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.

[...]

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.

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…)

The Democrats in this country is on a never-ending march toward a larger, more powerful government. They have been since the beginning of the progressive movement, and really gained momentum under FDR.

Look at recent news. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, across the nation the three levels of government added 76,800 jobs to their payrolls in the first quarter of 2008. [1]

Meanwhile Michelle Obama tells people “Don’t go into corporate America,” and her husband and presidential hopeful Barack Obama blasts executives with the tired old line ”Some CEOs make more in one day than their workers make in one year.” Never mind that corporate America is where the best-paying jobs with the best benefits are. Never mind that these “greedy” executives are in charge of multi-billion-dollar corporations that employ tens of thousands of people, and their stock is owned by many retirement plans. According to the Obamas, these “greedy companies” should be punished by taxing them into oblivion.

But are the Republicans any better? Now we have headlines trumpeting the fact that McCain is promising billions in spending.

Republican John McCain is making promises that would cost billions of taxpayer dollars, yet he is vague about how he would pay for them. 

McCain is handing around a campaign grab bag of goodies. There are little treats like a summer gas-tax holiday and new mortgages for struggling homeowners, and there are big plums like tax breaks for corporations and families with children.

Aren’t all politicians vague about how they intend on paying for their campaign bribes promises? They all fail to do the math. Which is why we’re in the situation we’re in, forced to choose between three trains with the same destination — socialism — just different speeds in which we’ll get there:

The expected GOP presidential nominee has nothing on the Democrats. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama would spend billions of dollars themselves on things like paid family leave, universal health insurance and preschool for kids.

John McCain: The local commuter train who’s top speed is 20mph and will stop at every station.
Hillary Clinton: The freight train chugging along at 60mph with few or no stops between here and there.
Barack Obama: The 200mph express bullet train that will get us from liberty to tyrannical socialism in mere minutes.

Perhaps this is the reason that there’s been such an interest in Libertarian-leaning candidate Ron Paul. His new book, The Revolution: A Manifesto, has hit #1 on Amazon. [2]

The question is: can we turn this train around before it is too late?