June 27, 2008

IMPEACH BUSH

IMPEACH CHENEY

OFFSHORE DRILLING WON'T SOLVE THE PROBLEM

George W. Bush, John McCain, and others of the right-wing crowd are engaging in pandering of the worst sort when they advocate offshore drilling and drilling in ANWR as a solution to our energy woes. It would take years for any oil drilled offshore to have any effect. The amount of oil offshore is limited. Based on our current consumption, it's a supply that would last just a few years. The dangers to the environment are incalculable. Instead of pursuing a technology that is quickly becoming antiquated, we should devote our resources to new and clean technology. This article is from:http://southernstudies.org/

Furthermore, the problem of drilling-related pollution is not limited to the aftermath of natural disasters. Offshore oil production also brings with it the risk of spills from tanker accidents, which are devastating to ocean and shore life as well as seaside tourist economies. Then there's the chronic pollution from drilling operations. The Rainforest Action Network that over its lifetime one normally operating oil drilling rig will:* dump more than 90,000 metric tons of toxic drilling fluid and metal cuttings into the ocean;* drill between 50 and 100 wells, each of which will dump as much as 25,000 pounds of toxic metals including lead, chromium and mercury, and potent carcinogens like toluene, benzene, and xylene into the ocean; and* pollute the air as much as 7,000 cars driving 50 miles a day.

THE CASE FOR NATIONALIZATION

The Fresno Bee is a good barometer of right-wing talking points. If you read the letters page of The Bee, you can pretty much find out what Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage, and their ilk are bellowing out on the talk shows every day. And The Bee also features Victor Davis Hanson, an "intellectual" guru of the far right. Lately, the talking points have been calling Barack Obama a "socialist." One horrified right-winger is aghast that some members of Congress have suggested that oil should be nationalized. It's better for most of us to live without essentials like food and energy than to have any hint of "socialism," according to these fruitcakes. Capitalism hasn't been all that good to me or to countless others. Maybe a little socialism could be a welcome change. This article by Ted Rall is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

The problem isn't the weak dollar or the non-existent housing market. It's capitalism. A sane government doesn't leave essential goods and services--food, fuel, housing, healthcare, transportation, education--to the vicissitudes of "magic" markets. Non-discretionary economic sectors should be strictly controlled by--indeed, owned by--the government.

Consider, on the one hand, snail mail and public education. The Postal Service and public schools both have their flaws. But what if they were privatized? It would cost a lot more than 42 cents to mail a letter from Tampa to Maui. And poor children wouldn't get an education.

Privatization, particularly of essential services, has always proven disastrous. From California's Enron-driven rotating blackouts to for-profit healthcare that has left 47 million Americans uninsured to predatory lenders pimping the housing bubble to Blackwater's atrocities in Iraq, market-based corporations' fiduciary obligation to maximize profits that is inherently incompatible with a stable economy whose goal is to provide people with a decent quality of life.