Back to short takes. (Did somebody say shortcake?)

Credibility gulf. If BP is to be taken at its word, oil is no longer spewing into the Gulf of Mexico by the millions of gallons. The only thing spewing right now, it seems, is the torrent of P.R. from the company responsible, as well as a copious amount of whining from the industry. The echoes of this have even my local Congressional district. Now, I’ve had my complaints about our Congressman, Mike Arcuri, and some of the positions he’s taken. But just a look at his G.O.P. opponent is enough to disabuse me of any notion of sitting on my hands this November.

Arcuri’s rival, Richard Hanna, was criticizing Arcuri for supporting Obama’s flaccid 6-month ban on deepwater drilling, saying the oil exploration companies will pull out and go somewhere else. This basically parrots the line from the Petroleum Institute, whose spokescreep I heard on NPR this morning. Think about it for half a second. When we open leasing on all that real estate again, no matter when that happens, will we have any trouble finding someone to drill, drill, drill? Of course not. What the hell, do they only have one rig? Is Hanna and the PI suggesting they can only drill in one place at a time? Pathetically ludicrous.   

Fox samples. I was sitting in a waiting room today and, like many offices, they had FoxNews on the tube. (I think that’s part of the reason why they get such high ratings.) Neil Cavuto’s show lurched from an asinine take on today’s Wall Street protests – lazy people rioting for handouts! – to a segment on Obama’s failure to save us from the Mexican narcoterrorist invasion which featured some former leatherneck who suggested applying a Fallujah-like treatment to, I don’t know, all of Mexico (“This is do-able!”). People really watch this shit? No wonder it’s all going to hell.  

Manning jailed. Seeing the military incarcerate Bradley Manning – the guy who allegedly posted evidence of Afghan War atrocities to wikileaks – is reminiscent of the scene in Catch-22 when Aarfy murders a prostitute and the M.P.s storm in and arrest Yossarian for being AWOL.  Truth imitates fiction.  

luv u,

jp