Below is a blog Comment we sent to the PBS Tavis Smiley blog site entitled “Tavis Smiley Blogs Round-Up: Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill.”
It’s worth a read.

Re: “Tavis Smiley Blogs Round-Up: Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill.”
Web: http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/voices/2010/06/round-up-gulf-of-mexico-oil-spill.html

When you consider the spate of reliable info already available about how regulators were romanced and ‘captured’ by BP — info about how regulators “looked the other way” and ignored glaring BP problems while lowering the bar for inspection standards and for minimum safety requirements for BP — and when you consider how rigorously BP fought against standard recommended safety provisions utilizing ‘assurances’ we now know were utterly fraudulent and were proffered in bad faith, regarding its ability to respond to and correct major malfunctions in “Deep Water” wells and regarding how ‘safe’ Deep Water Drilling actually is — when you consider all these things and so many more horrifying bad-faith BP and regulator activities (and inactivity – inertia) that we now know led to this Gulf disaster, it is especially aggravating to hear a Reagan-appointed Louisiana federal judge, who holds significant Gulf oil industry investments, strike down Obama’s temporary “Deep Water Drilling Moratorium” when such bedlam, incompetence, corruption, ineffectiveness and uncertainty still hangs thick in the air. Exactly “where” does this seemingly infinite stream of corruption, undue influence, bribes, payoffs and “dirty politics” actually “end” in this horrifically seedy, catastrophic, disgusting episode? I addressed this issue in a blog entitled “Judicial Politics Adds To BP Oil Sleaze” located at http://gbruce.com/reflect/2010/07/09/judicial-politics-adds-to-bp-oil-sleaze/

Sincerely,
Reflecting Pool Discourse Blog
http://gbruce.com/reflect/

(See also, “27,000 Abandoned Gulf Oil Wells May Be Leaking” and “American Politics at Toxic Levels“).

Nemo

A Reflecting Pool Discourse Blog Post by Nemo
Posting Interpretor & Moderator: CatDaddy

Hello – my name is Nemo and my father is “CatDaddy” the moderator, so he will probably give me a free hand here, in venting my spleen and expressing how “*%@!~” mad I am about a couple of human traits that cause them to treat us like “*%@!~” second-class citizens.

[CatDaddy Translator & Moderator Comments: In order to demonstrate my neutrality here, I used my own discretion and intervened to “bleep out” a few words that I felt constituted ‘unsavory’ language.
I think most civilized people would agree that the terms “g-o-s-h  d-a-r-n” and “daggum” are filthy, vile, gutter-level expletives that have absolutely no place on a respectable family-oriented blog like this one — on the other hand, some have said perhaps I have gone too far in this instance, in trying to ‘prove’ my neutrality — Send us your thoughts].

My name, Nemo, is the Latin word for ‘nobody’ or ‘no-one.’ Something that is non-existent. But I do exist and this is my picture at the top of the page. But my daddy didn’t mean anything negative by the name. It’s more like a kind of Zen reference to the tabula rosa (clean slate) “Self” that lies behind, beneath the ‘ego self’ that most people see. And that gets to my point.

You humans rarely ever visit or acknowledge your ‘Nemo self’ whereas we cats don’t really know of any other place to be. As a result, most humans don’t pay much attention to us because they think we’re just nobodies. Sometimes children have the same problem with humans. That’s why we cats have so much fun with children.

From time to time we run into a human that doesn’t care much about ego stuff and we have a lot of fun with them because they notice us and pay attention to us and care about us, and they play with us — and everyone knows how much cats like to play with just about anything. We have fun with them cause they aren’t always saying they have more important things to do.

I hear a lot of humans say cats aren’t as smart and aren’t as much fun as dogs, just because we don’t shake hands and do tricks like dogs do. But we like to play ‘fetch’ and peek-a-boo. It’s just that we’re kind of like humans who don’t like to be manipulated and controlled all the time. We are kind of like what humans call “Free Spirits,” but it doesn’t mean we don’t care about humans.

I’m lucky cause my daddy gives me a lot of attention and plays with me a lot. But a lot of my friends don’t have anyone to play with, or to take care of them and pet them.

I just wanted to explain this stuff so humans would pay more attention to us and play with us more. We want to have a fun time just like everybody else.

Your friend,
Nemo

[CatDaddy Translator & Moderator Comments: Although I specifically instructed Nemo to tell the people how well I treat her, I still, nevertheless, feel her comments were accurate and warranted.]

[Reflecting Pool Blog Owner & Administrator Comments: If I see another CatDaddy “Moderator” intrusive, interfering hatchet-job like this one, I’m going to strip away his blog Admin Rights.]