Limit campaign contributions
June 15th, 2010If you’re not pissed off about the spill in the Gulf, something is wrong with you. You should be. You should be pissed off about the people and animals who lost their lives, the environmental damage, and the long-term damage to economic livelihoods of the people that depend on that area.
The fines levied against British Petroleum aren’t enough. Joe and Jane Taxpayer will have to cover the rest, and yes, that means if you live in the United States of America, that means YOU.
I joked about drilling our oil right off the coast of England so if we spill, we ruin THEIR beaches. Well, I was only half-joking. Maybe we should. Let them pay the bill for the next spill, not us.
Two things from this which I think are very obvious:
1) We need to do something serious about our energy policy. If this isn’t a wake up call, I don’t know what is,
2) Limit campaign contributions to $100. Any person or corporation can donate to a campaign, but $100 tops. That immediately limits corporate power and puts the power back in the hands of the PEOPLE, where it needs to be.
#2 fixes a heck of a lot more problems than we realize. The people have been losing power to corporations for decades now and it’s time we got it back.
I’d love to run for Congress on that platform alone. I’d never win, but someone needs to do it.
its rough to think about how those down south feel compared to us up north but us up north are feeling the gas prices… and so are they down there… you know i saw on the news about two weeks ago this guy here in WI wants to help with the spill.
he said he has a way to stop the leak.. Its a machine they can put this on the leak and move it away to some where else..
I agree - the only way to reign in our political system is to have a tax-funded equal amount of campaign funds for ALL parties, and individual/corporate contributions should be limited.
Also, people have to take responsibilty for this mess. Clean, responsible energy policies in a mostly free-market system start with demand. If we continue to be a lazy society that insists on living in suburban sprawl, driving our SUVs a half mile to the store and living 50 miles from work, then nothing will change. It will take some personal sacrifice.
Yes, gas will cost more. Guess what? Drive less.
Government can help - tax incentives for buying efficient cars. Subsidize public transit. But ultimately, if people don’t stop suckling at the teat of gas companies, then nothing will change.
I know this is sort of off topic of your post, but I thought I would share an e mail I got this morning. I don’t know who the engineer mentioned is and I have not been able to verify the data. But the facts mentioned make sense. If so, what BP has done is worse than anyone has yet to realize.
Independent Engineer’s Assessment of the Gulf Oil Eruption
The estimated super high pressure release of oil from under the earth’s crust is between 80,000 to 100,000 barrels per day. The flow of oil and toxic gases is bringing up with it… rocks and sand which causes the flow to create a sandblasting effect on the remaining well head device currently somewhat restricting the flow, as well as the drilled hole itself.
As the well head becomes worn it enlarges the passageway allowing an ever-increasing flow. Even if some device could be placed onto the existing wellhead, it would not be able to shut off the flow, because what remains of the existing wellhead would not be able to contain the pressure.
The well head piping is originally about 2 inches thick. It is now likely to be less than 1 inch thick, and thinning by each passing moment. The oil has now reached the Gulf Stream and is entering the Oceanic current which is at least four times stronger than the current in the Gulf, which will carry it throughout the world within 18 months..
The oil along with the gasses, including benzene and many other toxins, is deleting the oxygen in the water. This is killing all life in the ocean. Along with the oil along the shores, there will be many dead fish, etc. that will have to be gathered and disposed of.
At some point the drilled hole in the earth will enlarge itself beneath the wellhead to weaken the area the wellhead rests upon. The intense pressure will then push the wellhead off the hole allowing a direct unrestricted flow of oil, etc.. The hole will continue to increase in size allowing more and more oil to rise into the Gulf. After several billion barrels of oil have been released, the pressure within the massive cavity five miles beneath the ocean floor will begin to normalize.
This will allow the water, under the intense pressure at 1 mile deep, to be forced into the hole and the cavity where the oil was. The temperature at that depth is near 400 degrees, possibly more. The water will be vaporized and turned into steam, creating an enormous amount of force, lifting the Gulf floor. It is difficult to know how much water will go down to the core
and therefore, its not possible to fully calculate the rise of the floor.
The tsunami wave this will create will be anywhere from 20 to 80 feet high, possibly more. Then the floor will fall into the now vacant chamber. This is how nature will seal the hole. Depending on the height of the tsunami, the ocean debris, oil, and existing structures that will be washed away on shore and inland, will leave the area from 50 to 200 miles inland devoid of life. Even if the debris is cleaned up, the contaminants that will be in the ground and water supply will prohibit re-population of these areas for an unknown number of years.
Definitely need to limit campaign contributions! And speaking of SUV’s, why is it whenever I see on one the road, it’s usually just one person in the vehicle and she’s talking on the phone? Other countries give a lot of benefits, such as tax breaks and lower toll charges, for fuel-efficient cars.
i say we plug the leak by stuffing the well full of bp execs.
Me, I’d do one of two things.
1. Get rid of the Federal Presidential Campaign Fund. (or whatever its called — the thing that people get to “check off” on their 1040 every years).
or at least…
2. Amend the statute to read something like “Monies from this fund are not available to whatever two parties spent the most on the last Presidential campaign.
If some rich pinhead wants to give his/her money to one of those two parties, fine. Fools and their money deserve to be parted. But the notion that the parties can go to the government trough for millions upon millions. That’s bloody insane.
Am I the only one who thinks “campaign finance reform” as it is practiced via legislation is “here’s another way to get money we don’t deserve and look like we care while doing it”?