MONEY FOR NOTHING

(Dire Straits)

Is it me?

Several items have been chewing on my peace of mind. Maybe I'm hypersensitive for no good reason.

Where do you weigh in on this?

Gas prices are up over $3.00 a gallon and they say there's no immediate relief and it's because of this or that and the reasons seem to make sense. Ethanol conversion. Plants down. Katrina-induced shutdowns still not yet fixed. Consumption.

And yet Exxon is now the largest American company.

Their former chief executive, Lee Raymond, (retired in December) was paid $144,573 a day - A DAY - from 1993 to 2005. Savants already know: that's $686 million.

Is this the free market economy at work? Or fat pig greed?

Would consumption go markedly up if prices ran back to, say, $1.99? I think not. Not much, anyway. I think people will bite the bullet and drive even when it hurts to pay the pump - they haven't markedly cut back despite the rise. But something's wrong. There's no way Exxon should be so piggish and get away with it. The press seems to buy the story given by... The American Petroleum Institute. (Not that they'd be anything less than forthright.) They say it costs so much to explore. Maybe, but maybe trimming some of that profit would help pay for it and also run down prices.

I'm ticked at the gas companies. I'm ticked at the press. I'm ticked at the government.

And on THAT subject... it seems that US-sensitive data on flash drives was being sold in Bagram, Afghanistan, at a bazaar - probably not for the info but for the drives, yet you have to wonder what kind of government allows such lax security that the air base would be so porous that workers or whomever could simply walk away with such data? Spies' lists. Personal data. Strategy. On HUNDREDS of drives. Nice work.

I say fire the men on top.

Then there's Rumsfeld. What are we up to now - 6 retired generals calling for his resignation. Rummy says, well, there are thousands of these generals, so what noise do 6 make? BUT THEY WERE THERE, involved in the war.

I say fire Rummy. Bush, of course, supports his guy. We'll get to him in a minute.

Then there's Katrina... so much waste, the job not done.

Then there's general waste in the government. It apparently leaks money that nobody knows about. The GAO, if memory serves, and some commission or other both reached the same conclusion: waste and loss is costing the taxpayers trillions.

So, who's to blame?

I say the get-nothing-done party system. I say the pork barrel party-line-tit- sucking 'leaders.' I say throw them ALL out and start over. They can't even pass a good ethics bill.

Get rid of every one of them. Vote them out. Incumbent = OUT!

I fear we are in serious trouble. I don't even want to write about the freedoms lost. I honestly wonder if some NSA computer will track this blog down as disloyal. Remember Nixon's "enemies" list and how silly it seemed - if you weren't on it? I assume it meant more if you were! Now grandmothers and bloggers are 'watched.' If you are against the status quo you are disloyal. Citizens are watched as suspicious for exercising their right to free speech while our SECRETS are for sale at the Afghan bazaar!

This country was founded on disloyalty - disloyalty to Britain, if you remember. The forefathers must be spinning in their graves, drilling through the dirt. Maybe they'll strike oil and save us from that mess.