“Always drink upstream from the herd” - Old Country Saying

My friends love to tease me about my response to anything they quote to me from the mainstream media (“MSM”) – “Propaganda!” is my usual response.

Unfortunately, it is not just the MSM that is taking shortcuts with the public’s relative “informedness” or lack there of, the various federal agencies charged with data collection and reporting should be charged with dereliction of duty. Under no circumstance is unemployment 5% or inflation 3%, under no circumstance is housing going to “bottom” in 2008, under no circumstance is ethanol or hydrogen going to replace the missing BTU’s from the decline in hydrocarbons, and under no circumstance is any agency of the federal government or any major corporation going to come clean on these issues until our media gets its head out of its ass and into the sunshine.

OPEC is a case study in pathological deception. OPEC would have you believe that they can pump as much oil as they wish but that the problem with high oil prices has to do with refineries, speculators, violence in Nigeria, the U.S. Housing Crisis and hem lines in Paris this spring.

The U.S. Department of Energy's EIA has gotten into the act. On the same day as the Iowa Presidential Caucus, the EIA reported that crude oil stocks fell by just over 4 million barrels per day, but not to worry folks because most of that was represented on the other side of the production pipeline by an increase in distillates and gasoline. OK, now let's go to the video tape, or the EIA website, Just click the link directly above. Notice that net petroleum stocks not including the SPR declined by over 7 million barrels for the week? Notice at the bottom of the page that "unfinished oil" declined over 2 million barrels? What exactly is "unfinished oil"? Isn't crude unfinished? Couldn't those 2.2 million barrels have made it into the headline number as 6.2 million barrels of crude oil were drawn down from inventories?

If you believe what the MSM, Corporate America, and our Government spoon feed the masses, well, by all means, blow all of the sunshine up your skirt that turns you on. That does not change the 1 salient issue: Oil imports into the U.S. Nothing else matters. If 2008 sees a decline of over 2% from 2007 as happened in 2007 from 2006, all the finger pointing, first black/woman presidents, gay sex bathroom stings, invasions, hydrogen skateboards, dyslexic poets and double jointed porn stars won't be enough to distract the legions of the great unwashed from being really, really, really pissed off. Not to mention selling their stocks and walking away from their mortgages and credit cards. Maybe we make it into 2009 before a nasty round of hyper-inflation, and then again maybe we don't. There is a reason why gold is at $860 an ounce, oil near $100, and wheat (WHEAT! You know the Staff of Life!) nearly tripled in 2007, and it ain't because the folks in charge are telling you the truth.

Propaganda? No, folks we left propaganda behind some time ago - this is more like the Funny Papers meets Truth, Justice and the American Way!

Yours for a better world,

mentatt (at) yahoo (d0t) com