Oil Spill Hide 'n Seek

Oil Spill Panel Cartoon, originally uploaded by rbtenorio.

A panel investigating the BP oil spill has criticized President Obama for downplaying the effects on the environment. Satan reassures him in the latest episode of "The Devil Made Me Blog It"!

Merci to my muse for the idea...

The Barbour of Mississippi

Barbour Cartoon, originally uploaded by rbtenorio.

If the Gulf oil spill made a hero out of anyone, you could argue that it was Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. The former Republican national chairman did a creditable job helping Mississippians deal with the spill. Yet are Haley's hopes for the 2012 GOP presidential nod as unrealistic as his "come on in, the water's fine" attitude towards Gulf tourism? Read more in the latest episode of "The Devil Made Me Blog It"!

In BP We Distrust

BP Forgiveness Cartoon, originally uploaded by rbtenorio.

Open question, dear readers: Now that the Gulf oil spill has been contained, would you ever use BP products again?

Forget the Gulf, Tap the Arctic!

Gulf-Arctic Cartoon, originally uploaded by rbtenorio.

In his speech on the Gulf oil spill on Wednesday, President Obama noted that oil companies are running out of options to drill undersea. He said that due to American demand, "oil companies are drilling a mile beneath the surface of the ocean -- because we’re running out of places to drill on land and in shallow water."
Well, Satan has a simple solution for this conundrum: Tap the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He explains this strategy to the president in the latest episode of "The Devil Made Me Blog It."

Humanity Still Stuck on Oil?

Gulf Oil Spill Cartoon, originally uploaded by rbtenorio.

What a sad sight to see in the Gulf of Mexico: The pollution caused by an oil spill that has dwarfed the impact of the Exxon Valdez catastrophe in 1989. (There has also been a human toll: the 11 BP employees who lost their lives in the explosion that caused the spill.) Is mankind condemned to such sights because of the car-crazed culture of the United States? Read more in the latest episode of "The Devil Made Me Blog It"!

Sarah Palin and Chanukah

Palin Chanukah Cartoon, originally uploaded by rbtenorio.

We've already heard one Republican's take on Chanukah -- Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah. What words of wisdom might Sarah Palin have to offer? Find out in the latest episode of "The Devil Made Me Blog It"!

Frankie Goes to Alaska, Will Chavez Follow?

Last month, Gov. Sarah Palin accompanied the Rev. Franklin Graham, son of famed pastor Billy Graham, on a relief mission to western Alaska. Franklin Graham is president and CEO of a nondenominational evangelical Christian aid organization, Samaritan's Purse, and it was in that capacity that he distributed 7,700 pounds of food (with almost 40,000 more potentially on the way) to needy people in two southwestern villages, Marshall and Russian Mission. Alaska's governor, a potential 2010 Republican nominee for president, wants to see more such efforts.
"Palin says government is not the answer and we should depend more on public-private partnerships to reach out to people in need," KTUU reported.
But will Palin draw the line on certain partnerships, as some of her constituents have done in the past? Three years ago, Alaskans made headlines for refusing offers of another commodity -- oil -- from the Venezuelan state-subsidized company Citgo, shortly after Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez called then-US President George W. Bush "the devil."
"The Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, a native nonprofit organization that would have handled the heating oil donation on behalf of 291 households in Nelson Lagoon, Atka, St. Paul and St. George, rejected the offer because of the insults Chavez has hurled at Bush," Fox News reported.
Since then, Alaska's gotten a new governor (Frank Murkowski was in charge then), America's gotten a new president ... and conditions among the poor in Alaska seem to have stayed as bad as they were three years ago. "For years, Alaska natives have accused the state and federal governments of sending too little money to their tiny, far-flung communities, where fuel and grocery prices are bloated by the high costs of delivery by plane and barge," Fox noted during the Chavez controversy. And even though Palin and Graham brought food last month, "the village of Marshall says it needs more long-term solutions," KTUU reported. "The high cost of fuel has made it a harsh winter."
We shall see whether the situation gets dire enough for Palin to welcome Chavez to the Last Frontier.

(Hat tip to my Ohio source who mentioned Alaskans' rejection of Chavez.)

Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, and Big Oil

Oil Cartoon
Originally uploaded by rbtenorio

President-elect Barack Obama is already talking about his environmentally-friendly energy ideas, which might adversely affect the oil industry (but also help greener industries). Mephistopheles yearns for the oil-friendlier ideas of another politician, one Sarah Palin, in the latest episode of "The Devil Made Me Blog It"!