Daniel Cody - “Left on the Lake”

I’ve been holding off on posting anything about the flurry of activity around the rising gas prices stories this week. I think that all the rhetoric around it is ridiculous, especially since this issue has been coming at us for months and very few people have said anything about it until gas prices hit $3.00 a gallon.

Slight tangent. Dear Media Outlets: I really don’t care that a gallon of Starbucks would cost $11.93, or that a gallon of imported bottled water is $23.00 per gallon. Firstly, I don’t buy 10 gallons of coffee or bottled water from Fiji at a time, nor are they required for me to get to work. Secondly, it just shows how far out of touch you are with mainstream American’s who would probably laugh at you for paying $3.00 for a cup of coffee or bottle of imported fancy pants water to begin with. Trying to compare luxury items to a necessity like gasoline and then joking how lucky we are that we’re stuck with paying $3.00 a gallon for it just smacks of the elitism that so many accuse you of.

One other thing. Two weeks into this huge gas price increase, we’ve got the idea that drivers are ‘fed up’ with high prices and don’t need you doing live reports from gas stations on the 6pm news ad nausuem. We know gas prices are high, and we know we’re getting screwed. How about reporting on the ‘WHY’ we’re getting screwed instead of the ‘HOW’ we’re getting screwed on a daily basis. I realize that it’s a segment that requires little work or thought on your part to produce, but please stop.

Anyways. I think it’s amusing that the same people who control the Federal government that just gave the oil companies over $15 billion in tax breaks are now trying to act surprised that they’re raking in billions and billions of dollars in pure profit. This is another great example of Republican hypocrisy in action, and so is Senator Frists ‘bold plan’ for dealing with the problem of high gas prices: $100 tax rebate checks!

This is one of the least thought out ideas come out of a politicians press office in quite some time. To deal with the high price of gas, Senator Bill Frist wants to send all of us a $100 check in the mail that we could use to buy gasoline. Talk about an being an enabler! That’s like giving an addict money to buy more drugs because the price has gone up! On top of enabling the addiction and doing nothing to solve the problem, that $100 check is going to go right in the back pockets of the big oil companies that don’t seem to be having a problem making money right now.

Why a conservative Senator is suggesting that the Federal Government start subsidizing the oil industry, the most profitable in the world, boggles the mind and gives you an idea of how close the Senator and his pals must be with the industry.

Then there are the President’s plans, which following the script for administration policy in the last year are simply ineffectual and incompetent but polished up to look and sound like good ideas.

The problem with the people in charge of the government right now is they’re treating this like a flash in the pan issue and offering up flash in the pan solutions as a result. This issue of high gas prices is going to be with us through next Fall, and as a country we should start getting real about serious solutions to the problem, not simply applying band-aids to a hemorrhaging wound while whistling dixie.

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