Oil Companies Looking for Pity

The oil companies have created a new ad campaign to battle the push for cleaner domestic fuels. The campaign is quite slick. An attractive woman dressed in business attire walks onto the set and tells us that 2/3 of America’s oil and natural gas come from North America. Did you catch that? She says, “oil AND NATURAL GAS.” That’s how she can use the 2/3 figure – because it includes natural gas. If she were speaking only of oil, she would have to say 1/3. If you go to the website that she mentions - energytomorrow.com - you can read the sob story of how new “energy taxes… could produce devastating effects on our economy.” Never mind the horrible effect that the ridiculous profits being reaped by the oil companies and the OPEC nations has had on our economy already. It’s time for the oil companies to pay up. It’s past time for us to stop listening to the lies from BIG OIL and break our addiction on foreign and domestic oil.

T. Boone Pickens' Energy Solution

Finally, an oil man speaking truth and common sense - T. Boone Pickens has proposed a real solution to our energy crisis. Switch to natural gas, wind and solar power. It's a very simple plan, can be done within 5 years, will create an economic boom in this country and around the world, and is environmentally friendly. So, why aren't the economists and Republicans talking about it? They are joined at the hip with "big oil." There is no other reason. It is all about manipulation and control of the citizens of this country by controlling the economy through oil prices. For a long time, Republicans have blamed Democrats for creating a dependency on government "handouts." In reality, Republicans have created an addiction to oil. By allowing oil companies to control this the energy production of the United States, the Republicans have handed control of our entire economy over to "big oil." There is a solution. Go here to listen to T. Boone Pickens talk about it with Lou Dobbs.

Tucker Bounds - Full of Chicken Dung

"...Obama is following John McCain's lead to close a Wall Street loophole..." - Tucker Bounds lying

The "Wall Street loophole" to which Bounds refers is one that protects some energy futures trading from oversight by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The fact is that McCain's economic advisor, Phil Gramm (whose wife sat on the board of Enron), slipped an Enron-backed provision into the Commodities Futures Modernization Act that exempted from regulation energy trading on electronic platforms. The spigot of lies continues to flow from the McCain Campaign. McCain would be as good a friend to Big Oil as father and son Bush have been.

Republicans Playing Election Year Games

Seen these headlines?

• White House Threatens Housing Veto
• Paulson: Wall Street Needs Stronger Oversight By Fed
• Bush Blames Democrats For High Gasoline Prices
• Fraudulent Mortgage Crackdown

This is such a joke. Let's take a look at each story.

The White House is threatening to veto a bill designed to slow down the spiraling rate of foreclosures saying that it needs to see how large mortgage lenders would benefit from the legislation. WHAT?!? What about the Medicare Pharmaceuticals Bill? How much investigation was done into how the largest pharmaceutical companies would benefit from the bill? Answer: None. The same goes for all of the Energy Bills passed during the past 8 years. Who investigated the benefits that would be reaped by Big Oil? Nobody. This is a farce.

And how about this one?

"Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson urged quick action to give the Federal Reserve explicit authority to step in to protect the financial system if its stability is threatened."

QUICK ACTION? Who are they kidding? This administration has caused the current economic conditions. They have had almost a decade to dig this hole and now they want "quick action" and "explicit authority" to save our financial institutions. Sorry, but this is sounding too much like the rhetoric we heard after 9/11.

"Bush Blames Democrats For High Gasoline Prices" - This is probably the most ridiculous headline I have read recently. Bush is more to blame than any other single individual for the rise in gasoline prices. From the lies told post 9/11 goading us into war to the energy bills he has signed into law, President Bush has loaded the pockets of his bedroom buddies in Big Oil who have caused the precipitous rise in gasoline prices.

Finally, the "Fraudulent Mortgage Crackdown" - can you say "too little too late"? What will happen to those who are convicted or make plea deals? Fines - maybe at best. The HUGE majority of them will WALK. Mark my words.

And all of this is just an orchestrated effort by the medical/financial/military-industrial complex - a.k.a. the Republicans - to defame the Democrats in the run-up to the presidential election.