More Drilling: An idiotic idea squared.

To all those folks out there who are still blowing masses of hot air to the effect that if only the PTB had somehow paved the way for more drilling over the years we wouldn't be in this mess, I say, "GET A GRIP!" And stop blaming green groups for things like The Bureau of Land Management's decision to cease accepting applications for solar projects. Are you folks that stupid or just that dishonest that you can't acknowledge that the road to the BLMs decision traces back to the The Commander in Chief, not the greens. Yeah, that's right, the government already allows a ton of drilling, and mining, and clear cutting on federal lands, but it must have been those pesky greens that stood in the way of placing some relatively benign solar panels in the desert.

On the larger question of should we or should we have not drilled for oil, no we should not have drilled and gouged out the earth at every bleeping opportunity over the last ten or twenty years because it's a false economy. The fossil fuel age is over and needs to be over, but then if you are in denial regarding man's enormous contribution to climate change, and/or if you think Peak Oil is a hoax, then, in addition to being terminally thick, you can not be convinced of the profound illogic in the idea that more gouging and drilling was/is the way forward.

I Say It Here....

The article at the link came out a few days after my last post abut Obama looking more and more like a purveyor of the same old same old.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/06/24/obamas_virtues_aside_its_politics_as_usual/

Nothing's changed...things continue to....

Deteriorate. Consider this the first broken promise of Barack Obama's Presidency should he be elected. The broken promise comes in the form of Obama's decision to forgo public campaign money. Earlier in the year Senator Obama pledged that "he would aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election." That statement clearly was just so much horseshit.

Now Senator Slither, as one columnist has accurately dubbed him, can spend obscene amounts-best guess estimates are in excess of a quarter of a billion dollars- on his presidential campaign. Between McCain, who has also opted out of the public finance system, and Obama, who knows what waste in spending might be achieved. More importantly, for me, is that as this contest is shaping up, one increasingly gets that sinking feeling that based on the way the two contestants are opting to play the game, that we voters are once again faced with the same old same old.

There Will Be Blood!

For those of you who don't know, my overall view of George Bush is that he is a contemptible cretin, and that outside of Adolph Hitler's being invited into the German government, The Shrub's two term presidency represents perhaps the biggest political catastrophe in modern history, modern history being defined as post WW1. Certainly, as my wife observed recently, the fact that Bush was elected not once, but twice, (with pardons to those who believe Bush was installed into office by The U.S. Supreme Court) represents THE biggest mystery, bar none, in modern politics.

The Bush Presidency has brought us a wrongful war and occupation in Iraq, and one that has been waged incompetently to boot.

A hideous scam of a police state enterprise known as "The War On Terror", which, by its very shadowy nature, and quite conveniently for Bush, has no accountability to the general public whatsoever.

On the domestic front, Bush is beyond clueless, he and his criminal cohorts in Congress, have utterly obstructed global efforts to address climate change, and they have plenty to answer for regarding the on going financial and economic debacle that involves the banking, housing, and mortgage industry, to name three of the most prominent areas of the economy that are listing in the manner of The Titanic.

Most recently, as in yesterday, Bush, in an act of utter mendacity or mindless stupidity-with Bush it's always one or the other, if not both-blamed high prices at the pump on Democrat's blocking offshore drilling. No, Mr. President, you cad, the high cost of auto fuel would be due to the following factors not listed in order of importance:

1.) Our collapsing currency, which in turn is due to profligate government spending-the bulk of that spending being on, three guesses...no, not entitlement programs- and please don't even mention the hoary term welfare. No, not homeowner bailout programs.....YES.... MILITARY/WAR SPENDING!

2.) Massive foreign competition for petroleum. You might have noticed that China and India are very thirsty, Mr. President.

3.) PEAK bloody OIL- which, Mr. President, you and your fat, greasy eminence of a Vice President know all too well about, hence our long term occupation of Iraq.

The Boston Celtics are Champions Again!

This is one for the record books, number #17 to be precise. In Game 4, The Cs pulled off the greatest comeback in NBA finals history coming from 24 down to win the game. In clinching the title tonight in game six of the series, the Green absolutely obliterated the Los Angeles Lakers, holding leads of over twenty five points for large stretches of the second half. Truly, the game was over by the end of the first half as the Celtics total team effort utterly overwhelmed the Laker's soft west coast game. As viewers of this finals series have been reminded ad nauseum, the league's MVP during the regular season was The Laker's Kobe Bryant. Just so, but the Celtic's Paul Pierce, an L.A. native, is the series MVP. Last but not necessarily least, an added benefit to tonight's decimation of the Lakers is that it has denied the obnoxious coach of the Lakers, Phil Jackson, from tying Celtic legend Red Auerbach for most NBA titles as a coach. Not on the Celtics watch, Phil!

Suburban Blightmare!

It is difficult for many of us to imagine how desperate many suburban and ex-urban communities have become in the United States, but the truth is there for any to see if only we look. Entire communities in large swaths of California and other states have become utter wastelands, decimated by an epic housing bust and under continuous pressure from record gas prices. Some areas have become literal ghost towns populated only by squatters and the few who have not yet been forced out by foreclosure. Many of the squatters are nothing less than criminals who have opportunistically availed themselves of abandoned homes to engage in various sorts of nefarious enterprise. All in all, it's a rather appalling tale as depicted in the article at the link. Make no mistake, the trend toward suburban and ex-urban growth, a trend that had been in place since the aftermath of WWII has likely ended. Now suburbs and exurbs, which grew and thrived from New England to the the west coast at the expense of major city centers, are experiencing a tremendous reversal of fortune with profound implications for us all.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/06/16/suburb.city/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

Sustainable Development Isn't!

A favorite term of ecologists, sustainable development is nothing less than an absurdity. Development infers expansion, and ecosystems can not sustain a condition of growth indefinitely. But capitalism, as observed by Marx, must grow or it will die, and as it is the dominant mode of economic organization, the basic incompatibility of growth and development with an intact ecology must be elided, even as countless ecosystems and species around the planet are being irreversibly depleted. As things stand presently, the planet's fastest growing capitalist enterprise, the People's Republic of China, is, as per the story at the link below, set to over reach in the sort of way that has, as in the case of, oh, say, Easter Island, resulted in spectacular failure. Unfortunately, the rest of us are right in there with them.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080610/sc_afp/wwfchinaenvironment

Second Fiddle.

Hillary Clinton's rabid supporters are quick to proclaim that they will not vote for Obama unless he includes Hillary on the ticket. I'd like to offer that I almost certainly won't vote for Obama if he does. I can't think of anything, save one thing-I'll get to that one thing in due course- that would signal the absolute pointlessness of national politics more than an Obama Clinton ticket. To even suggest it is deeply depressing. I realize that bitter rivals have teamed up before to run for The White House, but a union of Obama and Clinton strikes me as tantamount to an admission that the entire contest has been a complete charade. To those who read this blog, you already know that, for a variety of reasons, I take a dim view of national elections. Still, should this nightmare ticket come to pass, I would hope that a lot of folks who have heretofore acted reverently toward national politics will cease to do so.

What's more, given the the disgraceful way that Hillary has comported herself, I would view Obama teaming up with Clinton as nothing less than a severe sign of weakness on his part, a capitulation to the fear that Hillary and her ghastly supporters ceaselessly sow that come election time, if Hillary is not on the ballot, they will stay away from the polls or vote for McCain.

Now on to the one thing that would make national elections seem even more pointless than an Obama and McCain ticket. Can you guess what it is? Rumor has it that McCain might try to entice Hillary to be his Veep. I know, it's utterly preposterous and I don't believe it either...I think.

Cornerstone of Capitalism to the rescue!

General Motors used to be thought of as the cornerstone of capitalist industry here in the United States, at least by the late, former head of GM, Charles E. Wilson, who asserted that, "What's good for General Motors is good for the country." If that was ever true it certainly isn't now. In fact, what has been good for GM, namely manufacturing large SUVs and The Hummer, has not only been bad for the U.S. but, it could easily be argued, the entire planet. Now, with gas prices well north of four dollars a gallon, it appears that GM has figured out that making SUVs and Hummers isn't good for them either. I suppose one could say better late then never that GM has made this discovery, but the auto manufacturer's stupefyingly slow realization that they have, for years, been in the business of manufacturing the automotive equivalent of a toxic dodo bird does nothing to bolster the arguments of those who would have us believe that capitalist enterprise will take care of all our needs in a timely and economical fashion. Don't worry, I am not about to make the case for the institution of a command economy here in freedom's Land, but I am quite happy to point out something that I believe evidences the vast shortcomings of capitalism in addressing society's needs.


And please don't blame "the government" for this particular failure. The government, specifically the Executive and Legislative branches are owned and operated by big and medium sized business interests primarily for their own benefit. As such, government is utterly compromised in bringing business interests to heel in the service of something beyond just the bottom line. If you don't believe this is the case, answer the following question. How could something as ridiculous at this moment in history as owning the massively gas guzzling Hummer allow one, until quite recently, a tax break?