The (Pathetic) State of our (Fucked) Union
George Bush telling America that it's "addicted to oil" sounds like a pusher telling a customer that he's buying too much crack.
What bullshit.
posted by Stuart Shea at 5:00 PM
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
What bullshit.
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8 Comments:
This guy is just beyond nuts. He can't handle America and he wants to get invovled in Foreign Politics. He handled New Orleans so well that he can go to Foreign Policy. He is full Of B.S. I agree with a passion
6:12 PM, January 31, 2006
Way overdue on an e-mail to you, but can't resist jumping in.
1) It's a horrible analogy even if you take it seriously. If you're addicted to something, they don't tell you to find a substitute drug.
2) Technology, because "we're not goig to conserve our way out of this" (Dick Cheney, 2001).
3) But the Dems aren't much better -- nobody has the political courage to call for an immediate and mandatory measure to curb consumption (oil tax/floor, mandatory CAFE hikes). Kerry campaigned heavily on this in the primary but Michigan Dems forced him to water it down for the general election.
My proposal: A gas non-tax. Raise gas prices $1.50 per gallon, but it is rebated at the end of the year. Importantly, it'd be illegal to loan money on the rebate, like they do with tax refunds.
The psychological effect would make people conserve immediately -- they wouldn't anticipate the rebate and use as much as they were. At the end of the year they would spend the money where they needed it most, not just apply it to next year's gas purchasers. Public transportation and airlines would lose too much in interest on the float not to attempt to conserve.
Finally, a good fact to know: had Jimmy Carter's energy policy not been ended by Reagan, we wouldn't import any foreign oil today.
11:21 AM, February 01, 2006
Correction -- Carter's CAFE requirements all but ended oil imports from the Persian Gulf, not all imported oil. In 1986 there was an oil glut and Reagan removed them.
12:49 PM, February 01, 2006
Jonathan,
Of course people suggest alternate drugs when you're hooked! Methadone comes to mind.
1:27 PM, February 01, 2006
Well, yeah, but not those people :-) They say "repent!" Though I guess you could say Dubya traded booze for political power...
1:48 PM, February 01, 2006
I'm not sure that Bush has given up alcohol, actually.
Sure, the Dems aren't any better on a lot of issues. And that's the really difficult part of this -- that we have few, if any, alternatives to our current driving-off-a-cliff President.
But that alone doesn't make what this dope in the White House is doing any more correct.
He's pushing oil on us, and he's as bad as a crack dealer.
4:11 PM, February 01, 2006
If Kennedy could say, "We're going to the moon by the end of the decade," and we actually get there, there's no reason why we couldn't say, today, that in 15 years we're not going to allow oil-burning cars in the country. Period.
Personally, I'd start with NASCAR. How many gallons of gas (not to mention the greenhouse emissions) do 43 cars go through in 500 miles?
5:15 PM, February 01, 2006
I'd love to see auto racing forced to operate differently. Not only because of the wanton waste of oil, but the pollution. And NASCAR fans tend to be republicans, so I can't be all that concerned about their feelings anyway.
As to Larry's comment...I think it's important NEVER to take anything George Bush says literally. To do so would be to confront an intellectual abyss deeper than the Grand Canyon.
7:50 AM, February 03, 2006
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