Which Americans?
"Americans are furious about what's going on," declared Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and want Congress to do something about oil company profits and "an orgy of speculation" on oil markets."If you don't tell the big oil companies they can no longer run energy policy in America, we will not succeed, plain and simple," Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., told CBS Radio News.
1. Require traders to put up more collateral in the energy futures markets and open the way for federal regulation of traders who are based in the United States but use foreign trading platforms. The measures are designed to reduce market speculation.Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the obstructer of the earlier climate change legislation, echoed Domenici's crocodile tears about the pain at the pump while ridiculing "those who think we can tax our way out of this problem."2. Make oil and gas price gouging a federal crime, with stiff penalties of up to $5 million during a presidentially declared energy emergency.
3. Authorize the Justice Department to bring charges of price fixing against countries that belong to the OPEC oil cartel.
McConnell's answer?
Which makes one wonder whether this approach -- to let things get so bad that Americans will support a complete rape of the environment -- might be the end-game of our pain at the pump that these
But then, it could just be short-presidential-term greed -- the 'let's get as much as we can before our policies drive the Republicans out of office' philosophy...
Or both.
Adding to the problem, as cited in this earlier post by Danny Schechter, is the 'heckofajob' decision by a shadowy Bush Administration figure to engineer a drop in the dollar to "improve competitiveness" amidst a growing trade imbalance (never mind the blowback...):
His name is Jim Wilkinson. He helped organize the GOP "protest"/obstruction of the Miami election recount in 2000. He was the White House's key media spinner at the Coalition Media Center in Quatar in 2003. ~snip~Wilkinson's self-serving act has set off a world-wide frenzy of speculation, particulary oil speculation, with traders in London and Dubai holding onto their oil stocks in order to obtain a better price in Euros than they can now achieve with dollars. That, in turn, plays into the hands of oil producing nations who may have reasons not to like America (i.e. Iran, Venezuela...) to insist on petrol-Euros for their product, further depressing the dollar world-wide.[A]t a crucial moment in the history of the Western world, Mr. "I work in the shadows" Wilkinson became chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, the Goldman Sachs embed in the Cabinet.
Operative Wilkinson was given the assignment of monitoring the world's financial markets.
I'm waiting to hear President Bush say "doing a heckofajob, Wilkie."
Perhaps not.
Barack Obama challenged John McCain on Big Oil yesterday, pointing out Republican support for windfall profits and how Senator McCain's policies on this matter as tantamount to a continuation of Bush policies - the oft-quoted "Bush Third Term." McCain's response was to snicker and call the election of Barack Obama "Jimmy Carter's second term".
Huh?
The silver lining to this painful exercise? The opening salvos in the General Election campaign (Obama: Here are my policies, some not written in stone, but you get the idea, and ExxonMobil made a lot of money and here's how that relates to John McCain... McCain: He's not experienced!!!!!!) coinciding with the Republican legislature's march in lockstep to their oil-lobbyist controllers' instructions gives a clear choice to the American people:
Don't want more of the same?
Don't vote McCain.
Don't like 4, 5, 6 dollar gas?
Ditto the same with the
Labels: Barack Obama, Big Oil, Business, Environment, Exxon Mobil, General Election, Henry Paulson, Huffington Post, Jim Wilkinson, John McCain, Mitch McConnell, Palm Beach Post, Pete Domenici, Politics, Windfall Profit
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