They’re at it again.
Last week I wrote about the pork talking point the religious Right was pushing. Of course, being an election year, now that it’s obvious that talking point is a dud, they have reloaded the BS cannon and shot two more loads of shisen. The first was about the birth control debate having “nothing to do with women.” That’s being beaten down fairly well, so I’ll move on to an even newer diaper load.
Yesterday, as I listened to Sirius Left, I heard several calls on the topic, and several of the Republican twits… um, “candidates…” tossing out an outhouse load of shisen, hoping some will stick.
The content of said comment best represented by a call to The Alex Bennett Show. The caller talked about how low prices were during Bush, choosing dates before we bogged down in Iraq, and then skipped straight to our prices now.
I have the distinct… advantage? …of having lived my life on the road as much as 9 months out of the year since 1988. The price structure rose and fell over the years in very familiar patterns in states from Louisiana, to Florida, to Maine. The tax rates affected them in very predictable ways.
I know, from personal experience, that prices towards the end of the Bush administration rocketed up into the $4.00 range. I was on the road at the time with a tour bus that, at best, got 7 miles per gallon.
I remember when Bush went to the oil countries and kissed a Saudi for show, claiming maybe they’d bring the price down. Of course he could have done that years before, and had promised to immediately do so when he ran against Gore if prices ever reached where they were at the time: a little over $2 in some places on the east coast.
When sometimes you’re getting no better than 7 miles per gallon, and doing thousands of miles a week, it’s a hell of a lot more obvious than it would be for your average driver. Now my tour bus serves one area of the tour only, and I use a tent elsewhere.
Obviously my career as an entertainer; solo act, means a lot to me.
But back to all the Prince kissing and Bush promises…
Honestly? I didn’t believe one ounce of it was sincere, and I have little doubt Bush, his prince-y oil pals and oil partners: including his VP, were off snickering about all this and had no intent of doing a damn thing.
And to quote prices to make it all Obama’s fault is exactly what I expect from much of the Right these days. Liars, frauds, dishonest brokers and the pitiful progeny of Goebbels that they are.
Other than this I have several points to add to the debate. After the war started I began to see anomalies while on the road that made no sense unless we were all being played for fools; unless oil was being used as a political tool and oil prices were being deliberately manipulated.
Right after Bush convinced all but a few of us to go ahead and conquer Iraq over fictional WMD, and nuclear lies: drawings no better of convincing than I’ve seen in some elementary art classes, I had to drive from New England to Tennessee while on tour. I had just been working in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, so I observed the prices: oddly all the same. For years CT was the highest on the east coast, Georgia the lowest. Due to taxes that vary per state I can recite off each state and how it ranked: Ohio about the same as Tennessee, Kentucky a bit cheaper, but not as cheap as Atlanta, New York only outdone by Connecticut. There’s more, and I can get more specific inside each state, but I won’t bore you.
From New England to Tennessee every station was exactly the same price.
Let me repeat that.
Every station was exactly the same price.
That’s when the weirdness began… and has continued. For example, last election year: 2010, I noticed areas with strong Republican bases got better prices in each state, and the best prices were in the highly contested areas like north of Columbus: somewhat Conservative, but might tip the other way. There’s a station there: the Polaris exit. That station, since the first time I visited it in the early/mid 90s, has always had the highest priced gas in the state, except the time they were all the same, and this other time: election year 2010…
At that station I saw the lowest price in Ohio on my way back to Tennessee.
Being an election year, again, now prices are on the rise and the oil candidates: those certain to kiss oil’s ass, are waiting in the wings: I’m sure they’re getting their pockets greased and, if elected, will get their lips even more slippery and black. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if gas prices shoot above Bush highs, maybe 5 or higher, before election day.
The MSM hasn’t been questioning this, or their motives: they just regurgitate excuses handed to them by oil people… as of late it’s “speculators.”
Gee, ya’d think they’re almost begging for the market to be regulated. Memo to our pols… please? Pretty please?
Of course we all are allowed to assume these faceless “speculators” have no other motive other than jerking us, and the market, around. No agenda other than riches. No connection to those who would benefit if a more big oil ass kissing type, less alternative energy friendly, president was elected.
What a load of horse snot that is.
Their disingenuous talking points are getting boring, tasteless and predictable. One set of dull, tedious, lies after another. Sometimes their points are so absurd it’s like they’ve been sniffing glue, or gasoline.
If we want to avoid going back to something a hell of a lot more like the Bush days: where the oil industry really did have us by the cojones… despite our problems with Barack Obama… we need to make damn sure all this jerking us around gets them no where.
We must tell them to go suck their own vapid vapors.
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Inspection is a column that has been written by Ken Carman for over 30 years.Inspection is dedicated to looking at odd angles, under all the rocks and into the unseen cracks and crevasses that constitute the issues and philosophical constructs of our day: places few think, or even dare, to venture.
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