Green Victory/ Black Death (Part II)

Mockus got pole-axed in the Colombia. Katie-bar the door - complete shut down. He succeeded in making this election a run-off and he's still in the running for run-off - but he's got a 25 point deficit to overcome. Anyone who wants to actually vote for him, and the Green party - will need to weigh their vote carefully.

There was a province that voted green - they are a province that currently suffers from an anti-environmentalist policy that has burned the local area's resources. But by and large, the entireity of Colombia did something interesting - they polled heavily in favor of Mockus - then switched their vote to his opponent at the last minute. The green party , in Colombia - is now squarely behind the eight ball.

But, it should be said that they do have a chance. There is a large percentage of voters who went for one of the other five candidates in the election - and they will end up crossing over to vote for either Mockus, or his opponent. What happened, in my view - is that the Colombian electorate gauged Mockus by his strength in the debates. Or lack thereof. The green party's message and political orientation was correct - but in the end, Colombia voted for the man. And Mockus simply wasn't the one.

In other failed thread predictions - I've written as to the possibility of certain oil residue washing up on the west coast of florida , as if it were tied to the BP oil disaster. The official line being that the black oil washing up on the beaches of Florida has nothing to do with the Deep Horizon oil spill. This turned out to be the case. The oil is still largely offshore, and somehow contained. The bad news is that after 43 days , the oil is still flowing out at the rate of 20,000 barrels a day. This has made the spill the largest environmental disaster in the history of the United States. And of course, the certain oil residue is now washing up on shore in Louisiana ('tarball')

The oil is by no means contained, however, and the latest attempt to shut down the wellhead was epic fail.

These two events share a common thread: the Green Party, in Colombia - followed an ascent to power almost completely based upon the ability of people in Colombia to self organize - and the message that the Colombian electorate is ready and willing to find ways to shut down the old energy sources and use new ones. They made a dent in a political machine using the simplest of social networking tools + their own moxie.

This is a tale of two machines. Switch to a coporate machine. The 'republican' view - where we do not participate on a one by one basis - but instead proxy to someone else - is represented in full by an Alaskan Republican Senator who now calls for the Federal Government to pay for BP's cleanup costs. The disconnect between political will, and the actions of the government is apparent. If Mockus succeeded in besting his opponents in debate, and BP - in halting an ecological disaster of epic proportion - we would be able to more clearly see the contrast. Conservatives understand that BP makes billions of dollars in profit and that it is a self-reliant, individualistic view - that BP can and will clean up their own mess without liberal help from the government. The 'conservative' point of view is one of free market - and not government bailout. The Republican party - as led above - is pursuing a liberal agenda. All in the name of the big corporate machine.

And so , too, in Colombia where the majority of Colombians - before Mockus' dismal showing in the debate - supported a Green Platform. They were mowed down by an existing get out the vote (GOTV) machine.

BP shipped in workers to pretend they are involved in a big oil spill cleanup , for the benefit of the TV Cameras... And then they are headlong into back room lobbying to get big government dollars to rain down upon the 'helpless' billion dollar corporation. And finally, in the end - the demonstrated strength of the machine.

Perhaps the real destructive force, in all of this - is the simple illustration of just how difficult it is to stage a revolution. Perhaps people will move forward - just one step ahead of too late. Perhaps we will save this planet before it self destructs. Think of how small one little oil drilling platform is - and how much damage it caused ... estimates of the projected damage are now topping 270 million dollars..

Drill, Baby. Drill.