no more blood for oil

From: aaron@greengrassrealestate.com
Subject: Re: Rally for an Oil Free Congress 6/28/06 at 5pm in Oak Park!
Date: June 15, 2006 11:25:25 PM CDT
To: Todd

Todd,

Thanks very much for your email. While I definitely appreciate the time you took to respond, I must respectfully disagree with your position.

The economic system of this country (and the rest of the world) is undeniably based on oil. Every product we consume, our houses, jobs, and pretty much everything within civilization at this point depends on oil. Oil is extracted from the ground - the majority of which is owned by various governments around the world. Those governments receive their power to govern from the masses.

So let's take a step back from the system and look at the picture that's been painted. Governments belong to the people, who are dependent on oil. A war is created, and the price of oil rises. Most of the rise in the price of oil has much more to do with commodities and futures trading, since speculators assume (rightly) that given the political instability in the oil-rich countries, a serious climactic crisis brewing, and a commodity becoming increasingly in demand while diminishing rapidly in supply, oil prices in the future will go way, way up.

How lovely for the oil companies. They don't have to do any more work for the oil - they just make more money for every barrel that gets pulled out of the ground. What they've already pulled out is worth far more than it was 5-6 years ago.

I'm not attacking the oil industry - my personal attack is at the entire system. I believe it is morally wrong to kill people for money, however richly saturated our history is with warfare. I don't want to support it, and I don't want my tax dollars to do so either. It's hard to isolate Chevron, to say that they're any more responsible for the war than the man at the gas station. They really just did their jobs for their shareholders - and quite well. Likewise, Bush has done a great job for the people who put him into office - the super elite. Economically speaking, the rich are doing really, really well off this war. They'll continue to do so.

My concern, and the reason for my efforts taken to spread this propaganda, is purely selfish at heart. It bothers me every time I drive down the street to see how much harder it is for people than it used to be such a short time ago. People look more worn, they are scared, and they have less. As the economy gets worse and worse, as we borrow money from the Chinese to pay for the oil companies to become richer by killing people, our country becomes more poor. Let me clarify - the rich become far more rich, and the poor become far more poor. Unfortunately, even poor people need to eat. When there aren't any jobs (I live on the West side, parts of which have unemployment in excess of 60%) or access to social programs (huge cuts in federal budget), they resort to crime. Crime begets violence, and I don't want to get shot.

My interest in spreading this, in encouraging people to become involved, is to do exactly this - to stimulate debate. I have become much more politically aware, involved, and educated in the past five years. I've spent a lot of time doing careful research, investigating my sources, and understanding the systems that govern the world in which we live. I'm certainly not the most well-informed by any stretch of the imagination, but I can hold my own in most arenas of debate that I've encountered.

My attack on the entire system is based on the propaganda that our current society revolves around. The idea that society must sacrifice millions and millions of lives to a war machine in order to be economically viable is the largest load of tripe that we have swallowed to date. The political, social, and civil costs of war are born by us all, but the largest burdens fall to the most ignorant. A smaller nugget of gold that the middle class happily chokes down is the notion that it is immune - that because the poor are the ones drafted, they will die in the wars. We have fallen asleep at the wheel - we collectively remember a time when America was poised at the pinnacle of a global society on the march towards progress, but we only remember the dream of what was. In our reality today, we are the citizens of a nation whose companies plunder the world. No pirate sailing a ship was ever able to loot as much booty as the companies driving the wars.

The great illusion to the middle class, the idea that it is immune, keep us from changing this system. When the price of something so interconnected to every aspect of our society increases, the people who are poised to take advantage of that situation benefit the most. So - the commodities traders, the politicians, the oil executives - those people become rich upon the backs of the working poor who have no choice within this economic system but to suckle at the teat of the oil industry, not knowing that they are becoming more poisoned with each sip.

The lesson from all of this - it is utterly critical for the continued status of this nation; for us to stay economically, socially, and politically viable moving forward in this new era - we must eliminate our dependence on oil. Further, it is essential that we learn to distinguish propaganda from fact. The facts are pure and simple - oil is black gold because it is as dark as the blood that is spilled in its quest. Our government created war to create profit. When the greatest propaganda machine the world has ever known - the US government right now - has stopped broadcasting its message through the largest and loudest media in the history of creation - then I'll feel able to stop spreading mine.

Thank you very much for your time.

Aaron





On Jun 15, 2006, at 4:59 PM, todd wrote:

Aaron,

Please don't send this type of propaganda to me. I'm 100% in support of the work being done in the middle east, and this attack on the oil industry, which our nation's economy is built on, is hyperbole that is intended to be consumed by the uneducated masses.




From: "aaron mcmanus - green grass real estate inc"
To: "Valued Customer"
Subject: Rally for an Oil Free Congress 6/28/06 at 5pm in Oak Park!
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 15:54:40 -0400

---------------------------------
DON'T MISS THIS!!!!
---------------------------------

On Wednesday, June 28th, 2006 from 5pm-7pm, tens of thousands will
gather at gas stations across the country to protest our government's
global campaign for oil, power, and money.

---------------------------------
DON'T MISS THIS!!!!
---------------------------------

MoveOn.org needs your help! We'll be in Oak Park at the corner of
Austin & Harrison, just off 290 and the Blue Line at the Mobil and Shell
stations there. Please visit
http://political.moveon.org/event/oilfree/9336 for more details.

---------------------------------

Since 1990, Big Oil has given more than $190 million to members of
Congress, with over 75% of the donations going to Republicans (1).
Those same companies have experienced record profits of over $34 billion
since Bush took office (2). That tremendous return on investment
doesn't begin to compare with the cost of the war - over $288 billion
(3) so far, and growing every day. That's $1,154 for each person in
this country. The US spends almost as much as the rest of the world put
together, with 48% of the $1.12 trillion spent globally in 2005 (4).

---------------------------------

Our government lied to us. There were no weapons of mass destruction,
there were no links to 9/11. They've spent our money to kill innocent
people. They did it to make money. It worked.

---------------------------------

If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention. Get up and do
something about it - next Wednesday, June 26 at 5pm. If you can't make
it to Oak Park, search for an event near you at
http://political.moveon.org/event/oilfree - make some signs, bring a
megaphone, and get ready to have some fun protesting!

---------------------------------

(1) Center for Responsive Politics, Oil and Gas: Long-Term Contribution
Trends.
(2) Democratic Party citing EIA monthly energy review on 5/18/05 press
release
(3) Costofwar.com, a National Priorities Project
(4) Reuters, Global military spend hits $1.12 trillion, 6/12/06


aaron mcmanus
green grass real estate, inc
5445 W Augusta Blvd Chicago, IL 60651

RIGHT ON Ehren Watada!!!!!!

Serious props goes to the first officer to stand up to the military... Right on with your bad self!!!!

From http://thankyoult.org/

June 7, 2006) - Family, Friends, Members of the Religious Community, Members of the Press, and my fellow Americans—thank you for coming today.

My name is Ehren Watada. I am a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army and I have served for 3 years.

It is my duty as a commissioned officer of the United States Army to speak out against grave injustices. My moral and legal obligation is to the Constitution and not those who would issue unlawful orders. I stand before you today because it is my job to serve and protect those soldiers, the American people, and innocent Iraqis with no voice.

Lt. Ehren Watada during recording of statement, June 6, 2006
It is my conclusion as an officer of the Armed Forces that the war in Iraq is not only morally wrong but a horrible breach of American law. Although I have tried to resign out of protest, I am forced to participate in a war that is manifestly illegal. As the order to take part in an illegal act is ultimately unlawful as well, I must as an officer of honor and integrity refuse that order.

The war in Iraq violates our democratic system of checks and balances. It usurps international treaties and conventions that by virtue of the Constitution become American law. The wholesale slaughter and mistreatment of the Iraqi people with only limited accountability is not only a terrible moral injustice, but a contradiction to the Army’s own Law of Land Warfare. My participation would make me party to war crimes.

Normally, those in the military have allowed others to speak for them and act on their behalf. That time has come to an end. I have appealed to my commanders to see the larger issues of our actions. But justice has not been forthcoming. My oath of office is to protect and defend America’s laws and its people. By refusing unlawful orders for an illegal war, I fulfill that oath today.

Thank you.

The concept of a planet

In a recent Salon article Walter Shapiro quotes an unnamed energy executive who says that people "don't want the lights to go out."

That's an excellent way to sum up most people's thoughts on the environment. Aside from the direct intersection with their lives, they don't understand the whole concept of the planet and our impact upon it.

Understanding environmentalism requires a few basic fundemental beliefs. First, that we are each individually responsible for our actions. This type of free-will exercise may be strictly a mental one for people who feel trapped as factory workers, abused spouses, or victims of a perceived injustice. Being a victim is entirely the opposite of feeling a sense of responsibility for one's own life. If I am responisble for my life, why would I stay in this situation in which I suffer?

The second basic belief, which builds on the first, is that we are collectively responsible for the state of the planet. This cannot exist without the first - if someone cannot feel a sense of responsibility for their own life, how can that person be expected to feel duty towards the planet?

The third belief is that change is good. Look around at how people live their lives. Excitement comes through television shows, sports events, and gossip. Academics lock themselves in the warrens of the mind, like a hobbitish librarian in a plesantly damp basement corner surrounded by stacks of books under a single dim light. Business people are jocks, competition relegated in the demise of the aging body to the fields of stocks, bonds, and real estate. Score is kept through payroll. We have movies, music, art, work, sex, love, children, and homes to distract us from any misery. What change is needed?

Our personal and individual challenge is this: to reach deep down inside ourselves, way down, and find the part of ourselves which is so excited to be alive, that loves every day for its challenges, its struggles, its joys - the ups and the downs of the ride - to find that part and balance it with the side that sees the suffering, the pain, and the agony all around us. This is the concept of a planet, and when coupled with our own responsibility it is staggering.

We are such an interconnected part of this world which we inhabit. Every day, our actions shape our reality. The air that we breathe makes children cough because of the cars that we drive. Thousands die each day because we don't hold our leaders accountable for their actions. We can change that - but there are some basic beliefs that come first.

It is our duty, I believe, to teach each other what we can. There could be no greater gift to others than to teach them about the powers that come with the acceptance of responsibility and the joys of the future that are possible if we make changes today. Please do your part to give that gift as often as possible.

Ahmadinejad, aside from being nuts, has some good questions to Bush...

Pushing aside what you'd expect - radical islamic fundamentalism, armageddon fantasies, anti-Isreal sentiments - and the letter asks a lot of questions that America should be asking itself.

Regarding 9/11 - "Why have the various aspects of the attacks been kept secret?"

Guantanamo Bay - "There are prisoners in Guantanamo Bay that have not been tried, have no legal representation, their families cannot see them and are obviously kept in a strange land outside their own country. There is no international monitoring of their conditions and fate. No one knows whether they are prisoners, POWs, accused or criminals."

Iraq - "Can one be a follower of Jesus Christ [...] but at the same time, have countries attacked; the lives, reputations and possessions of people destroyed..."

Latin America - "Don't Latin Americans have the right to ask, why their elected governments are being opposed and coup leaders supported?"

Africa - "Don't they have the right to ask why their enormous wealth - including minerals - is being looted, despite the fact that they need it more than others? Again, do such actions correspond to the teachings of Christ and the tenets of human rights?"

Media & Fear - "Why was the media, instead of conveying a feeling of security and providing peace of mind, giving rise to a feeling of insecurity?"

The role of government & presidents - "
Did we manage to bring peace, security and prosperity for the people or insecurity and unemployment? [...] Did we bring the world peace and security or raise the specter of intimidation and threats?"

and of course, the question on my mind... "How much longer can the world tolerate this situation?"

the dildo song

Our political system is a joke

Rolling Stone's new article by Robert Kennedy Jr tells the tale of the 2004 election. RFK's excellently researched & annotated article goes into extreme depth with numerous examples outlining a plotted and calculated successful grab of the US presidency. Not that this is news to anyone paying attention, but it's nice to see such a high-profile democrat doing something, saying something... making a case!

Why, oh why, have they not started shouting this before?

It seems so utterly apparent to me and those to whom I speak that the democrats could be recruiting like nobody's business right now. If only they were willing to stand up against the attrocities that have been committed in the name of the US - at home and abroad - during this presidency, they would take back politcal control quickly and easily.

So why don't they?

Remember when Al Gore presided over the congressional confirmation of Bush's election? According to the article that I just linked to, he "blended wit and formality" to respond to the objections raised by numerous members of the house of representatives. Some of them were crying, and when I saw the video, it looked harsh when he told them to sit down. If you watched the full video, you got to see them pleading with the audience for at least one senator to sign off to get recounts, to stop the madness, to put a roadblock in front of the path to the white house... but not one senator would sign off. After years of preparation, after 8 years of being Bill Clinton's VP, after all of his years in DC, Gore couldn't find one senator to sign off for him? Not one democrat was interested in a recount?

I don't believe it. You don't spend that much time, energy, and money on getting yourself that close to the white house to bow out at the last minute. There is no difference between blue and red, donkeys and elephants, democrats and republicans. They create the illusion of choice for America, the idea that we have options. This is nothing more than theater being displayed in front of us.

The powers that be decreed that regardless of the will of the people, GWB was to be in power for the past 6 years, so they stole 2 elections because he couldn't win on his own. The democrats conceeded the elections with minor bits of feather ruffling and noise made about unfair practices and election reform, but even the reps who weren't told to play along seemed to shut up pretty fast. Now that we're coming closer to the 2008 election, the democrats are starting to make noise again, to remind us that they're here with arms open wide to welcome the folks who are fleeing in fear from the repulican elephants ready to trample them. Like the ass that is their mascot, they are just braying mules ready to be the beasts of burden for whoever's running the show behind the scenes.

Keep spreading the truth!