Obama's green spiel

This tired act again? President Obama is dropping back to the green energy spiel again, calling ti the key to reducing American dependence on foreign oil in his weekly radio and Internet address this past Saturday.

Obama has been placing more and more emphasis on the steadily escalating gas prices, no doubt feeling his sphincter tighten as much as his reelection chances, although I take his "understanding" of the crunch it's putting on family and small business budgets with as big a piece of salt as I can afford under current circumstances. I mean, every time I hear crap like this, the first thought that springs to mind is when's the last time this guy even sat at a gas pump?

The announcement that Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department will begin looking into the practices that are leading to higher gas prices to me is window dressing with a punchline. I am not going to say this move inspires any confidence, because I have full use of my faculties. To be blunt, there is a fine line between witless and clueless, but handily for us, Holder manages to smear that line all across the room to make it easier to see.

To be fair, Obama is at least mentioning measures that can be taken. We have yet to see anything from either side of the aisle or the White House to lead us to believe that even a conversation on this is going to happen, but at least Obama is mentioning doable measures.

The measures, which we have all heard before, include the aforementioned investigation, boosting U.S. oil production, and putting an end to $4 billion in subsidies to the gas and oil companies.

Investigation aside, how about boosting U.S. oil production? I mean, if we can cough up $2 billion to help Brazil (you know, the country that does ethanol right) tap its own huge oil resources, then surely we can drill for oil here, right? Or, rather instead, are we too busy playing dress-up with the Libyan rebels? If history has shown us anything, it's that civil wars gotta have a dress code...

Especially when we could just apply the $4 billion of the tax money our government uses to secure their votes from the gas and oil companies. The idea our government is willing to cut $504 million from the Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) program, but keep right on giving $4 billion to these two industries may be typical, but damn it, it makes me want to kick somebody in the balls. Preferably, a politician or a gas/oil executive.

The simple fact is, outside of the three steps we can take, there additionally has to be a way to spur earnest renewable energy development that does not rely on taxpayer subsidies to prop it up and artificially price it out of competitive range.

The simple truth- it's all a pipe dream with the way government-as-usual is operating it, but the smallest victory may be that it's the only pipe dream you can still enjoy in any public place.