disaster

As anyone who reads this blog somewhat regularly knows, I feel there is a big risk of a President Bachmann in 2013. I have given plenty of reasons previously, but the biggest one that scares me is the enthusiasm gap on the left. A new Public Policy Polling poll verifies that fear:

There's been plenty of bad news for Barack Obama this month in the form of his approval numbers, but our polling finds that his problems go deeper than that. Democratic enthusiasm about voting in next year's election has hit a record low this month. 

Only 48% of Democrats on our most recent national survey said they were 'very excited' about voting in 2012. On the survey before that the figure was 49%. Those last two polls are the only times all year the 'very excited' number has dipped below 50%. 

In 13 polls before August the average level of Democrats 'very excited' about voting next year had averaged 57%. It had been as high as 65% and only twice had the number even dipped below 55%. 

Face it - the left is getting fed up. The President has constantly caved to the demands of the right, yet the right and the media makes it sound like everything sound like a victory for the left. Team Obama is also doing nothing to soothe over the disconnect between him and the base. That can easily lead to disaster next month.

With Bachmann in the top three in the Republican field and barring any last minute entries by some golden child, the fear of President Bachmann continues to grow. Just consider the two leading Bachmann - Romney and Perry. Both have parts of the base that absolutely doesn't like them. Bachmann is somewhat back burner now, so most people don't have much of an opinion of her, except that she has an R by her name. 

The right wing media is in a frenzy today over the plan to send homeland security and disaster alerts to your cellphone. Listen to Limbaugh going off on the “regimes” plan today:

I really hope that Limbaugh is talking about the Bush regime. This plan was authored by Tea Party poster boy, Jim DeMint in 2006 and passed by Congress and also supported by an executive order signed by President Bush. In 2006 the GOP controlled all of Congress and the White House. This is a GOP plan, not a Democratic one.

Of course the apologists will start claiming that we are “blaming Bush” again, despite the fact that this plan was when President Obama was still Senator Obama – not even candidate Obama. Facts are a really hard thing for these people to stomach.

Today’s earthquake is another stark reminder that government regulations do save lives:

From seawalls that line stretches of Japan’s coastline, to skyscrapers that sway to absorb earthquakes, to building codes that are among the world’s most rigorous, no country may be better prepared to withstand earthquakes than Japan.

Had any other populous country suffered the 8.9 magnitude earthquake that shook Japan on Friday, tens of thousands of people might already be counted among the dead. So far, Japan’s death toll is in the hundreds, although it is certain to rise somewhat.

Ironically, it was just over a year ago that I posted something along the same lines. That was following the Chilean earthquake, where the loss of life was minimal. In terms of regulations, Chile ranks right up there with Japan.

I really hate turning devastation, like we are seeing right now, into political debate, but this is life and death we are talking about. Every time I hear some Republican or Tea Partier talking about “government controlling our lives through regulation”, I got to wonder how dense they really are. I know I want to make sure my family is in buildings that can sustain whatever mother nature, or any other disaster, might throw its way. I don’t trust corporations to “do the right thing” and neither should you, because when you find out that they did lie, or cut a few corners, it’s usually too late.

Joe Barton apologizing for BP has been the talk of the media and beltway for the past several days, but Barton wasn't alone. He was just saying what a lot of prominent GOPers are thinking, such as Bill Kristol:

Transcript via Think Progress:

WALLACE: Question Bill Kristol, is the President standing up to big business or is he bullying boardrooms?

KRISTOL: I think his own Interior Secretary said something about keeping his foot on the throat of BP, which doesn’t sound like standing up to anyone. It sounds like bullying. I have no sympathy for BP. We have an article in the Weekly Standard this week saying that BP should stand for “Beyond Pathetic.” I think it was the least responsible of the Big Oil companies. It has managed to handle itself pretty poorly even since the disaster let alone before. But it’s not healthy for the country, for the economy as a whole, for the President to bully different companies and different industries and I think it’s not helping us.

Welcome to the new meme, same as the old meme. Republicans view themselves as the "last defenders of big business", and they don't care if it destroys our environment or economy. With the oil leak exposing this dangerous view of the GOP, November should be a little easier on Democrats.

BP's latest attempt is falling short of all expectations:

A cap placed over the gusher was collecting only a fraction of the oil, which had stained beaches with a waxy mess of tar balls and created an unusual orange foam in the surf.

Given the continous failures, it has become obvious that plans were never made for such a disaster. With that said, I firmly believe it's time for the government to order all offshore drilling suspended until more sound plans and safety measures be put in place. We don't need talking points or soundbites right now. Instead we need a collective effort to prevent any future problems.

So what could the answer be?

Well the small percentage of oil we actually get from offshore drilling, a good plan would be to require relief wells on all existing and future wells. Yeah it would take some time to complete, but it would also prevent a bunch of people losing their jobs, as well as giving us an instant access to "bottom kill" should another accident happen. This is actually a requirement in Canada, and should become one here as well.

President Obama is pushing his administration about what is being done for Haiti and what more can be done:

Meeting with officials from his National Security Staff in the last hour, President Obama was direct.

He’d just gotten off the phone with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Chilean President Michelle Bachelet to talk about rescue and relief efforts after the Haitian earthquake. A larger meeting in the Situation Room is scheduled for 7:15 pm EST.

“I expect a full report at 7:15,” the president told his team, according to NSS chief of staff Denis McDonough. “I want to know why it is we’re doing what we are -- and why it is we’re not doing more.”

ABC has a great rundown of Obama’s response since finding out about the disaster yesterday.

You take something highly contagious like H1N1, add a bad economy and throw in the employer practice of not giving sick days, or giving too few to employees:

Public health experts worried about the spread of the H1N1 flu are raising concerns that workers who deal with the public, like waiters and child care employees, are jeopardizing others by reporting to work sick because they do not get paid for days they miss for illness.

Tens of millions of people, or about 40 percent of all private-sector workers, do not receive paid sick days, and as a result many of them cannot afford to stay home when they are ill. Even some companies that provide paid sick days have policies that make it difficult to call in sick, like giving demerits each time someone misses a day.

Public health experts say policies like these encourage many people with H1N1, commonly called swine flu, to report to work despite official warnings from the government and most companies that they should stay home.

Now think about this for a minute. We have extremely high unemployment and you get an employee who has to miss a week or two because of this illness. The employer decides “well I can just fire him and bring in someone for a few dollars less an hour”. So now that sick person is unemployed.

For more proof that Republicans don’t care about health care reform as much as being obstructionists we turn to Roy Blunt:

“Our bill is never going to get to the floor, so why confuse the focus? We clearly have principles; we could have language, but why start diverting attention from this really bad piece of work they’ve got to whatever we’re offering right now?”

Add that to Michael Steele’s statement this week that they don’t know what’s in the bill nor care and you got all the proof you need that Republicans don’t want healthcare reform. The Democratic bill could cost us $0, cover every American for things from heart transplants to nose jobs, create 2 million jobs and even have cures for AIDS and cancer in it, and the Republicans would still oppose it. They put party above country all the time and that is a recipe for disaster. If the Democrats are smart they will remember these quotes from Republicans and do a national campaign hammering the party that hates America.