More on the perils of Exxon

There's more to this story. I still encourage people to boycott Exxon-Mobil for the reasons outlined in my post of last week.

However, there is now Congressional action on this issue(finally). Democratic Senator Carl Levin of Michigan proposed a windfall profits tax, and Republic Senator Arlen Specter backed the proposal as well. This is just a first step, but it is certainly a welcome one. Encourage your Senator to support this measure!



Also, I received this interesting email the other day from a very non-political friend of mine:

GAS WAR - an idea that WILL work

This was originally sent by a retired Coca Cola executive It came from one of his engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton. It's worth your consideration.

Join the resistance!!!! I hear we are going to hit close to $ 4.00 a gallon by next summer and it might go higher!!? Want gasoline prices to come down?? We need to take some intelligent, united action.

Phillip Hollsworth offered this good idea. This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don't buy gas on a certain day" campaign that was going around last April or May! The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to "hurt" ourselves by refusing to buy gas.? It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them. BUT, whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work. Please read on and join with us!

By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at about $1.50 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently $2.79 for regular unleaded in my town.? Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned usto think that the cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at $1.50 - $1.75, we need to take aggressive action to
teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace..not sellers. With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we
are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves. How?

Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop buying gas. But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a price war.

Here's the idea: For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies(which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL.? If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon and Mobil gas buyers. It's really simple to do! Now,
don't wimp out on me at this point...keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!

I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300) ... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 =
3,000)...and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth group of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers.

If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted!? If it goes one level further, you
guessed it..... THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all!(If you don't understand how we can reach 300 million and all you have to do is send this to 10 people....Well, let's face it, you just aren't a mathematician. But I am so trust me on this one.) :-)

How long would all that take? If each of us sends this e-mail out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!! I'll bet you didn't think you and I had that much potential, did you! Acting together we can make a difference.

If this makes sense to you, please pass this messageon. I suggest that we not buy from EXXON/MOBIL? UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $1.30 RANGE AND KEEP
THEM DOWN. THIS CAN REALLY WORK

Quote of the Day: Martin Luther King, Jr.

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."-Martin Luther King, Jr.

Quote of the Day

I'm going to revive my old quote of the day feature. Here's today's:

"If it had not been for the discontent of a few who had not been satisfied with their condition we would still be living in caves. Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization."-Eugene Debs

For those who don't know, Eugene Debs was a union organizer for the American Railway Union(ARU) and led the famous Pullman Strike. He helped organized the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, also known as the "Wobblies") and was a leader of the Socialist Party, running as their presidential candidate on five occasions, including 1912, when he got 6% of the vote, including more than 16% in Oklahoma!

Read more about Debs at Wikipedia.

Save Dollars and the environment-Boycott Exxon-Mobil!

Being a good, knowledgeable leftist, I have long boycotted Exxon-Mobil. First of all, the company has a horrible environmental record. Remember the Exxon Valdez? Not just an accident, it was a matter of corporate negligence. The company has committed a whole host of other environmental crimes, many of which are well-documented by the Sierra Club through their Expose Exxon campaign. Meanwhile, the company had record profits at the expense of ordinary Americans who were gouged at the pump. And the company is not doing its part to develop cleaner fuels, nor agreeing to taxes on its windfall profits.

But yet another reason to boycott this terrible company is simple economics. In my informal surveys, I have consistently noticed that Exxon's gas is generally at least ten cents more expensive than its competitors. Just the other day, Exxon was selling as for $2.79 a gallon while Sunoco was selling fas for $2.67 just a block away. Next time you're out driving, pay attention to Exxon's prices versus those of its competitors. You might be surprised at what you find.

Save the environment, and save dollars-BOYCOTT EXXON-MOBIL!