Let Them Wash Pelicans

Caption: Maybe Blanche Lincoln could help this critter after she's through screwing up the country.

Image credit: Screenshot of this Euronews video by Cujo359




For once, I'm in complete agreement with Taylor Marsh:

I don’t see a good reason to vote for one incumbent today. If you have one I’d like to hear it, but it will take convincing. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that Congress has reached a new low. That’s because we don’t have a Congress like the founders intended anymore. They either obstruct or suck up to the Executive Branch. It’s been a sorry spectacle for a long time, with Democrats as bad as the rubber-stamping Republicans of the Bush-Cheney era.

Primary Tuesday Not Quite ‘Throw the Bums Out’ But It Should Be

In addition to Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), who is running against Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) is running, sadly unopposed. There are, of course, a dozen or so other Democratic Senators who are running this year at some time or another, and a whole bunch of Democratic U.S. Representatives. I'm quite sure Taylor is smart enough to know all that.

As far as I'm concerned, none of them deserve my vote. In a day when I've been surfing the 'Net, reading stories about Obama's continued fight against low-level leakers contrasting with his unwillingness to prosecute former Bush Administration officials for the illegal acts they committed, and after watching them all fail to deliver effective health care reform, financial reform, and relief to Americans who are now looking at a decades long recession these jackasses didn't lift a finger to ameliorate, there's no reason I can think of to want any of these useless individuals returned to power.

Oh, and remember how the government didn't bother to find out if BP's estimates of the oil discharge at the Deepwater well were accurate? Turns out that the Coast Guard announced today that the new "Top Suck" attachment is capturing about three times the 5,000 barrels per day the government was insisting for weeks was all that was coming out of the well. To make matters even more amusing, the USCG is estimating that they're only capturing "between 58 percent and 92 percent" of what's coming out of the well.

In short, empirical evidence may soon show that the original estimates were off by a factor of six. As it has demonstrated so well with how it's dealt with classified information, the Obama Administration is far more interested in controlling the message than in fixing the problem.

Both we, and the rest of the world, would be far better off if the people who are now making these ridiculous decisions were instead cleaning up after them. Put these people out of office, and let them join Robert Reich's pelican washer corps at minimum wage for a few months. They made that mess, the least they can do is try to undo the effects of their incompetence. Plus, maybe a few months of washing foul-tempered creatures who are covered with toxic substances will give them an appreciation for how the rest of us make a living.

And when they're done with that, our economy could use a fresh coat of paint.

UPDATE: As James Ala pointed out in a comment, it's actually possible that there now could be as much as 100,000 barrels of oil pouring out of that well:

[UCSB researcher Ira] Leifer noted that BP had estimated before the April 20 explosion that caused the leak that a freely flowing pipe from the well would release 100,000 barrels of oil a day in the worst-case scenario.

The oil was not freely flowing before the top kill or before they cut the pipe, Leifer said, but once the riser pipe was cleared, there was little blocking the oil's rise to the top of the blowout preventer. Video images confirm that the flow of black oil is unimpeded.

BP well may be spewing 100,000 barrels a day, scientist says

It just keeps getting better ...