Putting the Horse Before the Cart in an Empty Barn
While Nepal celebrates its political victory, the newspapers return to their navel-watching of American politics. The top story is how the GOP “leaders” (I hate to use those terms together) are urging our Favorite Shrubbery to launch an investigation into alleged price-gouging by US oil companies.
I’ll wait until you stop laughing…
I’m trying to think up a suitable punch line. Such a blatant publicity stunt must have some comical precedent – help me out here.
OK. It’s an election year. Republicans have fumbled the ball on almost every issue they’ve tried. Corruption abounds, lies are exposed, cronyism and incompetence. Now, the annual driving season approaches, and their friends in petroleum that helped pay for they’re jobs are doing business as oil companies have done every year since the 1950’s: Hike the prices on gasoline to reap a higher profit margin during the peak season.
This is not news. What makes it difficult for congress, is the deregulation of the past few fiscal budgets, and the outlay of pork – not to mention the major his to refineries thanks to Katrina. Increase drain on oil reserves for an ongoing conflict and our failed attempt to secure and rebuild the Iraqi oil pipeline may have contributed to the record-high oil price. Finally, the fact that we arguable have reached the tipping point called “Peak Oil.” All of this adds up to a great deal of pressure on the ruling party.
I’m just thinking, here, but maybe all this leads to our Conniver-in-Chief to finally start funding (with what little money the government has left) alternative energy research.
Why do I thing of cart-and-horse or horse-and-barn analogies? Maybe we should all but a horse for the upcoming energy crisis. Then we can all remember just how much energy is produced at one horsepower. Besides, in another few years a horse will be cheaper than a tank of gas.