Strange Bedfellows

There's been an interesting development in Congress recently. Doubly interesting is the fact that we've learned about it through the Arab News. Somehow, our mainstream media hasn't seen fit to inform us about it. I fervently hope that the reason is that the report isn't true, but as of now, I have no reason to doubt its accuracy.

I learned about it first from reading Glenn Reynolds' indispensable super-blog, Instapundit.com, then later from a post by Andrew Stuttaford in National Review Online's blog The Corner.

You can read about it in either place, but briefly, there was a last-minute clause added to an energy bill which bars the US Government, and in particular, the Defense Department, from using crude extracted from Alberta tar sands because, in the language of the clause, it is "unconventional" and "too dirty". The clause was added by a couple of strange bedfellows, ultra-liberal Henry Waxman (D, CA), Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and moderate conservative Tom Davis (R, VA).

That would be odd enough in itself to attract attention if only our compliant media would let us know about it, but even more interesting is who was apparently behind this sudden, secretive legislative end run. Turns out – surprise, surprise – it was our good friends the Saudis, who, no doubt, are genuinely concerned about the potential environmental damage which might result from the extraction and refining of that Alberta crude. Yes, and the fact that the addition of that crude to the North American energy supply in direct competition with Saudi crude is of no concern to them at all. Heck, they probably never even thought about it. No, they were solely motivated by their concern for our health and the cleanliness of our environment. And if you believe that, here's something I'd like to sell you.

For obvious reasons, Canada is not at all pleased with this development, and is taking steps to oppose it, so the clause may well not make it into the final law.

It appears that there are bedfellows even stranger than Waxman and Davis – specifically, Waxman and Saudi Arabia. Do you suppose any of our intrepid journalists would be willing to ask the Honorable Chairman Waxman, who happens to be Jewish, why he is apparently willing to carry water for Saudi Arabia, mother of Wahhabism, financier to terrorists, and the home of 15 of the 19 September 11 hijackers?

Even more troubling is the question of why so many of my fellow Jews keep automatically voting for liberal dog turds like Waxman, Eliot Spitzer, and far too many others. That's a phenomenon I fear I will never understand.

As I mentioned, let's hope that the Arab News somehow got it wrong.