I'm not arguing for argumentum ad hominem. We are in agreement,
seems to me. BofA was a good authority on Prop 13, as was Nader on
the insurance issues. The fact that the oil companies are spending
big bucks to kill an initiative is a good reason to check on the
validity of the initiative. This isn't so much a case of "the enemy
of my enemy is my friend" as it is, "where is the enemy putting his
big guns (cash) in this fight?"
Dan
On Nov 5, 2006, at 1:14 PM, Jim Devine wrote:
yeah, you can get some information by knowing who is for and who is
against an initiative (or a politician). But that's never enough.The
big corporations like Bank of America opposed Proposition 13 in
California (which helped create the current fiscal mess). Does that
mean that we should have been in favor of Prop. 13?
On 11/5/06, Dan Scanlan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
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
--
Jim Devine / "Mathematics has given economics rigor, but alas, also
mortis." -- Robert Heilbroner
Dan Scanlan
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.coolhanduke.com
"We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious
is the first duty of intelligent men." — George Orwell
