On Nov 5, 2006, at 9:27 AM, Jim Devine wrote:
why is "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" logic so popular??
I remember when I asked if anyone on pen-l had any useful knowledge
about California Proposition 87 (taxing oil) -- and someone said, in
effect: hey, the oil companies are agianst it, need we say more? That
person truly earned a place on my auto-trash list.
A few years back there were three initiatives on the California
ballot regarding health insurance. The insurance industry had floated
two of them in order to confuse the issue on the one good one. The
easiest way to hone in on the truth of the matter was to check out
what Ralph Nader had to say about them. He actually does his
homework. For most people, Nader's word was appropriately enough and
the California electorate dumped the insurance creations.
Back in 1979 I was heavily involved in the Tax Big Oil Initiative, a
California electoral initiative started, I believe, by Bill Press.
The initiative would tax the oil companies based on what they told
their shareholders was their earnings and the tax would be used for
alternative energy sources and mass transit. Once we got on the
ballot, the oil companies dumped $6 million into a campaign to defeat
it. Although we easily got on the ballot, we lost because we could
not counter the massive television campaign. In that instance, as in
this one, just knowing that the oil companies are against it is a
damn good reason to vote for it.
I hope I don't wind up in your spam filter.
Dan Scanlan
