Rand Paul Crock Of The Wild Frontier, The Arabs Are Sleeping, And So Is BP

Dave Weigel
Paul Krugman
Mark McKinnon

"He's an ophthalmologist, he does a lot of lazek surgery, and he has a lot of interesting points of view. Like he thinks Obama, because he went to Copenhagen where they were talking about global warming, is apologizing for the industrial revolution. He's against the Americans With Disabilities Act. He says restaurants should be able to refuse service to black people. And today, he said Obama was un-American for getting on BP's case for the oil spill. I tell you, the shit doesn't fall far from the bat." –Bill Maher

"Every time this guy opens his mouth, it gets a little crazier. Today he angrily demanded that the liberal media stop quoting him in context." –Bill Maher

"I guess he's trying to get the press to get off the racism thing, so his big thing today was that the oil spill in the Gulf was the blame game. He said, 'Sometimes accidents happen.' Which is not really what you want to hear from the guy who's doing your lasik surgery." –Bill Maher

Today we continue to beat up on Rand Paul, who has gone into Silence of the Lamb mode, canceled all further press conferences including yesterday's Meet the Press on the advice of Karl Rove.. Dave Weigel's opinion piece gives a Liberal perspective, while Mark McKinnon's gives a moderate Conservative view.Rand said that although he did feel that the interview on Rachel Maddow's show was fair, the commentary on MSNBC during the days afterwards were overblown and attributed him meaning things that he did not say. Of course, the next time he makes a public appearance, he will get jumped on from all angles, as if he's bait for the Kentucky Headhunters - I hope he can carry a tune...

Up through the woods he's a marching along

Makin' up yarns and singin' a song

Itching for a fight and rightin' a wrong

Crazy as a bear and twice as strong

Randeyyyyy, Randeeyyy Paul Crock of the wild frontier

I have yet to see any Arab or Middle Eastern views on solving the Iranian nuclear standoff. Andrew Wander also comments on this for al Jazeera: "Many Arab countries have a deeply ambivalent view of the impasse. They see Iran as something of a double-edged sword; while they support its patronage of resistance groups across the region, they are uncomfortable with the power that this brings.


Likewise, they understand Tehran’s resentment at being spoken down to by the West over its drive to produce enriched nuclear material, but they are not sure they want to see a nuclear-armed, increasingly assertive Iran across the water.


And so, unable to formulate a common position on the standoff playing out in their backyard they don’t say anything."

“The Arabs are sleeping,” - Abdullah Shayji

Of course, no Arabian state want to trash talk about their Shia brothers in front of a Westerner. None of them want to see Iran rise in influence and power in the region because of its belligerence. And they all feel uneasy should Iran build a bomb, but they all have plans to build nuclear energy plants of their own. The only other country that could develop influence with Iran is Iraq, whose mullahs do not believe that religious teachers should take part in secular politics, and Iraq can't even form a government right now.

This actually happened to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad while he was giving a speech the other day, but it could easily happen to Barack Obama. Mahmoud was heckled by some young men in the audience, who kept yelling "We have no jobs!" All of this tough talk over a nuclear program may be a diversion to keep the populace from focusing on how bad the Iranian economy still is, and why they don't want anymore economic sanctions against them.

Jobs creation, or the lack of it, is also Obama's Achilles Heel, the source of most of the anger and discontent. If Obama had waited on health reform and financial reforms, then concentrated on the economy and finding a way for small and family businesses to make a comeback, his popularity would be at 80% and guaranteed re-election. It's nice that he is tackling big issues - they do need attention - but as long as people hare having a hard time putting food on the table, you might as well be pissing in the wind... or getting ready to have some losses in the mid-term election.

Bureaucratic response is always slow and sluggish, as can be seen in the Gulf of Mexico. Ken Salazar only did cosmetic surgery on the Minerals Management staff, getting them to stop snorting cocaine off of desktops and having sex with oil lobbyists, but he didn't press them to go out and do their jobs. We didn't insist that any rig working in US waters be subject to US inspection and equipment be kept up to our standards. So, while the MM staff continued to watch porn on their computers, the Deepwater Horizon, with all of the myriad things wrong with its equipment, was allowed to drill over a mile beneath the surface. Ken hasn't halted any more deep water exploration rigs, I believe there are 16 other permits pending...

The state of Louisiana has been sitting around, twiddling its thumbs, while the oil spill is seeping onshore, twelve miles deep in some places. Governor Jindahl is trying to lash out at the Obama administration for not supplying and putting up enough sand booms. So much for state's rights, eh Bobby? The Coast Guard guy in charge of the cleanup seems like an old, tired, good-old boy who has accepted his position as the whipping boy. This tidbit, provided by my neighbor Michelle Malkin: "Capt. Edwin Stanton, who heads up the Coast Guard’s response, is taking blame.


Stanton: “It’s my job to direct this response in Louisiana.”
Reporter: “Why didn’t you do it?”
Stanton: “Well, the why — is that really important?”
Reporter: “Yes sir, we live here.”
Stanton: “Well, I guess I’m just slow and dumb.”


Couldn't we replace two younger and smarter guys in his place for the same amount of money we are paying him? It comes out of your tax money.... And now, Sarah Palin is taking a different tactic, by saying that Obama is cozy with the oil companies. She, who was bragging about her alaskan pipeline that would go all the way to Canada, and the drill, baby, drill rhetoric? She's evidently getting her lines from Karl Rove, who believes that if you say a lie enough times, it will become a political truth...

For its part, BP has announced that it will be studying the effects the oil spill has on the area, sending out its own scientists to watch things die: "British oil producer BP said Monday it would commit up to $500 million to study the impact of the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. BP said on its Web site the money would be spent on research into the oil spill's impact on the gulf's marine and shoreline environment over the next 10 years.


"BP has made a commitment to doing everything we can to lessen the impact of this tragic incident on the people and environment of the Gulf Coast," BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward said. 'We must make every effort to understand that impact. This will be a key part of the process of restoration, and for improving the industry response capability for the future."


BP said the research will include determining where the crude oil, the dispersed oil and the dispersants are being carried by underwater currents, and their impact on the ecology."

I don't know, British petroleum engineers aren't very reliable. They are the ones who said that there wasn't any oil underneath the sands of Saudi Arabia...


ahhhh, those late night BP oil jokes:

"Everybody has a different solution for the Gulf oil spill. Why don't they just try jiggling the handle? I went to lunch and had crab cakes. The waiter came over and asked if I wanted leaded or unleaded. The tartar sauce was 80 percent tar." –David Letterman

"BP is saying that the oil leak is bigger than they estimated. In a related story, the executives at BP are far bigger idiots than we estimated." –Jay Leno

"Good news in the oil situation. BP said they found a way to start breaking up their oil slick. The bad news is it involves a toxic chemical called Corexit 9527A. Apparently this is moving us further from a solution and closer to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." –Bill Maher

"Sunday, listen to this, they’re going to try something new. They're going to try what they call a 'top kill.' That's where they shove a fluid that looks a lot like mud down into the well. I hope this works because the next idea involves Bruce Willis and an asteroid." –Bill Maher