BP wants to shake us down?

They say: "Give us permission to go back to deep water drilling or we won't be able to afford to pay the people whose lives we destroyed the $20 billion we pledged."

Really?

They've already proved they don't know HOW to do deep water drilling.

And now -- they're using their bookkeeping system to try  extortion (because they're doing the numbers on BP USA only.  BP is multi-national and doing very very well.)

At the same time, they're blaming US for the explosion and spill -- really. 

Because we didn't do enough enforcement of the regulations they violated.

Like some sociopath who says "You shouldn'ta left your door unlocked. It's YOUR fault that I robbed and raped and murdered the people in your house. Otherwise I wouldn'ta been able to get in there."

So, here's the only answer we can give them:

"HEY BP -- GO FUCK YOURSELF!"

Nationalize all of BP's assets in the USA and sell those assets to American oil companies -- Gulf, Exxon, etc.

File felony charges against their entire Board of Directors for Criminal Negligence, Negligent Homicide, Murder (if people die when someone is committing a crime, then it's murder) and extradite them.

If they really want to play Capone-style Chicken, they should remember -- THEY'RE asking US to give THEM permission. And all their stuff is in OUR yard. And we HAVE $20 billion to distribute among the damaged people. So I don't see how they can think they're in a position to make demands.


And, oh, yeah, speaking of the way the late Al Capone did business -- our president is from Chicago.

Jerry Lewis -- who would have thought the old man had so much vicious evil in him?

I saw Jerry Lewis on TV news this morning.

Lewis -- now fully discernible as a monster -- was trying to be funny as he talked about how he wanted to punch out Lindsey Lohan and if that wasn't enough, indulge his sick sexual fantasies and "Put her over my knee and spank her."

Jesus -- and I thought John Boehner and Eric Kantor and Mitch McConnell were ugly.

SO:

I was checking out of Safeway the other day and was asked if I wanted to donate anything to kids with Muscular Dystrophy.

And I said "I wouldn't piss on Jerry Lewis if he were on fire, let alone send money in his direction."

And the clerk, being agreeable said "Oh yeah, right -- they've got Jerry."

A few minutes after I left the store I interpreted his comment a different way and thought: "Shit. It's bad enough these poor kids having MD, but they have to put up with Jerry Lewis ALSO.  Shit -- I should have given them some money."

I went back the next day and went right over to an MDA display with a checker sitting in some sort of a cage, soliciting MDA funds. Nice sweet lady -- I'd checked out at her counter many times.  I told her my reasoning and gave her $5.00.

And I left, remembering that the last time I saw a woman in that sort of cage it was another era -- she was dancing and wearing plastic go-go boots, and the smell of pot smoke filled the air of the club. (And there were still people around who thought Jerry Lewis was funny.)

The problem with political journalists -- short-term memory deficit

They seem to not understand why people are so "anti-incumbent."

But Rush Limbaugh and other seditionists set the agenda and gave the marching orders in the very beginning:

"WE WANT THIS PRESIDENT TO FAIL."
(Translation: "A n-----r in the White House? NEVER!!!")

Have the Republicans done ANYTHING that is not directly in service of this goal?

It's like the GOP is doing a very unfunny version of the old Groucho Marx comic song -- as far as the Democrat's attempts to pull the country out of the economic-military-social greed/plunder toilet that Bush and his pals swam and frolicked in for nearly a decade:

"WHATEVER IT IS, WE'RE AGAINST IT."

So why does anyone wonder that people view our government with anger and distrust --  after EVERY word that has dribbled out of the cess pool Republican mouths of the past 50+ years, but especially the past 2 years --after every word has called any attempt to move congress and the economy even slightly away from the status quo of "Let's call the bribes 'campaign contributions' and call the bagmen 'PACS,' and then we can go on doing economic rape and plunder on behalf of our really rich pals (who'll give us some 'trickle down' goodies.)' "

After those people have insisted that everyone should view any attempt to move our political system closer to being one that actually represents the words of the founder of the party* (the one that has become the racist abomination of today that we call Republican) has either been stopped or ignored or dissed as not being good enough -- why does anyone wonder why the American public is insanely angry and willing to strike out at any target they see.

No mystery there.

But why don't $6- and $7- figure a year TV journalists actually remember what's been happening?

 ------------------------------------------------
*"... of the people, by the people, and for the people..." Remember? Abe Lincoln?

Accidentally changed channels to MSNBC before 6AM PDST this morning (when "Morning Joe" is on)

I usually avoid it because Joe Scarborough's overbearing smarminess is waay too unpleasant to deal with anytime, but especially pre-dawn.

However he wasn't on. Instead three people I usually enjoy and even respect were on duty -- Mike Barnacle, Willie Geist, and Chris Jansing -- and talking with Michael Joseph Gross, the writer who'd written the current Vanity Fair article about Sarah Palin. 

Mr Gross stated that he had wanted to write a positive article about the former governor, but the facts forced him to write what's being called a "hit job" and a "hatchet job." (Code words for "How dare you criticize me.")

There was actually a fair amount of substance and insight going on -- such issues and Governor Palin's immense current income and her possible run for the presidency ("Her possible run for the presidency is what keeps interest and income so high." "Will we wonder what happened to her 3 years from now?" "Depends on whether or not you people still report her various tweets and emails as news," etc)

Talk about her being a "kingmaker," ignoring the fact that other than the last, most recent primaries, almost none of her endorsements resulted in an election win. And then Chris Jansing asked why some (estimated) 2 million people follow her.

And no one had anything real to say.

And I immediately thought of two observations from other writers that were appropriately relevant.

The first, from Man for All Seasons, in the scene where King Henry visits Thomas More at his home, accompanied by his entourage. And Henry points to the courtiers and says to Thomas:" All those people follow me. Some want wealth. Some want influence. But most of them follow me because I'm moving and they'll follow anything that moves."

The other observation came from the legendary H.L. Mencken -- a journalist in the days when one needed to have an actual Liberal Arts education to be qualified to report on current history. His famous observation: "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public."

And I realized those two observations were accurate descriptions of a lot more than Ms Palin's popularity -- in fact, the combination of the two seem to explain almost everything in contemporary politics and entertainment, from the public bribes so politely called "campaign contributions" to the popularity of TV's Madmen, Glenn Beck, and, in previous times, The Lucy Show.