Iraq's Oil

Not everything's going bad for the Bush cartel in Iraq. While the neo-con brain trust supplied the ideological fuel for the invasion, the real honchos in the conservative coalition have taken over a more important chore -- collecting the money.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - ConocoPhillips (COP), the No. 3 U.S. oil company, on Wednesday reported quarterly profit surged 89 percent, surpassing Wall Street forecasts, driven by record oil prices and sharply higher refining margins.

ConocoPhillips, like other major oil companies, has reaped a windfall from soaring crude oil prices -- which touched a record $70 a barrel in the quarter -- and better refining margins, as powerful hurricanes blew through the Gulf of Mexico, severely disrupting energy operations.

The Houston company's net profit in the third quarter rose to $3.8 billion, or $2.68 a share, compared with $2.01 billion, or $1.43 a share, a year earlier.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp. on Thursday posted a quarterly profit of $9.9 billion, the largest in U.S. corporate history, as it raked in a bonanza from soaring oil and gas prices...
...The world's largest publicly traded oil company said net income jumped to $9.92 billion, or $1.58 a share, from $5.68 billion, or 88 cents a share, a year earlier.

In other words, while the price of gas soared so did oil company profits. Those profits have nothing to do with Iraq, you say? Read Greg Palast's investigative report detailing how OPEC and Big Oil have benefited from the U.S. takeover of Iraqi oil.

The bottom line is that more oil reserves in the hands of fewer people means higher prices. Without a president willing to put a stop to the inevitable price gouging, OPEC and Big Oil reap exhorbitant profits while American citizens pay the tab -- both in taxes and at the pump.

Christian Priorities

What exactly is a Christian?

I've been Baptized twice, once as a child and once as a young adult. I've read the Gospels several times in different translations. I admire and agree with Jesus' philosophy. I believe we are all children of God and should treat each other as such.

I do not believe Jesus was born of a virgin or resurrected from his tomb, or that simply believing such qualifies me for entry into an afterlife and absolves me of all my sins. That, I believe, is where religion veers into the realm of delusion and self-indulgence. Whatever the opinion of others, I have a right to mine.

The finality of death and the burden of sin frighten us all. That belief can alleviate such fear is not necessarily a bad thing, but belief carries its own burdens. Treating others as we would be treated ourselves is the foremost of those burdens. According to Jesus, that ranks second only to loving God.

That Jesus' message was above all a call for tolerance is not merely my opinion, it reverberates over and over in his parables. “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone.”

The burden of belief in Jesus, in my opinion, is to live by his message, not to use one's belief as a weapon, especially in areas that have nothing to do with or that even contradict his teachings.

"For if you give, you will get! Your gift will return to you in full and overflowing measure, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, and running over. Whatever measure you use to give- large or small- will be used to measure what is given back to you." (Luke 6:38)(New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989)

"When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind." (Luke 14:12-13)

"No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money." (Luke 16:13)

Now contrast these quotes with the first two items on the Christian Coalition's agenda:

(1) Passing President Bush's Social Security reform (with personal accounts)
(2) Making permanent President Bush’s 2001 federal tax cuts

Recommended reading for those considering membership in the Christian Coalition: Mathew, Mark, Luke and John.

Morality vs Treason

Just when it appeared Republicans had hit a new low, they managed to dig themselves deeper. The talking heads were wielding the shovels on the Sunday talk shows, spinning the outing of an undercover CIA agent as just politics as usual and the resulting investigation as partisan nit-picking.

This from the party that investigated a sitting president for seven years based on rumors they themselves created, then ended up prosecuting his sex life. Then, of course, it wasn't the sex but lying about it that aroused their sensitivities and gave them an excuse for an impeachment hearing. Morality, you know.

Let's see, lying about sex versus seeking revenge on a man who exposed a lie that led to thousands of deaths, revenge which violated some vague -- well, okay, then -- some very specific law having to do with treason.

Surely sane Republicans, assuming some still exist, can appreciate the hypocrisy. But the talking heads weren't appealing to sanity. Desperation has driven them to rousing the fanatics who will believe anything they're told in the name of moral leadership. Treason is such a small thing in the face of God's Will.

After all, Bush's War may have killed tens of thousands of living, breathing humans, but in the meantime, by God, he's saved thousands of stem cells.

If you believe that's a fair trade, vote Republican.

Portrait of Greed

Unless you're a player in the oil 'bidness', you probably don't know who Lee Raymond is. Last year he made $38 million, and you paid some of his salary whether you wanted to or not.

You have heard of his company, Exxon Mobil. Last year Exxon profited from the oil crunch to the tune of $25.3 billion, and threatens to beat that record this year with profits of $15 billion through the first six months. Even if you don't buy gas at their stations, that income is a drop in their very large bucket anyway. Exxon oil and natural gas production and sales, refining and chemical businesses take much more money from all our pockets -- and from the 200 other countries in which Exxon operates.

Under Raymond, Exxon has been one of the most successful, efficient and ruthless business operations in history. How ruthless? Between 1998 and 2004, Exxon gave more than $15 million to corporations whose mission was to counter efforts to regulate global warming. Most of these corporations are members of the Cooler Heads Coalition, formed in 1997 “to dispel the myths of global warming by exposing flawed economic, scientific, and risk analysis.” The Coalition includes such bastions of science as The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition, which was formed in the early 90's by Phillip Morris to subvert the link between second-hand smoke and cancer. TAASC's executive director, a former tobacco lobbyist, now devotes his efforts to the virulent http://www.junkscience.com/ , a site that itself is the epitome of junk science. Greenpeace has identified about 40 other ExxonMobil-funded organizations that either have sought to undermine mainstream scientific findings on global warming or have affiliated with a small group of climate “naysayers” who continue to do so.

Exxon under Raymond, unlike many of its competitors, has not ventured into alternative energy research and development. Despite record profits, Exxon has not invested anything in renewable energy to ease America's oil dependency. Global corporations have only nominal loyalty to their home country.

More on Exxon's efforts to forestall action on global warming and other chicanery can be found at http://www.exxonsecrets.org/ and http://www.sierraclub.org/exxposeexxon/.

Lee Raymond downplayed the investment in propaganda by saying, "you don't have to spend a lot of money to aggravate the proponents." Now why would the head of the largest and most successful oil company in the world want to aggravate the proponents of actively combating global warming? There's only one possible reason, the reason that robber barons of old would understand and endorse. Greed. Raymond is a throwback to those ruthless men of the past, devoted to nothing more than the success of his company at any cost.

The good news is that Raymond is retiring at the end of this year. The bad news is that his successor is cut of the same cloth. According to this article in the Washington Post, "Analysts said they expect no significant change in the company's direction."

The Sierra Club has a petition on their site urging Exxon to change their direction. Public pressure from environmentalists has never deterred them before, but pressure from millions of consumers might have some affect. Let's face it, Georgie sure ain't gonna slap the hand that feeds him.

If nothing else we can spread the word and shed some light under Exxon's rock.

Changing Tactics

The public grew cynical about color-coded terror alerts that invariably coincided with a presidential popularity crisis or a looming scandal. Though FEAR is a time-honored tactic of the unscrupulous, Georgie's homeboys cried Wolf! (or Orange!) a few times too often. You know the ploy has worn thin when Jay and Dave are poking fun.

Unfortunately, things haven't been going well. While scandals spread like coffee stains on a white T-shirt, Georgie's popularity hovers slightly above hurricanes and genital herpes.

So what is a strategist to do? A diversion, obviously, but how to avoid adding to the growing cynicism?

Hey, how about enlisting an ambitious mayor of an already paranoid city, having him (over)react to a terror threat that the official agencies actually downplay!

There ya go! You get the diversion PLUS the fear without federal culpability to feed the cynics! (Well, except for a few, obviously.)

As they say in the Guinness commercials -- Brilliant! BRILLIANT!

Too devious to be true? Or just a variation on a theme?

The real question is why should we have to be so suspicious to begin with.

Defining the Enemy

Bush: Radicals Seek to Intimidate World

Oct 6, 12:14 PM (ET)

By TOM RAUM
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush, trying to reverse a slide in public support for the war in Iraq, said Thursday that Islamic radicals are seeking to "enslave whole nations and intimidate the world," and called that a prime reason not to cut and run in Iraq...

..."We are facing a radical ideology with immeasurable objectives to enslave whole nations and intimidate the world," Bush said.
more...

I'm in Shock and Awe.

_________

(edit:)At Oct 6, 5:30 PM (ET), the headline now reads: Bush: Militants Seek to Establish Empire. The story has been expanded to include some foreshadowing about the future of Iran and Syria.

Asked about the president's singling out of Iran and Syria as "allies of convenience," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said, "They continue to move in the wrong direction."

Sounds like the strategy outlined in The New American Century isn't dead after all.

This supports my theory that the current mess in Iraq, rather than the result of total bungling, is part of the plan. Those sixteen permanent bases built in Iraq are obviously there for the long-term.

It's always a mistake to underestimate the empire-builders among us, which makes the new headline even more ironic.

Another Bush Crony

The first question I would ask Harriet Miers is if she ever roomed with anyone in the Bush administration.

In college, of course.