Letters to the Editor
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Time for Neo-Liberalism
Oil prices can't be separated from Middle East policy. If there is nothing else the Arab world can do to promote "Arab unity" it's with oil prices and controls. Why do you think Bush has no control in the matter? You think it's because they're stupid--or don't care? What more is needed to make the point? Not only do they get to make themselves rich and sorely deplete the assets of the rest of the world, but they're able to claim solidarity with their own.
The irony from the Republican side is they've proven they'll do anything to support the oil industry, including going to war and undertaxing them, but the oil industry still declares the greatest profits in their history year after year--as if they have no responsibility in the matter whatsoever. It's greed that exceeds that of the "robber barons." It's the most incredible sham of the last century--and nobody even knows the names of those who are benefiting the most.
The industry shows little loyalty to the party that protects them, though of course the true story remains hidden and probably will remain so until the current bandits are removed from office--and even then it's unlikly given the extent of the oil industries control. (This is what still makes Gore a viable candidate for higher office.)
The nation and consumers are culpable in making just about everything the issue but energy policy. Millions vote to prevent abortion, stem cell research, and "gay marriage," without giving a thought to the long term interests of the economy. Systemic reform is barely on the national radar even in a pre-election year.
Were this nation no longer to be at the beck and call of the oil industry, and of those whose only priorty is the protection of Israel, the entire global alliance would change in ways that are hard to imagine.
Call the theory neo-liberalism as a way to show its interest is to offset the damage done by the neo-cons--then give it a few decades and/or a generation to let the planet cool-off--in more ways than one.
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C'mon tell the truth
How many of you neo-hippies are secretly gloating at the prospect of economic calamity brought on by huge price increased in gas?
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What Americans don't like
Americans don't like to be told NO. It's that simple. We don't like to be told not to drive, not to buy, not to pig out on anything. We want what we want, and like kids in a sandbox, we throw tantrums when we can't have it. Who cares if it's ruining the planet? We want our big cars and our half-a-million electronic gadgets and our plates full of beef and every other luxury to which we feel entitled. Poor people, other countries, the earth itself be damned. If our leaders can't give us whatever our whims demand, out they go and get us someone who can!
It's the basic American attitude about life that has to change. Our ideas about our place in the world, what we can have vs. what we ought to have. Learning to adhere to those precepts that Jesus taught, in which so many people claim to believe yet so rarely on which they so rarely act. We have to learn to be adults rather than whiny, petulant children, and learn that we can't always have everything we want.
In other words, we gotta grow up.
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Gas prices are not Oil prices
It should be borne in mind that while oil prices are completely beyond the control of the US federal government to control (except in negative ways or by orders removed), the same is not true of gasoline prices. This is because gasoline prices are 'managed' by the oil majors to the tune of eye watering profit. A few oil companies control the vast majority of refining and distribution capacity in these United States, and their well disciplined oligopic clout ensures hefty margins for refined product in this country. Witness the alleged efforts by the oil majors to put the kibosh on Pat Robertson's plan to restart a major mothballed refinery in California, including by pressuring would-be financiers (the poster child of getting screwed by Energy Companies well before Enron). Witness the lack of any investment in pipeline or refining capacity, despite overtures by entrepreneurs toward energy groups. Witness the manipulation of reserve items on their balance sheet, indicating they are neither above shenanigans nor unawares as to the dynamics of their income statement, etc. etc.
If Democrats had the intelligence and skill to launch investigations into the length and breadth of the value added supply chain from well-head to pump, rather than continuing their singular quixotic focus on the end points where the monopolists are well prepared to play defense, they would be able to bust those trusts and reduce prices for the American consumer.
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I say bring the pain...
let it go up to $4.50, $5.00 a gallon, give us European prices, make us all take out sub prime loans just to fill the tank. Because that is the only way Joe and Jane Bubba are going to demand, that's right demand, we invest heavily in alternative fuels. When they're paying just as much for gas as for a pack of cigs then maybe, just maybe they might take a deep breath and realize how stupid, absolutely stupid, it is for our nation to be so dependent on a energy source which is 40%+ supplied by foreign countries.
I make this argument all the time. Take global warming out of the mix, now I challenge anyone to present to me an argument on any level, security, economical, health, etc, where oil comes out the good choice. You can't, and before some before some scientist at some European Union or Chinese or Indian funded research center comes up with the simple and easy solution to convert switch grass to fuel and launches the next super power we better get off our collective asses and dump serious money into research and development now or we might as well as declare game over now.
George Bush played us better than a dude playing the shell game on the street corner...he looked into our eyes, our soul and he saw...suckers. He and his cronies have promoted a culture of consumption the end result of which is to line the Bush family fortunes, while at the same time advocating a disasterous fiscal policy and war which sucks away our treasure like a Hoover on speed.
I'm so looking forward to that rebate check in May, then I can use it to perhaps fill the tank once, maybe twice.