Obama's Katrina?

Conservatives have been quick to call the Gulf of Mexico oil leak disaster "Obama's Katrina" while liberals have been arguing against that. Kevin Drum tackles this pretty nicely today. He argues that this isn't Obama's Katrina because accidents sometimes happen and there's no reasonable expectation that the federal government can plug rare, catastrophic leaks like this. He also places the blame squarely on the Bush administration for stripping regulatory oversight of oil drilling.

While I agree that the scope of governmental failure on the BP leak doesn't approach that of Bush's Katrina "response," I'm not ready to let Obama off the hook totally. The federal regulators responsible for trying to prevent massive accidents like the BP leak and the Massey mine explosion in West Virginia clearly did not do their jobs. After 8 years of industry cronyism, the Department of the Interior needed a much stronger overhaul. I remember progressives expressing displeasure at Ken Salazar getting the Interior nomination because of his mining industry ties. I think this all shows he wasn't the right guy. I'd like to see Obama replace him with someone empowered to clean house.

Meanwhile, Rachel Maddow points out that we've seen a blowout like this before in the Gulf (by the same damn drilling company) and they tried the same things to stop it, unsuccessfully. If the government does nothing else, it needs to force the oil companies to have comprehensive plans for stopping disasters like this in the future.

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

Tea Partiers Push for Freedom from Having to Vote for Senators. Wait. What?

Bizarrely, it appears the Tea Party movement generally favors repealing the 17th Amendment which mandated direct popular elections of U.S. senators. Before that (1913!), state legislatures chose senators. I guess the 17th Amendment's bad just because it was passed in the Progressive Era.

America Spoke Out

America Speaking Out - the Repugs latest attempt at utilizing the inter-webs - provides so much fodder for mockery, it’s difficult to know where to start. From a press conference where one of the architects of the new initiative bragged about personally flying to Washington state to "discover" software for the site (huh?), to the completely crazy comments, some genuine, most (big Benefit of the Doubt moment here) done in jest, there is just so much to love about this new initiative.

Still – and contrary to my love of compound sentences - I do think simplicity is best when it comes to bringing our Republican friends in Congress back to reality. And unbelievably, the House Dems delivered with their response:

americaspokeout.com

Loves it!

And so?

Big day yesterday as we head into mid-terms. As usual, I'm depending entirely upon Nate's interpretation of what did and didn't happen yesterday. Critz was an important win but not really, Lincoln wasn't a surprise, and even though Paul is "Tea Party" candidate, he actually ran a traditional R campaign. Basically, in my mind, the jury is out. Which makes the next several months all the more interesting.