Posts Tagged ‘Obama’
You know, the willful ignorance that so many liberals show toward the idea of drilling absolutely befuddles me. Take Bob Herbert and his op/ed for the NY Times a few days ago.
As Senator Kerry and many others have pointed out, it would be nearly 10 years before any oil at all would be realized from new offshore leases. So your adorable 7- or 8-year-old would be just about 17 and clamoring for a license when this new oil started coming online.
Ok. Well, first off, they’re wrong. Drilling technology has come a long way since the 70’s, and it may take as little as 3 or 4 years to see some actual oil. But so what if it does take 10 years? If the Clinton Administration hadn’t blocked us from drilling 10 years ago, we wouldn’t be in this problem now. The shortsightedness is really quite astonishing. Not only would it drop prices sooner than 10 years from now, it would also provide for the Americans of 10 years in the future. Which will be us. So let’s think ahead, people.
Maximum capacity from these new leases wouldn’t be reached until 2030, when that 7- or 8-year-old is approaching 30, finished with college and graduate school, and very likely married with children.
And even then — after more than two decades and who knows how many graduations, weddings, funerals and family cars — even then, the amount of oil expected to come from these leases would have little or no effect on the price of gasoline at the pump.
Again, even if it takes that long, that alternative you’re offering is… what? Just wait it out? To have cars that run on Obama’s hopes and dreams by then? Please…
And to say that it will only have very little effect on gas prices ignores even our current situation with the deafest of ears. Like I’ve said, the only change in the last month has been the lifting of the Executive Order against offshore drilling. No new oil. Not even the lifting of the Congressional ban. Just a symbolic lifting of the Executive order. And oil barrels have dropped an incredible 23% from $147.27 to roughly $113.40. The average price at the pump dropped from $4.114 to $3.787. Almost $0.33!! To ignore this is engaging in a buffoonery of the highest order.
He then quotes the Energy Information Administration, a statistical agency that provides official data for the federal government. Given their dubious association, it’s not hard to believe they’re wrong:
“Because oil prices are determined on the international market … any impact on average wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant.”
Wrong. See above.
I wonder how [the chanting bikers at the McCain rally] would have responded if they had been told that lifting the offshore restrictions would risk serious environmental damage to the U.S. coastline over the next several decades while having no significant effect on the price of gasoline at the pump.
They’d know the second part was a lie given the prices they’ve seen with their own eyes at the pump lately, which would make them laugh all the more heartily at the first part. Seriously, how oblivious is Herbert? Has he not swiped the card himself at the pump lately?
Jimmy Carter, for all his faults, was on the case when it came to energy. He saw the challenge as “the moral equivalent of war,” and dared to ask the public to make sacrifices as part of a coordinated national effort.
Ah, yes, I’ve heard many stories about his daringness. I believe it only exacerbated the energy crisis, if I’m not mistaken. Obama’s energy policy seems eerily reminiscent of Carter’s plan. And as such, the Obama machine is hard at work trying to get people to rewrite the history of both the Carter and Reagan Administrations.
Former Vice President Al Gore has tried, more than any other public figure in recent years, to raise the consciousness of Americans by dramatically illustrating, not just the enormity of the energy challenge, but creative and practical ways of dealing with it.
I suppose no one has ever accused Gore of being a pragmatist. In his devising of creative ways he does seem to ignore the largest contributors to energy. Oil and coal. And nuclear. This new wave of radical environmentalism, backed by junk science, greatly exaggerates the current effectiveness of alternative forms of energy. Wind and solar are great, but even Captain McGreenie Al Gore can’t power his house using only alternative forms of energy. That’s why we need a multi-facted energy policy that encourages new technologies without first abandoning the only sources that currently produce abundant energy. That’s why McCain’s plan makes more sense. And why Obama is quickly headed in the same direction.
Tags: Al Gore, McCain, Obama, Offshore Drilling, Oil
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CNN: ‘Sunni Arab bloc rejoins Iraqi Cabinet‘
I suspect the progress is due to the proximity of The Great One, having just landed in Afghanistan.
Tags: Iraq, Obama
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Sounds like something Christ might’ve said, right? Surely it’s in the Bible somewhere.
Wait… no, that was just the more recent Messiah, The Great Leader Barack Obama. Gross. Get over yourself.
Tags: Arrogance, Barack, Entitlement, Obama
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I like it when other people have already written a detailed account of how I’ve been feeling:
No, what really put me off Barack Obama was the increasingly creepy and pathological tenor of the relationship between him and his fans. I think it was in mid-February, a bit before the Jeremiah Wright story got really ugly, that I started to notice my “Never Again!” nerves tingling.
Why it’s not completely ridiculous to start seriously worrying about the whole Messianic complex surrounding Obama.
Be honest. We have NEVER seen this kind of thing in an American leader, and while it does not necessarily indict Obama as a fascist leader, the necessary dynamic for fascism is certainly present. And that’s a frightening thing. As much as Americans claim to remember the Holocaust and vow to never let it happen again, I don’t think we could actually prevent it. Not because our hearts aren’t in the right place, but because we’ve learned nothing from the “non-stop train of horrors” that is the twentieth century. If there’s one major fault I can project on the American citizenry as a whole, it’s the wholesale lack of historical understanding.
Oh sure, we’re all aware the Holocaust happened. Almost no one is denying that, except the real moon-bats. But we’ve learned to demonize the German people during that time as being horrible people that hated Jews and wanted to kill them. We forget that Hilter was a rightfully elected leader who, rather than usurp power by force, actually used the legislature and the laws in place to wield absolute power. He was essentially given full authority in order to find the terrorists who burned the Bundestadt and restore order– he just never gave that power back. This wasn’t by accident, of course. While in prison, Hilter wrote about his plans for the then outcast Nazi Party:
…Instead of working to achieve power by an armed coup we shall have to hold our noses and enter the Reichstag against the Catholic and Marxist deputies. If outvoting them takes longer than outshooting them, at least the results will be guaranteed by their own Constitution! Any lawful process is slow. But sooner or later we shall have a majority - and after that Germany.
Hilter knew that he needed the hearts of the majority of people behind him in order to really have any true kind of power. Once out of prison, he played on the fears of the people caused by the economic downturn and the negative international sentiment following the first World War that Germany. He promised to put Germany back in her rightful place as the leader of the world and bolster her economic standing. How could you not get behind a speaker with such power and promise of actual change?
I’m not panicked yet, because Obama is still a long way off from behaving like a megalomaniacal nut-job. But if the lives of people like Napoleon, Mussolini, or Hitler show us anything it’s that the road from Obama’s flavor of charismatic leader to tyrant is open, and dangerously seductive to the leader himself.
Certainly, most of his followers will see this as complete lunacy. But anyone with respect for history must be able to look at the current situation, compare it with uber-charismatic and tyrannical leaders of the past, and see why it’s so important that for America to be a land of secure checks and balances. During the presidency of George W. Bush, we’ve already seen a congress that’s willing to transfer it’s power to the president in the name of solidarity and support for finding the terrorists. And the FISA bill, criticized by groups across the political spectrum for enabling the Executive branch to authorize spying on the American people, has suddenly found support from Obama, a man who hopes to find himself at the helm of the presidency next year. Don’t worry though, the Leader has promised he won’t abuse the power.
Again, I’m not saying Obama is a fascist leader. And I’m not accusing Bush of being a fascist either, nor that the need to find the terrorists is anything less than an important one. I’m merely recognizing the elements that must be present for fascism to occur, and strangely enough, we’re seeing a lot of them here. We’ve been lulled into complacency over the years by a fantastic economy, incredible growth, and the general protection that the Atlantic and Pacific oceans bring. The motto of the useful idiot truly is, “That could never happen here!”
Absolutely it could.
No political leader merits uncritical devotion — neither when they are running for office nor when they occupy it — and there are few things more dangerous than announcing that you so deeply believe in the Core Goodness of a political leader, or that we face such extreme political crises that you trust and support whatever your Leader does, even when you don’t understand it or think that it’s wrong.
That sentiment is something that we’re already seeing by a wide, enthusiastic margin among Obama followers.
Tags: Fascism, Messianic Complex, Obama
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Sure, he’s got big plans for America, not the least of which involved undetermined amounts of Hope and Change, but what kind of preview does his rather short track record provide?
Grove Parc and several other prominent failures were developed and managed by Obama’s close friends and political supporters. Those people profited from the subsidies even as many of Obama’s constituents suffered. Tenants lost their homes; surrounding neighborhoods were blighted.
Yikes. Even if he did fight to “to make livable, affordable housing in mixed-income neighborhoods available to all,” it was still clearly a massive failure. Even more so, I would add, if he really did fight that hard. Can’t really blame it on a lack of trying, can you?
Get ready Husseins. This is the typical use of tax-payer money that you have to look forward to with your Anointed One.
Tags: Failures, Obama, Public Housing
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I don’t really have time for a write-up on this just yet, but I saw it and thought it interesting. Gallup poll:
Americans’ lack of support for redistributing wealth to fix the economy spans political parties: Republicans (by 90% to 9%) prefer that the government focus on improving the economy, as do independents (by 85% to 13%) and Democrats (by 77% to 19%). This sentiment also extends across income groups: upper-income Americans prefer that the government focus on improving the economy and jobs by 88% to 10%, concurring with middle-income (83% to 16%) and lower-income (78% to 17%) Americans.
See the results here.
Tags: McCain, Obama, Polls, Redistribution of Wealth
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Megan over at her corner of The Atlantic suggests that outrage has lost it’s meaning in the blogosphere. While there certainly is the opportunity to apply a check against the mainstream media, there is also the potential to have ideologues from any part of the political spectrum all group together and really just let the “other side” have it. And of course it happens. But to follow through with such polarizing rhetoric really requires a dedication to the art of ignoring facts or any kind of real debate.
Case in point, one of my closest friends is a liberal, and admittedly so. We routinely– to the chagrin of his wife I’m sure– have political “discussions” that are usually somewhat lengthy, but never end on bad terms. That’s because, while we disagree a solid portion of the time, we also take the time to listen to each other rather than spitting party talking points or throwing around the expected retort against the politician or issue on hand.
Even tonight, I mentioned how the Carter Administration employed a windfall profits tax on “Big Oil”. The results?
The law produced nowhere near the revenue it promised, made the country more reliant on foreign oil, and generated reams of red tape, according to a 2006 report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.
This, of course is one of the brilliant “new” ideas that Obama is bringing to the table. Not new, of course, and certainly not a good idea, but it does play to the average American’s tendency towards stick-it-to-the-man-itis. My mention of it to my liberal friend produced a somewhat disappointed look accompanied by merely, “Yeah…”
But see, that is the result of real, honest dialogue, something so many in this country, news media, and yes, even blogosphere fail to appreciate. There are a lot of complex issues at which we should direct our attention. There won’t be many quick fixes. And as much as the two-party system seems to force the unintended consequence of seeing only two sides to every issue, we really need to stop and think. (Or maybe even actually read the legislation. Yeah Congress, I’m looking right at you.) And if you don’t know enough about an issue, don’t be afraid to ask someone, keep your mouth shut, and listen. Incessant rambling doesn’t well up any sense of respect in me for you. As Megan says,
It’s hard to generate intellectual respect for someone who believes that life is an exam composed entirely of multiple choice questions.
Tags: Bi-partisanship, Emotional Responses, Obama, Taxes
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SPEAKING without a text in front of him, Barack Obama betrays a troubling lack of knowledge on important issues - such as the law and terrorism.
He claimed that, in the case of “the first attack against the World Trade Center, we were able to arrest those responsible, put them on trial. They are currently in US prisons, incapacitated.”
McCarthy [asst. US attorney and prosecutor of '93 WTC attackers] notes: “While the government managed to prosecute many people responsible for the 1993 WTC bombing, many also escaped prosecution because of the limits on civilian criminal prosecution.
The convicted spiritual mentor of the 1993 WTC bombers is Omar Abdel-Rahman (”the blind sheik”). By Obama’s logic, the blind sheik was “incapacitated” and therefore rendered harmless by his conviction and imprisonment… Attorney Lynne Stewart was convicted in February 2005 of conspiracy and providing and concealing material support of terrorism for her actions in smuggling messages from Abdel-Rahman to his followers in the terrorist group Gama’a al-Islamiyya (Islamic Group).
He explained: “I mean, you remember during the Nuremberg trials, part of what made us different was even after these Nazis had performed atrocities that no one had ever seen before, we still gave them a day in court and that taught the entire world about who we are, but also the basic principles of rule of law.” … The Nazi war criminals had no access to US courts. The fair-trial provision of the charter governing the trial was relatively skimpy - and the provision on appeal rights was even shorter and sweeter: The defendants had no right to appeal. The procedures the court found deficient in Boumediene, by contrast, provided for appeal rights to the DC Circuit, the most prominent US bench below the Supreme Court.
In short, the procedural protections for Gitmo detainees under the statute before the Supreme Court in Boumediene exceed those accorded the Nuremberg defendants.
Full article here.
Tags: Boumediene, Gitmo, Obama
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