McCain, Obama, and Energy Independence

By Rene Guerra

"McCain Tells Oil Companies to Share Their Profits," reads the title of the CNS News report.

Share their profits? What’s new here? Is it not that, anyway, what most companies do with legitimate company owners -- shareholders, that is -- who, by the way, in the case of oil companies, include most workers with 401K plans?

Alas, McCain talks about “sharing” (codeword for “confiscating”) those profits by way of distributing them amongst everyone in America -- ticks, fleas and bedbugs included -- as if someone else’s profits were a piñata for all.

McCain is terribly wrong; his language sounds socialistoid: “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs,” Marx dictated, and so John Sidney McCain III does. But, what else could be expected from an “illustrious” member of the notorious Gang of 14?

But, in terms of America moving away from oil, McCain is right, for petroleum, at the continually accelerating rate that it is being devoured by every country on Earth, will disappear sooner than later.

Even if we come to find vast oil deposits, and squeeze dry all the tar-sands and shale in America -- and thus count on sufficient supply for ourselves -- other nations would still face scarcity, and that scarcity would hit us by carom, for our economy, whether we want it or not, whether we like it or not, is intertwined with other nations’ economies...

John McCain’s elevator doesn’t reach the top floor. This man is not a Reagan conservative in my opinion. The only conservative principle he had once was support for unborn babies. If there is anything else, I certainly haven’t heard him say it in recent campaign speeches. His speaking style does not inspire greatness, especially compared to Obama. McCain parrots the Democratic line on so many key issues, is it any wonder that Obama is leading in national polls?

Since we are screwed anyway, then there is probably very little to lose by advocating some more extreme tactics.

The McCain-Feingold campaign finance “reform” has some odd provisions, if considered from a constitutional or libertarian point of view. I suggest we, as individuals, go out and FLAGRANTLY violate those provisions, and really test the meanings.

The law was written as an incumbent protection bill, making ANY attempt to unseat a sitting Congressman or Senator who does not want to leave, not even if you are a millionaire self-financing your campaign. Heavy reporting requirements are placed upon the millionaire campaigner, and exceptions are allowed to the incumbent to exceed the limit of $2,300 in contributions that may be made to any one candidate by an individual.

A torrent of secret money is flooding into the leading presidential campaigns, with millions banked without disclosure of who gave the funds or where the donations originated. The notion behind excusing donations of under $200 from the reporting requirements was based on the belief that the sums were insignificant from an ethical perspective. Foreigners could be, and almost certainly are, weighing in illegally in an American election.

This could be the first presidential campaign since Watergate to be financed entirely with private funds. The two major-party nominees alone may raise and spend $1 billion combined. So long as none of the leading candidates do not accept dollar one of matching funds, they are largely free of the restrictions that go along with it.

What the McCain-Feingold act has done, is to make what was only a somewhat rough terrain, into a war zone filled with pitfalls, quagmires and land mines. Like effectively gagging any sort of advocacy within a date too close to the election, while doing nothing whatsoever about flat-out attack ads by “unaffiliated” interests who are intent on running a totally negative campaign, so long as the name of the party that benefits from this onslaught is never mentioned.

“Screwed” doesn’t begin to describe what has been done to the American electorate.

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We're Screwed 2008