We cannot drill our way out of this oil crisis. Since 2000, oil companies working in the U.S. have doubled the number of wells drilled per year.
Although increased drilling has added new oil to the nation's supply, it has not done so fast enough to offset the terminal decline of existing fields.
We are going to have to import more of our oil. Period.
THE 545 PEOPLE
RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL
OF AMERICA'S WOES
BY CHARLEY REESE
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.
Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, we have deficits? Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, we have inflation and high taxes?
You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does. You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does. You and I don't write the tax code. Congress does. You and I don't set fiscal policy. Congress does. You and I don't control monetary policy. The Federal Reserve Bank does.
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president and nine Supreme Court justices - 545 human beings out of the 235 million - are directly, legally, morally and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.
I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered but private central bank.
I excluded all but the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it.
No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislation's responsibility to determine how he votes.
A CONFIDENCE CONSPIRACY
Don't you see how the con game that is played on the people by the politicians? Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of Tip O'Neill, who stood up and criticized Ronald Reagan for creating deficits.
The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it. The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating appropriations and taxes.
O'neill is the speaker of the House. He is the leader of the majority party. He and his fellow Democrats, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetos it, they can pass it over his veto.
REPLACE SCOUNDRELS
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 235 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts - of incompetence and irresponsibility.
I can't think of a single domestic problem, from an unfair tax code to defense overruns, that is not traceable directly to those 545 people.
When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.
If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair. If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red. If the Marines are in Lebanon, it's because they want them in Lebanon.
There are no insoluble government problems. Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take it.
Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exist disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation" or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.
Those 545 people and they alone are responsible. They and they alone have the power. They and they alone should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses - provided they have the gumption to manage their own employees.
This article was taken from the Orlando Sentinel Star newspaper
_________________ Oxygen: - An intensely habit-forming accumulative toxic substance. As little
as one breath is known to produce a life-long addiction to the gas, which addiction invariably ends in death.--Isaac Asimov
Joined: Oct 18, 2004 Posts: 266 Location: San Francisco, CA
Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 1:21 pm Post subject: Re: The 545 People Responsible For All of America's Woes
How long would any of those 545 people keep their jobs if they came out and told the truth? "Um, we have to drastically scale back our standard of living, no more SUVs, etc." -- the answer is "not long at all" President Carter tried it and the results were not pretty.
Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 3:24 pm Post subject: Re: The 545 People Responsible For All of America's Woes
It is the tyranny of the majority (which wishes to remain ignorant) that gives power to these fools.
You know it is true. Every thinking person knows it is true.
I have friends, relatives, and neighbors that vehemenently argued with me whenever I would say the Iraq war was bullshit connected to oil. I was unpatriotic. I might as well go live in France.
The majority want to remain happy and cozy in their little world (even if it is a facade and ready to implode). They'll pay any price and give the keys to ANYbody who lets them continue being cozy.
Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 4:05 pm Post subject: Re: The 545 People Responsible For All of America's Woes
The human brain is Responsible For All of America's Woes. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to pay another $2000 in taxes to bail out my boss's silly mortgage. _________________ People first, then things, then dollars.
Joined: Apr 09, 2007 Posts: 4714 Location: Alaska (its much bigger than Texas).
Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 11:18 am Post subject: Re: The 545 People Responsible For All of America's Woes
CHARLEY REESE wrote:
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of Tip O'Neill, who stood up and criticized Ronald Reagan for creating deficits.
The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it. The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating appropriations and taxes.
O'neill is the speaker of the House. He is the leader of the majority party. He and his fellow Democrats, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetos it, they can pass it over his veto.
I've got a more recent example. Nancy Pelosi has the gall to criticize Bush for not stopping the war in Iraq, but Nancy Pelosi is the speaker of the House. Pelosi and her fellow democrats, not the president, are responsible for funding the war. They could approve any budget they want, including one that ended funding for Iraq, but the democrats vote again and again and again for the Iraq war, all the while bleating that they want the war to stop. _________________ "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." -- George Orwell
Joined: Dec 06, 2005 Posts: 800 Location: Stopped at the border.
Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 4:17 pm Post subject: Re: The 545 People Responsible For All of America's Woes
charliebrownout wrote:
It is the tyranny of the majority (which wishes to remain ignorant) that gives power to these fools.
You know it is true. Every thinking person knows it is true.
I have friends, relatives, and neighbors that vehemenently argued with me whenever I would say the Iraq war was bullshit connected to oil. I was unpatriotic. I might as well go live in France.
The majority want to remain happy and cozy in their little world (even if it is a facade and ready to implode). They'll pay any price and give the keys to ANYbody who lets them continue being cozy.
And that is why we're all f@cked.
Right on! People like to blame somebody else. I have driven small cars for twenty years and had to endure the ridicule every time that the subject has come up as to why I did. They don't laugh so much at my high mileage arguments these days, but they still smile at peak oil. _________________ "Hope encourages men to take risks; men in a strong position may follow her without ruin, if not without loss. But when they stake all that they have to the last coin (for she is a spendthrift), she reveals her real self in the hour of failure."
Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 9:21 pm Post subject: Re: The 545 People Responsible For All of America's Woes
charliebrownout wrote:
It is the tyranny of the majority (which wishes to remain ignorant) that gives power to these fools.
You know it is true. Every thinking person knows it is true. ...And that is why we're all f@cked.
I agree. The people have chosen.
And, they choose the candidate who offers them the least present day pain, even if its means destroying the future potential. Time after time.
I was just reading a book about the credit crisis. The author lays bare so much of the root cause, and the root cause is mostly...us!
In an era when one can easily enough project the ultimate cost of credit options by simply using a spreadsheet, so many choose to pretend that credit is the way to go, even though its a form of voluntary slavery. Just think, previous generations had to do some heavy figuring to compare alternatives. We are blessed with computers and most of us just use them to play games or download some porn.
Same thing with politics. We can't handle the truth anymore it seems, so we spend money and vote as if we are in a dream world. And, then we wonder why our life beomes a nightmare.
McCain and Clinton are trying a dream manouver right now with the gas tax "holiday" idea. Sure, let's just pretend we are awash in oil, just like the 1950's or 1960's. Well, it worked for eight years with Ronald Reagan. The results are now being felt. While Jaopan has athe most advanced transit sytems due to itsw investments over the past 30 years, and can get by very well with a fraction of our energy consumption, we are still married to our four wheeled tired iron for transportation. And, nobody even is painting a way out of our collective nightmare. So, sure, let's just dream together. Its easier than facing reality.
Last edited by Denny on Mon May 05, 2008 9:55 pm; edited 1 time in total
Joined: Apr 03, 2004 Posts: 6339 Location: My Grandkids' Farm
Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 9:47 pm Post subject: Re: The 545 People Responsible For All of America's Woes
vision-master wrote:
Rule #1 - make it everyones problem.
Isn't Murphy's rule 3 or 4 something like:
If more than one person is responsible then it's no one's fault?
Of course we can blame as many as we want but lI once heard:
Somebody, somewhere turns off the lights
Somebody all alone faces the night
You got to be strong
When youre out on your own
cause sooner or later
We all sleep alone
--cher and some longhairs... _________________ Make a plan and work it:
Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 9:56 am Post subject: Re: The 545 People Responsible For All of America's Woes
My son is home on leave from his third tour in Iraq, Purple Heart
and all. I am totally opposed to Iraq and have been since it was
a rumor before it was a snow job by Bush and Cheney. I am
so proud of my son that I could burst, he joined after 911 to
go after bin Laden and instead has 38 months in Iraq.
But you don't cut money off with our service people in theater,
and you don't pull them out as recklessly as George Bush and
his neocon zealots put them in.
It is up the next President's to clean this up and they can't
do it by destroying our military people or by being idiots about
how they pursue a remedy.
Ask yourself how much real progress we could of made in this
country by applying $1 Trillion USD. Project Apollo that put the
men on the moon as up around $30 Billion to date when Neil
Armstrong went down the ladder to the lunar surface.
I am sick of chickenhawks lecturing to us when I know that to
a damn person they don't have any of the beloved family flesh
in the game, and that most of them have their money in the
market to cash in on Iraq directly via Halliburton, Defense Contractors, and the friggin Carlyle Group, stuffed full of Bush
I players.
The President gets to make decision in a few days that takes
the Congress and the nation decades to undo if they are dead
wrong.
Joined: Apr 09, 2007 Posts: 4714 Location: Alaska (its much bigger than Texas).
Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 1:20 pm Post subject: Re: The 545 People Responsible For All of America's Woes
The war in Iraq should have ended a year ago when the American people elected a democratic majority in both houses of Congress. Unfortunately, the dems have continued to vote more money for the war.
The US Congress voted to authorize the use of military force against Iraq in 2004. They could end the war tomorrow by voting to rescind their vote for war. They have failed to do so.
The US Congress could also end the war by impeaching Bush. Unfortunately, the current congress lacks the courage to do so.
Even a single member of the Senate could stop the war by filibustering the funding authorisation. It would take 60 votes to stop his filibuster, and the dems have 51 seats. However, there isn't even a single member of the Senate who is willing to take this single step to stop the war.
Joined: Apr 03, 2004 Posts: 6339 Location: My Grandkids' Farm
Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 1:57 pm Post subject: Re: The 545 People Responsible For All of America's Woes
My thanks to your Son EF.
Mine is USAF and went in first (AWACS) but didn't stay long, the SIL is army and will be going back in September for round 2.
I believe the saying is true:
Democracy is the worst form of government...
...except for all the other ones that have been tried.
-Winston Churchill _________________ Make a plan and work it:
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