The Uncomfortable Truth

ExxonMobil posted a profit $10,490,000,000 for the third quarter. Let’s do the math: A quarter is thirteen weeks. So, 10.49 divided by 13 equals 807 million dollars a week. It would take five weeks to pay the four billion dollar tax established by proposition 87. One company all by itself could fund California’s leadership in an industry that will give us. independence from foreign energy and the wars necessary to maintain a steady supply of that energy. And there is certainly more than one company selling oil in California.
Four billion dollars is literally a drop in the bucket to them.
Sure, I go with the stick-it-to-‘em crowd. Haven’t they been sticking it to us—forever?
If there was just one reason to vote yes on 87, it would be revenge. Maybe not a good reason, but certainly understandable.
One good reason to vote yes is because of their bad behavior: They tell us they will import more oil so they can beat our tax. That’s just a poor attitude on their part. And also an untrue statement. The current tax on a barrel of oil would be 3.3 cents per gallon. It will cost more than that to import oil.
They know this, they’re hoping we don’t.
True, the law would create an energy bureaucracy. But let’s look at who will sit on the board. People who are expert in their respective fields; scientists and UC Deans. People who probably already have designs for saving energy but have been sat on by Big Oil. Does anyone seriously doubt that the technology already exists to get us off of foreign oil? Are there still people who think the oil companies are run by honest businessmen in an honest, Christian way?
Please.
How hard is it to stuff a turbo diesel engine in a plug-in hybrid vehicle? You’d have a car that could run from here to San Diego on a tank of fuel that could be grown right here in the marginal farmlands of California for next to nothing. Plans to build this car--which already exist--will not see the light of day unless we stand up to big oil. It isn’t just the four billion dollar tax that has them worried. Their future profits would take a huge beating if we all drove cars that got 90 MPG.
Some people still cannot see that the war in Iraq is for oil. I don’t know what to tell them. Perhaps they believe that the record profits of the oil companies since the start of the war are just coincidence. I cannot help them.
This is the most compelling reason to vote yes on 87. The oil companies profit in death. Those profits have been bought with American blood. Couldn’t we do something a little nobler with the proceeds?
What better way to honor our brave soldiers! Instead of giving their lives for private profit, we could all rest easier knowing that they gave their lives freeing us from the need for war.

Posted by Quentin Colgan at 02:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This election I’m going to do something I haven’t done in thirty years: I’m going to vote for (gasp!) Democrats.
Democrats are no better at running things than Republicans. They are just as corrupt as Republicans. They are just as beholden to corporate interests as Republicans. They are just as evil as Republicans. Of course, I’ll also be voting for Republicans.
So why do it?
For the longest time, I’ve been voting for independent or third-party candidates with no success. The best thing I, as a responsible voter can do, is vote for candidates who put people ahead of corporate interests. Unfortunately, too many people do not. They vote for a candidate who at least has some chance of winning. They put their principles aside in favor of being on a winning team. After all, who wants to “waste� their vote on someone who can’t possibly win?
This year I’m going to adopt a second-best strategy: I’m voting to throw the bastards out!
In the fourth Congressional district, we have a Libertarian in the race. I have voted proudly for Libertarians before—even though I disagree strongly with their stand on health care—with zero success, but not this time. I have met the Libertarian and I think he would be terrific in Washington, but alas, not enough people agree with me. The Libertarian will not get enough votes to unseat the incumbent, but the Democrat might. I will vote for the man who has the best chance of getting Wally Herger out of there.
An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that a mere sixteen percent of Americans thought Congress was doing a good job. Perhaps the lowest percentage ever in the history of polling. It’s funny about people and their attitudes. Congress may be reviled by the electorate but people just love their own congressperson. This will be evidenced when most of the incumbents are reelected. We don’t reward our children for bad behavior, yet every election we reward these bozos by returning them to office.
Fascinating.
I’m hearing a lot about how Nancy Pelosi will be third in line for the presidency should the Democrats gain a majority next month. Not if the voters in her district adopt the policy of cleaning house. Imagine it! 435 brand new representatives! Of course the majority would be held by Democrats, but only the obtuse would see it as a vindication of that party’s principles. A clean sweep would send the strong signal that we’re tired of their games.
For United States Senator, there’s a plethora of choice, but it really comes down to just two. Do I vote for the incumbent—who has been in bed with the late Ken Lay, of Enron fame? Do I reward her bad behavior? Do I just say, “That’s alright Diane, I forgive you for the rolling blackouts. I forgive you for helping give the shaft to millions of Californians. Here’s my vote.� NOT!
And yet the minor candidates have no chance of getting her out, so I will hold my nose and vote for the Republican. I have to take that chance.
As far as the governor is concerned, he showed his strong alliance to Chinese interests when he vetoed legislation that would have legalized hemp. Arnold showed he is the puppet of the health-care industry when he vetoed universal health care for Californians.
Is Arnold a better man for California than Phil Angelides? Probably. Am I going to reward his bad behavior? No!
In a perfect world, we would have a much fairer system of electing people to represent us. Unfortunately, we’re stuck with the so-called two-party system. The second-best thing we can do is use that system to rid us of the miscreants. Perhaps by doing so, we can make real progress towards representative democracy.

Posted by Quentin Colgan at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

President Bush and the “renegades� in The Senate have recently come to a compromise on following The Geneva Convention regarding torture—meaning the torture will continue and past abuses of basic human rights will be absolved. In other words, freedoms that are found in our Constitution have been trashed.
When Senator McCain—who knows about being tortured—spoke of what might happen to our soldiers because of what we were doing to their soldiers, he was pooh-poohed by the radical right. We heard Rush and Sean Hannity tell us that following The Geneva Convention in the treatment of POWs is pointless because our enemies don’t follow it anyway. Sort of like, “but everyone else is doing it, mommy.� Sort of like stooping to their level.
In WWII, both Germany and Japan committed atrocities against our soldiers, and yet we did not ditch the Geneva protocols. Why? Because we’re the good guys! We hold the moral high ground—at least, we used to.
Please don’t tell me that torture is necessary to extract information vital to our security. If you torture anyone enough, they’ll tell you anything you want to hear—whether it’s true or not.
In September of 2001, in a speech to Congress, President Bush told America that we were attacked on 9/11 because, “they hate our freedoms.� The President called the terrorists, “enemies of freedom.� The President used the word freedom no less than thirteen times.
Now, I don’t believe for a second that American freedoms were the cause of the attacks, but for the sake of argument, let’s assume they were.
If the terrorists “hate our freedoms,� and we trash these freedoms, doesn’t that mean the terrorists have won?
On the other hand, maybe Bush is the smartest guy ever. By taking away our freedoms, he’s taking away the terrorists’ reason to hate us!

Posted by Quentin Colgan at 01:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)