June 25th / 27th
"Terri Schiavo and the BP Disaster"
In March of 2005, the nation was consumed with the life and death of Terri
Schiavo. Fifteen years earlier, Schiavo had been diagnosed PVS (Persistent
Vegetative State), and now her husband wanted to take her off of life
support. Terri's parents opposed that decision, and lengthy court battles
ensued.
By January of 2005, Terri's mom and dad were just about out of options to
block their son-in-law's actions, when Congress stepped in. Determined to
inject themselves into a private matter, a bevy of right wing nuts launched
a campaign to keep Terri alive at all cost. Not surprisingly, Congress held
hearings, called witnesses, and whipped the public into a (pardon the
expression) feeding frenzy with partisan rhetoric. And so, by early March,
President Bush signed legislation designed to maintain Terri in a vegetative
state. Keep in mind, these were the same politicians who preached against big
government, big brother, and infringements of our personal freedoms by the
federal bureaucracy. Nevertheless, Congress spent all of its time and
attention on the Schiavo case, continuing to fight any attempt to take Terri off
life support. Despite those efforts, however, the courts allowed Terri's
husband to authorize removal of all life sustaining apparatus. Terri died on
March 31.
The national obsession with all things Schiavo didn't end there, nor did
the political maneuvering. A memo surfaced from Florida Senator Mel
Martinez's legal counsel which stated that the Schiavo case would help shore up the
GOP base for the 2006 election. Congress and the President had overstepped
their role, and crossed the lines of decency in the process. But as tragic
as Terri's death was, the insane political fight over her life set the
stage for an even bigger tragedy in years to come.
On March 23, 2005, an explosion occurred at BP's Texas City refinery
killing fifteen people and injuring another 170. But the explosion was muffled
by the Schiavo firestorm that same month. Had the right wingers been tending
to the job we elected them to do, they would have understood the long term
ramifications of a report by the Federal Chemical Safety and Hazard
Investigation Board (CSB), stating that BP had failed to implement safety
improvements which had been required prior to the blast. For example, between 1994
and 2004, no less than eight incidents occurred involving improper
emission of flammable vapors. BP never took corrective action. In February of
2008, BP pled guilty to a federal environmental crime, and paid a paltry fine
of $50 million dollars. Then, last year, OSHA fined BP another $87 million
dollars for failing to correct hazards that led to the Texas City explosion.
Now, less than a year later, BP is responsible for yet another explosion,
this one resulting in loss of life, loss of entire industries, and the
pollution of over one third of the Gulf of Mexico. And so, for those who think
politics is just a game, and that partisan rhetoric never really hurts
anyone, think again. Had Congress been paying attention to the Texas City
explosion instead of launching a 24/7 fight to remove a feeding tube, then BP
would have been more closely regulated and their oil rigs more closely
watched going forward. The irony is inescapable. The right wingers who once
failed to deal with BP's failures are now criticizing Barack Obama for an oil
spill they could have prevented five years ago.
Diversionary debates are nothing new in this country. Just look at how
watered down the healthcare reform bill became following charges by partisan
idiots who said Obama was going to create "death panels". Unfortunately
there is no process in place to police irresponsible rhetoric by either party,
which means we will continue to suffer the consequences of their hype and
negligence. In the end we can't seem to stop politicians who gush bull, any
more than we can stop faulty rigs that gush crude. If only we could cap the
wells and trade the politicians. That would be a great energy policy.
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