Bush lied and people died.

A memo that does not identify Plame as being covert? What good is that? The writer of the memo would be breaking the law if it identified, even to Colin Powell, that the named agent was covert.

Bumper sticker mentality???

and the convenient selective memory trick.

Impressive.

Not

If you are referring to me.. I'll point you back to the title of this thread. Random Political Thoughts.

and my response was a random response to a random comment- inspired by yours.

What's the point?

Wait..never mind.

If we've taken over a country full of oil, how come our gas is still so expensive?

[quasi-sarcasam peoples]

The whole point is to make it even more expensive ... but to have the money line the pockets of Exxon/Mobil's CEO (who, it was just recently reported, during the period 1993 thru 2005, had a salary of $150,000 PER DAY!!!!)

For years we've been told we're going to run out of gas, that peak oil is in the rear view mirror. That the oil companies have overstated their reserves. Well, if all of that is true then perpetually rising oil prices (without necessarily a concomitant increase in cost of production) is going to be the product.

If we're not pumping more oil out of the ground but a lot more people want oil for a lot more puposes then that is going to spell a whole lot of wealth for the people with the oil without any market manipulation required.

For me, I don't really care how much the oil companies make, it isn't like I was shedding tears for them when they were all going broke in the '80s.

iSm: I haven't seen the story and it doesn't make a huge difference, but was that actually salary or realized bonuses and incentives?

That was pure salary.

It's not that I mind oil companies making profits, even huge ones for something so in demand. But it is so in demand that it's an essential commodity that has passed the tipping point of availability. Without alternate sources of energy within a century, all recognizable economic activity on the earth will stop.

I'm of the opinion that anything that essential should be regulated. And the ever-increasing costs of something that essential should be controlled by governments such that oil company executives get filthy rich, but not obscenely rich.

Sorry, but that number of $150,000 a day just stunned me. An amount I aspire to make in a year is earned in salary alone by one man in a day. Socialist or not, I don't want the food or water or health or justice or essential energy industries run for the same profit motive as general capitalism allows.

Such a thing may stifle innovation, but it would also stifle greed. I think a balance should be struck. And the Exxon/Mobil CEO making $150K each time the sun rises is not the kind of balance I find properly balanced.

But as the cost of oil and gas rise, the alternatives become cheeper and people become both both more entrepenurial and inventive. I think this is where the market plays a good role here. Rationing and regulation won't spur the development of alternatives.