Centerblue.org

If ever there was an event that showcased the complete and utter failure of anything Bush touches, it is the pinnacle of failure represented by the coup in Gaza last week.

For those unaware, the radical Hamas Palestinian faction kicked out their more moderate Fatah governing brethren out of Gaza and essentially set themselves up as a rogue state and a haven for terrorism on the borders of Egypt and Israel. That’s the last thing that Israel needs, and essentially destroys any possibility of a peaceful resolution of the Palestinian statehood issue–since the Palestinians are now split between the radical Gaza and the moderate West Bank.

How did this come about? Because Bush, in his utter stupidity and hubris, felt it necessary to declare a new pax americana by insisting that the middle east had to become a “bastion of democracy.” We already know the disaster that awaited that policy in Iraq.

As far as the Palestinians are concerned, Bush insisted that the Palestinians hold free elections a couple of years ago, convinced in his delusions that they would elect a George Washington that would lead the Palestinians to a new land of the free. Imagine how they were shocked–shocked!–when the Palestinians instead elected Hamas to power in Parliament, putting them at odds with the rival Fatah ruling faction represented by Abbas. “Nobody saw it coming,” whined Condoleezza Rice.

They didn’t see it coming because they have ideological blinders on their eyes. When you attempt to impose democracy on a society that has not asked for it, on a culture that lacks a thriving middle class yearning for it, in an environment without consistent justice or enforcement of the peace, do not expect to get a George Washington. Expect instead to get a bunch of radicals that feed into people’s fears and play to their nationalistic heartstrings. We have seen the same thing happen in other places where Bush has pushed for elections, including Lebanon and Iraq.

Why should this matter to us? Apart from even greater threats to our oil supply arising from a Middle East in perpetual conflagration, people who voted for Bush’s re-election because they thought he would keep us safe really need to ponder the foolishness of their choice. Bush’s misguided crusades were crystal clear when we re-elected him, and yet a majority of the public chose to send him back. Instead of guaranteeing our greater security, he has guaranteed the creation of pockets of terrorism that will bedevil and attack America for decades to come. America is far less safe now than before his tenure, and not because of 9/11 but because of the awful policies enabled by his election.

Choose more wisely next time, please. It’s not as if we didn’t tell you so.

My older sister Addie lives in Miami. Once in a while she sends me some email about boycotting gas companies because of outrageously high gas prices, and I usually ignore them. But today I decided to respond not just to her, but to her friends on the email’s cc list….because I felt there were some things they needed to learn.

Here’s what the original email said (edited formatting for sanity’s sake, but I left other errors as-is):

4.19 per gal

The price of Gas

Hello everyone,

We hear that the price of gas will climb to approximately $4.19 per gal By this summer.

Do you want the price of gas to go down?

IT IS POSSIBLE! We must act NOW and wisely !

Last year, a few suggestions were made, for instance: « Do not buy gas on certain days»! Gas companies had a good laugh, as they knew that the gas that was not purchased on Monday would be purchased on Tuesday. At best, it was an inconvenience for them, but not a problem.

Someone thought of a plan that can work.IF WE REALLY WANT IT Read the following and join us to implement it!

Gas now sells for 3.09¢ per gal For regular unleaded As an average for USA. In some areas, the price is even higher.

We all know that we are “being taken for a ride” by the gas companies.

Remember that when gas companies raised the price of gas over $2.00 per gal. They argued that gas would be in short supply. There is more gas now than 35 years ago when the price was 29¢ per gal.

Gas companies want us to believe that gas is cheap at 1.99¢ per gal.

We must act agressively and Show them that the consumers Can have some control over prices and not only gas companies.

The best way to be successful is to hit where it hurts: their bank accounts!

WE CAN DO IT !

HOW?

As we all need our vehicles, we cannot simply stop buying gas.
However, we can have a significant impact on the price of gas IF WE ACT TOGETHER to initiate a PRICE WAR!!!

This idea is suggested: For the remainder of the year,WE DO NOT BUY ANY GAS FROM The two largest companies (who are now only ONE) Exxon and SHELL

Think about it!

If the major gas companies do not sell gas, they will unavoidably lower their prices and this will immediately result in a PRICE WAR.

In order to generate the desired impact, we must reach millions of Exxon and SHELL consumers.

This is how we must proceed!

I am sending this e-mail to approximately 30 people.

If everyone sends this e-mail to 10 others, we already have reached 300 people. If 300 send this message to 3 000 more people, and so on…
We will reach 3 MILLIONS people in no time…You see what I mean…

If each and everyone of you forward this message to 10 people within a day or so, we will be 300 MILLIONS of people To go to war against these gas companies in approximately 8 days!

Do you really believe that they will have other options?

YES, WE CAN WIN BUT…It is absolutely NECESSARY To continue purchasing our gas ELSEWHERE Than at Exxon and SHELL and this, until we reach our objective.

And, MOST OF ALL, LET US FORWARD THIS MESSAGE!

CAN WE COUNT ON YOU…?

Here was my rather tart response:

Sister, you already know how silly these things are, and that I think you’re being foolish by forwarding them.

The attachment claims the price of gas was 29 cents 35 years ago. Well…a cup of coffee was 5 cents too! A house in New York City could be bought for $20,000. It’s called INFLATION. It happens to the cost of everything and the incomes of everyone over time.

And even at $5 dollars a gallon, gas is STILL cheap. Why? There are 16 cups in a gallon. $5 divided by 16 is 31 cents a cup of gas. What else in this world is that cheap compared to how important it is? A cup of starbucks coffee is many times that at over $2 a cup!

Once again the paper points the finger at the oil companies to try to blame them. Why doesn’t anyone point the finger at ourselves? Do you think we are ENTITLED to live an hour away from work, having to commute two hours in crushing rush hour traffic each day? Do you think we are ENTITLED to pollute the environment every time we get in our cars to go one block to the grocery store to buy that extra pint of ice cream contributing to our obesity? Do you think we are ENTITLED to spend 25% of the oil pumped in the world every day and produce a third of the world’s pollution when we are only 5% of the world’s population? Do you think we are ENTITLED to pay 29 cents a gallon when Europe has routinely been paying $5 a gallon or more for many years now? How arrogant and selfish we are as Americans!

It gets even better! The oil companies ultimately have to pay money to the countries with oil in the ground, right? That oil is not here in America anymore, it is in unstable places like Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Nigeria. Those countries set the price of oil, not the oil companies. They’re called OPEC. Why can OPEC demand $60 a barrel minimum and get away with it? Because they know that we Americans are addicted to oil like a drug addict is addicted to heroin, and will pay ANY price to get it to maintain our foolish ways of wasteful energy spending. It’s simple supply and demand economics.

Worse, these OPEC countries like Saudi Arabia then take our own addict money to fund terrorists to come ram our buildings with airplanes. We are funding terrorism against ourselves through our own addiction to foreign oil.

If you stop buying from these two companies, they would likely simply resell their gasoline to other companies who suddenly have all this new demand they are unable to meet. Why? Because you are not reducing DEMAND. The demand has to be fed from somewhere, and there is VERY little excess oil out there because of how much the world consumes. As long as there is demand, there will be a market for Shell and Exxon, whether it be to you or to another supplier.

The price of gas is going to keep going up until we stop the nonsense of trying to blame someone else and start pointing at ourselves for living so wastefully. It’s not just the gasoline we use, but the petroleum to go into all the wasteful plastic packaging that goes to our landfills every day. That gobbles up huge amounts of petroleum too.

You want to do something about gas prices? Then STOP THE ADDICTION. Walk, don’t drive. Live closer to work. Get politically active and demand that your congress pass incentives for developing non-petroleum or hybrid cars. Lowering demand is the ONLY thing that will lower the price of gas. Stop paying attention to charlatans.

Your brother,

Joe

Yea the email pissed me off—and I hadn’t had my morning coffee. But please, let’s show some accountability for once.