Amid skyrocketing oil, gasoline, coal, and electricity (coming to a neighborhood near you) prices, 2008 offers Americans quite serious and stark choices between knowledgeable, impassioned, and thoughtful candidates when it comes to finding paths toward a prosperous 21st century economy, on the one side, and Fossil-Fool candidates focused on tightening our shackles to the ever-more costly (pollution, financial, otherwise) and archaic oil-coal based energy system.

One of these stark choices comes in California’s 46th district, where Huntington Beach Mayor Debbie Cook is running against ten-term Congressman Dana Rohrbacher.

Debbie was one of the first on the  Energy Smart Act Blue page.  Join me after the fold for some indications as to why.

UPDATE: Energy Smart Debbie Cook will be meeting with Barack Obama tomorrow morning, 13 July …  

Join us at Netroots Nation, next Friday, room 19, 9 am, for Energizing America:  Setting an Agenda for Progress.  This panel will range far and wide across our energy challenges and opportunities.  

Part of the discussion: the Freshman Energy Smart Acceleration (FESA) Act.  

FESA is a package of suggested programs that could provide a rallying point for the freshmen (and women) class of 2009, to join together for passage a set of legislative initiatives to help spark an Energy Smart renaissance across the United States.

That is, truly enjoing the Onion‘s 3 July 2008 Green Issue: “Our All-Paper Salute to the Environment.”

Well-done satire provides a painful window on the soul of an issue.

And, the Onion specializes in that well-done satire.

This issue pulls together some top environmentally-oriented satire from the past decade. Lets take some bites of that green onion …

But, first, some related breaking news …

This video is the rage among the Global Warming denial sect, as they pass it around and post it with great glee following Carlin’s death. Their RIP is a celebration that George was one of theirs.

You got people around you.

The country’s full of them right now, people walking around all day long, every minute of the day, worried about everything …

the greatest arrogance of them all, Save the Planet.  …

I’m getting tired of this shit.

Celebrate George “Global Warming Denier” Carlin!

…

Hold on a second now …  

Amid all the diatribes, my letter to Senator Webb, to be ignored, with an automated letter to come six weeks from now:

Dear Senator Webb,

I write knowing that my words will have little impact, a staffer will quickly stuff this into the pile for a form response.

Mr Webb: I was a member of (a bit player/contributor to) DraftWebb. I had and have a great deal of respect for you, on multiple levels.  I am hoping (somewhat without hope) that you will live up to, and exceed, that respect through a forceful stance with those like Dodd and Feingold who stand ready to fight against the House FISA capitulation to Bush Administration illegalities.

I use computers. I use the internet. I communicate.  

I am a citizen. I am a patriot. I have put my life on the line for my, for our nation.  

And, as you have, I have sworn oaths to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America.

The FISA bill, with its ex posto facto and blanket and secretive amnesty for the telecommunications industry, violates the 4th Amendment, it rips it to shreds.

You have sworn to uphold the Constitution.

Will you uphold your oath?  

Recall Deep Throat (All the President’s Men), that basic piece of advice: “Follow the Money.”  As we listen to the George W. Bush’s, John McCain’s, the Republican Party’s, and the RWSM’s response to what George W. Bush described as America’s “addiction to oil”, remember those words.

In face of addiction, is the Republican Party fighting to get us (the US) to a treatment center? Struggling to help us (the US) get off the addiction? Preparing us (the US) for going cold turkey?  No, they are struggling for ways to feed the addiction and keep us hooked.  Hooked, that is, as the problem worsens even more such that the inevitable crash truly will be a crash and burn of our nation.

John McCain went to Houston Oilers’ territory for his first major energy speech. Totally apropos, because the best he could come up with was to argue for putting drills everywhere one can imagine.

Truth be told, the title isn’t an exact quote, but it isn’t far off.  

Yesterday on Fox News, anchor Shep Smith was recounting the story of a man in Pennsylvania who was stuck in a port-a-potty. According to the York Daily Record (PA), the man was “drunk, naked and wedged up to his waist in the hole of the toilet.” Toward the end of the segment, Smith compared people who get stuck in toilets to “people who deny the whole global warming thing.” “They’re just a little crazy, you know?” said Smith. “What do you do?”

Where do the Republicans come into this? The majority don’t believe that humanity is driving Global Warming.

Saturday, Senator Barbara Boxer gave the Democratic Radio Address.

She spoke about the urgent need for our nation to act on global warming before it’s too late.

This talk has material that merits cheering and other parts that merit groans. Join me after the fold for an examination of why Senator Boxer merits some Cheers and some (strong) Jeers.

Senator Barbara Boxer has released a summary of the Manager’s Amendment to the Lieberman-Warner Coal-Subsidy Act. In the cover letter, Senator Boxer promises many things, including that this will be “deficit neutral” (sadly, not ‘reduce the deficit’ or putting funds in reserve) and that it

follows the very strong advice of scientists, who have told us what needs to be done to avert the catastrophic effects of unchecked global warming.

Sadly, the bill does not seem to meet the “strong advice of scientists”.