Battle Stations, Battle Stations. Sneak Attack By Democratic Energy Benedict Arnolds
Having posted just two days ago "As Oil Approaches $100, Is Saudi Arabia Waging Resource Aggression Against The American People and The World Economy" which dealt with our administrations obsequiousness toward the Saudi's and those policies detrimental to our national interest. The post ended with the sentence, "Rarely, if ever in the history of the Republic has there been such a divergence of the nation's interests and those of the vested interests that formed this administration."
The administration's record on the pending energy crisis is bad enough. One would have hoped that the newly elected Congress had gotten the message and would begin to act in a way to meaningfully head off the looming energy disaster. But no! Showing themselves to be the footsoldiers of OPEC and their henchmen in the US oil industry, the Democrats (those luminaries Reid and Pelosi) decided to drop the renewable energy standard out of the energy bill and drop the tax title (see Toby Barlow's "News Alert: If You Love Renewable Energy, It's Time to Freak Out" 11/09/07). No tax title means no extension of the investment tax credit for wind nor solar, adding up to precisely zero for renewable energy in the energy bill. Bravo!
So much for a brave new Congress, so much for a brave new vision. That the oil lobby has the administration in its claws is a given. With a new Congress we were hoping for a new dawn. Fuhghetaboutit America! The oil industry has bought them too. Special interests are raping this nation. So turn off the lights, pull down the shades, close your eyes, and enjoy the best you can.
Raymond J. Learsy is the author of the updated "Over a Barrel: Breaking Oil's Grip On Our Future"
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JMPURSER —
There is nothing wrong with the two party system.
The problem is the leadership (or lack of same!) in either party.
The biggest contributor to the lack of leadership is the WAY that we elect our "representatives."
If we were to institute total public financing for all elections, we would vastly diminish the ability of the BIGS (Big Oil, Big Pharma, etc.) to buy the candidate of THEIR choice.
The second thing we could do is eliminate 90% of the "Executive Privilege" that allows corrupt administrations like this one to hide things like our national Energy Plan from the public...the people it affects!
The candidates will spend, in all, over one billion dollars to get elected next year.
It's a $400,000/year job! With 8 years in office that amounts to $3,200,000.
They certainly aren't in it for the money.
So, why do they do it?
POWER! Any candidate that says they are looking for public service is full of s**t.
They want power and that power SHOULD be coming from "We The People!"
But it's not.
Until we can put an end to the corruption of money by the BIGS and K street, we will continue to lose our country to evil people like Bush/Cheney.
Can you imagine Guliani being willing to give up any of the powers that our Idiot-in-Chief has usurped?
The only ones that might actually DO SOMETHING about this disparity have been effectively sidelined because they don't have the same access to the BIGS as the "mainstream" candidates.
Perhaps a third party IS the way to go.
BUT...think about this.
1. A Republican Senate by 1 vote
2. A Democratic House by 30 votes.
3. An Independent Prez and VP.
Can you say GRIDLOCK?
I don't know the answer...but I'm begining to understand the question.
We should all look at the truth of the situation and try to come up with a realistic answer while we still are "We The People."
Before it's too late!
Senator Dianne Feinstein's husband, Richard Blum, could well be called the Democrats' Daddy Warbucks. He's scored bundles from war contracts. Blum shares a large stake in Perini, a civil construction company that is happily employed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Blum currently holds over 111,000 shares of stock in URS Corporation, which is now one of the top defense contractors in the United States. URS and Blum have since banked on the Iraq war, scoring a phat $600 million contract through EG&G. As a result, URS has seen its stock price more than triple since the war began in March 2003. Blum has cashed in over $2 million on this venture alone and another $100 million for his investment firm. Carlyle acquired a 21.74 percent stake in URS – second only to the 23.7 percent of shares controlled by Blum Capital. The Carlyle Group has long been accused of exploiting its political connections to turn a profit. And if Carlyle can come under the microscope for its government ties and war profiteering, then surely Blum's URS ought to be subject to the same scrutiny.
Dianne Feinstein, along with many other so-called Democrats, have no intentions of ending this war. They're in it for the almighty dollar and their first love: Israel. They're all traitors.
Renewable energy and energy independence are security issues for America.
Nothing in the energy bill for renewable energy? This is not acceptable.
Go to your senators' and representative's websites and make your voice heard. Tell them the energy bill MUST include significant NEW provisions for renewable energy, not a backwards step to remove what measely support there is today with solar and wind energy incentives.
We are heading off a cliff with energy...
First off, I think the 100 per barrel oil is due mostly to the drop of the value of the dollar (more dollars need to purchase the same barrel two months ago at 80)- the federal reserve sets the monetary policy and is the cause of the looming crisis.
On the alternative fuels- I'd suggest a reasonable solution- no federal tax at the pump on alternative fuels (about 50-60 cents a gallon). Then let the market have at it ! (the mere threat of doing so would reduce oil futures immediately!)
Additional PROOF that WE have a 'one-party system', in MANY places in the Government of OUR country, but MOST blatantly exposed for ALL to see in the U.S. CONgress.
ALL VOTES in favor of industry campaign donors ALL THE TIME, occasionally 'engineered' to be close though, so as to keep the kool-aid drinking base believing in a mythical integrity.
Meanwhile, even though BRIBES to stop bombings in Iraq may be somewhat working temporarily, OUR soldiers and Iraqis STILL DIE EVERY DAY because only a VERY FEW of the elected members of OUR Government will do 'the will of the people', what WE 'thought' WE elected them for.
END THIS INVASION AND OCCUPATION FOR NATURAL RESOURCES...NOW!
America is not a democracy. Your all just peasants of a futal state. Mindless grazing Cattle.
Both parties are screwing the citizens BIG TIME.
Raise YOUR standards, BE INDEPENDENT.
Very good post - Enough of the oil barons running this country with bought and paid for members of Congress - name those who voted for this outrage and let us vote them out of office be they Republicans or Democrats. Our future and the future of the planet lies in renewable forms of energy - not oil!
Thanks for the post. But, we really need to vigilant about the people in congress who are paid flunky of the oil barons - resurrect the anti trust laws again, and start voting them all out of office who do not do everything to finance alternative renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar.
Off with their heads!!!!
After having read the first few words of your second sentence I thought it was going to end with the Chuchillian "Rarely, in the history of the Republic", "Have so many owed so much to so few". The many being Americans and most of the rest of the world, the owed so much being one hundred dollars for a barrel of oil, and the few being the Saudi Arabian Wahabbi's who are economically raping us while funding Al qaeda in order to destroy us. Well folks, enjoy your freezing homes and your five hundred dollar monthly heating bills brought to you by the oil companies, the politicians on the take and the Arabs who want to ruin us and turn us into a third world country.
This week news was brought up of Cheneys' office holding the NIE report on Iranian nukes for over a year becasue they could coerce any of the findings to corraborate an invasion.
So they've been sitting on it-FOR A YEAR.
Now it will be released-just not to the public.
I've also read recently where Cheney has been attending more meetings of agencies-especially the ones meeting on Global warming.
Even the agencies find it suspect-since all of these years he's rarely come to them.
then I see this bill get brought up which seems suspect to me-to once again have Cheneys' fingerprints all over it.
He's once again, trying to stovepipe info to his OVP office to skew the data.
I M P E A C H A L R E A D Y
The "newly" elected congress got the bribe. The renewables don't have a lobby.
You have to have a lobby to get the message(wink wink) across.
Let's see if they can be true to their word about anything...
If they do not end the war next week I think we should find other dems to run against incumbent dems...
They don't care!
The oil industry has bought them too! (emphasis added). And obviously the pharmas and the insurance thieves and the multinationals' lobbyists on the Peru FTA. I hope these sons of bitches (and bitches) are saving up their bribe money, because it's time to vote them all out! Damn it, if they won't do as they should, let them find a new job next year(probably lobbying the new bunch). This shit is getting beyond disgusting!
If the "Democrats for Torture" movement didn't throw you then perhaps "Democrats for Big Oil" will convince you that WE NEED ANOTHER PARTY!!!
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Posted November 10, 2007 | 09:29 AM (EST)