Once, many years ago, in a land far away between two oceans, with fruited plains, amber waves of grain, and potholes on its highways, there lived a young man named Sam.

Now, Sam was a bright young man who wanted to work and save money so he could go to school and become an electrician. But the only job open in his small community was at the gas station. So, for two years, Sam pumped gas, washed windshields, checked dipsticks and tire pressure, smiled and chatted with all the customers, gave them free drinking glasses when they ordered a fill-up, and was soon known as the best service station attendant in town.

But then the Grand Caliphs of Oil said that Megamania Oil Empire, of which they all had partial ownership, caused them to raise the price of gas.

“We’re paying 39 cents a gallon now,” they cried, “how can you justify tripling our costs?” they demanded.

“That’s business,” said the Chief Grand Caliph flippantly. But, to calm the customer fury, he had a plan. “We will allow you the privilege of pumping your own gas, washing your own windows, checking your car’s dipsticks and tire pressure, and chatting amiably with yourselves,” said the Caliph. “If you do that, we will hold the price to only a buck or two a gallon.”

And the people were happy. All except Sam, of course, who was unemployed.

But, times were good, and Sam went to the local supermarket, which was advertising for a minimum wage checkout clerk. For three years, he worked hard, scanning all groceries and chatting amiably with the customers. And then one day his manager called him into the office.

“Sam,” said the boss, “we’re very pleased with your work. You’re fired.” From corporate headquarters had come a decision by the chain’s chief bean counter that there weren’t enough beans for their executives to go to Europe to search for more beans.

“But,” asked Sam, “Who will scan the groceries?”

“The customers will,” said the boss. “We’ll even have a no-hassle machine that will take their money and maybe even give change.”

“But won’t they object to buying the groceries, scanning them, bagging them, and shoving their money into a faceless machine?”

“Not if we tell them that by doing all the work, the cost will be less,” said the manager.

“But it won’t,” said Sam.

The manager thought a moment, and then brightly pointed out, “We’ll just say that the cost of groceries won’t go up significantly if labor costs were less. Besides, we even programmed Canmella the Circuit-enhanced Clerk to tell customers to have a nice day.”

Now, others may have sworn, cried, or punched out their supervisor, but this is a G-rated fairy tale, and it wouldn’t be right to leave Sam to flounder among the food. By cutting back on luxuries, like food and clothes, Sam saved a few dollars from his unemployment checks, and finally had enough to go to a community college to learn to become an electrician. After graduating at the top of his class, an emaciated and homeless Sam got a job at Acme Industries.

For nine years, he was a great electrician, often making suggestions that led to his company becoming one of the largest electrical supplies manufacturers in the country. And then one day one of the company’s 18 assistant vice-presidents called Sam into a small dingy office, which the company used for such a day. “You’re the best worker we have,” the AVP joyfully told Sam, “but all that repetitive stress has cut your efficiency and increased our medical costs. In the interest of maximizing profits, we have to replace you.”

“But who can do my job?” asked Sam.

“Not who,” said the manager, “but what. We’re bringing in robots. They’re faster and don’t need breaks, vacations, or sick days. Better yet, they don’t have union contracts.”

“So you are firing me,” said Sam.

“Not at all. We had to let a few dozen other workers go so there would be room for the robots, and we won’t be hiring any new workers, but because of your hard work, we’re reassigning you to oil the robots. At least until we design robots that can oil the other robots.”

For three years, Sam oiled, polished, and cleaned up after the robots. Sometimes, he even had to rewire them. And then the deputy assistant senior director of Human Resources called him into her office.

“No one can oil and polish as well as you can,” she said, but the robots are getting very expensive and we still have several hundred workers who are taking lobster and truffles from the mouths of our corporate executives, “so we’re sending all of our work to somewhere in Asia. Or maybe it’s Mexico. Whatever. The workers there will gladly design and assemble our products for less than a tenth what we have to pay our citizens.”

“You mean I’m fired?!” said a rather incredulous Sam.

“Not fired. That’s so pre-NAFTA. You’ve been downsized.”

“Downsized?!”

“If you want, we can also say you’ve been outsourced. How about right-sized. That’s a nicer word. Would you prefer to be right-sized?”

By now, Sam was no longer meek. He no longer was willing to accept whatever he was told. “The work will be shoddier,” said Sam. “There will be problems.”

“Of course there will be,” said the lady from HR. “That’s why we hired three Pakistani goat herders to solve customer complaints.”

“Our citizens won’t stand for this,” said a defiant Sam.

“As long as the product is cheaper, our people will gladly go to large non-union stores and buy whatever it is that we tell them to buy.”

And she was right.

[Walter Brasch is an award-winning journalist and former university professor. His latest book is the social issues mystery novel, Before the First Snow, available at amazon and other book dealers.]

In the midst of this economic recession (or depression) the F.T.C. has been cracking down on debt collectors who ”harass consumers for money they may not even be legally obligated to pay.” This is good news for consumers who have found themselves for whatever reason unable to pay their debts in this economy.

In the second-largest penalty ever levied on a debt collector, the F.T.C. said that Asset Acceptance, one of the nation’s largest debt collection companies, had agreed to pay a $2.5 million civil penalty to settle charges that the company deceived consumers when trying to collect old debts.

The F.T.C. has ”pursued eight cases related to debt collection companies over the last two years.” The recent settlement with Asset Acceptance “is part of a broader effort to patrol the industry, agency officials said.”

Consumer complaints about debt collection companies consistently rank as the second-highest category among all complaints at the agency, behind identity theft. But in 2010, complaints jumped 17 percent to 140,036, which represented 11 percent of all complaints in the commission’s database, up from 119,540, or about 9 percent of complaints, in 2009.

It is noted in the NY Times article about this issue that “The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the F.T.C. now share enforcement authority for debt collection companies, though the new bureau has a power that the F.T.C. did not: it can write new rules for debt collectors.”

If you are being harassed by debt collectors who use nefarious means do not hesitate to contact the F.T.C. and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to file complaints. These debt collectors who strong arm consumers with financial problems will not be stopped unless complaints are filed.

“Got any idea how to make a frozen daiquiri?”

Saturday. 6 a.m. A question no one else would have asked at that hour. I knew it had to be Marshbaum, my faux-friend foil.

“Too early to be drinking,” I mumbled, then hung up. The phone rang again.

“It’s not for me,” said Marshbaum, but since I’m going to own a bar, I should learn how to make drinks.”

“Marshbaum,” I said, reluctantly awake, “you can’t even afford to buy soap to wash your fuzzy navel! How are you going to afford a bar?”

“The government’s going to bankroll me,” he said matter-of-factly.

“New kind of welfare?”

“Old kind of subsidies,” said Marshbaum. “First thing those Santa Clauses in the red ink suits are going to do is to help me find an appropriate location.”

“Something available in Afghanistan?” I asked.

“It’s called exploration subsidy. Thanks to those patriotic pure-bred Republicans who just blocked the President’s proposal to eliminate $2 billion in subsidies a year to oil, gas, and coal companies, all I have to do is say I want to build my bar over a proposed but hidden coal vein. Doesn’t even matter if there’s coal or not. All I have to do is say I think there may be coal. Later, I get a low-interest small business loan, build the bar, and deduct the mortgage interest from my income taxes.”

“That deduction is meant to allow the common person the right of home ownership.”

“And what’s more common than taking someone else’s money? Besides, it isn’t the middle-class that gets most of the benefit.” He explained that almost 100 percent of everyone with at least a $100,000 mortgage takes the interest deduction, while fewer than 20 percent of Americans below the poverty line get federal rental subsidies.

“You’ll still have to pay property taxes,” I reminded him. He reminded me that it didn’t matter.

“Most local and state governments will be so happy to have me build a business and hire minimum-wage bar girls, they’ll probably waive my taxes the first year or two and then give me tax rebates for a couple of more years.”

“O.K., for awhile you have a cheap bar. How are you planning to keep the lights on?”

“Electric companies save about $210 million a year when they buy electricity below cost from the federal dams. I just tap in on some low-voltage energy.”

“Even with cheap utilities, you’ll still have problems keeping it going.”

“Only problem I’ll have is deciding which line on the income tax form is for deductions for advertising, dinners, and research at the country club.”

“I suppose you have other scams?”

“Other subsidies, just like everyone else,” said Marshbaum snippily correcting me.

“The government pays farmers about $20 billion a year to grow feed grains to assure there will be an adequate supply. I plan to get some of those bucks by selling malt liquor. Rye. Barley. Wheat. Corn. It’s the Basic Four food groups. I can even water down my drinks since   the government also provides about $400 million a year in water subsidies.”

“The agriculture subsidy program was begun during the Great Depression to benefit poor farmers who—” Before I could finish, Marshbaum interrupted.

“It’s true that the largest 10 percent of the corporate farms get over 75 percent of the subsidies. But, as a poor struggling farmer, I may get $500. That’s still money in the pocket.”

“So, you’re saying that the government wants you to sell more drinks?”

“And less too,” he said. “There’s far too many of those nauseous appletinis. I might be able to get a government subsidy not to grow apples or tinis.” He thought a moment. “Maybe I can feature kahlúas. The government has a minimum price on milk. I may even get NAFTA trade concessions for my Friday Night Margarita promotions. Olé, y’all!”

“Aren’t you just blowing a lot of smoke past me?”

“Smoke,” said Marshbaum, “will fill my bar. It’s the least I can do to help the tobacco cartel, which gets about a billion dollars a year. I’m sure the tobacco growers would want me to have several cigarette machines in my bar.”

“And what happens when the bar fails. Your business record is as bad as cheap vinyl on a 50-year-old 45.”

“I expect to fail,” said Marshbaum. “It’s all part of my business plan.”

“Why would you want to fail?” I naively asked.

“So I can get money to keep from failing even more. Three trillion went to financial institutions. I figure I should get something for being greedy and a failure. That’s the American way!”

“Even if all of what you said is true, President Obama has been trying to reduce subsidies to the rich and to eliminate most of the annual $100 billion in corporate welfare.”

“As long as the Republicans control Congress,” said Marshbaum, “the American way of life will be preserved. Want a drink now?”

[Walter Brasch is author of the social issues mystery, Before the First Snow, and 16 other books. Before the First Snow is available at www.greeleyandstone.com, amazon.com, and other stores.]

Newspaper columnist Ann Coulter, spreading the lies of the extreme right wing, called the Occupy Wall Street protestors, “tattooed, body-pierced, sunken-chested 19-year-olds getting in fights with the police for fun.” She claimed the protestors, now in the thousands in New York, are “directionless losers [who] pose for cameras while uttering random liberal clichés lacking any reason or coherence.” (Several hundred thousand of these “directionless losers” are expected to attend rallies in more than 650 cities, Oct. 15.)

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), House majority leader, called the protest nothing more than “growing mobs,” completely oblivious to his myriad statements that he supports “mobs” when they are from the Tea Party. Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, tacking as far right as possible to avoid anyone thinking he was once a moderate, called the protest “dangerous.”

Republican presidential contender Herman Cain, in a moment that demonstrated how out of touch he is with the economic reality of the five-year recession, argued, “Don’t blame Wall Street, don’t blame the big banks; if you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself!”

Glenn Beck, too irrational even for Fox News, which terminated him less than two years after it tried to make him a TV superstar, told his radio audience, the protestors “will come for you and drag you into the streets and kill you.”

Lauren Ellis of Mother Jones, at one time a cutting edge magazine for social justice, believed that the protestors have a “lack of focus.” Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, wrote, “A protest without an objective is like a party or a picnic of the unemployed and the indolent. Unless you have an objective, what are you doing out there?”

First, let’s see just who these protestors really are. And then, let’s see what they stand for, since the mainstream media, of which Fox News is an entrenched part, don’t seem to be getting the message from the people.

The protestors rightly say they are part of the 99 percent; the other one percent have 42 percent of the nation’s wealth, the top 20 percent have more than 85 percent of the nation’s wealth, the highest accumulation since 1928, the year before the Great Depression. Even the most oblivious recognize the protestors as a large cross-section of America. They are students and teachers; housewives, plumbers, and physicians; combat veterans from every war from World War II to the present. They are young, middle-aged, and elderly. They are high school dropouts and Ph.D.s. They are from all religions and no religion, and a broad spectrum of political views.

Support has come from senior politicians with very different philosophies. Vice President Joe Biden believes the protests are because “In the minds of the vast majority of the American–the middle class is being screwed.” Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), unlike a vast majority of Republican politicians, stated, “If they were demonstrating peacefully, and making a point, and arguing our case, and drawing attention to the Fed—I would say, ‘good!’”

Second, like all protests, there are different opinions within the ranks. But, there is a core of beliefs. The protestors are fed up with corporate greed that has a base of corporate welfare and special tax benefits for the rich. They support the trade union movement, Medicare and Social Security, affordable health care for all citizens, and programs to assist the unemployed, disenfranchised, and underclass. A nation that cannot take care of the least among us doesn’t deserve to be called the best of us.

They’re mad that the home mortgage crisis, begun when greed overcame ethics and was then magnified by the failure of regulatory agencies and the Congress to provide adequate oversight, robbed all of America of its financial security. During the first half of this year alone, banks and lending agencies have sent notices to more than 1.2 million homeowners whose loans and mortgages are in default status, according to RealtyTrak. Of course, less regulation is just what conservatives want—after all, their mantra has become, “no government in our lives.”

The protestors are mad that the wealthiest corporations pay little or no taxes. They point to the Bank of America, part of the mortgage crisis problem, which earned a $4.4 billion profit last year, but received a $1.9 billion tax refund on top of a bailout of about $1 trillion. They look at ExxonMobil, which earned more than $19 billion profit in 2009, paid no taxes and received a $156 million federal rebate. Its profit for the first half of 2011 is about $ 21.3 billion.

They rightfully note that it is slimy when General Electric, whose CEO is a close Obama advisor, earned a $26 billion profit during the past five years, but still received a $4.1 billion refund.  

They’re mad that the federal government has given the oil industry more than $4 billion in subsidy, although the industry earned more than $1 trillion in profits the past decade.

They’re mad that Goldman Sachs, after receiving a $10 billion government bailout, and a $2.7 billion profit in the first quarter of 2011, shipped about 1,000 jobs overseas. During the past decade, corporations, which have paid little or no federal taxes, have outsourced at least 2.4 million jobs and are hoarding trillions which could be used to spur job growth and the economy.

They’re mad that corporations that took federal bailout money gave seven-figure bonuses to their executives.

They’re mad that the U.S., of all industrialized countries, has the highest ratio of executive pay to that of the average worker. The U.S. average is about 300 to 475 times that of the average worker. In Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, and England, the average CEO earns between 10 and 20 times what the average worker earns, and no one in those countries believes the CEOs are underpaid.

They’re mad that 47 percent of all persons who earned at least $250,000 last year, including about 1,500 millionaires, paid no taxes, according to Newsmax. If you’re a Republican member of Congress, that’s perfectly acceptable. They’re the ones who thought President Obama was launching class warfare against the rich by trying to restore the tax rate for the wealthiest Americans. They succeeded in blocking tax reform and a jobs bill, but failed to understand the simple reality—if there is class warfare, it is being waged by the elite greedy and their Congressional lackeys.

Herman Cain, Fox TV pundit Sean Hannity, and others from the extreme right wing said the protestors are un-American, apparently for protesting corporate greed. The Occupy Wall Street protestors aren’t un-American; those who defend the destruction of the middle class by defending greed, and unethical and illegal behavior, are.

[Walter Brasch is an award-winning syndicated columnist, and the author of 17 books. His latest book is Before the First Snow, a social issues mystery set in rural Pennsylvania.]

I slept the day away in hopes that I would feel better, but, today’s Ten Post Round-Up tells me I probably should crawl back into bed:

1: Shameful: US servicewomen more likely to be raped by fellow soldiers than killed by enemy fire…

At War With Ourselves: Battling Sexual Violence in the Military–AlterNet

2: Not A Surprise: Teenage girls adopting eating disorders from healthy eating messages at school…

‘Eating disorders fuelled by teachers’–The Australian

3: ACLU comes out in defense of polygamist ranch…

ACLU weighs in on Texas polygamist custody case–CNN.com

4: Florida fire hydrants to begin multi-tasking as spyware…

Florida Gets All Stasi On Citizens–duckplops

5: Smart: Bush sneaks into New Orleans, Not So Smart (?): To discuss expanding NAFTA…

José Can You See? Bush’s Trojan Taco–Greg Palast

6: Grandma’s weird Depression-era recipes are beginning to look good, now…

Food Rationing Makes Unwelcome Return–The Huffington Post

7: Oh, but flip-flops are so comfy, aren’t they?….

McCain: That was then (flip). This is now (flop).–Hypocrisy.com

8: Un-frak-ing-believable…

Judges deny some crack convicts legal help on sentences–McClatchy

9: Put this in perspective: The Army and Marines are recruiting individuals who would otherwise not be able to purchase or possess guns as civilians or be able to live in neighborhoods with a school nearby…

Army doubled felony waivers for recruits in year of Iraq surge–Raw Story

10: Oklahoma sheriff (D) works to up the ante of sexual predators vs (R)s…

Cain’t Say No–Reason Magazine

272 días hasta el final de un error…

Peace.

(I like my morning cuppa with a little hypocrisy chaser)

Tomorrow voters will cast their votes in the Pennsylvania primary and then it’s on to Indiana and North Carolina.

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend was stumping in South Bend for Hillary on Sunday. She answered some questions for the South Bend Tribune after and event at St. Mary’s College.

Here’s a couple of quips from the interview:

Q: With the primary coming so closely and still a lot of people unsure who they like more, Hillary Clinton or Obama, can you give them a little more of an idea as to why they should vote for Hillary?

A: I think we have two different candidates but I think what we’ve got in Hillary Clinton is someone who knows how to get things done, and is willing to fight — for health care for all Americans, to bring our troops home, to make sure we’ll have 5 million new green jobs and 3 million jobs in infrastructure. We want somebody who’s got the grit to get down in the details and solve problems. I want somebody who knows that we are in the worst economic times since the Great Depression, who understands what that requires, and who has a grasp on how to solve these problems.

Q: So do you feel that Obama is sort of too gentle or isn’t tough enough to deal with Republicans in Washington?

A: I just think that that he doesn’t have the same experience. Give him a few years so that he knows how to get things done. Look, he’s a very good candidate. I think he has inspired wonderful numbers of young people to come into the campaign. He has been very exciting. But at the end of the day, when we have had the crises that we have now, I want somebody who has really got the grit and the fight to solve problems. [...]

Q: As far as the economy, what can Hillary do that Obama can’t?

A: Hillary can get things done. The issue of experience is, who can actually get things done? She’s got a plan for 5 million green jobs, she’s got a plan for 3 million infrastructure jobs. I haven’t heard that he has those plans. But she’s been in the Senate for a while. She’s been the first lady of the United States, the first lady of Arkansas. She is accustomed to actually seeing a problem and trying to solve it.

The bottom-line, Barack Obama “doesn’t have the same experience” that Hillary Clinton has. That fact is something that has been echoed here time and time again. Townsend is right: “Give him a few years so that he knows how to get things done.” This is a critical election. We need an experienced leader to clean up the mess that Bush has made. That leader is Hillary Clinton.

Hillary has the “grit”:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’ve been laying low today, once again playing catch up with business and rest. Ah, yes rest… Something I never get enough of. Suffice to say running a small business and a blog keeps me very busy and rarely take much time for myself. That said, here’s the Weekend Reading List:

The Gallup Daily shows a Clinton upswing in recent days: Clinton 46%, Obama 45%:

At TaylorMarsh.com a piece by Paul Lukasiak dissecting the story by “journalist” Celeste Fremon that was front-paged at the HuffPo last night: “Anatomy of a Left Wing Smear.”

On TalkLeft from Jeralyn: “Bill Clinton Explains Falsities in Obama’ s Newest Ad” and Political Radar reports, “Bill Clinton Says Criticisms of Hillary’s Healthcare Plan are ‘Bull’.” CNN has more on the healthcare attacks ads battle in PA. No matter how Obama tries to slice it, Hillary Clinton still has the winning healthcare plan — even Elizabeth Edwards knows that. 

If you think the conservative base won’t continue to work “Bittergate” think again… Mark Steyn has at it: “Guns and God? Hell, yes.” And Arthur C. Brooks chimes in on the WSJ with this one: “Trigger Happy.”

In the NY Times on Friday, David Brooks recants “How Obama Fell to Earth.”

AP News reports Michigan is moving forward regardless of the fact that no decision has been made to seat the delegates: “Mich. Democrats fill 1st round of national convention spots.”

Obama does the doublespeak thing again… hitting Clinton with his own brand of projectionism. For someone who decries “petty, trivial slash and burn, back and forth, tit for tat politics,” Barack Obama sure does engage in them frequently as CNN’s Political Ticker notes: Clinton camp: Obama was a ‘hypocrite from day one’.

Let’s not forget we have other important races to win in November: “Democrats Widen Fundraising Lead for Senate Campaigns.”

Got gas??? If you do, you probably don’t have much spare change: “Pump prices rise to new record.”

Got trash??? NPR reports: “Beach Cleanup Tally: 6 Million Pounds of Trash.”

Hillary Clinton received some key endorsements in the past couple of days from: Congressman Tim Ryan; Congresswoman Betty Sutton; and Former NJ Governors Jim Florio & Brendan Byrne.

In North Carolina Friday: “Clinton and longtime friend Angelou sit, have a chat about issues the nation and voters face.”

Got links to share??? Post them in the comments.

Don’t forget to contribute to “Give Hillary The Resources To Win” and if you are feeling generous this weekend, consider a donation to The Dem Daily, too!

SUNDAY UPDATE:

On Buck Naked Politics, Damozel notes in a Must Read post: The Media’s Role in the Obama Phenomenon as a Sign of a Deeper Trend.

It’s smells like a pep rally burning out of control, in my front yard.  Today’s Ten Post Round-Up might singe your eyebrows:

1: What a relief! The Cheney sunglasses mystery is solved!…

Image In Cheney’s Glasses Actually Bush’s Eternal Soul–CAP News

2: Ahem–Attention American Taxpayers: You are supposed to squander your stimulus check NOT pay bills with it! Putting it away for your own benefit is not why we are sending it to you…

Economic Stimulus: Good for individuals or the overall economy, not both–Colorado Confidential

3: On the upside, those stimulus checks might come just in time for you to make the massive going-out-of-business sales, sure to be all the rage this summer…

More Economic Pain: Retailing Chains Caught in a Wave of Bankruptcies–The Democratic Daily

4: More “good” news…umm…the war in Iraq might come to an end, particularly if those stimulus checks don’t work out like they’re supposed to…

US Financial Collapse Will End Bush/Cheney Iraq War–duckplops

5: Some conservatives like to complain about all those “liberal activist judges”. Would you like to guess who the truly “activist judges” really are (pssst…they are conservative)…

So Much For The False “Activist Judges” Canard…–Firedoglake

6: Decisions, decisions: affordable food prices or less oil-dependency. Hmmm…those mud pies look really good…

Backlash Against Ethanol–Free Market News

7: Silver lining emerges after the military finally releases AP photographer…

At least this poor sot didn’t make it to Gitmo..–Its my Right to be Left of the Center

8: Even visitors are being ticketed for not having their vehicles registered in Washington, D.C….

Don’t Live in D.C.–Reason Magazine

9: Mystery of what happened to the good ship (snicker) Titanic still lingers after all these years ….

Rivets–Talking Points Memo

10: The plot thickens: It appears that the FLDS compound has a financial connection with the Pentagon…

BREAKING NEWS:::FUNDING QUESTIONS ABOUT THE SECT…..NBC REPORTED TONIGHT–Watergate Summer

278 días hasta el final de un error…

Peace.

(I love the smell of hypocrisy in my morning cuppa)

Other than a very robust war policy, about the only discernible policy that BUSHCO has is their proprietary version of an energy policy, namely The Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Mind you, we can’t use any of our oil stockpile, because then it would not be available in case we face times even tougher than these. I mean, what would our military use to be able to wage war if OPEC were to ever stop it’s policy of price aggression and switch to some form of even more serious supply reduction aggression?

On the other hand, there would certainly be no problem in asking our troops to do without food should a true food shortage develop. Anyway I guess that there wouldn’t be a problem, because we certainly maintain no stockpile of food that can be said to be the functional equivalent of our oil reserve. And then I think about the disaster that would be occurring today if we were taking food off of the world market at the same rate that we are still pouring crude oil into some bottomless Louisiana salt dome. Wow, the whole thing makes my head spin trying to think about which is spiraling in price the fastest, oil or food.

It’s being said that the current “perfect storm” of food supply constrictions is partially influenced by a modicum of prosperity in Asia resulting in increased meat consumption (more grains being feed to raise poultry and livestock), and things like sugar cane and corn farm lands being devoted to creating ethanol for use in motor vehicles. But one would be remiss in not considering the affect of oil price increases on food cost/supply given the role that petroleum plays in supplying both fuel and fertilizer for agriculture.

My fantasy is a food/energy policy that would dump a few hundred million barrels of oil onto the world market cheaply and in a couple of weeks, along with an immediate moratorium on the use of ethanol made from food items. Could you imagine waking up some morning to food and gasoline prices dropping so rapidly that you could literally watch them go down?

But, anyway, enough of fantasies. Let’s concede that a Strategic Petroleum Reserve, at least in the hands of a Democratic administration, can actually serve a legitimate function. Would we not then also be forced to agree with the logic of managing food resources in some similar fashion?

But maybe our “energy policy” that aids OPEC/big oil exists only coincidentally. And maybe an impending situation of some vast number of people facing impending starvation really is of only minor consequence.

Call me naive, but I think that answers to these problems can be found if a major effort at the highest levels of world cooperation and organization is made. And I could be just plain old fashioned stupid, but I can still imagine some success in such an endeavor being possible if lead from our side by a Democratic President, and nothing even vaguely similar to any sort of a positive outcome being possible so long as we entrust the power of our national government to any person carrying the banner of the Republic Party.