Sheesh.

I really hate to have to explain this but hopefully some Democrats will be reading and might learn something. In the ever so clever video mash above, the DNC (Democrat National Convention) reviles Senator Joe Barton for apologizing to the CEO of BP. What they don't seem to grasp is that he's apologizing for the actions of the Obama administration for sidestepping the law and skirting around lawful and legal behavior which ordinarily befits the U.S. Government (or ought to anyway).

What has happened here is that the Obama administration has decided what's right, fair and just without subjecting itself to any existing checks and balances as originally installed by the Constitution. I don't think that anyone would argue that BP appears to be at fault for the oil spill catastrophe in the gulf. Few people would disagree that they've handled it poorly thus far. It seems clear that they should be held accountable to any criminal or civil suits that are brought against them. BUT in this country, we have a legal system which has been designed to handle this sort of issue.

What we've witnessed is the Executive branch doing all of our thinking for us. Obviously, they've gotten quite comfortable doing that on a regular basis in recent history but when are we going to say "enough"? This sort of decision making on the behalf of others does nothing but worry me. It's the same kind of tactic used by drug dealers, pimps and other societal leeches.

See, what they do is get you comfortable with their making your choices for you. They make the obvious choices at first. They'll decide what you would have decided anyway. Superficially, it'll look like a perfect decision and they'll gain a little bit of your trust. In the short term, you'll benefit and everyone's happy. After a few of those, the decisions get a little more dubious and when you question them, they'll tell you, "I never let you down in the past, did I? Come on- you can trust me."

(Now for me, "trust me" is a red flag. I have almost always been ultimately disappointed by someone who used that phrase. Maybe it was self-fulfilling prophecy. Maybe not. Either way, I steer clear of anyone who says that or who acts like that.)

After that, you start to wonder whose side they're on. It'll start to seem like they're pulling a Don King on you and the 50-50 upon which you originally agreed starts to look more and more like 60-40. You start to worry because their explanations get more and more complicated and tougher to follow or to understand. By then it's already too late.

The moment you let them make your first decision for you, you're owned. This is something crystal clear to Conservatives and completely foreign to Liberals. The Liberals are all outraged at Senator Barton because "Doesn't he get it? We're getting a boatload of money from BP! This is great!"

I don't know about the rest of you but what I see happening next is the Obama administration keeping that $20bb (that's billion- like million but with a b) and using it to fund alternative energy projects because "Clearly, we need them now more than ever."

Worse than that is that the Obama administration is overstepping their bounds by taking money that they don't have the right to take. Nobody is complaining much about that because they think it's money that BP deserves to pay. What happens though when they overstep their bounds the next time and they tell us, "Hey- you let us do it last time. You didn't have a problem last time. What changed? Last time, you were happy with the result so don't worry- this time will be the same. Trust me."