Sad and Pathetic
Yesterday Mike Barnacle was subbing for Chris Mathews on Hardball. I only saw part of the show but what I saw disgusted me. It was an interview with Jim Cramer and the topic was oil. Cramer acted like a paid shill for the oil industry. Barnacle lobbed up the soft balls while Cramer hit them out of the park.
What was the take home message? Drill more oil!! It’s China’s fault!! There’s an oil shortage!! Let them drill!! Let them drill!! Let them drill!!
Will oil prices ever come down? NO. Will Iraq’s oil output help? NO. What will help? Let them drill!! Let them drill!! Let them drill!!
That’s basically what Cramer said. I can’t believe Cramer had the balls to sit on the TV and spew this bullshit on the heels of Congressional testimony that if the Enron loophole were closed oil would drop in price 25% to 50% literally overnight (see previous post for more information). Cramer has the balls to go on a let them drill tirade after it’s been revealed that the oil companies are sitting on millions of acres of leases that they won’t drill on. Then again, Cramer told everyone to hold Bear Stearns. He’s not exactly the brightest bulb in the chandelier.
But that’s not the point. Cramer is smart enough to know what is going on. What he is doing is shilling for the oil industry. I’m sure he got a call from the Petroleum Institute afterward thanking him and telling him the check was in the mail.
I heard yesterday that a representative from the Petroleum Institute was on Stephanopoulos pushing the ‘let us drill offshore’ talking point. George confronted the guy and asked him about all the millions of acres of leases the oil companies are not drilling on. The guy said that it costs too much money to drill and that we have to remember that only 20% of the holes drilled yield oil.
So let me get this straight: The oil companies have millions of on and offshore leases that they are not drilling on because it’s too expensive for their taste (might cut into their hundreds of billions in profit to drill a few million dollar holes). At the same time the oil companies want more offshore oil leases.
Does that make sense to anyone?
It’s sick and sad to me to watch in real time the corporate media actually carry the oil industry’s water for them. MSNBC has become bipolar with one half reporting the truth and the other half shilling for big business. It was just last week that Keith Olbermann did a segment on the Enron loophole. Yet this week we have Jim Cramer and Mike Barnacle shilling for big oil. No surprise that BP runs a ton of ads on MSNBC.
What pisses me off is that how many more knuckle heads because of Jim Cramer think we can drill our way out of this energy crisis? How many more emails are going to be sent out claiming that if we could only drill off the coast of California and in ANWR all would be right with the world? How many people actually believe Jim Cramer?
Jim Cramer can be debunked with two words: Bear Sterns
Comments
I am sick of those talking head ass holes! Screw Cramer, drill more oil, leave the speculators alone, there is no agenda there, naw!
It keeps being brought up by the dems in Congress the amount of drilled wells and oil the oil company's are sitting while they cry oil poor saying they have to destroy ANWR and drill more off shore. Yeah that's safe my ass! Biden was arguing today with I forget who but every time he mentioned that 73% of the wells already drilled are capped and contain 54 billion barrels the blond Republican I can't stand from the south whose name I can't quite remember just kept smirking ignoring it and changing the subject to more drilling.
I don't see anything wrong with socialism or anything that works for any society. Whatever works for them. I think nationalizing the entire oil industry would be great if we could find some honest independent managers to operate it.
The Politicians have proven to be as corrupt or more so than big oil. They would probably screw us even more. Nothing will bring the price down. More oil too much oil not enough oil a glut, anything and everything will be used as an excuse to keep raising the price. Just wait until Iran is attacked and this entire mess really gets going.
You know, what we are seeing as we witness the end of the life cycle of our society is what happened to the Romans and everyone else. Instead of trying to save it those who can feast on it and steal what they can before they move on. Bush has sped our process up and we are bringing the world down with us!AAARRRGGGHHH! Take care!
Posted by: Jim | June 24, 2008 12:39 PM
I am sick of those talking head ass holes! Screw Cramer, drill more oil, leave the speculators alone, there is no agenda there, naw!
It keeps being brought up by the dems in Congress the amount of drilled wells and oil the oil company's are sitting while they cry oil poor saying they have to destroy ANWR and drill more off shore. Yeah that's safe my ass! Biden was arguing today with I forget who but every time he mentioned that 73% of the wells already drilled are capped and contain 54 billion barrels the blond Republican I can't stand from the south whose name I can't quite remember just kept smirking ignoring it and changing the subject to more drilling.
I don't see anything wrong with socialism or anything that works for any society. Whatever works for them. I think nationalizing the entire oil industry would be great if we could find some honest independent managers to operate it.
The Politicians have proven to be as corrupt or more so than big oil. They would probably screw us even more. Nothing will bring the price down. More oil too much oil not enough oil a glut, anything and everything will be used as an excuse to keep raising the price. Just wait until Iran is attacked and this entire mess really gets going.
You know, what we are seeing as we witness the end of the life cycle of our society is what happened to the Romans and everyone else. Instead of trying to save it those who can feast on it and steal what they can before they move on. Bush has sped our process up and we are bringing the world down with us!AAARRRGGGHHH! Take care!
Posted by: Jim | June 24, 2008 12:40 PM
One of the even larger issues is the fact that they could open up 1 million wells tomorrow and there are not enough oil tankers to accept and deliver the oil to anywhere. The ships in line for delivery are replacing ships to be retired and they already have contracts for decades of service before they even lead the shipyard.
Posted by: Rick Owens | June 24, 2008 04:43 PM
Cramer has been a Chimpleton/Gopper shill from almost the day the moronic monkey got himself appointed in 2001. It was about then that I stopped paying attention to Cramer. I recommend it for everybody.
Posted by: JollyRoger | June 24, 2008 07:45 PM
If Cramer told the truth, he wouldn't have a job. That's the way the corporate and corporate dominated media work.
Posted by: libhomo | June 25, 2008 06:49 PM
F*ck the f*cking f*ckers.
Libhomo is right, it's a corporate media. In corporate programming, we shouldn't expect corporations to come under attack. And I think it's referred to as "programming" for a reason. Scheise...
Posted by: Snave | June 26, 2008 10:49 PM