DOWN WITH PANTS!

I haven't posted political in quite some time, but reading today's news that our feckless leader George W. Bush has given his big OK to the EPA to relax environmental standards to help our gas shortage problem has led me to break my political silence. Despite his posturing about conservation and whatnot, this is bullshit and it is pissing me off.

Sure the president is saying a lot of the right things. Preaching conservation, encouraging people to purchase hybrids, calling on congress to repeal $2 billion dollars in tax breaks that he recently signed into law, and calling on his administration to investigate price gouging: That is all well and good.

But let's be honest with ourselves. Bush is a former oilman, like just about everybody else in his administration, and they still have strong ties to the oil companies. Nothing that hurts these companies will ever get done. It is all just a smoke screen to hide the loosening of regulations on big oil in the name of lower gas prices.

It's just public relations, it's just politics. Don't get fooled by his sudden lefty leaning talk, it is not sincere (same as his take on immigration). He has his fingers crossed behind his back whenever he makes a speech. He is telling everybody exactly what they want to hear. The environmentalists are hearing the conservation bullshit, conservatives are hearing the relaxing regulations bullshit, and everybody is hearing the lower gas prices bullshit.

It is all bullshit. No matter what happens, gas prices will temporarily drop, but a year from now they will have gradually gone back up and then will spike to record levels once more. In the meantime, ANWR will be tapped, environmental regulations will have been blown out of the water, Ford will release a tractor-trailer sized SUV and all the hybrids purchased in the last year will be recalled due to safety concerns. The oil companies will still have record profits and your ass won't be able to afford to even get to the gas station to get a fill up.

Don't let this happen. Don't be fooled. Suck it up, pay the prices, complain all you want, do whatever makes you feel better, just don't let this administration roll back all of the efforts that conservationists have made in the past 20 years. Gas prices will fall when oil companies realize that they can no longer manipulate and trick everybody. Until then, prices will continue to rise and our environment will suffer and nobody in the administration will do anything about it.