McCain Hostage of Big Oil Interests

« Tipping Point for Green Consciousness Not Quite There?

McCain Hostage of Big Oil Interests

July 27, 2008 by lamarguerite

Just read the following in the Washington Post:

Campaign contributions from oil industry executives to Sen. John McCain rose dramatically in the last half of June, after the senator from Arizona made a high-profile split with environmentalists and reversed his opposition to the federal ban on offshore drilling.

Oil and gas industry executives and employees donated $1.1 million to McCain last month — three-quarters of which came after his June 16 speech calling for an end to the ban — compared with $116,000 in March, $283,000 in April and $208,000 in May.

The American public needs to know. Please pass around, comment, blog, do whatever you can to publicize.

16 Responses

on July 27, 2008 at 6:12 pm | Reply Meryn Stol

Yet more proof how corrupted the McCain network is.

I buzzed it at Yahoo, dugg it at Digg, retweeted it on Twitter, and shared it in the Friendfeed environment room. I hope it will help.
on July 27, 2008 at 6:24 pm | Reply lamarguerite

Thanks Meryn. Way to go!
on July 27, 2008 at 6:24 pm | Reply Franke James

Marguerite,

Thanks for this! McCain has once again flip-flopped on earlier positions. It never ceases to amaze me how politicians can be bought by special interest groups.

Franke
on July 27, 2008 at 6:42 pm | Reply lamarguerite

Thanks Franke. Even more amazing, is how relatively little attention is paid to this phenomena in the mainstream media. When if fact, much of the world is ruled by these controlling interests. I do not have a number available, but I am ready to bet one of if not the leading cause(s) of global warming can be traced back to these few white men at the head of these few corporations.
on July 27, 2008 at 6:51 pm | Reply Meryn Stol

I hope this election will be won based on trustworthiness, not the slight differences in opinions.
on July 27, 2008 at 7:00 pm | Reply Meryn Stol

Marguerite, look what James Hansen of NASA said about a month ago:
“CEOs of fossil energy companies know what they are doing and are aware of long-term consequences of continued business as usual. In my opinion, these CEOs should be tried for high crimes against humanity and nature. If their campaigns continue and “succeed” in confusing the public, I anticipate testifying against relevant CEOs in future public trials.”
on July 27, 2008 at 7:01 pm | Reply Meryn Stol

I’m sorry, I forgot the link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-james-hansen/twenty-years-later-tippin_b_108766.html
on July 27, 2008 at 7:58 pm | Reply Jeff Huggins

Thanks for the great post Marguerite.

Just to bring this also to everyone’s attention . . .

At this point, the latest person to critique the media’s coverage of the oil industry and energy issue is none other than former lead editor of The New York Times, Howell Raines.

I’ll try to post the link later today. I got it from AH, which shows the power of this informal network.

So, at this point, intelligent and credible people who are vocally critical of the media include (among many others):

Howell Raimes
Bill Moyers
Edward R. Murrow (fifty years ago)

People defending the media’s coverage of the global warming and energy problems (basically, mainly media insiders!) not only have the facts to contend with, but they also would have to address the types of observations and critiques forwarded by these three rather respected insiders.

Cheers for now.

Jeff
on July 27, 2008 at 8:01 pm | Reply Jeff Huggins

Oops. Sorry for the misspelling. It’s Howell Raines.
on July 27, 2008 at 8:18 pm | Reply Meryn Stol

“I got it from AH, which shows the power of this informal network. ”

I’m sorry for my ignorance, but who’s “AH”?
on July 27, 2008 at 9:12 pm | Reply Jeff Huggins

Sorry Meryn. “AH” is Anna Haynes, a great supporter of the environment, media reformer, and persistent Dot Earth reformer. (These are my own words: I’m not sure how she’d want to describe herself.)

Cheers.
on July 27, 2008 at 9:27 pm | Reply Jeff Huggins

OK, here’s the link to the Raines thing. It’s great. I also suggest the links that are within this link, including the article by Matthew N and the NPR piece, i.e., the interview of Raines.

The link is courtesy of “AH”, as mentioned before.

Don’t miss it.

Cheers.

Link:

http://scienceblogs.com/framing-science/2008/07/fmr_ny_times_editor_on_how_exx.p
hp
on July 27, 2008 at 9:35 pm | Reply Jeff Huggins

Sorry, I broke the link. Here it is one more time. Hopefully this works. Cheers.

http://scienceblogs.com/framing-science/2008/07/fmr_ny_times_editor_on_how_exx.php
on July 27, 2008 at 10:58 pm | Reply Edouard

Back on Meryn’s comment about James Hansen as I blogged about it…

http://www.elrst.com/2008/07/03/top-nasa-official-warns-on-climate-change/

Hope you had a nice weekend. it was the case for me ! Enjoy !
on July 29, 2008 at 12:16 am | Reply lamarguerite

For more on McCain ties to lobbyists from different venues, see today’s article in the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/28/us/politics/28IRI.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Democracy%20Institute&st=cse&oref=slogin

Lobbyists involved with International Democracy Institute: Lorne Craner (I.R.I), Gahl Hodges Burt, Frank Faherenkopf (American Gaming Association), Alison Fortier (Lockheed Martin), Janet Mullins Grissom (Peter&Madigan, for automakers), Peter Madigan (I.R.I), Stephan Minikes, Constance Newman (foreign countries), Alec Poitevin, Randy Scheunemann (foreign countries), Joseph Schmucker (Mitsubishi Securities), Richard Williamson (AT&T)
on August 27, 2008 at 6:43 pm | Reply Governors Going Crazy on Energy and Climate at DNC 2008 « La Marguerite

[…] harder than ever to develop new, clean sources, John McCain wants more of the same and has taken more than a million dollars in campaign donations from the oil and gas industry. Now he wants to give the oil companies another […]

Comments RSS

La Marguerite

A girl’s view of sustainability and social media