I just recieved a call from my sister informing me that my dad has colon cancer.

I will not post for a while.

Those of you who are of a mind to, please pray for my father. Thank you very much.

Peace.

Come one First Read.  It is Exxon-McCain because he is in their pocket on the issues.  Like this myth called offshore drilling.  Also, there is a big difference between small donations from workers (Obama) and maxed out donations of oil executives (McCain).

In political campaigns, anything is a fair hit. And McCain did raise the most among all oil companies combined...

http://www.political-buzz.com/

Short answer: YES !!

Next Question:
Is the whole 'celebrity' scam fair ?
Is the 'Will we still call it the White House' button fair ?
Is the 'tire inflation' meme fair ?
Is thw whole media NEVER questioning the McCain campaign's honesty/integrity fair ?


Your call First Read

Think REAL hard

If these numbers represent money given by individuals that work for the companies, this is very misleading if not borderline lying.  Both candidates can't help that people that given individualy work for a oil company.  Next time make sure to parse out which one got money from individuals and not oil lobbyists and PACS.

FR- are we talking Exxon employees or the corporation?

There is a difference here; individual employees should be able to support whoever they support.

But when executives and/or officers of the corporation – give under the umbrella of the company - it's to curry favor

Will you explain to us if there's a difference here?

Thank you and GOD BLESS AMERICA

John McCain knows more about gas than Obama does.

I'm posting for a foot massager. 213 more to go.  

average working employees are far different than what the companies contribute so these statitics just show that hard working Americans favor Obama.  just to add to the discussion iraq has almost $100 Billion  from oil revenue while hard working Americans are putting their lives on the line not to mention the billions of $ America is and has spent their thanks to bush/cheney/mccant/rove.  and now an agreement on a pullout in 2 years is in the works so now bush/cheney/rove/mccant are cutting and running or are they just now realizing it is time to bring the troops home.

BIG OIL IS BIG OIL.  WHEN THE EMPLOYEES ARE GIVING THEY ARE GIVING TO THE CANDIDATE THEY BELIEVE IN.  WHEN THE CORPORATION ITSELF IS GIVING THEY ARE GIVING TO THE CANDIDATE THEY FEEL BEST REPRESENTS THEIR POSITION, THUS EXXON

THUS ITS TIME TO NAME MCCAIN EXXON, Koch Industries, Valero, Marathon Oil, Occidental Petroleum, ConocoPhillips, the list goes on.

IT'S CLEAR THAT THE CORPORATION EXXON AND CHEVRON CLEARLY FAVOR THEIR BUDDY MCCAIN WHO REFUSES TO STOP GIVING THEM WINDFALL PROFITS.

AFTER ALL AS MIKE BARNACLE SAID ON "HARDBALL "WHAT'S WRONG WITH MAKING A PROFIT?'

IT'S SADI THAT SOMEONE HAS NOT TOLD MIKE THAT MAKING A PROFIT IS NOT THE PROBLEM ITS WHEN YOU ROBB THE AMERICAN PEOPLE BLIND USING THEIR TAX DOLLARS AND PRICING A COMMODITY THEY MUST HAVE SO HIGH THEY HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO BUY IT, THEN MAKING A PROFIT IS A PROBLEM.  IN OTHER WORDS MIKE DON'T DEFEND THE OIL COMPANIES.

AMERICANS KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A MAKING REASONABLE PROFIT AND BEING SQUEEZEED BY BIG OIL AS DOES ANY BUSINESS PERSON.

PLEASE BRING "CHRIS MATTHEWS" BACK IN A HURRY!

donna, you and your father are in my prayers.

Well, by all means, First Read, let's give Teflon John another "let's be fair" moment when he can tout out and out LIES about Obama. OMG can you guys even PRETEND to be fair and balanced and NOT in big businesses back pocket? Geesh! I can hear Andrea Mitchell already......"blah,blah,blah, we have to be fair to that odd but corny uncle you can't wait to invite to your family reunion." Gag me.

Take care Donana I will pray for your dad.

Possie John: '...Good question. Maybe, if it doesn't kill them, they could write one positive story about McCain....'

Why ?

Has he started running a positive campaign yet ?
Has he given back the Exxon contributions, yet ?
HAs he decided to oppose torture yet ?

Has he apologized to his wife for volunteering her for a sleazy topless 'beauty contest' ?


John McCain, More of the same
(

The latest presidential polling has tighter than usual numbers from Oregon and Wisconsin, and the Dem Rep. of PA-11 looks to be in trouble. Full roundup: http://campaigndiaries.com/2008/08/07/thursday-polls-3/

Hmmmm, wonder why gas stations if Florida refused to run campaign ads for Senator Obama after first agreeing to?

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0808/Obama_ad_wont_run_at_gas_stations.html?showall

AND THE PURPOSE OF THIS ARTICLE IS?

CLEARLY BIG OIL IS GIVING SEN. MCCAIN THE LION SHARE OF THEIR MONEY AS COMPARED TO THE EMPLOYEES GIVING SEN. OBAMA A LITTLE.  SO THE QUESTION RAISED IN THE ARTICLE IS.............WELL.........CLEARLY NOT UNDERSTOOD BY THE WRITER.

SLOW DAY UH?

The truth does not seem to be Barack Obama's friend.

Mark & Dom, gimme a break! You in the media have to educate the lazy masses. 70% of people think offshore drilling is going to bring down gas prices. Republicans are only behind this measure because big oil wants access before the dems control the white house. McCain flipped to back his party. Obama should have racked him over the coals for it.

We need a center for responsible media.

How many times will the media enable Bush's lies?

So switch it to Hess/McCain 08 or Oil-McCain, the bottom line is that overall, the oil companies overwhelmingly prefer McCain.  

Meanwhile, I highly recommend reading this article.  

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/08/his_drilling_plan_full_of_hole.html

August 07, 2008
His (McCain's) Drilling Plan Full of Holes
By Joe Conason

Obama 08

I just dicovered McCain's problem with the truth.  It seems that he will be prone to a reversal of truth due to age.  Since the RNC and his campaign is so negative, I'm sure that he is misconstruing that which he is being told and saying as false from his own handlers as true and vice-versa.  See below:

"Telling people that a consumer claim is false can make them misremember it as true. In two experiments, older adults were especially susceptible to this "illusion of truth" effect. Repeatedly identifying a claim as false helped older adults remember it as false in the short term but paradoxically made them more likely to remember it as true after a 3 day delay. This unintended effect of repetition comes from increased familiarity with the claim itself but decreased recollection of the claim's original context. Findings provide insight into susceptibility over time to memory distortions and exploitation via repetition of claims in media and advertising." (http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20080807/cm_huffpost/117463_200808071148).

Poor McCain, he simply can't remember his own falsehoods so he flip-flops on the issues.

Man Held For Threatening To Assassinate Obama!

Rush, Sean, Karl Rove and Fox News are to blame! Anti-American Scum bags!

This is why you can't listen to Anti-American Fixed news channel.

Our thoughts will be with you donna!

Is the title of this article some kind of joke?  No. It's not fair.  If it were fair it would say McCain/Satan08.

Size of the donations is as much, if not more relevant than aggregate.  If a bunch of IT workers at Chevron donate $200 to Obama...is that "Oil Company influence"?  How about the $2300 (or $20000) donation from Chevron's CEO.  Are these remotely comparable?

Hello:

Will miss you.

Peace to you and your Dad.

What about the percentage of total dollars received. With so much money received, of course Obama is going to have some big donations from some less than savory industries.

Suddenly First Read ans MSNBC want to talk "fair"?
How many times today on MSNBC has there been a discussion regarding the fact that Obama voted for the energy bill, therefore Obama supports Big Oil.
The FACTS McCain and MSNBC repeatedly leave out is:
1. McCain didn't even show up for the vote.
2. The bill contained tax incentives for alternative energy..thus Obama supported it.

I guess the Democrats won't be happy until the oil companies go out of business, and we all use rickshaws to get around.

Donna

My thoughts and prayers are with you and yours.

Peace

I apologize in advance, but this is relevant:

“Clara, that doesn't add up.  You can't be a Democrat today and be self reliant.  The whole principle of the DNC today is that the government should help you get dressed every morning.  And they'll send the oil execs to your home to do this since it's their fault.  And by the way you've had to have had your brain surgically removed if Obamanomics makes any sense to you.  You don't have to be for McCain but how can you be against laws of supply and demand?  Question: if oil companies are forced to pay a windfall profit tax who do you think ultimately pays for that tax?   Don't feel bad if this stumps you and you are an Obama fan.  Apparently he doesn't know the answer to this either.”  Rob, Tampa, FL (Sent Thursday, August 07, 2008 10:10 AM)
----------------
Your comments are so ignorant, hyper generalized and off point that it will take more than a trite sound bite for me to respond rationally.  I know you THINK Dems are feeding at the trough, constantly – But how do you explain the ‘break out’ success of such notable ‘Uber’ Rich Dems like Warren Buffet, George Soros and Bill Gates (okay, I don’t actually know that Bill is a Dem; but he sure acts like one).  I don’t want the oil execs or anyone from your team coming into my room in the morning.  I feel certain it wouldn’t be to help me dress; but more likely to bend me over further.  And yes, I do think the Oil companies are pillaging the entire country.  They have the capital to open more refineries NOW.  There are several existing refineries that could be operational in a few months.  The only rule that guides them is ‘They who manipulate the supply manipulate the price’.  The cost of fuel (or oil) isn’t driven right now by real Supply and Demand (which by the way, isn’t a LAW – it’s just an economic theory) issues; but rather by speculation on future supply issues.  Let me be clear, we do not have a current Supply issue, we have a Marketing issue.  This is an attempt by OPEC nations to maintain a raw oligopoly.  Oil is not rare.  But by continuing to control that which gets refined, they can manipulate the perception of scarcity.  Basically, they are fraudulently perpetuating the myth that there isn’t enough.  They are doing this to manipulate the price.  This is called price fixing.  It is illegal.  It does not help that Congress is lame and that many on the committee don’t know how to actually manage an insightful inquiry into price fixing.  So the execs just sit there and say things like, “no, I don’t think we are gouging John Q. Public.”

It further does not help our (USA) case at the OPEC table that our dollar is weak, due to the excessive borrowing from a rapidly growing (larger than us) economy (China).  And why have we borrowed all this money?  Oh, riiiighht, to pay for Bush’s war of choice.  Now as far as Obamanomics goes and this will be a hard pill for you to swallow; but a Tax and Spend Liberal at least has a plan for where the revenue stream will come from.  Admittedly, the party of Repubs don’t want to pay a penny more than they HAVE to, especially if it is going to the ‘non-deserving, lazy half of the electorate’ (I’m not putting words into YOUR mouth – I’ve seen these very comments from your side on this site, several times this week, in fact).

{Let’s take a pause for station identification, I am an Obama Supporter.  Also, are you following along?  This is the point where most Repubs sit back and smugly think, wow – this Dem at least understands where I am coming from.  I don’t want to lull you into complacency, because I’m about to step up the pace of our little waltz here.}

According to your circular logic Repubs shouldn’t have to pay ANY tax.  A kind of send back to the ‘I earned it, why should I share it?’ philosophy.  So here’s the swift kick to the groin you’ve been dreading.  You didn’t EARN it.  You borrowed it from the goodwill of our nasty, mean old government.  And here’s how.  For decades governments (city, state and federal) have given hand over fist incentives to entice businesses to operate in their jurisdictions because companies create jobs, jobs employ people and people with jobs spend money (often more than they should – but that’s another topic).  Often land is sold at a discount, often taxes are deferred or forgiven, and an entire host of government handouts are bundled and handed to the corporations.  Often the good ole’ UsofA has shouldered the fiscal burden of off shore drilling, equipment or other tax concessions or breaks.  And never do these companies look back over their portfolios and say, wow – were it not for those who went before and shouldered some of this expense, we could have never weathered (XYZ storm).  We don’t just owe our fair share of taxes, we should really do more.  Taxes are the dues we all pay to live in a free society.  The funny thing about Freedom is that it isn’t free.  Those who HAVE more should DO more.  Would that an oil exec actually had a pair and could say, “We’ve had unexpected windfall profits because of speculation, it is our duty and obligation to give back to the society that has given us so much”.  I am not talking about the shareholders here.  I am talking about the consumer.  You guys all sit around and act like these are real ‘earnings’.

The issues you are loathe to consider are that of a generous spirit.  Not to the point of poverty for you; but to the point that a rising tide raises ALL boats.  A general Golden Rule of doing for others as you would want them to do for you (or your loved ones, G-d willing you weren’t here to take care of them).  This is where Repubs lose my respect and my vote.  They think charity only extends to the edge of their sphere of influence.  They will lobby to abolish abortion and vote to reduce/get rid of welfare; because they aren’t responsible for providing at minimum food, clothing and shelter for those ‘unwanted children’ that are really someone else’s problem.  Republicans can’t govern because they simply want to take care of ‘their own’ and leave everyone else to either pull themselves up through all of the ‘same opportunities’ that they themselves received or whatever ‘fend for themselves’ mechanism du jour.  And often (not always) this is done under the hypocritical guise of ‘Christianity’.  G-d hates F*gs, or G-d says abortion stops a beating heart.  If abortion is heinous and Repubs want it criminalized then what is their plan to care for the unwanted children?  You really can’t have it both ways.  Either you prevent unwanted pregnancies or you plan and budget for the result of no prevention.  That is the problem, Repubs just don’t PLAN well.  They just don’t think these things through.  And for the very few that have thought it through on some level, their calculator doesn’t allow for them to think it through on a grand 300+ million people level.  You can sit there and act like you earned your way; but if you had an honest bone in your body you’d look around and actually see all of the people that make up the fabric of this great country and you’d realize that no matter how small their contribution is to your personal wealth or your personal situation, on some level their very existence in the world is a direct result of the failure or success of our government’s policies.  If you do not see that, than you are at worst stupid and at best a true hypocrite.

In summary, I am very much a Dem and self reliant.  Got my own self dressed and to work at a real job today.  Have the brain I was born with which I paid to have expanded by Pell grants and Student Loans (that are 100% paid back, no defaults there), don’t worry – I am not for McCain (who could be?  Seriously?) I am FOR Obama.  Supply and Demand, not a Law – an economic theory.  I’ve already paid twice for the windfall profit – in corporate welfare and at the pump, oh – and you’re an idiot,

I don't care, these ad's are stupid on both sides. Come on we're dealing real issues and both of them need to grow up.
Now, I do feel McCain has a better idea of how to get control of our enery problem. like he says we have to go after the energy issue from all sides, more drilling( onland, but secure more leases ) nuclear plants, solar, wind and other alternatives. Obama just doesn't see that. I guess he thinks if we ignore it, it will go away. obama is TOO inexperienced to be president.

Just thinking earlier today what the MSM would look like if it was giving the close scrutiny it is giving to Obama to McCain.

My fear is that we will wake up in January with an egregiously unvetted president.

In McCain's case, that could be very dangerous.  

Can't help but think that these folks are sharp enough to understand that, but whatever floats your check.

Donna,

My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family during this tough time. I wish your father a full & speedy recovery.

donna,

My prayers are with you and your family

Wow, Donna - our thoughts are with you and your family.  hugs and prayers!

Fair?  Hell yes.  How many headlines about Obama have been addressed to be fair or not.  McBlinky is a true American scumbag.  An elitist from a military heritage who squandered his education and several aircraft because he's careless.  He's been on gov't provided health care his entire life .  No maverick is he...he's just contentious and tempermental and nasty.  His POW stint and survival speaks to some stubborn strength and he deserves credit for that but in my opinion that's all old Keating 5 McBlinky does deserve credit for.  I and a lot of other vets believe this guy has been way oversold and forgotten those he claims to have the greatest kinship with.

Kelly from Pitt nailed it. Who was against off shore drilling but changed dramatically in June after oil money started pouring in? - the "white haired dude".

McBigOil;
It's fair to say that the republicans and old johnny boy are on the SIDE OF THE RICH. We all know that it really is more about the change in Washington that matters. When Obama is in THE WHITEHOUSE BIG OIL and the like will have to come around what choice do they have? We can make the difference Good tires and all!

Obama 08

For real though, why even mention this...we have to work for someone, this is totally different than the relationship with oil among McCain and Bush!  Keep trying, not going to work.  Voting Obama

$389,735 to the RNC in total and $51,168 to the DNC.

And you guys ask if the Exxon - McCain hit is fair or not? LOL. Give us a break. I see you also did not report that many of the contributions to Obama were made by employees giving personal contributions versus corporate contributions going to McCain and the RNC. How much money did the RNC have in their coffers a month or two ago versus the DNC? How about reporting that that number too.

Is it not quite obvious that McCain and his drill, drill, drill psotion is much more favored by the oil companies then would be Obama's positions that favor a future reduction in oil dependence? It only makes common sense. I have worked in the smoked filled roooms of some major private companies and I can tell you right now their concern is profit, not people. If you think that top management of these oil companies wish to put the people first oh boy do we have some swamp land in Florida to sell you.  They are going to do everything they can to make as much as they can now that they see some handwriting on the wall that this country (and Obama) are insisitng we develop and implement newer and cheaper sources of energy.  

No, this is not an unfair hit on McCain and you guys know it. Why even ask the question?  

The donations have to be seen relative to the overall donations... Considering that, I strongly assume the a lower percentage of Obama/DNC donations come from oil than they do for McCain/GOP.

Oh well, I guess I'm somewhat spinning here a bit ...

What strikes me is how cheap the bastards are, what with all those billions they are making.  They haven't even given enough to pay for either campaign's Olympics ads.

MSierra:

It's all political campaign rhetoric, so it's all fair.  The whole fair/unfair thing really doesn't apply under campaign rules.  In fact, one of the campaign rules is to regularly whine and moan about the media and the other side being "unfair".

By the time this is all over, the amount of "unfair" will be about equal for both.  The respective campaigns make sure it turns out that way.

Meanwhile, you hyperbolize.

On another note, if you were in the oil industry, who would YOU support?

I agree with Mitch from Florida. There's a big difference between employees of a company making individual donations and the company itself making donations. The former seems like free speech, where the latter is lobbying.

I work for a defense contractor. If I donate $50 to Obama, am I making him look like a shill for the defense industry?

Of course its fair!! McCain's and the RNC's list of big oil donations should be on a 24/7 loop and researched up one side and down the other. Kinda like you all did with flag pins, reverends, black enough/not black enough, what's wrong with Obama meme and the endless other non-issue-issues that have had absolutely nothing to do with the price of gas at the pump, rising food costs, national security, foreign policy, or an economy teetering on the brink of collapse. Big oil's influence on a cadidate and who that candidate is beholden to ABSOLUTELY has an impact on ALL of the current conditions and should be treated as a legitimate issue.

Will pray for you and your father Donna. God Bless.

Post this First Read!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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