For those who haven’t read George Orwell’s Animal Farm, it is recommended that you do so. From Denver comes just the most recent example of politicians feeling that they are more equal than other people: the very people clamoring for raising taxes feel that they are above paying them.

While consumers in Denver have to pay 40.4 cents per gallon on gas taxes, the committee hosting the Democratic National Convention feel that they are more equal than the hoi polloi:

The committee hosting the Democratic National Convention is using the citys gas pumps to fill up on fuel, avoiding state and federal highway taxes, officials said today.

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In Colorado, consumers pay 40.4 cents in taxes on every gallon of gasoline. That includes the federal gasoline tax of 18.4 cents per gallon and the Colorado gasoline tax of 22 cents per gallon.

“If you’ve got a 14-gallon tank, on the average, that’s about $5.66 that they don’t have to pay for fill up,” Councilman Charlie Brown said.

Brown also questioned the need for car washes.

“Why are we washing cars in the middle of a drought?” he asked. “Where are the green police when we need them? Are they poking around restaurants to see that nobody fries food?”

Let’s keep one thing in mind here: these people aren’t members of the government… they’re just members of a political party. Meaning, they’re ordinary citizens.

But that’s right… they’re more equal than the rest of us.

Some people believe that The Government should run everything, from healthcare to energy to farms. These people — who tend to call themselves “progressives” — will vehemently deny that their views are Marxist-socialist, even though that’s exactly what they are. They will insist that The Government can do everything better and cheaper.

So one could wonder why, if The Government can do it all better and cheaper than private industry, are they unable to run a simple cafeteria? Case in point: the Senate cafeteria, which according to the Wshington Post, has lost “more than $18 million since 1993, according to one report, and an estimated $2 million this year alone, according to another.”

Reviews on social review site Yelp paint this gloomy picture:

Lunch at the caf is disgusting. [...]

If you’re going to venture down to the dungeon your best bet is to bring your own food and to use their plastic utensils and paper napkins.

The Senate’s solution? Privatize the cafeteria. What a novel idea!

If we can’t trust them to run a cafeteria, how can we trust them to run more important things, like healthcare and energy? Answer: we can’t.

There’s a lot of talk right now about the skyrocketing oil and gas prices. With the summer blends kicking in and the flooding in Iowa jeopardizing the corn crops, most people will be paying $4 a gallon for the majority of the summer. Who is to blame for the high pump prices?

Republicans and Big Oil?

The Democrats, liberals, and Greens say this. And they point to the oil companies and say “Windfall profits! Price gouging! Bush! Cheney! Enron! Evil!” These people are still pushing the theory that Bush & Cheney are doing this to “make their buddies rich”. I offer you this: they’re already rich. They’ve been rich for years. It’s not like they were poor and all of a sudden they’re millionaires. “But they’re doing this to get more rich!” 

Does anyone believe this anymore? Seriously?

They’re rich because — like Bill Gates and Doug Daft — they are the top-tier management of global corporations with shareholders who demand profits. They are rich because they are responsible for managing the exploration for, and the drilling, refining, and delivery of, a global resource. These “greedy oil companies” employ tens of thousands of people worldwide, and operate on a profit margin hovering around 8%, which is about 1/3 that of CocaCola and Pepsi. They make a lot of money because every around the world buys their product, so they sell a lot of it.

As fast food companies have blossomed, so have the sales of Coke, but Doug Daft isn’t hauled in front of Congress to testify about CocaCola’s record profits last year, earned on about a 28% profit margin. And I don’t hear you complaining that a medium Coke that used to cost 30 cents is now a buck-twenty-five. Why not?

So if Big Oil, Bush, and Cheney are not to blame, who is? (more…)