Obama and Ethanol
A friend recently asked me if I have any documentary evidence to support my theory that the principal goal of the Bush Administration is to transfer public wealth into private pockets. My answer was that I didn't; my theory is an inference from the facts. And I don't expect to find much documentary evidence, because I believe that the goal is less than conscious. It is the consequence of certain espoused philosophical views about free markets and invisible hands - views of which there is no end of documentary evidence. At the same time, I've gone on the lookout for statements that support my theory - which I'm sure is not just mine.
In a disheartening but unsurprising article about Senator Barack Obama in the current issue of Harper's, by Ken Silverstein ("Barack Obama Inc.: The birth of a Washington Machine"), Ted Patzek, of the University of California at Berkeley's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, is quoted as saying that ethanol production - something that Senator Obama supports - is based on "the massive transfer of money from the collective pocket of the US taxpayers to the transnational agricultural cartel."
In his attempt to become a viable progressive - that is, a legislator who can count on the contributions that will get him re-elected - Senator Obama has done a fair amount of trimming. I gave up on him a year ago, when he was nowhere in the public discussion of ethnic cleansing in New Orleans. I'm afraid that he's just another Kennedy.
