Greased Pigs

In case you're wondering why it costs 50-60$ to fill your gas tank, look no further. let's see, a few years back, we needed a new energy policy, since it's pretty clear we're a) running out of oil, b) it's getting really expensive, c) it's killing the planet, and d) it was one of bush's campaign promises. so, what do we do? we bring in the oil company executives, and they meet with our VP in secret meetings. the white house won't even release the list of attendees. now, after huge, unexplained spikes in the cost of oil and gas, and new record profits for oil companies (Exxon had the biggest profit this last quarter for profits of any company in history), congress decides it's gonna hold hearings, bring those execs in to testify, and make 'em tell us why their prices are so high and their profits are so big. Way to go, Congress! Are you actually going to represent our interests for once? Well...

The Democrats wanted these guys sworn in. Seems resonable - hey, it's only fair, senators, you made the baseball players swear in when they testified about that global killer of an issue, steroid use in baseball... but no! Ted Stevens would not allow them to be sworn in. Ted Stevens, Republican Senator from Alaska, who chairs the committee. he whose life's dream is to allow the oil companies to drill in the alaskan wildlife reserve. he absolutely HEARTS the oil companies. he of the 500 million dollar "bridge to nowhere" that he had inserted as his pet pork project in the new transportation bill, to link a village/island of 50 people currently served by a ferry, to the mainland - oh, and his family just happens to own land there, go figure! - he who threatened to resign from the senate if they took away his little pet project funded by our tax dollars to, gasp!, support a bipartisan effort to cut pork to help pay for katrina damage - waaaa!

Wanna know why he didn't want them sworn in? Turns out, those secret energy task force meetings, the ones that were supposed to lead to fuel independence and new technologies and cleaner fuels so we can burn clean fuel and not have to worry about Mess-O'Potamia anymore!, turns out they were just meetings between cheney and the oil/energy company executives (you know, great guys like Ken Lay, the former head of Enron!), and environmentalists and other outsiders weren't even allowed to attend.

Oh, and those oil company execs, by the way? they lied about being there. to congress. good thing we didn't let them get sworn in, hey Ted? so what exactly did they talk about at those secret task force meetings i wonder? my guess, and this is just a guess, mind you, is that they were wondering just exactly how far, in feet, they could shove that gas nuzzle up our collective a$$es before we throw these theives out.

Read this article, it's ridiculous: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/15/AR2005111501842.html

If you go back a little further to January 2003, you'll see that a federal court had ordered Cheney to turn over material about who was at those secret meetings, but the Supreme Court threw out the ruling, saying Cheney didn't have to turn over the materials. The secret was safe, thanks in no part to his good pal and duck-hunting buddy, Justice Scalia.

"Vice President Dick Cheney and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia spent part of last week duck hunting together at a private camp in southern Louisiana, just three weeks after the court agreed to take up the vice president's appeal in lawsuits over his handling of the administration's energy task force....

While Scalia and Cheney are avid hunters and longtime friends, several experts in legal ethics questioned the timing of their trip and said it raised doubts about Scalia's ability to judge the case impartially, the newspaper pointed out.

But Scalia rejected that concern Friday, telling the Times, "I do not think my impartiality could reasonably be questioned."" (Oh, I think it can!)

"The Times notes that [the] pair arrived Jan. 5 on Gulfstream jets and were guests of Wallace Carline, the owner of Diamond Services Corp., an oil services company in Amelia, La. "

How much clearer does this have to be?!?! Oww, that gas nuzzler hurts, make it stop, make it stop!!!

Holy crap, the hounds are turning on each other!

These are some of today's juicy stories:

The Drudge Report and the Washington Times are both running stories about how Bush no longer trusts his senior aides and only speaks to 4 people now: Condi, mom, Karen Hughes, and Laura. He's not even speaking to his dad. Is he afraid to talk to men? (BTW, this is pretty scary if true.)

Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska chastized Bush for attacking war critics and said the Dems have a right and obligation to speak out. I'll drink one to Chuck tonight.

Tucker Carlson, that right-wing, bow-tie wearing Republican hack, writes that Karen Hughes (Bush's Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy, our ambassador to the Islamic world) is a complete failure in the middle east and a horrible choice on Bush's part. Gee, who'd have thought the soccer mom couldn't turn hundreds of years of animosity and mistrust on its head in her 2 patronizing visits?

The Senate just voted 79-19 to add language to a $491 billion Pentagon spending bill that calls on the Bush administration "to explain to Congress and the American people its strategy for the successful completion of the mission in Iraq." Better late than never.

Pat Buchanan's magazine has a nice article bashing Bill Kristol's Weekly Standard journal, talking about how it pushed us to go to war with Iraq after 9/11 instead of going after Osama.

Cheney got heckled at a speech today, in TENNESSEE of all places. Go Vols!

Rumsfeld is now claiming that the Iraq was was not his idea! (He was just in charge of it. Either way, nice job, loser.) I thought this was going to be the adminstration of accountability? At some point, I'm sure, the whole thing will be blamed on Clinton (Bill or Hillary, either will do), liberals, Jimmy Carter, the ACLU, or the Dems in general.

And Bill O'Reilly, good ol' Falafel King himself, has completely lost his marbles. First he calls for a terrorist attack on San Fran, then he threatens to post the names of the internet sites ("left-wing smear merchants," I believe he called them) that ran this story on his webpage! Way to aid and comfort the enemy, Billy, and subvert the First Amendment, all in one fell swoop. Tard. Oops, I better be careful, or else the splotchy Mcarthy wannabe might tattle on me...

Classic!

On Boycotts

Should I boycott Target stores because the left tells me they allow their pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception on religious grounds, or because the right tells me they switched their holiday shopping decor from "Merry Christmas" to "Happy Holidays" and last year banned Salvation Army bell ringers in front of their stores?

Do these boycotts cancel each other out? Or do they get added together for a double boycott from both sides? Should I limit my boycott to their holiday items and pharmacy?

What about the fact that they sell those sweet, delicious Golden Grahams for only $2.50 a box?!?