Mr. Bush, Addicted to Oil

Thomas Friedman published a terrific article in the NY Times on Sunday, titled “Mr Bush, Lead or Leave”.

In the article, Friedman talks about what many Americans are already aware of: The President of the United States of America is addicted to oil. And even after admitting it about two years ago, Mr Bush’s actions seem to be leading our country based on a very different standpoint.

Instead of issuing a national statement to the people of America that we need to change, and we need to change now, Mr Bush got on a plane, flew to the Middle East, and begged for some relief on the price of oil. Instead of looking at the long-term future and state of the economy, Mr Bush thought short term.

And now, John McCain is talking about lifting the ban on oil exploration off shore. You can read more about that here , but his reasoning is this:

“When people are hurting, and struggling to afford gasoline, food, and other necessities, common sense requires that we draw upon America’s own vast reserves of oil and natural gas,”

Again, short term. Bush and McCain, and everyone in North America, should be focusing on getting into rehab (ie clean, renewable energy). BUT, we’re simply looking at the quick fixes. We’re always looking for just one more hit. Maybe later we’ll fix this mess we got into, but for now, let’s just get to the next one.

Thomas Friedman put it like this:

“It’s as if our addict-in-chief is saying to us: “C’mon guys, you know you want a little more of the good stuff. One more hit, baby. Just one more toke on the ole oil pipe. I promise, next year, we’ll all go straight. I’ll even put a wind turbine on my presidential library. But for now, give me one more pop from that drill, please, baby. Just one more transfusion of that sweet offshore crude.”

They make you take a drug test before you can become employed by Wal-Mart!

You’d think they’d check for addictions before you become the President of the United States of America.