TWO LOVES I HAVE OF COMFORT AND DESPAIR (SONNET144)

What has happened down here is we are lost again

This time the crude got loose and it's causin' a lot of pain

The crude gushed real hard and gushed for a time real long

Now the marshes are dead and the good fish are all gone

 

The oil gushed all day

The oil gushed all night­

Some critters got lost in the sludge

Some critters got away all right

Now that Big Oil has pushed us clear to the final brink

Soon we'll have no beaches; no clean water to drink

CHORUS

Louisiana, Louisiana
God tried to wash us away
God­ tried to wash us away
Oh Louisiana, Louisiana
Now oil's just punishin' our bays

Now oil's just poisonin' our bays

 

Bobby Jindal come down with a big array

Of phony pols carryin notes in their hands

Bobby say with his big array

Aint it a shame

What the oil has done

To savage this poor lost land

CHORUS

 

Oh Louisiana, Louisiana
God tried to wash us away
God tried to wash us away
Oh Louisiana, Louisiana
Now oil's just punishin' our bays

Now oil's just poisonin' our bays

They're gonna take it all away

They're gonna take it all away

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkZYbQbdPyE&feature=fvw

ThePeopleChoose is a friend of mine and he sent me a link on ethics/morals/justice--whatever you wish to call it. The subtext, the sense of the essay is:

Liberals and conservatives don't just disagree about specific issues -- we disagree about core ethical values. Can a case be made that liberal values really are better?

I intend to blog on this subject at a later time. The answer to the question in the subtext may seem clear from a number of different perspectives.

Humans are sure their side is right and the other side is wrong. Them is wrong as hell and U.S. is right as rain.

I feel that I hold some real core ethical values that some seem to actually spit upon with contempt. Certain conservatives seem to show nothing but distain for my view of truth, justice and the American Way.

I quoted Bachmann the other day. She wants some great wall of America installed on our southern border; the kind Representative King wants his son to build at taxpayer expense. She said that fences make good neighbors and if you do not believe it just look at Israel.

And you wish to respond to this kind of drivel. I mean I wish I could say to her:

Michelle, how is that working out for Israel exactly?

We can get pretty angry here at Café. Some great posts have discussed the terrible damage done to our Gulf by greedy oil companies. Some posts are very technical. I learned more about deep sea oil drilling than I ever cared to. Some posts are political which makes sense since Café is primarily a political blog site.

We fight over how badly our President has reacted to the crisis. We argue over how best to somehow make things right and how best to ensure that BP, Halliburton and other corporate concerns pay for all the damage done to our shores and to our brothers and sisters who live on our coasts.  I have a core belief in the concept of consequential damages; a core belief in taking responsibility for one's shortcomings.

I still see core values being communicated that I agree with. I mean 95% of all the comments I have read contain those core values.

But folks, as we become angry at those who really have those same core values we must remember that there are many, many people out there who do not care a whit for any of those values.  People who seem to come from another planet and yet people who probably make up half of the American voting population.

Michelle Bachmann said this recently:

The president just called for creating a fund that would be administered by outsiders, which would be more of a redistribution-of-wealth fund.  And now it appears like we'll be looking at one more gateway for more government control, more money to government.  If there is a disaster, why is it that government is the one who always seems to benefit after a disaster, and that's of course what cap-and-trade would be.

http://minnesotaindependent.com/60259/bachmann-calls-oil-spill-victim-escrow-account-%E2%80%98a-redistribution-of-wealth-fund%E2%80%99

This is a direct quote.

Just looking at the effects of this catastrophic spill on one state, I can only wonder how, when and where this congresswoman lost her soul.

I have already gone on and on about comments made by Rush Limbaugh and Fox news' pseudo reporters; like the oil spill means nothing really; the ocean is somehow used to gushers and nature will take care of everything.

But these comments enrage me to the point where I end up extremely depressed.

Louisiana has suffered more than any one state I can think of over the last decade. Their educational institutions are in trouble as always. Their poverty level due to governmental measures is through the roof. It is in the bottom five of our 50 states with regard to its number of poor people.

Louisiana was hit by Katrina of course; which was like a thug jamming his foot upon the head of a sick wino who was down for the count anyway. Tens of thousands of people displaced; hundreds dead; homes lost forever and ever.

Remember Barbara Bush's view concerning the devastation caused by Katrina?:

 "What I'm hearing which is sort of scary is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (chuckle) - this is working very well for them." -Former First Lady Barbara Bush, on the hurricane evacuees at the Astrodome in Houston, Sept. 5, 2005 (Source)  http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/currentevents/a/katrinaquotes.htm

Do you notice the chuckle in that quote?

Well, again I become so enraged when I read sentiments such as these that I actually become spiritually ill. Redistribution of wealth as a concept surfaces in the ravings of a Bachmann and I think that I shall become an Ad Hoc Communist.

Yeah and Cmaukonen  just referenced this gem.

And within the last hour or so a repub Congressman just apologized to BP for a government that has just been too tough on business

These reactionaries are claiming that Obama is being too harsh on big oil. This attitude is very confusing to me.

Look, if I were king, I would take all of the wealth away from the bachmanns and the palins and the limbaughs and the hannity's  and the BP's and the BOA'S and their ilk. I include all those individuals and members of management who have lost their souls. And I would proceed to confiscate all of the wealth they have or ever could hope to have. And then I would distribute all this vast vast wealth to the poor in front of these felons.  I mean I would have all these individuals and all these members of management tied to chairs with their eyelids taped open so that they could witness this REDISTRIBUTION.  I would record the moans as well as the most intimate sounds coming from the gnashing of their teeth for future airings as a warning to those who refuse to acknowledge the suffering of others.

A big oil company, like an angel of death, ravages a state that has previously been beaten to the point where there was little hope of its recovery.  And now repubs are calling for an apology to that oil company. These politicians and pundits would give all their comfort to the Angel of Death.