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You folks may think I'm a minor annoyance, but my Congressman is on the money... |
Posted on 04/24/2006 9:03:21 AM PDT by oldtimer2
Three Dollar Gasoline: an Opportunity, Not a Crisis, April 24th, 2006
Some observers think that President Bush's dismal job approval rating is not about the mess in Iraq. It is not about the shocking corruption of the Republican Congress. It is not even about President Bush's failure to prevent Hurricane Katrina. It reflects Americans' rage at $3.00 per gallon gasoline.
How can you pursue happiness in that mammoth Ford Expedition with heated leather seats if your gas bill starts competing with your mortgage payment?
Democrats have suddenly discovered that they are shocked (shocked!) by high gas prices. The New York Times reports that
Democrats running for Congress are moving quickly to use the most recent surge in oil and gasoline prices to bash Republicans over energy policy.
Oh really?
o This is the party that stopped the nation building nuclear plants.
o This is the party that toyed with carbon taxes.
o This is the party of Al Gore, now right in the middle of publicizing An Inconvenient Truth, by far the most terrifying movie you will ever see.
o This is the party that won't let oil companies prospect for oil off the left and right coasts.
o This is the party whose activists prevented the US from building new petroleum refineries.
o This is the party that filibusters against drilling for oil in an arctic wilderness that just happens to be right next to a major oil pipeline with spare capacity.
And now Democrats are bashing Republicans over energy policy?
Yes, and Republicans better get out in front of them before $3.00 gasoline and An Inconvenient Truth brew up a perfect storm and blow the nation into an eco-Marshall Plan to increase energy taxes and throw subsidies at a daunting array of environmentalist pet projects from wind farms to biodiesel.
Read Al Gore's article in Vanity Fair to understand just how terrified you should be. After reciting the usual catalog of climate changes, he warns of the 10,000 foot mound of ice on top of Greenland that would, if it melted or broken up, raise the sea level worldwide by more than 20 feet. In the face of all this, why is it that our leaders seem not to hear such clarion warnings? Maybe, Al, it because they don't just listen to eco-alarmists like you but also contrarian ideas like the theory of the University of Virginia's Bill Ruddiman that global warming from agriculture has already staved off the next ice age.
Al Gore reminds us that The Chinese expression for crisis consists of two characters:
The first is a symbol for danger
the second is a symbol for opportunity.
He is a politician and he would know. It is when they feel danger that the people rise up and demand that the politicians "do something." For a brief window of opportunity the special interest blocking forces are weakened as the people demand that the politicians lead them to safety.
All the stars are in alignment. Americans are angry as they shovel out $80 to fill up their SUVs. The Democrats are hypocritically on the attack, threatening to get to the right of the president; the mainstream media is baying for blood, shoveling anecdotal stories of helpless consumers ruined by high gas prices.
Usually economic "crises" are bad news because they provide an excuse for the politicians to do something stupid like impose price controls or prop up failing corporations. But not this one. Not if the president and the Congressional leadership can rouse themselves from their torpor. Not if they can bestir themselves to do something more than stand foursquare against "price gouging."
o Now is the time to demand that Congress passes a decent energy bill.
o Now is the chance to demand that we build some more oil refineries.
o Now is the chance to drill for oil in ANWR.
o Now is the chance to search for oil on the continental shelf off the west and east coasts.
o Now is the chance to rationalize the crazy quilt of gasolines blended for each individual city.
Of course the Democrats are demagoguing on energy. They demagogue on everything.
Some day, in a quieter, more reflective time, there will be an opportunity to conduct a scholarly study to determine whether the Democrats of the twenty-first century actually believed in anything other than temporary partisan advantage. But this is not that time.
Now is the time to call the Democrats' bluff on energy, not to mention border security, Iraq, and taxes. Is anyone paying attention? At the White House? Mr. President? Karl Rove? On Capitol Hill? Denny Hastert?
Nothing personal, you understand. It's just that when we read in Time that the White House's five point plan to save the Bush presidency doesnft include a bullet point for high gas prices, we begin to wonder if anyone is home.
Christopher Chantrill blogs at www.roadtothemiddleclass.com. His Road to the Middle Class is forthcoming.
Boy, I'm sure glad you weren't serious. That would have been a really dangerous situation. Maybe you need to add some sort of indication that you're joking. You had me really worried about your safety.
Between me worrying about all the exploding glass and everyone else worrying about the garage itself exploding (see, I gave him credit for opening all the windows, but then I didn't think it was all in his garage - I thought he said it wasn't - I *assumed* it was in a special gasoline storage bunker on his property), we pretty much had "al baby" in smithereens already! Plus all the little kiddos at the school next door.
If you've ever seen a *real* storage tank on a tank farm, such as those around the Houston Ship Channel, blow its multi-ton top in a fire situation, you'd have seen me cringing here, lol.
I know. Not everyone is really aware of the risks with storing gasoline. I mean, we all have it in our cars, and in gas cans for our lawnmowers, etc., so we don't usually think of it as dangerous.
That's why I was so worried about al and his story. I mean, I can understand how someone might try something like that to beat the high prices.
I'm just really glad he wasn't serious and that there isn't really any danger. It's really important, I guess, to put a smiley face or something on your message when you're just joking around.
Thanks for explaining to us all - and hope you get it cleared up with whatever idjuts are flakking you elsewhere. I was about 80% sure you were joking, but we had to know for sure! Thanks for the funny "gotcha"!
*Don't try this at home, boys and girls.*
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You folks may think I'm a minor annoyance, but my Congressman is on the money... |
I used to have Coke bottles of condensate from the initial production of wells I had an interest in, all lined up on my bookshelves in my house - until I realized they were just little Molotov cocktails waiting to happen or nitroglycerin grenades or something, lol.
People would pick one up and say "what's this?" while I'm diving under the dining room table. Having my Sterno fire chafing dish nearby always gave me the willies. Anyway, last move, I threw them out. At least, I hope I did and they're not sitting in an unairconditioned storage unit with my other stuff. I think I would've heard the blast, if so.
"must be a jealous Yankee fan wishing you had some pitching that wasn't over 40 years old and a few bats that could hit in the clutch."
Jealous? Of the Mets? That's pretty funny considering that Mets fans consider they had a successful season when they don't finish in the basement.
Bump for later
Sure there is, apparently you just haven't liked it. What would YOU like to see as an "energy policy"?
If you and your friends keep that up, you may just get us a Democrat in 2008.
BUMP
A lot of people agree.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/energy/
Unfortunately a lot of people disagree. They have perfected the art of filibuster.
Have you been to a Wal-Mart lately?
Yeah the Republicans are really cowed now. Hastert, Frist and Bush all on the class-envy "gouging" bandwagon. Sorry, no one is going to like you more just because you are beating the Democrats to their tired old message. Four dollar gasoline is the price we pay for our Green stupidity, not someone's greed. Go ahead and bail if you want but I don't see that strategy working. Rather, I am going to stick with the party that I think I can exert the most influence on. Admitedly it looks like no one is listening these days but keep griping because if we don't press them, who will?
o Now is the time to demand that Congress passes a decent energy bill.
o Now is the chance to demand that we build some more oil refineries.
o Now is the chance to drill for oil in ANWR.
o Now is the chance to search for oil on the continental shelf off the west and east coasts.
o Now is the chance to rationalize the crazy quilt of gasolines blended for each individual city.
This is absolutely correct. We won't hear of it in the LameStream Media, though.
He is a Judas Goat and does not represent the interests of the United States but Saudi Arabia and Mexico. You have "eyes but cannot see, ears but cannot hear".
I believe these are the 3-5 gallon bottles used in home water systems. http://www.bottled-water-shop.com/sparkletts.html
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