Thursday, March 18, 2010

Gulf Drilling Revived

No, not the US, silly. Russia is the latest country to announce it will partner with Cuba to drill in the Gulf of Mexico. Cuba watchers have seen a progression of countries and corporations do the same without tangible results. In any case although, as this editorial indicates, the drilling will be in acknowledged Cuban territory, one has to wonder whether the waters of the gulf will respect national claims in the case of a spill. Kinda leaves the administration high and dry (pun intended) on the ecological moral high ground.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

American Troika

After hearing Pelosi's comments from on high, I use the term deliberately. Despite the overwhelming rejection of the American people, we are to have this monster medical overhaul, courtesy of Obama, Pelosi, and Reid. All that verbiage about the "consent of the governed" and the "will of the people" is apparently irrelevant. I mean I'll spot them the "consent of the governed," construing it as the result of the elections, but what is the function of Nancy Pelosi and any other elected official but to carry out the will of the people? And the people do not want this.

Does anyone at this point know what's in the thing? We started out with two differing bills, numbering in the thousands of pages. We have yet to see what's in the Frankenstein monster they're cobbling together behind closed doors. No one actually knows what the results of the sweeping changes will be. Think unintended consequences. Most critical, however, is the reasoning behind the political machinations to ram this bill through.

It's apparent that the public in the main wants no part of it, so why pass the thing? Do they suppose that Americans will forget by election time; that the public is so stupid it has been duped by the Right and that it is up to the Democrats to chase us down and make us swallow our medicine; or is it that the majority is immoral to cavil at the expense of yet another entitlement when we can't fund those entitlements already law and thus must be forced into virtue?

There are those who frame the current fight over healthcare as a battle for our Constitutional principles. It is not a big leap to that conclusion when we see the expedients to which Pelosi et al will resort to impose their views on an unwilling public. If nothing else, the passage of Obamacare will be the triumph of the Democrat will. How does this differ from others who rule by fiat?

Get the broom out, folks. November can't get here soon enough.