Just stop talking
I hate listening to politicians speak just about more than anything else. Hedged statements, buzzwords, half-truths, self-important promotion, and bravado are the norm, regardless of party affiliation.
But even worse is the stuff uttered by Sarah Palin over the last several days. I now understand why McCain kept a virtual gag order on her for a couple of weeks after her unveiling. She is clearly out of her game, struggling to keep up:
What she says is crazy, but the way she says it is even crazier. Pure syntactic nonsense. Haven’t we endured enough of this?
Big Contrarian: How big can you fuck up?
Jack Shedd on the disappointment that both of the presidential campaigns have become. Can’t say I disagree.
David Letterman Reacts to John McCain Suspending Campaign
Highlights of a dis.
McCain's Energy Plan: Correct Diagnosis, Killer Prescription
“John McCain seems to think that the problem is addiction to foreign oil rather than to oil per se. But a country that controls 3% of world oil reserves while consuming 24% of world demand cannot seriously expect to be self-sufficient for very long.”
Citing Need for Assessments, U.S. Freezes Solar Energy Projects
Necessary action, those environmental studies, but questionable timing.
Couldn’t call it unexpected
Spotted in the newspaper this morning, and worthy of attention.
- White House asserts executive privilege in EPA dispute
- US asks to rewrite detainee evidence
- Deal Reached in Congress to Rewrite Rules on Wiretapping
Like Dylan said, “when you ain’t got nothing, you got nothing to lose.” Who are the hangers-on who still think this joke of an administration is worthy of anything but contempt?
And great job, Democrats, of working on that new agenda. I hear there’s some oil off of the coast just waiting to be had.
The summer of our discontent
As the price of gasoline in the U.S. pulls itself up to $4/gallon, and the realities of our poor housing, transport, and investment choices set in, I’m glad to see that we as a nation are slowly coming around. Mass transit ridership is up, the Hummer and its ilk are dying a much-welcomed death, and even the shill of the auto industry has made predictions about a decline in travel.
If one was, say, a presidential candidate, now might be a good time to make note of the unreality of our previous way of life, note the positives that higher gas prices can bring, and propose setting a floor on gas prices.
On second thought, one might be wise to keep this plan hush-hush until after one has obtained the office. Selling this plan while campaigning presupposes an electorate with enough brains to realize the benefits.
But what the government can’t, or won’t, accomplish, the market will, for better or for worse. I think the ratchet effect is in full swing. $3/gallon gas, we hardly knew you: $4 is here to stay. It’s just a shame that we couldn’t have realized this earlier, skimmed a bit off the top, and done a better job of preparing ourselves for a different way of life.
Mediocrity on parade
If this report is an honest appraisal of Washngton’s state of thought on the nation’s gasoline “crisis,” then we’re truly fucked. I have not heard anything more depressing than these stuffed shirts trying to devise increasingly absurd ways to keep our fantasy of a happy motoring country afloat.
Practiced outrage at this issue is a safe bet politically, no doubt. But whether it’s the administration looking to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), presidential candidates calling for a gas tax holiday, or a windfall tax on oil company profits, it’s apparent that no one has stopped to think that the underlying premise — that we must keep our national fleet moving at any cost — is wrong.
The “one million” barrels of additional production that ANWR would bring to the table is, relatively speaking, a drop in the bucket. The U.S. imports 10 million barrels of oil a day, and produces another 5 million or so domestically. In a report authored three years ago, the Energy Department said that opening ANWR to drilling “might reduce world oil prices by as much as 30 to 50 cents per barrel” (see “Results”). This corresponds to a pennies on the gallon decrease, which is hardly the kind of relief touted by the administration. The report goes on to say that the impact of the influx of ANWR oil could easily by negated by an equal decrease in OPEC exports, so as to keep the amount of available oil static.
I’m also disappointed by Clinton’s echoing of McCain’s call for a gas tax holiday, for it shows that her intentions with respect to the environment are not as pure as I had hoped. Obama’s characterization of the candidates’ tax holiday as an idea “designed to get them through an election” is spot-on.
(Update: The Freakonomics blog issues a challenge to find an economist who thinks the tax holiday is a good idea. I await the results with bated breath. The unsurprising results are in.)
McCain’s plan would do nothing to replace the lost revenue to the Federal Highway Trust Fund, causing it to miss out on about $10 billion in revenue. Clinton, on the other hand, proposes to replace this lost revenue with a windfall profits tax, which, having been repealed in 1988, has not seen the light of day since. While this tax would put Republicans in the hot seat — does one pander to one’s NASCAR base (votes), or does one kowtow to the oil industry (money) — I doubt such a measure would pass.
Though their ways may differ, Republicans and Democrats alike offer nothing new. And in such a tightly contested Democratic primary, I think it’s safe to assume that any ideas offered up will not stray far from what is considered safe politics.
Surely nothing will be heard on efforts to improve our national passenger rail system, better urban mass transit, and curbing sprawl. Instead, the desperate clinging to the status quo of “more houses/more roads/more cars”, as shown by recent talk of bailout of the adjustable-rate mortgage market, ensures that this election season, though notable for the makeup of the ballot, will remain mired in tired ways of thinking which only serve to hasten our country’s decline into a muddling pool of shit.
