Philly Beyond Oil

This weekend there is an event in Philadelphia geared towards educating and discussing the realities of Peak Oil, energy depletion, alternative energies, community solutions, and the politics involved. Its open to the public, $20 will get you in for whatever seminars you’d like to attend. If anyone ends up going, email me (dissectional@comcast.net) if you’d like…I will be there and would love to meet up with anyone who’s interested.

PDF file with info on the event

Video of Keith Olbermann’s rant

Not the best video quality, but the words are what is important.

Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said it all, starting his news briefing Saturday afternoon: “Louisiana is a city that is largely underwater…”

Well there’s your problem right there…

Transcript, if you can’t watch the video

Reality

The failure of George W. Bush to even slightly resemble a man who can be trusted to write out the alphabet, let alone lead a country, has reached a level that is unthinkable. Our federal government is inept, it is out of touch with its citizens, reality, and quite frankly doesn’t care about either. I have seen the grin on his face one too many times, and I’m now convinced…he just doesn’t care.

It seems that the Bush administration is so used to the images of death that it has created in Iraq that it has gotten New Orleans confused with downtown Baghdad. Not one person in this country should be defending them over this, not ONE, regardless of whatever side of the fence you stand on in regards to the largely meaningless bickering that is everyday politics in America. These people needed our government, and it failed them. Who knows how many lives could have been saved had there been any federal response that gave the faintest impression that they were prepared for such a disaster, or at the very least could come up with SOMETHING once they realized that they weren’t. They failed at their JOB to a miserable degree, and from George Bush on down, we must hold these “people” (I use that term very lightly) responsible for their inability to deal with the chaos in New Orleans.

Impeach Bush.

“Deal with reality, or reality will deal with you.”
-Colin Campbell

“Ten regular…”, I said dryly to the attendant at my local Exxon (still waiting on that Citgo to get built…).

It was Monday, gas was sitting at a cool $2.55 a gallon. Hurricane Katrina had yet to wreak her full havoc upon the Big Easy and surrounding areas. The vastly important oil and natural gas infrastructure in the gulf was still intact, albeit deserted. Unfortunately, all was not right in the world…

“You’d better fill up, buddy, it’ll be $2.75 tomorrow…”, the attendant responded.

A few minutes and $35 later I called up friends and family to let them in on the dirty secret. He wasn’t lying either, by the same time the next day the price was up to $2.75, and apparently that was only the beginning, see below for the same station’s price today…

I’ll use the term lightly, but should we “recover” from this, I hope it serves as an example to anyone who may have misjudged the impact of oil and natural gas shortages on our lives. If anything positive should come out of the situation, perhaps people will open their eyes and realize just how fragile everyday life is, and just how much of an iron grip oil has on us all. America uses around 21 million barrels of oil a day. The effect that the loss of a few million has had on gas price is staggering, and the fact that if current trends continue, we will one day (in the near future) be dealing with a supply shortage that is not the result of a hurricane, but instead the result of wreckless consumption, is a frightening prospect to say the least.

The time is now, people. The time to conserve is now. The time to bring alternative and renewable energy to the forefront of our consciousness is now. The time to turn off the television and trade in the SUV is now. The time to see to it that the comforts hydrocarbon energy has provided for you are able to perpetuate in some form for future generations to enjoy and expand upon is now. The time to stop spending billions of dollars on weapons and war and instead put that money, time, and energy into research and development is now. The time to rise above the petty divisions of partisan politics and all of its meaningless debates and labels and demand that the people who claim to be our leaders do their job is now. They do supposedly answer to us, right? If what we’re taught to believe about freedom and democracy is true then the time that we start using it for things other than fattening our bank accounts and upgrading our home theatre is now.

If gas price drops back down to pre-hurricane levels and another celebrity goes on trial or has a divorce and causes us to forget about what happened, like we do so many other things, there will be other options to consider (for rational, sane people). Things like giving up on a population that refuses to understand itself and learning how to fend for yourself. Things like finding like-minded people to help you prepare for and deal with a post oil crash society. Things like figuring out how to dodge the thought police once martial law is declared. Things like avoiding the millions of dumbfounded dipshits that chose to ignore the problem and watched everything fall apart, despite their prayers.

Consider this at best a picture of what is to come for us if we do not act, and at worst the beginning of the end for life as we know it. Man, I sure hope no gay people got married yesterday.

A small price to pay for freedom…

I just got back from a trip out to Washington state, and while the scenery is nice, their gas prices are horrific. As much as New Jersey sucks about some things, we do have the cheapest gas in town…go us.

“Go back to bed America, your government is in control.”
-Bill Hicks

The last few days have seen a deluge of emails from various activism groups in my inbox calling for the President to fire Karl Rove due to what appears to be his involvement in the Plame CIA leak case. Move On, United for Peace and Justice, Campaign for a New America, Act for Change, and even John Kerry himself (so sayeth the email) have been on the job, demanding Boy George take action against this heinous crime and give Rove the pink slip.

I have to ask: why? What’s it going to change? Is firing Rove going to erase his number from the President’s cell phone? Is it really going to lessen his involvement in policy making? Is it going to remove him from all the backroom meetings that we don’t know about? Its not like those things are televised (which actually isn’t a bad idea…I’m looking at you, HBO). They can tell us that Rove is gone and that his influence in Washington has been marginalized, but really, where is the proof of it? Are we expected to trust their word alone? If it happened, would it really be anything other than some minor appeasement thrown out to give the illusion that accountability exists in this administration and that there are such things as consequences? Spare me, I can almost see the annoying emails of victory that will be in my inbox now. Until I see Karl Rove celebrating his win at a Brother Love look-alike contest, I have zero faith that “firing” him will do or prove anything. “Getting fired” in itself is such a ridiculous way to think about it, we’re talking about the confidant and right hand man of the President of the United States here, not a store clerk at Wal-Mart…when he’s fired he doesn’t go down to Target looking for a job.

Fire Karl Rove if you want, but leave the illusions at home. At this stage in the game we should be calling for the heads of people higher up than him, so if you feel so strongly about it do me a favor and don’t let your guard down if it happens. This administration is packed with liars and scumbags who rub our faces in their refuse daily because they can. Some people will say, “Well, its a start”. I’d love to be able to believe that, really I would. Unfortunately I know that if he is given the boot it will blow over faster than “Cinderella Man”, while the corporate news media focuses its attention on more important things like shark attacks, Brad and Angelina, and scary photos of Michael Jackson.

On February 17, 2005, the following resolution was proposed by Representative Steny H. Hoyer. It proposes a repeal of the 22nd Amendment, which is the one that limits a president to 8 years of service.

House Joint Resolution 24

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the 22nd amendment to the Constitution. (Introduced in House)

HJ 24 IH

109th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. J. RES. 24
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the 22nd amendment to the Constitution.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

February 17, 2005
Mr. HOYER (for himself, Mr. BERMAN, Mr. SENSENBRENNER, Mr. SABO, and Mr. PALLONE) introduced the following joint resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

——————————————————————————–

JOINT RESOLUTION
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the 22nd amendment to the Constitution.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years after the date of its submission for ratification:

`Article –

The twenty-second article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is repealed.’.

I’m posting this for information purposes only. I am not jumping to conclusions, I’m not saying that I believe it will pass, and I’m not questioning the motives of the people who came up with it (I’ll save all that for the moment in time when/if it actually passes…).

To be totally objective I have often questioned the 8 year limit on the office of President. Surely in a true democracy there wouldn’t be a need for such a thing. That is the idea, isn’t it? The people armed with the ability to discern, an informed and rational mind, and a functioning political process should be quite capable of getting rid of a person no longer worthy of the office, should they not? If the 8 year limit were gone back in 2000, Clinton almost surely would have won again. How different would things be today if that were the case? Would we be at war? Would the events of 9/11 be little more than a random nightmare instead of a brutal reality? No one has the answers to these speculative questions, but at the very least, they make you think. If the person in charge is getting the job done, it would reflect in his voter turnout and support in the country which he represents (Please note that I’m not saying I believe Bill Clinton fits this description, I just used his name as he was the predecessor to Bush). Is that not the idea?

Unfortunately I now understand the absolute necessity of the 8 year limit in America. Our political process is not functioning. In fact, it is stagnant and mired in petty conflict. We do not have an informed public, nor one with an ability to make responsible decisions on things greater than Carrie or Bo. What we have is politainment, “reality tv” in its most ironic form. Yes, the 8 year limit is without a doubt necessary, if for no other reason than it provides us with a safety valve for situations like the one we are currently in. As screwed up as everything seems to be, I at least have the comforting thought that in 2008 George Bush will not be re-elected. Unfortunately, there is the discomforting thought of who the Republicans will choose as the heir (and as things look, likely successor) to our Propagandizer-In-Chief.

Oh yea, happy 4th.

Meet Philip Cooney, lawyer, former chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and former lobbyist with the American Petroleum Institute. Cooney made news back on June 9th when it was revealed that he made final edits to a report that deliberately played down scientific findings regarding climate change.

Initially I found it a little odd that a lawyer and former oil lobbyist was somehow qualified to be making changes to a scientific report. I would think that role would best be left to hmmmm, whats the word? Oh yea, scientists. I know the oil industry is one of the foremost leaders in the world when it comes to caring about the environment and all, and I’m sure that someone with ties to them would have the concerns of the public and not the coffers of ExxonMobil’s CEO’s in mind when altering a climate change report. And most definately, he surely wouldn’t be using this action as a way of sucking up to the world’s largest oil company because he might possibly be looking for a new job. Not a chance, not a chance at all.

Fast forward to yesterday, and this AP story. Here are some excerpts, just to highlight my point.

A former White House official and one-time oil industry lobbyist whose editing of government reports on climate change prompted criticism from environmentalists will join Exxon Mobil Corp., the oil company said Tuesday.

The White House announced over the weekend that Philip Cooney, chief of staff of its Council on Environmental Quality, had resigned, calling it a long-planned departure. He had been head of the climate program at the American Petroleum Institute, the trade group for large oil companies.

The White House made no mention of Cooney’s plans to join Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest oil company. Its executives have been among the most skeptical in the oil industry about the prospects of climate change because of a growing concentration of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere. The leading greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels.

Yea, totally unrelated I am sure. Coincidence, absolutely.

Just this week, General Electric became the latest corporate convert in the “debate” over global warming.

GE Chairman Jeffrey Immelt recently announced that his company, which reports $135 billion in annual revenue, will spend $1.5 billion a year to research conservation, pollution and the emission of greenhouse gases. Joining him for the announcement were executives from such mainline corporations as American Electric Power, Boeing and Cinergy.

I’m sure ExxonMobil will deny it until the bitter end, or at least until it becomes unprofitable, especially now that they have Cooney on board and his climate change expertise.

How long are we going to let our government and its financial backers in the oil business destroy our planet in the name of maximizing profits? How long are we going to keep plugging away in a system of life that is utterly unsustainable, destructive, and built on exploitation? What will it take for us to realize that if there is going to be any future for Western society it is going to have to be us, the ordinary people, who rise up from the magical world of dreams and illusions that the power elite has created for us to wallow around in like pigs in our own filth while they fill the family vault? Is it already too late? Questions that our media should be asking, yet they don’t.

Everything is fine, there is nothing here to see.

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0516-25.htm

Thanks to Dennis on the forum for bringing this up. I have nothing to add, the article sums it up nicely.

Looking for an easy way to protest Bush foreign policy week after week? And an easy way to help alleviate global poverty? Buy your gasoline at Citgo stations.
And tell your friends.

Of the top oil producing countries in the world, only one is a democracy with a president who was elected on a platform of using his nation’s oil revenue to benefit the poor. The country is Venezuela. The President is Hugo Chavez. Call him “the Anti-Bush.”

Citgo is a U.S. refining and marketing firm that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company. Money you pay to Citgo goes primarily to Venezuela — not Saudi Arabia or the Middle East. There are 14,000 Citgo gas stations in the US. (Click here http://www.citgo.com/CITGOLocator/StoreLocator.jsp to find one near you.) By buying your gasoline at Citgo, you are contributing to the billions of dollars that Venezuela’s democratic government is using to provide health care, literacy and education, and subsidized food for the majority of Venezuelans.

Instead of using government to help the rich and the corporate, as Bush does, Chavez is using the resources and oil revenue of his government to help the poor in Venezuela. A country with so much oil wealth shouldn’t have 60 percent of its people living in poverty, earning less than $2 per day. With a mass movement behind him, Chavez is confronting poverty in Venezuela. That’s why large majorities have consistently backed him in democratic elections. And why the Bush administration supported an attempted military coup in 2002 that sought to overthrow Chavez.

So this is the opposite of a boycott. Call it a BUYcott. Spread the word.

Of course, if you can take mass transit or bike or walk to your job, you should do so. And we should all work for political changes that move our country toward a cleaner environment based on renewable energy. The BUYcott is for those of us who don’t have a practical alternative to filling up our cars.

So get your gas at Citgo. And help fuel a democratic revolution in Venezuela.

National news magazine prints story about desecration of Koran. Muslims riot and kill people. Said news magazine suddenly realizes that they “got it wrong”. White House acts high and mighty (leave it to a hypocrite like Dick Cheney to chastise anyone for causing “unnecessary death”). Does this reak of a public relations move to anyone else?

Desecration of religious items is nothing new, in fact it is a part of the curriculum of US military training programs such as SERE (Search, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape). A former US military officer had the following to say about what he experienced during SERE school, while involved in a mock excercise in which the student was the POW:

The bible trashing was done by one of the top-ranked leaders of the camp, who was always giving us speeches–sort of ‘making it real’ so to speak, because it is a pretty contrived environment. But by the end it almost seemed real. Guards spoke English with a Russian accent, wore Russian-looking uniforms. So the bible trashing happened when this guy had us all in the courtyard sitting for one of his speeches. They were tempting us with a big pot of soup that was boiling–we were all starving from a few days of chow deprivation. He brought out the bible and started going off on it verbally–how it was worthless, we were forsaken by this God, etc. Then he threw it on the ground and kicked it around. It was definitely the climax of his speech. Then he kicked over the soup pot, and threw us back in the cells. Big climax. And psychologically it was crushing and heartbreaking, and then we were left isolated to contemplate this.”

Did they really get it wrong? In the end, like most other things, it comes down to whatever you want to believe. If you’re like me and distrust most things you see and hear in the mainstream news, perhaps you will believe that the story was true and this is simply pressure being applied to Newsweek by an administration feeling the PR heat from the violent reaction it got in the Middle East. Does anyone really believe that the action of “flushing the Koran down the toilet” is something that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay would not do?

Either way, all the outrage just seems kind of fake if you ask me…starting with the Pentagon and the White House, which has had worse things to say about this than it did about Abu Ghraib, and on down to the rioters in Afghanistan and their political mouthpieces who were likely just waiting for some gas to pour on the fire. Frankly I really don’t see what all the fuss is about. I’m not trying to be insensitive to the religion, but in the end it is just a book…printed text on paper. Isn’t true spirituality something that you find within yourself which is greater than any mere material item? Maybe I just don’t get it, but the whole thing seems very childish. If I were being held indefinately at a prison famous for using sleep and sensory deprivation tactics I’d welcome a little bible flushing, maybe I could catch some z’s in between testaments.