Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Sure, the Republicans are VERY concerned about rising gas prices, right? After all, people like Senator Specter (R-PA) have expressed a "willingness" to explore the merits of a windfall tax on the oil companies. National Litterbox Bush himself has come out and criticized the oil companies and called for the repeal of $2 billion in tax breaks to an industry that he finally realized that doesn't need them, or did he? Hastert says that he expects oil companies to do their part to relieve the suffering of America's families. Sounds good, right?
Bush's solution? Ease environmental controls on the oil industry. It is a brilliant Machiavellian move that serves to kill two birds with one stone. First, it takes off the heat from the oil companies as gas prices will fall a bit. Second, Bush can then tout his "reform" and getting rid of environmental regulations which he claims are driving the price of gas sky-high.
Right, this is another example of the fox guarding the henhouse. It is only posturing so that the GOP can actually look like they're concerned and doing something about the rising gasoline prices.
The free market capitalists always blame environmental regulations for rising gas prices. Furthermore, the assistant professor who wrote this article discredited himself by using such sophomoric logic as "Environmentalists are not actually concerned with the well-being of man. Their real motive is to sacrifice man to nature by stopping industrial activity. This is what they explicitly state. For instance, Adam Kolton of the Alaska Wilderness League states, "Drilling the wildest place in America is objectionable no matter how it's packaged." Nowhere does it say that Kolton advocates bringing down the standard of living for Americans in the name of nature. This is more scare tactics by capitalists and right-wingers to persuade the sheep that environazis who make up the "Fourth Reich" are to blame for their troubles. The administration tried to blame environmentalists for Hurricane Katrina to distract Americans from the fact that it was under the Litterbox Administration that work on the levees stopped for the first time in 37 years due to it SLASHING the Army Corps of Engineer's budget. Sure Bush apologists can claim the budget was cut from presidents like Carter and even Clinton, but they cannot get past the fact that work never stopped under those administrations.
The economists' solution: de-regulation after all, regulation drives up prices and forces the oil companies not to build anymore refineries because of exorbitant prices. Well that's bullshit to be blunt. Memos show that it was the oil companies themselves who created artificial shortages to drive up profits themselves and used the regulation itself as an excuse. The major oil companies actually PREVENTED a smaller oil company from reopening up a refinery in California (warning PDF file). Gee, there goes the ENVIRONMENTALISTS ARE TO BLAME myth. IN ADDITION, the companies themselves would reduce refinery production and then turn it around and blame the regulations which many of them supported.
To top it all off, the Republicans are playing the same shell game the oil companies are with their cheap Napoleonic talk with Lilliputian results. The GOP blocked any measure that would have boosted taxes on Big Oil today, proving which side they are really on. I'll give you a hint, Bush voters. It's not you, no matter how much he touts his opposition to gay marriage and abortion, issues designed to distract you from its economic policies that piss on you while calling it badly-needed rain. Don't you get it? Rhetoric DOES NOT equal the results in the GOP party. The Party of God is nothing more than a wolf in sheep's clothing. They claim to be the populist party while the Democrats are the party of snobbish liberal and Hollywood elites who truly are the ones pissing on all of you while those poor oil company CEOs struggle to put food on their families, truly oppressed by the big, bad environmentalists who think that a $400 million retirement package is too excessive when $400 million can barely feed a CEO's family and buy heating for the long and cold winters.
In the homework center I work for, the kids have a game called "Opposite Day" where everything is turned upside down. They say stuff like I don't want to go get a drink of water," etc and no for yes and vice versa. It's cute when they do it but is it just me or is the GOP in perpetual opposite day mode? Everything they say is contradicted by everything they do. Clear Skies = dirtier air, Healthier Forests = Healthier Profits for Lumber Companies, Leave No Child Behind = Leave Any Child who is not rich behind, etc.
Bush's solution? Ease environmental controls on the oil industry. It is a brilliant Machiavellian move that serves to kill two birds with one stone. First, it takes off the heat from the oil companies as gas prices will fall a bit. Second, Bush can then tout his "reform" and getting rid of environmental regulations which he claims are driving the price of gas sky-high.
Bush said the Federal Trade Commission, the Justice Department and the Energy Department were investigating whether the price of gasoline has been unfairly manipulated. The administration also contacted all 50 state attorneys general to offer technical assistance to urge them to investigate possible illegal price manipulation within their jurisdictions.
Right, this is another example of the fox guarding the henhouse. It is only posturing so that the GOP can actually look like they're concerned and doing something about the rising gasoline prices.
The free market capitalists always blame environmental regulations for rising gas prices. Furthermore, the assistant professor who wrote this article discredited himself by using such sophomoric logic as "Environmentalists are not actually concerned with the well-being of man. Their real motive is to sacrifice man to nature by stopping industrial activity. This is what they explicitly state. For instance, Adam Kolton of the Alaska Wilderness League states, "Drilling the wildest place in America is objectionable no matter how it's packaged." Nowhere does it say that Kolton advocates bringing down the standard of living for Americans in the name of nature. This is more scare tactics by capitalists and right-wingers to persuade the sheep that environazis who make up the "Fourth Reich" are to blame for their troubles. The administration tried to blame environmentalists for Hurricane Katrina to distract Americans from the fact that it was under the Litterbox Administration that work on the levees stopped for the first time in 37 years due to it SLASHING the Army Corps of Engineer's budget. Sure Bush apologists can claim the budget was cut from presidents like Carter and even Clinton, but they cannot get past the fact that work never stopped under those administrations.
The economists' solution: de-regulation after all, regulation drives up prices and forces the oil companies not to build anymore refineries because of exorbitant prices. Well that's bullshit to be blunt. Memos show that it was the oil companies themselves who created artificial shortages to drive up profits themselves and used the regulation itself as an excuse. The major oil companies actually PREVENTED a smaller oil company from reopening up a refinery in California (warning PDF file). Gee, there goes the ENVIRONMENTALISTS ARE TO BLAME myth. IN ADDITION, the companies themselves would reduce refinery production and then turn it around and blame the regulations which many of them supported.
To top it all off, the Republicans are playing the same shell game the oil companies are with their cheap Napoleonic talk with Lilliputian results. The GOP blocked any measure that would have boosted taxes on Big Oil today, proving which side they are really on. I'll give you a hint, Bush voters. It's not you, no matter how much he touts his opposition to gay marriage and abortion, issues designed to distract you from its economic policies that piss on you while calling it badly-needed rain. Don't you get it? Rhetoric DOES NOT equal the results in the GOP party. The Party of God is nothing more than a wolf in sheep's clothing. They claim to be the populist party while the Democrats are the party of snobbish liberal and Hollywood elites who truly are the ones pissing on all of you while those poor oil company CEOs struggle to put food on their families, truly oppressed by the big, bad environmentalists who think that a $400 million retirement package is too excessive when $400 million can barely feed a CEO's family and buy heating for the long and cold winters.
In the homework center I work for, the kids have a game called "Opposite Day" where everything is turned upside down. They say stuff like I don't want to go get a drink of water," etc and no for yes and vice versa. It's cute when they do it but is it just me or is the GOP in perpetual opposite day mode? Everything they say is contradicted by everything they do. Clear Skies = dirtier air, Healthier Forests = Healthier Profits for Lumber Companies, Leave No Child Behind = Leave Any Child who is not rich behind, etc.
