You wanted it, you got it

[Matt J]

Smaller unobtrusive government that is.

I don't really care what your political persuasion is, but if you've been railing against big government over the past decade this oil spill mess is a direct result.

Don't get me wrong, government is too big. I include everything including the military. However it's obvious that while government is vastly bloated in some areas it remains anorexic in other areas.

Complain all you want about BP, the President, democrats, or republicans. The response to this oil spill is the future if big corporations are allowed to run roughshod over the government. I distinctly remember comments made corporations that would somehow magically police themselves or face the consequences from consumers. BP hasn't closed shop and most likely won't, their PR machine is far too busy shifting the blame to any party but themselves.

This is what deregulation looks like:

 

[futurebeachbum]

Smaller unobtrusive government that is.

I don't really care what your political persuasion is, but if you've been railing against big government over the past decade this oil spill mess is a direct result.

Don't get me wrong, government is too big. I include everything including the military. However it's obvious that while government is vastly bloated in some areas it remains anorexic in other areas.

Complain all you want about BP, the President, democrats, or republicans. The response to this oil spill is the future if big corporations are allowed to run roughshod over the government. I distinctly remember comments made corporations that would somehow magically police themselves or face the consequences from consumers. BP hasn't closed shop and most likely won't, their PR machine is far too busy shifting the blame to any party but themselves.

This is what deregulation looks like:

No, I think you are confused.

This has nothing to do with smaller government. This has to do with competent vs corrupt government. There's no empirical evidence that bigger government is more competent.

The MMS was incompetently staffed. That doesn't mean it was smaller.

The staffers were corrupt and in the pocket of the special interests that help fund the election of Obama and Bush (W). It was obviously incompetently staffed under W (and maybe Clinton, Bush Sr, etc... before him) and the current Administration made the overt choice to continue that policy,

It wouldn't have mattered if the MMS had been 10x bigger as long as Administrations are fully in the back pocket of their contributors and choose to behave this way.

 

[AlphaCrab]

Right on SWGB! And now our "Republican loving" Supreme Court has ruled 5-4 that these same big Corporations can now flood the political campaigns with their big bucks and wield even stronger influence over our election process, and therefore, our government.

Maybe the Lincoln bedroom in the W.H. should be changed to the "Exxon Bedroom." We will soon be aware of who is sleeping with whom.:angry:

 

[futurebeachbum]

Maybe the Lincoln bedroom in the W.H. should be changed to the "Exxon Bedroom." We will soon be aware of who is sleeping with whom.:angry:

Based on the amounts that big oil invested in this (and previous) administrations, that seems oddly appropriate.

 

[Matt J]

Based on the amounts that big oil invested in this (and previous) administrations, that seems oddly appropriate.

This election, that election, who cares. Corporations should not have the political influence they do. If you want to give them the same rights as people then they should be held to the contribution limits that real people are.

At this rate corporations will have more rights than human beings in this country.

 

[Kayak Fish]

Corporations run the show and the needs of the people are an afterthought. The size of government is almost irrelevant, it's corruption that's the enemy. The BP thing isn't changing that. All throughout the government, industry shills are placed in charge of policing said industries. It's a joke, and it won't change. Regulation of these industries (check out the HBO film Gasland to get more outraged) is vital, but at least with a smaller government the corruption is easier to spot.

The media is doing its work turning us onto the usual republican versus democrat blame game as politicians feign outrage just like they did during the bail-out cycle. It's a smoke screen. Exxon was the most profitable corporation on Earth recently, 20 years after they screwed up the environment in Alaska. BP will be just fine. They have ruined our beaches, our water, our food supply, and they will laugh all the way to the bank in the end. I hope I'm wrong and they make this right.