HuffingtonPost.com
The Pusher Plagiarizes "Addiction to Oil"
Lawrence Bender
I'm one of those people who don't blog much because I'm not a facile writer and it's just hard for me to slow down at the computer in this multi tasking world to organize my thoughts. But I have not been able to stop fuming after the state of the union address last week. To watch the number one PUSHER, George Bush, talk about our "addiction to oil" just made me blow a proverbial gasket. First of all, this problem is no joke. We consume world wide about 80 million barrels of oil a day and 25% is consumed in this country and yet for the last 5 years, this administration has only helped push that consumption rate higher.
Let me back up and just say it was only a few years ago that along with Arianna Huffington, Laurie David, Arie Emmanuel, and Scott Burns, we shot a series of TV spots that said exactly that: America is addicted to oil and we had better kick that addiction quick. Why....for our National Security, for the problem of global warming, to help create millions of new jobs with renewable energy technologies, and for our health. We were willing to pay for the airtime, but we were banned from airing these spots by all the local affiliates. Because of the ban, the spots were picked up as news and we found ourselves in debate -- of course -- with the right wing shows such as Neal Cavutto, Tony Snow and others.....They were calling us unpatriotic.
How dare we ask people to buy smaller cars??? Everyone has the right to buy an SUV!!!! Well, the bottom line is unless we get ourselves off of this addiction, we will always be at the whim of places like Iran, and the level of CO2 in our atmosphere will create a planetary emergency that makes Katrina seem mild.
So now the President plagiarizes our language....(something I wish the Democrats would start doing). A brilliant move to confuse everyone into thinking he really "means it". The problem is, this is the biggest issue facing not only us but the world right now. Our consumption of oil and its effect on National Security and global warming. Let's hope everyone really recognizes it and doesn't just pay it lip service.