It's about time we all become "squeaky wheels" at each campaign stop!

Another disappointment from the Obama camp this month when he came out with the following statement defending his position reversal on offshore drilling:

When the going gets tough, the environment is left in their tracks.  And this seems to be happening one more time to us folks who had thought that at last we had someone we could trust to support the continuance of life as we know it on this planet.

I hate that gas prices are so high!  And I know that many people's livelihoods depend on the gas and oil flowing so folks can get to and from work, so emergency and public services crews can work, and so homes can be heated in the winter. 

And the Republicans are capitalizing on the public's anger by putting on a show on the floors of Capitol as a bill to help Veterans was being debated.  The Republicans, instead of calling for better funding for vets, were insisting on adding a rider to the bill that would allow offshore drilling immediately for the oil companies, now in the midst of record profits and needing to spend some of their money.

George Bush, Sr., was president when he declared by Executive Order that new offshore drilling would be prohibited.  And even his son's own Energy Department says that if offshore drilling were expanded, the action would have no effect on oil prices, according to League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski on August 1.

Nevertheless, the show put on by the Republicans testifying to how much they feel sorry (a real contradiction from their normal stance) for poor Americans who are being buried in huge bills at the pump was rowdy and boisterous.  And evidently, judging from Obama's change in his position on offshore drilling, their act was effective.

And once more, the environment....our surroundings.....was left in the dust as he spun around and said something like this: "Well, I guess I could support something like that.  I'm a guy of compromise!"

Obama had just recently picked up the LCV's endorsement for president, despite the fact that his voting in favor of the environment in the first half of the 110th Congress had fallen from 96 percent in the 109th down to 67 percent this year. 

(Yet, that's much better than McCain's favorable votes which also dipped from 41 percent in the 109th to 0 percent in the 110th.  I guess he was really campaigning hard, because he missed every single vote that the LCV surveyed.)

The organization has to be particularly disappointed with Obama because he was also absent (which the LCV counts as a negative vote for practical purposes) when there was a vote on a bill regarding offshore drilling off the Virginia coast earlier this session. 

But all in all, Obama still outshines McCain, according to LCV, with a lifetime score of 86 versus a lifetime score of 24 for McCain.  But then McCain has more bills to be judged on during his lifetime than Barack. 

Nevertheless, Obama's most recent reversal of his position on an important issue to environmentalists is just one more time we environmentalists get shoved aside in favor of the reactionaries.

Just one note of precaution to Mr. Obama:  We environmentalists vote consistently. 
And remember half of Americans who voted in the mid-term elections in 2006 said concern about global warming made a difference in whom they voted for on Election Day.

My challenge to environmentalists everywhere in the USA:  Show up at campaign rallies.  Bring signs showing your concerns about the environment.  If you get a chance, speak up. Dog the candidates....every one of them!

In politics, it's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease!  So squeak....and shout....no more slaps in the face of Mother Earth!    Because when you slap her, you're slapping all generations who follow us.

And note the states where offshore drilling is proposed by the bi-partisan committee that is pushing it.....in the Gulf of Mexico and the Southeast.....Hurricane states and homes to more poor people, while the Northeastern states and Pacific states are excluded. 

Again, the squeaky wheels get the grease.

Rachael Bliss, after working for 10 years in creative services and community affairs at a local broadcasting station, moved into the nonprofit world with her first job with the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, AL. From there she advocated for the hungry, children and the environment as an organizer and director. Articles by Rachael Bliss at MWC News http://mwcnews.net/RachaelBliss

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