Stupid Government

Merry Chrismahaunakwanzaa everyone! I hope this post holiday dispatch finds you comfortably situated after your respective holiday celebrations. Remember, the new year is fast approaching which means a whole new year for our awesome government to say lots of things and do very little.

Those of you who know me best know that I can be a bit opinionated when it comes to my feelings on various American issues; and that I often feel a bit, how should we say... dissatisfied(?) with the performance of our elected leaders. A recent "adjustment" in the nations Energy bill shows just how committed our politicians are to the environment, energy independence and of course the paramount issue of this blog, cyclists rights.

--The Senate recently stripped the bicycle commuter tax benefit from the Energy bill, while reinstating the Hummer tax benefit, which the House had removed from the energy bill.-- Click here for details

I don't know about you, but giving a 100% tax break to Ad men, "consultants", lawyers and doctors for "work vehicles over 6,000 lbs" doesn't scream "We need to break our dependence on oil". One would think that if our elected officials were truly committed to the environment, sustainable technology and energy independence they would all be jumping to vote for ANYTHING that would get our lazy asses out of our cars and onto something that has zero carbon emissions and other beneficial side effects such as, I don't know, good health? Not so much it seems, I guess big oil does still make the world (or at least America) turn.

Quite frankly I'm disgusted. I would hope that anyone who is able to read at a 5th grade level would be disgusted too. If you're as disgusted as me, and you have a little time between games of free-cell then write your senator. Don't know who your senator is? That's ok, I've included a link that lists the Senators by State in Alphabetical order (starting with Arkansas). Click here to find Senators by State

I think what our senators are really trying to say here is "We don't really care about energy independence and the environment since we can afford gas, heat and AC in our own homes thanks the the billions in handouts we get from Exxon and Halliburton, but we'll continue to give it plenty of lip service until Hollywood and the media determine that it's not a hot issue any more". I don't even want to surmise what their feelings are about cyclists rights, although I'll hazard a guess that it's probably on the bottom rung of things to discuss, if its even made it onto the ladder.