Poly Ranty
Been posting less while I act as "guest editor" on a political site I sometimes contribute to. Here's a sample of my posts this week:
GreenHouse?
An interesting day for environmentalists. The House, which has recently been the far less eco-friendly legislative body, jettisoned the ANWR-drilling provision from the budget bill, along with a proposal for coastal drilling. So the caribou and polar bears are safe, for the moment. They did, however, leave in a potentially disastrous mining measure that could hack up the whole American west.
Rep. Richard Pombo is rapidly ascending to the top of my "most loathsome" list - an admirable feat. First he tied the noose to hang the Endangered Species Act, and now he's trying to drill holes in every square foot of public land. Next he'll propose grinding up bald eagles for cattle feed.
Meanwhile, the Senate is grilling oil leaders over their massive profits, and even Bill O'Reilly has accused them of price gouging. I know there are reasonable, less-than-radical-free-market arguments against a windfall tax. It strikes me that if the Senate is so concerned about how rich the oil giants are they shouldn't have given them $40 billion of our tax money in the ridiculous energy bill.
But I will say this - Lee Raymond, the chief of Exxon Mobil, just looks like the prototypical fatcat industrialist, like he was ripped from some nineteenth century political cartoon where he's hog-tying Lady Liberty while he puffs on a cigar rolled from thousand dollar bills.
GreenHouse?
An interesting day for environmentalists. The House, which has recently been the far less eco-friendly legislative body, jettisoned the ANWR-drilling provision from the budget bill, along with a proposal for coastal drilling. So the caribou and polar bears are safe, for the moment. They did, however, leave in a potentially disastrous mining measure that could hack up the whole American west.
Rep. Richard Pombo is rapidly ascending to the top of my "most loathsome" list - an admirable feat. First he tied the noose to hang the Endangered Species Act, and now he's trying to drill holes in every square foot of public land. Next he'll propose grinding up bald eagles for cattle feed.
Meanwhile, the Senate is grilling oil leaders over their massive profits, and even Bill O'Reilly has accused them of price gouging. I know there are reasonable, less-than-radical-free-market arguments against a windfall tax. It strikes me that if the Senate is so concerned about how rich the oil giants are they shouldn't have given them $40 billion of our tax money in the ridiculous energy bill.
But I will say this - Lee Raymond, the chief of Exxon Mobil, just looks like the prototypical fatcat industrialist, like he was ripped from some nineteenth century political cartoon where he's hog-tying Lady Liberty while he puffs on a cigar rolled from thousand dollar bills.
posted by Francis at 1:40 AM
1 Knee-jerk Reactions:
Well you'll be happy to know that we are organizing to kick Pombo out of office. We can use all the help we can get on this front.
Post a Comment
<< Home