Latas for Congress

I live far away from Tucson, but I pitched in a few to the Jeff Latas for Congress campaign. I initially contributed because I heard that his veteran son needs a bone marrow transplant, but now that I looked at his platform I really have a feeling that the Fighting Dem can make a difference. Latas has a degree in aerospace engineering and spent most of his career as an fighter pilot, and likely developed a good perspective from the first gulf war:

We're now paying nearly three dollars a gallon for gas. But the cost is really much higher. What most Americans don't see is the additional cost of the occupation of Iraq, a misguided attempt to stabilize the Middle Eastern region to keep a steady flow of oil to fuel our economy. This occupation has a price tag of $160 billion a year. That's over $500 per American citizen per year! The highest and latest cost of our oil addiction is being paid by the families of the nearly 2400 Americans who died in Iraq, and the untold others who have died after their return home. This is too much for me. It should be too much for the rest of America. We must end our addiction to oil now. Doing so is healthy for our country. Our national security improves, our environment improves, our economy improves, we become a stronger nation, and we can once again become the global leader in innovation and technology. The current gas crisis is only the tip of this iceberg. Every year at this time, gas prices spike. Last year, the big news was gas prices over $2.25 a gallon. By summer it was over $2.80. It will go higher this year, and even higher next year. Oil is harder to find and extract. Half of the oil on our planet is gone. That took around 100 years. At our current consumption rate, we may have only 30 years remaining. Supply and demand rules here. Supply is limited and demand has increased radically in only the last five years. We have no choice but to end our dependence on oil; it's up to us to select when. I say we must start now, because we should have started in 1974, when the first warning shot was fired with the oil embargo. We are behind, and our standard of living will suffer. You have a choice to send someone to Congress who understands this extreme problem. I am the only engineer running for this Congressional seat and I will be one of the few engineers in Congress. This is one of many technological problems this nation will face, and we need representatives in Congress who understand technological solutions.

Latas has a diary over at Daily Kos.

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I uploaded an audio interview of HeadingOut from TheOilDrum along with an economist here (MP3).