"Don't Blame Me, I Voted for Jimmy"

That saying (a Mitzi-orginal) is more than twenty years old, but it holds true to this day. I now add: "Don't Blame Me, I Voted for Al....and John."

The first slogan (and even the first part of the second one) was not about war - it was about energy - our dependence on oil, Middle Eastern oil. Now, with our 20/20 hindsight we can see just how that dependence (addiction?) has drug us into one of the worst episodes of our history. We have a bumbling oil man in the White House and another one (with more ability and less heart - figuratively and literally) as the Vice President. And now we're stuck in the quagmire of Iraqi. Even full production of Iraqi oil (which will not occur for many years in the future) will not pay for it financially - and nothing will repay the lives lost - Iraqi and American.

Don't blame me, I voted for Jimmy - many years ago, because he had the foresight to see that this oil-addiction needed to be curbed. We needed (in the 1970's!) to start developing self-renewing fuel alternatives. We certainly had the technology then - even more so now. But it seems the oil men have this country by the short hairs. We needed (in the 1970's) to push for government-subsidized mass transit in all major metropolitan areas. We needed (in the 1970's) to make sure Detroit produced fuel efficient cars (not the gas-guzzling SUVs that we the direct decendents of the 1980 Me-era) and even alternative fuel cars. Brazil is doing it - why not the US?

We need an intervention for our oil-addiction. An intervention not managed by the oil men in the White House.

Don't blame me...