Devilstower sums up the Republican approach to our energy crisis very nicely:
The Republican narrative for 2008 is that the oil crisis is your fault. It’s not their fault for throwing the Middle East into turmoil. It’s not their fault for blocking decades of conservation measures and failing to support alternatives. It’s not their fault for voting just last week, to block legislation that would allow better controls on speculators. It’s your fault — you and everyone else who ever spent a moment worrying about health or safety. Because the Republicans don’t see the problems at the pump as just an opportunity to walk off with prizes they’ve wanted for years, they see it as a political opportunity to smear Democrats for the direct result of Republican policies. [emphasis DTs]
I’ve written before about Republicans not taking responsibility for their actions. The energy issue is a prime example of this. The second and third sentences in particular certainly lay out the landscape: Republicans have blocked conservation and efficiency and alternative energy measures for 30-some years. Then, they jumped on the Iraq-invasion and occupation bandwagon. The same oil corporations that were blocked from controlling Iraq’s oil fields when Saddam Hussein took power are now about to gain control of those same fields. Except it required taking Saddam out of power and destabilizing a primary source of fossil fuels, which Republicans made sure we stayed dependent on. But according to these irresponsible children, it’s everybody’s fault but their own for putting every American, and really every global citizen, between a rock and a hard place. Imagine the nerve of responsible people to ask that future energy sources are developed and secured with our own health and safety in mind! I mean really!
If you support the path Republicans have placed us on, there are plenty of them looking to keep their jobs this November. If you prefer a new approach, there are similarly lots of good Democrats looking for a chance to implement responsible policies.
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Did NASA’s Phoenix lander find ice on Mars?
Scientists believe NASA’s Phoenix Mars lander exposed bits of ice while recently digging a trench in the soil of the Martian arctic, the mission’s principal investigator said Thursday.
Crumbs of bright material initially photographed in the trench later vanished, meaning they must have been frozen water that vaporized after being exposed, Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson, said in a statement.
There was speculation the material was salt when originally uncovered, but salt doesn’t behave like this.
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Check out 350 Science. 350ppm CO2 concentration should be the target of climate change policy.
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Four environmental groups say they will sue to prevent the sale of federal oil and gas leases on the Roan Plateau.
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Trigger laws target Roe v. Wade. John McCain can’t come out and say directly to voters that he wants Roe v. Wade overturned. If you have a conviction, you should have the courage to be honest to voters about it.
