CNN.com - Bush rejects tax on oil companies' windfall profits - Apr 28, 2006

CNN.com - Bush rejects tax on oil companies' windfall profits - Apr 28, 2006

When asked about a windfall tax on big oil's record breaking profits, the wishful Alice in Wonderland logic of this administration surfaces again. (The tax would fund development of domestically produced energy sources.)


Rather than taking responsibility for an active role in our future energy security through prudent reinvestment, our Decider in Chief would prefer to leave it to his buddies in big oil.

"My attitude is that the oil companies need to be mindful that the American people expect them to reinvest their cash flows in such a way that it enhances our energy security."

and then later in the same statement -

"One reason there's tight gasoline supplies is we haven't built any new refineries since the 1970s."

By this odd wish-logic, the same companies that haven't reinvested a dime in new refineries in forty years will now auto-magically forgo the profit motive and begin to reinvest in alternative energy. Perhaps the president has detected a sudden upwelling of community spiritedness in his big oil cronies?

Let's not forget that corporations exist solely to increase their own profits, and are legally prevented from taking actions that would reduce their own profitability. In the current climate of gargantuan CEO salaries, consolidation of privilege and energy robber-baronism the reinvestment Bush imagines will simply never take place.

Look how well the policy of "just trust big business" worked for the Enron employees who lost everything.

It appears that on this extremely sensible proposal Mr Bush is still the decider and he decides no.

BBC NEWS | Business | US war costs 'could hit $811bn'

BBC NEWS | Business | US war costs 'could hit $811bn'

Gosh!

811 billion here and 811 billion there; pretty soon you're talking a real deficit....

Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools

Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools

I'm a HUGE political junkie - to a degree that many of my aquaintences find somewhat odd. (I watch C-Span, can name my Senators, House Reps, and the Prime Minister of Canada for example.)

I am repeatedly dismayed by how little my peers seem to care about our government and its institutions. Young people seem to have no idea how our government works, or even what democracy is. (Neither does our president, so maybe that is where the trickle down theory actually works.) For the record Mr. Bush, "democracy" does NOT equal "freedom". Egypt is a nominal "democracy" and also one of the most brutally repressive regimes in the world. Sometimes they co-exist, and other times they do not.

The "No Child Left Behind" Act has made this alarming trend even worse with its focus on testing in math and science. Schools are teaching what they need the kids to test well in. This focus helps retain their funding, and alas, civics is nowhere on the list. Every teacher I know says "No Child Left Behind" is the worst thing to happen to our schools in decades.

Sandra Day O'Connor recently said:

...Civics "was routinely required at several levels in high school, and it was integrated into the grade-school curriculum as well. And that just has disappeared."

The Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools is seeking to reverse this trend. This is an important idea, as what we teach in grade school and high school "sticks" more than we know.

I am getting ready to attend my 25th year high school reunion. At my 20th I was stuck by how politically engaged my classmates were. Our school had a very stong emphasis on both civics and on social responsibility, and it has paid off in a group of engaged, aware and committed adults. (many of whom can name the Prime Minister of Canada, fer instance...)

Mahler and grief...

I just returned from a trip to New York, where I went to a performance of Mahler’s 2^nd Symphony (The Resurrection Symphony) at Riverside church in Harlem.

It was a reunion of sorts, as my stepfather and both of my brothers and their wives were there. There were also many family friends.

This part of my personal universe revolved to a great extent around my mother, who died of liver cancer four years ago. This made our reunion a time of both joy and sadness for all of us.

Those of you who know the symphony will know the music is beautiful and transcendent. Mahler’s themes of death and resurrection, loss and questions of faith are so deeply suited to holy week and springtime. The group of us who shared a common loss gathered together. Memory was our constant yet unspoken companion, a melancholy and beautiful undercurrent.

Beautiful because my mother died, as is often said and rarely experienced, “with dignity.” Due to her diabetes, she had been preparing herself and all of us for the fact of her passing for many years. She died quietly at home, surrounded by loved ones, at the time and place of her choosing, and in the kind care of Dan my stepfather and an amazing hospice team.

I realized that for many of her friends I was a gentle reminder of the loss. My face carries the contours of hers in a way that those of my brother’s, who favor their father more strongly, does not.

I was escorting a family friend to the church. As I stepped out of the elevator to meet her in the lobby, she commented on how much I look like my mother. After that she remained still – savoring the fleeting moment of resurrection.

At the church, swept along in the strains of the Mahler's music, I saw one after another of us lost in memory.

As the symphony lilted and crashed through the church, I sensed a nearly sanctified energy of loss and rememberance among our guests.

I wandered the valley of doubt as I observed my youngest brother Adam weeping deeply. Something in Adam’s gentle nature makes him the most profoundly marked by loss. Who creates a world with this much pain?

The music reached its glorious crescendo; Mahler’s strangely coherent cacophony of faith overcoming darkness. I felt a a gentle awareness growing.

The reminder I provided to our guests of my mother’s face wasn’t just for them. Running my hand across my check I had an inner realization - she is in me, and always will be.

We left the church, sweeping into the soft April night in near silence. Each one of us had been moved by something more graceful than a piece of music.

The Mind Boggles, or the death of civility….

On the death of civility….

I’m flying to New York today, and have yet again been stunned by the lack of civility in public life.

Onboard the plane, I was asked by a mother and daughter if I would vacate my coveted right side, exit-aisle seat so they could sit together. They offered a seat across the aisle in exchange. Though I don’t particularly like that seat, I was moved by their mother-daughter bond, (or acute codependency) so I agreed.

The seat next to the one they offered was empty – which I figured was an instant karmic dividend.

I stood to get my bag and coat out of the overhead compartment. Meanwhile, a tiny woman from several rows back switched seats and took the empty seat next to the one I had been offered.

While I was dealing with my carry on bag, and faster than I would have believed possible, the mercenary mom sold the exit row seat I had vacated for her to another passenger for 60 dollars. She then plunked herself back down in her original seat; this crass maneuver left me with no seat in the exit row at all.

When I asked her to vacate the seat, she merely pointed at the seat the tiny woman had vacated two rows back, indicating I should sit there.

By now the entire plane was waiting on us to depart, and the captain was making the “we can’t go till everyone is seated” announcement. When the flight attendant arrived to try and sort out the mess, the mercenary mom showed her boarding pass, and feigned ignorance. Her pass showed the seat she was in as hers.

The attendant asked me to take the seat the tiny woman had left two rows back. I protested, explaining that Thumbelina had jumped rows to grab the exit row seat, and that I was ticketed for the exit row.

Now the people around us were getting irritable, and it appeared that I was the troublemaker, so I went ahead and took the seat two rows back. (I am six one – and the exit row makes a real difference to me, while Thumbelina could have lain crosswise in her seat.)

By now the flight attendant realized what had happened, came to me and apologized profusely, offering complimentary meals, snacks and anything I wanted from the beverage cart. (This was a low fare carrier – so all the meals and snacks are on a pay as you go basis.)

Being not without sin myself, I conspicuously enjoyed the freebies as the Mom of Fortune complained bitterly about having to pay for her chips. The flight attendant played along, grandly showering me with perks while she barely helped the exit row brigade.

It was a small comfort at least...

Yeeesh!