What did people expect when they put Big Oil men in the White House?

[kentuck]

Did they really think they would keep gas prices down? Since they knew the "business", they would know how to jawbone them and keep the prices under control? What stupid idea was running thru their little brains??

[eek]

1. Is there any possible incentive to the Admin &Co to

keep oil prices low? Any at all?

I figure that there must be and I'm misssing some subtlety that is apparent to (almost) half of the country.

I'm (almost) not completely kidding, either.

[B Calm]

2. They really did think the price of gas would drop. I had guys at

work back in 2000 tell me that. When I remind them today what they said a few years ago they have no memory of it..

[Nothing Without Hope]

3. I think Greg Palast's article on the two major contending forces in

this administration lays it out very clearly:

http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=417&row=0
SECRET U.S. PLANS FOR IRAQ'S OIL

BBC News World Edition, Thursday, March 17, 2005
By Greg Palast, Reporting for BBC Newsnight (London)

The Bush administration made plans for war and for Iraq's oil before the 9/11 attacks sparking a policy battle between neo-cons and Big Oil, BBC's Newsnight has revealed.

Two years ago today - when President George Bush announced US, British and Allied forces would begin to bomb Baghdad - protestors claimed the US had a secret plan for Iraq's oil once Saddam had been conquered.

In fact there were two conflicting plans, setting off a hidden policy war between neo-conservatives at the Pentagon, on one side, versus a combination of "Big Oil" executives and US State Department "pragmatists."

"Big Oil" appears to have won. The latest plan, obtained by Newsnight from the US State Department was, we learned, drafted with the help of American oil industry consultants.

(snip - much more at link)

The whole article is a must-read. I haven't seen the film version yet; it is linked to at the site.

[DURHAM D]

4. Once an oil man, always an oil man.

I grew up in an oil producing state (now live on east coast) and kept telling people in 1999 that you have no idea what one oil man is capable of, let alone a pair. The morals and ethics of these cowboys (oil men) is different than anything you might have encountered if you did not grow up in an area of the U.S. that has oil and gas production.

Actually, my family owns an interest in several oil and gas wells as the result of owning the mineral rights on family farmlands. The monthly income has gone up unbelievably. But, every time I talk to my Dad (89 and a former oil man) he says although the money is nice, it is not the answer and it makes him very sad. He knows oil controls foreign policy and sends young people off to die for nothing. He has always been intereted in alternate energy sources.

My Mother, on the other hand, thinks the money is all good. It really pisses her off when I remind her that the farmland with the producing wells was originally free land given to her ancestors for homesteading. Obviously, she is a repug.

They have been canceling each other's votes for 65 years.

[Name removed]

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