It’s Time To KickTheOilHabit.org
It’s Time To KickTheOilHabit.org
At this year’s State of the Union address, President Bush declared, “we have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil.” But what Bush didn’t mention is that his policies have made the situation worse. Last summer, he signed energy legislation that included billions of dollars in subsidies for the fossil fuel industry, but only meager support for alternative energy and efficiency. Since then, gas prices have skyrocketed and our dependence on foreign oil has grown.
Today, American Progress is launching KickTheOilHabit.org, a campaign to expose our dysfunctional energy policy and promote a new, progressive alternative. Watch the video:
To learn more and take action, visit KickTheOilHabit.org. (Tune in to Larry King Live tonight at 9:00 pm EST to see Robert Redford talk about the campaign.)
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Done.
May 17th, 2006 at 2:51 pmOk, I'll watch Larry King, but just this once, for Robert Redford.
time for water powered vehicles. here's a video
May 17th, 2006 at 2:54 pm"I'd Rather(others) Fight Than Quit."
May 17th, 2006 at 2:58 pmOK, but I think we should focus on the
May 17th, 2006 at 2:58 pm'Kick the NEOCROOKS out of office campaign', as well.
Vehicles that run on trash. -- Al Gore, SNL
May 17th, 2006 at 2:58 pmI saw that watered powered video thing. I gotta wonder, how quickly will we drain our water tables if we start using it for fuel? I also gotta wonder how viable that technology is--the video appears to have been shown on some local FOX affliate. I'd like to see further research.
May 17th, 2006 at 3:00 pmVechiles that run on cats, thats what should happen. Damn cats.
May 17th, 2006 at 3:06 pmArBUSHto!
May 17th, 2006 at 3:06 pm#1, Zookeeper, maybe 10 years ago I would have tuned in just for Robert Redford, now he's starting to look like NH's Old Man of the Mountain.
Squeege, don't you dare get started on cat-powered vehicles - you're not stealing my cats!
May 17th, 2006 at 3:11 pmPut a Dead Feline In Your Tank----The new Fristmobile
May 17th, 2006 at 3:14 pmWatch the movie, Smartest Guys in the Room, and you see Bush Sr. and Bush Jr., saying something like that for an employee that was leaving Enron. Everyone thought Ken Lay was going to be the Secretary of Energy until the Enron fraud finally crumbled.
Thank you for the campaign to bring a voice to the issue. People want to do the right thing, but they have no real alternative now. Financially, technically. We have to have assurance that the country is committed to a long-term change before we commit what cash we have towards these new technologies. We have to make responsible affordable financial decisions that have some reasonable life time.
May 17th, 2006 at 3:18 pmOK...but l'll have to listen to my girlfriend oooo and awwwww over Redford...lolol.
May 17th, 2006 at 3:31 pmMy cat just hissed at the computer.....so watch that 'cat power' thing....
Can we get vehicles that run on former Republican congressmen? I don't know about you folks, but I'd love to see Delay spend the rest of his life pushing someone's car around town. Of course, he'd last all of 10 minutes before cardiac arrest set in.
The video is great. Much more powerful than the nonsense we saw from CEI earlier today. Where can we get these to run?
May 17th, 2006 at 3:31 pmi'm watching Larry King and signing up!
Buy Citgo for now !
May 17th, 2006 at 3:33 pmRumor has it that cats have been used as fuel for decades. Maybe that is really why dogs chase cars.
May 17th, 2006 at 3:35 pmlets power the vehicles with mummified corpses from Bushies war on humanity around the World. Maybe we can power them with American and Iraqi Blood, some Iranian Blood as well.
We could call it the body burning oil saving death machine "The Bushwhacker"
May 17th, 2006 at 3:40 pmChange the damn building codes to require alternative energy generation. The SEC has created monopolies and killed competition. Wasn't that organization created to do the opposite? Deregulation = monopolies & oligopolies, just as it was during the the late 1800s and early 1900s. No more lies. The FCC isn't worth a tinker's damn either. The inmates built this asylum filled with lies (spin) we are living in today.
May 17th, 2006 at 3:40 pmVechiles that run on cats, thats what should happen. Damn cats.
Comment by squegeeboo — May 17, 2006 @ 3:06 pm
Do you want to be boycotted too? Look at what's happened to Mighty Mouth and IRI...
May 17th, 2006 at 3:55 pm....Last summer, he signed energy legislation that included billions of dollars in subsidies for the fossil fuel industry
Gotta pay for those mercenaries....
But the present-day land of mercenary opportunity is Iraq, where the US government in its eagerness to downsize the numbers of regular troops is handing out big contracts to private security firms.
There are currently thousands of soldiers under contract with private companies serving in Iraq. Their duties range from airport security and guarding oil installations to protecting members of the interim government.
Link: http://news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=1013202004
Using oil companes to gather intelligence and doing other sub-rosa work has been a long standing practice of administrations going a long way back.
May 17th, 2006 at 4:17 pmI'm amazed and disturbed that your "Alternative" Plan to "make a difference in the lives of all Americans" completely ignores the one most important requirement of any plan for working-class, moderate-income Americans: Demand a dramatic increase in automobile MPG fuel economy standards! The technology to increase fuel standards has been available for decades, but has gone unused.
I've been driving a 45 mpg Geo Metro since 1996, and am forced to laugh every time it is mentioned that our main alternative 10 years later is to buy flex-fuel cars that cost twice as much and still get less mpg than my 10-year old Geo....
Your so-called "altnernative" campaign at this point sounds like an advertisement for flex-fuel vehicles, and is an alternative only for the wealthy, not for ALL Americans! All of your emphasis and the media's emphasis on Flex-fuel cars is fine for upper-income people who can afford to pay for the more expensive flex-fuel vehicles! But your current so-called "alternative" strategy offers little to the many Americans who can barely afford to pay their current bills, let alone buy new technology vehicles that are twice as expensive as regular cars, and that save little on overall fuel economy....
So if you really want to develop an Alternative for ALL Americans, you need to add a prominent demand for higher auto MPG standards to your list, and make this a central aspect of your campaign. Without this, all the talk of flex fuels is mere window-dressing that actually does more harm than good because it distracts attention from the most important issue of all: demanding higher fuel efficiency.
If you add an emphasis on fuel-efficiency standards to your Kick the Oil Habit campaign, I will be happy to publicize it on my Policy blog-- but as it now stands, your campaign "alternative" is a nobrainer, and it makes anyone with brains and an environmental conscience feel insulted that you are offering it as an "alternative"!
So would you please get with it, and offer a true alternative?!! I would expect you folks at "American Progress" to know and offer much better than this--PLEASE!
May 17th, 2006 at 4:21 pmJane, Unbelievable
so thats a nix to my cat based petrol solution then? Fair enough, but I was so close to the testing phase.
May 17th, 2006 at 4:22 pmFair enough, but I was so close to the testing phase.
Comment by squegeeboo
What about cat by-products? Claws & crap fuel.
May 17th, 2006 at 4:34 pmI would go for that. ;)
#9 - Zookeeper, maybe 10 years ago I would have tuned in just for Robert Redford, now he’s starting to look like NH’s Old Man of the Mountain.
Didn't that rock thing fall down last year? But Redford is still here -- I could get lost in his crevices. I'm such a weirdo.
May 17th, 2006 at 4:37 pmI do like the cat idea.
May 17th, 2006 at 4:38 pm#23, Zookeeper, no just the nose fell off. I'll stick with George Clooney.
Squeege, I'll send you all the poop, fur, etc., from my cats, you can work with that.
May 17th, 2006 at 4:41 pm#25 - Ok, Jane, I'll send George to your house tomorrow morning. I'm now stuck on Alan Rickman. Who'd have thought it? Have you seen him in "Sense and Sensibility?" Mmmm...
May 17th, 2006 at 4:48 pmAlan Rickman in "Sense and Sensibility": hmmm, sorry, have to wipe the drool off the keyboard.
May 17th, 2006 at 4:58 pmRickman? He does a good sniveling bad guy in Harry Potter, and was decent in dogma, oh, and Galaxy Quest, if I swung that way I could see it, thankfully I don't.
May 17th, 2006 at 5:00 pm#27 - I had a feeling you'd appreciate that one. ;)
May 17th, 2006 at 5:01 pmAh, come on, Squeege, Galaxy Quest is a fun movie! Okay, not of the same caliber as The Princess Bride, but entertaining nonetheless. Would Die Hard (the first one) be more to your 'swinging' tastes? Rickman was great in that, too.
Well, this thread sure petered out quickly!
May 17th, 2006 at 5:10 pmJane
I think you might have misenterpreted my usage of swing, I enjoyed galaxy quest, I love sci-fi, what I don't love is men, at least in that way.
May 17th, 2006 at 5:12 pmAh, that explains it. Glad to hear youlove sci-fi (as do Wayne and I), too bad you don't like cats!
May 17th, 2006 at 5:14 pmIt's not hard to explain. We simply cannot power the society we want with combustion. Combustion is an atmospheric reaction, and it WILL alter the atmosphere at current levels and projected growth. We will learn the easy or hard way, altering the atmosphere is a dangerous thing to do.
May 17th, 2006 at 5:21 pmIt's time to listen and learn. What other choice do we have?
May 17th, 2006 at 5:22 pmok i just skimmed though this stuff, but why corn ethanol?
May 17th, 2006 at 5:29 pmok i just skimmed though this stuff, but why "corn ethanol"?
no one has to die tomorroW.us
May 17th, 2006 at 5:29 pm#32 - Apparently Squeegy doesn't "swing that way" for grammar, either. ;)
May 17th, 2006 at 5:38 pm#35, Corn ethanol - here we go again:
1. 15% of the CURRENT US gasoline supply can be replaced if ALL the available acreage of corn is used to produce ethanol
2. US farming practices and subsidies mean that about 8 gallons of gasoline equivalent are used to produce 10 gallons of corn ethanol
3. Ethanol is only 70% as calorific as gasoline
4. Fact 2 and 3 mean that ethanol is NET ENERGY NEGATIVE per current US famring practices
5. Ethanol does nothing to reduce carbon dioxide emissions
6. Corn production is centred in only 2 companies: Cargill and ADM instead of the Five Deadly Sisters of Oil - Cargill and ADM would make out like bandits evne more than they already do.
Ethanol: different pushers, different drug, but same result
May 17th, 2006 at 5:39 pmi thought id get an answer like this, thank you, sorry to make you go over it again.
May 17th, 2006 at 5:56 pmOkay, maybe cat poop would make a nice renewable energy source. I have 6 cats, so I could get alot of mileage from them. But stop and figure how much energy we could get out of all the hot air and "Bushshit" in DC. Probably fuel the earth for a thousand years.
May 17th, 2006 at 6:23 pmYeh, they fixed the 'OldMan in the Mountain's' nose, and I was collecting N.H. quarter like crazy thinking the coin would be worth more after his nose fell off. I live in the neighboring state, and used to visit it as a kid.
Alan Rickman also, played the Sheriff of Nottingham, in Robin Hood, with Kevin Costner.
Nancy, they fixed the Old Man's nose? We know someone who was collecting the quarters, too. Nice to see another cat lover (not like Squeegie!). Wayne and I have about 20 cats, with plenty of by-products. Yeah, we could go far on that!
May 17th, 2006 at 6:30 pm#40 - Alan Rickman is the best thing about the Robin Hood movie. I fast forward through everything except his scenes. Don't really feel like I'm missing much!
#41 - Jane, you are a true cat lover. 20 cats!? My son has one cat, which I will inherit when he goes off to college this fall. She's too smart for her own good.
May 17th, 2006 at 6:49 pmOn the film, mostly good, but has problems. It states we finance trade deficit buy selling assets or borrowing. Selling assets is borrowing.
Then after discussing foreign trade it speaks of government debt and makes a reference to how much debt that is to each American family. This is showing a lack of economic understanding. In an economy there are the three gaps where:
(S-I)=(X-M) + (G-T)
which means Private saving minus private investment must equal the trade balance and the net government expenditures. We already had discussed the trade deficit so we can take that as given. So when the government deficit goes up on the right hand side this implies that savings is going up on the other side.
To put this is simpler terms when the government gives an American a bond it is absurd to calculate that as “America’s†debt because to the private sector person holding it is their savings.
(Now it bad oil policy forces those American to sell those bonds to someone overseas then it becomes “America’s debtâ€.)
This may all seem trivial but the political implications are important.
May 17th, 2006 at 10:22 pmThank God someone is taking serious leadership on this issue.
May 21st, 2006 at 10:05 pmAll - Time is life. We have the technical wherewithall to enter the renewable energy age. It is simply a question of good management, and vision, and not to relent to being bought out.
May 21st, 2006 at 11:58 pmI have a real problem with the words "america has an oil habit". Do these yahoos realize that most people who drive have to drive to go to work, most drive cars that may not be energy efficient, most are trying to feed their families, etc. Those are the ones who are feeling the pinch the most. It is not an oil habit, it is a necessity. Many people are not buying oil (gas) to go on vacation, they are having to buy oil to go to work.
If anyone is to be labeled "habitual oil users" it should be those who should have by this point looked for alternative fuel. How long has this been a problem and how long have "we" blamed it on those who have to buy gas to go to work.
My opinion, they (those who are responsible for this high priced mess) are hoping we continue to be dependent on oil. How else are they going to continue to make big bucks at our expense. Tell it like it is. We are not buying oil because we like to, it is a necessity.
May 22nd, 2006 at 1:13 am