I mean, [...]]]> Well, I was bored at work and logged into Facebook. I saw that it was John’s birthday, then noticed that people who like Sarah Palin liked the Bible. And it occurred to me that I like Sarah Palin. So maybe I’d also like the Bible?

I mean, when Facebook told me that people who like Glen Beck also like FarmVille I was skeptical. But I gave it a shot, and before I knew it I had three pigs and a subsidy check from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

And now I have a farm and Jesus.

An editorial in today’s New York Times calls on Congress to eliminate the $4 billion in annual tax subsidies that the oil and gas industry enjoys. And because their hands are now stained in crude, they just [...]]]> How much is that [subsidy] in the window,
I do hope that [subsidy]‘s for sale!

An editorial in today’s New York Times calls on Congress to eliminate the $4 billion in annual tax subsidies that the oil and gas industry enjoys. And because their hands are now stained in crude, they just might do it. But will it stick? Oily though it is?

This is a symptomatic solution, not a systematic one. We must address the reason these subsidies exist at all (and not only in this industry, but all industries). Until we do so, it’s likely the tax breaks will be reconstituted as soon as our attention is diverted elsewhere.

The existence of a $4 billion allowance should be an indication of the support the oil and gas industry benefits from in Washington. Support that is likely scuttle any significant environmental legislation (or at least chemically disperse it).

According to a recent study, large firms enjoy a $6 to $20 return on each dollar they spend lobbying. The researchers who conducted the study say, “These dollar values make lobbying look astonishingly profitable.”

We believe, as many others do, that the answer is in the Fair Elections Now Act and the DISCLOSE Act. The system is fixed, and we need to fix it.

Though his Democratic counterpart has a few more years left in her term, she’s no slouch, either. On June 9th she [...]]]> If you haven’t seen Senator David Vitter around lately, it’s probably because he’s been raising about $1,300 an hour over the past few months(assuming a 60 hour work week, that is). 

Though his Democratic counterpart has a few more years left in her term, she’s no slouch, either. On June 9th she was at a crawfish boil at a Washington law firm. The hosts included lobbyists for a wide range of energy interests—Exxon Mobil, Duke Energy, British Gas, among others.

But this isn’t out of the ordinary. Senator Landrieu raised $11.3 million to finance her 2008 reelection campaign and Senator David Vitter has already raised $9.4 million for this year’s race. In other words, if either wants to remain employed, they have to bring in some $5,000 for each day they’re in office.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Senator Landrieu is well on her way to financing a reelection bid in 2014 with $363,950 already raised from the oil and gas industry. It may be this dependence on the industry that prompted her, at a recent hearing of the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee, to proclaim that disallowing offshore drilling would be “…devastating to our state.” Even as the very allowance of it is doing just that.

Even the most principled of legislators are trapped in a framework that makes it impossible to act independently. Since January, BP alone has spent $3.5 million lobbying Congress which comes out to about $20,000 a day. Last year, they spent $15.9 million (almost half of the $27.4 million Exxon Mobil spent).

The flow of money into our political system has proven as relentless and unstoppable as the oil that is laying waste to the Gulf of Mexico. Like the Deepwater Horizon spill, numerous solutions have been tried, and all have failed. It just can’t be contained. The campaign finance laws are akin to the booms and domes, the disclosure laws to the underwater cameras that allow us to watch the catastrophe unfold.

We need to cut each off at its source and then find a cleaner fuel for our cars, and our campaigns. The most practical solution available is a proposal called the Fair Elections Now Act (H.R. 1826 and S. 752). Instead of holding crawfish boils in Washington, U.S. Senate and U.S. House candidates would hold crawfish boils in New Orleans, in Venice, or in Lafayette. Instead of asking for $1,000 from out-of-state donors they’d ask for $5 or — at most — $100 from certified Louisiana voters. Instead of talking to lobbyists, they’d talk to roughnecks, shrimpers, oystermen, musicians, nurses, and teachers. By collecting several thousand contributions — all less than $100 — a candidate would qualify for a lump sum which would pay for their primary and general election campaigns.

There is of course the concern that Senator Dick Durbin, a sponsor of the bill, raised in a floor speech a few years ago, “I used to say I don’t want a dime of Federal taxpayer dollars going to some racist such as David Duke running for office.” But as Senator Durbin went on to say, “For every miscreant like David Duke, there are thousands of good men and women in both political parties who [are] forced into a system that is fundamentally corrupting.”

But this legislation isn’t funded by Federal taxpayer dollars at all. Instead, it would be financed by a small fee on the largest federal contractors (Halliburton, for instance) and will only cost $700-$850 million a year. The legislation is moving through congress with 156 cosponsors in the U.S. House and 20 cosponsors in the U.S. Senate. Embarrassingly, not one of them is from Louisiana.

As long as Senator Landrieu and others rely on oil and gas interests to finance their campaigns, we’ll never be able to create policy that demands accountability and innovation within the energy industry. Simply put, we need the best leaders money can’t buy. Otherwise, we’ll remain at the mercy of those who willingly endangered lives and livelihoods of their employees in pursuit of profit – and the legislators who let them do it.

“We’ve got the right team assembled to do this very specialized job.”

The very specialized job? Operate Kevin Costner’s Ocean Therapy Solution, which sounds like either a white noise machine or some sort of ethnically-driven mass drowning, but is in fact another way great way to not clean up the oil spill. You [...]]]>

“We’ve got the right team assembled to do this very specialized job.”

The very specialized job? Operate Kevin Costner’s Ocean Therapy Solution, which sounds like either a white noise machine or some sort of ethnically-driven mass drowning, but is in fact another way great way to not clean up the oil spill. You know what probably would have been a good time to assemble the right team for a specialized job? When you decided to build a massive oil rig in the middle of the ocean. That probably would have been a good time for that. But I’m glad that you got the right team together for this one, because the last thing America could take at this point was BP making Kevin Costner look like a Jackass.

AND NOT TO WORRY! The video ends with the hearty assurance that after the oil is successfully spun from the water using a vague, dubious, and untested method, it will be returned to the refinery for processing! I’m glad that they can make that extra effort to get it back to the refinery–it’s probably because they saved a lot of time by burning endangered sea turtles alive.

Which all makes literally no sense until you realize that Tony Hayward is definitely a British comedian committing really hard to this heartless CEO character. It’s an Ali-G type thing, but with way more destruction and probably no movie at the end and not as funny.