LittleDEM » Rand Paul

Holding Corporations Responsible

admin — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 22:40:57 +0000

The emotional side of this is covered pretty well at BPKillsFailWhale.com, but what I want to talk about here is the political and social aspects.

I’ll be honest — I was confused by President Obama’s Oval Office Speech on Tuesday night. It was not-so-uplifting and / or reassuring.

But here we are still absorbing Wednesday’s news . . . and $20B is a great start. Granted, we’d rather have never gotten into this mess, literally and figuratively. But let’s hand it to the President.

Good Job, Mr. President. $20B is a very good answer — given the circumstances — to “What have you done for me lately?”

[My one, slight defense of President Obama is that I did listen to his speech, not watch it, later again on Tuesday evening. There was some very strong language that I think earlier times would have paid much greater attention to -- That language was intentional, it was on the mark, and it was blunt . . . and was utterly undercut by today's overproduced and hyped media expectations.]

What we’re seeing is the failure of the ‘hands-off’ approach to business. And we’re seeing firsthand what that failure can yield. Is this even the worst case? I’d like to think so (though there is that pesky thing last year about avoiding the next Great Depression).

This is exactly what happens when Capitalism is left unbounded and unchecked. And this is exactly what happens when Government doesn’t play the role it should.

[BTW, a big Thank You to President Reagan. I guess "Government is the problem." So much for that Social Good, huh?]

Writ large (as if it weren’t ‘writ large’ enough already), this is why both the Republican Party and their Siamese twin the Tea Party are so screwed up. They don’t get it. Government actually does play a necessary role in today’s society. It’s not at all that Government is too big or too intrusive — It’s simply that for much too long Government has been too ineffective.

Why exactly that is the case is beyond me (that Government has been too ineffective). A case could be made that, while certain times over the past few decades have not been great, they certainly haven’t been the standing-in-a-bread-line or starving-children-in-Africa kind of bad that America has been fortunate enough to watch (and help with) at a distance. Crisis breeds Ingenuity and Gumption to both finally see and solve real problems (or so some might say). It does fall in line with the more recent argument that we’ve gotten a little too ‘fat and lazy’.

But let’s get back to core politics. In today’s hearing, Representative Joe Barton (R/Oil – Texas) actually referred to President Obama’s meeting with BP as a ’shakedown’ and a ‘$20B slush fund’. Seriously. Watch.

Does Representative Barton get at all that — as he’s talking — there’s a live feed of the barrels and barrels and barrels of oil still upwelling from BP’s drill site!?! Exactly how much oil did spill into the Gulf over the time it took Representative Barton to apologize to BP?!? He sure took his time to make sure he really apologized!

But, to be fair, there are plenty of other Republican and the like that simply don’t seem to get it. This — This kind of incident is exactly why people want Government. The Republican ’small / no Government’ argument simply doesn’t hold water, let alone oil.

Representative Barton, just like Senatorial Candidate Rand Paul (R-SC), owes the People his apology. I’d even go further and say he owes a direct apology to the People’s of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. Apologizing to the offending party during opening remarks is NO way to represent the People’s business, even if they’re not the people who elected him.

BP Kills Twitter Fail Whale

admin — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 19:35:15 +0000

BP Kills Twitter Fail Whale (click to visit and pay respects)

Twitter has been having a hard time for weeks and weeks. I think I’ve figured out why. Instead of Twitter’s ‘fail whale’ not surfacing because everything’s A-Ok (which it’s most certainly not), Twitter’s ‘fail whale’ is surfacing because of too much oil!

BP’s catastrophe in the Gulf is so monumental that it’s even affecting on-line wildlife! Even the little red birds gagged on tar balls and had to be replaced by the feel-good BP logos to help cart off the ‘fail whale’ carcass. (BP — it’s rumored — is working extra hard as of latest report to dispose of dead birds, fish, and other sea animals as quickly as possible before they’re photographed, cataloged, autopsied, et cetera.)

Just generally speaking? What’s happened — and happening — is disgusting. It’s Capitalism run amok. It’s not only a travesty but a sick look into the lesser angels that drive the inner-workings of human nature.

And government isn’t to be excused in the equation, either. Though not as a Democrat, I fault the George Bush Administration, and only to a degree the Barack Obama Administration for not having been able to reverse quickly enough the absolute gutting of oversight and regulation that government can and should do. That said, the eight years Dick Cheney spent greasing the wheels of government, all for the sake of Big Oil, must be called into account . . . and correcting eight years of heading full speed in the wrong direction can not be corrected by one-plus years of trying to turn the boat around.

It’s said each President fights their wars with the last President’s armed forces. The very same could be said with the situation in the Gulf.

Would anyone knowingly perpetrate such an act? Of course not, except for the most absolute of outliers in our society. Would an absolutely massive multi-national corporation develop, repeat, and perpetuate an institutional behavior that seeks to both maximize profit and reduce expense? Absolutely.

So what is the role of Capitalism verses Government? Seems that everyone is talking about it these days, even people who would be advised not to (yes, that includes you, Rand Paul). Well, oddly enough, I tried my hand at penning that exact thought a number of months ago and would appreciate your thoughts and comments.

LittleDEM article published November 27, 2009: Defining Capitalism and Government vis-a-vis Each Other

If there’s one thing I think we can all agree on, it’s that in times like these we need help, big help, and more help that we can most likely individually contribute — It’s a desperate situation for a collective solution.

Rand Paul, You Must be THIS Tall to Read This Post

admin — Sat, 22 May 2010 03:24:50 +0000

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted, but I finally feel liberated to say something I’ve felt for a very long time . . .

I don’t like short people all that much.

In fact, I really don’t like short people all that much. They’re just, well, short and always needing my help with things like opening doors or reaching something. And I’m always bumping into them at places like the supermarket and bookstore. And they’re always bumping into me or — better yet — getting in my way because they don’t appreciate that normal, tall people have longer strides and naturally take up more room than they do. Their ’short-people’ space doesn’t equate. To the short people out there: You can’t walk in front of a normal, tall person like you can all your short-people friends and not rudely disrupt their pace or space — Be considerate, will ya’!

Kids? They’re Ok — They’re born short, and a good chunk of them will grow out of it. And anyone who’s genetically very, very short. No problem there — They understand what I’m talking about, if just in reverse.

But back to the average, ordinary short people . . .

They just piss me off. Their ’shortness’ means there’s less shelves, which means places like supermarkets have to be wider and longer . . . just to accommodate their shorter stature. And I’m paying for that more-than-necessary real estate! And when they rent cars they’re always pulling the seats forward, causing me to smash my knees against the steering wheel when I first get in the car!

About the only thing they’re good for is a good view at the movies . . . and one really, really funny song.

Oh, and they’re always poking me in the eye with their way-too-large umbrellas.

Thank You, Rand Paul! You’ve lifted my spirits and my until-now repressed dislike of short people. Gosh, if I were from Kentucky I’d surely vote for you . . . but then again, you’ll probably hold it against me for not being from Kentucky, won’t you?

Huh, sort of conflicted now that I think about it.