Wilkerson:"Cheney Is Responsible For Whats Happening In Gulf-He destroyed the regulatory mechanisms"

WILKERSON: Well, he put—as I recall, he put a 20-year veteran of lobbying for the oil industry into the position overseeing, essentially, the regulation of offshore drilling and that sort of thing, the MMS . You name it, there's a Cheneyite there. And here's the further genius of the man. Every president since World War II, and before that, too, in different ways, has left his mark on the administration that a incoming president really can't erase very easily. Cheney did this par excellence. I mean, Cheney left, I'm told, somewhere around 1,600-plus people in the administration whom he had converted from being political or he had recruited as civil service. He converted them to civil service if they were political and left them in these positions that are very key to regulation and oversight. And those people will take a year or a year and a half, maybe even two years, for the Obama administration to root out and get rid of. First they've got to identify them, and second they've got to go through the civil service procedures to fire them, which are onerous, arduous, and difficult. So eighteen months to two years to get rid of some of them.

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This human, wildlife and environmental catastrophe in the Gulf is nothing short of a crime and the responsibility rests on the shoulders of not only greedy, callous BP executives but every single Washington enabler and governmental "leader" that voted for, worked for, or supported deregulation in exchange for campaign backing or contributions. How the hell many more times are we going to dredge up excuses for gluttonous, shallow "leaders"? When every shrimper is sitting on the curb with a tin cup? When every textile worker ends up in a soup kitchen? We take real, good care of the fat cats (and other people that matter) in this country. Just check out some of the loopholes Congress designed. There may not be enough cash to repair the falling-down ceiling in an inner city school but there is always plenty for another bronze statue in a gerrymandered district or another load of clusterbombs.

As the oil-coated wildlife pile up in Louisiana and elsewhere (like the dead soldiers and maimed children piled up in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the drowning victims piled up in New Orleans) we should ask ourselves how much lower we`ll allow the bar to go. How many more excuses will we come up with? How many more principles will we be willing to sacrifice?

This is one old Democrat sickened and saddened by the state of my country and my party. If we keep making excuses for the corporate takeover of our party then we should forgo the outrage when the big boys get their way and there`s another disaster to deal with. Although there are many leaders that claim to be "for the working people" they almost always figure out a back room deal that favors anyone but.

The catastrophe in the Gulf should be our wake-up call. That, like the legless Iraq War veterans and the 57-year old unemployed steelworker, is in part the result of citizens asleep at their switches, lulled into Neverland by group-tested sound bites and multi-million dollar image makers.We should be ashamed of how much we`ve been willing to overlook.

I`ll bet anything there are a few older DUers that know exactly what I mean when I say how sad it is that we`ve given up so much. The oil-coated birds are much like many American citizens...devastated by the arrogance of shallow, self-serving chislers. It`s time we put a stop to it. Enough!

I have decided I can no longer be a registered Republican. For the first time in my life I announced my support for a Democratic candidate for the presidency, in February of this year. This was not an endorsement of the Democratic platform, nor was it a slap in the face to the Republican Party. It was an expression of support specifically for Senator Barack Obama. I had always intended to go back to party ranks after the election and work with my many dedicated friends and colleagues to help reshape the GOP, especially in the foreign-policy arena. But I now know I will be more effective focusing on our national and international problems than I will be in trying to reinvigorate a political organization that has already consumed nearly all of its moderate “seed corn.” And now, as the party threatens to trivialize what promised to be a serious debate on our future direction, it will alienate many young people who might have come into party ranks.

My decision came at the end of last week when it was demonstrated to the nation that McCain and this Bush White House have learned little in the last five years. They mishandled what became a crisis in the Caucusus, and this has undermined U.S. national security. At the same time, the McCain camp appears to be comfortable with running an unworthy Karl Rove–style political campaign. Will the McCain operation, and its sponsors, do anything to win?

This week, I changed my registration from Republican to independent. The two political parties as they exist today, and the partisanship that they foster, reflect the many fights of the cold war, the Vietnam era, the post–cold war and the 9/11 periods. Today we are in a different place altogether, where our security as a nation is challenged not just from abroad but also close to home. The energy, health-care and financial crises threaten our national prosperity and well-being, just as surely as any confrontation overseas or an attack by radical terrorists.

As an independent I want to be free of the constraints and burdens that have come with trying to make my own views explainable in the context of today’s party. Hijacked by a relatively small few, the GOP of today bears no resemblance to Lincoln, Roosevelt or Eisenhower’s party, or many of the other Republican administrations that came after. In my grandparents’ time, the thrust of the party was rooted in: a respect for the constitution; the defense of civil liberties; a commitment to fiscal responsibility; the pursuit and stewardship of America’s interests abroad; the use of multilateral international engagement and “soft power”; the advancement of civil rights; investment in infrastructure; environmental stewardship; the promotion of science and its discoveries; and a philosophical approach focused squarely on the future.
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Sandra Day O'Connor has reared her head again, on May 21 2010, NY TIMES, "Take Justice Off the Ballot", proposing
 

Ahhh, how sweet. Justice O'Connor, even after retirement, still looking out for the best interests of the American people, just as she did in 2000.

Reflect on that concluding tidbit of wisdom of her analysis -- "...finally, a yes/no vote in which citizens either approve the judge or vote him out" -- in the context of GOP Election Fraud described here that shows who benefited when the difference in vote-share margin between the Exit Poll and the Vote-Count exceeded the poll's assumed ±3% MoE. The results should be 50%-Rep 50%-Dem in fair elections. Instead, Republicans are favored in the votecount. How much? Nearly exclusively: