Papantonio: Oily Republicans Raise Your Gas Prices

[GoLeft TV]

Run time: 05:37 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJFzrkbXqg0   Posted on YouTube: May 17, 2011 By YouTube Member: golefttv Views on YouTube: 22   Posted on DU: May 17, 2011 By DU Member: GoLeft TV Views on DU: 706

 
Americans are getting screwed at the pumps; Oil companies are raking in record-breaking profits; and the government continues to dish out subsidies to the oil industry. So what is Obama going to do? He’s going to increase oil drilling, of course! Mike Papantonio and Ed Schultz discuss the president’s disastrous plan to give big oil even more special privileges in America.

[BlueCaliDem]

1. Rec'd! Fireside theatre! That's *exactly* what Pres. Obama needs to hold every week!

As President of the United States, he has the bully-pulpit, and he can demand air/cable/broadcast time. Papantonio is absolutely right. It's time President Obama reinstate the Fireside Theatre and educate the American people.

It's already proven corporate media is pro-Republican. Rachel Maddow keeps pointing this out and she shows how the American people are being dumbed down. She's shown how everything they "report" is from the GOP p.o.v. There is no fighting this media until, and unless, President Obama steps in and uses the bully-pulpit and begins to educate the American people.

The Fireside Theatre is exactly what we need today.

[A wise Man]

2. I know this

someone had better do something and do it quick before this country turns into one big riot country. I get mad everytime i have to pay for this high price gas and getting less for what i pay for.

[BlueCaliDem]

6. I hear you. I'm tired of paying through the nose for low-quality everything

while having to listen to reports how many billions in PROFITS corporations are making while still getting taxpayer backed subsidies and tax breaks while our tax breaks are being stripped away, piece by piece, and nothing is put in its place.

Now, they're going to strip mortgage interest rates! That's about the LAST tax break average Americans get! But our bought-and-paid-for Congress will continue giving MORE tax cuts to the uber wealthy and continue giving MORE subsidies to Big Oil who are destroying the middle class with their astronomical prices??


How much more will they squeeze the American people - real people. Not corporate personhoods, who they think are higher than we are.

[ErikJ]

4. Isnt it Fireside Chat?

Fireside Theater was a left-wing comedy troupe that Thom Hartmann plays sometimes on his show.
I dont think the media would let Obama do Fireside chats anyway. He would upset their corporate advertisers too much.
There would be a huge uproar from the right saying he was using our public airwaves to brainwash us in Marxist ideas.

[BlueCaliDem]

5. "Fireside theaters" is what Papantonio called them.

I merely repeated it because I wasn't sure if "chat" was used in those days.

Anyway, the media won't have a choice. It's still the people's airwaves, although I surmise some cable channels won't bother airing them. At the beginning. They'll come around, eventually, but they're not obligated to.

"There would be a huge uproar from the right" Fuck the wrongheaded Right. Our airwaves and cable outlets were all extensively used by the Bush/Cheney cabal to brainwash us with Fascist and pro-American Empire ideas a la Mussolini, and I had to sit through that shit until around 2007 when Bush quickly lost Big Corp's interest, and the presidential campaigning was underway.

Unlike Bush, Obama won both the popular vote and the electoral college vote, so the majority of Americans chose HIM and in a democracy, even a sham one like ours, the majority rules. No?

[usrname]

3. Conundrum

On the one hand, I like to see gas at $5/gal. That will force Americans to adopt a more pragmatic approach to driving and not buy super large cars and sit in line a mile long for an In-N-Out Burger. On the other hand, I don't want that money going to the oil companies. I think, and a NYTimes op-ed columnist suggested it: put a tax on gasoline to raise it to $6/gal (back then, it was $5/gal). The money generated will be used strictly to identify and develop alternative sources of energy, and at the same time discourage unnecessary driving.

I now live in a city (SF) and drive about 400 miles a month. With a Prius, that means I fuel up once a month. I walk or take public transportation everywhere I can.