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TechnoratiBeggars on the Boulevard of Oil Dreams
We live in a black-and-white world. We'd like to believe that we have all these shades of gray; subtle nuances that lend shadow and light to our existence, but we don't. For citizens of the United States, something's right or wrong, in or out, with us or against us. And because of those black-and-white terms by which we live, we have folks killing in our name, dying in our war and begging on our behalf.
Certainly you heard about the begging. Our president went to Saudi Arabia to beseech the royal family to take pity on us and lower our fuel prices. The New York Times reported that President Bush asked King Abdullah to "consider the strain the high cost of oil was having on the American economy."
Funny he didn't beg his buddies at Exxon Mobil to lighten our burden.
Why should Saudi Arabia lose money? The black-and-white reality of our financial relationship works beautifully for them. We're addicted to oil and they've got plenty. And our preoccupation with professing to know right from wrong, black from white is of no consequence to them. After all, they sat idly by while we invaded one of their sovereign neighbors claiming it was about security and not about oil and the whole time, I believe, the Saudis knew better. I bet that they knew at least as much as Scott McClellan did.
Our relationship with Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Arab world is about as healthy as the friendship between the wolf and the three little pigs. Either we'll we blow their Middle East house down and gobble up their resources, or they'll stoke the boiling kettle and we'll greedily fall down the chimney. Time will tell.
Coincidentally, Exxon Mobil doesn't care about our economy, either. Our alleged political allies don't care about us and neither do our bottom line-motivated supposed corporate partners.
We're surrounded by wolves and we're a giant pig roast.
Why is everyone so surprised that we're so vulnerable? We don't have a legal, viable, affordable substitute for oil. And with record high profit margins, the wolves can make as much money as they've ever made even as we feebly attempt to reduce our consumption.
In fact, record profit margins coupled with fewer refining and transportation costs - because of our diminished demand - make these predators as wealthy as or wealthier than they were last year.
But still, we squeal in pain to these big bad wolves.
Here's what that groveling to the Saudis might've sounded like: "Hey King Abdullah, we know that your country has many practices that our country calls human rights violations. Beheadings and behandings and, from time to time, those cross-mutilations where you take a hand and a foot just to make sure you got your point across. You punish rape victims and gouge people's eyes out. Check out Amnesty International and the records kept by our Library of Congress, and you can see where we learn this stuff. But hey, before you cane that guy, could you chat with us for a few minutes about lowering your price on oil - those high prices are really hurting us. Be humane about this and save us a few bucks at the pump."
I've got an idea. If we're going to prostrate ourselves before someone who flouts our federal laws, let's quit sucking up to Saudi Arabia and suck up to Vermont instead.
No, Vermont doesn't have public beheadings but they're about to get their legs cut out from underneath them by the federal government. See this week those rascals in the Vermont legislature legalized the farming of industrial hemp.
According to the Canadian think tank Global Research, hemp is "an alternative to petroleum. Hemp grows like mad from border to border in America; so shortages are unlikely. And, unlike petrol, unless we run out of soil, hemp is renewable."
But it's federally prohibited and our farmers, our economy and our environment pay for our government's preposterous criminalization of this plant.
The black-and-white truth is because of this folly we are victimized by the greed of Exxon Mobil while we whimper to the Saudis.
Pat LaMarche of Yarmouth is the spokesperson for the Evergreen Mountain Resort & Casino referendum campaign. She's the author of "Left Out in America" and may be reached at PatLaMarche@hotmail.com.
© 2008 The Bangor Daily News
18 Comments so far
Show AllNumbers. In the transportation mix in today's USA ,13 million barrels per day of oil equivalent energy is required to achieve energy independence. Growing hemp would merely serve as a symbolic gesture toward energy independence.
"Here’s what that groveling to the Saudis might’ve sounded like: “Hey King Abdullah, we know that your country has many practices that our country calls human rights violations. Beheadings and behandings and, from time to time, those cross-mutilations where you take a hand and a foot just to make sure you got your point across. You punish rape victims and gouge people’s eyes out. Check out Amnesty International and the records kept by our Library of Congress, and you can see where we learn this stuff. But hey, before you cane that guy, could you chat with us for a few minutes about lowering your price on oil - those high prices are really hurting us. Be humane about this and save us a few bucks at the pump.”
Americans are downright nauseating when it comes to others "rights". The land of the brave and free executes far more people every year than Saudi Arabia. The land of the brave and free incarcerates more people in its prisons (estimated at > 2Million) than any other country in the world. The overwhelming majority of these people are poor blacks and hispanics that exist on the bottom of a society motivated by greed.
I've lived there (KSA) and know that you can leave your wallet in a shop and it will still be there when you realise you've left it. Robbery and muggings are unknown. Try that in most US cities!
Whats more, the people are generally peaceful and dignified and they don't try and ram their brand of religion down your throat.
What a whining wimp! You've literally wasted your own resources for decades with your big finned ugly excuses for cars and on yahoos with their gas guzzling SUVs and now you bleat because the rest of world doesn't consider it owes you a living.
Go for the hemp by all means - and call yourself a teapot at the same time.
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Submited by : Libros Gratis
"Here's what that groveling to the Saudis might've sounded like: "Hey King Abdullah, we know that your country has many practices that our country calls human rights violations. Beheadings and behandings and, from time to time, those cross-mutilations where you take a hand and a foot just to make sure you got your point across. You punish rape victims and gouge people's eyes out. Check out Amnesty International and the records kept by our Library of Congress, and you can see where we learn this stuff. But hey, before you cane that guy, could you chat with us for a few minutes about lowering your price on oil - those high prices are really hurting us. Be humane about this and save us a few bucks at the pump."
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Spare us the histrionics, I can trump this load of BS with 2 words - Guantanamo Bay. Since we started torturing people in Cuba, we gave up our position on the high road. This is not funny at all and the Arabs don't owe us cheap oil. BTW, since oil is tied to the dollar, and our dollar is worth half what it used to be, we need to get used to high gas prices that are only going to continue to go up. Until cars are retro fitted to use hemp oil, the only thing hemp supporters can do is rant and what good does that do anyone?
So now Vermont is going to get its legs cut out from them by the Feds because of hemp? You've got to be kidding here. Vermont please take the lead and secede. You are small enough and united and so far have been setting a great example of a true democracy.
Jesusofjonesboro: Who is intolerant? Add me to the list of bozos because I have no problem with the hemp guy while you sound like a fuddy-duddy. Relax and let go of that need to control.
The worlds only Superpower is at Saudis mercy. Oh please, I am laughing too hard.
"Hey King Abdullah, our man Osama wants to be King. How about you drop the price of oil, or we will make him King, he is tired of living in his 5 star cave"
or
"Hey King Abdullah, how about we make a deal with Iran, and help them take your oil fields along their borders. The Shia population that produce your oil will be happy. Irans Ayatollahs promise to give us the oil cheap so long as we don't bomb them"
or
"Hey King Abdullah, Iraq has more oil than you, and Thomas Gold was right. How about you drop the price of oil pronto, or we bomb the crap out of you".
Well, it's been 6 hours now since my comments were to be "moderated." I guess since I didn't "donate" monies, I am prohibited from posting anything with additional links to relevant information. And this is coming from the guy who helped spread the word/alarm about the coup orchestrated against Chavez in 2002.
Change will never occur with gatekeepers like Common Dreams [sic].
jj you poor bastard. Let me help your sorry ass out. You don't like differences of opinion so why not take a gun, point it on your fucking head, and pull the fucking trigger and get it over with. LOL !
Add SDnative to the list.
jj
Why do people think that Bush went to Saudi Arabia to ask for more oil? He may very well have gone there to ask them to continue the good work in helping to raise oil prices. Bush is an oil man.
Find time to get up to speed on Thom Hartmann's life-and earth-saving descriptions of the bog of corp "rights", profit-based value systems, etc., and the light will come on.
Corporations are legally required to maximize shareholder value at the expense of everything that isn't expressly illegal. They take that to mean that pushing the limits is ok as long as they come out dollars ahead in the process; it means they will do the things you can read about in books by Perkins and Korten and Ch. Johnson, and many more.
Enough of that....back to ranting: Bush wasn't in SAUD to beg for anything, but to celebrate with his buddies on the greatest and most thorough looting job ever perpetrated on the people of the planet. These boys are master criminals in idiots' clothing. They've known exactly what they were doing the whole time from PNAC til now.
Who gets it?
Over the last few days I've noticed a number of profane, semi-literate, overheated posts all of which seem clearly aimed at discrediting this forum. hemp4victory and FrederickJohnson are just the most recent of these.
There's little doubt in my mind that these posts represent a foolishly conceived and childishly implemented disinformation effort. Basically, at most that they can hope to achieve is wasting the time of those who appreciate Common Dreams.
Having called them out, I intend to waste no more time with them.
jj
Amen hemp4victory,
You're doing great. If it weren't for folks such as you, CD would never have posted this article. Most of the time, they post crybaby articles with no solutions in them just like most of the "liberal" blogosphere. Some posters on this site are ASSHOLES such as "jesusofjonesboro" for calling others "intolerent" all the while being nothing more than a bunch of fake "liberal" HYPOCRITES defending crybabies such as this author. Yo, jesusofjonesboro, are you happy that CD happily bans true progressives all the while keeping DLC hacks such as "Daniel David" on this site who keep begging us to support the "Democrat" FRAUDS?
Let's not forget that it was FDR and the Democrats who allowed Corporate America to ban hemp in the first place. The cons would have done it too but even in the 1930s, the American Left was in bed with Big Chemical especially Dupont, Big Oil, Big Cotton, Big Military, Big Pharma, Big Tobacco, Big Paper, etc ... Now let's look at the so-called "Left" today. Are they lifting a finger or even getting out of bed to fight for solutions such as hemp in Washington? NO. Instead, they're happy to keep giving Big Oil and Bush/Cheney more blank checks to find the desperate war-turned-occupation in Iraq operation for oil. Funny how Ron Paul is actually trying to help us all but CD can't fucking handle it ! Do not blame just the Bush/Cheney gang and the GOP. The Democrats are equally to blame and I won't be surprised to see Mccain blowing Obama down in as many as 50 STATES come November ! Then again, he'd blow Hillary down even more !
So, "Daniel David" and "jesusofjonesboro", will putting more "Democrats" in power help tear down the 71 year ban on hemp ?
Second attempt at posting second segment also vaporized as did my comment at the Obama Victory Thread.
EDIT: This got posted, but now aside from first segment all further comments are being "moderated."
So much for trying to enlighten and pass along important news on an avowed "progressive" website.
The are many benefits of hemp for a variety of uses and there is a conspiracy against hemp. However, neither hemp, biodiesel, ethanol nor anything else is going to allow us to continue our society's extremely high level of transportation energy consumption. If hemp were grown on every acre of available land it would only provide a small fraction of our existing transportation energy consumption. The hard truth is that we are going to have to travel much less far than we do now. We are going to have to make our cities more compact, travel less in individual motor vehicles and live our lives much closer to home.
hemp4victory, your intolerant, hyperbolic rhetoric has become more than tiresome. You may be trying to make a point but all you're doing is making everyone sick of seeing your ID.
The point of this article is very simple: we have alternatives to making ourselves increasingly dependent on and subservient to Middle East tyrannies. The fact that it doesn't push all of your buttons doesn't make it a bad article.
Please grow up or find another forum.
jj
Since the Constitution of the United States does not grant the federal govenment the power to prevent the growing of any crop, that right belongs to the states or the people.
Fine and all but what makes this article nothing more than a pile of bullshit is the left out facts:
1. For the past 71 years, America has overtaxed followed by an outright ban on Cannabis which includes hemp. What does hemp have to do with this oil mess? Plenty. You can put hemp to 26000+ industrial uses including fuel for your car. And unlike corn, it requires no petroleum, causes no global warming, can be grown in any climate, and does not deplete the soil.
2. Public transportation. For the past 28 years, both parties have caved in bigger time to Big Auto and Big Oil and have forced public transportation into decay. Now gee, I wonder why Al fucking Gore doesn't even bring this issue up for the fat pigshit he is? Instead of giving Amtrak more cuts, it would be better to improve affordability and accessibility to public buses and even trains so people won't be forced to depend on their cars to take them to work. Hint: If you live in a metro area, calculate the costs of driving vs. taking the train. 9 out of 10 times, you'll find out that unless you are a walkable distance to the metro, driving is "cheaper" even though you'll have to suffer the painfully heavy traffic as well as pushing the gas costs further up.
Let's all work on making public transportation more accessible and affordable to more people and let's focus on getting better mileage and using better biofuels and even bringing out solar/wind powered electric cars. There, problem solved and no need to beg the Saudi royal elites !