Marshall, if the subsidies ( a true capitalist for subsidies—what an odd creature)were for exploration in the Western Hemisphere ( which is so futile—we only have abou 2% of the worlds oil—by INDUSTRY estimates)then why do they need more. The industry itself admits that they have spent almost NOTHING on exploration or alternatives in the past decade. Theyre just racknig up profits while Bush is in office. I suppose you think that , having a dumbas oil man in office, invading an oil rich country (s), and pissig off Venezuela, are all just amazing coincidences.

sorry canning - failing to see your point about how nationalizing oil prevents global warming or resource wars…?  or the one about how food isn’t a resource?  tell that to the continent of Africa.  tons of industries get tax breaks… like subsidies given to food producers.  the $18 billion in tax breaks given to oil were for exploration in the western hemisphere - not just for being an oil company.  same breaks, btw, given to all manufacturing companies in america.  not that i’m supporting them - they should probably all go away.

also not sure at what gross profit level you propose penalizing an industry.  oil profit margins are actually pretty small - 9.5% compared to many other industries in the 25% range.  so it must not be the margin but the actual dollars in profit you object to.  fine.  remove exploration subsidies from oil only and we’ll see how our foreign oil dependency increases.

That’s whay it’s so significant that Palin voted No on measure 4 ( NYtimes “Battle for Bristol Bay”) she told Alaskans to vote against clean water, subsistence rights and wild Salmon which provide an economic sustainable yearly benifit worth
$450 million and instead voted on the side of mega international mining corporations Rio Tinto and Anglo American, and canadian mines New Dynasty and Pebble partnerships. This is the real issue about Palin andMcCain The clean water act and industry violaters.

Youre right , Marshall—everything is just going GREAT! under strict, unregulated capitalism. Everyone in the country (an , indeed the planet) is so happy for us. The neo-cons had 6 yrs. It was a total failure , in almost indescribable ways. Get over it. Youre right, and 90% of the planet is wrong. Now go get drunk or something. Oh, that’;s right—Halliburton relocated to Dubai.They are also, stil trading with Iran. Which I have no problem with. And, apparently , you dont either. $10 for a bottle of waterin the desert. Not enough bullets and they dont fit the guns. If a humvee breask down, you have to wait for Halliburton to come fix it—someitmes up to 10 hrs. under fire.As for it “being turned over to the govt”—I gues youre right—it already is. Bush and his treasonous cohorts. Dont blame the institution for the jerk-off temporarily holding the office, despite never really getting elected.

Oh, you didn’t get the talking points memo.  Cheney’s not a part of the government, at least not the executive branch when Congress seeks his records.

By KDelphi, September 8 at 7:16 pm #

“you’d rather hand it over to Cheney, Bush and cronies.”

they are the government afterall - i’d think you’d be happy!  There’s your nationalized oil!!!!

“Yourself? How invested are you in Halliburton, et al?”

none unfortunately.  Oh wait - they’re down since April ‘06 so i guess im glad!

but once again - gotta love the socialist left’s logic-defying solution of turning it all over to the very institution they continually decry as corrupt.  can you say mind-freak?

Check out the Palin wows em video.  Confirms precisely what AlaskaMaui is saying.  Curious though, Palin says our troops in Iraq are carrying out a mission from God.  George Bush is the one who ordered our troops to invade.  Does Sarah believe George was God’s messenger?  You know, like Moses?  Does she believe that we are in Iraq to hasten the rapture?

Now “that” is truly a scary thought.  Imagine such an individual having her bony fingers near the nuclear trigger!

Marshall wrote:

“just don’t think oil is any different than any other commodity (like wine or corn).

_____________________________

Hmmm!  When is the last time you heard about global warming as the result of the drinking of wine or eating corn?  (Beans maybe, they produce a lot of gas).  When is the last time two nations engaged in a resource war over wine or corn?

When is the last time you heard about a wine depletion allowance or a corn depletion allowance to match the huge tax breaks given to the oil cartel?

I don’t know about you, but I don’t seem to recall a winery reporting profits that would even be noticed by a giant like Exxon-Mobil.

So, Marshall, do you have any other bright thoughts you wish to share with us?  After months and months of your defense of the Bush regime’s every move, are you going to now change course, join with McCain/Palin in bashing the Bush regime while these pseudo “reformers” advance every single significant policy that Bush/Cheney have hit us with over the past eight years?

For that matter, Marshall, can you name even one significant policy in which Bush and McCain differ and why you contend there is a difference?

Yikes ! that’s why it’s so important we let people know we’re looking at a “groundhog day” repeat here with Palin’s fundamentalist conservative end of times rapture views.

Marshall—I understand. So, you’d rather hand it over to Cheney, Bush and cronies. Yourself? How invested are you in Halliburton, et al? Cause it’s be a great opportunity for someone w/out a conscience! The so0-called “free mkt” )LOL(that s funny after the day’s latest bail-out) has had it’sd “chance” with oil. It has failed in ways that are almost incomprehensible. Socialism for rich guys—“capitalism” for everyone else. You guys are so full of crap!

AlaskaMaui:  I can recall back in 2000 when we learned of the dismal record of the school system in Texas, another wealthy oil producing state.  Then the former Texas governor, who can barely string two sentences together without a faux pas, decided to leave no American child with a behind.

By Ron Ranft, September 6 at 3:03 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

“the old chestneu that somehow the oil companies are doing us a big favor by drilling for oil.”

You mean as opposed to “the people” drilling for it themselves?  Yeah - I suppose I’d rather let the oil companies do it.  As to nationalizing oil; no thanks; i prefer to hand as little as possible over to an unaccountable corrupt bureaucratic monopoly corporation with no profit motive called the govt.

“our representatives have continued to decrease the royalties the oil companies have to pay “

By Dennis Moss, September 5 at 7:23 pm #

Not promoting binary choice of state or federal; just don’t think oil is any different than any other commodity (like wine or corn), or service (like tourism).  Royalties are paid to the land owners - federal, state, or private.  Chips fall where they may.

point of this article was that Alaska RAISED drilling royalties

and those “enlightened” South American countries you reference are all such stand up examples.  love it!  great sense of humor!

Like so many Republicans, particularly fanatical American Taliban types, she’s both a liar and thief, all in God’s Name.

Just read an interesting Mayor of Wasilla story that involves Alaska’s “permanent fund earnings.” The story was written by well known Alaskan blogger Andrew Halcro. It takes place around 1999 when oil was $9 per barrel and Alaska was facing a one billion dollar budget gap.

At the time, Halcro was part of a group working on a long-range fiscal plan, which “ . . . would have used a small portion of permanent fund earnings to balance the budget while stabilizing the yearly dividend after a slight drop.” Alaskans were alerted by the group what would happen if the plan was not adopted. 

According to Halcro, Mayor Palin was opposed to the plan and “had joined a group formed to defeat the plan called “Just Say No.” Palin along with her group argued that government was too bloated and that it didn’t need more money. Cut government was the cry, hands off our dividend they screamed.

The plan failed on September 14, 1999 with 83% of the voters saying no. . . So what happened since the no vote? Everything [the group] predicted came true. Alaskans dividend crashed from $1,950 in 2000 to $845 last year, costing the average family of four thousands in lost dividends.

And with an unbalanced budget, harmful cuts were handed down through the longevity bonus program for seniors and municipal revenue sharing which raised local property taxes.”

http://www.andrewhalcro.com/knowles_palin_halcro_history_says_a_lot_about_leadership

Thank you AlaskaMaui for giving me more hard verifiable data to add to my dossier on Palin.  It is starting to get heavy.  However, I expected it to.  But I don’t think it will be a god that will, or can, help us.  Mainly because there are too many gods and wouldn’t know which one to pray to.  And besides they don’t really answer anyway, do they?  About politics?  We will be required to help ourselves.

Thanks to so many others on this forum too.  As already mention by cyrena, and including herself.  I will be able to sleep better… at least tonight!

And wildflower, you are a true gentlewoman (I assume) and scholar.

By Ron Ranft, September 6 at 3:03 pm and By AlaskaMaui, September 6 at 4:14 pm

Thanks for both of your posts. Very enlightening.
Ron, you’ll come to learn that Marshall isn’t quite on the socialist end of things. In this case, he thinks it’s perfectly reasonable for the Oil Cabal to HARVEST the resources without interruption from anyone else, as if the OIL in the earth is theirs to collect (for free, since God isn’t changing them for it) and then sell to the rest of us for a jillion times more than what it cost them to steal it out of the earth that theoretically belongs to ALL of us.
Then they have the audacity to make people like Hugo Chavez and other nationalists who DO make the resources available to the people look like the bad guys. Anybody who won’t let the US steal their natural resources (Mossedegh (back in the 50’s) Castro, Chavez more recently), finds themselves and their respective nation states isolated or worse. That’s why Saddam had to go. The guy was about to bust open those Iraqi Oil coffers really wide, and sell it all on the open market, dealing in Euro, not the USD. He knew what the hell was happening. It’s the same thing with Iran now, and has been for a couple of years at least. They won’t deal with their oil transactions in the USD. They’re dealing in Yen, and the Euro only when they have to.

But I got side-tracked. If you think about it, this isn’t even a surprise or new from the Marshall’s of the world. They honestly do believe, with all of their hearts, that only a certain element of them, (the ‘elite’) have some sort of divine license to control all of the wealth in the world, at the expense of the majority. So he actually believes his own fantasy in suggesting that these robber barons are somehow doing us a favor by stealing our own stuff, and selling it back to us.

Palin claims executive experience and McCain claims she is a “reformer” however with all of the Alaska windfall oil monies Palin as Gov failed to spend that money on Alaska’s dismal education problem.  Alaska ranks 44th in National High School graduation rates with only 64% graduating, 4th from last as the smartest state ( McCain’s Arizona is dead last)and having only 23%of it’s High School graduates college ready. Instead of reforming education, as she campaigned for in 2006, she gave $1,200 checks to Alaska residents.  Quiet money? Residents tell me she attempted to ban certain books at the Wasilla library and fired the librarian for not co-operating. Campaigned for creationism to be taught in Alaska schools and came out against sex and contraception education in favor of “abstnence only” programs.  Worst of all August 20, 2008 she publically announced, as Alaska’s Governor, and supported voting no on Iniative 4, a clean water issue to protect salmon waters from mining pollution thus cementing her alliance with the biggest foreign mining corporations in the world who spent over $10 million lobbying to eventually defeat the measure. NYT ran a great story August 23 ” The Battle for Bristol Bay” Palin and McCain are more of the same Bush administration. God help us all.

Re: Shenonymous - On Palin and Wind Fall Profits

I’ve been pondering our mini-discussion on Palin and windfall profits. I finally decided to put it through a little values-o-meter that I recently purchased at Home Depot.  Well, Shenonymous you will be pleased to know your title was the most compatible.  My titles for Palin were rejected due to insufficient ethics on the part of the candidate - something about deceiving voters, hypocrisy, wasteful spending habits, unauthorized claims about oil pipelines and God’s will, and no present or future thoughts of repentance for any of the above mentioned sins.

The McCain campaign said it won’t make Ms. Palin available to the press.  If you follow the link below of the remarks by long-time Wasilla resident, Anne Kilkenney, you will see why.  Here’s an excerpt.

Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000 (at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about 670,000 residents.

During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign.

Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a “fiscal conservative”. During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.

The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren’t enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn’t even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later.

She’s not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren’t generated by her or her staff. Ideas weren’t evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of who proposed them..

http://webpages.charter.net/suasponte/

Q - “Just wondering if anything GOOD about America ever appears on this website. “

A - Democracy, Truth

(not enough for you?)

Allan, you must be rich and not care about anyone but yourself, right? Ok. I see.

Better watch that hole in your cheek Dr.Dr., but I do like your humor!  If McInsane works for me, then maybe he can maybe he could bring my neighbor’s son killed in Iraq back to life, or at least stop the war so her other son over there doesn’t get killed, maybe he could significantly reverse the unemployment rate, maybe he can bring down the price of groceries that went up about 20%, maybe he can pass a universal health care bill, maybe he can rebuild the decimated American treasury, maybe he can save the polar bear, maybe he can get those windmills going in California, maybe he can catch bin Laden (oh that last one was just a joke), and I’m waiting for my anthracite coal payment from PA having lived there the first third of my life too!  Where do we go to collect it?  And if anybody has the big bucks, my vote is for sale too!

Did you mean Mackenbach, Mr. Allan Scheer?

Few people seem aware of it, but Alaska is the most subsidiZed, unnecessary “welfare-state” (not trying to hate on actual poor people here—I knwo they are the flavor of the month—get over it)in teh US! That is how, despite what m ost of the people really want, it remains a conservative stronghold.As for Alaska ceceeding form the Union—-we prob coulndt stop them. We could offer haven. I wish Vermont would go ahead and ceceede! I used to live in NH—to conservative. But Vermont is not.Sen. Bernie Sanders for president!!

September 4, 2008

Meet the Senator Most Likely to Start a Nuclear War
The Real McCain

By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR

“It’s November 19, 2004, a mere two weeks after the election that returned George W. Bush to power, and Senator John McCain has traipsed off to New Hampshire to give a speech calling for 50,000 more troops to be sent into the quagmire of Iraq, press flesh and raise money for an expected run at the presidency in 2008. John Sununu, former New Hampshire governor and Bush family consigliere, wryly quipped about McCain’s junket to the Granite State, “What took him so long?”

The press corps, already bored with Bush and election post-mortems, tags along. McCain’s the darling of the moment, the opinion press’s favorite senator, a media-made maverick, who was sedulously courted by both John Kerry and George Bush. McCain, true to form, flirted with them both and sniped at them both, but in the end remained wedded to the GOP, even as the party fell further under the sway of neo-cons and Christian fundamentalists that McCain publicly claims to abhor.

But that’s all part of the McCain profile. He is the senator of the hollow protest. McCain is nothing if not a political stunt man. His chief stunt is the evocation of political piety. From his pulpit in the well of the senate, McCain gestures and fumes about the evils of Pentagon porkbarrel. He rails about useless and expensive weapons systems, contractor malfeasance, and bloated R&B;budgets.

But he does nothing about them. McCain pontificates, but never obstructs. Few senators have his political capital. But he does nothing with it. Under the arcane rules of the senate, one senator can gum up the works, derail a bad (or good, though those are increasingly rare in this environment) bill, dislodge non-germane riders, usually loaded with pork, from big appropriations bills. McCain is never that senator. He is content to let ride that which he claims to detest in press releases and senate speeches.

A recent example. In late October, McCain went on 60 Minutes to decry a footnote in the Defense Appropriations Bill of 2004 that transferred billions of dollars from so-called Operations and Maintenance accounts for US troops in Iraq to porkbarrel projects, such as gold mines and museums, in the states of powerful senators. In his stern voice before the cameras, McCain made congressional looting sound like a treasonable offense. But what he failed to disclose is the fact that he actually voted for the bill. Not only that, he was personally approached by each senator who wanted just such a transfer of funds and gave it his seal of approval.

McCain the Maverick is a merely a fine-honed act, underscored by these kinds of casual hypocrisies.”

http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair09042008.html

I’m still waiting for my PA anthracite coal payment for the many, many years I lived there.

Also, my regard for George Bush is the same after his forcing congress to give me $1200 as it was before. 

Some people can be bought for $3200.  My price might be closer to, maybe, 5 or 6K, but I don’t really know for sure. 

This I do know for sure.  100K will make an impact.
That’s it.  A hundred K.  Make mine a hundred K.
A hundred K and I’ll love you, say your name lots and even vote for you. 

Of course, if you need me again, another 100K.

BTW, McCain “doesn’t work for a party, doesn’t work for Washington, he works for YOU!!!”  Whatta guy!

OK Dennis, I’ve relaxed. Indeed you do seem to be closer to my sensitivities that I apparently perceived. In fact, based on the above portion of your post, you’ve hit them (my sensitivities) dead on. More than a few of my own colleagues are already obsessed with the scarcity of water, believing that ‘point’ to be much closer than many folks appear to realize. And yes, in many places it has already provoked similar political struggles. In fact, it’s long been a component of the political conflicts in the Middle East, where certain entities wish to control all of the water, and all of the land, and all of the sea, and all of the fish in the sea.

And yes, it scares the bejesus out of me, because water happens to be (even more than oil, since we did manage to exist without the oil for quite a long time) far more basic to the survival of us all.

And I’m definitely with you on the over population of the earth being the reason for these conflicts. But then, even the evil doers seem to agree with that. They just don’t believe in responsible reproduction efforts. For them, it’s much easier to wipe out entire sections of humanity, in a survival of the strongest (or survival or the ones with the biggest guns) mentality. And of course those selected for wiping out just happen to be those who are in the way of, or in possession of the resources that they feel it is their imperial right to have.

I saw all I needed to know about this woman when the NY Times revealed that upon her election as mayor she promptly fired every city employee who had appeared in her opponent’s ad.  She then fired the town librarian because the librarian resisted her book banning suggestion, only to back off under public pressure.

She is as capable of lying with a straight face about her position on the bridge to nowhere and being the scourge of Congressional earmarks as Dick Cheney was capable of lying about links between Saddam and al Qaeda.  In fact, I think this vindictive ideologue is best thought of as Dick Cheney in a skirt.

“No way.  No how.  No McCain!”

The fact that oil drilling uses natural resources is a rather ridiculous and circular argument for increasing oil industry taxation.  It’s not the oil company’s fault that they have to drill, or that the country uses oil.  They provide a product and we buy it.  Singling them out for special taxation because we don’t like the product we keep buying from them makes no sense now does it?

So the comparison to Florida’s tourism income, or Nevada’s gambling income (another state with no income tax), or any other state’s local income is perfectly fine.  And no state should be forced to share its income with the nation, unless you’re a federalist democrat who believes the fed. govt. should run the states which pretty much negates the point of the states to begin with.

PAUL LEO FASO, “Almost interesting article but misses the point of the future.”

How far into the future are we talking?  Tata is a step in the right direction but completely solar powered autos are the only real green solution. Air compression still requires plugging car in to electricity.  Electricity must be created from several sources of which one is coal.  Coal consumption ought to be stopped for the production of electricity.  Since steel needs coal to change iron into steel, and steel is the metal that is needed most, then coal ought to be reserved for that industry only. But where I came from they learned to wash the bituminous coal (soft coal) which significantly cut down on the soot and smog that is not created as much with anthracite coal (hard coal).  But most of the coal mined is of the soft kind.

“The American people have been lied to, deceived by their leaders and placed on a war footing to keep the oil flowing while they have systematically destroyed any new technology from displacing oil.” Seems like well-known claims, probably factual, but generally stated.  What do you propose to do about it. 

Bull crap.  Science needs to be kept out of the discussion and it is not squandering when for the sake of important new technologies that emerge from all the space exploration programs.

You seem to be saying a lot of truth, though the googling gets a bit tiresome.  Please provide the sites’ addresses.  They are your facts.  You maybe right about where the conversation ought to go, but maybe not on this forum.

No one is arguing that the tourist industry isn’t huge, anywhere, Farenheit 451.  I certainly am not.  I’m saying that tourists don’t take resources out of the ground. And if I am dismissive it is because I am an arrogant and insolent bitch.  And you can’t read.  Or if you can, you don’t understand the content of what you are reading very well. If tourists are negatively impacting your country, then I’d say your country has a terrible control of tourists policy and if they do, then they have a terrible enforcement policy.  You might think of changing the ruling class of your country.

PAUL LEO FASO, September 4 at 6:42 am

Thank you Paul Leo Faso!!!

I am so sick of this God’s Will crap in politics! I am on a mission from God to tell all of you lunkheads to keep your goddamn religion out of the government!

No wonder she wants to drill in the Reserve!

What do you call a hocky - puck with lipstick.  A Palin.

The GOP has one thing right and that is to expand the use of nuclear and coal energy.  The technology is there to use coal environmentally safe.  As for nuclear——just look at France.  The fallacy behind finding more oil off the US coast, Alaska, etc is that even with locating huge deposits it will have very little impact on the cost——locating and bringing future oil to market will eat up any cost savings at least the accountants will make sure of that!  I’m afraid high energy costs are here to stay taking a larger chunk of one’s income.  It happened with housing costs and now its energy’s turn!

And of course, it is all about the money. Damn the environment. A short term disaster in the making but in the long run a whole heap of crooks are going to look really stupid. Except that won’t matter much to a lot of people as they will be disappeared.
Hopefully this new life for the republicans is the feel good part of their love fest. And the ‘Country First’ floor logo in the accompanying picture is pure orwellian speakese. The bank accounts, most off shore, are what is first.
The biggest danger here is that the msm is giving palin attributes unearned and a very distorted greed for a good politican to have. This woman will be the female version of dick until ole johnny keels over clutching his chest and then she can rule the roost and get her revenge on all that called out her inadequacies.

Shenonymous, September 4 at 4:24 am
Your dismissive style is insulting and lacking in thought.  Tourism is hugely impacting on the 3rd world countries that court it.  Not to mention the huge expense of the fuel required to go from A to Z.  I’m surprised at your response; you have always struck me as intelligent, but your response is not.  I live in a country that is a major tourist destination and the negative impact is huge.

That is a kind of Alice in Wonderland question, Farenheit 451, the polemic of whether tourists take resources out of the earth is a kind of moot and uselss question really and compared to miners, oil drillers, loggers, etc. there is no comparison.  Unless you are one of those tourists who consistently steal petrified rocks from the National parks.

Shenonymous, September 3 at 9:46 am
“Tourism is not taking a natural resource out of the earth.”
Huh?  Are you sure?

This group had better start focusing on Palin the VP candidate instead of Palin the bringer of oil dollars to Alasska.  That been so examined and the crap exposed that it is now a waste of “energy” to let it deflect from the real problems at hand.  Of course she got the hall of Republicans aroused since they have been half dead since GWB took office.  They are so embarrassed by their president and their party of the last eight years that they will hoot and holler at almost anything, notice how she distanced herself from the Washington elite (she means the Bush thugs?)  That must have made the Bush crowd ecstatic.  Does this woman even have an ejumacshun?

I’m curious to know if Mr. Scheer’s figure of $3200. as the yearly payout to Alaskan citizens from the oil companies is accurate. The sources I’ve searched state that the payout is only $1200 per citizen. Anyone know Mr. Scheer’s sources?

Re: Terry Shannon

There are a number of other articles about Alaska’s Windfall. This one is in the Seattle Times -  “Windfall tax lets Alaska rake in billions from Big Oil” - and the total amount is about 3,200:

“. . . At a time when Americans are feeling the pinch at the gasoline pump and oil companies are racking up record profits, Alaska’s choice foreshadows one of the sharpest debates in the upcoming presidential election.

Democrat Barack Obama supports a national windfall-profits tax, while Republican John McCain opposes it.

Alaska collected an estimated $6 billion from the new tax during the fiscal year that ended June 30, according to the Alaska Oil and Gas Association. That helped push the state’s total oil revenue — from new and existing taxes, as well as royalties — to more than $10 billion, double the amount received last year.

. . . Some of that new cash will end up in the wallets of Alaska’s residents.
Palin’s administration last week gained legislative approval for a special $1,200 payment to every Alaskan to help cope with gas prices, which are among the highest in the country.

That check will come on top of the annual dividend of about $2,000 that each resident could receive this year from an oil-wealth savings account.”

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008103325_alaskatax07.html

By Dennis Moss, September 3 at 6:01 pm

“Being from a great lakes state , I can’t hardly wait till we sell our fresh water to all those in need of a drink. The state Can then give me a dividend..”

~~~~

This is too funny. You say you can’t hardly wait eh Dennis? Well, Nestle Corporation has been bottling your Great Lakes Water for at least a decade, (probably longer) and selling it to the rest of us. What? You mean they haven’t paid you your ‘dividends’ yet?

You all just don’t get it, do ya? The repiglicans have been raping, pillaging, and robbing you, (apparently BLIND) for decades. Do you think the people of Texas see any proceeds from all of that oil that is pumped out of the ground? Nope, only the people of Halliburton, Exxon-Mobile, Harken (GW old company that he bankrupted) and all of the other oil giants that help themselves to what is FREE in the ground or the waters of the Gulf Coast, and then sell it back to us at 5 million percent profits. Why do you think Texas doesn’t have a state income tax?

Let me give you a hint. It’s so the OIL INDUSTRY (headquartered in TexASS) doesn’t pay anything on their enormous incomes via capital theft of those natural resources.

Same thing as Repiglican Alaska…

BobZ:  I wholeheartedly concur with your assessment.  Recall that earlier today, the NY Times revealed that when she was elected Mayor of Wasilla, she promptly fired every employee who had appeared in her opponent’s ad.  What we saw today was a speech dripping with sarcasm, laced with duplicity, such as the repetition of her opposition to the bridge to nowhere when in truth she was one of its original proponents and Wasilla experienced a massive increase in Congressional earmarks.  This drill-until-the-planet-burns nut job is indeed dangerous.  She is also mean, nasty and dishonest.

To all those who suggest that Biden must go easy on her in a debate, I say that’s sexist rubbish.  He must show her no quarter and forcefully expose her as the inexperienced neophyte ideologue that she is.  I have no doubt that, once away from the teleprompter, and once exposed to the fact-based world she so despises, she will unravel.

An ad or two from the Obama campaign might help as well.

Sarah Palin’s speech was plain awful and she sound like Lina Lamont. But you would never know that by the comments from MSNBC and CNN. They thought she was great. I’m beginning to wonder about the competency of these commentators. Just from the comments on other blog sites it is apparent she did a paint-by-the-numbers speech.  She had this horrible sing-song speech pattern. She needs a speech coach immediately.  The Republican’s are so awful it is unbelievable how they win any elections. And it looks like the white people party. Don’t they have any people of color in their party?

Catching Sarah Palin in her own lies:

Notice that she said she started a $40 billion project?

Notice that Alaska has about 650,000 people?  That’s over $61,000 PER PERSON.

Tell me, did Sarah Palin and her husband pay $420,000 in taxes to pay for this project?  That’s HER share of the $40 billion!

Or is that money coming from the REST of us, who subsidize Sarah Palin and the state of Alaska.

Robert,

One of your best articles ever. Most of us are not knowledgeable about the Alaska economy and how the politics really work up there. I don’t quite understand how Alaskan’s get all of this money, when other oil producing states such as Texas, Oaklahoma, and California don’t, nor do understand why Alaska should be subsidized by the lower 48. It looks like California is getting screwed and we have a Republican governor. Governor Palin seems to operate just like those Washington insiders she decries. I have sent the link to this article to many of my friends and I don’t often do that. It’s important to get the word out about what is really going on in Alaska. Sounds like they have a great gravy train.

No wonder that most Alaskans support drilling in ANWAR. Like accomplished liars they all try to feed me the mantra that “it is good for the country.” How insulting.
I am a male. If I were a female I would be insulted by the hoopla surrounding Palin. When Biden was picked he was hailed as this “experienced guy.” When Palin is picked she is hailed as “this fresh face of an outsider.” How insulting that a woman is promoted with the thinnest of curriculum vitae.
I am in the category of independent voters and I will not bite.

Re: Voice of Truth

I don’t believe you’re trying very hard to understand Scheer’s point, but let me point you in the right direction:

“McCain derided Obama’s call for the windfall profits tax, saying it would “increase our dependence on foreign oil and hinder exactly the same kind of domestic exploration and production we need.” I am far more interested in how McCain handles the contradiction between his and Palin’s position on windfall oil profits than whether he properly vetted her on her family-values commitment to the abstinence-only teenage sex education program.

Why is it a good thing for the folks up in Alaska to get a cut of exorbitant oil company profits, but not the rest of us, if we are all part of one nation? Didn’t taxpayers from across the U.S. buy the place from the Russians? Isn’t it our federally collected tax dollars that have been subsidizing Alaska more lavishly than any other state, both before and after the bonanza of oil?”

Ah werks f’da gubbamint.

My point is, what is the point of this article.  It makes no sense.  Because Alaska has oil wealth, its citizens are somehow insidious?  I don’t know, I’m trying to read through Scheer’s screechings and I still can’t tell what the issue is.  It certainly is not about hypocrisy.

Every mayor and governor and city council in the country puts in a wish list when the Federal government is handing out our money.  Crap, look at all the stuff named after Klansman Robert Byrd in West Virginia.  For lack of a better phrase, that is their job at the state and local level (not at the Fed level, but whatever).

I fail to see anything that hints at hypocrisy in this rant.

Well, you made me laugh anyway.

Do you work for the government school system or private?

How silly rowman, of course it is spelled T E X A S S!

Re: Shenonymous, September 3 at 9:46 am #

“I know because I am a teacher.”

Clearly, a very poor one that can’t spell T-e-x-a-s.

VoT, what’s your point? I don’t think the article is about a case for or against Windfall Profits or Federal Subsidies. The article is about hypocrisy of Palin and her posturing while doing exactly the opposite.

By the way, I’ve lived in Florida all my life. We have gas taxes here, yeah. They aren’t that high, though. California is far greater than our gas taxes. In fact, our gasoline prices are often below the national average in the last two years. Even during hurricane season.

voice

This is an argument that will go nowhere.  There really is not a comparison since people visiting Florida (touristes) usury taxes are not the same thing as getting subsidies for oil extraction.  Your “rather than” question seems irrelevant and a deflection.  Whether schools need more teachers or teachers’ aides than principles, assistant principles or aides for school board members (which I don’t know any school district that has that last one!) is moot because it will depend on the need.  Our school district is not top heavy and classes are not overloaded. 

Tourism as a natural resource, well maybe a slim argument could be made, but as I mentioned, Alaska has its tourist trade as well. Maybe they don’t have decent beaches since oil tankers ruin it from time to time.  They bank a lot on native American wares and culture.  And the wilderness.

She

I’m simply making a point.  Every state gets its money one way or the other.  I lived in Florida for awhile, and the property taxes are much higher to compensate, as are the gas taxes as well.  And you’re right, other states do not have income tax, including Tennessee and New Hampshire (that I remember).  My point is, states will get their money.  Where do you want it to come from?  It can’t all come from “the rich”.

Also, as a teacher, would you rather have more teachers and teacher’s aides than another assistant principal, or 4 aides for every school board member?  Just asking.

Finally, I would argue that Florida tourism is a natural resource, i.e., the beaches, etc.  It is precisely that reason that there are huge tracts of oil deposits that are off-limits, so as not to raise the specter of spoiling a beach in Florida.  As a nation, one could make the argument that the Floridians are living off the rest of the country through ridiculous gas and hotel taxes, while hoarding their natural resource.

You seem to be croaking a bit voice of truth.  School districts receive money for schools from state and federal taxes.  I know because I am a teacher.  If a state does not have income tax, there are other taxes, property tax that goes in to the school districts.  Other states do not have income tax, like Texass. Money for the schools come from federal funding and property taxes.  But Texass has to share one of its citizens with the country (it’s AH president) should the rest of the country have to suffer that? California already shares extra electric energy via the energy grids.  Tourism is not taking a natural resource out of the earth.  The Florida argument is not quite the same thing.  Alaska has its tourist income too.

or this?

Biden Tied to Rezko Fraud Figure

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/MoneyTrail/story?id=5649093&page=1

I heard Bidens son and brother are being indicted on fraud charges. Is it because of this?

Obama, Biden’s Son Linked by Earmarks

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/26/AR2008082603894.html

Give me a break.  Are you people really this stupid / hateful / naive?

Alaska has been getting this windfall since the early 70’s.  That is almost 40 years.  Should Florida, which also doesn’t have a state income tax, share its wealth of tourism $$ with other states?

I am “sorry” to hear about states that have to cut back on teachers.  Really?  What state hires a teacher?  It is local municipalities that do that.  Maybe they should simply change their administration to teacher ratios from 60/40 to 40/60, at least.

Please, your two-year old rants are so stale.

This is surreal. I cannot even believe where we are right now.

I am starting to think that perhaps the last 8 years has just been one giant Chinese reality show called “U.S. Democracy - BAH!”

And the last 2 weeks has been “sweeps week”.

We’ll know we’re cancelled when China cashes in all of Bush’s IOUs.

Well wildflower, some say the virgin wasn’t really a virgin, but was an unmarried ... so Slut of the Windfall Profits still works for me.

This is very much in keeping with standard republican operating proceedures: Do as we say, not as we do.
What ought to concern us more is that her religious beliefs seem to have been lifted from the Spanish Inquisition and that her understanding of constitutional war powers is even older than that and a bit fuzzy.  She thinks that the president should declare war and that he should do so only after consultaions with God so that war is always undertaken in God’s will.  Isn’t this the way they thought in the 13th century during the crusades?

Don’t be too pessimistic G.Anderson.  There is always the riffraff that will come in to save the day!  Even though our brains are built with a belief-generating machine, a plasma-like engine that produces beliefs with little relation to reality, not based on any evidence that can be examined, but come from the “authorities” we have had from infancy onward, politics are not mystical. The two party political system works, it just doesn’t work for all sides.  Political positions have to be defended just as the pisspot in the caves had to be and that takes not physical muscle power but mental muscle power and physical energy to get off fat, or skinny, asses and do some precinct work.  This country will not disintegrate.  That is an irrational paranoia as much as is a belief in a supernatural being that will save the human race.  Humans and only humans will save the world.

Re: Shenonymous

I dunno . . . Palin claims that oil and oil pipelines are all part of God’s will . . . maybe it would be safer if we all addressed her as Hail, Mary of Windfall Profits.

All this is more evidence to me that America’s days are coming to a close.

Evidence that our political system is now so corupt and full of graft and political payouts, that there will be nothing to stop the disintegration of our country.

Could we go with Slut of Windfall Profits?

Shall we call her the Queen of Windfall Profits or First Lady of Windfall Profits?

If these clowns are “elected,” we might as well forget about renewable energy in this country.

So while WE ALL pay to support these Resource Poachers called the Oil Incs, with Tax credits, loans and subsidies, AK get the kick backs…Nice.
I know there is a group up there pushing for Sucession, but it hasn’t happened Yet.So their profit checks should be all OUR Profit checks!
Actually to end this problem, WE should kick these Oil Poachers Off our Lands, back on to property they actually Own and We (U.S.) Become Energy Producers and distributors. These OIL Incs and their Foreign Oil ‘Royals’ can compete against US as Energy Providers on the World Market.WE keep what we Need and sell the rest. Not beholden to any other country or Corp entity- A new Declaration of Independence- ENERGY INDEPENDENCE that is!
AK, Gulf states have Oil, KY & the Appies have Coal,Coasts & Great Lakes have Hydro, Midwest Wind,
South solar.And ofcourse the Natural gas stash. And Not to mention Nuclear which can be located in any area around the country.Not a supporter of Oil,Natural Gas, Coal or Nuclear, but until we get up & running they are worth the temporary use.
We’ve had the Technology for Decades, it’s just the Corps who can’t make a Huge Profit or price guage have blocked them.Make Solar panels cheap, put on every house..that would cause them to use less heating oil!
come On Our Founders Bucked the oppressive control over US by monarchies, we need to do the same for these Energy Monarchies!

Robert Sheer makes some important points.  But when has contradiction ever driven national parity in self-serving politics?  The complaint is that Alaska reaped millions in benefits that already has a wealthy base from the efforts of an indicted politician and continues to in federally subsidized oil dollars in stark comparison to other more heavily populated states.  Sheer calls for egalitarian economics, but come on now, is that really fair?  Excuse my hyperbole.