John McCain's wife must need new batteries.

According to CNN, John McCain wants to offer a "prize" for anyone who can invent a new battery which will "leapfrog" current hybrid technology. Apparently he's getting of buying Duracells for his fembot wife.

This proposal is perplexing, and ridiculous. First, as a capitalist, wouldn't McCain believe that the market held a sufficient incentive for development of such a product? Isn't the market the cure for everything?? Honestly though, whoever invents such a product will easily make that much money in the market by selling it to Toyota, or some other manufacture of hybrid technology. There have to be thousands of R&D folks currently working on a way to make hybrids work more efficiently.

At the same time, what's he doing to reduce our reliance on oil? Besides supporting the war, that is? Is he mandating conservation, or requiring greater efficiency? Limiting oil company profits? Reducing taxes? Nope, nope, nope and nope.

But he does want to encourage offshore drilling. Because we know how reliable that is in bad weather (think of the post-Katrina increases), and how safe that is for the environment (because they never leak).

So who does he really want to help with this whole thing? Not me. Or you, that's for sure.

I think its time that he put the ol' thinking cap back on that butternut squash head of his, and came up with some policy proposals that will actually work.

Until then, I'll be in the scary room in my basement working on my battery prototype.