An open letter to Congress: Don’t drink the oil man’s Kool-Aid.

Wrapping himself in the once-impermeable defense of “strengthening our national security”, President Bush delivered his magnum opus as a Texas oil man this morning, calling upon our legislature to lift the federal statute banning oil exploration off the nation’s coastline.

Bush implored Congress to open the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve as well, myopically extolling the virtues of industry self-regulation. “Scientists have developed innovative techniques to reach Anwar’s oil with virtually no impact on the land or local wildlife,” Bush said. “I urge members of Congress to allow this remote region to bring enormous benefits to the American people.”

However, once the hyperbole has dissolved under the harsh light of reality, Bush’s proposal runs contrary to every vestige of logic in our new global energy economy.

2008: Beverly Hills P.D. and the Orwellian Era of Ticketing

Ready for your motoring close-up?

The Beverly Hills Police Department wants to use automated speed cameras to target speeders and raise revenue, opening a lucrative market to camera suppliers and local governments alike. But state law must be changed first.

Will the real John McCain please stand up?

Amidst housing prices in free fall and the rising tide of foreclosures, Washington is on the brink of yet another policy disaster. And the one man who has shown clarity and restraint is beginning to crumble.

For the last two months, proposals to bailout the subprime mortgage market have become the new political football in the upcoming presidential election.

As a result, we are in danger of ignoring the moral imperative which lead people into this mess in the first place.

Squirrel commits grand self-sacrifice; insurance agents stymied.

During the months while I had yet to settle on a host,  I still gathered articles that caught my eye.

Hopefully,  I assumed,  some would have staying power as fuel for discussion.

Others are just too damned odd to pass up.

Last October in sunny Bayonne, New Jersey, the Millar family had a combustible experience of the rodent persuation. High above their driveway, a local squirrel decided that the high voltage line leading to a neighborhood transformer would make the consummate snack.

Inevitably, said squirrel goes a bite too far and lives out his last moments as a cathode for the power grid of rural Hudson County. Fully engulfed in flame, the electron-enamored rodent fell from the line onto the windscreen cowl of the Millar’s 2006 Toyota Camry.

Apparently, an incendiary squirrel must back some serious BTUs under it’s furry hide.

The fire was sufficiently robust that the plastic trim pieces melted, allowing the body of the squirrel to slide under the hood and burn through something containing a petroleum-based fluid. It was never clear whether the fuel line was severed or if Rocky burned through the brake fluid reservoir, but suffice to say that the car was declared a total loss shortly after firefighters doused the blaze.

The last report I could find mentioned nothing of either a complaint against or settlement from the local utility.

Despite this, there was a poignant footnote. As part of their Halloween decorations, the Jersey Journal reported that the Millar family had erected a small tombstone, presumably for their dearly departed firestarter.

God damn it, not again…

Apparently, old boy Nader doesn’t know when to say when.

On Meet The Press this morning, Nader announced he would again run for the Presidency, despite damning evidence that his 2000 campaign split the Democratic vote and handed victory to Bush in the highly contested Florida election.

When the recount was halted, Bush won Florida by 537 votes. Nader received nearly 3 million. Yet with all the lucidity of an ostrich with a sand-ensconced cerebellum, Nader refused to admit the obvious, passing the buck to then Secretary of State Katherine Bush.

In the most galling example of self-indulgence, Nader claimed he drew more votes from the GOP than he did from the Democrats. Using voodoo statistics as his post-hoc rationalization would be comic if the stakes weren’t so dear this time around.

Cloak and dagger politics aside, Nader is once again in prime position as a loose cannon and a hopelessly defunct politician. Expanding on his candidacy announcement, Nader dusted off the same old saws from 2000 — repealing the Taft-Hartley Act (to give labor unions free rein) and the blithe expansion of Medicare as a knee-jerk solution to national healthcare. Both show the same lack of basic political awareness that lead Nader to his ineffectual and reckless candidacy in the first place.

Time to fire up the printing presses, gentlemen.

Ralph, don’t run.