THIS IS OIL -- THIS IS A NO-BRAINER ON OIL

Help Win The War On Terrorism: Drive Smaller Cars.

The Bush team's ridiculous and wildly inflammatory anti-drug ads are still
running in heavy rotation. You know the ads: innocent-looking, middle-class
teens admitting their culpability for the vicious consequences of the drug
trade. "I helped blow up buildings," says one doe-eyed youth.

So if that is legitimate logic, and our president says it is, perhaps we
should start a little ad campaign of our own to sabotage another misguided
Bush campaign: the war on conservation.

The idea sprang forth after the startling announcement that the
administration was taking precious time off from an actual, necessary war
- -- the one on terrorism -- to sue the state of California for daring to
require that car makers put more energy-efficient models on the road.

Turning the letter of the Federal Clean Air Act against its clear intent,
Department of Justice lawyers lined up on behalf of the administration's
friends in the hydrocarbon-loving auto manufacturing industry and argued
that as long as California's cars were in compliance with federal
standards, the state could not impose tougher ones.

For those keeping score, the Bush administration is in favor of states'
rights when the states want to weaken federal safety standards of any kind
and against states' rights when the states want stronger measures.

So how about using the same shock tactics that the administration uses in
the drug war to confront the public with the ultimate consequences of its
energy wastefulness. Imagine a soccer mom in a Ford Excursion (11 mpg city,
15 mpg highway) saying, "I'm building a nuclear bomb for Saddam Hussein."
Or a mob of solo drivers tootling down the freeway at 75 mph shouting in
unison: "We're buying weapons that will kill American soldiers, Marines and
sailors! Yahoo!"

Scott Burns, co-creator of the "Got Milk?" campaign, already has two ad
scripts ready to go.

The first one feels like an old Slim-Fast commercial. Instead of "I lost 50
pounds in two weeks," the ad cuts to different people in their sport
utility vehicles: "I gassed 40,000 Kurds," "I helped hijack an airplane,"
"I helped blow up a nightclub," and then in unison: "We did it all by
driving to work in our SUVs."

The second ad, which opens on a man at a gas station, features a child's
voice-over throughout: "This is George." Then we see a close-up of a gas
pump. "This is the gas George buys for his car." Next we see a guy in a
suit. "This is the oil company executive who makes money on the gas George
buys." Close-up on Al Qaeda training film footage: "This is the terrorist
organization supported by money from the country where the oil company does
business." It's followed by footage of 9/11: "We all know what this is."
And it closes on a wide shot of bumper-to-bumper traffic: "The biggest
weapon of mass destruction is parked in your driveway."

Can the administration seriously deny that oil dollars finance a spreading
slick of evil in the world today? In Iraq, oil money has kept Hussein's
repressive regime afloat even in the midst of tough U.N. sanctions.

In Saudi Arabia, our second-largest foreign supplier of oil, the money
spent at U.S. pumps pays for a feudal monarchy that has gorged itself on
excess while supporting suicide bombers.

Even our close ally Kuwait, our 11th-largest oil supplier, manifests an
ambivalence toward the U.S. that, if you accept the Bush administration's
drug war arguments about the validity of remote effects, resulted in this
month's assassination of an American Marine while he was on a military
exercise. Thank you, Exxon.

Would it be so painful for us to slow down the intravenous drip of oil that
keeps these hideously anti-American regimes alive? Some simple conservation
measures -- chief among them increasing our fuel-efficiency -- would
greatly reduce our dependence on foreign oil. There are car companies with
electric and hybrid cars already on the market. And a little pressure on
our wasteful ways could unleash a new wave of good old American inventiveness.

Bush Inc. has sided with the Enrons of the world to stifle energy-saving
technology and keep the U.S. in an artificially prolonged state of
dependence. Of course, waiting for the Bush administration to get religion
on energy conservation would be about as fruitful as waiting for Hussein to
welcome U.S. inspectors into his palaces. It ain't gonna happen. Unless,
that is, the public makes it happen.