The BP incident

Coming up in Houston "the energy capital" a block away from BP. I feel I need to comment on the current crisis in the Gulf. My life would not have been possible without the oil industry and for that I owe them a huge debt of gratitude. However it was my own Grandpa who was an oil man for 40 something years and owned his own land man business who first told me that oil was a finite resource and that we need to be on the lookout for a replacement. This was 20 years ago! But I dont want to get into that right here....

I want to focus on the handling of this situation, which I personally think is disgusting. I place the blame 90% BP and 10% Obama. The reason I dont blame Obama more is because if he were to have come in on day one and taken the show over, the right in this country would have lost its mind and taken pitchforks and torches to the White House. I also think that BP is still trying to make a profit off this well. To all accounts there is more than enough oil in this well to not only pay for the whole spill but still potentially make billions in profits after. So financially it makes sense.

The problem lies in that in salvaging the well instead of rendering it unusable and shut off, thousand of barrels leak out and destroy our coastline every day. I love the environment, I strive to be as low impact as possible but I also live in the real world and understand that we are a fossil fuel based economy for better or worse. But there is a certain point in which I believe for the good of the planet BP needs to seal this thing off at all costs. The major problem on Obama's desk is how to hold a foreign company's feet to the fire. I agree with the moratorium in spirit, those other rigs need to be checked and the oil company's must realize that all those years of no regulation are coming to an end,just like the airlines. I just think the implementation could be better.

Glenn Beck, Fox Noise and Punditry

Ok so I have a theory. I dont really think that Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh or any of their ilk really believe half the stuff their saying. I think that they are just in it for the money and that they are doing the conservative movement a great injustice by only appealing to the extreme "chicken little" portion of the right. They would be better served (granted not as big of ratings) if they just appeal to the middle. By putting out these wild conspiracy theories and a lot of the time just straight up making up shit, they are muding the waters of the national conversation and not contributing to the discourse that this country needs. I mean they are how we wound up with Sarah Palin and the Tea Partiers to begin with, and if thats not enough to alarm you I dont know what is.

First Post and commitment

Welcome all! I have moved all my political topics to this space to separate them from the fun stuff of my other blog:

dustanblog.blogspot.com

I will continue to post there for all the cool internet / geeky stuff. But with the current climate in this country, I feel the need to post what I see is the middle view on all the wild life changing events happening right now. I really believe that we are living in a very important time in America but the media would have us believe that there are only two views: one crazy left utopia, socialist, etc and the neocon right. While I believe through what I have observed in my life that most people fall somewhere in the middle and just want to be able to have a paycheck, play with their kids and not be bothered all that much by nuts. People that are only in the public sector for fortune and fame and will say anything and do anything to remain there.
I promise to keep my postings short and to the point and try to keep the ranting to a minimum. So feel free to comment on anything I say and please post links to the things that you site so we can share ideas more accurately.