It took so long to get so little done.

If you didn't already know, Bush finally got his pet energy and transportation bills passed. These darn things are both a few years overdue and are still some of the biggest piles of shit to pass by the White House steps. Just in case you were wondering what that smell was, it's pork. Shitloads of pork.
The only redeeming feature to the energy bill is the increased funds for alternative energies, including ethanol. But this is a token gesture at best, especially when put up next to the MASSIVE tax cuts given to oil/coal/shit-from-a-long-time-ago energy.
The title of this post was intended more so for the energy bill than the transportation bill; in the transportation bill we see lots of positives that were all necessary for well functioning roads. But the policy still applies that "If you build it, they will come" So, as long as we build wider, straighter roads, there will be people and cars to fill them up. Unless, of course, gas hits $5 a gallon. I would have much prefered to see more funding for things like the Northstar line rather than the oodles of pork projects thrown in.
These things passed because it seems that everyone got a little bit of something. These huge, overarching bills are never a good thing. Why not take some time, break 'em up, and cut out some of the shit? It would seem to be the fiscally conservative thing to do, but I guess the Repugs just don't really give a hoot about that anymore, it went to the wayside along with any sort of environmental conservativism.
But, instead, the energy bill is over 1,700 pages long and the transportation bill contains over 6,000 projects and spends 284 billion dollars, so I am guessing that one has some heft too . Do you think anyone actually bothered to read these things? I have a feeling that everyone just threw one more piece of meat in the pan and hoped that no one would notice whatever little turd project was sneaking by. Good projects or bad, they are still just sneaking.
Oh, I should also mention the fact that this energy bill completely shits on the idea of trying to move toward even a little bit of energy independence. Thomas Friedman still is getting it right, he had another op-ed in the Post-Bulletin on this today, check it out if you know how to read. Anyway, we are just too pussy to take any hard shots for the team and actually make sacrifices that might help of energy policy, but we sure seem to like wars. I guess killing other people's kids is just fine to us. Fuck us.
Anyway, just thought I would pass that along.

Great Length
Not much help

I have yet to come up with a comprehensive list of all the crap projects in each of these bills, but I will give that to you when I find one.

Oh yeah, oil reached an all-time high today. Yay.

By the way, I am shifting back into school mode so you can expect more frequent posts from me again.

Peace out.