge revelation it's important to note that we may lose a lot of seats on the blue side of the aisle, but we may get a whole new set of Republican senators and congress people who are less willing to be simply the voice of "No". While we may lose seats, we may, in the long run have a congress that is more capable of legislating. And that, in short, is a good thing.

This is how the fight against Obama is being characterized. With Fawkesian subtitles, clever editing, and a sound track more fit to an end of the world/disaster movie than a political campaign. Obama isn't perfect. Not by a long shot. But this is why we need to support him in 2010 and 2012.

If you go to their website two things will happen. One, you'll think it's funny that only 113,000 people have taken their "pledge" so far as of the beginning of May and two, you'll notice that, way down at the bottom, it says, "Paid for by the Republican Governors Association". Just saying.

She's at it Again

Friday saw another post by our beloved former governor of Alaska on her Facebook page in response to the Horizon Oil Spill. I thought about not linking it in order to not give her the traffic, but as I'm going to quote some of the post here I want it to be available to readers in full so as not to take the Governor out of context. Her note is here. As you might expect the core of her response is still "Drill, Baby, Drill", now wrapped in a shell of concern for the environment.

As an Alaskan, I can speak from the heart about the tragedy of an oil spill. For as long as I live, I will never forget the day the Exxon-Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef and millions of gallons of North Slope crude poured into the waters of our beautiful Prince William Sound.

To be honest, I'm tired of this idea that only Alaskans understand the oil and gas industry for what it really is. We all buy their products, refineries are everywhere, and there are (as has been horribly demonstrated) other places where extraction is happening inside the US other than the North Slope and Prudhoe Bay.

Alaskans understand the tragedy of an oil spill, and we’ve taken steps to do all we can to prevent another Exxon tragedy, but we are still pro-development. We still believe in responsible development, which includes drilling to extract energy sources, because we know that there is an inherent link between energy and security, energy and prosperity, and energy and freedom.

I think it's safe to say that Americans understand the tragedy of an oil spill. But leaving that aside, if Alaska has done all it can, how come twenty years later the majority of tankers operating out of the Port of Valdez in Prince William Sound are still single hulled tankers? Could it be that replacing those tankers might cost Exxon and BP money that they don't want to spend and so they haven't been pushed to make necessary changes?

She does get one thing right. And I want to give credit where it's due. There is a link between energy and security, energy and prosperity, and energy and freedom. So why is it then, as a major news contributor and a political figure of some serious heft, Governor Palin hasn't used any of her significant power to push for more money for R&D on renewable energy generation, or more money toward the technologies that we already have?  After all, we just approved the new wind farm off of Cape Cod. I agree that it was a tough decision but it comes down to whether you're willing to make the sacrifices to break America's dependency on foreign oil or not. Clearly the Governor and her friends in the Tea Party and the GOP aren't willing to make that sacrifice. For them, truly, national security always comes down to who to kill, what war to start, or what to blow up in that country several thousand miles from here. Even though their rhetoric says that they get it, they never seem to make the easy choices that will advance our national security and safeguard the lives of all Americans including those in the military.

The Governor also pushes the idea in her post that she (and by extension the GOP) has been tough on Big Oil.

This was the position I took as an oil and gas regulator and as Governor of Alaska when my administration ramped up oversight of the oil industry and created a petroleum-systems-integrity office to monitor our oil and gas infrastructure for potential environmental risks. I took a lot of heat for the stand I took “against the oil industry” (which is how political adversaries labeled my actions). But we took tough action because there was proof of some improper maintenance of oil infrastructure which I believed was unacceptable. We instituted new oversight and held British Petroleum (BP) financially accountable for poor maintenance practices.

If that is true, why is it that profits for Petroleum companies went through the roof during the Bush Administration? Well, besides the fact that two unnecessary wars opened up a big new market for them. Granted, the Obama Administration doesn't get off the hook. After all they just a few weeks ago lifted a ban on deep water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico that they are only now, in the light of a national disaster, walking back. The Obama Administration is, just like the Bush Administration, far to loyal to big business interests. We've seen this time and again from the deep water drilling, to the weak stance on Health Care Reform when Big Pharma got involved and now we're seeing it in Wall Street Reform. Everyone is to blame here. Every administration since the early 1900s, the Democrats, the GOP, the Tea Party, and yes, you and me. We take for granted that our choices at the pump and at the ballot box have no effect on these big companies and we're wrong. It's time, well past time, to make a conscious effort to drive less, take public transit, walk, and bike more, vote for representatives who legitimately want to control big business, and get America off our Oil Addiction, foreign or otherwise.

Copy and Paste

This article over at Pandagon was excellent. It goes in depth on several other laws coming down the pipe in Arizona following Papers Please. I'm gonna talk about a couple of sections but you really ought to read the whole thing. All bolding is mine.

English-only is classic wingnuttery, right down to the bad faith.  The stated intentions are to help kids, but the reality is that the initiatives are about making sure students don’t learn any other skills while learning English.  It’s a racist program that aims to make sure the children of immigrants have just enough skills to do manual and service labor, but no skills that would make middle class aspirations a possibility. 

 This is the issue right here. Whenever right wingers have the "gall" to talk about immigration reform (and fewer and fewer of them are) it's always in the context of letting people into the country to do jobs that Americans refuse to do. They just want to gain the political points with the independents for doing immigration reform and ensure they're strawberries keep getting picked and their chickens keep getting plucked. These people are getting paid but usually minimum wage or lower to do these sorts of jobs. At the risk of sounding pretty strong language wise here, this looks like modern day, legal slavery to me. It's all about making sure that we have a poor class of people who have little choice than to do our dirty work. By keeping important skills from immigrants and children of immigrants we ensure that there isn't and there won't ever be a large, vibrant hispanic middle class. And that, ostensibly, is the American Dream. Which is bullshit itself, but that's another post.

Proponents really do believe that Latinos have nothing to offer, and they often treat them like they’re not even human beings.  Immigrants especially get this kind of treatment.  Having grown up in the Southwest, I can tell you that a lot of the racism that white people express has an undercurrent of insecurity to it.

I didn't grow up in the Southwest. I grew up in the Southeast and 100% of this is still the case. People get pissed when they can't understand what the people ahead of them in line are saying etc. This is, in my experience, a large part of the racism that still pervades the Old South in regards to African-Americans too. White supremacists seem to be deathly afraid that white culture, anglo culture, won't be able to survive unless it's enforced upon everyone. I haven't heard anything so silly in a long time. By that logic white people aren't as good. If our culture would die unless it's dominant than clearly people of color (who's many cultures continue to thrive while assaulted by white racism every day) are better than we are. You can twist this argument around all you want.