I'd much rather see careful (and after Iraq disaster, they won't rock the boat) half mad people in charge than raging insane people with a cause. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
Hmmm. Things could get a lot worse.
Actually I half agree with the 'don't impeach' crowd, because as long as Bush is hemmed in by Congress he's not going to do much.
Cornered, he may do something really stupid. Like invent, arrange, or discover a pretext for martial law. Or something equally ugly.
But I also think the issue will sort itself out early next year.
Once Waxman or someone asks for information under subpoena, and Bush or Cheney refuse (probably citing National Security), you have a constitutional crisis which is going to occupy everyone's attention no matter what they currently have planned.
Kos, and apparently the rest of the Dems, are naive if they believe that the next session of Congress is going to be all about passing nice progressive-ish bills, and not a tug of war over the constitution and the powers of a wannabe unitary executive.
Think you, unfortunately are right. "When the abyss stares at me, it wets its pants." Brian Hopkins
Also, think beyond twqo-six years. What if the raging insanes return to power after the half-mad ones, and they still can rely on extended executive power?
Oh, and "it can't get worse than this" is almost as bad as Panglossianism. Of course it can get much worse. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Can and will. I don't think you quite understand what is happening here in the US.
Return to sanity is not on the agenda.
Maybe we will all be surprised when the Dems take office in January. But the way they are talking now, I wouldn't hold my breath.
It is all about oil. And that hasn't changed and will not change (except to get worse.)
If you think the US is dangerous now, consider what happens when we replace the incompetent madmen with talented madmen.
The world is not about to become safer. The Fates are kind.
It is all about oil.
The US economy is completely and utterly dependent on cheap transportable energy which is gasoline (petrol.) 1/6th of the US economy depends directly or indirectly on the automobile. The last 50 years of Real Estate investment has been dependent on the automobile. The last 4 years the US economy has been driven by a Real Estate boom, fueled by cheap money, in the context of ever expanding suburbia, dependent on the automobile.
With economic dependence (addiction?) comes a corresponding cultural adaptation. The car becomes more than a cog in a mass transit system. The car takes on, attaches to, resonates with various mythos: symbol of freedom, symbol of independence, socio-economic status signal, sub-group adherence signal, e.g., VW Microbus.
The one unity of life in America, crossing all ethnic, racial, gender, sexual preference, social, economic, class, and geographical division is the car.
Economy needs cars. Cars need gas. Gas comes from oil.
The world is running into Peak Oil. The US economy is running out of cheap gas.
If you think the US is dangerous now, consider what happens when we replace the incompetent madmen with talented madmen. The world is not about to become safer.
The world is not about to become safer.
Yup.
Excellent.
(I wonder what division it doesn't cross? Religion? No, seems to fit right in. How about NYC Upper East Side / Greenwich Village intellectuals? No. Honestly, I can't think of anyone except the Amish.) -----sapere aude
