Category Archives: politics

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Emil Guillermo on the BP Spill: Don’t blame Big Government–blame the free market

Maybe we just needed a spill of such horrific proportions to come to our senses.

When stuff happens we want, we demand, that government take care of us.

But Deepwater Horizon isn’t so much a failure of Big Government to be in charge, it’s a stark realization at what de-regulation and a lax of oversight will do.

We have allowed Big Government to fail because the small government folks distrust the oversight. Leave it to the oil companies to police themselves.  As I write that, why does that sound stupid? 

So small g. folks allow the  free market to run amok and let  the likes of BP to do what it will without a net.  Just a net profit,  about $14 billion or so last year.

Sooo much better.

Even in crisis, the failure of the free market was colossal.  BP’s efforts  were unremarkable. 40 days? 20 million gallons later does it deserve to stay in business? And where were the free market resources to come together to solve the problem?

Someone could make some good money being a hero here. That’s the free market dream.

 Two guys in a garage could have come up with a better “TOP KILL” sooner, maybe? Instead, we had people with those pathetic looking   restraining tubes trying to herd the oil plume like stray cattle.   

Maybe BP was praying for IRON MAN  in full regalia to swoop in and  sit on the thing?

What was the free market response?  It said, “Not my problem. Especially with a 4 day weekend coming up.”

So what’s the score:

Free Market , zero.  Big Government, trying.

Obama tried to cap the political hole yesterday.  But his “TOP KILL” didn’t do much for me either.

Re-regulation.  Moratoriums. Those are the easy solutions that should have already been in place.

We need an aggressive clean up combined with a comprehensive energy plan.

Our oil addiction is a killer. The spill, the video, “Top Kill”, just a massive wake-up call as we trudge along in our oil dependent stupor.

blog, news, politics

Emil Guillermo on the BP spill: The new “Blood for oil” begins as first “head” rolls

So far just one head, Liz Birnbaum at U.S. Minerals Management Services is the first to go, reports say.  But is she even high enough the food chain to balance the wreckless destruction that has taken place as the oil flows?

Like the oil, the blame flows incrementally. Once it sinks in how this is worse than the Exxon Valdez spill, more rubber-stampers will have to be removed and replaced.

Everyone is so anxious to see this thing plugged up, that public statements are too often interpreted with a much more optimistic spin. We saw that this morning with the conflicts between the Coast Guard’s optimism, and BP’s more guarded stance.

Obama has done right to extend the moratorium on drilling, and should do it at least until the cleanup is done. That should take care of at least 100 years.

And he should know there is some relief with firing a few bureaucrats way too close to the industries they regulate.  When Big oil expects payback,  the people get screwed.  (BTW, isn’t it funny how the “small government” folks are now blaming big government’s lack of response to the spill? Pro-business amall government tendencies are responsible for a lack of response.)

In the meantime, grease up the bicycles and fire up the candles.

Our own oil dependency plays a role in all this too.

blog, news, politics

Emil Guillermo on the BP Spill:We need Deepwater Horizon spill finale now, before the end of “American Idol” tonight. Please.

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My protest over the BP spill has been  muted because I’m a user. 

Not of BP. But of oil in general. My outrage would be like ratting out one’s drug-dealer. (It is an oil addiction. George W. Bush told me so).

Lately, blog/twitter readers would notice I’ve chosen the escape route of dwelling on the ending of favorite television shows and the losing streak and offensive ineptitude of my favorite baseball team.  Contemplating those sort of things is so much better on the soul  than contemplating the end of the earth, which  in truth is what the BP spill represents.

To see the constant video of the oil streaming and the damage to the Gulf, the wetlands, the animals is too much to bear.

We need to say f-you to the profiteers and the government that enables them. We’ve already saved Wall Street and the car industry. When we save Big Oil at times like this you can see the trade off. 

At least BP isn’t in the nuclear game. That’s the only thing that makes the time to end spill slightly more bearable. Oil is less forever than nuclear. But a screwup is a screwup, and no one seems to be prepared for these worse case events.

Go to the video. See the oil flow. Let’s see a BP spill finale now.

In the meantime, let’s vote BP off the Island. And hope Obama, and  Sec. Chu and Sec. Salazar stop dancing with the oily.

blog, diversity, news, politics, race

Two Radicals: Times Square suspect Faisal Shahzad and Tea Party victor Rand Paul from Kentucky

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While Rand Paul was marching to victory in Kentucky on Tuesday, Faisal Shahzad was arraigned in New York.

Much has been made about the story of Shahzad, mostly about his ineptitude as a terrorist.

His other story line is more common.

In these diverse times, Shahzad, a naturalized citizen from Pakistan, was no different from many Americans and considered a normal suburbanite . But when the American dream slipped away due to foreclosure and money pressures, the radicalization of the “boy next door” began.

Darn it. If he were white, he could have joined the Tea Party.

But that group is so radical in a different way that a Shahzad wouldn’t have been welcome to pass out tea bags.

If there was a doubt about that, Rand Paul dispelled it this week.

Paul –a Tea Party devotee and as of this week, the newly minted Republican nominee from Kentucky to the Senate–showed his true colors when he made his victory speech for public office in a private country club.  

Being elitist is one thing, but when you add his public denouncement of the Civil Rights Act, you have a true radical in public life in America.

It’s as radical a perspective from a different direction as the radical fundamentalism of Shahzad.

I won’t condemn Paul for having his views.  That would be undemocratic. And our democracy allows for the freedom to have stupid opinions.

But I will condemn his vile beliefs as having no place in modern society.

To be a poltically-fundamentalist American is no less radical a belief to fear in a new diverse America.