Rarely do I transcribe Rachel Maddow rants but her July 31 rant was spot on and on topic for your post.

So here it is. Mistakes and typos are no doubt there, and of course, mine.

I'm starting in mid-rant. She's been talking about the conflicting "reasons" to stay in Iraq -- it's dangerous, so we gotta stay forever! It's safer, so we get to stay forever! Coming out of that -- here comes Rachel:

At some point the press and the public will get up on our hind legs and say: "Wait a minute, we've had, like, 45 different explanations for why Americans in uniform are in Iraq and have to stay there forever. And if you just keep making up new ones now, come on! This doesn't make sense!" At some point they're gonna have to fess up. And maybe it'll be President McCain who has to do the fessing up, but I kinda think it's gonna happen sooner than the election. I think they're going to have to fess up and I think they will fess up as to why Americans are in Iraq:

[Cut to audio clip: Beverly Hillbillies theme -- "Oil, that is. Black gold. Texas tea."]

You know if you want to understand the bridge between domestic policy and foreign policy in American politics, if you want to understand the connection, the way certain issues straddle both issues in America and issues abroad, just look at oil, and you can see how it works much the same way at home and abroad. Domestically, the oil companies want access to as much oil as possible, they want as much access to as much drillable land as possible, because the more they control, as compared to their competitors, the more market share they lock up, the higher profits they can make, so the Republican Party is now advocating that the oil companies get access to offshore oil drilling leases, and the caribou habitat, and the wildlife reserve up in Alaska -- anything they want, the Republican Party, and their nominee for President, want to try to get the oil companies what they want, which is control over as much oil and as much potentially oil-producing land as they can get their mitts on. It is good for profit so that's why they want it. And I love that there's this conflation of American oil companies and America, like when John McCain says he's now in favor of offshore oil drilling so "we can become less dependent on foreign oil" so we can "drill our own oil right at home", unless McCain is actually proposing that we NATIONALIZE our oil industry in this country, WE DON'T GET ANY OIL drilled off our own coasts, or drilled through the caribou in Alaska, or anywhere else in the world. WE don't get it as Americans, the OIL COMPANIES get that oil. And then we Americans get to BUY IT from them on the world market, just like everyone else in the world. What McCain is talking about doing is getting the oil companies access to more oil which we will then be ALLOWED to BUY from them. That's what's happening domestically, right?

Internationally, that's where the REALLY big oil is, but the dynamics and the politics are exactly the same -- and again, we conflate America with Western oil companies. We Americans, for example, had total access to Iraq's oil when Saddam was still in charge of Iraq. He had a nationalized oil industry that drilled the oil and the sold it on the world market and we could buy it just like any customer could buy it. It's not that we couldn't get our hands on their oil, it's just that we had to GIVE THEM MONEY IN EXCHANGE for their oil. Now we've got 145,000 Americans stationed in Iraq. They want it to be permanent. And we've got more than 4,000 American soldiers who have died in Iraq -- so that instead of Americans BUYING oil form Iraq, instead of Iraq drilling its own oil and SELLING it to us -- the point of us having 145,000 Americans there now and more than 4,000 Americans dead there -- is so now instead of Iraq drilling its own oil, EXXON will drill Iraq's oil, and we will still have to BUY it -- from Exxon.

[Cut to Beverly Hillbillies theme again.]

It works the same way domestically and internationally. Politically, they are telling us on the offshore drilling issue right now, that "America needs the oil," even though it's really EXXON that gets it, and we'll just have to BUY it from them like the rest of the world. Internationally, I think they're getting close to making the argument to us that -- "OK, forget all those other 45 things we said about all the reasons we need to invade Iraq and stay there forever -- honestly, we'll come clean: we're there for the oil. But it's to get oil we really need, it's a national security issue, it's a gas prices issue, and Americans ought to support our troops staying there to give us access to oil."

And once again, just like with the "reduce our dependence on foreign oil through offshore drilling" bull-pucky, just like with that canard -- when the Republicans are finally ready to make the argument to us sometime in the next few months about, "Oh, we have to stay in Iraq permanently for the oil" -- just like they do with the domestic politics around oil, they will conflate oil companies with America. They will tell us that troops need to stay in Iraq to establish "America's" access to all that oil, when really what our troops need to stay in Iraq forever for, is to establish the OIL COMPANIES' access to all that oil -- because if Iraq is selling their own oil, then the oil companies don't make the profit, that profit when they sell it to us. We, the American people, i>will be buying Iraq's oil anyway, but our troops will have to die on Iraqi soil -- for generations to come if these guys get their way -- our troops will have to die on Iraqi soil to make sure that when we buy that oil the profits go to the Cayman Islands, those tax-sheltered headquarters of all those oil companies, they'll go to the Cayman Islands instead of going to Baghdad.

Noble cause, huh?

(swoosh)

Did you see that Exxon again reported the largest quarterly profit in American history? They made 11.68 BILLION dollars in PROFIT -- just in the last three months. Fifteen hundred dollars a SECOND.

(Sigh) Yeah.

There was a little worry at Exxon headquarters over this quarter's financials, of course -- they were worried they might not get the record this quarter, because the previous world record for quarterly corporate profits was really high -- it was 11.66 billion dollars. I'm sure they were very worried they wouldn't be able to, you know, beat whoever those bastards were who held the old record -- then they figured out, "Oh, wait -- the old record for corporate profits: That was our record, too!" So Exxon 2008 beat out Exxon 2007 for the most profit evger made by any American company ever in any business in any sector in any year of American history! (Applause track)

Good news for the Big Guy.

(swoosh)

Did I mention that John McCain's economic plan includes $1.2 billion in tax credits for oil companies? One point two BILLION dollars, of YOUR dollars, taxpayer dollars, John McCain wants to shovel into the giant pile of money that the oil companies are already sucking out of your veins every time you go to the pump.

[In a tiny voice] U.S.A.! u.s.a.! u.s.... [tinier voice]...a!