Libertarian Cock-Block

As you may have heard, the Libertarian Party has launched an appeal to gay voters, the "battered spouses" of the Democratic Party.  If this sounds even remotely like a good idea to you, your Head Trucker urges you to read Joe Jervis's post on the subject.  Excerpt:

But just for the sake of argument, let's tick off the official Libertarian agenda as posted on their website:

1. Abolish welfare.
2. Abolish Social Security.
3. Abolish the IRS.
4. Abolish the FDA.
5. Allow insurance companies to exclude any disease.
6. Dismantle the public school system.
7. Allow machine gun ownership and open-carry anywhere.
8. End foreign aid to starving nations.
9. Sell all national parks to private groups.

To be fair, the Libertarian Party does have reasonable positions on immigration reform, privacy, and the war on drugs. But the essential takeaway from reading their platform is this: "If you are impoverished, starving, desperately ill, unemployed, or uneducated...tough shit. Don't come to the government with your lazy unpatriotic hand out. Every American for himself. Get the fuck out of here."

Joe also posted links to Libertarian Party documents for each of the nine positions stated above. He also notes the fact that Libertarians generally run on the Republican ticket, not their own.

What I Say:  Ever since I first heard of Libertarians thirty years ago in college, your Head Trucker has always thought they were living in a dream world; a few good ideas, but a very loose grasp on reality. Look before you leap.

The Dems always seem to muff the ball when they get possession of it. Why that is, I have no freaking clue. But there's no real alternative in this country at this time.

And I don't know what would be. I don't know what the answer is to anything any more. I know too much about the course of history and the trend of human nature to feel any optimism at this point.  Like gripping the railing on a ship that is slowly, slowly, slowly sinking.  Meanwhile, the lights are blazing, the band is playing, and there's a big, noisy party in the main saloon.

Maybe that's just an old man's gloom and doom.  Maybe.  But I certainly wouldn't be painting a rainbow flag on the roof of the house, boys. Like Jimmy Carter, Obama is a good man, a decent man, even a fine man - considered as an individual, not as a leader. But if he is another one-term wonder, well fellas, just imagine what the regime that follows him will be like, starting just two years from now.

And you thought those long, dark years under W. were bad. 

BTW - does anyone besides me find it totally creepy that they have Liberty's face blacked out in their current party logo?  Compare with the old one, which I found at Libertapedia:

"A Gaping, Unstanched Wound in the Planet"

NASA satellite imagery confirms the slick reached the edge of the Loop Current of the Gulf Stream a week ago, May 18; this is the latest satellite view I've been able to find today.

Oil-coated egret on Grand Isle, Louisiana, May 20.

Photo by U.S. Coast Guard.

Sullivan:

I have to say I have struggled with how to blog about this. In many ways, it seems to me to be the biggest story of the year, a gaping, unstanched wound in the planet, emitting death. And yet the prospect of going without drilling seems remote, the possibility of any political will to jump-start alternatives with the impact we need seems just as elusive, and the helplessness of government and industry to stop this nightmare is the most obvious fact (I just assume that BP is doing all it can as of now): all of it makes this story as huge as it is simply despair-inducing.

If we cannot stop this, what else can we not stop?

Your Head Trucker does not believe the government needs to own and run everything; and certainly no one planned for this disaster to happen.  The free-market capitalists at BP are working day and night to stop the spill, to be sure - but to protect the environment, or to save their own butts?  Oh and no volunteers, please:  we will handle everything with our own contractors, so get the fuck away from the coast!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

 
But wait!  It's un-American to criticize BP!  So says dipshit libertarian teabagger Rand Paul:
 

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

 
The President takes note of the long-standing "cozy relationship" between the oil industry and the government in his weekly video address:
 

 
Transcript and info on the new commission here.  The White House overview of the federal response is here. 
 
What I Say:  I don't believe any of these commentators have yet foreseen the full, longterm ramifications of the oil spill on the environment or on the economy of this nation and all the others that surround the Gulf, and beyond.  Having lived on the Gulf Coast, my intuition tells me that much worse is to come, which will make the Exxon Valdez spill look like a dropped teacup.  This is not Obama's Katrina; it's Katrina and 9/11 and Pearl Harbor all rolled into one and multiplied times ten.  It's the Hiroshima of the Gulf of Mexico, boys.
 
Your Head Trucker predicts that Obama's response to this single event will be the make-or-break issue of his Presidency, all else aside.  I don't know how he can or should meet all the challenges involved in this horror, but I feel certain that if he does not meet them all effectively - and is not seen to meet them effectively by the public - well fellas, just call him one-term-Jimmy and prepare yourselves for another twenty years of god-fearing, business-loving, flag-waving Republican rule, count on it.
 
In fact, I wouldn't doubt that before year's end, the head-up-their-ass Republicans will be claiming that Obama engineered the oil spill as an excuse to take over the oil industry and extend his Communist domination of the government.  Which of course is a fulfillment of Bible prophecy.  Remember, you heard it here first. 

God help us all.