In the South, we like to call it a bubba thing.

It’s the arrogance that grows only from an extreme lack of knowledge serving as a cover for ignorance.

It’s a mentality best embodied in the redneck’s famous last words, “here, honey, hold my beer…watch’is,” as he guns his four-wheeler up the pile of manure in an attempt to jump the double-wide in a single bound.

It will not end well.

There’s a lot of bubba thing on Capitol Hill, these days.

Senator Graham to U.S. Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan: “Christmas Day bomber. Where you at on Christmas Day?”

Nominee Kagan: “I’m assuming you’re asking whether a person apprehended in the United States…”

Sen. Graham (interrupting): “No, I just asked you where you were at on Christmas.”

Nominee Kagan (after some laughter): “You know, like all Jews I was probably at a Chinese restaurant.”

Deflected with great wit to the back-hand of Bubba Graham’s stereotype, Kagan easily made fun of such nonsense without the bubba even realizing it.

Lotta bubbas runnin’ ‘round loose, these days.

If the terminally unconscious of the South can be termed, bubbas, the terminally unconscious of the North might be called, peacocks.

Lotta peacocks, too, struttin’ ‘round - proclaiming they know better how to limit carbon pollution & climate change than 90 percent of the world’s scientists.

Unlike nearly everyone else in the world, some peacocks refuse to accept the notion that carbon pollution won’t be curbed until a hefty price is attached to it. Simple, really: make polluters pay for their sins.

But, nooooooo, shout the climate peacocks. This is not a price on pollution! It’s an…wait for it…wait for it…”energy tax.” Yea, that’s the ticket.

As long as we take a national energy tax off the table, there's no reason we can't have clean energy legislation," said Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee…a bubba peacock.

"I wish the president would focus his attention on stopping the spill and cleaning it up instead of trying to use this crisis as an opportunity to push for a new   national energy tax," said Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky…also a bubba peacock.

But it’s a flat out lie.

We can’t move forward on creating new forms of clean energy until we find money to pay for that advancement and the best way – so far – to pay for accelerating the drive for clean energy to make polluters pay for their pollution.

It’s not an energy tax. It’s a fine for destroying the climate. Bubbas and peacocks, the ignorant and the deceitful.

As a nation, we’re better than that.

Hey, y’all watch’is.

Sen. Byrd and Sen. Kennedy can now resume their sometimes heated, sometimes cordial debates to delight of God – because she will appreciate the unparalleled thoughtfulness and intelligence.

In many ways, Sen. Byrd’s growth as a legislator and person embodied the growth of the American people in the 20 th Century: from narrow-minded fear to an embrace of a much broader view of the world and compassion.

Ah, yes, but if only we could drag along that boisterous minority that clings to fear as its primary motivation.

Fear of losing something they have.

Fear of not getting something they want.

Fear of others acting in ways they deem inappropriate.

Fear in the electorate is fueled by the desire of the political minority to achieve ultimate power. But those seeking power at all costs fail to understand electoral power in the good ol’ US of A can’t be realized without…um…the backing of the people. At least, not yet.

And one-dimensional historical interpretations can not tell a complete or accurate story.

Take, for example, the small minority who fear the Obama Presidency. Who knows why they really fear President Obama. Who knows if it makes any sense, politically or philosophically? It’s just fear and fear – by any measure – is irrational.

The President could hold a press conference today to announce the sky will continue to remain blue and Fox News would immediately campaign to its minions to oppose such an outlandish projection.

The GOP used to find Fox News convenient and useful. Having an entire network at a political party’s disposal is very useful, indeed, and unprecedented in American politics. But it’s been quite evident for a while that rather than the GOP controlling Fox News, the Fox has been put in charge of guarding the GOP hen house.

The GOP has grown increasingly cloistered in the hollow and howling absurdities of the Fox.

Never before has such a weak and fear-driven minority been given such a disproportionately loud voice.

One of Fox News’ latest campaigns has been to demonize – yet again – the Obama Administration’s successful effort to get Gulf of Mexico destroyer BP to cough up $20 billion for an escrow fund to pay for damage.

According to a CNN poll, 85 percent of Americans support that move by the President. Only 5 percent of Americans think President Obama has been too tough on BP.

And, yet, Fox News trot scores of protagonists to defend BP against the harsh attacks by President Obama. The Fox is shoutin’ but the chickens ain’t listenin’.

Maybe rather than Fox, the network should rename itself the News That Cried Wolf.

One final note: Frances Cobb Hart would have turned 81 today. Bless her.

HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!

It all worked perfectly!

Distract us by annihilating the Gulf of Mexico, smothering it in a blanket of oil and deadly chemicals and while we’re focused on that debacle go behind our backs to pretend to reform the hubris and greed of Wall Street – while in reality setting us up for even more catastrophe!

I love it when a plan comes together! HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!

The big news of the day will be, “Congress agrees on financial reform; the most significant financial reform since the 1930s.”

And that may be true – but this is reform is nothing like the reform following the excesses that led to the Great Depression. No one on Wall Street is out. The big banks will continue to suck money directly from taxpayers and good, decent ‘Murkins. The rich will continue to get richer and the poor (the remaining 90 percent of us) can just suck it…oh, and get poorer.

And not only that, the “reform” will do nothing – nothing, I tell ya – to prevent exactly what happened in 2008 to bring us to the brink of another Great Depression.

Is this a great country or what?

Oh sure, sure; the bank reforms pretend to make corrections to the way megabanks take our loans, bundled them into packages, break them apart again and sell them while insuring them and making huge dollars at both ends of the deal gone wrong.

The reforms will require the big firms and banks to put their derivatives trade into smaller, so-called “outside” companies. But this is merely window-dressing, a shell game to give the appearance of magic.

What the reforms did not do is to bring back the Glass-Steagall Act, which prevented for nearly 50 years the financial games that brought us to the brink of ruin in 2008. Nope, neither Congress nor the Obama Administration was going to allow that – too much money and influence on the table from the big banks.

What the reforms also failed to do is to throttle back the megabanks. Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Ted Kaufman, D-Delaware, tried to do that. The Brown-Kaufman Amendment to the financial reform package would have required the six biggest banks to be broken up into smaller institutions.

“Too big to fail” would have relegated to the history books. But, oh no, we couldn’t let THAT happen. We need Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to be HUGE so they next time – and some say soon – they blow up like balloons they can bring down the rest of us with them!

Like they nearly did in 2008.

So as you struggle to make your next mortgage payment or put food on your table or wonder how you will afford school next year for your kids remember this day when all of Washington was jubilant over financial reforms. We should remind them of the question asked by the great philosopher Janet “You can call me Miss” Jackson:

“What have you done for me, lately?”

“Ah, yes, General, come on in.”

“Um…er…Mr. President. How are you this morning?”

“Oh I’m just fine, General. What could go wrong on this fine day? We have in the Gulf the nation’s worst environmental damage ever. The economy continues to struggle. Republicans continue to act out and, as you know, this war thing in Afghanistan continues to be difficult. Just one thing after another but I’m having a great day…again.”

“Um…er…yes, sir, Mr. President. You were certainly handed a plate full dog crap when you took office.”

“Well, no one said this job was easy. So, what can I do for you today, General?”

“Um…er…well sir, you asked me to stop by.”

“Oh yes, that’s right. I did, didn’t I? So, how’s it going? What’s new?”

“Um…er…well…sir, the offensive in the Helmand Province is not going so we--…”

“Yes, yes…I’m aware of that. Say, General, when you’re not off fightin’ and snake-eating and stuff, what do you do for fun?”

“Um…er…excuse me, Mr. President?”

“You know, what do you like to do on your down time? I like basketball and golf and reading. You read much, General?”

“Um…er…well, Mr. President. I like to read, yes, history mostly; war history.”

“Yes, indeed. I like magazines, too. Oh, look, here’s the latest issue of Rolling Stone. Ever read Rolling Stone, General?”

“Well...sir…I…”

“Yea, it’s been a favorite of mine over the years. Used to love to read Bill Greider and even P.J. O’Rourke – the funniest damn conservative of all – and, of course, bow your heads when we say his name, The Doctor. Just glad folks like Matt Taibbi are keeping up the great tradition.”

“Um…er…yes, sir…um, Mr. President, sir…I…um…”

“Hey look at this. You’re in the latest issue! Wow, that’s awesome, dood. Didn’t make the cover, though. Lady Gaga did. But, still…”

“Um…er…Mr. President…I…er…”

“Let’s see what you have to say, here, General. I don’t often have the chance to read a magazine piece about someone while they’re sitting on my couch.”

“Well, er, Mr. President, about that piece…”

“Whoa, General, there’s some pretty rude stuff in here…Ambassador Eikenberry? The Vice-President? Bite me? Really?”

“Mr. President, sir…I…I…”

“Well, General, we’ll need to talk about this. Wanna stay for lunch? We’re having sautéed crow and ice cold cans of whoop-ass. Bring your snakes and come with me. I’ll tell you about Lincoln and General McClellan. It’s a great story. You’ll like this.”

An important message from British Petroleum CEO Tony Hayward:

Dear American Friends,

I am happy to report to you, this morning, from the lovely weather and clear seas of the British coast where we all enjoyed a most spectacular weekend racing aboard my beloved Farr 52, “Bob,” in the legendary Round the Island Race hosted by JP Morgan and the Island Yacht Club.

Oh, I know what you may be thinking: why in the world would Ol’ Tony go racing while that nasty oil is still leaking slightly into the Gulf of Mexico?

But let me re-emphasis my point. This was the Round the Island Race, one of the most important yacht races of the year in Britain and as anyone will tell you racing proficiently on the Solent is challenging for any sailor.

It was not all champagne and roses, let me tell you. We only managed a forth place finish, due to extremely poor crew work on the start. The sandwiches were mushy by lunch time and the beer a bit flat.

To top it all off, we were beaten by our old nemesis John Caulcutt aboard his 57-foot Swan ketch…a KETCH, for God’s sake!!

Nonetheless it was exciting to see 1,600 yachts out on the water with spinnakers flying.

Let me clear, also, to some of you naysayers. This was no ordinary race; not like racing around the Mississippi Sound from some of those miserable excuses for yacht clubs in Biloxi and Gulfport. Sailing at night between the unlit drill pipes is harrowing.

Sure, the Southern Yacht Club is very nice but, really, yachting on the square waves of Lake Ponchartrain is piss-poor compared to the majestic waters around the Isle of Wight.

What I mean is I realize that nasty little business in the Gulf of Mexico has disrupted the lives of many small people but it was good to get my life back for a bit and be among my mates racing the wind and that buggery Swan ketch.

After all, the Gulf of Mexico is a very big body of water; the world’s biggest lake, really. And the amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume.

Please, we have lots of ocean left and let me tell you it was glorious this weekend on The Channel.

Yes, yes, yes. I know we told you in the beginning the Deepwater Horizon rig was only leaking about 5,000 barrels a day. But we have since revised that figure, trying to be accurate always, to perhaps around 100,000 barrels a day…give or take a few thousands barrels a day.

And, yes, I know BP stock has lost roughly have its value since the little incident began but let me assure you we have plenty of cash so the small people needn’t worry. You’ll get your pittance when we’re ready for you to have it.

In the meantime, I have much more important matters to consider. I realize after this weekend’s racing, I probably need to upgrade Bob’s sail computers and I’m thinking, maybe, a new set of sails might be in order.

Cheerio! And good luck to you all, fair weather and good sailing!

One doesn’t have to be crazy to get elected to the Congress – but it helps.

So let me get this straight: seemingly angry that his amigos at BP (“Bustamante Pendejos,” according to @DCDebbie) got their corporate arms twisted by President Obama to ante up a $20 billion down payment for the carnage they wreaked on the Gulf of Mexico, Texas Congressman Joe Barton said yesterday the President’s demand “amounts to a shakedown.”

Shakedown is street for extortion, you see, and the esteemed representative from Texas, who couldn’t possibly be close to Big Oil interests back home, was saying the President of the United States was acting like a thug to demand BP put money immediately on the table to pay for attempting to kill the Gulf of Mexico.

“I’m ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday,” said Congressman Barton. “I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown — in this case a $20 billion shakedown.”

Mr. Barton followed up his comments by suggesting we might have acted a little hastily back in 1776.

Just kidding about that last part.

Seriously, are these guys nuts or what? Let’s look this up in Politics for Dummies. Yep, there it is…page 174: “A good political strategy is ALWAYS taking up for major multinational corporations who are responsible for the worst environmental and social disaster in the history of the United States.”

Good move, Mr. Barton.

But Barton is not Batman. He did not act alone. Turns out Congress is full of dweebs who express similar comments and sympathies.

While many members of Congress, including the leaders of his own party, decried Barton’s moronic expressions, other chimed right in.

“BP’s reported willingness to go along with the White House’s new fund suggests that the Obama Administration is hard at work exerting its brand of Chicago-style shakedown politics,” said Congressman Tom Price, Republican of Jawja.  

And the hits just keep on comin’ from the unbelievably stupid. Thanks to Mother Jones Magazine, we have a list of the dumbest comments flatulently gushing forth from some congressional orifices.

Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, way back in May, said of the oil spill, “Accidents happen. You learn from them and you try to make sure they don't happen again."

Texas Congressman Pete Olson said of the 6-month moratorium on drilling in wake of the oil spill devastation: “This is a kneejerk reaction by the administration to address a problem that doesn't exist."

Fellow Texan Ralph Hall said: "It’s a shame we can't drill ANWR. It’s a shame we don't get that energy off the coast of Florida,” and followed it up with: "I resent the fact that [Obama's] trying to blame some of this on Bush. On 9/11 I don't remember Bush trying to blame this on Clinton."

You just can’t make up this stuff.

Senator Bob Bennett of Utah, recently considered by the erudite Tea Baggers as not conservative enough for re-election said earlier this month, "The bridge to that promised land of renewable energy is built out of fossil fuels."

Illinois Senator and President Abraham Lincoln said, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”

“Tonight I want to have an unpleasant talk with you about a problem that is unprecedented in our history,” said the slighting graying man with the soft, South Georgia accent.

“With the exception of preventing war, this is the greatest challenge that our country will face during our lifetime.”

The year was 1977 and President Jimmy Carter was just over 3 months in office.

“The energy crisis has not yet overwhelmed us, but it will if we do not act quickly. It’s a problem that we will not be able to solve in the next few years, and it’s likely to get progressively worse through the rest of this century.

“We must not be selfish or timid if we hope to have a decent world for our children and our grandchildren. We simply must balance our demand for energy with our rapidly shrinking resources. By acting now we can control our future instead of letting the future control us.”

He was about to tell us he would within the next couple of days submit to the Congress a comprehensive energy strategy designed to wean us off foreign oil, stimulate production of clean energy, require greater energy efficiency in cars, homes & appliances.

“Many of these proposals will be unpopular,” he said. “Some will cause you to put up with inconveniences and to make sacrifices. The most important thing about these proposals is that the alternative may be a national catastrophe. Further delay can affect our strength and our power as a nation.

“Our decision about energy will test the character of the American people and the ability of the President and the Congress to govern this Nation,” he suggested. “This difficult effort will be the moral equivalent of war, except that we will be uniting our efforts to build and not to destroy. ”

The energy policy he presented was based on 10 principles: 1.government must take responsibility for leading the nation; 2. economic growth must continue through conservation of energy; 3. t he environment must be protected; 4. dependence on foreign oil presents security risks to the U.S.; 5. solutions must be fair to all, sacrifices spread evenly; 6. demand for energy must be reduced; 7. the price of energy must be accurate and authentic; 8. government policies must be planed and predictable; 9. scarce sources of energy must be conserved; abundant sources developed; and 10. the use of even more abundant sources of energy (sun, wind) must be developed.

He went on to set goals for the nation to reach by 1985:

—to reduce the annual growth rate in our energy demand to less than 2 percent;

—to reduce gasoline consumption by 10 percent below its current level;

—to cut in half the portion of U.S. oil which is imported—from a potential level of 16 million barrels to 6 million barrels a day;

—to establish a strategic petroleum reserve of one billion barrels, more than a 6-months supply (this happened);

—to increase our coal production by about two-thirds to more than one billion tons a year (this was a disaster, too);

—to insulate 90 percent of American homes and all new buildings;

—to use solar energy in more than 2 1/2 million houses.

“We can be sure that all the special interest groups in the country will attack the part of this plan that affects them directly,” Carter said at the time. “If they succeed with this approach, then the burden on the ordinary citizen, who is not organized into an interest group, would be crushing.

“If you will join me so that we can work together with patriotism and courage, we will again prove that our great Nation can lead the world into an age of peace, independence, and freedom.”

The special interests and their hired politicians sure did attack the plan – setting up in this nation a permanent and professional corporatist right-wing. Reagan, Clinton and George.W. Bush would be the result.

Last night, in his speech from the Oval Office, President Obama told us, “The consequence of our inaction is now in plain sight.”

Peace, independence and freedom remain elusive. Given the immoral state of war – particularly over the last decade – maybe the destruction of the Gulf of Mexico really is the moral equivalent of war.