Miscellaneous Musings

It's a stormy afternoon in Colorado Springs, and my wife is away, volunteering at the Cheyenne Canyon City Park. Therefore, I have time for a few random thoughts on current and not so current events.

President Obama signed an act yesterday aimed at strengthening law enforcement on tribal lands around the country. Under the new law tribal police will have increased enforcement powers and presumably will be able better to protect people on tribal lands. The story claimed that one third of all Indian women are raped during their lives and until now the perpetrators were seldom caught or prosecuted successfully.

My congressman, Doug Lamborn, voted against the act. The newspaper story says he claimed it had not been considered under regular House procedures and he objected to the cost of enforcement, estimated at a billion dollars. I guess when it's not your own loved one who is being attacked or murdered the cost factor is of paramount importance.

Mr. Lamborn will easily be re-elected this fall by the good people of the seventh congressional district of Colorado.

British Petroleum certainly is spending a lot of advertising money these days. The ads feature Louisianans who say they love the Gulf coast and insist BP will pay all bills for cleanup of the oil spill disaster. Meanwhile, the company is dragging its feet about paying lost wages and income to thousands of local people who have been harmed by their negligence, which was a deliberate flaunting of safety and environmental laws. Moreover, they announced the other day that they will claim a $10 billion tax credit for cleanup costs. That means we taxpayers will get stuck with a significant part of the cleanup costs.

And maybe we should get the bill. We voted the oilmen into office who leased those oil deposits and deliberately allowed safety and environmental laws to be ignored. In a democracy we get the government we deserve. (Or so it's said.)

Maybe they could take a billion bucks from their advertising budget and pay for tribal law enforcement!

Speaking of advertising that tries to persuade people on an issue rather than to sell a product, the petroleum industry pulled their ads pretty quickly when the spill happened. I almost miss that 40ish slender woman in the pants suits who told us over and over again how wonderful off shore drilling is. Now the ads just feature people telling us how awful it would be if taxes were raised (or deductions eliminated) on the oil companies.

And it's a political year again, dammit, and we are deluged with attack ads. This year all the Republicans seem to want to publicize how unreasonable they can be. "I oppose everything the Obama administration wants to do, whether I know what is or not!" is their mantra. The candidate who is farthest to the right will win.

Here in Colorado one senatorial candidate tries to lump Jane Norton, a Reaganite Republican if ever there was one, with Obama and Nancy Pelosi. Whatever it takes to win a nomination I guess, but I wonder what that nomination will be worth come November if the aspirant had to pander to a lunatic fringe to win it. Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi has become the favorite whipping girl of these radicals. Somehow they think all they have to do is say Pelosi and San Francisco and they'll win election. I have enough faith in the people to doubt it will work.

Finally, Ayn Rand books continue to fly off library shelves. It amuses me to see people flock to a government run facility to read books that decry government services.