So, I’m driving back from the park yesterday, and I see a lawn sign that says, “Support Domestic Drilling NOW!” or something to that effect. It never ceases to amaze me how ignorant and easily manipulated people are in this country. Certainly, everybody here knows that there isn’t a moratorium on drilling for oil in the US. There’s a moratorium on new leases, but since the oil companies are just sitting on the leases they already have – some 68 million acres, or over 80 percent of US oil reserves – waiting for the price of oil to go even higher, handing over more leases to them isn’t going to make the price of gas or home heating oil go down. Not even a little bit. It would probably make the Exxon Mobil stock price go up, but that’s about it.

Hell at the House hearings on the “use it or lose it” bill the other day, and oil industry executive testfied that every piece of equipment they had was in use, so they couldn’t possibly be expected to drill for more oil on the leases they already own.

Even if they could magically find some hot pool of oil just waiting to be sucked out of the ground, it’d be a decade before we’d see any of it anyway. That’s ten years better spent developing alternative energy resources, not trying to make gas cheaper. I don’t like paying more for gas – and everything else either, but it’s the only way to wean this country (and the rest of the world) off an unhealthy addiction to a substance that’s both limited and toxic. That doesn’t do much to help working class folks who are just trying to get balc and forth to work every day, and put food on the table and a roof over the food. Forget the environment; the sad truth of it is that there won’t be any noticeable reduction in gas prices whether we allow the oil industry to rape our wilderness areas in search of greater profits or not.

But even if drilling did lower prices substantially and give working families much needed short-term relief (and not even the dubya believes that) we all know that oil won’t last forever. Whether we’re at “peak oil” at the moment or not, we certainly will be soon. So why not get off our addition to oil altogether (and make some money while we’re at it)? Fuck dumping more and more money into our oil infrastructure (and paying $12 Billion a month to protect oil industry investments in the Middle East). Take that money and invest it in clean renewable technologies. We may need oil at the present moment, but why spend the next decade focusing on making oil cheaper, when what we really need to do is make oil – and the dirty industry that has spread so much death and destruction across the face of the planet – obsolete.

But, of course, nobody wants to hear that. Gas is too expensive so fuck it. Drill. And then feel really, really confused when the price only continues to go up – almost as quickly as oil industry profits do.

So, another Sunday, another morning filled with pompous windbags. First up, on Press the Meat, it’s the only man who could possibly fill in for the godlike Tim Russert, NBC News God, Tom Brokaw. Today, Tommuh is at the Western Governors Association Annual Meeting in (Michael) Jackson Hole, Wyoming with Arnold “the pig” Schwarzenegger, Wyoming’s Governor Dave Freudenthal, and Colorado’s Bill Ritter. Oh, and sphincter-faced twerp Chuck Todd, too.

On CBS, Bob Schiefer hosts Wesley Clarke, who will hopefully strangle Joe “droopy dog” Lieberman (or at least shove something down the slimy bastard’s throat so nobody has to listen to him; frankly, I have no idea why they give this little sideshow freak any airtime at all). Along for the ride will be David Sanger,
Editor-in-Chief of the New York Times.

Fux News Sunday and Weaselface Wallace have Obamabot Ed Rendell, St. McCain boot (et. al.) licker Rob “Natalie” Portman, and everybody’d favority lunatic, Bob “Roseanne” Barr. AS if that wasn’t enough, there’ll also be the usual Fuxheads, and “Power Player of the Week” Carol Joynt, who owns Nathans Restaurant.

On This Weak, George Snufalufagus hosts the rather icky Rahm Emanuel, and the very icky Tim “Bridges? We don’t need no stinking bridges” Pawlenty. Then professional narcissist Ralph Nader will teach George some “black” talk. Then, on the “Roundtable,” it’s Arianna Huffington, Byron “dork” York, the very disgusting Hugh Hewitt, and editor of The Nation, Katrina vanden Heuvel. Holy Shit! No George :jerk: Will? It just won’t feel like Sunday.

CNN’s Late Emission mit Wolf Blitzer has Mitch “the prick” McConnell, Jersey Jon Corzine, LA Governor Piyush “Bobby” Jindal (they’re outsourcing all our jobs these days, aren’t they?), U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Ryan “don’t call me Betty” Crocker, my homeboy, Terry McAuliffe, and Sy Hersh, on to cheer us up with some happy news, no doubt.

Later, on 60 Minutes, Lara Logan isn’t on, so who really gives a shit?

Enjoy your Sunday, everybody.

It’s Saturday! Yay! Two “days off” that will go by in a blur, where I’ll either do absolutely nothing and feel guilty about it, or I’ll accomplish about a tenth of what I intend to, and feel terrific because I managed to both cut the grass and do my laundry. Well, OK, “feel terrific” is stretching it a bit. I guess terrific is beyond what I’m capable of feeling these days. At best, maybe I won’t feel like a worthless piece of shit. That’s about as good as it gets – and even that doesn’t seem to last very long. Oh well. Beats going to work

Spent the last couple nights watching George Carlin HBO specials. I haven’t gotten through them all yet, but I have them recorded. I’d forgotten just how many jokes I’ve stolen from him over the years. Before the first one, they actually had Shana Alexander caution us that there would be naughty words, and damned if they didn’t freeze frame at one point with a message cautioning us that we may want to turn away. Amazing how things changed in 30 or so years. They never warned us before each episode of the Sopranos that Tony had a potty mouth.

Oh well, Happy National HIV Testing Day.

Back to my least favorite work location today. I’ve really been having a tough time getting through this week. Just not up for it. Hopefully it’ll go fast.

Not a whole lot going on this morning. At least, I don’t think there is. I haven’t really gotten up and looked to see if something’s going on. But if there is, I’m sure it’s just more of the same.

Update: Joe Must Go

Watched an odd movie called “The Minus Man” last night, with Owen Wilson as a serial killer. Sheryl Crow was his first victim (in the movie, anyway). Janeane Garafolo was in it, too (she had a crappy little dog that ate cat food). She played a postal worker (so did Owen, actually, eventually becoming a letter carrier). I thought that was rather fitting. Janeane said, “a carrier can’t clerk, and a clerk can’t carry,” which struck me as quite prophetic while I was watching, but, now, not so much. And Dwight Yoakam was in it. He pops up in some odd little movies (like Sling Blade; BTW, I do a better ‘Karl’ than Billie Bob Thornton, mmmmm).

It also had Brian Cox, who makes me think of Albert Finney when I see him. His wife was played by Mercedes Ruehl, who for some reason makes me think of Sue Grafton, though I have no idea why. Did she play a character in a movie based on a Sue Grafton novel? Did they even make a movie out of a Sue Grafton novel? I know she wrote those alphabet novels (“B for Bimbo,” “C for Cadaver,” or something), but I’ve never actually read any of them. I did hear her (Sue) on Diane Rehm once, and she sounded like a nice person.

I don’t know how the movie ended, because I ran out of beer, and it was either go to bed or get into Granny’s wine box, and cheap wine makes me feel kinda crappy in the morning. Plus red wine gives me really dark…well, never mind; too much information. Anyhow, when I gave up on the movie, Janeane was swilling Jack Daniels out of the bottle, and getting cozy with Owen Wilson in her log cabin (which was kinda cool), so I don’t know if she became a victim eventually or not.

I’m sure I’ll catch the rest of it one of these days.

Holy shit! Do you realize there’s less than a week left in June? All of our comedians are dying, and our politicians have all sold us out (at least the ones that aren’t dead or dying). Especially the ones we thought would save us. Oh, wait. we’re all too smart to have thought any of these people would save us.

Aren’t we?

Have a nice day.

Watched a movie called “Bobby” last night (amazing how many people were in that movie, written and directed by Emilio Estevez). I really wish Booby hadn’t been killed. He was 42. 42. Just a kid, really. This would have been a much different world. I’d probably still have to go to work today, though.

We need an RFK right now. Obama isn’t. Neither of the Clintons are. McCain sure as fuck isn’t. I don’t think we could get one elected, even if there was one out there somewhere.

Todays the second longest day of the year. No, not the “second longest” day. The second of two longest days in a row. That’s what the newspaper said anyway. Then the days start getting shorter. Before you know it, it’ll be dark at five o’clock, and I’ll trying to figure out how to get the dogs out after work. That’s the only thing I don’t like about winter. It gets dark too early. I don’t mind the snow or the cold (I was watching Dan Rather Reports the other night, and he was doing a story on mass transportation in Denver, and he said something like the added benefits of not having to drive weren’t lost on people in a “city that got 35 inches of snow last year.” Hah), but I hate going to work in the dark, and coming home in the dark, having squandered all the daylight stuck at my job. But anyway….

Brian Williams takes the reins (at least temporarily) of Press the Meet, hosting a debate between the very intelligent Joe Biden, and the pathetic little closeted Linsey Graham. Then there’s a roundtable with Andrea Mitchell and John Harwood. Whoopie.

On Faze the Nation, why the hell do they give any airtime to a disgraced, pathetic, slimy piece of shit like Newt Gingrich? I dunno, but they do.

Weaselface Wallace has Tom Daschele for Obama and Tom Ridge for McCain, and then there’s the usual fuxheads.

On Goebbels, George Snufalufagus has icky Kay Bailey Hutchison, Ed Markey (D-MA), oily Red Cavaney, President and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, and “economist” Jeffrey Sachs. Then, on the “Roundtable,” it’s political genius Donna Brazile, Matthew Dowd, Cokie “the hag” Roberts and Sam :omg: Donaldson.

Wolf Bitzer’s Late Emission has Gov. Bill Richardson, Tim “the bridges are fine” Pawlenty of Minnesota, Robert Wexler, redneck Eric Cantor of Virginia, li’l Robbie Reich, shill for McCain, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Ahmed Rashid (not the former receiver, but author of “Descent into Chaos”) ans Peter Bergen, CNN scare monger.

Later, on 60 Minutes, Lara Logan isn’t on, so who gives a shit?

Hey, have a good Sunday, y’all.

So, summer is here again. And another all too short weekend. I hope to get the grass cut, do my laundry, and keep the dogs entertained. Other than that, I’m not expecting much out of myself. That way, I rarely let myself down.