I'll take Flip-Flop for the win, Alex

If you love the game of Politics at all--and I know ya do--you gotta love John McCain's recent opportunistic shift of position on offshore drilling.

As he and his possible VP mates flip flop on what has been for years a no-no for candidates of both parties, it's in the news bwo Senator Obama's clear-eyed assessment that offshore drilling begun now won't decrease Americans' pain at the gas pump. This is, of course, so obviously true that it makes you wonder what the flip floppers hope to gain by this new stance.

Even if we disregard continued protection of vacationers' lovely oceanic paradises and proceed to drill away, it will be after the year 2030 before the oil tanker comes in.

That prices are being manipulated seems a given to this reluctant astrologer, but perhaps you disagree. But why would energy mavens and wheeler dealers want gas prices to go down anyway? They wouldn't. So that makes the practice of Politics during a presidential campaign the rat in the woodpile, doesn't it?

To seem to care, and to be 'doing something' is considered a safe way to win an election without actually having to do what would actually improve a situation...a political win-win.

So will this issue sway you in November, dear voter? Will you let Rs say that Ds have blocked new drilling making our gas pump pain all the Ds' fault? Puh. Ds are enablers, it's true, but 99% of them are obfuscating as usual.

(I always except 1% of Washington politicians in case there's an honest man or woman running about Capitol Hill. I do try to be fair but 1% is all I've got for this gaggle of pocket-liners.)

My intuition these last few weeks has been that prices are rising in part so that Republicans can push the offshore and Anwar drilling issues again, even though they've not used all the millions of acres adjacent to Anwar to date and have given no hint of drilling/speculating on what they already have access to.

That they want drilling rights and new lands is obvious.

But giving the American consumer relief at the gas pump may be the last thing on their greedy minds. And manipulating elections is always first.


~~NPR reported early today that two Bear Stearns execs were arrested this morning and will be arraigned this afternoon. We'll see if this political performance--seeming to be 'doing something'--will amount to a housecleaning within Wall Street's den of thieves.

2 scenes from somewhere in America...

Photos snapped in rural Georgia, mid-90s...when bad credit was no problem, as the sign says. But can that ever be true?

Do you feel enticed to buy a car? More cars are on the way, it says. More choices for You, dear consumer.

In the lower image you see the end result of buying vehicles at the expense of our environment. And I don't think running out of gas is the only thing that got him into this pickle, do you?.

(c)2008 jude cowell