Oil Dependence

The current President an oil man said we’re addicted to oil. Even president elect Obama mentioned this “oil addiction”. The oil companies have made us dependent upon their oil for the ability to support ourselves.

In the 1700’s the British East India Trading Company turned many of the Chinese people into opium addicts so they’d have guaranteed customers for their opium.

According to award winning journalist Steve Coll in his book “The Bin Laden’s; An Arabian Family in the American Century” in the 1930's America said “Saudi oil is firmly in American hands”.

It’s not the addiction to oil that is the problem, it’s the oil companies’ whose addiction to power and wealth have a stranglehold on us. If not we’d have more accessible public transportation, more fuel efficient vehicles and alternative energy sources for starters.

We don’t see much in the way of research and development to get us off this “oil addiction” but we see record breaking profits for oil companies. Not only that, the tax payer is pouring twenty five billion into Ford to come up with more fuel efficient cars. What type of reasonable person could or would expect a company to design something that will reduce their profits? It’s an idea so illogical it’s astounding.

Time and time again America has proven that necessity is the mother of invention. The United States is smart enough to have come up with a multitude of alternatives by now. Where are they? Whatever happened to the guy that designed the 200 MPG carburetor?

Maybe with the pushers and dealers out of the White House, there is a chance we can get the oil monkey off our backs.

Pulling the Tarp Over our Eyes

The US Treasury Department under Secretary Paulson is deciding where the bail out money should go; and it is the belief of the Secretary and the Treasury Department that the banks are more important than the homeowners. The arrogant disdain the obscenely wealthy people like Secretary Paulson and his banker buddies have for the American citizen is precisely the attitude that helped precipitate the financial crisis facing the country today.

Economists from here and around the globe say home prices in America have to be stabilized first to stem the financial storm rolling around the world, Yet our government tells us that banks come first, the exact opposite.

Treasury Secretary Paulson is pouring billions of our dollars into the pockets of the very same people who got us into this disaster in the first place, the corporate crooks; the bankers. In the interest of big money and campaign donations, our politicians went along and changed the rules for banks so that one individual alone could have total control over deposit accounts in their banks. No wonder they have no money left and we have to bail them out!

The bail out bill is aptly named, it’s called the Troubled Asset Relief Program TARP. They’re pulling the tarp over our eyes when it comes to this trillion dollar tax payer give away program. First the Treasury Secretary is going to buy the troubled assets now he’s going to infuse money directly into banks. It’s more like bait and switch, first you see it now you don’t.

There are many of us who believe the government should not interfere in the free market, but the bail out plan nullifies that theory, and it’s time to level the economic playing field when the free market has been tilted upside down because of rampant greed due to lawlessness.

We should nationalize the banking industry to stabilize home prices by getting more people into homes and paying mortgages. Because it’s all homeowners across the country who are feeling the effects of this runaway corporate greed not just those who were greedy, duped, tricked or too trusting.

We’ll all be paying the price for this bail out scheme for a long time and without government intervention those responsible; the bankers, never will pay the price they so richly deserve for the consequences of their heinous actions.

Voting for a Maybe President

Thanks to television and the advent of polling, we have popularity contests, not presidential elections. Whoever has the most marketing money wins. Maybe there wasn’t much of a choice in this presidential election.

Senator Mike Gravel, a 2008 presidential contender and former Senator from Alaska was kicked out of the debates because the networks said he didn’t raise enough in campaign funds. At one of the early presidential debates Brian Williams treated Senator Gravel like a “potted plant” and asked him no questions at all.

This was unfortunate for us because Senator Gravel was instrumental in helping bring to light the Pentagon Papers; proof that showed all the lies the Pentagon foisted on the public to support the war in Vietnam. What are the chances of us getting a look at any of the Iraq or Afghanistan papers now?

In his book “The Kingmakers” Gravel brings to light president elect Obama’s ‘no-show’ on the vote to label the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. With today’s media there was more emphasis placed on Obama’s association with William Ayers than his no-show vote.

Fortunately for us even though we don’t hear about them, there were people inside the intelligence agencies who made it known that they were willing to go to jail if the Government didn’t release the 2006 NIE (National Intelligence Estimate) report detailing that Iran had already dismantled their nuclear weapons facilities in 2003. If it hadn’t been for the brave Americans inside our intelligence agencies maybe that no show vote could possibly have brought us to war with Iran.

When his friend Theodore Roosevelt was elected president, Henry Adams said “Power is poison. It’s effects on presidents has always been tragic, chiefly an almost insane reaction at first, and a worse reaction afterwards; but also because no mind is so well balanced as to bear the strain of seizing unlimited force without habit or knowledge of it; and finding it disputed by hungry packs of wolves and hounds whose lives depend on snatching the carrion.”

Maybe in this historic time with this first African-American president, there is a chance president elect Obama can keep the power hounds and wolves at bay, let’s hope so.

Goldman Sachs Takes Over US Treasury

The US Treasury Department under the Bush regime are sinking over one hundred and fifty billion dollars of the seven hundred billion dollar bail out into 9 banks and these banks are going to use that that money to pay dividends and CEO salaries! Imagine, the American tax payer is subsidizing CEO salaries and dividends. That money is supposed to free up the “clogs in the system” of the credit pipeline but instead it’s being flushed down the drain into the sewers of greedy pockets.

As of this moment the banks are being told they can’t do this, it’s not part of the bail out bill, but even if the banks don’t get away with this publicly, they’ll get away with it behind closed doors, they’ll just be more careful to keep all information secret.

None the less, this goes to show what happens when the bail out bill is administered by former CEO of Goldman Sachs Henry Paulson as Secretary of the Treasury who has surrounded himself with former Goldman Sachs alumnus. Neel Kashkari under secretary and overseer of “spreading the wealth” of the tax payer bail out learned the tricks of the trade at Goldman Sachs. Two of Paulson’s current advisors along with Bush’s Chief of Staff Josh Bolton worked for Goldman Sachs. And it was Bolton who had suggested Henry Paulson for Secretary of the Treasury in 2006 when Paulson took over the position.

On the same day this bail out bill was passed the NY Times had an article about a meeting that took place in 2004 when Paulson was CEO of Goldman Sachs. Paulson along with other CEO’s of the largest investment banks on Wall Street pressured the SEC to lower the regulations on how much capital these investment banks had to have in reserve. Once the amount was lowered, these investment banks used this “freed up capital” to invest in mortgage backed securities, credit debt obligations (CDO’s) and other Wall Street swindles derived from sub prime mortgages.

Now we have Paulson who was part of the problem dictating the solutions with tax payer dollars. Is this a conflict of interest for our Treasury Secretary? Why did Paulson bail out Bear Stearns and AIG but let Lehman Brothers fail? The failure of Lehman Brothers is the catalyst that led to the world wide financial meltdown.

Even a British journalist questioned the lack of investigation as to why Lehman Brothers failed. Maybe there’s no investigation because the failure of Lehman Brothers benefits Goldman Sachs. Treasury Secretary Paulson amassed 700 million while CEO of Goldman Sachs, where does his loyalty lie?

During the presidential campaign of 2008 there was fear mongering that Barack Obama is a commie or a socialist. Which would be a comical charge if the socialists for the rich weren’t in the Treasury at this moment stealing our tax dollars to subsidize salaries of CEO’s who ran banks into the ground.

We can see why the founders distrusted banks, without regulation banks gain the upper hand in redirecting the deposits of the many into the hands of the few.

As Patrick Henry said- “I know of no way judging the future but by the past.”. If we want to see where we’re going we should look at where we’ve been. History shows us it does not bode well for the many when the power and wealth are concentrated into the hands of the few, which the corporations and our government are currently enacting.