I have just sent the following to Sean Hannity, Alan Colmes, and Bill O’Reilly, all of Fox News:
I have heard several Fox commentators speak to the dismal performance of our elected officials on energy since our first oil crisis in 1973. To be candid, I believe you they were too kind, I am not in the 9% over the voters who approve of congress. There has been a mountain of rhetoric on energy, we have made significant progress in many areas, ethanol, solar, wind, to name a few easy ones. And yet during this time, our imports of oil have risen from 35% to 60%. How can that be? We have obviously missed the very core issue. In spite of all of the money we have invested in alternative energy sources, in spite of all the improvements we have accomplished in energy efficiency, we have still slid way backward on the most significant element of the equation, oil. We have slid badly on what all sides agree we need to accomplish. 1973 shocked the nation, 1979 reinforced the message and kicked it up a notch or two. How could we blow it so badly?
I want to know how we got here from where we were in 1973. We need to have a timeline showing the price, how much we produced, and consumed, imported, broken down by energy source. Then we need to begin adding the different steps we have taken, we dropped the national speed limit, we initiated various tax incentives on one thing or another, and so on. Let us see what worked, and what did not.
Would you, Fox News, please help me get the facts together. It’s time I had a serious chat with my representatives, you can picture Ricky Ricardo if you wish, “Lucy, you got a lot of splainin to do.”
I would recommend that Hannity and Colmes be assigned to champion this project, what better way to assure accuracy of the facts than to have to them blessed by both a conservative and a liberal. Maybe even set up some sort of mechanism to provide for viewer input on what facts to provide, what questions to answer.
History does indeed repeat itself. And what I see thus far in this oil crisis is exactly that, history repeating itself. This one is going to be bad, but I shudder to think what the next one might do.
I am copying you on this also, Bill, because I am hoping to enlist your support with the idea. I truly believe an accurate report card is vital at this point. When was the last time anyone did one publicly and factually, fair and balanced?
Still not one single comment or response to my recent flurry of activity here on the blog. That is depressing. Maybe I’m speaking in a foreign language, maybe I’m a total nut case. I sure hope one of those is true. I would really hate to think that we are too busy. All of this talk about how much the people want change, we are the ones that need to change, our political process, our leaders, have not been getting the job done. 35 years and I am still hearing the same agenda pushed by the same sides of the battle. 35 years of not only suffering through constantly rising energy prices, but suffering through hearing both sides arguing about it. And for all of this, we lost ground, gone went backwards. I am appalled, and, as a citizen of the United States of America, deeply embarassed.
Oh well, no more time to worry about it now, I’ve got too much running around that needs to be done.
Rix
