Presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain spent Friday clarifying his earlier suggestion that the Iraq War was motivated by US dependence on foreign oil:
“And I just want to promise you this: My friends, I will have an energy policy, that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East,†McCain said. “That will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East.â€Â
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McCain [later] said that even though he did not vote for war with Iraq because of the vast oil reserves in that region, he does believe that dependency on foreign oil is something that is taken into account.
Allahpundit suggests that McCain’s concerns on this point are hard to take seriously, given his continued opposition to drilling for oil in any portion of the ANWR (he was the deciding vote against it). For that matter, McCain’s concern for our troops apparently does not trump states’ rights when it comes to drilling off the coasts of Florida or California — despite the fact that we cannot stop China from drilling for oil 50 miles from US shores.
But McCain’s error goes beyond these points. As the award-winning historian William Walter Russell Mead wrote in the Wall Street Journal earlier this year:
The U.S. today depends on the Middle East for only a small portion of its energy supplies. Still the world’s third largest oil producer and holding large coal reserves, America is significantly less dependent on foreign energy sources than the other great economies. Imports account for 35% of U.S. energy consumption versus 56% for the European Union and 80% for Japan. Nearly half the oil and all the natural gas imported by the U.S. comes from the Western Hemisphere; sub-Saharan Africa supplies most of the balance. Only 17% of U.S. oil imports and less than 0.5% of our natural gas come from the Persian Gulf; 80% of Japan’s imports come from the Gulf, and by 2015 70% of China’s oil will come from the same source.
Changing US energy policy will not force the rest of the world to change its oil consumption. Indeed, if the US buys less oil, its price becomes more affordable to other nations.
Moreover, Mead’s article suggests that withdrawing from the Middle East — and allowing Iran’s power to grow – poses a risk to global security, regardless of whether the US reduces or eliminates its dependence on Middle Eastern oil:
The end of America’s ability to safeguard the Gulf and the trade routes around it would be enormously damaging–and not just to us. Defense budgets would grow dramatically in every major power center, and Middle Eastern politics would be further destabilized, as every country sought political influence in Middle Eastern countries to ensure access to oil in the resulting free for all.
The potential for conflict and chaos is real. A world of insecure and suspicious great powers engaged in military competition over vital interests would not be a safe or happy place. Every ship that China builds to protect the increasing numbers of supertankers needed to bring oil from the Middle East to China in years ahead would also be a threat to Japan’s oil security–as well as to the oil security of India and Taiwan. European cooperation would likely be undermined as well, as countries sought to make their best deals with Russia, the Gulf states and other oil rich neighbors like Algeria.
It would be nice if there was some magic policy the US could adopt that would make these concerns vanish, but there is no such policy — at least not within a meaningful timeframe, given the threats to US and global security connected to the region. National defense and foreign affairs are supposed to be John McCain’s strong suits, so he should know this. That he gave the answer he did will allow his opponents to score some cheap political points, but the real problem is that his answer might reflect the same shallow thinking of those opponents.
McCain needs Lieberman by his side all the time.
BTW, the project for the new american century (PNAC) said we must control the Middle East because of the importance of OIL (but that it would take a New Pearl Harbor before the people would go along).
The U.S. today depends on the Middle East for only a small portion of its energy supplies.
It does not matter where the oil comes from. It’s a global market.
If the Arabs want to raise prices, our prices will rise even if we are not buying any oil from them.
Any time-frame that contemplates general development of nuclear power facilities w/in the US and investment in fusion research is meaningful, I think. I agree with you, but I’m opposed to these time-frame arguments, since they’ve had something to do with the ANWR setbacks.
BTW, the project for the new american century (PNAC) said we must control the Middle East because of the importance of OIL (but that it would take a New Pearl Harbor before the people would go along).
Are you trying to tell us that US foreign policy is being directed from TelAviv?
If the Arabs want to raise prices, our prices will rise even if we are not buying any oil from them.
It’s called supply and demand ,Sashal, it’s how markets work.
If they put nuclear power plants in metro Atlanta, they’ll kill all the deer. Dan, why do you hate all of the deer?
Are you trying to tell me that influential thinking tank PNAC is runned from Tel-Aviv, Rusty; cause I don’t think I ever said that.
“supply and demand” is fine basic theory. Oil market is not that simplistic. And USA market is much more complicated, that what Bush’s administration economic simplisity proved to us lately.
The Centrist idea that reducing our dependence on Middle Eastern oil will end Global Jihadist ambitions is about as sensible as was the campaign to save energy with a billion mercury bulbs while continuing to use an electric leaf blower to remove leaves from the lawn rather than using a simple rake.
This is the Centrist’s biggest problem, they are populists playing both sides only to end up a constant contradiction.
“sashal needs Protein Wisdom by his side all the time,” is much more the fact.
ANWR oil is still there for the taking. Someday it will be taken. It would be gone already if some had their way. As long as we don’t sell Alaska back to Russia, I don’t really see the importance.
Plus if the global warming alarmists are correct, it’ll boil to the surface and the environmentalists will beg us all to collect it rather than have all the polar bears drown in the gooey tar.
What we need is an energy policy that involves individuals, corporations, and big-ass plants. The US probably wastes more energy every year than was produced worldwide before WWII. We leave lights on to feel safe, pretend all working environments need to involve three-piece suits and accompanying air temperatures, drive cars with too many moving parts when electric motors in the wheels would be far-less wasteful, let factories produce huge amounts of steam rather than capture that steam to make electricity, haven’t widely incorporated solar water heating (Israel requires it for new homes, and it is a hell of a lot more efficient than a boiler with a tank above,) told the Kennedys to fuck off and deal with wind power, told Americans that nuclear power fears are the stuff of comic books and not science (of course, splainin’ science would require politicians who understood any of it,) and I don’t know what else. All those and more can be promoted by a government that tries to sell these technologies to the people (using logical, economic-based arguments, not our own cash,) rather than one that searches for the next panderization of America as helpfully guided by the numerous lobbyists for the status quo.
Nuclear plants everywhere. pebble bed, molten salt breeder reactors, it’s all good.
What we really need is some sort of “type approval” process whereby pre-approved reactor designs can be fast-tracked for construction (without allowing hippies to tie up the process in court for decades).
Of course, given the current trend toward global cooling, we may want to start burning a lot of coal pretty soon….
Blue-sky possibilities: methane clathrate, SPS (really needs a space elevator to be economic), Polywell fusion.
Our energy problems can be solved any time we get the cojones to do the job. Nuclear and coal are here, and they work.
Other than McCain/Feingold the senator’s opposition to drilling in ANWR make me the most angry. It’s an argument tied simply to emotion and ideology rather than to any measure of scientific and critical review. I mean, one percent of one percent of a FRIGGIN’ ARCTIC WASTELAND?
It harshes my mellow to char status whenever I think of it.
sashal: When it comes to the Middle Eastern countries try to remember that the Saudis have engaged in deficit spending ove the last several years. That’s deficit as in desperate to keep their more radical Wahabbis brothers from pursuing impeachment by beheading. If the US were to, over the course of the next 5 years, dramatically increase both production and refining the gaggle of ME countries would have little to say in the matter. China, India and Japan are pretty much stuck with light sweet crude as they do not have the capacity to refine the higher sulpher content crude produced by the likes of Mr. Potato Head in Caracas and others.
We are being held hostage to the climate change hysteria. A real, honest, common sense, comprehensive energy policy would be doing both aggressive drilling, production and refining infrastructure and significant investment in renewable alternative energy sources along with important tax based incentives to conserve energy. Instead we are contemplating creating government mandated costs (“pricing the sky” through carbon offsets) in the hope that all will stampede towards a semi-Luddite lifestyle FOR THE PLANET!! Even the most optimistic projections (read: PEW Center) are admitting a 2% – 3% cost to GNP. If we are running an 8 trillion dollar economy feel free to do the math.
The fact that McCain doesn’t get this as a Republican is maddening.
Ha, and what jon said. Great minds and all…
“Plus if the global warming alarmists are correct”
Yet another cold day here in NYC just waiting for the floods to begin from the melting ice caps that Hollywood created through its’ wasteful energy consumption.
BTW: The last time I checked France was producing almost 80% of it’s electricity fromn nuclear, much of it from dreaded plutonium based reactors. I’m willing, as painful as it is, to emulate the French on this one, little thing.
“The fact that McCain doesn’t get this as a Republican is maddening.”
The Pandergeezer is as big a windsock as Bubba ever dreamed of being. He “gets” polling and focus group results. We mustn’t assume that there is any thought process involved which goes beyond a callculation on how best to attempt to attract a majority of the Muddle. We’re just “lucky” that he will probably face Red BHO rather than Red Witch. She’d mop the floor with him.
Look downticket and think of the future.
Rick, I am increasingly pessimistic that there is a future. Oh, sunrise tomorrow will come on schedule, but the rest of it…
I may vote this fall. I may not. “Marginally less clueless than the other two assholes” is not a ringing endorsement.
Regards,
Ric
The fact that McCain doesn’t get this as a Republican is maddening.
BJTex, I honestly think there will be not much difference between his or Hillary hypothetical administrations, just take for example their ridiculous gas tax holiday pandering
There some significant differences, the biggest one is that I trust the Hildebeast not one whit while a have a low level, cynical, borderline paranoid trust of McGeezer.
Y’know, over the years I’ve had people make all kinds of twists on my last name as a way of “tweaking” me, and the fact you’re referring to McCain with a name that starts out sounding like mine is, well…
Could you call him “McCoot” instead? Please?
McClueless fits.
Regards,
Ric
McClueless? Done!
I agree with jon also. I also think we need to start thinking of ANWR as a already full strategic reserve. It puzzles me how many otherwise economically conservative people think drilling ANWR and selling the oil to ourselves at prices far below global market values is sound policy.
“Rick, I am increasingly pessimistic that there is a future.”
Dunno about that, Ric. Germany, France, Italy and now, apparently, the UK are all shifting (albeit slowly) away from the immiseration and economic death that is the ultimate reward for following “the progressive way”. The chimera of fascist China’s “strength” (built wholly upon slave labor) has been revealed and no one would be surprised to wake up and read that Chavez had faced a firing squad on any given morning.
Jeff has done an excellent job of highlighting the fact that the progressive clown show within the university system hasn’t generated a new trick since 1970 – I still can’t come up with the name of a single new lefty “intellectual” since Kojeve and he’s been dead since 1968. The Gramscian affinity hiring and promotion hasn’t stopped but there isn’t any real growth (in percentage terms) within the student population of those dumb enough to take the bait.
It will take another generation or two to be rid of the lefty infection but given the fact that it’s been around since 1789 (thanks, France) I don’t find that a reason for pessimism.
“supply and demand†is fine basic theory. Oil market is not that simplistic.
Everything is subject to market forces. Oil is a commodity like anything else. No theory about it, its how economics works. marxism is a theory.
um, Karl
By William Russell Mead I think you mean Walter.
McCain would look at ANWR drilling as part of a grand compromise. McCain looks at anything as part of a grand compromise.
I just meant McCain looks at anything as part of a grand compromise.
All the kook McKOSkid lefties have settled on McSame, pinning John to the coattails of 23% Bush, even though they hate each other. Or McCunt.
With or without JM, we are McScrewed.
Karl and Walter Russell Mead are correct that the Middle East will likely remain a security challenge regardless of US dependency, and, to whatever extent the US decides to retain its world influence, US policymakers will have to remain serious about the region. At the same time, however, those attacking McCain on this point need to understand the difference between dealing with challenges out of choice and dealing with them out of survival necessity.
For example, a US Administration that felt somewhat secure politically and economically against major disruptions in the world oil market would be able to deal much more aggressively with Saudi support for Islamic extremism. Similarly, it would be in a much better position to demand rather than merely strongly request support for a harder line against Iran and Russia on nuclear proliferation, human rights, and other issues. There are a wide range of issues in relation to which greater energy independence would incalculably strengthen the hand of the US, both with its enemies and just as crucially with its allies.
Our political and military involvement in the Persian Gulf and elsewhere has always been much more complex than directly securing our own energy resources. As for McCain’s minor campaign trail misstatement, his error may mainly have been to raise a complicated issue at the wrong time, and without being fully prepared to elaborate. Given the general state of foreign policy discussion at this time, it’s not surprising that his words were immediately placed in the most simplistic of available political contexts (“No blood for oil!”). Otherwise, as ever, it’s both amusing and yet dispiriting to observe individuals with likely a tiny fraction of McCain’s knowledge and experience on these matters presuming to instruct us on his supposed incomprehension and superficiality.
Without question McCain will face a firestorm parsing of his every word and gesture and much of it will be unfair and partisan in narure.
That having been said the senator hasn’t, up until now, communicated a sterling grasp of policy in general. Those of us that have serious ideological and policy differences with McCain (Feingold, immigration, global warming, ANWR) are looking very closely at his policy pronouncements to gleen some nugget of reassurance.
It hasn’t happened yet.
Couple that with his less than wonderful grassroots organizing effort for the Republican party and his willingess to travel to New Orleans and throw the president under the bus so that he can pander to the Katrina crowd leaves many of us less than convinced.
Jeez, BJ. Of the three, McCain is by far the most likely to die in office. This is a hugely compelling quality.
Plus for real you have to pick which one we can get out of the Senate what does the most damage there. McCain’s got my vote for sure.
No more blood for oil.
Support our troops and BRING THEM HOME.
That’s so gay. You’re not fooling nobody.
Does David have a plan for disengaging our troops from a hostile envirnment?
Sadly, no.
They haven’t made that bumper sticker yet BJ. You just wait.
It’s pretty funny that the idiots that represent us scream about “no blood for oil”, yet won’t let us tap our own reseves. Even when the Chinese are stealing our oil by drilling into our reserves from Cuban waters.
The bottom line is that we are completely screwed without a LOT of oil, and, with enough money, the enviro-whackos can be, and are, starving us to death. Some of these Enviro groups are approaching a billion dollars in assets, and that’s more than enough money to buy a majority in the Congress.
It reminds me of when I was younger, and the town I lived in was “dry” (no liquor allowed to be sold). The “Drys” would hold cocktail parties to oppose liquor in the town. Sort of in the mold of Al ore using private jets to travel.
I grew up on a farm, and I can tell you, the earth is so much more resiliant than you would ever know, if you listen to the whacks. It heals itself quite readily (and quickly). And I do believe that the environment should be respected, but these people seem to want to rid the Earth of humans, which they apparently look at as some kind of disease. But not rid the Earth of THEM, mind you. Only WE have to go.
It’s too bad though, that the image of the Earth that is stuffed down our ever more ignorant throats is that of a fragile, defenseless butterfly that, with one tiny tear in it’s wing, will perish.
Just another piece of baloney disguised as “caring”. Phony “caring” is now the catch-all for the left’s agenda that can’t gain traction anywhere else, because their ideology is as full of crap as the manure pit I used to empty with a pitchfork.
To present drilling technology as something out of the eighteenth century is a pretty feeble way to go about prohibiting ANY move towards self sufficiency. However, that is exactly what they do. But, lately, it appears that our government schools have just about reached their goal of graduating such feeble minds that they accept such feeble and baseless propaganda without question.
By making oil producers in America report any spill of over five gallons, the Greens have been able to come up with scary “oil spill” numbers that reflect the exact opposite of the truth. If you live where oil is pumped you know what I am saying. When was the last time a flood of spilled oil threatened your house?
Absolute fucking insanity.
747’s! Make Boeing give us all of their 747’s so that all of our terrorists in uniform bleeding to steal oil have comfy seats with chicken breasts (served by chickenhawks) and Bud Light while Iraqi’s fly kites and boogie the night away!!!!
Teh Chaos Theory has ruined the environmental movement.
TROOPH TO BUTTERFLY WINGS!!11eleventy11!!
Plus for real you have to pick which one we can get out of the Senate what does the most damage there. McCain’s got my vote for sure.
That is seriously fucked up, ‘feets. Hilarious, and sadly true, but still seriously fucked up.
McCain’s real slip on oil though is jobs. Good jobs, really. Drilling oil employs a lot of people. I know this from living in Texas. Lots of people with really nice houses there what could never write an essay on nothing, but their kids sure can. It’s been a real blessing for the state and really the whole country.
But feets….
THEY’RE MURDERING TEH GAIA!!!!!!!
Somebody had to say it.
Claiming that oil independence will keep us out of war in the Mideast is the kind of Marxoid horse pukky we denounce when the Crats and the New York Times do it. We ought to be consistent.
Energy policy has joined “teh Envyronmint” as a Religious Issue, and it seems most people are locked into their beliefs to the extent that any accidental exposure to a fact causes them to “pick themselves up and carry on as before.”
The “dependence on foreign oil” shibboleth is one of the tenets of most modern “energy religions.” But the list goes on ad nauseum, and dovetails nicely with the green agenda most of the time.
I’m with SBP and BJ – nukes, aggressive exploitation of conventional energy AND development of new methods. They have nuclear reactors the size of cargo containers now, that can power a building. How cool is that? Sure, security becomes a factor (can you say “employment?”), but, still cool.
Yeah well, make fun of McCain if you want, but unless you are just stupid it should be obvious that if not for oil guys like Saddam Hussein would be goat herders. If not for oil and its strategic importance and our dependence on it there is no way the Wahhabis could cause so damn much trouble. That should be obvious to the McCain haters on the left and the right.
McGeezer, that’s a hoot. It is almost as funny as the guy who asked the man if he had ever called his wife a cunt. American politics is just so full of classy smart people.
McHeyPutThatActuarialTableDownI’mTehMaverickestOneDon’tchaKnow?
happyfeet:
My Dad was roughneck. He was almost killed on a rig many years ago. When he finally was able to go back to work, he got a job for Chicago Pneumatic Tool Co. He sold oil tools to rigs. I can remember going with him when I was a little girl. He would take a case of Orange Crush in ice and we would sit in the “dog house” with the men. I can still remember those guys putting out cigarettes in the palms of their hands. The industry has changed a lot since then. They used to destroy 10 acres just to drill one well. They can’t do that anymore. That was Oklahoma, the Anadarko Basin.
Roughnecks a lot sent me to college cause my dad sold em stuff a lot. I’m a lot appreciative even if it turned out that little liberal arts colleges are mostly kinda frivolous really. I read me some stuff at least.
But no for reals McCain and Baracky are what you get for choices when the media decides it wants to getting in the candidate picking game. They did this a lot with their unrelenting lugubrious drumbeat of despair I think.
God but our media is fags.
I like McCain, especially when one considers the alternative. And it is not fair to blame him for the lack of alternatives to ME oil. After all, it has been decades since the last oil shock and no one did anything to avoid a repeat. And right now all sorts of people seem poised to vote for a Democrat knowing full well that oil production will take a back seat to environmental issues. I think the problem is that the average American is not supportive enough of drilling if it means despoiling the wilderness. They do not want nuclear power plants, if it means they might be next door and they do not want additional refineries if they might be on their beach. That is people.
oh. *wants to get* in the candidate picking game… Their success at wholesale Katrina repackaging made them realize they could reframe just about anything to where it was a perceived disaster.
McCain was at one point the deciding vote against drilling in ANWR. The people of Arizona give two shits about drilling in ANWR. McCain is just a pompous fag a lot is the problem, and a really crappy Senator. As President, he will be able to do much less damage, what with Lindsey Graham permanently affixed to his scrotum for the next four years really a lot limiting his maneuverability.
And personally I don’t find the c*nt story all that hard to believe. Have you seen her? Skeletor Barbie.
Castle Greyskull is teh ours! Baracky no can has!
And the gas tax holiday thinger is even gayer than the Olympics.
If we took a gas tax holiday
Took some time to celebrate
Just for like the summer
It would be, it would be so gay
They do not want nuclear power plants, if it means they might be next door and they do not want additional refineries if they might be on their beach. That is people.
Back in the 60s they didn’t want little Japanese cars, but when gas hit 60 cents a gallon in the 70s that started to change. In another couple of years what they want and do not want is going to change again, I suspect.
I am not saying McCain should have voted against ANWR drilling, I am saying that when he did oil was about $20 a barrel and most people were not all that keen on the whole thing. When Clinton refused to sign on and the whole thing was getting really ugly, it was Newt Gingrich the public was pissy with, not Bill and not McCain.
And besides, the whole point is we need to find more alternatives to the oil and when people get sufficiently desperate they will probably be ready to just about anything.
I have often wondered if we could build the Hoover Damn today, or the huge interstates, or any of the really big things we did in the past. Now we have to do environmental impact studies and all kinds of crap. Used to, if the country was facing a big challenge, we just buckled under and did it. No more. And that is not all the fault of government either.
I read that the Democrats have a huge margin over Republicans in terms of party identification. Amazing when you think about what a bunch of cry baby wusses the Democrats are.
happyfeet:
On my key chain is a little tiny drilling bit. My father used to carry it and after he died I put it on my key chain and keep it with me always. Oil field trash, that is what we were. And proud of it.
Terrye: the average American [does] not want nuclear power plants
Sorry, that’s simply not correct.
Note that this poll was done back in 2005, well before the current surge in energy prices. Not bad, after 40 years of hippie lies.
The “backyard” argument just isn’t relevant. I don’t want a coal plant or even a megascale wind farm in my backyard, either (nor does Ted Kennedy).
Spies:
I am sure that if you ask people if they thought nuclear power was a good idea, they would say yes, until they found it that it would be next door. I have no problem with nuclear power myself, if the French can do it, surely we can to. However, the very fact that it has not been done tells us that there is not a groundswell of support for it. People obviously are not interested. Hell, some homes owners associations have been making allowances and letting people have clothes lines again, but only after much discussion.
Hell I read about lobster fishermen stopping a refinery in Maine. It was going to be built at an old navy yard and they killed it dead.
In essence, he’s right. In part, both Desert Storms was to keep oil wealth and weapons from a deadly dictator, as Frank Warner puts it. If this has been a tinpot dictator who grew nasturtiums as the country’s main export, then it wouldn’t matter how evil and crazy he was: he would not have been exporting it to the rest of the world, not a threat to the region, and not a national security concern to the US. Oil does play a part, just not the part that the infantile left claims.
Incidentally: who cares if there’s not a “groundswell of support” for nuclear power? The American revolution had about 30% support from the population. If it’s right to do, then show some leadership and get it done. That’s why President Bush and congress worked to get the regulations untangled and help new nukes get built. Because it needs to be done and the people who complain can get used to it.
Christopher:
The Revolution may not have had all that much support, it is true, it is also true that the Tories in New York City worked along side the British to destroy that Revolution and if not for the help of the French they might have gotten the job done.
I understand what you are saying, but it is not just a question of leadership. People go to courts over these things, they run campaigns over them. In Indiana they have been trying to get the I69 highway finished for 20 years. The locals have used everything at their disposal to stop that road being built and so far they have succeeded. Leadership has nothing to do with it, unless you just want to run over the locals.
However, the very fact that it has not been done tells us that there is not a groundswell of support for it.
Things are definitely changing. Take a look at this.
Those are the first new ones in thirty years. 9 sites, 15 reactors. All within the last year, most within the last 6 months.
So the one in South Carolina is the only one that will be a new site and the other ones are all expansions of sites what are already in people’s backyards. That’s not exactly a seachange in mindset, least not on the face of it anyway.
Maryland is the only northeastern one. Yankees are such fags.
So the one in South Carolina is the only one that will be a new site
Gotta run before you can fly, feets. I’m pretty sure it takes less time to fill out the paperwork for an existing site than for a new one. The takeaway is that after no new plants in 30 years, all of a sudden we have 15 in one year.
Here’s a expected applications. There are quite a few new sites on there.
That’s cool. I think it’s cheering, just that you have to wonder… nuclear power a lot threatens the global warming scam, so it’s hard to see them letting any of this actually happen. Baracky for sure will strangle it in its crib. McCain? Who knows. I could see him putting nuclear on the table as a bargaining chip for one of his and Lindsey’s compromisey thingers.
But it’s hugely to Bush’s credit that he’s gotten us this far.
“I have often wondered if we could build the Hoover Damn today, or the huge interstates, or any of the really big things we did in the past. Now we have to do environmental impact studies and all kinds of crap. Used to, if the country was facing a big challenge, we just buckled under and did it. No more. And that is not all the fault of government either.”
I’d say it’s the fault of the spoiled-brat liberal babyboomers who have had it so good for so long, have the legal right to rid their offsprings if they so choose, can dwell in narcissism to the point of hypochrondriaic sickness, believe the world revolves around them, have no respect for law, crap on those who beleive in Christian-Judeo philosophy, mock and ridicule American patriotism as some form of redneck backwardness, all the while junked up on cocaine, LSD, Crack, Heroin as they desperately leech off the innocence of youth.
The most digusting part of all is that these very same narcissistic ‘brain-dead Liberals’ call themselves Democrat and believe they are champions of the poor when all they have ever produced is misery, haplessness and more arrongant liberal babyboomers.
Just wait until these narcissistic M*therF*ckers begin euthanizing old people who are not rich like them!
Leadership has nothing to do with it, unless you just want to run over the locals.
Sometimes, that’s what leadership does. It ignores the protests and does what’s right, and people get over it. When there is something that needs to be done, and it must be done you ignore the protests and do your job. There are many new nukes being planned, but they take years to build. President Bush and the GOP congress made sure it was possible, helped the groundwork get done, and Bush’s “use decommissioned military bases” plan was brilliant and is being taken advantage of. In five years we’ll see the fruits of this effort – if the democratic congress doesn’t block them or undermine the work.
Comment by BJTexs TW/BP on 5/3 @ 8:16 am #
When it comes to the Middle Eastern countries try to remember that the Saudis have engaged in deficit spending ove the last several years. That’s deficit as in desperate to keep their more radical Wahabbis brothers from pursuing impeachment by beheading. If the US were to, over the course of the next 5 years, dramatically increase both production and refining the gaggle of ME countries would have little to say in the matter. China, India and Japan are pretty much stuck with light sweet crude as they do not have the capacity to refine the higher sulpher content crude produced by the likes of Mr. Potato Head in Caracas and others.
Remember also, to the extent that Crew Khamenei need to subsidize domestic Iranian price controls on energy with oil revenues.
That darn Bush.
——-
BJ,jon, merovign, everybody re:stymied good ol’ Yank innovation, See also this link to LOE’s interview with Bruce Casten of RED, who buys industrial power plants, recaptures waste heat and then sells the power back to the original company at a discount, (http://www.loe.org/shows/shows.htm?programID=08-P13-00005#feature4 to see how dumb we let those in charge (read:us) be.
#36Comment by The Lost Dog on 5/3
“When I sell liquor, it’s bootlegging. When my customers serve it on silver platters on Lakeshore Drive, it’s a cocktail party.”-Capone
Progress, you see, isn’t enough if it’s not done purely out of altruism (preferably by someone else), but for profit motive.
Vegetarianism didn’t become a personal virtue until folks were a couple generations removed from the farm. It’s the institutions most dependant on the earth that usually are the best stewards. Like ranchers and loggers. See also the George Carlin bit about plastics and the earth.
Lastly, http://www.investors.com/editorial/cartoons/IMAGES/CARTOONS/toon041108c.gif