Another day, another resource pissed away..

I wanted to find a non-partisan way to talk about this, but I just do not see it.

(Spoiler: political rant…read at your own risk.)

Unfortunately, when we use up this world, we do not have a spare in a box somewhere to take out of the closet.

Recently, the Senate leadership (read: Republicans) decided to include a provision in a Budget Resolution that would allow drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR.)

OK, lets just start there. What the &*(%^* does drilling in the ANWR have to do with passing a completely separate budget resolution? This is another one of those “See, you voted against …” deals that if you vote against it because of the drilling, you vote against something you needed funding, so you get the “extra line” passed when you vote for. This is NOT partisan; all these asshole politicians do this, and have done this for years, and it stinks. OK, that said…

Several Democrats tried to pass an amendment on the budget bill to strike this ANWR line item from a budget bill so the budget could be voted on without dragging this drilling issue along for the ride. OK, NOW it IS a partisan issue, as the amendment was rejected by a vote of 49-51 (can you say party lines?), opening the way to drilling. So not one Republican gave a damn about a nationally protected area, the ecology of the planet, or what this might do to the area. NOT ONE! Frankly, how could some Wildlife refuge possible affect these people?

What confuses me is did all these “law makers” forget that they too did this crap when the shoe was on the other foot? Did they forget how angry they got when the power party knocked down their amendments? I think not, as proven by the Republican’s desire to once again eliminate the filibuster, a toll that has been used by both parties ALL THE WAY BACK to Washington’s era. But now that it works against us, the controlling party, time to remove it. (I cannot help but imagine how the Republicans would be screaming if it were the Democrats doing this now! How WOULD the Republican’s respond if Tom Delay were a Democrat I wonder, and did all these things? How soon they all forget.)

On the drilling issue, please save your arguments about “freedom from middle east oil” as that is just a bunch of bull. If the Republicans truuly believed in freedom from Middle East oil, they would show us by passing laws requiring car manufactures to build cars that get better gas mileage. They would pass and enforce laws on bigger and stronger gas-guzzler taxes, with an ever increasing MPG floor requirement. They would give bigger and better tax breaks (something they love) to people who buy alternative fuel and hybrid vehicles. Hmmm, I don’t see any such legislation, do you? They do not care about that really, they care about the big corporations that will bennefit from the law, because, well, where do you think they get their money?

If you want freedom from Middle East oil, it is time to get all the individuals who drive LARGE SUVs and Pick-ups, all by themselves with nothing in the back at 75 MPH down the freeway to pay through the nose for their pollution creation and gas hogging. (Yea, I know, you have two kids and dog so you need that SUV. How the hell did our parents ever survive without the SUV?) Or maybe tax the large engine land yachts that get 12 MPG? If you want to be a pig and a slob, that is your right, but I think you should pay for the right to mess up the world around you.

But I think I finally understand why this administration, and probably most religious Republicans do not care about these issues. You see, they truly believe that the end of the world is coming (Revelations) and why save or protect all this stuff when it will not matter in a few years anyway? Who would they be saving it for? So use it now and who cares about the future? It really does explain the pissing away of money, resources, and the careless attitude to the ecology of the planet, because if you believe in the Rapture, why do you care what you save or protect?

For me, I find it a self-fulfilling prophecy actually. If, which many believe, this is not the time of Revelations, then what better way to bring it about than piss off the entire world, get us into wars, stop researching cures to diseases, destroy the ecology, etc. etc. If it does not happen on its own, damn, then we can make it happen. If you apply this logic, it explains everything this administration has done. I cannot help but wonder if Bill Clinton believed this too? They are the same in many ways, neither takes ANY responsibility for the crap they create.

Come on people, this is your world too. Are you really so self-centered and selfish that you do not care what happens to it? Rain forests going away (which most scientists believe hold the cures to most diseases), national parks being trashed and unprotected, wildlife refuges being damaged for the greed of oil; I simply do not understand how any intelligent person could think this all makes no difference, unless of course, you are truly waiting for the rapture, in which case, simply ignore the question and have a nice trip.

SIGH