| Thom's blog Stripping Oil of its Strategic Value
Two hundred years ago - and for a thousand years before that - one of the most strategic substances on Earth was salt. It was "strategic" because no army could travel without it - salt was necessary to preserve food in a pre-refrigeration era. Wars were fought over it, and countries that had lots of salt made out well, while landlocked countries with no salt reserves were forced to sell their natural resources in exchange for it.
Oil is the new salt. It is now the planet's number one strategic resource. And, as has been noted by numerous commentators since the first Gulf War in 1990-91, if the primary export of Iraq was broccoli, we wouldn't have given a damn that Saddam Hussein was a tin-pot tyrant.
We use a far greater proportion of the world's oil than we produce, so we have to buy the balance. This dependence represents a massive transfer of wealth from us to oil producing countries. It's a strategic blunder that would have horrified Julius Caesar, who expanded the Roman Empire all the way to central Europe when he ran out of fuel - wood - by deforesting virtually all of Italy , and then paid the price as his empire began to collapse from overexpansion. We transfer billions of our dollars to countries like Saudi Arabia. Oil revenues fund much of the fundamentalist Wahhabi movement within Saudi Arabia, and it's out of this movement that come the most virulent anti-American and anti-Semitic rhetoric, textbooks, and television and radio programming.
The OPEC nations don't adjust production to meet demand; they maintain it to control prices so they have relatively stable income. Thus, the only way we can change this situation is to reduce the amount of oil we use. Oil is a strategic commodity, and we need to strip it of its strategic value.
-Thom |
Today on the Big Picture..'When It Comes To The Deficit, The Department Of Defense Is Not The Problem' What?! On RT TV at 9pm and 11pm... (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT, and catch past shows on Youtube)
Today you "Need to Know" that Defense Secretary Robert Gates says, 'When It Comes To The Deficit, The Department Of Defense Is Not The Problem' I'm joined in the studio by Conservative 1/2 Pete Sepp, Executive Vice President-National Taxypayer's Union and Progressive Laura Peterson of Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Screwed: One Democratic Senator endorses the middle class Bush tax cut vote. With Seton Motley, President - Less Government.
Coffee, tea or TSA groin grope? Probe the TSA, not the man who refused to go through its 'porno probes'. I'm joined by Jane Hamsher, Founder of Firedoglake.com, she also writes for Alternet and Huffington Post.
"Best of the Rest" of the News... Bush Tax cuts and proposed cuts in defense spending With Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-OR, 4th District).
Money 'Well' Spent?! Imagine if it were spent insuring the uninsured? With Lee Fang Reporter/Blogger for thinkprogress.org.
Revenge is a dish best served cold...Alaska is cold isn't it??? Wait til you hear Lisa Murkowski's take on Sarah Palin, plus her defeat of Joe Miller in the Alaska Senate Race. Guest: Shannyn Moore, Host, The Shannyn Moore Show and Moore Up North.
Crazy Alert! Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) continued his infatuation with the Jersey Shore's Snooki, tweeting Monday night, "Happy birthday @Sn00ki." "Thabk you Johnny ! :) xox," she incoherently responded. Snooki and McCain became Twitter buddies after she publicly expressed her disapproval of a tax on tanning beds included in President Obama's health reform law, saying McCain never would have done that if he were president..
Plus, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly |
The Daily Stack  Quote: "Waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. Without industry and frugality, nothing will do, and with them everything." -- Benjamin Franklin.
Guest hosting today is David Sirota, journalist, nationally syndicated weekly newspaper columnist, host of the David Sirota Show 7-10am weekdays on Colorado's Progressive Talk - AM 760 and bestselling author, currently working on his 3rd book, his most recent "The Uprising".
Hour One: What do the latest trade agreements mean for John and Jane unemployed? Lori Wallach of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch joins David. Eyes on Trade.
Political transparency and the TSA scanners? The Washington Examiner's Tim Carney joins David.
Hour Two: The High Cost of Low Prices - Journalist/teacher Ellen Ruppel Shell, author of "Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture", is here.
Hour Three: Robert Gates...not a member of the conservative/progressive defense cut coalition? Zaid Jilani, reporter/blogger with Think Progress.org joins us.
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| Coming up on The Thom Hartmann Program
Thom is back and he'll be having a rumble with Dan Gainor of the Business and Media Institute...could the Twinkie Police be coming for you next???
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Thom confronts former Tea Party Express Mark Williams
Thom Hartmann and AFA's Bryan Fischer debate
The Daily Take: John Boehner |
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