…and for some strange reason, the above image was the first thing that came to my mind after reading this:
An energy bill scheduled to be voted on tomorrow by the U.S. Congress will end up helping the Venezuelan government of Hugo Chavez more than U.S. consumers, a national grassroots group charged Wednesday.
"This bill is not good for the U.S., it’s not good for American energy consumers, but it sure is pretty good for Hugo Chavez," the group charged in a letter to Congress today. "The fact that Chavez will be treated better than U.S.-based companies illustrates the flawed principles on which this legislation is based."
In its letter, the Partnership for America told Members of Congress that the bill, H.R. 6, “will hand U.S. dollars to Hugo Chavez at the expense of U.S. consumers, workers and employers” and urged Congress to reject the legislation.
…which I suspect is nothing more than a press release, disguised as “reporting”.
And how would I know that?
Note how there is no one else represented in the story. No interviews. No voices. Except of course that of a bogus “grassroots organization” which is actually, yup, another energy industry front group in thin disguise. (Scroll down to the bottom of Page 2 on the PDF for proof.) There are no grassroots to this “grassroots” group–it’s astroturf! And the only face we see on the group is that of a notably corrupt former California congresscritter with some crazy-ass urghly far-far right-wing ties.
And get a load of his, er, “mission statement”:
Former Congressman Richard Pombo is the Partnership’s new National Chair. After serving seven terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, including be elected as Chair of the powerful House Resources Committee, Pombo will serve as the Partnership’s national “ambassador” on the key issues such as maintaining public access to public lands, restoring common sense back into government regulation, promoting economic freedom and private property rights, and promoting more American energy for America.
That last phrase is particularly important, considering what loopy environmental shenanigans Pombo has tried in the past. I suspect the most outrageous, which would have endangered California’s environmentally sensitive coastal waters, was what cost him all hope of re-election last year. And he lost it to an environmentally friendly engineer—a true pioneer of American energy for America, in other words. As opposed to Pombo, who’s a fake one.
But even if Pombo’s coastal-drilling scheme had gone through, it would not have been enough to wean the country off the oil-barreled foreign needle. Risking environmental ruin for a paltry amount of oil? Tsk, tsk.
Pombo, face facts: You are Canada’s bitch. And Saudi Arabia’s. And Iraq’s. And Iran’s. And oh yeah, horror of horrors, Venezuela’s. You have no hope of becoming energy-independent unless you do away with oil use altogether. Which I can’t see your country doing as long as crooked, industry-backed capitalist fuckers like you are in charge of it.
Oh, and you really should know better than to desecrate your country’s flag for those ugly-ass shirts, too.
