Jim Stillman
Nevar
T. Boone Pickens: Good ideas from a not-so good Man
July 24th 2008 17:48
T. Boone Pickens is, according to Forbes Magazine, in the richest 120 bunch of people in the United States and ranks about 370 in the world. He’s worth something like $3 Billion which will buy a really big bunch of Big Macs, with supersized fries. He made his fortune by buying up oil companies and has a not-too-favorable reputation as a corporate raider.
Politically, he is best known for his way to the right views and supporter of GOP causes. One campaign donor reporting site, Newsmeat documents millions of contributions over the years, the vast majority to extreme right wing causes.
Really Long Link
Pickens is, in my mind, associated with a $3 Million contribution to the Swift Boat group that attacked John Kerry. (In 2007, Pickens offered $1 Million to anyone able to disprove the claims of the Swift Boat folks; when a group of Vietnam veterans who had served with Kerry submitted documentary evidence that refuted the Swift Boat advertisements, Mr. Pickens, as related by Timothy Egan in the New York Times on July 24, 2008,
So you can appreciate my not having the greatest regard for Mr. Pickens’ social or ethical conscience!
But anyone who has been watching television over the past weeks has witnessed an amazing transformation. The 80-year-old T. Boone Pickens says, in a $58 million campaign, is that we can’t drill our way to lower gas prices. By implication, anybody who tells you otherwise — including the fellow Texan he helped put in the White House — is a fraud. The same man behind the low-blow and dishonest campaign against John Kerry now is calling Republicans on their phony energy campaign.
“Totally misleading” is the way Pickens describes Republican attempts to convince the public that if we just opened up all these forbidden areas to oil drilling then gas prices would fall. According to reports, Pickens isn’t against new drilling, but he states it wouldn’t do anything.
The beneficiaries of previous largesse from Pickens are truly angry; Senator John McCain is currently running an ad in which he directly blames Barack Obama for $4-a-gallon gas at the pump — as dishonest a claim as anything yet made in 2008.
Then along comes Pickens, Texas oilman and billionaire corporate raider, overwhelming the McCain attack with a message that has the added value of being true, paraphrasing Henry Kissinger.
Pickens has a plan and proposal for the future.
His entire proposal is at his site:
http://www.pickensplan.com/
I still do not like T. Boone Pickens, but what he has to say should not be ignored.
Politically, he is best known for his way to the right views and supporter of GOP causes. One campaign donor reporting site, Newsmeat documents millions of contributions over the years, the vast majority to extreme right wing causes.
Really Long Link
Pickens is, in my mind, associated with a $3 Million contribution to the Swift Boat group that attacked John Kerry. (In 2007, Pickens offered $1 Million to anyone able to disprove the claims of the Swift Boat folks; when a group of Vietnam veterans who had served with Kerry submitted documentary evidence that refuted the Swift Boat advertisements, Mr. Pickens, as related by Timothy Egan in the New York Times on July 24, 2008,
So you can appreciate my not having the greatest regard for Mr. Pickens’ social or ethical conscience!
But anyone who has been watching television over the past weeks has witnessed an amazing transformation. The 80-year-old T. Boone Pickens says, in a $58 million campaign, is that we can’t drill our way to lower gas prices. By implication, anybody who tells you otherwise — including the fellow Texan he helped put in the White House — is a fraud. The same man behind the low-blow and dishonest campaign against John Kerry now is calling Republicans on their phony energy campaign.
“Totally misleading” is the way Pickens describes Republican attempts to convince the public that if we just opened up all these forbidden areas to oil drilling then gas prices would fall. According to reports, Pickens isn’t against new drilling, but he states it wouldn’t do anything.
The beneficiaries of previous largesse from Pickens are truly angry; Senator John McCain is currently running an ad in which he directly blames Barack Obama for $4-a-gallon gas at the pump — as dishonest a claim as anything yet made in 2008.
Then along comes Pickens, Texas oilman and billionaire corporate raider, overwhelming the McCain attack with a message that has the added value of being true, paraphrasing Henry Kissinger.
Pickens has a plan and proposal for the future.
His entire proposal is at his site:
http://www.pickensplan.com/
I still do not like T. Boone Pickens, but what he has to say should not be ignored.
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