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So Bush has called on Congress to lift ba

ns on offshore drilling, even as oil companies fail to exploit currently permitted oilfields, and in spite of Department of Energy findings that increasing domestic oil production would take years and perhaps result in the drop of a few cents per gallon.

McCain followed up on July 21 with an ad that blames Obama. “Gas prices $4, $5, no end in sight,” the ad’s narrator says, “because some in Washington are still saying no to drilling in America, no to independence from foreign oil.” The narrator asks, “Who can you thank for rising prices at the pump?” Up comes a picture of Obama as his name is chanted in the background.

McCain was a little more realistic a couple months earlier, in a May 29 campaign stop in Greendale, Wis., when he said offshore drilling would be a waste of time and effort. “[W]ith those resources, which would take years to develop, you would only postpone or temporarily relieve our dependency on fossil fuels,” he said. On June 24 he said domestic drilling would not offer immediate relief but would have “psychological impact.” On July 7, he said, “Our dangerous dependence on foreign oil has been 30 years in the making, and was caused by the failure of politicians in Washington to think long term about the future of the country.”

Obama’s campaign noted, “As someone who’s been in Washington for 26 years, Sen. McCain is one of those politicians, and he’s consistently opposed investments in renewable energy that would reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Now he’s proposing nearly $4 billion in tax breaks for the oil companies and Washington gimmicks that he admits will only provide ‘psychological relief’ to consumers. Barack Obama has fought for energy independence in the Senate and has a plan to invest $150 billion in renewable sources of energy that will create five million new jobs and provide struggling families with an immediate energy rebate and a $1,000 middle-class tax cut.”

Oil prices are up in large part because of the Bush administration’s tax and trade policies and the invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. Bush’s borrow-and-spend policies have driven the national debt to a record $9.5 trillion and undermined the dollar, which has lost 60% of its value against the euro since he took office in January 2001. Average price of gas in the US was then $1.52. On the eve of the Iraq invasion in March 2003, gas cost $1.72. The war and insurgency has cut oil production in Iraq while the threat of war and economic sanctions has limited Iran’s oil production, and that has an impact on the world market. But there is no shortage of gas, as long as you can pay for it.

The market is speaking, folks, and it has figured out you’ll pay $4 a gallon, so don’t expect that price to come down appreciably just because a new oilfield comes into play. Those oil companies have gotten used to obscene profits and it turns out that newly affluent Chinese and Indian workers like to drive cars just as much as we do.

Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg said the argument for more drilling is popular and some Democrats in Congress are considering giving in to the Bush demagoguery, but Al Gore, appearing at the Netroots Nation conference of 2,000 liberal bloggers and activists in Austin on July 19, mocked the GOP argument: “The idea that we can drill our way out of this is just so absurd … When you’re in a hole stop digging.”

We have a U.S. to secure our rights. The framers of the Constitution, our ground rules, called that self-evident. The government’s focus was to be to insure our rights: our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness on an equal basis.

Today I’m bothered when our government doesn’t appear to be representing us. I’m bothered when they seek and honor privilege. And I’m bothered when our representatives won’t figure out how to work things out.

My disappointment with the media is their focus on the fears they think will keep us tuned in and listening to them. They’ve become what I think of as the popcorn media, all flocking in the same direction and giving us every little crumb until someone throws popcorn in another direction. Ultimately, they often end us giving us crumbs, lacking the depth we need and should expect, to be fully informed.

Often, instead of focusing on solutions, the media looks at the strategies groups are using to “win.” It’s time to challenge the idea that we can be us/US and have winners and losers, without losing something special, without losing our sense of community.

Our interactions with others can expand—instead of polarize—when our approach is to explore options and learn how to solve our problems together. Instead the goal seems to be to win the argument. Why not try other ideas on for size?

The anger and shouts today are disturbing. A new era of brown shirts has weakened our ability to hold town hall meetings. The media helps keep this separation in play by labeling and defining everything in terms of what side people are on. The media defines the extremes, and think they define us/US.

Often what comes from our leaders and the media leaves me thinking, “Can they really mean that? Do they really believe that?” One big reason I’m doing this is to balance the extremes—not because I have the truth. After all, given that science changes the truth about our world every few years or so, isn’t it obvious the truth is simply what we know so far?

Our core, guiding principles are defined in the Constitution. Applying them to solve our problems can be challenging. I hope to learn, grow and evolve—not get better at defending where I started. My hope is we can explore and discover solutions consistent with our founding principles that honor all of us.

On one hand this site is born of frustration related to our country today, and a sense of loss that we don’t seem to know our roots anymore. On the other hand, I’m very hopeful and see incredible opportunities and openings for change.

My underlying belief is that we can and will restore—and even expand—our freedoms; and it’s time to define and redefine what freedom and liberty is, once more.

I’ve thought about doing this site for quite some time, and the time has come. And we’ve all heard that there is nothing more powerful as an idea whose time has come.

I’m beginning to think remembering that is what we need for a shift to take place in our country. In the face of overwhelming power dripping in money and driven by greed, many of us may have forgotten that true power comes from powerful ideas held by people with conviction who participate. Working together as a community is what defined us/US in the beginning.

Today the corporate world defines so much of our lives, our world and the information we receive through the media. They define power as money and force. Once upon a time in our history, we defeated one of the most powerful nations in the world with an idea whose time had come. People uniting behind powerful ideas shift the balance of power.

Freedom is giving up fear and thinking we can’t—and knowing where the power lies. The most appropriate engine to drive us/US is a participatory us.

Come back often or RSS these posts to your own site.
Steve