Wow. On the day Palin attends a deployment ceremony for her son, she advocates for war with Russia. This is just so wrong on so many levels…

GIBSON: Let’s start, because we are near Russia, let’s start with Russia and Georgia.

The administration has said we’ve got to maintain the territorial integrity of Georgia. Do you believe the United States should try to restore Georgian sovereignty over South Ossetia and Abkhazia?

PALIN: First off, we’re going to continue good relations with Saakashvili there. I was able to speak with him the other day and giving him my commitment, as John McCain’s running mate, that we will be committed to Georgia. And we’ve got to keep an eye on Russia. For Russia to have exerted such pressure in terms of invading a smaller democratic country, unprovoked, is unacceptable and we have to keep… GIBSON: You believe unprovoked.

PALIN: I do believe unprovoked and we have got to keep our eyes on Russia, under the leadership there.

GIBSON: What insight into Russian actions, particularly in the last couple of weeks, does the proximity of the state give you?

PALIN: They’re our next door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.

Sarah Palin on Russia:

We cannot repeat the Cold War. We are thankful that, under Reagan, we won the Cold War, without a shot fired, also. We’ve learned lessons from that in our relationship with Russia, previously the Soviet Union.

We will not repeat a Cold War. We must have good relationship with our allies, pressuring, also, helping us to remind Russia that it’s in their benefit, also, a mutually beneficial relationship for us all to be getting along.

Now, let’s unpack this just a little bit. Russia was not unprovoked. As much as McCain/Palin want to paint the conflict in Russia as the big bad wolf eating the innocent Georgia, it didn’t really happen like that. In fact, following her logic about protecting smaller democratic countries, she should pay due respect to South Ossetia and acknowledge that Georgia was annexing them even as they expressed desire to be independent of Georgia. There was plenty of provocation.

Of course, it’s much more convenient to dumb down the argument to RNC talking points and argue that Georgia was somehow being punished by Russia for joining Nato. It’s also more convenient to ignore the fact of the gas pipeline crossing Georgia that the neo-cons desperately want to control.

Oh, but then I forgot. John McCain says Palin knows more about energy than possibly anyone else in the US.

Those gosh-darn Republicans sure are given to knowing everything, aren’t they? Just ask Meghan McCain.

Just after sunset on Friday night, dolphins played in front of me; sea lions behind me.

As I watched, I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of scene this would be if offshore platforms were built and oil pulled from the ground. In an earthquake, would those platforms survive?

As I hear the reports of the platforms and refineries at risk along the Gulf Coast, I can’t help but wonder how the majority of people in this country can support building more. Have we really become that deeply entrenched in our lust and greed that we would even take the small risk of losing scenes like this?

On Friday, I was a guest at a magnificent dance of light and nature. Those 45 minutes are worth whatever sacrifice might need to be made to preserve even the prospect of attending another.

This post concludes the series of shore photos. Reality: Congress will, by doing nothing, allow the moratorium to expire. The President has signed the executive order lifting the order of his father to preserve these areas. The oil companies will have the right to drill with certain state agreements. The states are in agreement, and over 70% of the population has bought the lies of John McCain and his cronies that drilling offshore somehow solves the problem of high oil prices and demand.

I stand in a doorway. To my back, scenes like this. In front of me, scenes like the mess the Gulf Coast will see with the damage of one natural disaster doing serious damage to platforms and putting them at risk of leaking oil into the Gulf.

It’s an invitation to reconsideration; turn around and walk into this picture instead. Leave behind the notion of destruction, choosing more creative options for supply and demand than simply padding the balance sheet of Exxon/Mobil and the like.

My Newsgang Live friend Christian Burns says that the majority of the country sees offshore drilling as a solution.

In fact, it is no solution at all. As a lifelong denizen of some of the best coastline in the world (right here in California), I am tempted to post a photo every day for as long as need be (and trust me, I have more than enough to do that) of what our coastline looks like right now, as a juxtaposition to the endless blather about how badly we NEED to destroy this for the sake of morning commutes, substandard expectations of vehicle manufacturers, and pandering to the oil companies who already have leases they aren’t exploring.

Offshore drilling is not the answer. Ten years, folks, before any difference is made.

Every day, John McCain. Every day until you and your party and your buddy Bush figure out that you

will

not

destroy

this

without knowing what you’re destroying.

Forgive the obsession, readers, and resign yourself to one seascape mixed in with a healthy smattering of political commentary for awhile.

John McCain doesn’t think it matters whether or not he pumps his own gas.

WICKSOL: When was the last time you pumped your own gas and how much did it cost?

MCCAIN: Oh, I don’t remember. Now there’s Secret Service protection. But I’ve done it for many, many years. I don’t recall and frankly, I don’t see how it matters.

Well, John McCain, here’s why it matters. I went to the gas station last week and put $25 in our Honda. That $25 used to be more than enough to fill up the Prius, but now it takes it to just over half a tank. That same $25 in the Honda got me 4.57 gallons of gas, which was just over 1/3 of a tank. I don’t drive the Honda unless I have to, because it gets such crappy gas mileage.

The Prius gets great gas mileage, especially when it’s driven on the freeway at 55mph or we’re in stop-and-go traffic. But here’s the thing: When I go to the gas station and pump my own gas, putting my debit card in the machine and watching the pump suck out $50 to fill a ten-gallon tank at Costco (where we go to save .10/gallon), something else gives. For us, that ’something else’ means not buying the roast at the market and opting for something else cheaper, but for other folks, that something else might be a meal for their kids, or for themselves. It might mean they don’t fill a prescription that they need, or that they don’t buy milk that week, or they have to let the electric bill slide and go without electricity until they can afford to reconnect it.

It might even mean they have to quit the job they commute to every day because it no longer makes sense for them to spend $5/gallon to earn $9/hour. And here in California, almost everyone commutes.

So, John McCain, when you arrogantly brush away the fact that you not only don’t pump your own gas but have no clue about what the rest of us do, and then have the utter NERVE to try to paint Obama as an elitist, it matters.

When you tell those of us who are pinching all sorts of pennies to keep our homes from foreclosure but won’t take a stand against the Enron loophole, it matters.

When your buddy George W. Bush doesn’t even have a clue that gas prices are going to cross $4/gallon and then steps on the California CAFE standards because we set them higher than his piddly-ass non-goal, it matters.

It matters to everyone who doesn’t have $100 million in the bank, a tax-free military pension and a fat government paycheck.

Every time I fill up, memories flood of those arrogant Enron assholes laughing at ‘grannies in California’ who were going to be screwed as they jacked around our electricity prices. I hear them laughing and remember my 92-year old grandma pinching pennies to keep her air conditioning going so her ailing husband could stay comfortable in the summer months. It might as well have been you laughing, Senator McCain.

You betcha it matters to me, John McCain.

Does it matter to you? If it does, speak up here in the comments or on your own blog with a link back. Let’s ALL tell John McCain why it matters.

The only climate change the GOP expects from the energy issue is a political climate change, which if I have any say in the matter, won’t happen. From SFGate.com:

“Energy is actually a huge opportunity for Republicans,” said Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., who chairs the Senate Republicans’ re-election campaign. “Energy has the opportunity to change the climate if it’s done right.”

A recent Gallup Poll found that 57 percent of Americans would support drilling in offshore or wilderness areas that are currently off-limits to drilling, while 41 percent oppose the idea. Frank Newport, the poll’s editor in chief, contends that Republicans’ push for more drilling is now “generally in sync with majority American public opinion.”

Hey, 57% supporting drilling, why not get a clue now about what you support. I have to believe you’re just ignorant and not stupid. You REALLY support increased domestic production, which can be accomplished RIGHT. NOW. You just think the protected areas have to be opened to increase production, but they don’t.

Here’s an area that would be forever marred by offshore drilling.

So to the 57% of you out there who think this is somehow something that will help, let me reiterate:

1. Offshore drilling will not help you offset the gas prices you’re seeing right now.
2. Offshore drilling will not change the need to shift to alternative forms of energy.
3. Offshore drilling would require more refineries to be built. Are you willing to have a refinery in your backyard?
4. Offshore drilling would cause many coastal areas to be hard-hit economically as a result of tourism loss, effectively destroying the coastal economy.
5. We have a DUTY to preserve these areas and find alternative ways to supply and conserve energy./li>

Got it? Good. Now go spread the news to the other bunch of you who are not stupid, but must definitely be ignorant.

The horsemen of the apocalypse are on the hunt. Here’s the latest news on the pale horses of death: ExxonMobil, Total, Chevron, Shell, et al who have been given preferential treatment and no-bid contract opportunities to service Iraq’s oil fields. (Remember this?)

The NY Times reports:

The deals, expected to be announced on June 30, will lay the foundation for the first commercial work for the major companies in Iraq since the American invasion, and open a new and potentially lucrative country for their operations.
The no-bid contracts are unusual for the industry, and the offers prevailed over others by more than 40 companies, including companies in Russia, China and India. The contracts, which would run for one to two years and are relatively small by industry standards, would nonetheless give the companies an advantage in bidding on future contracts in a country that many experts consider to be the best hope for a large-scale increase in oil production.

By now there’s probably very little doubt in anyone’s mind about the evil living in the White House. But this should make us all choke on our $4.50/gallon gas.

And the Bush/McCain diversion? Offshore domestic drilling, endorsed by flip-floppers Bush and McCain.

Here’s a rhetorical question. After George W. Bush and his merry band of neocons have raped us all for the last 8 years and now do it again without the benefit of even a kiss, do you think it wise to allow them to rape our natural resources here in the US for…oh…another 50 years or so? 100 years? 1,000 years? 10,000 years?

Just like McCain’s fake gas tax holiday, the call for domestic offshore drilling is just another invitation for the American people to bend over and take it quietly.

Seriously, there is much more to say about this, but for now, just let the brazen, wanton greed of our current Administration and their chosen successor to sink in. Breathe the stench. Be as disgusted as you want, and then feel free to copy this and email it to your friends with the title “Bush/Cheney into rape and incest. Will McCain follow suit?”

Let it go viral.