Thursday - May 22, 2008

This is what you get when lawyers run the government

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation on Tuesday allowing the Justice Department to sue OPEC members for limiting oil supplies and working together to set crude prices, but the White House threatened to veto the measure.

The bill would subject OPEC oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela, to the same antitrust laws that U.S. companies must follow.

The measure passed in a 324-84 vote, a big enough margin to override a presidential veto.

The legislation also creates a Justice Department task force to aggressively investigate gasoline price gouging and energy market manipulation.

Are they out of their ever loving minds? How terminally stupid can you be and not fall over dead? Yes, OPEC is nearly a monopoly. We’ve known that for 35 years. So what? Yes, they are a massive cartel that has the world by the nadgers. This is news? Of course they are fixing the prices and fixing the amounts delivered. You can’t do anything about it, other than invading their countries. That’s it.

And just how do you think “our friends the Saudis” are going to react to being sued for price gouging? How about “Ok, never mind, we’ll sell our oil to someone else.”?

This is another example of our do-nothing government wasting time and money just for appearance’s sake. It’s bad enough this utterly useless measure was even considered, yet alone worked on. But when it came down to voting, an awful lot of “Conservative” Republicans went over to the other side and supported this “We’re all victims, let’s sue somebody to make things fair bill. Hope you clods are wearing comfortable shoes in November, because it’s walking time.

The way to energy independance is two-fold. First, you move heaven and earth to maximize your own production. Second, you do whatever you can to eliminate or minimize aspects of your own economy that run on imported fuels. It isn’t that hard to figure out. Yes, it’s going to require some sacrifices. Tough. Fucking. Shit. And it might cost you some money. Too bad. And you might rail against it like a cranky 2 year old because it’s an evil Socialist Agenda Taking Away Your Rights. Well, there may be some truth in that. But one thing you can say for Socialism is that it gets things done much faster. And we need solutions. In place. Yesterday. But let’s keep things in balance too; we just might have to put up with a bit more pollution for a few years. An endangered specie or two might go bye-bye. Again, that’s just too bad. Let’s shoot for “good enough” instead of only be willing to accept perfection.

• No new private vehicles that run on gasoline should be for sale that don’t get at least 22mpg around town. RVing just became a thing of the past. Too bad. So did mongo truckasauruses. Also too bad. Better buy your 0-60 in 4 seconds hot rod now too.


• No new private vehicles that run on diesel should be for sale that don’t get at least 25mpg around town. You’ve been spoiled thinking that your desires are your needs. Playtime is over; it’s time to grow up. Think of it as a sacrifice you have to make for the national good.


• Not a watt of electricity should be generated using oil. That’s what nukes are for. Use them. Sure, give wind and solar a try. Keep the hydroelectric we have. But build 200 more nuclear generators, right now, until 90% of all electricity is generatred by “mostly green” sources. We need 5 times as much electricity as we currently have.


• No home should have oil heat. Period. We have lots and lots of natural gas and propane. And electricity. Here’s a tax credit to offset a third of the changeover cost.


• Let’s find a balance point with automobiles. Sorry, but you can’t have it all. Today’s darling vehicle, the Toyota Prius, doesn’t get any better mileage than the 1990 Geo Metro. Yes, safety is important, but today’s cars are overbuilt little tanks. I think better driver training and better traffic enforcement would more than offset “less safe” cars. We are a nation of poor drivers, isolated and innattentive to our surroundings. That stops now. While we have made cars so much more crash resistant, nowhere near enough has been done to make cars crash avoidant. And 95% of the time you can avoid the crash if your car can handle and if you are paying attention.




• Establish minimum braking standards and set the bar high. All new cars must be able to stop in 180 feet or less from 70mph, 10 times in a row.


• Establish minimum handling standards and set the bar at a decent height. All cars must be able to pass the cone test at X mph, and hold at least Z g on the skidpad.


• Establish a common bumper height range. Super lifted pickup trucks are no longer street legal. Too bad.


• Go back to the giant brake lights we had a few years back. It’s a good idea.


• The downside to the recent trend of high sided vehicles is poorer visibility. Figure out some standards: any driver has to be able to see this close around their car while driving.


• Design cost effective adjustable seats and pedals so that short people can be raised up to a proper height for better visibility, and so that they can stay a safe distance away from the steering wheel airbag and still work the foot pedals.
• Cup holders, iPod holders, TVs in the dashboard, and cellphones in your car. GONE. Pay attention to the task at hand. If you need to eat, talk, or entertain yourself, pull off the road.
• Start handing out tickets for super loud car stereos in use while driving. Hearing what’s going on is a good part of driving awareness.
• Massive nationwide campaign to stop tailgaters. Big fines. On any given morning New Jersey could garner $10,000,000 in fines for this one. Tailgating is probably responsible for a huge percentage of rear-end accidents, especially on the highway. You don’t drive NASCAR; you don’t draft on the street.




• For the millionth time: drill, drill, drill. Screw NIMBY, screw your view of the ocean, screw the polar bears and the caribou and the endangered wiggly bugs. Drill. But try to do it without spilling, m’kay?

Posted by Drew458     on 05/22/2008 at 08:58 AM   
Filed Under: • Government • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink •  

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