This message is from the Rational Reality website
(http//www.rationalreality.com)

The rise in gas prices following hurricane Katrina, reveals once again
the tendency of corporate America (in this case the oil companies) and
the American elite, to convert every human disaster into a profit
making opportunity- (just like they are doing in Iraq).

This new human disaster also reveals the hypocrisy of the US mainstream
media, which is condemning the looting by those who are stranded in the
city of New Orleans (most of whom didn't have enough resources to move
out before the storm, disasters often don't affect the rich) even as
they ignore the larger scale looting that is going on all over the
country by these oil companies. Quarterly profits for some of the top oil
companies were up by over 50% or more this year, yet they still use the
excuse of "supply and demand" in justifying the high price, as if every
one, including people struggling to pay their rent, are equal players in
the oil market!

Exxon Mobil Corp. announced that its revenue totaled more than $82
billion in the first three months of the year, which amounts to profits
being up by 44%Quarterly profits for Conoco Phillips Inc. were up about 80
percent compared with the corresponding quarter last year; Royal Dutch
Shell Group 28 percent, and BP PLC 35 percent. Bush's recent energy
bill gave these oil companies the biggest chunk of subsidies, amounting in
the billions, to top off their profit figures, as icing on a cake.

A product (oil) that is monopolistically supplied by a few dominant
corporations and which has inelastic demand (because it has no substitutes
in popular usage), and the sale of which results in record profits for
its sellers, can never have simple "supply and demand" determine its
rightful price.

Another fact that this storm revealed about the American elite and its
"misery-profit" connection is that their grip on power is uneasy and
tenuous and is lost easily. A day after the storm they lost control of
the city, this tells us in a subtle though succinct way that when misery
brings people together, tyranny loses out fast.

Sincerely,

M. Asadi