Do you ever wonder

Do you ever wonder why gas has dropped more than a dollar a gallon in my area over the last 2 weeks, when the  flooded refinery causing the momentous jump less than a month ago is still off line?

Do you ever wonder why Wall Street was so disappointed in Exxon's recently announced 2nd quarter profits of $10.6 BILLION dollars. The 4th largest quarterly net income ever posted by a publicly traded U.S. company? Do you ever wonder what Exxon's obscene 2006 profits, the largest ever at $39.5 BILLION represents when put in perspective? Well it would fund these Government agencies for a year:

Department of Housing and Urban Development $34.7 billion

Food Stamp Program                                                  $35    billion

Department of Commerce                                          $6.2   billion

Body Armor For Soldiers                          $260  MILLION

Department of Energy                                                 $23    billion

National Institute of Health                                         $28.5  billion

Department of Homeland Security                               $31.9  billion

Department of Interior                                              $10.3  billion

Department of Justice                                              $19.4  billion

State Department                                                    $28.6  billion

Army Corp of Engineers                                             $4.7  billion

EPA                                                                            $7.5 billion

Health Care for 6 million Children                                  $3.5 billion

There are countless other programs that $39.5 billion would fund and of course 3 months of the War in Iraq. AND the what about the combined oil profits last year? Just the biggest of the oil companies had profits of $377 BILLION in 2006, or about $1300 for every man woman and child in this country.

Do you ever wonder why Republicans are against funding universal health care for children? Do they really believe there are no uninsured or poor Republicans in this country. There are 15,869,776 Children in Red states living in poverty, nearly half of all children in Texas, more than 3 million. 55% of all poor children live in Red states.

Do you ever wonder why truth, justice and the American way hasn't been like that since Superman was a kid. Do you ever wonder why Russ Feingold couldn't have come to KOS with some closer to the truth. Like no matter what it may look like we understand the mandate of the last election and we DO have your back.

Do you ever wonder why football commissioner Roger Goodell needs an independent lawyer to look over the Michael Vick indictment to see if Vick has violated ANY NFL policies on personal conduct?  In the mean time Vick misses training camp, we can only hope Goodell does the right thing. Nike and Rebok among others saw no dilemma and sacked him.

Do you ever wonder why breast milk was prohibited on aircraft when a well applied metal ball point pen can be lethal.

Do you ever wonder why when Cheney declared himself the fourth branch of government, Congress didn't bitch slap him by defunding his office. It was a close call, 9 more yea votes would have passed it. Unfortunately of the nay votes  24 of them were Democrats; Bean, Boren, Boyd (FL), Capuano, Cuellar, Edwards, Ellsworth, Gordon, Herseth Sandlin, Kaptur, Klein (FL), Lampson, McDermott ( the good guy from Wa state, Murtha, Obey, Peterson (MN), Ross, Salazar, Sestak, Skelton, Smith (WA), Snyder, Space, Tanner. If they represent YOU, you might want to have a chat.

Do you ever wonder why parents don't seem to tell their children or grandchildren about their heroes? I do, in fact we had a discussion recently about one of my “lefty” heroes, Phil Donahue and his interview with Donald Rumsfeld and others, regarding the Iraq war. The whole idea that we were better off because Saddam was evil, killed thousands of his own people and had WMDs made him bristle. He fearlessly braced Rummy about WMDs and how whatever WMDs Saddam had he got them from us. He reminded Donald how he had met with Saddam in December of 1983, like they were old friends. And then the coup de grâce-when Saddam gassed the Kurds with WMD's we gave him, I didn't hear you crying then Donny.

Do you ever wonder why people seem to have a problem with theories trying to make them facts ahead of their time, or complete discounting them once they become fact. Theories are like a crime scene investigation, you take what you know, what you think you know and what you might imagine happened (this includes but isn't limited to wild assed guesses)and one by one eliminate what doesn't fit until you have the truth. All scientific facts started as theories, as did all factual conclusions of any kind. It is the sum total of what you have until you have all the answers. Global warming is not a theory and neither is the hidden environmental dangers of nuclear power.

Do you ever wonder why three years later we can't fix the Gulf Coast. I don't mean the Government or Insurance companies, they will never do it, I mean US, you and me. The first thing we need to do is push HARD for the protection and restoration of Delta wetlands. No single act can do more to protect the Gulf Coast than to protect wetlands and barrier islands, they are hurricane sinks. The other thing we need is a clearing house to connect people who want to help with people who need help. Maybe something like making the whole area the America's new “home town”, adopt a town or rural area to help, sister cities, individuals, churches, colleges, businesses, hell, come one come all. The Government and companies supporting a “national vacation” to encourage business to promote time taken to the Gulf Coast to help. Perhaps even put together employees willing to go and pay their expenses and wage while they do. Construction companies and trades people usually have a slow season, a perfect time to make a visit to one of the most beautiful spots in the world. The Government allowing those businesses and individuals who participate to deduct the cost of their trip on their taxes dollar for dollar and refund any excess. If the Gulf Coast is ever going to be fixed it falls to us to get it done, the good news is, WE CAN DO IT.

Do you ever wonder why increasing terror alerts seem to coincide with increasing problems for W? Oh thats right we figured that out a while back, too bad W continues to embarrass himself by trying to divert our attention.

Do you ever wonder where the real news is and I don't mean Brittany and Lindsay. Here are some news stories you may have missed compliments of Google.

The first induction weekend since the Baseball Hall of Fame promised to honor Buck O’Neil probably will end without any announced tribute.  Mr O'Neil was instrumental in getting 17 Negro League players inducted but was omitted himself. Sadly, he died recently at the age of 94.

Americans make up 36% of users at British news oriented web sites.

The WGA East on Wednesday released a “white paper” study by the guild purporting to show a lowering of news quality at two broadcast networks with which it is locked in protracted and fractious contract talks. Based on interviews with WGA members at ABC and CBS between May 2006 and April, survey results show “the conglomerates have slashed jobs overall, converted full-timers to part-timers and combined jobs,” the guild said. This is part of the cause for the degradation of news reporting.

There was also some good earnings news yesterday. Amazon.com surged $16.93 to $86.18 after the Web retailer said its second-quarter profit more than tripled on strong sales of books, music and electronics worldwide.

Japanese whalers have admitted almost all of the mature female minke whales they killed in Antarctic waters last season were pregnant. But that's good news, they insist, supporting their argument that the population is strong enough to allow a return to commercial whaling.

Merck (nyse: MRK – news – people )told investors that, for the second-quarter, it raked in earnings of $1.68 billion, or 77 cents per share, versus $1.5 billion, or 69 cents per share, for a similar period last year. Pharmaceutical Industry Profits Increase by Over$8 Billion After Medicare Drug Plan Goes Into Effect and nearly 70% of their PAC money goes to Republicans.

Do you ever wonder why on KOS, unlike newspapers, the meat of the diary is below the fold?

Do you ever wonder about DLS and all the terror threats they have so far stopped for us, how they are all a joke. Yet they expect us to take this seriously when clearly in most cases the people are American citizens and either monumentally stupid or innocent of even ignorance and poor planning. Oh, that's right “fight'em there so we don't have to fight'em here” seems to be working based on results from DLS, they have yet to foil a REAL threat.

Do you ever wonder why so many people believe Civil Unions are marriage equality? Or how many are willing to give up the fight and just give in to the Radical Right without ever looking at their argument to see if it holds water? Just a couple of things, first separate is never equal, thought we learned that in the 60's. Secondly, no church has ever been nor will they ever be forced to marry anyone, this isn't about the rights of churches, those rights have never been jeopardized. And lastly the church came very late to the marriage party. Marriage first and foremost is a legal and binding contract for that reason the government has a legitimate interest. In about 550 AD the Justinian Code made marriage a state regulated contract, before then saying you were married was enough. Until the 12th century church marriages were simply blessings with no legal or binding anything. In 1553 the Council of Trent required all Catholic marriages to be performed by a priest, but it wasn't until the 18th century Church weddings became common. Churches simply do not have a dog in this fight.

Do you ever wonder if a President has a defining moment when he actually understands the consequences of his actions and in that moment willingly chooses infamy for his legacy? Take the $1.1 trillion surplus projected by 2008 thanks to President Clinton, how it disappeared to give us a projected $3.9 trillion tax cut for the wealthy? The tax cut according to Bush was to boost an already thriving economy. I have read it would take $1.6 trillion to rebuild this country's ancient infrastructure. (Many of us learned about the importance of infrastructure playing SIM CITY.) For less than half the cost of the tax cut, we could have new highways, ports, power, schools, etc. What a tremendous boost to the economy all those jobs would have been. What a perfect time to start using conductive concrete for road surfaces, building rapid rail, clean energy, clean water and more. All that  and $2.3 trillion left for rebuilding cities and the Gulf Coast, restoring the Delta wetlands, universal health care, getting off oil, clean air, think of the possibilities. I would have given up my measly $300 for any one of these, my guess is you would have too.

Do you ever wonder why reforms of any social program inevitably means fewer needing the help will get it? Welfare reform doesn't need to be a bad thing, but the idea of making it more difficult to get help the first place is wrong headed, it ought to be made EASIER to GET OFF. Programs should be designed to help as many people as possible, make it easy to transition off and understand the only way to get rid of any opportunity to abuse the system is to NOT offer the program, because matter what is done a certain SMALL group will always find a way to scam the government.

Do you ever wonder about the President who when Signing Statements no longer are enough asks Congress to retrofit the law to legitimize his criminality. Constitooshun, we don't need no stink'in Constitooshun.

This is just a few things making little sense to me, feel free to add your own “Do you ever wonder”s to the thread.