Cave people.

A few weeks ago, we saw the Democrats cave on the revised FISA law, voting with the administration and congressional republicans on a bill that would grant the co-conspiratorial telecom giants retroactive immunity from civil lawsuits while underwriting Bush's claim that the president can break pretty much any law any time he wants to (as well as spy on any of us who happen to communicate with people beyond our national borders - see Sen. Feingold's appearance on Democracy Now! ). Now we can watch in disgust as the party of Jefferson caves on the question of opening vast wilderness areas and the continental shelf to drilling by the obscenely overfed oil companies. Clearly Harry Reid and company have one beady eye on opinion polls that suggest a majority of Americans favor this giveaway in the misguided belief that it will bring down the price of gas. When I say "misguided", I mean actively so not only by a shameless political leadership but by an industry with more money than any industry has ever possessed in the history of this planet - money that buys a lot of misleading and utterly nauseating marketing about drilling "more respectfully" and tapping "the power of human energy."

When I started seeing the airwaves saturated with this bullshit, I thought it was mostly defensive on their part. They were making ridiculous amounts of money off of us, fueling climate change, while we were losing our shirts... so the image needed a little burnishing, let's say. Now I'm convinced this is more an offensive strategy. (Naomi Klein has talked about this a bit lately.) This lease deal is an enormous wealth opportunity for them, and they surely saw it coming. Continental shelf oil is well worth drilling for when oil is at $140 a barrel, so why not get the politicians to open up all those federal lands? They can build support by spreading the lie that drilling will reduce the price of oil. And the oil companies can buy all the influence they need, filling campaign coffers and hiring the best lobbyists in town, so enlisting our politicians' cooperation (Republican and Democratic) shouldn't be a problem.

Apologists for congressional Democrats who are leaning toward supporting increased drilling argue that they are responding to public opinion. But any public sentiment in favor of this policy is the product of some pretty serious demagoguery. Seriously... how hard would it be to articulate a convincing argument against drilling off the coast of Florida or in ANWR? For one thing, it will only benefit firms like Halliburton, which is already making a fortune off of electrocuting our soldiers in Iraq with their shoddy workmanship. And as Klein points out, this type of capital intensive oil production is already taking place on a massive scale in western Canada, which has become the biggest supplier of petroleum to the U.S. and one bound by NAFTA to provide us with oil even if it means sacrificing their own energy security. And yet, this massive supply of oil from a highly reliable neighbor has not exactly brought the price down, has it? Why should we think developing much smaller reserves off shore and in Alaska would make the slightest difference (especially when industry experts say it won't)?

Fact is, the oil companies want the price high. That is, in fact, what makes these domestic leases particularly valuable - they're not worth shit if oil drops below $80 a barrel. So... why aren't Harry Reid and company saying that every day and twice on Sunday?

luv u,

jp