I don't think it is possible for even a wise person to fully comprehend exactly how little they know.

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"Man lives in the sunlit world of that which he believes to be reality. But unseen by most is an underworld, a place that is just as real... but not as brightly lit... A DARK SIDE!"
-opening from Tales From the Darkside

...and that is humbling.

If you were an idiot, though, would you be smart enough to know how dumb you were?

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I'll get nicer when you get smarter.

That's why no one admits to being an idiot. The smart people know enough to know they are not idiots, while the idiots are too stupid to tell they are idiots.

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I wasn't born with enough middle fingers.

I do believe in the power of free enterprise. I'm just not sure what that has to do with the American oil industry. How is gouging back windfall profits from a tightly secretive, market-manipulating oligopy damaging to free enterprise? They've had their Administration in the White House for the past 8 years (did you know there used to be an oil tanker named the Condoleeza Rice?); it's time to take away some of their accumulated privileges.

That's one of the things I like best about democracy. We may not get the best government - we get the government we deserve.

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Toodley-doo,
Maggie.

The Congress should not be taxing the company providing the service but the consumer of the service. In that sense it was good that the bill failed.

What I wonder about is the subsidies apparently being sent to Big Oil.

Well----at least the Republicans and 2 Democrats are not idiots, anyway. <g>

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“I’ve been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career. Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work.” — Barack Obama, Speech to ACORN, November 2007

Here's how much they pay in taxes.


Exxon paid $9.3 billion, or 49% of its first-quarter gross income, in income taxes---34%, which is a higher rate than other U.S. corporations. So, why do they pick on oil companies? It's because the environmentalists are a big part of the Democrat voting base and they like to demonize them for votes!

"From 2003 to 2007, Exxon's earnings grew by 89%, while income taxes grew by 170%. Much of that growth was overseas. Oil-producing countries charge companies like Exxon dearly to dig for oil. Arrangements vary from country to country, but Russia and Libya charge companies up to 90% of the revenues they collect for extracting oil, according to Fadel Gheit, senior analyst for Oppenheimer (OPY). These arrangements—whether production share agreements or royalty contracts—are not disclosed by companies and governments.

In tax terms, the U.S. government is kinder to oil companies. According to Securities & Exchange Commission filings, Exxon paid an effective tax rate of 34% to the U.S. government in 2007, or $5.12 billion. While cheaper than rates from some foreign governments, it's still a higher rate than many U.S. companies pay."

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/...s+%2B+analysis

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“I’ve been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career. Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work.” — Barack Obama, Speech to ACORN, November 2007

Yeah, this is all just brilliant. The American people paid US oil corporation almost 16 billion dollars in oil subsidies in 2007! The oil companies are making record profits and are still receiving corporate welfare in the ten's of billions of dollars.

I for one am not confident that price fixing hasn't been going on, something the defeated bill would have helped prevent.

As to free market and oil - my answer is Peak Oil, petroleuros, China and India. There's your free market. American gas prices will sputter and fart but you had better get used to much of your budget being altered by high gas prices. They are here to stay.

Oil is a finite resource. The world is running out. The American dollar is circling the toilet bowl. World consumption of oil is steadily rising.

Congress is going to do what corporate America tells it to do. Both parties. Your voice is so small Congress can barely hear you - and they aren't listening anyway. Congress cannot pass a law that will decrease the price of crude. Can't happen. It won't pass a law making Big Energy more responsible. Cheney sat down with Big Oil in 2000 and wrote America's energy policy. So what if it was feckin illegal to do that? Who is going to stop them? Congress? Bwaaaaaaahahahahahaha! Big Energy has gotten what it wants from day one. Congress is NOT going to change that, Congress is not going to make Big Energy more responsible. I never expected it.

Meanwhile, American citizens are paying billions of subsidies to the oil companies, fighting their war for more business in Iraq (they've recently signed big contracts there) and they'll continue to make obscene profits until the lights go out. Congress will help them all they can.