I declare that the PTB have officially lost control of the dialog on the Gulf Oil Kill.

[Spheric]

Now it's our turn.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/diving-gulfs-toxic-soup-10735329

This is ABC news. And I have noticed the use of the term "gushing" rather than "spilling" or "leaking" in most of the more recent reports all across the M$M.

It's way past time time that we controlled the dialog. I am extremely hopeful that we can harness our anger and stay involved.

“Anyone can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person at the right time, and for the right purpose and in the right way - that is not within everyone's power and that is not easy.” - Aristotle

“Anger is not bad. Anger can be a very positive thing, the thing that moves us beyond the acceptance of evil.” - Joan Chittister

“The world needs anger. The world often continues to allow evil because it isn't angry enough.” - Bede Jarrett

“Anger is a great force. If you control it, it can be transmuted into a power which can move the whole world.” - William Shenstone

Contact your congress critters. Write letters to the editor. Wall the White House on twitter. Facebook your friends. Educate them however you can. Demonstrate in the streets. Do whatever it takes to bring an end to this atrocious stranglehold on OUR government by big oil.

There are a few in Congress and the White House that will support us immediately. The rest will cave under the pressure. It is time to fight back with everything we have.

We have the power to change this now. Let us not squander this opportunity. Let not the devastation that is currently underway in the Gulf be for nothing. The time is ripe for action!

Please. Let us make it so. We have the power. We only need to decide it's time to use it. If not now, then when? If not here, then where?

This is your call to arms. Does anyone feel like answering?

[JuniperLea]

1. I'd like to answer with a bitch slap...

To whatever cretin unrecc'd this... unfucking believable.

I've been typing email letters all day... the links are all over DU... get busy, you bunch of fucking whiners!

[Nikki Stone1]

2. AMEN!!!

:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

[Dinger]

15. Testify!

:kick: :loveya: :thumbsup:

[Lerkfish]

4. my theory is that people are getting paid by BP to astroturf.

:shrug:

its a theory.

[JuniperLea]

6. I believe your theory is within the realm of posibilities...

Corporate sock puppets are all over the place these days.

[Blue-Jay]

25. Certainly, it's the subterranean crab-people.

[JackRiddler]

32. Appeal to ridicule; non-sequitur; lame failure at humor; factual untruth; poster disqualified.

Clarification:

The (implied) factual untruth is that there are no astroturfers deployed by corporations like BP to troll Internet sites, and that the idea is so ridiculous that it may be compared to the delusions of the mentally ill. This, however, is contrary to well-established facts about how corporations like BP do deploy astroturfers to do exactly that. (Whether they are doing it in a given case is a different matter, and should be approached much as possible on an evidentiary basis.)

The rest of the judgments stand prima facie without need for clarification, in the opinion of this court.

The fine is to go read a whole book, cover to cover, without interrupting it with other texts or Internet nonsense. It's the posters choice of which book, it doesn't concern us, we believe it's likely to be an unusual and rewarding experience for the poster. If the poster provides a review, the conviction will be expunged from the record.

Have a good day.

[JackRiddler]

30. Your theory is plausible, even likely. My additional theory is that some people...

are so invested in the figurehead-in-chief, the one who's blamed or credited for whatever happens, that they can't but take an attack on the longstanding policy of obedience to the oil companies as an attack on their object of totemic attraction. Of course, some of them may also be staff of some kind or other.

[laughingliberal]

3. +10,000 nt

[zeemike]

5. All well and good to hold their feet to the fire.

But at some point we have to take responsibility for it ourselves....it is for gas and the car that we do what we do.
And sat some point we have to say enough, and set about creating new systems of transport that do not depend on dangerous things.
And then we might also consider other things that do noting but destroy the environment like building these ticky tacky houses out of wood and in 20 years tear them down and build a bigger ticky tacky house....
So the question is when will it be enough to convince us to change.

[Spheric]

8. This is true. And..

I think that starts with making it possible to change. How do we get to work without a car when public transportation is non-existent or has been decimated throughout much of the country?

You are exactly right. We need new systems of transport that do not depend on dangerous things.

But, it must start with a line in the sand. Are we willing to allow them to literally destroy our oceans before our very eyes while we sit back and watch it happen on television? If so, what about the water we drink, the air we breathe?

If we allow them to cross this line, there is no hope at all for the future. Our children and grandchildren, if they survive, will curse us throughout eternity.

It is now or never.

[NYC_SKP]

7. I'm watching Keith explain how MMS are revealing crimes of the past, coming clean, I credit Obama.

...and Salazar.

I'm unimpressed with the business of "controlling the dialogue" with twitter, etc.

I do, however, support using our anger to promote action and change, and support continuously engaging our elected officials.

So, thanks for that reminder.

:patriot:

[Spheric]

10. Thank you for jumping in. What I mean by controlling the dialog...

is that so far the "message" has been pretty much one sided. "5,000 barrels a day," "most of the oil will 'disperse' on its own," etc, etc. But, the M$M has begun to question some of the information coming out of BP, and yes, even out of the administration.

This is a good thing. We need to take advantage.

[freddie mertz]

9. Demonstrations should have broken out a long time ago.

Where is the public outrage over this?

[Atticus]

11. Haven't you heard? Demonstrations---as in actually getting off one's ass and assembling with

several tens or hundreds of thousands of like-minded outraged citizens---is just so "yesterday" and it wouldn't possibly influence Congress or the President.

Much better to use our Cheeto-stained fingers to trade snark with other keyboard warriors.

BEEEEE ESSSSS !!!!!

[freddie mertz]

12. I'm kinda old now, but I still go to the damn things.

Have done so for 40+ years, since I was a teenager.

I wish a new generation would finally step forward.

[Spheric]

13. The oil companies and the financial institutions and the other corporate interests...

are so entrenched in Washington that it will take the righteous anger of an entire nation to break their hold.

All I want to know is if we have the will to make that happen.

[tavalon]

22. Have you been to demonstrations?

I mean the big ones, in DC, the ones that rivaled the Vietnam War protests? Well, I have, and while it was enjoyable to be with a million other somewhat likeminded people, I saw firsthand how we were erased by the media. They did happened. I still have my pictures and my buttons so I know I didn't imagine it, but no one but me and a million or so of my fellow activists know they happened. That's why people are down on the marches. We see they don't work anymore. We need new ideas.

So, drop the snark and start thinking and putting those ideas out there. We're listening. Just because some of us know that marches don't work in a Pravda like media setting doesn't mean we don't want to do the work. We want the work to actually work.

[Atticus]

33. Yup----been there done that. Been ignored. Been intimidated, Done some intimidating.

Things do change. Six weeks ago,you couldn't find anyone on MSM talking seriously and in depth about moving away from fossil fuels to alternative energy sources. I have seen several such stories recently.

If we truly filled the Mall, surrounded the Capitol, camped in Lafayette Park---or maybe literally sat down curb to curb for several blocks in either direction in front of the NYSE---we would get attention and a platform on the evening news and the talk shows for our views.

Code Pink with just a handful of people and LOTS of nerve, recently got some great coverage in front of BP headquarters.

Sorry if you read snark---I was going for sarcastic but righteous indignation.

[tavalon]

36. You do have a point there

Now, we need to get past the inertia of so many people feeling like we'll be ignored. Learned helplessness. I've watched the sparks come out of seemingly nothing. Cindy Sheehan going to Crawford was one. How do we create that spark that starts this.

I'll go. Absolutely. But I have no idea how to organize such a thing. Or start the spark.

[MountainLaurel]

16. One planned for Sunday n/t

[Spheric]

18. Where at? /nt

[MountainLaurel]

29. Jackson Square

Here in New Orleans

http://nola.humidbeings.com/events/detail/3008/Protest-Murdered-Gulf.-Stop-the-BP-Oil-Flood-now-2010-05-30

[Spheric]

31. Dang, I can't make it to New Orleans this weekend,...

but ya'll give 'em hell. I be rooting for you. I hope you draw a big crowd and get splashed all over the media. Good luck.

I'm still in email and letter writing mode myself right now.

[Blue-Jay]

26. We can plug the hole with protest signs.

[Wednesdays]

28. lolOLOLOLLLol!!!

   
   
   

[KittyWampus]

27. Good Question Freddie Mertz. Why don't YOU start the demonstrations? You certainly have enough time

on your hands.

[Swamp Rat]

14. k&r

[G_j]

17. K&R

:mad:

[Tashca]

19. Your right

They do seem to be losing the dialog.

The reality is becoming quite apparent.

K&R

[donheld]

20. Gulf Oil Kill

Yes that's finally the proper name for it.

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[treestar]

23. Why should they control it?

We have a free press. They are owned by the right wing. Of course a Democratic Administration will not have control.

[Spheric]

24. They try to control the message because it is in their best interest to do so.

Think Madison Avenue and advertising and all those pretty "we are the greenest of the green" ads that BP was running ad nauseum up until about a month ago. Haven't seen any of those lately. I wonder why.

But anyway, the main stream media has begun to turn on them now. Their lies are no longer being delivered as gospel. They still give them equal time, but they no longer have the stage to themselves.

This goes way beyond political party. There are people beholden to big oil in both parties. And we have been the losers. Time to put an end to that.

That said, I strongly believe we will find far more allies among our Democrats than within the other party. The other side sold out their souls such long, long time ago that they don't even remember doing it.

[The Stranger]

34. Who is the "PTB"?

Is it that hard to spell out what are apparently just three words?

[Spheric]

35. Yes, sorry for the shorthand. I'll keep that in mind in the future.

In this case, the "Powers That Be" are the oil company executives and their legion of minions in the industry, the sold-out pseudo-scientists that back their every play, and their bought and paid for consorts in Washington and every state capital in this country and around the world.

They may not have absolute control of our energy future just yet, but they are very close to it if they don't. They certainly have a disproportionate amount of power.