Fight the Hand that Bleeds

You know things are bad when Nancy is even joking about registering Republican.

It would be nice, she reasons, to be right all of the time… wouldn’t it? Of course, we know the opposite is true: ask Holly Hunter in Broadcast News… or ask Tom DeLay. He’ll tell you all about the “syndicate” that’s organized a systematic attack on “conservative, core values.” He’ll explain that the religious Right needs to be aware of the liberal threat, and fight it… ‘cause despite the fact that the Right is in control of the Executive AND Legislative branches of our government, and can count on at least half of the Judicial branch (you know, the same branch that sidestepped the Constitution and handed Dubya the Presidency in ’00), the Right is on the defensive… Right? Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

As galling as these conservative claims are, what’s even more appalling is the way the media is wholly complicit in the christo-fascist agenda. According to the major TV networks, the only news the last few weeks has been the impending (and eventual) death of an unfortunate Florida woman in a “persistent, vegetative state” and the Pope’s not-unexpected death. I saw this article just this morning… I’m not even sure that’s news, but damned if it wasn’t the banner headline.

Meanwhile, while this culture of life festered in that carnival of death, there actually was news… what about that BBC special that aired a couple weeks ago? Never reported… and never disputed. How about the shocking hypocrisy of a Republican party goose-stepping along to the tune of “Every sperm is sacred,” and violating the Constitution’s clear edict of separation of powers to “save” one Floridian while merrily cutting Medicaid and severely curtailing victim’s rights? And could it be more ironic that while the Neocons howl about reinserting a feeding tube and decry the Godless pro-choice movement, they ease environmental restrictions on manufacturing plants and cut school lunch programs for schools that once taught to foster creative & independent thought, but now are forced to teach to a test? They’ll fight to the last old, white man for the unborn and undead, but won’t hesitate to deny school kids a hot lunch… while they work to keep Americans mired in a morass of stupidity, ignorance and financial imprisonment.

Tom -“The Cockroach King”- DeLay’s statement the day that unfortunate woman in Florida died? Am I the only one who heard that? He said: "Mrs. Schiavo's death is a moral poverty and a legal tragedy. This loss happened because our legal system did not protect the people who need protection most, and that will change. The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not today. Today we grieve, we pray, and we hope to God this fate never befalls another. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Schindlers and with Terri Schiavo's friends in this time of deep sorrow." The statement made the airwaves sure… but where was the commentary? No one was at least bothered by his insinuation that the only good activist judge is an activist judge who shills for Tom’s causes? No one was troubled by the simple fact that despite his outlandish claim, there was never any “judicial activism” at work during the TEN YEARS this case was litigated… it was always about the letter of the law that the rapture-right in Congress is more-than-happy to ignore -if not outright trample- in their self-serving quest to further their hypocritical, Un-American agendas?

Remember this from day 13 of the hospice watch? "Any further action by our court or the district court would be improper," wrote Judge Stanley F. Birch Jr., who was appointed by former President Bush, in his decision to not re-insert the feeding tube. "While the members of her family and the members of Congress have acted in a way that is both fervent and sincere, the time has come for dispassionate discharge of duty." Birch went on to scold President Bush and Congress for their attempts to intervene in the judicial process, by saying: "In resolving the Schiavo controversy, it is my judgment that, despite sincere and altruistic motivation, the legislative and executive branches of our government have acted in a manner demonstrably at odds with our Founding Fathers' blueprint for the governance of a free people — our Constitution."

How much air-time did that statement get in the “liberal media?”

DeLay all but threatened the country’s federal judges… but this asshat went the extra mile: “I don’t know if there is a cause-and-effect connection but we have seen some recent episodes of courthouse violence in this country,” Sen. Cornyn said. “Certainly nothing new, but we seem to have run through a spate of courthouse violence recently that’s been on the news and I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters on some occasions where judges are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up and builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in - engage in violence.” Now, the recent “spate” of Federal Judge-related killings is atrocious, of course… but politically-motivated as Senator Cornyn implied? Be serious. At best, Sen Cornyn is telling the nation’s judges “Hey, I sure don’t want anything to happen to you, but if you keep this behavior up, why, I just don’t know…. Maybe it’d be best if you toed the Neocon line, huh?” At worst he’s not-so-subtly empowering his bible-thumping base to hunt down and kill federal judges who don’t agree with his Neocon agenda… which, last I checked, is a federal crime. The word “treason” springs to mind….

The thing is, I don’t give a shit if a Liberal, or a Conservative or an Independent or a Koala Bear with a Portuguese accent and a lisp spews this crap… people need to stand up and say “That’s enough.” Where are the “moderate” Republicans? Where are the Democrats? Where’s that sense of moral outrage… is it really only reserved for the bile-spewing, hate-mongering, hypocritical rapture-rightists?

It’s easy to believe that much of the furor over the Schiavo case was a Neo-con smokescreen created to shield DeLay from public scrutiny he certainly can’t withstand… but the fact of the matter is that the public isn’t getting the real news anyway. If it wasn’t the circus in Florida, it was gonna’ be wall-to-wall Michael Jackson trial coverage… or the Pope’s slide into the kingdom of Heaven… or juggling Pandas on unicycles!

It’s just all so friggin’ frustrating, isn’t it? Have you ever felt so powerless?

Gas will be $3.00 a gallon before you know it, and the price of hybrids will skyrocket at the same time and that lettuce you get each week? It’s gonna’ cost almost twice as much to truck it to Albertson’s (a Kroger company!) soon, so I hope you don’t mind paying $6.00/head for it while you’re searching for change to cover the rate-hike of your bus ride back home.

Your President gleefully claimed a post-election mandate that didn’t exist, and proceeded to try to dismantle the single-most successful social plan in history. Then he went about the business of appointing more elder death-mongers and downright incompetence-mongers… all of whom will sail through any confirmation process they may face in a House and Senate ruled by the kowtowed right.

80% of the country saw that Congress overstepped its bounds in that “Palm Sunday Compromise.” EIGHTY PERCENT! You can’t get that much of the country to agree on if it’s good to feed babies broken bits of organic glass or not. And sure, Dubya backed away from the issue (after he saw the polls)… but there still hasn’t been a real debate on what Congress did that night… and the only voices being heard on the issue and it’s outcome are those of the far-right zealots… and that’s just too dangerous to get my head around.

The House is actually considering “the nuclear option.” Actually thinking about not allowing the filibuster during judicial confirmation hearings. That’s like Bill Frist saying “Fuck I hate Jimmy Stewart.” How can he get away with that, let alone trying to sweep away the last vestiges of checks and balances we have left on Capitol Hill? This isn’t newsworthy?

I’m supposed to take some solace from the fact that the real news and cogent commentary is out there; it’s all there on the blogs, I know… but isn’t that just more preaching to the choir? I certainly don’t expect to change any minds with this meandering, melancholy musing of mine. Are we bloggers seen as anything but colorful crackpots? Oh, and were you aware of this?

What is going on?

I’ve linked to this before… but seriously, read it… and tell me it isn’t happening right now.

And you know, what gets to me most is that I’m not only just as guilty of simply standing by and watching this all happen as anyone else, but that I’m playing this game in spite of myself. I find myself using the Right's phrases and terms… “culture of life…” and “insurgents,” for instance. Shit, I know the definition of “insurgent,” and I’ll tell you what: many of those Iraqi combatants are not “insurgents…” they’re freedom fighters. We never should have occupied that nation in the first place, and no one knows that better than the people suffering there today.

Not only do I find myself parroting the Right’s rhetoric while I debate it, but I’m still being distracted from the real news. Sure, I can still point you to this and this and this… and this… but while I do that, I’m -for example- shopping for a hybrid… even though I know that there is no solution to this coming energy crisis. These domestic issues we're facing are important, to be sure... and the Neocons are usurping the government that used to be "by the people" while undermining our Constitution... and the media's playing along, and keeping us docile and dumb... but I can't shake the feeling it's a double-blind.... I can't help but feel that while I decry the hubris and arrogance of Dubya and his fundamentalist cronies that I'm just as guilty of that same arrogance. Maybe that's the biggest problem we face: human arrogance. As a race we behave like we're the masters of this globe, when in fact the bugs out-number us three-to-one while we gobble up 60% of the planet's resources... and feel good about ourselves for trying to get Tom DeLay fired.

When’s the last time you heard the phrase “Global Oil Production Peak” on TV? While I’m righteously-pissed about the state of our nation, and shouting at the rain in a rage, I’m blissfully whistling past the graveyard of global warming and the end of the petroleum age… all while merrily mixing metaphors! Yippee!

Where was I? Oh yeah… the “oil production peak.” Just today -when Al Greenspan was telling Wall Street not to freak out about the skyrocketing price of oil ‘cause, well shucks, we’re finding more all the time and golly we’re learning so dang much about alternate fuels that there’s nothing to worry about- we were sold another bill of goods meant to keep us quiet and contained.

Okay. The “Global Oil Production Peak.” At some point, when you’re consuming any limited resource, you’re gonna’ run out… right? Well, an “oil production peak” essentially means… well, that. Specifically, it’s defined as that moment when the world (in the "global" case) produces the most oil it will ever produce in a given year… and after that? After that production will inexorably decline. Imagine a bell curve… but with really, really bad karma.

Now, reaching that peak may not seem so bad, right? Half of the world’s oil supply has gotta’ be a lot still… right? Sure. It is. But what the talking heads won’t ever tell you is that that last half is the most difficult to recover; hardest to locate half of the whole. And, by the way, it’s mostly miles beneath the homes of people who hate us.

Why’d we go into Iraq again? Oh yeah… WMD.

What was I saying? “The Omega…” I remember.

Let’s say we actually gain easy access to that last half of the global oil supply. Let’s say that we actually do manage to bring stability to the Middle East… and keep China’s greasy mitts off those oil fields… and fill our Flip-N-Fills with crude… that’s a butt-ton of oil… should last a spell, right? What’s to worry?

Oh, I’m sorry… did I mention that we’ve hit our domestic oil production peak already? No? Oh… well we did. Let’s share a heaping helping of perspective… shall we? Remember the green and red flags fluttering outside of gas stations in the mid-70’s? Remember the lines at the pumps? Remember the fist fights? That was a few years after we’d passed our own peak. That supply & price crunch was a result of the OPEC nations price-gouging, sure… but it was also a portent of things to come on a global scale. What’s more –or less, as the case may be- when we reached that peak around 1970, we were producing about 11 million barrels of oil a year… by 2004? We were hovering around 5 million barrels a year.

“Plenty of time,” right?

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

For years, most experts have agreed that the global peak will be reached between 2004 and 2010. In recent years though, as India & China’s demand for crude has grown dramatically, and Saudi Arabia has proven woefully inept at increasing their supply to come closer to meeting demand, that window has been shuttered… we’re squinting through the blinds at 2005. That would be… oh… right around… now.

I know, I know… there are many types of alternate fuel sources, and necessity is the mother of invention after all, so what’s the big deal? Well, American natural gas production has been on the decline all this time as well, and that's been our focus on electro-power generation ever since Chernobyl & Three Mile Island. That means most of our power plants are gas-powered… as are half of our homes (heated with gas, anyway). And before you think “Heck, let’s just import natural gas!” consider the fact that importing it is damn difficult… and no one wants to headquarter the special terminals necessary to “re-gassify” (I’m not making that word up) it on accounta’ they’d be such tempting terrorist targets.

Hydrogen fuel cells? Currently they’re designed to run on hydrogen largely obtained from natural gas. It can also be obtained from the electrolysis of water… from nuclear power plants… but how to get that many plants online in a few years? Aside from the logistics of the construction… people don’t like to glow… and as much as they hate the idea of adjusting their lifestyle during a permanent energy crisis… that image of… you know, glowing, packs quite an emotional punch. It’d be a tough sell.

“Renewable Resources?” Maybe… but consider: how do you build solar collectors or wind turbines on such an immense scale? And those devices? They require an enormous amount of energy to manufacture & operate… and it’s quite likely impossible to manufacture them without the underlying platform of a fossil-fueled economy.

Coal? Bad idea before… bad idea now. It’s less abundant than oil or natural gas… and more damaging to the environment. If you enjoy acid rain and mercury poisoning -and hate canaries- then coal’s the way to go. Of course, you can synthesize oil from coal… but the only people to manage that trick on a large scale were the Nazis… or, rather, their slave labor.

The “biomass” options? They can’t work on the global scale… and they mostly require oil and gas “inputs” to grow… and to eventually be processed into Ethanol or bio-diesel fuels. That's a net energy loser… why not just burn the inputs (like we do) and forget about the biomass byproducts?

And don’t think it’s just about gasoline and power. Do you have any idea how huge a role petroleum plays in your life? Used any plastic lately? How ‘bout prescription drugs? Forget about collecting action figures… dark times are ahead, my friends.

No combination of alternative fuels will allow us to live the lives to which we’ve grown accustomed.

If I seem to be spouting off (Get it? “Spouting off?” Oil? WOOOOOOOO!) about oil, it’s not just because I drive a lot. I’m not that shallow, honest. It’s because I’m sitting here trying to comprehend not only how I’m capable of ignoring what could very well be a planet-altering crisis, but how the media can tell us that the mere possibility isn’t newsworthy… and that our elected officials –who surely know what’s coming- are clearly choosing the short-term goals of lining their coffers and hunkering down for the coming shitstorm they’re more than happy to tell Larry King isn’t on the way. It’s because it’s a metaphor for what’s happening… and it’s what’s happening… while it’s “not” happening in the media… or in our heads. It’s a meta-meta-metaphor… pretty cool, huh?

The simple fact is as a world... as a nation... as a middle and lower-class populace... as decent people who believe in the rule of law and the right to think freely... we're being bled dry. There's a fight to wage on the political stage, sure -and it needs to be won- but we need a longer pair of eyes... and we can't let ourselves be distracted from the even bigger challenges that face us....

Oh, that’s right… everything’s okay: everything’s under control… I saw it on TV.

I’m gonna’ go eat my tuna and swordfish sandwich now.