I get tired of this mantra about subsidies for oil companies from people that have no idea what they are but it is always hate the oil companies first. The number that gets thrown around is 4 billion dollars per year.

But look at the breakdown. The single largest expenditure is just over $1 billion for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which is designed to protect the U.S. from oil shortages. The second largest category is just under $1 billion in tax exemptions for farm fuel. The justification for that tax exemption is that fuel taxes pay for roads, and the farm equipment that benefits from the tax exemption is technically not supposed to be using the roads. The third largest category? $570 million for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. (This program is classified as a petroleum subsidy because it artificially reduces the price of fuel, which helps oil companies sell more of it). Those three programs account for $2.5 billion a year in “oil subsidies.” The remaining portion of the so called tax breaks--- Last year CNN did a story where they put together their own list of the so-called oil subsidies, and in their list the “largest single tax break” — amounting to $1.7 billion per year for the oil industry — is a manufacturer’s tax deduction that is defined in Section 199 of the IRS code. This is a tax credit designed to keep manufacturing in the U.S., but it isn’t specific to oil companies. It is a tax credit enjoyed by highly profitable companies like Microsoft and Apple, and even foreign companies that operate factories in the U.S. Further, the deduction for oil companies is already limited. Apple is able to take a 9% manufacturer’s tax deduction, but ExxonMobil is only allowed to take a 6% deduction. Now , do we want to start picking winners and losers (croney capitalism) in the tax code?

Yeah, well good luck with that! I'll get really excited when something concrete happens. But, until then, it's just a bunch of talk and empty promises. Much ado about nothing! I also hear the government is going after some of the S&P criminals from 2007. Yeah, good luck with that, too! I'd be overjoyed if these banking, Wall Street, and corporate crime lords got some serious jail time and have all of their ill-gotten wealth taken away from them...and a kind of homeostasis of our economy through new laws, or reinstatement of old laws, and proper enforcement of them return to America. And as Max Keiser said (sort of)....instead of bailing out criminal banksters...double minimum wage...and watch our economy boom.

Quote radster63:First of all these are bad guys. The crying about killing of innocent civilians isn't the problem, the Taliban surrounds themselves by civilians instead of doing their fighting in a matter that is above a coward.

Groups of brave Americans, using whatever means they have at their disposal, attempt to fight back. They realize that to stand right out in the open with their puny weapons would be futile and they would have absolutely zero chance of fighting the invaders. They'd just be mowed down. So they adopt guerrilla tactics, that even their forefathers used in successfully fighting the superior forces at the time, the British.

"The war" is covered by the "Alien Fox News channel" back on their planet Sleaze but the alien military has long learned their lesson that they had to keep their really despicable atrocities from their alien civilian's consciences. Alien Fox News channel's star news anchor and commentator Glenn Feckless constantly rattles on, sobbing tears of patriotic tripe, constantly beckoning his audience to "support the troops" for their worthy heroic and sacrifices to Zod and Planet and for their bravery in fighting "the enemy" on planet Earth. It is perfectly ok to wipe these scum off the face of the Earth because they are all superstitious worshipers of some strange god and have really strange morals and lifestyles (ancient 21st century stuff...despicable!).

As stories of the continuous atrocities of massive civilian deaths in the United States, the focus of the attack, leak back to planet Sleaze (planet Sleaze's upstart, Julian Estranged, intercepted and unencrypted some secret messages coming in from the "war zone" on planet Earth documenting the atrocities). Some Sleazians, privy to these atrocities, are beginning to feel, well, kind of 'sleazy' and begin to speak out against their jingoist war mongers. But, other Sleazians start saying things like: "First of all these are bad guys. The crying about killing of innocent civilians isn't the problem, the 'Americans' surround themselves by civilians instead of doing their fighting in a matter that is above a coward."

Yeah! Damn them cowards!...fighting the same kind of guerrilla war like America's forefathers fought against the British. Why don't they all just stand out in the open while "brave" Alien soldiers mow them down with their far superior killing machines?
------------------------
You want "bad guys", Radster63? You need to start looking at the ones closer to home...the ones that have managed to take away our liberties and freedoms, taken away our homes, and driven many of us to our death beds through poverty and lack of decent wages and healthcare.

The "bad guys" are the ones propagandizing dummies out of their humanity while the 'bad guys' rake in the wealth and power from slaughtering innocent human beings around the world. The "bad guys" are manufacturing enemies everywhere so that they can keep us all very afraid and subservient.

And as Naomi Klein has said in her book "The Shock Doctrine"..(but in my words)...if these 'slime-ball opportunists' don't have a natural disaster that they can move into and take advantage of ...they'll create disasters...wars. They need 'enemies' as an excuse to keep us all very afraid and reliant upon them for our 'protection'...so that they can continue to drain us all of every last dollar we have. Our real enemies are not the manufactured enemies in the Middle East...they are in positions of wealth and power right here in the United States. Just by occupying their land and murdering their civilians the US is creating millions of enemies. The blowback could be overwhelming...and I hope like hell they manage to get the top gangsters that are mostly responsible for creating these war crimes and not the dumbed down idiot civilians who are too stupid to know any better.

MMmmNACHOS says "...until the American people, organize, unite, and revolt; taking a stand collectively against a corupt and murderous government...It won't matter who the puppet is, and Your vote won't mean a damn thing."

No argument there. But the problem is, they haven't. Otherwise I would have voted for Anderson or Stein.

Nachos, had you bothered to read my entries of the past two or three months, you would know that I'm fully aware who the "Puppet Masters of USA, Inc." are. Don't be so sanctimonious. - Alice I.W.

Alice, Alice, Alice....You misunderstand what I mean...Neither Obama or Romney can equate to a lesser evil. Both are Corporate Puppets and serve Wall St. True Romney would have served the right...but Obamney isn't really doing the opposite, and is a foul leader with innocent blood on his hands. That you voted for Obama says you are okay with that, and you can scream different but that's the bottom line truth...You voted for a Corporate Murderous Puppet!

You say that Stein and Anderson would never stand a chance...it's that kind of irrational thinking that lends to fear votes. More important than just winning is sending a loud message to Washington. Originally I was going to vote for Ron Paul, but then I realized he - all-though-be-it he changed the conversation regarding war, terrorism, and foreign policy - he would still be an economic puppet obediently serving Wall St.

And to further my oppinion...I wasn't worried as to weither Mitt or Barrack became president...Again because they both serve Wall St.

2950-10k...How about building windmills and solar panels???
How about writing an Energy Policy similar to that of Germany, and China? Both of those countries are a good 20+ years ahead of us in this arena.
My wife and I live in Fl. where it is sunny something like 96% of the year. Germany is sunny about 38% of the year, yet they have managed to position themselves as leaders in the Solar Technology field...Gotta love those krauts!
My wife works for a Solar Installation company. They do Solar hot water and PV for domestic and commercial. There are 6 Solar companies in the West Central Fl. area...All are busy but slow at the same time. The main reason is the lack of funding on both a Federal and State level. Last year there was only 5 million dollars for the ENTIRE STATE of Fl. Yet there is a growing demand for solar energy. However the market over the past 15 years has been trendy at best when it comes to "green" solutions; driving the price of solar up. On average it cost $45k to go off the grid; which here in Fl. F.P.L. (Florida Plunder and Loot) still charges you a small fee.
Simple solution...The government needs to write a Solar (and wind) energy policy. Apply it to excisting homes and buildings along with new construction. This will increase jobs, boost the market (if we manufacture materials ourselves) and get us up to where we need to be with Solar and Wind Energy Alternatives.
The only place on earth where solar and wind energy isn't effective is where the sun don't shine and the air is still...Not too many places like that here on planet Earth.

In response to 2950-10K's comment on the use of drones being counter-productive, Palindromedary wrote "I believe that the whole purpose was not to 'win hearts and minds' but to create enemies so that they would serve as an excuse for massive military spending". This goes right to the heart of the matter. We need enemies, this time in the form of fresh red Muslim meat, to keep that war machine stoked. When it comes to filling the coffers of the oligarchs, nothing does it like a long grinding war (on someone else's turf).

AIW, in post #44 you expressed it beautifully when you said "....this is what FACISM looks like". In fact, today's US policy reflects the very definition of the word. But as one who voted for Obama in '08 but couldn't gag him down last November (voted independent as a protest), I didn't consider Obama (as opposed to Romney) to be the lesser evil. In fact, his sinister expansion of his executive powers makes him far more dangerous than GWB ever was. As someone else pointed out, he knows better. With his smooth demeanor and persuasive oratory skills he's serving the puppet masters far more effectively than a klutz like Romney ever could have, and that's why he won. If Hillary runs in 2016 and wins, it'll be more of the same. Please, folks, don't vote for these people again....

In response to the humanitys team assertion "If we had women in power they would hammer out justice."

Remember that back in 1996, when she was confronted in a TV interview, with human rights organization estimates that UN (more accurately, U.S. Clinton Regime) sanctions would surely cause the deaths of half a million Iraqi children, Clinton's Secretary of State, his Field Marshall Madeline Albright, calmly confirmed her, and the Clinton Regime's position: "the price is worth it" with the "price" being half a million Iraqi kids murdered, and the "it" being the forced retirement of just one (1) insubordinate U.S. sandthug. An intentional sacrifice of 500,000 innocent children by "progressive" Democrats to attempt to downsize 1 employee the "progressive" Democrats wished to discard... simply because their sand thug disloyally wished to sell oil for currencies other than the U.S. Dollar.

The last three Secretaries of State were women... all of them sharing the same strategic goals as the men who preceded them, and the man now following them.

Secretary of State:

euphemistic title given to America's Secretary of Aggression

The APT: American Political Terms:

http://chenangogreens.org/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id...

It appears that Thom needs to get his glasses checked so he can see clearly on this issue and the usage of Drones. First of all these are bad guys. The crying about killing of innocent civilians isn't the problem, the Taliban surrounds themselves by civilians instead of doing their fighting in a matter that is above a coward. So when we see white flags being waved, then we'll quit using the drones. See, isn't that easy to understand and see.

Hey Outback, Neighbors say that Jimmy Lee Dykes was essentially a conservative extremist who played right wing radio most of the time.....so he gets programmed... then goes out and kills a school bus driver and takes a five year old hostage. I can't think of anything I've ever read in Mother Jones that would program me or anyone else to want to hate and kill. Think about this for a moment. Your comment sounds like something Dykes would say!

I really wasn't expecting you to "like" the music, or the band...More important is the songs lyrics which were written and recorded back in '86 during the Reagan crisis. Disturbing how there concept still holds true today.

But for the record...The only talent to come out of the 3 bands you mentioned was John Lennon. At least he knew how to vocalize his conscience. Wasn't he "assasinated" during the Reagan crisis???

You may be interested in the movie documentary John Lennon vs. The United States. An excellent time line of John Lennons social and political activism.