There’s nothing that business-folk love more than a thoughtless, or half-witted consumer. Now, I will freely admit to be somewhat ignorant when it comes to oil drilling and the process that crude goes through to where it becomes pumpable gasoline for my car. I’m no oil magnate, and any stock that I might own in oil companies is so few that I’m never even regarded when it comes to proxy voting. And though my status in the industry is reduced to being not much more than that of your ordinary guzzler, there’s an element of common sense I seem to own that has seemingly gone by the wayside within the community of average Joes, and that leaves us constantly bent over the barrels and being pumped by the energy giants.

When news first spread of the Transocean oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, the echoes of “There go gas prices”, reverberated throughout the comment sections of nearly every online article about the incident. The question I asked, “Why?” was largely ignored, and those who did respond did so with little enlightenment – “Cause they’ve got us bent over the barrel, that’s why!”

None of these bloggers seemed to ask that very question, “Why will prices throughout the industry increase, when only one company, BP, who was contracting the Deepwater Horizon rig at the time of the explosion, would suffer from production costs?” None of them even questioned why they don’t question.

The oil industry has rules that we consumers drink up like refined Kool-Aid. One of those rules is that which states that prices increase during the driving-season, namely the summer months. We simply graze on whatever excuse they feed us, and bleat and scratch our heads when we hear of their annual “record-breaking profits”.

Since the most recent oil crisis - when most Americans had either cut their driving to an “as-needed” basis, or took up the art of drafting behind 18-Wheelers on an open highway, we have watched the prices at the pump balloon all over again. We saw that an oil company can lower prices to $2.60 per gallon and still reap billions in annual profits. We learned that when the cost of production for one company increases, others in the same industry will hop on their back and ride the wave of profit right up to shore where the sheep are needy, and too tired to question anymore.

The answer to “Why?” is not because they can, but it’s because we let them.

Since President Obama took office, we’ve been inundated with Tea Party Activists screaming “Where’s my bailout?” in reference to the stimulus money paid to rescue the banks and auto industry, and which was used to successfully reverse the downward slide of the nation’s economy. Well, they finally got what they begged for as they were among the 95% of American citizens who were beneficiaries of some 25 tax cuts enacted by President Barack Obama and the Democratic led Congress, as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Out of the 535 members that make up both the House and Senate only 3 Republicans voted in favor of the tax cuts. Yes, 3.

Click here to read how Barack Obama’s continuing efforts to bring America back from the brink of financial disaster equates to Americans paying the second lowest amount in federal taxes since 1955. It’s only too bad these same Tea Partiers now have to believe tax cuts are un-American.

photo courtesy of dogreat.com

After spending a multitude of millions on bussing semi-educated Americans around the country to disrupt town-hall meetings, and on lobbyists to workover our “representatives”, the free market health insurers do nothing to hide their corrupt practices.

Click here to read up on how those “innocent capitalists” are twisting the books to prevent lowering costs, and from spending your money on your healthcare.

“There are some advantages to experience, and knowledge, and judgment,” John McCain said at the first presidential debate. He went on to say, “I honestly don’t believe that Senator Obama has the knowledge or experience and has made the wrong judgments in a number of areas.” In retaliation to Barack Obama’s attack on his judgment, McCain sought to drill the issue again when he stated, “But, also, I have the ability, and the knowledge, and the background to make the right judgments, to keep this country safe and secure.” The truth is that John McCain seldom shows America that he understands the definition of having a good sense of judgment. Judgment is a prerequisite to action, and McCain’s flailing, and flip-flopping actions over the past few months speak far more loudly than his words.

Recently we’ve heard a lot coming from the McCain campaign about how he is not afraid to gamble. They say it as if gambling is one of his assets. But as any professional gambler can tell you, it takes a good sense of judgment to stay in the game. A gambler has to know when to hold ‘em, and when to fold ‘em. John McCain’s Vice Presidential pick in Sarah Palin is only one in the stack of chips he has laid out on his roulette table recently, and it seems apparent that his judgment failed as he forgot to cover his bet.

The Republican Party, that only weeks ago regarded Sarah Palin as their messiah, now is reeling in fear for the next time the American press opens her closet, or for the next time she has to open her mouth to answer a question. Since the day she came into the limelight on the stage of American politics, the voters have watched her status plummet into the depths of comedic fodder, since her views seem to be uneducated, misguided, and based off of that Bush-like swaggering ignorance toward both domestic and worldly issues. In short, John McCain showed poor judgment in the highest sense when choosing his running mate, and it is turning out to be another drop in the bucket for McCain’s run of bad luck when gambling.

When a person gambles they first think their way through the game of which they are gambling. If they see that black has come up four consecutive times, there’s a good chance they’ll play the odds and place their chips on red. When sitting at a blackjack table, and after being dealt a face card and a 9, the “gambler” will think to stop instead of taking the stupid risk of getting either an ace or a two. Thought goes into gambling, and those who could see past John McCain’s rhetoric have a clear understanding that he doesn’t “gamble” at all, but only gives a sudden reaction, as if his judgment comes from a nervous twitch as opposed to being born from any cognitive processes.

Recently, John McCain reacted to our economic crisis and told the nation, and the world for that matter, that the fundamentals of our economy were strong, just as we watched Wall Street drag our economy through the floor. If given the benefit of the doubt, we can say that he was “advised” to spout the misinformation by the corporate lobbyists backing his campaign, to which he, in his poor judgment, acted upon. It was a reaction to a crisis, which then became a gamble. If he would have thought through the situation he faced prior to mouthing such an obvious lie, he wouldn’t have had to recant his comment only hours later, when in a second speech said, “I know Americans are hurting, and the fundamentals of our economy are at risk. They’re at risk… Our economy is at risk today.”

Throughout his political career John McCain has flip-flopped on issues to where he now resembles the proverbial fish-out-of-water. Fully admitting to this “gambler” image he has affixed to his “Maverick” persona, who stubbornly supports unpopular issues, and who is ready and willing to take full blame if the issue turns out to be a failure, McCain is proving time and time again that his judgment is far from sound, and often finds himself with no other choice than to flop after he’s flipped. This happens too often to the 72 year old senator, because he, like George W. Bush, is far too stubborn to rethink a bad idea until it’s too late. We have witnessed over the past 8 years how inefficient and dangerous stubborn support over partially examined issues can be, as George W. Bush’s reign in our nation’s highest seat was wrought with them. McCain, like Bush, reacts to issues without ever thinking them through, as he did when he told the press that he wouldn’t sit down to speak to the Prime Minister of Spain, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Now having to backpedal, and try to convince Americans that he is the only candidate that could work to regain trust from our allies, McCain has this bruise shining boldly beneath his eye at the pawn shop window, where he’s trying desperately to convince the man behind the counter that it is indeed a Rolex, and that he needs to try and win his money back. It’s hardly a crisis-issue at the moment, but is truly another instance where McCain has proved himself to lack a sense of good judgment.

Perhaps John McCain’s worst judgment call, his biggest gamble, has come through his repeated confession, “We were elected to change Washington, and we let Washington change us.” As if he’s trying to play the victim because he’s some new kid on the block. With his initial appointment to change Washington coming 26 years ago, it’s safe to assume that he never had any intention of changing Washington until now: Now during the run up to November 4th, when we will not only vote on the candidate’s policies, but also on their sense of judgment. When you’ve been implanted in Washington D.C. for 26 years you are Washington D.C., and it isn’t so easy to shed yourself of the uniform. And when you make those types of confessions – where you attempt to place the blame on the opposing party, but essentially blame yourself, you can hardly turn it around and expect the masses to place their trust in you, and the strategy that wreaks of poor judgment.

In a speech to ministry students Sarah Palin stated that the United States deployed our troops to fight in Iraq on “…a task that is from God.” George W. Bush once said, “I believe God wants me to run for president,” then later said, “God told me to strike at al Qaeda and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East.” Well then, I say it’s high time that this god guy starts chucking in some much needed cash to fight it. Since he hasn’t sent a flood to wipe out Baghdad in some Sodom and Gomorrah type disaster, or sent any kind of heat storm that melted al Qaeda terrorists in their tracks, I think we should at least be requesting some assistance. I don’t know, maybe a hundred and fifty billion dollars so we don’t have to borrow more from China. Or maybe he could give back the thousands of troops that Bush and Cheney gave away. Maybe this miracle worker could perform a limb regrowth on even one vet who now controls his wheelchair with his tongue.

I understand that he’s a busy guy, what with having to tend to boxers knocking out their opponents, and helping receivers snag touchdown passes. I understand he has a full plate in keeping holy that first commandment “Thou shall not kill”… wait… I’m sorry, scratch that. Regardless, since the guy tasked us with a war in Iraq, at least he could act as the project manager, and pay his employees with some added benefits. Maybe put up an invisible wall to deflect the next detonated IED, or better yet, detonate it while its being planted. Whatever he, she, or it does, it needs to do something fast, because Sarah Palin also said that building a natural gas pipeline through Alaska “…is the will of God.” She is now adding more to his plate, and if I’m right in believing this god has truly poor time-management skills, we’ll see a gas pipeline being built through Alaska before any alternative fuel research is funded, before our children can be treated in a hospital without having their parents lose their home in paying for it, and before our troops ever make it home to their own families.

In his speech tonight, presidential candidate John McCain told the nation that he does not work for special interest, but if you look back less than a month ago, when he told America that he plans on giving $150 billion in tax breaks to oil companies, I have to scratch my head in wonder. With oil companies who collect tens of billions in profits each year, and who have paid large sums of money to etch McCain’s policies, it is only obvious that he not only works for special interest, but is truly owned by special interest.

John McCain is truly nothing more than your cookie-cutter Washington politician who pays lip service for votes. Reading a teleprompter full of words without substance, promises without any plan to fulfill those promises, McCain went back to repeating the lies his Vice Presidential pick, Sarah Palin, was advised to say. McCain repeated Palin’s bleatings on how Barack Obama will raise taxes, after he proposed to cut taxes. McCain told America that his opponent will grow the federal government after Obama pledged to cut federal spending and get rid of the waste in the inflated department. He even told us that Obama wants to entrench beureaucrats after the Democratic presidential candidate offered his position back to the people.

McCain told us that he won’t give billions of dollars to countries that don’t like us, yet he proposes spending hundreds of billions for an indefinite occupation of a country that doesn’t like us. McCain made a lot of promises tonight. He told us that he’ll work for us, but his policies reflect only the want of the few. His predecesor and policy maker, George W. Bush, told us that John McCain went against public opinion in his support for the war in Iraq, and said it as if going against public opinion is a good thing. Mr. McCain, we the people are your boss, and the public opinion is what you should base your policies on. You claim to be the man to change Washington politics, but in reference to your own party, during your own nomination acceptance speech you told us, “… we let Washington change us.” Since you truly don’t believe in “country first”, but are only following the teleprompter your advisors have setup for you, it is no wonder that you’re owned by special interest, and have to decide to remove your Republican hat for a day to become American in the face of a natural disaster.

Yesterday John McCain decided it would be best if he acted like a ‘prepared for the worst’ and ‘compassionate’ presidential candidate, when he decided to cut four and a half hours out of the opening night’s events at today’s Republican National Convention in Minneapolis. In setting the stage to take full credit for life-saving measures in the areas in the wake of Hurricane Gustave, even after New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin’s ’stay behind and your on your own’ evacuation message, John McCain chartered a jet to fly home Republican delegates from states along the Gulf Coast, and announced that his acceptance speech may come from the hurricane threatened region. It would only add to his costume as a person caught in the thick of the devastation, filling sandbags, or swimming a wheelchair bound woman through the floodwaters. He would pretend he loves America, our people. Like Bush in Katrina’s wake I’m sure they’ll advise McCain to roll up his sleeves, to give off the appearance he’s working to save our citizens.

I say all this with a bit of a forked tongue because during his announcement his true colors became a beaming beacon when he said, “I pledge that tomorrow night, and if necessary throughout our convention, we will act as Americans, not as Republicans.” This statement shows that McCain, like Bush and Cheney, ordinarily hold Republicans in a brighter light than all other Americans. It proves that John McCain holds his party before the country, and that his slogan “Country First” is just another burp of lip-service.

Most Americans would like to believe that a potential president would keep all Americans in mind all of the time. Of course, there are always decisions made that will carry a negative effect for some. It is with no doubt that those Americans getting the raw end of the stick should at least be considered if not given concessions, regardless of which party holds the power. A president can never please everyone, but they should not be allowed to forego trying. To have to pledge to set aside party politics long enough to act as an American shows us all how little John McCain thinks about the citizens of our country.

Carrying on nearly 90% of George W. Bush’s failed policies, McCain would be as detrimental to our nation, and in the case of the war in Iraq, McCain’s policy is somehow even worse. John McCain’s plan to continue spending nearly ten billion dollars a month to occupy Iraq against the will of the newly installed Iraqi government, along with his energy policy that even his V.P. pick, Sarah Palin – the Alaskan who holds her states interests over the common good in believing we should not invest a dime in alternative fuels before opening ANWR for further oil consumption, admitted is worse than Barack Obama’s energy policy, are only two points that prove McCain should stay with Arizona and his Republicans, than continuing on with four more years of the same nightmare that Bush plunged us into. He proposed taxing Americans 150 billion dollars to give to oil corporations in the form of tax cuts, and has proposed spending zero on alternative fuel sources. His plan to continue the corporatist methods of the current administration is the plan of dolts, and no, he’s not the kind of guy you can have a beer with. He’s the kind of guy who at one time disagreed with nearly half of Bush’s policies, but has crumbled under the heavy thumbs of the corporations who have basically told him ‘you’ll do what we want you to do, or we’ll hold back funding for your campaign,’ and since has adopted nearly 90% of Bush’s policies.

If John McCain’s vice presidential pick in Sarah Palin is a Republican slap to the face of all women, McCain’s “Country First” is a slap in the face of all Americans. Unless, of course, his idea of “Country First” means America being run by party affiliated corporations as opposed to us, the people – the people who own the government, and who pay them to run our nation properly and fairly, since all who pay for their services have a vested interest. Though it’s apparent that John McCain believes Republicans are more important than all other Americans, since he has to pledge that he’ll hold all Americans in mind for a day, and if need be throughout the entire Republican National Convention. Thanks John… What a guy!

The invasion of Iraq was never about Weapons of Mass Destruction, we know. The redeployment of troops from the war in Afghanistan to Iraq was never about a war against terrorism, as is made obvious from our lack of troop deployment to Sudan, or Zimbabwe. The move to topple Saddam Hussein, was never about bringing peace and democracy to a nation which supposedly suffered under the tyrannical rule of the man we found hiding in a crudely dug hole in the desert. George Bush gave us a number of excuses as to why he allowed Dick Cheney the attempt at implanting an Iraqi government with whom it would be easier to cut business deals. Cheney couldn’t inflate the coffers of Halliburton with rulers too stubborn to be bullied into giving up their oil. He had eight years to try, and as we can see from the recent news coming from the leader of Iraq, the invasion was never about toppling a dictator to bring peace and democracy to a nation we sympathize with.

Nouri al Maliki, the Prime Minister of Iraq, vehemently denounced the continued occupation of Iraq by our forces, and demanded that all foreign troops leave his country by the year 2011. The promise that our troops would come home when the Iraqi security forces were able to secure their country seems to have been forgotten now that George Bush and Dick Cheney have balked on their promise, and are now paying lip-service to al Maliki. The plan presented by the Bush Administration shows only combat forces returning to America, but leaving up to 40,000 troops to remain embedded in Iraq indefinitely.

John McCain once told us that it is a general understanding that American forces have the right to invade to occupy a nation that we deem is harmful to world order and peace. Perhaps world order is the dream of the optimist that George Bush would love to be, instead of the straw-man on strings that Cheney stores in a lock box each night. Perhaps the man who mistook an adrenaline rush for the voice of his god telling him how great he is actually is as innocent as one of the many mentally retarded murderers he had executed during his stint as the Texas governor. Perhaps, but as Ted Kennedy said during his speech last night at the Democratic Convention, “…young Americans in uniform must never be committed to a mistake.” As long as George Bush remains suffering from Multiple-Excuse Disorder, and refuses to give Iraq back to the Iraqi’s, then he is committing the treasonous act of committing our troops to a mistake, and will forever wear the bruise that should be shining beneath a cold steak under Dick Cheney’s eye.

photo courtesy of CBS

Doing the right thing is sometimes made difficult when pride gets in the way. Though it’s very possible if one is able to grin and bear it, and especially if a person goes as far to ask themselves, “What is the right thing to do?” In the case of Barack Obama’s choice for a running mate, the best thing to do is to forget about Hillary, be happy knowing she will undoubtedly gain a high ranking position in his cabinet, and leave one’s pride at the door of the voting center this November.

Today, the organizers of “Vote Both”, a group campaigning to gain Clinton’s name in the Vice President’s spot, decided it would be best for the Democratic Party if they were to stop their campaign and redirect their energy into getting those disgruntled Clinton supporters to back Obama. The group’s founders Adam Parkhomenko and Sam Arora pleaded to Clinton’s supporters in an email, “We worked for Hillary for a combined 10 years, so we know how many of you may be feeling,” they wrote, “And to those who are hesitant to support Obama right now, we urge you to keep giving him the chance to earn your vote. We are confident he will.”

Because many of Hillary’s supporters are thinking of voting for John McCain out of revenge for the arduous battle she fought against Obama during the Democratic primary elections, the state of our Union is hanging in the balance. With John McCain’s policies being no more than a carbon copy of those of George W. Bush, our nation cannot afford to have pride being the deciding factor over the presidential election. It’s been assumed for years that those who support Hillary Clinton cared for the health and welfare of our nation more than those who were voting the Republicans into office simply because they associate themselves with that party. Now it looks as though many Democrats care just as little as those that happily watched our nation tank under the Bush regime, leaving us faulty excuses wrought with arrogance.

At least some are doing the right thing, and I tip my hat to those who follow suit with the folks from “Vote Both”. There are those who vote independent of party lines, and those who vote from pride and arrogance. The latter has been leading our country into the depths for 8 years, and it’s highly important the Democrats wake up their constituents to avoid at least 4 more years of America’s sinking in the mire.

by Brian Burns

With the recent claim of pseudo-victory in Iraq by the AP’s Robert Burns and Robert H. Reid, anyone with enough common sense to understand how resistance to invasion works could easily assess that these two have fallen off the deep end of reality. As if birthed from faulty Republican think-tanks, the two have written an analysis piece that tells of the tide of war in Iraq and how it has turned to when we can now say we’re “winning the war that two years ago seemed lost”. With Burns being AP’s chief military reporter, and Reid as AP’s chief of bureau in Baghdad, it would be difficult to say that anyone else could have more experience on this particular subject matter other than the troops themselves, and possibly anyone who has ever invaded to occupy a sectarian nation. What the latter has over that of our troops, and apparently Burns and Reid, is the knowledge of the outcome of such a foolish endeavor. And just as history repeats itself, unless Barack Obama wins the presidency and follows through with his promise to bring our troops home, we will undoubtedly see trillions of dollars being spent on a security investment where our military personnel will be continuously picked off a few at a time for many years to come.

The Burns-Reid analysis for the Associated Press contradicts itself from the beginning, where after saying we’re winning the war they admit, “Limited, sometimes sharp fighting and periodic terrorist bombings in Iraq are likely to continue, possibly for years.”

It is important to understand that the “War in Iraq” was never a “war” as western logic defines it. It was an invasion of primarily American forces to take down a leader that wouldn’t play ball with our leaders who desperately wanted to make business deals over their vast supply of natural resources. Initially met with resistance by a militia that fled from an obvious onslaught, our troops had hardly any problem clearing a space large enough to setup a small militarized village from where they could stage their operations. From there the stages of ousting the invaders became more of an opportunity to attack than one of resistance, in that our failure to secure the borders of Iraq gave way to terrorist groups who were able to rush in once Saddam Hussein was gone from his position of power. They would act out their will to take out as much ‘westernization’ as they could, being fully aware that only the allied forces could stop them.

Once George W. Bush declared war on terrorism the Iraq invasion could be considered a “war”, but only to those who bought into the rhetoric. To those Iraqi’s who were suddenly faced with stray bombs killing innocent family members, what the Republicans were calling a “war” was only an invasion to occupy. They were citizens of the communities that dealt with the dictatorship under Saddam Hussein, and though they might not have been happy, they weren’t about to let the Bush Administration replace what they had with a westernized iron fist. They were patriots to their country and a new resistance upwelled. Though they did not want terrorist groups like al Qaida running their country, the citizens didn’t want the U.S. making their laws either, and al Qaida took advantage of this by staying back and planning their attacks in smaller, more precise, bursts. The population was now in resistance in greater numbers than ever, and so Bush thought it would be smart to enact the “surge”. By adding additional forces to patrol the streets, the Iraqi’s who had taken up arms against our troops were forced to retreat to their homes, where they now have to plan their attacks in smaller, more precise, bursts as well. This is what the Burns-Reid analysis is showing us. They are unknowingly spelling out ‘oppression’, but in a different form than they had 5 years ago.

Those lacking common sense believe that peace can be made between religious factions that have spent two thousand years perfecting their hatred for one another, when Saddam Hussein realized the only way to keep order in Iraq is with that said ‘iron fist’. Though even the Bush Administration, after being schooled by our military in the knowledge they’ve gained over the years, has come to understand that to occupy Iraq means to forcibly keep them in order. Instead of Iraqi’s embracing the prospect of peace, they are instead having peace being sold to them from the American government.

In the Burns-Reid analysis they state, “They (Sunnis) launched the insurgency five years ago. They now are either sidelined or have switched sides to cooperate with the Americans in return for money and political support.” It is now well known that a good portion of the $150 billion the Bush Administration borrowed from China went to paying off Muqtada al Sadr for his agreement to a cease fire against his Sunni rivals. In other words, the only war that was ever going on inside of Iraq’s borders prior to the American invasion was the sectarian war between the Shiites, the Sunnis, and the Kurds. Now that the terrorist cells are moving on to take advantage of the lack of security in Afghanistan, in Iraq the sectarian war that’s been two thousand years in the making is becoming our main concern. But like oil, our monetary supply also has limitations.

What Burns and Reid are trying to show us is now that the dictatorship in Iraq has been replaced with a parliament, and now that the usurping power of terrorist groups have left to fight elsewhere, Iraq can begin to form a peaceful democracy. They call it “winning the war”. As we can plainly see by their own words the attacks on our forces will undoubtedly continue, as there will always be citizens that want to expel a military occupancy from their country. It is assumed that a foreign military ultimately has control, and as long as there are outside forces dictating the course of their lives then they are no better off than they were prior to the invasion. With that said, it is impossible to say we’ve won the war, or are winning the war. As stated, they are citizens of Iraq and they are home. They have all the time in their lives to sit back and pluck away at our military.

Only a couple decades ago Russia learned the lesson that an attempt at occupying a Middle East nation is a waste of lives and money, for they too felt the pang of continuous casualties from small arms fire and occasional bombings, until they finally fled Afghanistan. Using the words of Burns and Reid, “It’s not the end of fighting. It looks like the beginning of a perilous peace,” we can see that the Bush Administration has obviously embedded our troops in a situation very similar to what the Russians faced. And it appears that people like John McCain never learned from their lesson in which the outcome was an utter failure. So we’re stuck in a country where the leaders are asking us to leave, and those sympathetic to the expulsion of foreign occupancy will give us the task of managing a “perilous peace”. Aside from the rogue gangs that rushed in and have now moved on, this perilous peace is what Iraq has been dealing with for centuries.

But with all that aside, with sticking to their claim that we’re winning the war, we have to recall that the only war in Iraq was the one that was waged against terrorism. With the terrorists moving on to a new territory it seems that we aren’t winning any war really, but only letting them get away as Bush did with Osama bin Laden. There never was a war waged against Iraq, and so there was never a war to win. And as long as there are people who consider America occupying their nation as further oppression, they will make sure we can never claim victory for a war that was never waged.