Poster: A warning from the "Invisible Hand"

Here is a poster for you to send to any writer or politician who has taken a position for or against corporate influence in public affairs.  Drag the poster to your favorite document or mail program and print or send as many copies as you would like.  All I ask is that you include the link at the bottom.

Shale Oil - Bad then, good now?

When I read "U.S. Energy Independence Could Be Here Before We Know It", Tim Sprinkle, The Exchange, Yahoo! Finance, 2013-03-20, I thought of Jimmy Carter being slammed for his efforts to promote shale oil.  I did a search on "Jimmy Carter" and "shale oil" and found "The Great Shale Oil Swindle, What Happens When the Boom Goes Bust", Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, 2013-03-18.

His points are that companies are overstating the amount of oil and gas available, shale and oil production drops quickly, the "glut" of oil is depressing prices, and global oil demand may be dropping.  Adam Smith warned of capitalists deceiving the public; often they deceive themselves!

His sources include some credible newspapers like the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times of London!!

Jimmy Carter was lambasted for looking at shale oil and now Republicans think we have energy dependence because of shale oil.

"Well, the truth is, no one in America did more for oil shale development and other alternative fuels development than Jimmy Carter and his Synfuels initiaitives. If you want some of the history, and why Carter's investment and tax incentive strategy failed, read here.  Basically, Reagan gutted energy research Carter started, including how to economically convert shale into oil. When the Iranian crisis ended and Saudis flooded the market with cheap oil, Exxon shut down its $5 billion Colony Oil Shale project in western Colorado, and the industry lost interest in oil shale. "
- Oil Shale and the ANWR: Stretching the truth, Charlie Quimby, "Across the Great Divide", 2008-07.

How often does politics boil down to "If we think of it, it is a good idea; if you think of it, it is a bad idea."

Reprevaricators?

Jim Hightower recently asked his readers to give a different name to the Republican Party.  My favorite was Republicants.

This evening I'm at my daughter's watching more TV in an evening than I watch in a couple of months.  She and her husband like watching all the Friday night public TV news programs.  One segment included the Minnesota Republican gubernatorial candidate, Tom Emmer, claiming that the Democratic Secretary of State, Mark Ritchie, said that there were 20,000 more ballots cast than there were voters.  I'm not sure of the exact figure, but it was large.

OK, don't take anybody's, and I really mean anybody's, assertion as fact.  I looked for "mark ritchie" and "more ballots than voters".  I couldn't find any source other than Republican or "conservative" sites asserting this.  This doesn't mean that Ritchie didn't say it, but it certainly does make one wonder if he did say it.

Unfortunately, this seems to be a conservative strategy to make assertions without proof, repeat them often enough, and hope few challenge the assertions.  If anyone does, disparage their credentials or just ignore them.  We see this with climate change, we see it with the military, we see it with taxes, we see it with …

I am really saddened by these tactics.  First, it is no way to run a democracy or a republic.  Second, I used to be a Republican Party active member.  When Ronald Reagan was nominated for president, I saw that it was no longer my Republican Party.  About the only thing I did after that is support Arne Carlson for governor when the nominated Republican candidate self-destructed in the light of sexual improprieties involving teen-agers.

See also:

Government of whom, for whom, and by whom?
Republicans do not have "people's" support or a "mandate"
A couple examples of how some "discourse"