If they want to take my Navigator, they’ll have to pry it out of my cold, dead fingers…
Jay Caruso on The Daily Rant says:
Her ads have nothing at all to do with her concern over whether not money used to buy gasoline in this country is somehow winding up in the off shore bank accounts of terrorists. Her issue is obviously her born again environmentalism. All of this talk about funding terrorism is a bunch of crap. Oh, and while the anti-drug ads were stupid as well, nobody spends $250K on a public service announcement simply to make a point about another one, so that stuff doesn’t fly (Marty).
If she wants to come out and say that the millions of SUV’s driving around the United States are killing the environment, then fucking say it! Don’t cloak your agenda in some nonsense about terrorism, and make sure you’re driving a Prius and living in a tent before you lecture others.
Jayzuz. Literalism is epidemic these days.
She is using the administration’s slick, condescending terrorist ads against them to make her point. If they can say that smoking a joint causes terrorism, then why can’t she say that driving a gas guzzling SUV causes terrorism? At least there actually is oil in middle east terrorist countries. Unless terrorists are hiding out in Humboldt County, I seriously doubt that the sensimilla crop is particularly relevant to Homeland Security. (And if they are, the biggest threat is to the cookie section at 7-11.)
Huffington clearly states that she is using the format of the stupid “drugs finance terrorism” ads to “turn the tables” on the Bush administration. She isn’t hiding her environmental agenda, it’s right up front. The entire campaign is a parody. It’s humorous. Funny. And it is a way of pointing out the emperor has no clothes when it comes to lecturing Americans about funding terrorism through drugs when the administration’s cozy relations with the oil industry, Saudi Arabia and the auto manufacturers actually do contribute to the terrorist threat because it is warping our foreign policy. (Is it really debatable that our relationship with Saudi Arabia would be what it is today if they didn’t have oil? Because if it is, then that bit in the Bush Doctrine about “harboring terrorists and funding terrorists makes you a terrorist” is total bullshit on every single level. If it isn’t the oil then why the hell didn’t we invade immediately after Afghanistan?)
She does not say that eliminating SUV’s will miraculously end terrorism OR clean up the environment.
She doesn’t have to live in a tent to make a case for driving a fuel efficient car. That’s ridiculous. (She drives a Prius, BTW) All she’s doing is trying to get Americans to cut down on their consumption of oil — both for the sake of the environment and because our dependence on foreign oil forces us into alliances that don’t make sense in the era of Islamic terrorism. She’s isn’t suggesting that the government should take away anybody’s precious SUV. She’s just trying to raise some consciousness, get Americans to stop driving them if they don’t need to, and pressure the auto companies to push harder for alternatives.
And she used the administration’s silliness to do it. I think it’s damned clever.