And they all are afraid, Ma'am.
They don't know what to do.
The President least of them all.
Theirs is a cruel and capricious god.
And they have all learned to fear it.
Witness Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, the ranking member for the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation.: She fears that "halting offshore drilling would threaten the U.S. economy." At this point in time, that is it, Ma'am: the Senator's chief concern is that "placing those resources off limits...[will] threatens thousands of jobs associated with oil and gas development along the Gulf Coast."
Which was already, more or less, the President's position with regard to offshore drilling just before the Deepwater Horizon tragedy struck.
Governor Bobby Jindal told President Obama in early June that the moratorium could cost as many as 20,000 jobs in the state over the next 12 months to 18 months. And twenty lawmakers from Gulf states said in a press conference last Tuesday that a six-month moratorium will hurt offshore drilling companies and suppliers that contribute $6 billion yearly to the federal government.
"It's bad enough that we have an oil spill to deal with and the fishermen can't work. Now they're going to take away the oil industry, and we'll have nothing," said Chett Chiasson, executive director for the Greater Lafourche Port Commission, which runs Port Fourchon, the launching point for 90 percent of the deepwater activities in the Gulf of Mexico.
"If the rigs stop prospecting for oil, then catering companies stop cooking food for rig workers, boats stop bringing them supplies, mechanics stop servicing the supply boats and so on."
That's what they say, Ma'am.
Are people worshiping a false god?
I wouldn't know, Ma'am.
There are those who say that they are:
Alas, what choice do they have? The people, Ma'am...Most of them...a job is all they know. And all they have. And they too are afraid.
And what is Ken Salazar saying? President Obama's U.S. Secretary of the interior, Ma'am... The gentleman is now claiming---against mounting evidences to the contrary---that “no level of regulation would have prevented what happened.”
Alas, he, too...he is afraid,
May I serve the gentlelady another drink?
This one is on the house, Ma'am.
This is quite a fetching t-shirt, the gentlelady is wearing---if it is not too bold of me to say...
And, ah...the text on the back reads:
"Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money."
Wolf Robe, was it?
Sounds like the god of Ayn Rand:
ReplyDelete"What are your masses but mud to be ground underfoot, fuel to be burned for those who deserve it?"
So says the ITT Ideologist.
Wolf Robe (b. 1838-1841, d. 1910, Oklahoma) was a Southern Cheyenne chief.
ReplyDeleteDuring the late 1870s he was forced to leave the open plains and relocate his tribe onto the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian Reservation:
Following the Red River War nearly all of the Southern Cheyenne and the Southern Arapaho began to live on the reservation, but despite the best efforts of the Indian Agent, John D. Miles, the promised government rations were inadequate and disease affected the tribes. Inadequate funds were appropriated by Congress and only poor quality cattle were available to the government. Thousands of cattle were being grazed illegally on the reservation by Texas cattlemen, but when the Indian agent attempted to buy cattle he was refused. Some cattle were confiscated on promise of payment. On the advice of the army, fearful of an outbreak, ammunition was withheld. The Indians were easy prey for white horse thieves. There was some work for Cheyenne women tanning hides for white traders. In 1875, 1876, and 1877 the tribes competed with white buffalo hunters for the last of the diminishing buffalo herds. Many buffalo were taken, but never enough; by 1877 there were very few left. In the winter of 1877-78 the remaining stragglers of the southern herd were hunted down.
Nowadays things have evolved somewhat.
ReplyDeleteIndian casinos are operated in 28 states by 233 of the nation's 562 tribes. The total number of Indian casino and bingo halls approaches 500.
Indian casinos earnings were $26.5 billion for 2009.
The site says that the tribes receive $4 of every $10 that are wagered at casinos, but the way such revenues are allocated is not without controversy. People will tell you that many reservations in Oklahoma still have very high poverty and addiction levels despite the millions made from casinos. I remember someone mentioning the case of a young Indian man he knew that had to be taught how to use a computer as an adult because the reservation school that he went to did not have enough for the student to use despite the fact that his tribe owns two of the biggest casino in the state. He said that if you go to a reservation near a casino you will often still see the same run down homes and lack of material goods that you would have seen before casinos became the norm.