Proceed and Be Bold

My calves get tired, climbing on a soapbox so much, hence the previous posts from the depths of pop culture and the comfort of my couch regarding American Idol. I'm getting a little ticked again though, and feel a fair-to-middling if not full-fledged rant coming on.

To wit--


WTF does the government know about aborting the environmental calamity erupting in the Gulf? Nothing! Nor should they be expected to--it's not their business. Nunzia Rider says it all in Blame Game. It's the business of the corporations who do the oil drilling, dredging and whatnot. President Obama's damned if he does, and damned if he doesn't. Knowing he doesn't know anything about it, (and also perhaps, feeling a little conflicted due to the oil lobby's fat campaign contributions to various and sundry Democratic incumbents), he's pretty much done what he can do--make a few speeches, give good photo ops. But apparently, that's not enough; he hasn't been angry enough, he hasn't been reassuring enough. If he'd pounded the podium persistently from jump, maybe punched the air a couple of times, the punditry would be awash in 'Angry Black Man' tut-tutting. One thing is clear, though, and that is that Du Bois' century-old recognition of dual consciousness flows through Obama's veins:

a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this dual consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of the other, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity....

So, his action or inaction duly criticized, Obama sought to appease, just like he did with the 'beer summit' and the recent coffee clatch with the Governor of Arizona; President Obama professed his anger and cancelled his trip to Indonesia and went back to the Gulf of Mexico instead. But that's not what ticked me off.

What ticked me off was the report on On The Media yesterday, that

B flipping P is calling the shots on who can shoot the devastation from the sky. BP has been denying media outlets the rights to fly over the site and shoot photos and videos of the site. WTH?! Dude, this is something you can control--remember 'Freedom of the Press' and all that? You need to direct the Coast Guard to close the loophole that gives too much latitude for BP to deny access and let people see what's actually going on- BP should not be in control of who has access anyway! The one thing the government does know about it is the imposition of law. Find one, make one, if necessary, and enforce it: BP should not be in charge of anything except cleaning up the mess they made, and they should be fined dearly for every single day that they don't--for starters!

Speaking of Faith re-aired An Architecture of Decency this morning. The Rural Studio and Auburn University in Alabama do good things for people and the environment. President Obama, ease up on the politics, get your swagger back, take a page from Rural Studio's playbook: Proceed and Be Bold.