Those who have read this blog over the years know that the only way to make a comment is to e-mail me. My address is on the blog or if the person is a friend or relative, they comment on my personal e-mail. That is the way I like it, for a variety of reasons. The main reason is I don’t have time to edit a bunch of profanity and racist comments, or tinker with comments to make sure they aren’t libelous.
This Boston Globe Magazine article goes into the mind of those who constantly comment on, in this case, news stories. But I would suspect a lot of comments that you get on blogs are by people such as those you will meet in what is a very good, although fairly long article. (Duh, it’s a magazine article!)
I found this press release by a congressional caucus of right-wingers. Among them are Joe Barton, but also are most, if not all, of the Lone Star State’s GOP House members.
The Republican Study Committee called the fund agreed to by President Obama and BP chief Tony Hayward “a Chicago-style shakedown.” I have yet to see any apology from this caucus. Even more rich, I’ve not seen any apologies from our own East Texas congressional members. Among these members are Rep. Ted Poe, whose district includes the Upper Texas Coast and part of the Houston metro area; Rep. Kevin Brady, who represents the heart of East Texas; and Rep. Louie Gohmert, the congressman for the northern portion of East Texas.
I haven’t heard anyone mention this yet, but it looks like Barton wasn’t the lone idiot in suggesting BP were victims of extortion by our government.
If some good is ever to emerge from the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill perhaps it will be something later noted as a point in time that the United States became serious about energy independence.
Who knows how President Obama’s call this week — certainly not his first exhortation on the matter and not to be confused with extortion, which dip stick GOP Congressman Joe Barton accused the president of in getting BP to establish a Gulf damage fund — will really change any minds. But practically everyone in this country, whether they are oil and gas lobbyists or Earth Mothers with cloth shopping bags, knows energy independence is something this nation must eventually pursue. The question is when will that pursuit turn really serious?
Some of the ideas I get for my musings come from news.google.com. It is the best news aggregator that I know of which presents a wide range of news and views from a wide range of sources. Today, I looked up “alternative energy” and found a number of interesting stories on the subject such as a press release about an effort to make a documentary and book about driving a hydrogen-powered ’72 Mustang cross-country.
They want to make a documentary that is like Al Gore meets the Blues Brothers.
Steve Schappert & Steve Melycher, a.k.a. “Steve Squared,” will drive the Mustang “with a hydrogen generator that produces hydrogen on demand that has tripled gas mileage in similar vehicles. They will be meeting with other Hydrogen experts along the way and asking them to share some knowledge to see if we can all figure out how to make a car run completely on water,” according to a “PRLog” press release.
The movie concept, says the release, would be something like “Introducing Al Gore to the Blues Brothers.”
Meanwhile, other alternatives such as biofuels face challenges at a time when American energy independence has become an outcry in the country. Myra P. Saefong of “MarketWatch” writesthat biodiesel and ethanol face difficultiesin the marketplace if the biofuels continue to lack tax incentives.
Then articles I scanned today take on the subject of oil sands, solar energy, wind, you can just about name it and it’s being cussed and discussed. And in the words of that classy broad and ex-con Martha Stewart, “That’s a good thing.”
But talk is also cheap, unless you are high up in the government. What we need is Action, Jackson! No, not Action Jackson, the 1980s movie starring Carl Weathers, Vanity, Craig T. Nelson and Sharon Stone, but action, Jackson, as in “action, you all” or as we say it in Texas, “ya’ll.”
I honestly believe that the only way this country will achieve both energy independence and the balance needed in switching from a hydrocarbon-based economy is through a “Moon Landing” sort of program. I speak, of course, of the project John F. Kennedy pushed to have an American on the moon in less than 10 years. Will such a project be expensive? You betcha, as “Drill Baby Drill” master Sarah Palin would say. Does such a prospect threaten to turn the World’s economic equilibrium on it’s ear? Could be.
Nonetheless, we have all these forms of energy out there that can substantially decrease this country’s use of foreign oil, or oil drilled by foreign or multinational corporations that blow up and come oozing onto our shores.
Oil is never going away, at least in my lifetime. But there are so many alternatives to it, so many people who are willing to drive great distances in cars more than 30 years old powered by water just to show others that we don’t have to use so much of oil. Yes, it would eventually help the environment. But also, yes, it could keep this nation from having to fight wars with nations that don’t particularly like us but with whom we are dependent on for their Black Gold.
A lot of different thoughts cloud my mind right now regarding the massive Gulf of Mexico oil leak. Primarily, I think we need to “stop the damn leak.” But that has proved to be some kind of difficult.
I am glad that the pundits and those who oppose the President are so right and sure about matters that they can lay everything at Obama’s feet. I feel history will judge whether he acted swiftly enough and surely enough. I can’t help but think Obama is not only getting some bad advice, but has for quite some time received bad advice. I say that just taking all in total. That too, however, will only be judged by history.
The pundits have me pretty irked. This Newsweek article aptly tells how I feel about the pundits before and after the president’s speech on the oil spill. CNN made such a big deal about the broadcast coming from the Oval Office and essentially compared the speech to other great events like Nixon’s resignation, Reagan talking about the Space Shuttle Challenger’s explosion and GW Bush speaking from the Oval after 9/11. To those on the Gulf Coast, this event is perhaps that momentous, but the punditry just goes way overboard interpreting symbolism sometimes.
Yes, the same Joe Barton who has never met an energy company executive with a bag full of money he didn’t like had the gall to call the meeting between Obama and Hayward yesterday in the White House “a shakedown.” Talking about pot calling the kettle black. How many oil company and electric company and nuclear power company executives have Joe Barton shaken down over the years? Of course, if they got rid of all the hypocrites in Congress most of the two chambers, including pretty much all the GOP sides, would be missing.
It gets a little old to see the congressional members get their little spotlight in which they can either light into the villain of the day or else kiss their asses.
We shall see what we shall see. Too bad all those folks on the Gulf Coast have their lives hanging in the balance while we wait on that which becomes history.
UPDATE:Barton later apologized for the “misconstruction” of his comments toward Hayward after apparently being threatened with the loss of a House committee position by GOP leadership. The dressing down must have been with House Minority Leader John Boehner holding his nose. It seemsthe Ohio pol bought some $50,000 in BP stock just months before the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig from which the massive oil spill began. On the other hand. Maybe Boehner was jealous that he didn’t shakedown BP after its wealth spiraled downward.
Here comes the “scrubbers.” These are the political professionals who come in to scrub up the messier parts of a candidate’s life. I don’t know if that’s what they are really called, but that is the job of many operatives when they have a candidate whose past or past statements are as messed up as soup sandwich.
The scrubbers have a challenge on their hand with Republican Senate candidate Sharon Angle. The former Nevada assemblywoman will face Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in the General Election.
While many of those promoting the Tea Party points of view have as of late sought to soften the nuttiness in some of their kindred spirits some of the nuts unfortunately make it out of their shell and gets themselves into a real political race. Angle is one, the son of perennial presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, Dr. Rand Paul, is another.
Angle is going to take some extra scrubbing with her desire to end Social Security noted in past statements as well as alluding to armed rebellion. With that latter thought, if people — Democrats — weren’t so afraid of their shadows, they haul about half a thousand folks or so up before federal courts on treason charges. Angle has also shown sympathy for the Church of Scientology.And the beat goes on…
Good luck to our (Texas’) white-haired Sen. John Cornyn, who is heading the GOP’s National Senatorial Committee for this year’s elections. He and the paid pro scrubbers are going to be scrubbing day and night. You know, of course, I’m kidding about wishing Cornyn good luck.
