Is it time for a New Deal/WPA kind of program in the Gulf? by Kwicko

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Is it time for a New Deal/WPA kind of program in the Gulf?

POSTED BY: KWICKO
UPDATED: Monday, June 14, 2010 20:08
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Monday, June 14, 2010 6:25 PM

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)

I asked on another thread, then decided it was better in its own thread:

A question for the whole board: Is it time?

When it comes to cleanup response, is it time to discuss a massive government effort along the lines of the Civilian Conservation Corps, or the Works Progress Administration of the New Deal era, or the Peace Corps of the Camelot age? We're mobilizing some 12,000 National Guard troops - basically everybody who isn't in Afghanistan or Iraq, or stationed on the Arizona border because that's the most important thing in the world last week, and we're mobilizing another 20,000 or so volunteers, but is that enough?

We've got close to 10% unemployment in this country - numbers not seen since 3 years into Reagan's first term - and we've got an enormous need for human resources - people, manpower, boots on the ground, shovel-ready jobs - right on our Gulf Coast, from east Texas all the way to the Florida Keys. Okay, not the Florida Keys *YET*, but can we go ahead and prepare and try to prevent, instead of reacting after the fact?

So we put two to three million people on the government payroll, get them trained up, and get them washing birds, shoveling oiled sand, cleaning marshlands, doing anything and everything to clean up this spill. Frankly, they aren't going to be any help capping it, since the best minds on the planet are already working on that problem, night and day, and likely the only thing that's going to work is a relief well that's still two months away, at least.

But we can start cleaning up, and we can start taking preventative measures to keep the oil from sullying the beaches it hasn't already hit. And we can put people to work in the shipyard outfitting everything and anything to help suck up oil, separate oil from water, round up oil with booms - whatever they can do, we can, as a nation, outfit them to do.

Is it going to cost cubic tons of money? Shit, yes. But can it be an opportunity to (A) *DO* something, ang (B) put Americans to work, who really WANT to work, and to help out? Shit fucking yes, it can.

So is this a conversation we can have?

Do we want the government doing something, or do we just want to bitch about wanting the government to do something, while at the same time hoping that the government won't really do enough, so we can continue to bitch about them not doing anything?

I'd vote for the former.

What say you?

Oh, and yes, we're billing BP for it. Put 'em into receivership, like I brought up a few weeks ago (and which Robert Reich apparently agrees with), effectively putting a lien on all their U.S. holdings, bank accounts, investments, and equiment.

Now, as to the people who have pension funds in BP. Do we care about them? Are we caring about this? Is anyone suggesting a bailout? Or is this Wall Street, where you bets your money and you takes your chances? After the last several rounds of bailouts, started by Bush and carried on by Obama, I'm leery about guaranteeing anyone's investments in really shitty companies with really shoddy practices. Too bad, so sad, you lost your money; next time don't invest in companies that attack entire coastlines.

Any input? Anyone?

Mike

On this matter, make no mistake. I want you to go fuck yourself long and hard, as well as anyone who agrees with you. I got no use for you. --Auraptor

This vile and revolting malice - this is their true colors, always has been, you're just seeing it without the mask of justifications and excuses they hide it behind, is all. Make sure to remember it once they put the mask back on. --Fremdfirma

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Monday, June 14, 2010 6:26 PM

ANTHONYT

Freedom is Important because People are Important

"So is this a conversation we can have? "

Hello,

I like the idea of employing everyone who wants a job at 10 dollars per hour to perform minimally skilled cleanup facilitating labor. In fact, anyone in an affected area who is collecting unemployment should be strongly nudged in that direction.

We have a Hoover Dam, I'm ready for a million Hoovers sucking up oil. ;-)

Seriously, though, this is a no-brainer.

--Anthony

"On this matter, make no mistake. I want you to go fuck yourself long and hard, as well as anyone who agrees with you. I got no use for you." --Auraptor

"This vile and revolting malice - this is their true colors, always has been, you're just seeing it without the mask of justifications and excuses they hide it behind, is all. Make sure to remember it once they put the mask back on." --Fremdfirma

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Monday, June 14, 2010 8:08 PM

RAHLMACLAREN

"Damn yokels, can't even tell a transport ship ain't got no guns on it." - Jayne Cobb

*wants to drive a boat*

How stylish are the haz-mat suits? And will we get to keep them afterward, in case I want a Halloween costume later on?

$10/hr would be more than I'm getting paid now (unemployed).

There could be other jobs besides just clean-up. Somebody has to make the "fucking" boom.

--------------------------------------------------
Find here the Serenity you seek. -Tara Maclay

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