Slipping On Reality

What do Minnesota, Wisconsin, Utah, and Arkansas all have in common? If you said "None of those teams are in the 2013 NCAA Men's Final Four," you wouldn't be wrong this year, though you also wouldn't be correct - at least within the boundaries of our topic for today.

If your answer was, "All four states have experienced massive oil spills within the last year - and three within the last two weeks," you'd be correct, unfortunately.

The latest disaster this weekend saw thousands of barrels of oil spewing from a ruptured Exxon Mobil pipeline into a residential neighborhood in central Arkansas. Twenty-two homes had to be evacuated, in a spill that literally saw oil running down residential streets and between houses.

Of course, since it was a holiday weekend, smack in the middle of Congress' latest two-week vacation, it was nearly impossible to find a politician of any kind with something serious to say about the latest oil disaster. That doesn't surprise us, since politicians of all kinds have been slipping and dancing around the issues of oil and environmental safety for far too many years now.

For all the work the Obama Administration has done on environmental issues - like requiring much better fuel standards for cars and trucks, or clamping down on emissions - the fact of the matter is, none of that will matter if President Obama and other politicians don't stop the Keystone pipeline route through Nebraska.

No matter what the decision is on the Keystone pipeline, the most important liquid flowing through Nebraska over the next hundred years wont be oil - something a task force in the Nebraska Legislature made very clear last week.

As reporter JoAnne Young noted, Nebraska state Sen. Tom Carlson, in a meeting of the Legislature's Natural Resources Committee last week, talked about what could happen if America ever runs out of affordable gas, coal, or oil. "We will survive," he said.

However, if Nebraskans ever lose access to our amazing surplus of clean, drinkable, useable water? "We will die," said Carlson.

For all the bluster already flooding the media from the oil companies about how many trucks they sent to Arkansas to suck up the tar sands oil from the neighborhood, or how well the cleanup is going from the oil spill in Minnesota, the facts remain the same. No matter how much cleanup is done in either location, the raw tar sands oil has now damaged both areas where the spills have occurred, in ways that neither area will fully recover from for many years to come.

No matter how many short-term temporary jobs the Keystone pipeline will generate, all it takes is one spill, once, in any area over the Ogallala Aquifer, and ALL the jobs in a county or a region could be lost, because the water may no longer be suitable for irrigating crops or slaking the thirst of Nebraska residents.

Just one spill could do exactly what state Sen. Carlson fears, and kill off a large area of Nebraska, Kansas, or anywhere else along the path of the pipeline, as water is turned from a lifeline into worthless poison.

If you don't think the price is too high for that kind of oil - oil Americans will never see, as it will be shipped to foreign ports and sold abroad - ask yourself these questions:

If you lived in the neighborhood of an oil spill, how safe would you feel drinking the water from your well? How safe would you feel letting your kids play outside? What price would you pay to never have to see crude oil flooding the streets of your neighborhood?

These are kinds of questions our politicians from both parties are slipping on right now.
From our perspective, the right answers don't really seem that slick. Then again, we're not financed by oil company lobbyists.

Friday Funday: Of Blessings And Uncles

As our slightly ill staff pulled ourselves and our materials together to write today's commentary, we realized how fast this past week went - and, indeed, how fast the first three months of this year have gone. Just last weekend, we met with friends in Washington, DC, had more than one get-together with happy children running around. We even caught an Easter egg hunt, though not the annual White House event. Still - plastic eggs found, candy consumed.

This weekend is officially Easter and also marks the end of Passover - and yes, Opening Day for Major League Baseball too. For many of you, that means Easter family dinners and Passover Seders, and holiday get-togethers that might include that "special" uncle who's always banging the crazy drum about the latest ridiculous right-wing talking point.

So today, instead of focusing on anything bad, we thought we'd focus exclusively on things that are positive.

If you're in New York City, that means you can still get a Big Gulp, if you want. It also means, as of Thursday, if you work in New York City, you will soon be able to take a paid sick day if you need to.

Also? The S&P stock index ended the month at a record high - and the economy for the rest of us is still looking up too.

In the Middle East, peace hasn't flooded the region - but Israel and Turkey appear to have let bygones be bygones, as the two nations have reinstated diplomatic relations.

On environmental issues, even if Congress is on a perpetual vacation, the Obama Administration continues to move forward, as the EPA is officially instating new rules requiring cleaner gasoline.

On civil rights issues, the bigots were exposed this week for who they really are, which, while ugly, is always better than not knowing at all. While we won't know the Supreme Court's decisions on either same sex marriage case until June, there are good indications in both cases that the less tolerant positions will disappear like the plastic Easter eggs we all inevitably lose at one time or another.

For Husker fans, Coach Connie Yori's women will face off against Duke this weekend in the Sweet Sixteen, something any true Husker fan will be proud to see. Of course, for college basketball and pro baseball fans, this weekend will mean many long hours glued to their TVs, grinning happily (at least until their teams lose).

We don't want to seem all Pollyannaish. We're well aware of our bumbling politicians, multiple wars and conflicts around the world - and, as we already mentioned, that inevitable uncle, cousin, neighbor, or friend who will almost certainly insist on banging the drum of some subject sure to anger almost everyone else at our get-togethers this weekend.

That kind of negative stuff is in the news everyday though, and isn't hard for anyone to find.

The moments that fill our spirits, that remind us there is still good and hope in the world? Those often seem to be the ones everyone forgets most.

We're glad we could take a moment and remind you of some of those positive items today.

Please remember them when that "special" family member drops by this weekend.

Spring Break Blues

As the hoopla from both same sex marriage cases before the Supreme Court dies down, we're already sure of a handful of things, months before the Court announces its official decisions in either case.

We're fairly sure that - as Ed Kilgore of Washington Monthly said of the two SCOTUS cases - they'll end up being a KO and TKO for the pro-equality side. That doesn't mean we're willing to bet large sums of money on the outcomes of either case, but we can read the judicial tea leaves as well as or better than most.

After all, Lyle Dennison of SCOTUSblog tweeted on Wednesday, "Final update: #scotus 80% likely to strike down #doma." We're sure you can trust Lyle's take on the Supreme Court - especially since SCOTUSblog just won a Peabody award, a first for a blog of any kind.

We're also fairly sure Americans are tired of the distractions media events continue to provide. According to the most recent CBS News poll, 80% of Americans are unhappy with Washington. That doesn't surprise us.

Our politicians at most levels - including on the national level - seem to only care about issues that affect them directly, while they ignore even massive issues that are chomping at the heels of Americans, and would make America better for all. In fact, our Federal politicians won't even stick around to face those issues. This week and next week are perfect examples.

In case you missed our obvious stick in the eye towards Congress in Wednesday's extended edition, both houses of Congress are on vacation again, for two weeks. This time it's their annual Passover/Easter/Spring Break recess, though frankly, we're not really sure we care what the reason is that they claim anymore.

There are, after all, so many problems it seems our Congress just can't be bothered to face.

Americans are still radically overcharged in our private healthcare system, and while the growth of costs has slowed considerably (thanks in part to the Affordable Care Act), Americans are all still paying far more than we should have to for health care.

We know Americans are also paying far too much to big oil and big coal in subsidies. Even the IMF says the best way to fix the problem is to stop subsidizing energy companies with $1.9 trillion annually. Congress won't address the issue anytime soon, though, because they're not at work.

Syria's conflict is getting worse and affecting neighboring nations, America still isn't out of Afghanistan, Americans are still struggling to get back on their feet in New Jersey in the wreckage of Superstorm Sandy - and Congress is on vacation.

An overwhelming number of Americans want universal background checks, at the very least, yet many people are pessimistic about any gun safety legislation passing at all, whenever Congress finally gets around to it, after their vacation.

Can you sense a pattern here?

It's not that we don't see the value in experienced public servants taking a break every once in a while. We do.

We're just extremely tired of waiting for Congress to address issues that that they have put off until the third Tuesday of never because they are too cowardly to take a stand, too afraid to be voted out of their cushy jobs and their web of lobbying connections. Even when someone with money supports a good cause, we have a hard time saying it's good for America.

We think it's high time for all recesses, vacations and breaks to be stopped, until Congress gets some serious work done!


Good joke, right?

When you're done laughing, please remember to pick yourself up off the floor and get back to work.

After all, someone has to keep America - and the rest of the world - moving forward, and not just out of fear either.