James Bowery <[email protected]> wrote: I once asked a DoE official why the military costs in the middle east are > not included in the import cost of foreign oil.
That would be great! Except you can't charge the whole thing off, so it would be difficult to put a dollar value on it. It would be good to add a surcharge for the effects of pollution. > I was on the GOP platform committee for Iowa's third congressional > district and we got a plank put in to fully charge all fossil fuel imports > for the military costs of the middle east. > I am amazed that GOP would do that. Amazed and impressed. That must have been before the Tea Party, back when they still wanted to win elections. See the comments today by GOP stalwart Frum: http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/12/opinion/frum-conservatives-despair A good quote, putting things in perspective: "In 1962, the government regulated the price and route of every airplane, every freight train, every truck and every merchant ship in the United States. The government regulated the price of natural gas. It regulated the interest on every checking account and the commission on every purchase or sale of stock. Owning a gold bar was a serious crime that could be prosecuted under the Trading with the Enemy Act. The top rate of income tax was 91%. It was illegal to own a telephone. Phones had to be rented from the giant government-regulated monopoly that controlled all telecommunications in the United States. All young men were subject to the military draft and could escape only if they entered a government-approved graduate course of study. . . ." Frum wrote a hilarious book about the radicals, "Patriots." - Jed
