Just Very Slightly Hypocritical

[filkertom]

Another beauty, by way of Crooks and Liars. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert gave a news conference at a Washington, D.C. gas station. He then drove away in a Hydrogen Alternative Fuel vehicle... which he ditched for his SUV a few blocks later.

Comments

[jmthane.livejournal.com]

And unfortunately, having moved to Aurora, IL, he's now my Representative in the House. I'm sure not voting for him...

[partiallyclips.livejournal.com]

"Ah, but in ten years we'll be driving cars that run on RAINBOWS. And THEN where will we be?"

"Occupying Ireland. And any other rainbow-rich country."

-Jason Youngbluth, Deep Fried

[musicmutt.livejournal.com]

What did you expect from someone who really doesn't exist beyond a two second sound news bite.

[morpheus0013.livejournal.com]

I continue to be astounded that politicians seem to have not figured out that there are people TRYING to catch them doing stupid shit like this.

I mean, damn. At least be devious about being an asshat.

[emiofbrie.livejournal.com]

Can you say POSER!!!!!!!!

Did he really think no one would be watching?

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

I don't think much of Hastert, but it should have been obvious to anyone seeing him driving a hydrogen car that it was a stunt. It would not have been his car, it would have been borrowed for the occasion. You can't just go to your Chevy dealer and buy one -- the only ones that exist are research prototypes and they cost a ton. So I know we're supposed to read into this that he "ditched" the hydrogen car because he wanted to be driving his SUV, and it is certainly likely that he didn't like the hydrogen car very much, but the truth is probably that he was returning the hydrogen car to the lab that owns it, probably through an intermediary (which makes sense, because he is after all the Speaker of the House and he's supposed to have more important things to do with his time than run errands).

Don't pick on the Republicans for their image, pick on them for their policies. Their policies are the problem, and the reason they are in power in the first place is that the people don't understand their policies.

[pyrephox.livejournal.com]

Except that they are managing to sell their policies based largely on their image of being 'responsible, honest, and patriotic'. You have to expose both the falsehood of the policies /and/ undermine the image, because people will always want to believe the charming con man.

... RETURNING IT TO THE LAB THAT OWNS IT!?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

The reason that people don't understand their policies is because they are voting on image.

Jeez.

Yeah, he was returning it to the lab that owns it, after using it for a shallow and self-serving photo-op, and then going back to his gas-guzzling ride.

I fucking well will "pick on them" for their image, Phil. Their desired image is that they are braver, smarter, more patriotic, more moral, less hypocritical, less "shrill", etc., etc., etc. Hastert, on this and many other occasions, has shown himself to be a shallow, bumbling hypocrite completely in tune with the neoconservative BushCo creed. If he'd driven and left in his brand new Ford Escape or some other hybrid that he'd just bought, saying "I've seen the light", it would've been gold. Hell, if he'd just been picked up from home or from the office, or right in front of goddamn Congress, and then dropped off there. But nooooo. Instead he gets an experimental vehicle for a few blocks, and then dumps it for a fuckin' SUV.

They have been shoving their image, their bullshit lying wrong-on-every-level image for twelve years now. Especially the past six. Their image is spun sugar dipped in pig turds, and we need to call them on every instance.

Re: ... RETURNING IT TO THE LAB THAT OWNS IT!?

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

You couldn't be more right that their image is a lie, but when we pick on them for their image, we're letting them make us fight them on their turf. They're *very* good at the art of bullshit. We need to shine the spotlight on the man behind the curtain; joining the puppet show in front of the curtain isn't working.

The point I'm trying to make is not that we should just let them claim the image they want, but that we need to attack that image by showing what they really do. The stunt with the hydrogen car isn't the stuff that should be changing hearts and minds. What should be changing hearts and minds is when Bush comes out and says that there is no evidence that oil companies are screwing the public at the same time as Exxon is announcing the biggest quarterly corporate profit by any company ever in history.

Re: ... RETURNING IT TO THE LAB THAT OWNS IT!?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

And I'm saying we do both. It's all of a piece, all of a pattern, and when it's all put together it shows the whole picture, which is what people need to see.

[brianh]

*twitches* You know, the only good thing to come out of those stunts is showing off alternative fuel cars (which Hydrogen Fuel Cells aren't the best of anyway; I think that currently, the process of charging the cells uses up more oil than it'd save?). None of them, even the ones with hybrids are really meaningful if done by anyone high-up in the hierarchy because the Secret Service insists they use SUVs (usually upgraded/security optimized)-- one of those areas where I admit driving around in a tank is probably a good idea.

Sigh. At least down here in L.A., they're looking to switch as many vehicles as possible to hybrids. Of course, we're democratic majority. :P

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

Actually, the only plans for hydrogen fuel cells that use more oil than they save are the ones the White House and various republican "think tanks" have come up with. There are many, many alternative methods that take advantage of local resources. Got small rivers? Use low-head dams or run off powered hydro. Got wind? Use small windmills on the garage (a guy in Canada came up with a good solar/wind combo for a personal hydrogen generator). Got farms? Use farm waste biomass. Only the republicans are pushing for an all-oil hydrogen plan, and unfortunately, the dems seem to be also stuck with the single monolithic solution mindset.

[musicmutt.livejournal.com]

There are a couple of fellows in Canada who found a means to process "farm waste biomass" and using it to an amazing extent. From producing enough methane to burn in a thermal electric plant to create enough power to run a sizable town. Waste products from that? CO2, (a greenhouse gas, yes, but a far less potent one than methane) A spongey brown compound that they finding very useful in land reclamation in the tar sand pits and a very nutrient rich water ideal for irrigating without the other contaminents straight manure introduces. There is a lot more to it than I can go into, here, but the really cool thing is they figure they can use this process to treat human waste as well.

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

I've read about that, and that they're working on a few ideas to reduce the CO2. Seems Canada is coming up with some very good solutions, which most of their political leaders seem to be ignoring because they only want big, monolithic systems that only enrich a few people, instead of diverse, low impact systems that enrich many people.

You should hear my canadian friend complain about this ;-)

Once again this looks like a job for individual states, even cities and towns, because with the current crop of politicians nothing will be done for at least three more years, probably more.

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

This gives me an idea. From now on, whenever anyone asks me what my political affiliation is, I'll say;

"I'm just to the left of hypocritical."

Is this supposed to be one of those answers that keeps you out of trouble...

[capplor.livejournal.com]

for folk not knowing how to take it? More than likely, though, any real jerks on either side would just take it in the worst possible way.

Re: Is this supposed to be one of those answers that keeps you out of trouble...

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

Well, then that's THEIR problem, isn't it?