Republican Principles - Putting the Moron in Oxymoron

Perhaps the funniest thing about the recent hikes in gas prices is watching Republicans abandon their so-called principles and call for windfall profits taxes on oil companies. Of course, the past few years have given evidence to the statement that Republican principles are whatever it takes to hold power. Evidence is immigration: As long as illegal immigrants were quiet and picking our strawberries and cleaning our toilets and serving us fine tacos, as long as the Republican base didn't care they were okay. As soon as the Minutemen and other radical xenophobes surfaced and the Republicans began to lose sure thing elections, the pandering began. Lupe can clean my house but she can't stay in the States? Wrong, as in "W".

Even Boehner is dismissing Frist's latest misdiagnosis, calling his $100 buyout of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge insulting. Even moreso is Frist's implication that the bit of oil we could get by ruining that pristine area is going to do squat about our energy dependency. By the time we could pump anything out of there, gas prices will be over $6.00 per gallon. There is one circumstance against which this Progressive would give up the refuge: If Congress would ram greenhouse gas emissions down the President's throat by such a majority he couldn't veto it, if Congress would demand strict reductions in energy consumption, generous grants to research alternative energy sources, clean coal, clean nuclear and renewables, I'd give up the refuge faster than you could say caribou migration. Otherwise it's a band aid over arterial bleeding, not much worth the effort and not worth the loss. An aside: The Republicans passed a bill in the house today calling for fines of up to $150 million for oil companies caught price gouging. They have never been caught at it and how would fining them bring down prices even if they were? Desperation apparently leads to cluelessness among those about to lose their majority.

Further demonstrating the guiding Republican principle of "Whatever it takes to rule," the House passed its milktoast ethics reform. Look for more of the same from both houses. Realistic, meaningful ethics reform would have banned gifts from lobbyists and publicly funded Federal elections. None of that - the Republicans aren't going to change the system that got them funded and thereby elected. Look for more of the same and less ethics disguised as Republican ethics reform.

Not immune, William Jefferson of Louisiana, a Democrat, is going down for accepting a bribe from a Kentucky businessman. The difference is that none of us are defending him. He should be thrown under a jail and this Democrat would dig the hole.

We've spent nearly three hundred billion dollars and 2,500 lives to form states that regularly and systematically persecute non-muslims. Welcome to Iraq and Afghanistan, two of the worst mistakes the United States ever made. Of course, three key U. S. allies, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan are among the worst of the worst. Our key allies used to be tolerant European states but under Republican rule, they've drifted away to be replaced by the extremists but then, if our ayatollahs Robertson, Dobson, Osteen and others had their way, religious tolerance would be a thing of the past in this country. It makes sense that we would befriend the intolerant. We are.

Mexico has quietly done what we should, decriminalize small amounts of drugs for personal use. Our prisons are crammed with people who had an ounce of pot on them or who screwed up once, victims of Conservative, Draconian punishments for relatively harmless crimes. As a cop friend of mine said, he's had to fight a bunch of drunks but never once has he had to fight someone stoned. That Mexico could be so wise is an affront to the State Department, who demands any U. S. citizens caught for drug use there be subjected to draconian punishment. Maybe if they keep it up, conservatives can have everyone in the states guilty of something trivial, then surveilling them wouldn't be illegal. As things stand, ten percent of our population is either in prison or on parole. Like our health care system, our punishment system isn't working.

Bush wants to extend tax cuts. How about raising the minimum wage, stuck for years at the same ridiculously low rate?