Category Archive » Transparency
Agenda: Politics is not a game, and whoever says it is does not understand the stakes. Our government is a government owned by the people, and the people deserve to know the honest truth about what is going on in Washington. There is no excuse and no place in our government for mistruths, lies, corruption, cronyism, or fear mongering. This is not the system we learned about in high school, and while we cannot afford to be naive about how our government functions, where there is no room for idealism there can be only mediocrity. We can do better, and we deserve more from our representatives.
We also deserve more from the media. Americans are busy people, and they rely on newspapers, television, radio and now the internet to inform them about important events and issues. Every news outlet, though, seems to have some kind of slant, bias, or angle to the point that it is difficult enough to tell up from down let alone truth from spin. This point is important: there is such thing as truth. Truth does not necessarily exist within either the Republican or Democratic agenda. It is often found somewhere in between. Truth is not frequently uncovered in a “crossfire” of partisan uproar. It is usually discovered through hard work and reasoned debate. This country needs more agents of truth. More Edward Murrows and fewer Rush Limbaughs. More Walter Cronkites and fewer Ann Coulters. Good information is available now, but it is tainted by the pervasiveness of “news” more likely to mislead than inform. In order to achieve transparency in government, it is crucial that the media, the lens through which we view government, share the same goals that we do. (Click here to read the full agenda)
There is not another industry in the United States that has been more vilified in the past few years than the Oil Industry. To many Americans, these companies represent corporate greed and the stranglehold that “special interests” have on politics in Washington. Driven first by the populist message of John Edwards’ campaign, the Oil Industry, ExxonMobil specifically, has proven an easy and popular target for Democratic presidential hopefuls. Barack Obama often announces at large campaign stops:
I know that it won’t be easy to change our energy policy. ExxonMobil made $11 billion last quarter. They don’t want to give those profits up easily.
Hillary Clinton has been no more gentle, saying:
Now, ExxonMobil had, you know, the highest profits in corporate history. Yet when CEO Lee Raymond was asked about how much his company had invested in alternative energy over the last decade, his reply was, and I quote, “a negligible amount.” Well, that’s unexcusable. You know, the oil industry is making $300 million a day, not because they planned on it, not because of great managerial expertise, but because of escalating world demand and therefore increasing prices for this commodity that they didn’t create in the first place. I think it’s time that we made sure they put a fair share of their profits toward a sound energy future.
There is no shortage of criticism against the Oil Industry. What we don’t often hear, is a response. How does the Oil Industry justify such high profits? Given these profits, why are companies like ExxonMobil still receiving government subsidies? One of our users, who works for an oil company, forwarded me an email sent to company employees in response to these exact questions. Click here to continue reading…
