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DL

Hmm. Very Interesting.. :-) Schree`

posted by Schree on September 16, 2005 at 10:44 PM | link to this | reply

Very cogent material...

actually, oil is cheap when you consider that even at its highest prices the cost in money does not reflect the social and environmental costs of relying so heavily on a dirty, nonrenewable energy source.

But for people who rely on oil because they have no choice but oil, it's gotta be tough.

I filled up my tank this week for 32 dollars, at a whopping $3.07 a gallon (I can remember not that long ago prices routinely being around $1.20).

I used a BP station because I thought I had to start doing something to support industries that are trying to find new, better energy sources.

On CNN yesterday I was encouraged that the journalists, Cafferty and Blitzer specifically, made a point of saying that the stranded hurricane victims are mostly poor and black. These are the folks that couldn't heed the pre-hurricane warnings to flee because, in Cafferty's words, "They didn't have the means," (no car, no train money, etc.).

President Clinton said about one-third of the people in Louisiana live under the poverty line (which is 19,000 dollars for a family of four, an absurdly low line considering that a single person would have a hard time meeting all his needs on that income, let alone take care of kids) and those who couldn't leave beforehand and are most vulnerable now are disproportionately poor and black, making this just an extreme manifestation of the social and economic inequities in this country that are impossible to ignore now.

It was such a relief to hear establishment figures at least giving lip service to these facts. This after the Nightly Business Report reported that the poverty rate in the U.S. rose to about 12 percent, and real wages stagnated (after two straight years of decline). I thought tax cuts for the rich were supposed to help everybody! (NOT!)

Watching Messrs Clinton and Bush Sr. on their joint TV interview, I wanted to reach through the screen, tug at their lapels and beg them, "Please, come back and be co-presidents! Please! We didn't know how good we had it!"  

posted by Dylan24 on September 2, 2005 at 7:10 AM | link to this | reply