If old and poor people can’t afford heat in the winter months, it must be the oil and gas companies that need assistance. At least, that’s apparently the assumption of Sen. Conrad Burns (MT,) who voted against heating assistance programs for the poor and elderly but voted to extend tax credits for the energy industry during its record-breaking $32 billion windfall. Maybe it’s just that Conrad doesn’t really like people. After all, he also campaigned vigorously against a ban on human testing of pesticides, questioning, “Do you stop a whole industry?” Wow. Isn’t that a quote from Abraham Lincoln, about abolishing slavery? Oh wait… I might be wrong about that...

LCV’s “Oil Slick Seven”