Customize this Letter to the Editor and Send to Your Local Paper...

[OneAngryDemocrat]

End Taxpayer Bailouts for Big Oil

As we continue to struggle with outrageous and unstable gas prices, the big oil companies continue to benefit from our misery.　

Exxon Mobil announced Thursday a first-quarter profit of $10.6 billion — a 69% increase from last year, and a number so astronomical, Exxon executives felt the need to issue defensive statements in advance.

Also unveiling massive earnings were Shell ($6.3 billion, up 30%), ConocoPhillips ($3 billion, up 44%), and of course, BP (7.1 Billion, up 16%). In all, the five largest oil companies - the single greatest profit-generating endeavors in all of human history - have raked in nearly $1 trillion in profits in the last 10 years.

But more outrageous than the jaw-dropping profits, is the fact that our government actually rewards these companies with even more of our money for maintaining this disasterous state of affairs — to the tune of $4 billion a year in tax credits and subsidies, most of which is paid to the Big Oil comapanies simply because the volume of oil a particular oil well will produce today will be somewhat less (surprise!), tomorrow!!!

We pay 'em when they take it out of the ground - but we still pay 'em when they can't.

The oil companies write off the unavoidable and inevitable loss of revenues from a non-renewable resource as an oil well runs dry and then they stick us with the tab - just as they do when they similarly lose business when they can't keep their refineries from blowing up, or their product from polluting our waters.

It's time for the hand outs to come to an end.

Written by the Caffeine Writers' Workshop,
and The Rockford Sons of Liberty

[OneAngryDemocrat]

1. Bumped Again

If you like this idea - that of posting customizable op/eds - PLEASE bump and recommend this thread. We need to take over the editorial columns of our local papers, and not everyone is a decent writer.

We got some dedicated liberals over at facebook's Caffeine Writers' Workshop, and our one goal is to fill up the nation's local newspapers with left-leaning letters to the editor, with the difficult task of sending 'em in with a 400 word count OR LESS.

As you'll can imagine, putting these complex subjects into less that 400 words isn't easy.

So bump, kick, recommend, whatever... keep the threads going until everyone who wants to send these letters out to their paper has done so.

[laylah]

2. K&R!

[Poboy]

3. r'd

[pintobean]

4. Isn't that plagiarism

and won't the papers know what's up when they receive multiple versions?

[zbdent]

5. Not plagiarism ... it's "astroturfing" ...

and when it's a Democrat/liberal doing it ... it's the "worst thing in the world".

When a Republican/Conservative type does it ... crickets ... media doesn't notice ...

[OneAngryDemocrat]

6. It is STILL better than leaving the Paper's COMMENTS column to the depravations of the Radical Right

And that's how I feel about it.

A lot of folks WANT to write, they just don't feel comfortable doing so.

We hand out templates, and ask folks to change what they want.

The letters are posted here anonymously, and no one from the Caffeine Writers' Workshop is taking any credit.

If it makes you feel better, then sign the darn thing,"ANONYMOUS" while still supplying your local paper the necessary contact info that they usually ask for when submitting Letters to the Editor.

Hell, tell 'em the letter is from the Caffeine Writers' Workshop!

But the reality is, most small town papers won't print anything that isn't from someone in the community, unless of course, it happens to fit the editor's right-wing slant.

That's an obstacle we're trying to overcome.

[Hangingon]

7. I think I would rather write about the commodities market.

[OneAngryDemocrat]

8. Whatever flips your trigger, my man...

...but your response STILL kicked this thread back to the top of the General Discussion forum, and for that I'm grateful to you. Have a nice day!