This week, big oil executives went before the Senate Judiciary Committee to justify their windfall "earnings" despite the rising costs of oil compounding the already suffering economy. Surprise, surprise, the theme of the execs' testimony was, "It's not us, it's the markets." Over and over, CEO after CEO cited allegiance to supply and demand as justification for their record profits despite average Americans' sacrifices at the pumps. In fact, J. Stephen Simon, executive VP of Exxon Mobil, had the audacity to say that high earnings are needed "in the current up cycle" to pay for investments in the long term when profits will be down.

When has big oil profits ever been down? This low-earnings doomsday the execs refer to seems to point to sometime in the future when the world collectively realizes the grave we have dug for ourselves with our oil dependence, and we all begin to invest in renewable energy in some real way.

But when will this day happen? When will our elected leaders do more than politically posture themselves for reelection by staging a charade of outrage on behalf of the American people? Congress has called in oil execs to justify the industry's windfalls time and time again, and nothing except lip service ever transpires from these hearings.

America has waited for its conservative leadership's free-market schemes to make a dent in our economic and environmental woes. Not only did they not work, they compounded the problem by increasing the gap between the big guys in the suits and average folks at the pumps, and allowing the greed and corruption of the oil industry to go unregulated.

Such policy disasters also effect our country's role in the world. From wars to global warming, all signs point toward the need for a sustainable energy future, one featuring safe, renewable energy sources like wind and solar. We need policies that encourage the development of these technologies by supporting the Alternative Energy Tax Credits extension. Government investment in clean energy alternatives will create jobs, recharge the economy and protect the environment. /It's time for solutions that produce real relief for Americans: government regulation of the oil industry and investment in clean, renewable energy.

America can't wait any longer: Sign our petition to call for Clean Energy, Not Big Oil Profits.

Marking yesterday as the first annual “Day of Solidarity With the Cuban People,” President Bush gave a speech calling Cuba's economic reforms “empty” and “the height of hypocrisy,” citing the nation's policies denying citizens personal freedoms. The lack of free speech and other basic human rights for Cuban citizens is an atrocity. But President Bush should be careful when pointing out hypocrisies. His call for the liberation of Cuban political prisoners seems to ignore the fact that he is keeping 270 political prisoners of his own on the eastern coast of the island in Guantanamo.

The president declared that, to truly convince the world of its commitment to political reform, the Cuban government should, “open up access to information...and respect political freedom and human rights.”

So what are Bush and his administration doing to convince the world of the our commitment to political reform? Well, they've interfered with public access to information regarding its warrantless wiretapping program, engaged in politically-motivated manipulation of EPA scientists' findings, and initiated the political firings of federal prosecutors. To top it off, the president reproached Cuba's history of human rights violations and political imprisonment despite the fact that, under the Bush administration, several hundred people are currently incarcerated without having been charged, and despite the fact that his administration signed off on the use of torture against terrorist suspects.

If the President really wants to demonstrate his solidarity with the Cuban people, he needs to set an example for the Cuban government by implementing the very changes he demands from Cuban leaders. The first step in this direction is to close Guantanamo. Tell Bush that the American people will not stand for political imprisonment in our name by signing our Close Guantanamo Petition.

Earlier this month, President Bush received a report on how to update the Pentagon's current procedures for security clearances (used to ensure the integrity of those handling classified documents regarding the war) in order to make them more effective, timely and efficient. A clear theme in this report was the need to become technologically up-to-date, and thus the idea of electronically automated security clearances was born.

Considering the potential for human error within the giant bubble of bureaucratic waste that the administration has installed in Iraq, electronic security clearance procedures seems like not such a bad idea. What baffles me, however, is that within the bloated pdf file in which the report is placed on the internet, the topic of private contractors was not even broached.

The Bush administration has yet to resolve the loophole that allows overseas contractors go unregulated and unaccounted for. Even if the Joint Security Reform Team were to surprise us all and put together a program that actually strengthened our security, it wouldn't matter because of the legislation that allows contractors to make their own rules, accountable to no one.Given March's report on waste, fraud and abuse of war funding, which found that a significant amount of both weaponry and money had somehow ended up in the hands of the insurgents, thanks to the lack of accountability enforced upon the contractors, shouldn't we be worrying about the prospect of classified materials ending up in enemy hands?

The Bush administration has claimed to be tough on security. But when measures of security interfere with safeguarding the enormous profits reaped by favored corporate interests, President Bush continues to throw security to the wind. How can conservatives look at policies such as this and continue to claim a monopoly on the value of security? The progressive movement is all about supporting our security in practice, not just in rhetoric. That is why we are calling for accountability for the actions of civilian contractors in Iraq, and why we favor taking care of our veterans who have bravely defended our security on the ground.

Next week, Progressive Future will be posting video interviews with two Iraq War veterans disclosing their experiences with contractor abuse; we will also share the story of Ben Carter, a former Halliburton employee who, disgusted with the contracting company's practices, quit his position as Water Quality Manager in order to testify against the corporation.

Why is the EPA hiding documents from a congressional oversight committee? Will EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson turn them over at a hearing Tuesday?

More than half of the 1,600 EPA staff scientists who filled out a detailed questionnaire indicated some level of political interference in their work. Given the Bush administration's history of interfering with government agencies' work for political purposes, the House Oversight Committee issued a subpoena of documents detailing contacts between the agency and the White House. To date, the EPA failed to comply with the subpoena. Chairman Henry Waxman has warned EPA administrator Stephen Johnson the he has "two basic options for each of the documents: provide the document to the Committee or assert executive privilege with respect to the document,” before the hearing that will take place on May 20.

What is Johnson hiding? His refusal to turn over relevant documents raises strong suspicions of inappropriate interference between the White House and the EPA scientists; and this interference is consistent with past behavior of the Bush administration.

The Bush EPA has made its priorities perfectly clear: protecting polluting special interests at the expense of the health of the American people. The White House's interference with the protection of our environment isn't fair to our communities that depend of government agencies like the EPA to protect them.

Send Stephen Johnson an email, telling him that if he has nothing to hide, then he should hand over these documents at Tuesday’s hearing.