by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
If there was ever a time when all Americans need to rise up and stand together, shoulder-to-shoulder, in angry indignation over the sins and stupidity of our government, surely it is now.
For more than a decade we have watched in almost complete silence as government bureaucrats and political appointees scratched through scientific documents and replaced statements backed by rigorous research with agenda-driven political drivel. We have stood by like so many poop-stained statues of politicial whores while morons railed against the concept of global warming because it snowed once last winter, or fought against the needs of the environment because Jesus would be arriving at any minute so there was no point in wasting money to protect the planet. We have seen the fable of "creationism" challenging the fact of evolution for space in our children's textbooks - with the backing of state governments. We have born witness to state and local governments eagerly legislating racism,and guaranteeing the rights of almost anyone to carry a gun almost anyplace - sometimes without permits or even rudimentary training in how to use firearms.
It's crazy - crazy stupid! And it's getting crazier and stupider!
A few months ago President Obama, whose timing was piss-poor, went to Congress asking for $4 billion in loans to help kick-start the new construction of nuclear power reactors - as if the big energy companies need any public money. Two of the first projects will be located on the Texas Gulf Coast - and they will be constructed and managed in part by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the same firm that operates the units in Japan that are currently in melt-down mode.
If the teabaggers are serious about cutting the budget, here's hoping they take a look at that line item. This is not the time to be building nuclear reactors - this is the time to be shutting them down. This is the time to roll up our collective sleeves and get serious about alternative energies. The wastelands of the western United States should be sparkling with millions of solar panels. The Dakotas, where the wind never stops blowing, should have windmills turning as far as the can see. The churning waters of the Atlantic and Pacific should be generating power each time a wave comes crashing ashore or rushing back to sea.
Those technologies exist today. The only thing missing is the public will to move forward - and that inertia is due primarily to the obstinacy of our legislators and their corporate masters. Big oil companies want to keep pumping until the last drop is gone, and damn the consequences! And if it takes wars in foreign lands to expand their supplies and routes - well, damn those consequences, too! Electric companies get a bigger and quicker return on nuclear - especially if they are being subsidized (like the oil companies) by the taxpayers. Sadly, the teabaggers who live with the delusion that they speak for the little guy, but in fact are tools of corporate America, fight the very people who could actually bring down the national debt - the greens, the anti-war groups, and the rare news sources (like NPR) that aren't themselves lackeys of corporate America.
The American Gulf Coast suffered enough carnage at the hands of BP, Halliburton, and Trans-Ocean just last year. Surely the people who fish, and shrimp, and scratch for a living along those shores have done nothing so vile as to warrant the attentions of the Tokyo Electric Power Company.
Enough already!
Citizen Journalist
If there was ever a time when all Americans need to rise up and stand together, shoulder-to-shoulder, in angry indignation over the sins and stupidity of our government, surely it is now.
For more than a decade we have watched in almost complete silence as government bureaucrats and political appointees scratched through scientific documents and replaced statements backed by rigorous research with agenda-driven political drivel. We have stood by like so many poop-stained statues of politicial whores while morons railed against the concept of global warming because it snowed once last winter, or fought against the needs of the environment because Jesus would be arriving at any minute so there was no point in wasting money to protect the planet. We have seen the fable of "creationism" challenging the fact of evolution for space in our children's textbooks - with the backing of state governments. We have born witness to state and local governments eagerly legislating racism,and guaranteeing the rights of almost anyone to carry a gun almost anyplace - sometimes without permits or even rudimentary training in how to use firearms.
It's crazy - crazy stupid! And it's getting crazier and stupider!
A few months ago President Obama, whose timing was piss-poor, went to Congress asking for $4 billion in loans to help kick-start the new construction of nuclear power reactors - as if the big energy companies need any public money. Two of the first projects will be located on the Texas Gulf Coast - and they will be constructed and managed in part by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the same firm that operates the units in Japan that are currently in melt-down mode.
If the teabaggers are serious about cutting the budget, here's hoping they take a look at that line item. This is not the time to be building nuclear reactors - this is the time to be shutting them down. This is the time to roll up our collective sleeves and get serious about alternative energies. The wastelands of the western United States should be sparkling with millions of solar panels. The Dakotas, where the wind never stops blowing, should have windmills turning as far as the can see. The churning waters of the Atlantic and Pacific should be generating power each time a wave comes crashing ashore or rushing back to sea.
Those technologies exist today. The only thing missing is the public will to move forward - and that inertia is due primarily to the obstinacy of our legislators and their corporate masters. Big oil companies want to keep pumping until the last drop is gone, and damn the consequences! And if it takes wars in foreign lands to expand their supplies and routes - well, damn those consequences, too! Electric companies get a bigger and quicker return on nuclear - especially if they are being subsidized (like the oil companies) by the taxpayers. Sadly, the teabaggers who live with the delusion that they speak for the little guy, but in fact are tools of corporate America, fight the very people who could actually bring down the national debt - the greens, the anti-war groups, and the rare news sources (like NPR) that aren't themselves lackeys of corporate America.
The American Gulf Coast suffered enough carnage at the hands of BP, Halliburton, and Trans-Ocean just last year. Surely the people who fish, and shrimp, and scratch for a living along those shores have done nothing so vile as to warrant the attentions of the Tokyo Electric Power Company.
Enough already!
No comments:
Post a Comment