Hostages and Oil

Listening to proceedings from the floor of the House, I started to turn off the teebee in irritation when yet another GoPerv got up to spout that the Dem majority has brought on economic ruin, high oil prices, the credit crunch, etc. It could have been any of a number of the usual spouting porkers, Gingrey, Boehner, Barton, they all have the memo - this time it was Rep. Shimkus.

Then I realized with a start that, yes, they do have the memo. Whose interest is it to ask voters once again to elect the party of business instead of representatives of the public, whose but Big Oil?

There are no economic reasons for the cost of gasoline and other oil products. The usual reference to lack of new refineries ignores the simple facts. Shell, along with other oil producers, has bought up existing refineries only to close them down, and no oil company has built any in the U.S. Supplies of oil outmatch demand - while the occupied White House has maneuvered a resupply of the strategic oil reserve at these prices, when it is not in any arrears. The oil representatives on Capitol Hill continually insist that we need to despoil our country and its resources, to drill for more oil.

Hard to imagine that our energy industries would manufacture starvation worldwide in order to advance its own interests? I wish that were so, but I am sure I saw Henry Kissinger come out and admit that as a loyal advocate of Reagan he induced the country of Iran to keep our hostages (although can't find a direct quote right now, but do cite some of the evidence), to undermine Jimmy Carter's presidency. As a direct result, the beginnings of environmentalist consciousness was cut off, and our economy brought into direct service to business interests. The purpose of our government, what Diane referred to this morning as the 'social contract' that a government exists upon, was perverted from public interest to the promotion of corporate welfare.

At the risk of sounding like a theorist, I am seeing this cynical use of antipathy toward the American public lead, yet again, to the corporate attempt to use its contacts and its powers to defeat this country, once again. Maintaining that the Democratic party is responsible for its economic mess would certainly be the step the GoPervs might take to win power despite their misuse of it.

"I guess you can argue there's been a contagion of foolishness" sparked by a spendthrift federal government, "but that seems like a stretch," said Kevin A. Hassett, an American Enterprise Institute economist and an adviser to Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

Republicans have tried their best to beat back the argument before it takes hold, even citing one of their ideological nemeses, Princeton University economist and liberal New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, who has raised doubts about any link between the war and the credit crunch.

"While both parties agree that middle-class families and small businesses are struggling with skyrocketing costs of living, this latest argument from Democratic leaders smacks of political opportunism at its very worst," House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said last week.

The analysis is politically powerful because people believe it. A CNN poll last month found that 71 percent of Americans say government spending in Iraq is a factor in the economic downturn.

"When you're spending over $50 to fill up your car because the price of oil is four times what it was before Iraq, you're paying a price for this war," Obama told an audience last month at the University of Charleston in West Virginia. "When Iraq is costing each household about $100 a month, you're paying a price for this war."

The high price of oil is being blamed on the Dems by the party that promotes oil above humanity. The oil industry is causing the world a whole lot of hurt, that isn't necessary. Another less powerful industry, without so many shills on its payroll, might even hesitate to do the damage that oil is doing to the entire world.

The Democratic party will need to ward off another overthrow of the popular vote.

McCain's economic plan - lowering taxes on oil - of course caters to the powerful oil companies by proposing to keep all their profits while giving a small sop to the crashing economy. He is assured of keeping the immense donations from oil companies while making a gesture toward helping struggling workers.

We can't afford to ignore the memo that the party of corporate welfare is reading to us in its pronouncements. We can't expect the war criminals to take the blame for their own crimes. The Democratic party will need to end the stranglehold that oil has on our economy, and on political power.

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While outright lies are spieled out against the public interest in the House, on the Senate side there are enough of the party against the people to keep almost all action stalled. Where at one time filibusters were instituted only in extreme cases, in the present the Senate if filibustered by the right wing to keep even minor action from proceeding.

In an attempt to fight any effects that the people can have on their decisions, the GoPervian party holds out against even procedural votes. Grinding away at the public interest, it is constantly forced to take hours until each minute step is taken.

The only interest the right wing has is in its own power. It will not give way for such compunctions as having brought legislation with the public interest to effect to a halt for its puny rights to hold any legislation hostage. As Kissinger did to Carter, so the party of the corporate welfare side holds a nation hostage to perpetuate its own miserable grasp.

280 days.