Good news, Ian.

*waves*

I like to think we’re helping to change the conventional wisdom.

Too bad we didn’t keep after that new technology back in the 70’s. We’d be there by now.

may oil be the lubricant of Republican defeat.

30W = 30% for Bush

Feels good, egr.

Still about half americans favor drilling in ANWAR and offshore….

Most people don’t really know shit about these issues and when the pollster calls- it’s a crap shoot what’s gonna come out…

Opinion is probably vulnerable to a PR movement. Slim Pickens may be changing the numbers in fact.

Perhaps those percentages reflect the “real” poll percentages….voting machine corrections excluded…

Damn proletariat…they always think about what’s good for them…what do they know…

Signed,

Bushco, Exxon, BP, Chevron, Shell, John McCain.

http://pollingreport.com/energy.htm

Link to all recent polls on drilling. Responses are a bit complicated- what you get seems to be very dependent on what you ask and how you ask it.

I was listening BBC radio this morning and they were going on about how there is enough Oil in the Arctic for THREE years at current rates of consuption..
All I could think is WTF a whole 3 years. What is the plan after that is gone? Morons….

Wow 76% .. that’s both stunning and, well, hopeful.

A three years supply is quite a bit of oil–nothin ta sneeze at!

oh, that is so Jimmy Carteresque /s

Cruise around on this site:

http://www.rigzone.com/news/ar…..a_id=64662

Oil production is booming.

howdy pups. i didn’t watch any c-span today… can anyone update me on the status of S.3268 (A bill to amend the Commodity Exchange Act, to prevent excessive price speculation…)? last i heard was it passed cloture on tues 94-0 but that there was some disagreement about what amendments would be allowed.

p.s. thanks ian! i was hoping your discussion on oil prices would continue.

Thank heavens we’re starting to prove that you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. It’s taken 7 years….

What they didn’t say was that it would take about 3 1/2 yrs worth of oil to build the pipeline. and that in 2027 when we are ready to start pumping all that area will be under water due to global warming/ sea rise

We need more rigs in the Gulf see:

http://photos1.blogger.com/blo…..oilrig.gif

We have St. Ronnie to thank for that. With all the praise that was shoveled out by the bushel when he died, no one was talking about how he single handedly cut off all of Carter’s energy initiatives at the knees.

Bastard.

Well, that’s not surprising. Push polls can work with low-information folks. I just LOVE it when I get polled. Depending on who’s doing the polling they’re either sent off with a flea in their ear or I get a call-back from a supervisor.

Heh…good point…sigh.

Failed to get two thirds vote.

Hey selise.
I turned on C-Span2 about 2 hours ago and caught Specter raging at, among other cretins, Reid, for closing off a debate.
I left shortly after, so I don’t know if it was S.3268 or what…

thanks, but that’s a different bill (and imo a stupid one from the house leadership).

Whoops…)

opps, creative spelling. :)
*consumption

2/3 of the known offshore oil is already under lease to oil companies who are not producing it and much of the balance is along the California and Florida coastlines where a spill would cost billions of dollars in damages- Californians and Floridians don’t WANT the fuckin drilling..Even Jeb Bush raised hell about it…

Do they get a vote?

ES – thank you anyway! lots of energy bills happening…

newt – ok will listen to specter now in the archives to see if i can get an update.

This is being presented as ‘America’s chance to be energy independent and have cheaper oil’.
Complete nonsense.

Voters should be asked: ‘Do you want a salmon dinner again? Ever? Or would you prefer to wait many years for the offshore oil to enter your gas tank?’

Because that’s the fundamental choice here, and it cheezes me that the Dems haven’t clarified it for the public.

The coastal zones are the most biologically rich ocean regions. That’s where most of the ‘fish food’ is and that’s why schools of fish swim in those zones.

Now, the oil companies claim that they can drill ’safely’ in an ‘environmentally friendly’ fashion.
Gosh… we heard that before Exxon Valdez, but it’s not convincing.

The GOP and the oil companies should be laughed out of the public arena for this desperate, death-grip grab at resources. No doubt there are engineers for oil companies who believe it, but if you know much at all about fisheries… let’s just say, they’re already precarious, several have collapsed, and nobody needs oil when they’re starving.

Dems need to point this out to the remaining blind fools who can’t figure it out on their own.

Ian these numbers are astounding especially when you consider the GOP PR blitz on the subject.
The appeals to Racism and Nationalism plus the lies about China drilling off the coast of Florida which how many GOP politicians and MSM talking heads have repeated?
John McCain admitting that his drilling plan wouldn’t do anything much about oil prices but was aimed at psychology?
The latest attempt by the GOP to blame oil speculators, you know their base which only suggests how desperate they are.
Bush is doing anything he can to avoid the war being blamed for these prices or the oil companies and the American People are seeing right through it.
I’m so proud to be an American!

The whole thing is just surreal. You have the US, Russia, Norway, etc all rushing to stick territorial flags on their bits (hmmm, more money for the *defense corps, yea!!) over 3 years worth of Oil that won’t make any difference to anything..Stupid..

Heck, 54% don’t believe that more drilling on government lands will make gas prices cheaper at all.

here’s what will make oil cheaper here;

DO NOT MAKE US COMPETE FOR OUR OWN OIL ON AGAINST CHINA

our oil MUST be sold HERE, at a SET profit and stored, then we can buy on the open market what needs remain, then we pay the average of that number

american oil is NOT the oil companies, THAT’S OUR OIL they are haveing US COMPETE AGAINST

and that is REDICULOUS

opps, creative spelling. :)

covert sigh-opps? :~)

yep that’s the bill. thanks.

We could maybe cut back here..( I posted this on another thread, but it could sort of fit here)

‘# The U.S. military is the single largest consumer of energy in the world. The American GI is the most energy-consuming soldier ever seen on the field of war. In 2005, The U.S. Navy was the largest diesel fuel user in the world.

# The DoD’s total primary energy consumption in Fiscal Year 2006 was 1100 trillion Btu’
http://www.globalresearch.ca/i…..8;aid=9670

LMAO :)

Perhaps the village conventional wisdom that Republicans are winning the oil and drilling debate is as accurate as most village wisdom?

Hey Ian.
Just extending this for a sec…
When all your rationales are withering and your opponent is drawing huge crowds at home and abroad, you (the Goopers) pull out the old “patriotism” chestnut – first obliquely, then frontally through surrogates, and finally face-to-face.
Then you get this:

October 11, 1992
The First Clinton-Bush-Perot Presidential Debate

CLINTON: You even brought some right-wing congressman into the White House to plot how to attack me for going to Russia in 1969-70, when over 50,000 other Americans did. Now, I honor your service in World War II, I honor Mr. Perot’s service in uniform and the service of every man and woman who ever served, including Admiral Crowe, who was your Chairman of the joint Chiefs and who’s supporting me. But when Joe McCarthy went around this country attacking people’s patriotism he was wrong. He was wrong. And a senator from Connecticut stood up to him named Prescott Bush. Your father was right to stand up to Joe McCarthy, you were wrong to attack my patriotism. I was opposed to the war but I loved my country and we need a president who will bring this country together, not divide it. We’ve had enough division. I want to lead a unified country.

Obama needs to come home, make the case that the “Surge™” has not worked, and this will be finished.
We have some folks who visit here most Sundays who can help make that case.

I’m beginning to hope the tide is turning. One thing is lacking. So far no one — not even my friend Paul Krugman — has articulated a model that people can use to justify their beliefs that the corporate sector has screwed them over, and that it is possible to do something about it. The ingredients are all present in Paul’s work, Nancy Folbre’s work, and Robert Frank’s work (I only know what economist’s write). But as Lakoff has said more times than worth counting, we need a frame. I’d love to do it, but I don’t think I have the capacity.

Completely OT: I have been seriously out of the news loop today. Were there any interesting developments in the Novak accident story? Any up date on injuries, etc? Thanks

Sorry Ian for the OT..This stupid fucking war sucks :(

‘KIRKUK, Iraq (AFP) – The son of a journalist at a popular weekly newspaper in northern Iraq was allegedly shot dead by US troops when his car appeared to veer wildly, local police said on Thursday.

American soldiers shot dead Arkan Ali al-Nuaimi, 19, on Wednesday evening as he approached a checkpoint in his car in the oil city of Kirkuk, a police official told AFP.’

http://rinf.com/alt-news/war-t…..rces/4179/

Nothing other than the bicyclist saying that the pedestrian was across Novak’s windshield, and that Novak left the scene very quickly.

Somebody was asking about oil well and current drilling #, maybe this is helpful? :)
Crude Oil and Natural Gas Exploratory and Development Wells
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/…..d_s1_m.htm

In somewhat related news, a new federal report shows that the owners of the coal mine that killed miners in Utah had used bullshit engineering and hidden catastrophic safety problems. Bush’s federal mine safety guys were also culpable…

Small government ? Want another helping?

Big Brother is at it again..
By Adam Hartley ‘A controversial new study that uses Bluetooth technology to track UK citizens, without their knowledge, has come under fire from privacy campaigners.

The Cityware study – has been set up with the objective “to develop theory, principles, tools and techniques for the design, implementation and evaluation of city-scale pervasive systems as integral facets of the urban landscape.”

Big and clever, academic-sounding words, for sure. But what does this actually mean?’

http://rinf.com/alt-news/surve…..tudy/4164/

Just now watching the rerun of KO and it’s one of the stories. Looks like someone is trailing him a la Mike Stark and asking questions with the camera on. More later when the segment is up.

Palaces are usually as divorced from the People — deliberately so — as these statistics show the Beltway Palace is from the American People.

We really have reverted to a pre-Revolutionary Rulers and Ruled society in which a tiny self-proclaimed aristocracy bows to a thorogoing Bushevik Autocracy which in turn seems completely captive to a handful of global corporate interests, most obviously Big Oil.

Not exactly a “Village.” Much, much more dangerous.

I caught the end too. i think it was a Fannie mae/Freddie mac bill

re: S.3268- following up on newtonusr’s clue, specter said that reid is preventing any amendments and has called for final cloture vote tomorrow. specter says the vote will fail because Rs are pissed they won’t have the opportunity to offer amendments.

disclaimer – i’m not competent to do more than a superficial analysis of the bill and i’ve only skimmed it – but it appears to me to be pretty good (especially compared to last month’s energy bill s.3044) wrt beginning to bring crude oil markets back under regulation (and limit excessive speculation).

listening to reid’s statement from this morning now…

And also that I’m adding to my Sunday prayer list that somebody drop that ill-tempered fuck like a cheap cigar.

OT – finally getting to hear Obama’s speech in Berlin.
My heavens… eloquence!

Ok thanks. So my # 48 is bullshit. But if i knew then what i know now, I’d still type it.

Yeah. I just saw it on C-Span. It was, in my view, very, very, good. Not great. But very, very good. I’m being overly critical though and picking nits. I was very impressed with the part where he talked about how he loved America even though it’s not perfect. Sincere. Wexler made a good point on Hardballs (and I heard someone else say it later, so I guess it’s a BO talking point) that it’s good to see people overseas proudly waving an American flag again. The speech should have made every American proud. Why do the hate the flag?

All anti-Rovers might want to check out BradBlog.com as he’s covering a case in Ohio where Rove is alleged to have threatened (with a trumped up prosecution) the wife of the guy who is alleged to have rigged the elections.

It’s getting curiouser and curiouser. Will Rove go down first for election engineering in Ohio or selective political prosecution in Alabama? Anybody want to be on which happens first?

I have read that as long as the oil leases aren’t being drilled, they can be claimed by the oil companies as assets. This leads me to believe that once they start drilling, the leases are no longer assets and (not being an economist, or even an accountant), I would guess become a liability. Since that is the opposite of an asset. So this whole thing about getting new leases is just to make the balance sheet, or P&L statement look good for the shareholders.

Am I completey ignorant?

well, specter spoke for quite awhile and about a number of topics – i only listened to the bit on S.3268… he may very well have spoken on that as well.

Oh…I haven’t seen it!! where is a good site to see it?? pretty please :)

What he wrote in Israel at Yad Vashem (sp.?) was good stuff too. Of course, the McSame people have been critical of both, Tat desperation or what? This campaign is gonna be ugly. Obama needs to start bustin’ heads. I missed the interview w/ Williams, tho’. How was that?

No. I was wrong.

“That”. Not “tat”.

I’m going to be a little crude here, but Rove is the butt-plug, pull him and all the crap comes out…

Ok, maybe that was ‘a lot’ crude…:(

Obamas speech online here.

I think it’s still an asset but decreases in value at a certain rate each year – a depreciation. It’s like deducting a portion of the value of a machine each year for tax purposes. I could certainly be wrong.

Dugg!
WTG Ian. AND this is great and mighty good news!
The majority feels as I do.
hehe
Again.

You get four stars on the high colonic scale. /s

OT Looks like a pretty bad oil spill on the Mississipi. Everyone for a hundred miles is going to be able to get all the diesel they need just by turning on their water

End of a Der Speigel piece on Obama’s speech:

George W. Bush is yesterday, the Texas version of the arrogant world power. Obama is all about today: the “everybody really just wants to be brothers and save the world” utopia. As for us, we who sometimes admire and sometimes curse this somewhat anemic, pragmatic democracy, we will have to quickly get used to Barack Obama, the new leader of a lofty democracy that loves those big nice words — words that warm our hearts and alarm our minds.

Let’s allow ourselves to be warmed today, by this man at the Victory Column. Then we’ll take a further look.

Gerhard Spörl is the chief editor of DER SPIEGEL’s foreign desk.

Keeping a guestimate on their books may be more valuable than reality

i don’t have the heart right now to listen. will try to do so tomorrow. listened to jeramy scahill earlier today about how obama is switching out foreign policy team to take on the worst the dems have to offer. i feel sick.

That certainly makes sense, from a non-accountant point of view. Thx, SD.

Thank-you much :)

Yeah, a lot of crude. But funny as hell!!!

This is so awesome.

Here’s hoping McSame keeps telling us how smart the oil executives are.

butt funny!!!!
:D

Where did you hear Jeremy, Democracy now?

Thank-you, thank-you :)

one of the netroots nation video streams – i’ll go find the link if you like…. also, i ripped an mp3 (but haven’t checked it yet).

Is that the one where he ripped a questioner to shreds. I was there. It was great.

So a new poll finds that 76% of Americans want new energy technology over new drilling, and 63% think opening ANWR and OCS will do more to make oil companies rich than lower gas prices.

Yes, but the electorate aren’t “the center.” Where is the center on this?

Thank you, selise the ripper.

yep – i remembered you commented on it, so that is why i searched it out to listen to. thanks for recommending it.

here is the netroots nation link:

http://www.netrootsnation.org/node/790

if i don’t remember to post the mp3 tomorrow, please feel free to remind me. i also now know how to post flash audio streams for folks on dial up.

And for those looking for something cheery, how about this from economist Satyajit Das, referring to Orson Wells War of the Worlds: “We interrupt regular programming to announce that the United States of America has defaulted …” Part 2

Well, at least the SURGE™ is working. I heard Brian Williams tell Barack Obama that just this evening!

It sounded like a “in your face” to me. “Cry Uncle, Obama!”

anybody ever notice that in transcripts of obama…. he often says “going to” as “gonna.’ so do I. so do lotsa lots of people. Don’t they usually clean that up in the transcript? It strikes me as unusual to see that. Don’t think i have.

I didn’t see the whole thing, but Tweety seems really mad that anyone would say that Obama’s speech today was actually meaningful or even significant.

OT, but I got an e-mail from the utterly useless John Barrow asking what we should do about gas prices. So I filled out his wee form, and then I clicked the “Contact” button and sent him the following:

Rep. Barrow, it is my sincere hope that you learn from and understand why you were challenged in a primary this year. You have a “D” after your name and there are actual Democrats in your district. You’ve voted very consistently with the failed Bush administration thus far, and if I’m going to be represented by a Republican anyway I may well vote for your opponent come November, right after I cast my vote for Barack Obama.

I said I wanted a response, and got an immediate e-mail back which said:

Thank you for your e-mail!

I’m always happy to hear from constituents from all across Georgia’s 12th District. If you requested a response, I’ll do my best to get back to you as soon as possible. All responses will be sent through the U.S. Postal Service.

I will be haunting my mailbox for weeks and weeks waiting with bated breath for Form Letter #12…

i just watched the williams interview. he did good, io thought. and williams wasn’t that bad. not nearly as bad as Kouric. If that sounds sexist – or maybe misogonistic is the word of late – too bad. Kouric is a total dimwit. I think one of the problems in the media is that too many of these people just plain ain’t that smart. Kouric is one.

Boston Glob presents the real Condi Rice.

Boston Glob

I realize it was just a typo, but it did make me howl!

You’re right; that’s usually cleaned up. Unless someone wants to present the speaker in an unfavorable light…. Then they might also start putting all the “um”s and “ah”s in.

After all, I want to know how often a candidate says, “Like, y’know…”

Bob in HI

Is that “free information in the mail”

I did like Tweety today when he had some idiot R rep on saying how it just showed how dumb Obama was when he said there are walls between the atlantic allies. there are no such walls. what is he talking about? Tweety explained to her “He means they hate Bush.” One for Tweety.

not a typo. That’s how I usually refer to it. Though I must say, the Glob has become one of the better papers—by default.

When I’m particularly annoyed at someone I’m transcribing for I’ll leave in all their ungrammatical stuff… Otherwise it’s cleaned up. It’s very much done on purpose.

If you want to take the sexist bent off of it, do what I do – when you see her, think “Ted Baxter.”
All better.

Coming from Barrow it’s a waste of paper…

Again, don’t wanna be misogynistic and seem as I only value women for their appearance and all, but she ugly.

Aaah… Rather like the Atlanta Constipation?

That’s what I like in my public officials – depth. How stupid she is.

Even worse, she stoopid.

Per Bush:

The principle guiding my decisions on troop levels in Iraq is “return on success.” The more successful we are, the more American troops can return home.

So, more troops implies a lack of success. And there are more troops in Iraq now than at the start of the Surge.

Condi. Katie cute.

Condi = ugly smart. Katie = cute cretin.

Awwww, Jeez…. Don’t try to confuse them with logic. You’ll break their thinkers (assuming they have any).

Ooooouch…I really think she has gotten better recently on the news. More freed up, or something. I suspect she has been through such trial by fire that she has recaptured her own voice. and she really isn’t ugly, IMO.

It’s all part of the surge, doncha know. like, I mean, the surge was, like, a bunch of different stuff, like, taken together. we’re still surgin’, man.

I was responding to the Condi comment/ link but didn’t “reply to” it so it was kinda just out in space.

You’ve gotta love it. I’ve never heard a military operation described in gestalt therapy terms…

But didja see on Abrams tonight that Fox is using campaign footgae of McCain from 2000 and trying to pass it off as today’s?? I guess they think he ugly.

How’s it goin’ Marion?

And something like blame the victim/spouse abuse: if they will just succeed in this crazy war I made, just get it right, make me look good, then, yes, they can come home. He is crazy sadistic nuts; I wonder if he ever takes a good look at his destruction. All the coverage about Obama has been how glad the people are to be looking at the end of W.

I loved how they tried to explain it away by saying that some Brigades are larger than others…! ;-)

Aloha Ya’ll!

Flop sweat. It’s not pretty…

Life is grand! I’m on vacation for a week and the 17 year old diabetic cat got a good report from the vet this morning. How are you?

Exactly so. And the 200,000 people in Berlin was about the same thing.

Its all about Psychology, gas prices, economy, military operations ……

I heard Savage this evening talking about how McC is bound to lose, even Mc knows it…just put off there as the fall guy. He said he would still vote for him rather than that socialist Obama so he can keep his money.

[slaps forehead] Silly me… I had forgotten it was simply a mental depression, not an economic one…

ian has a fresh post upstairs

wow! that’s an old kitty? How old is that in people years? what do you do for a diabetic animal. we got my daughter a cat a few years ago. was never a cat person. hated ‘em. he’s pretty neat. I’m OK. Wish BO would put some space between himself and the old coot. we have a missing kid here in O-town and that’s all the news.

whiner.

I think he’s just telling the troops that if they ever want to come home, they better, by god, succeed.

The oldest cat I ever had died at 25½. This old lady gets 2 insulin shots a day (she doesn’t even notice them) and some high-protein cat food. Other than that she’s just like any other cat. Well, she’s getting arthritic, just like me!

My mom and the Obamas had the same attitude about whining, if I’m to believe his daughters!

the troopps. that reminds me. BO is getting skewered by the fucktards for not meeting with the troops as planned.

Say what? I’ve seen film of him with troops…???

I had barely heard about that; why did he change his plans?

Hi CT. Thanks. Paradise is so hard to take. ;-) But I’m going to have to go on a two-month fast when I get back.

The GWoT is a war of attrition. Bin Laden says that al Qaeda’s goal is to bankrupt us. To judge how we’re faring in that war, look at this: http://www.dailykos.com/storyo…..179/556114

well, better tell it to phil graham.

speaking of people dumped by the McCain campaign, did the pups talk about Jim Courter from NJ? That was a few weeks ago and I wasn’t around that much then.

I’m going to check out upstairs, and then probably toddle off to bed. Even if I have some time off if I screw up my “get up early in the morning” thing I’m DOOOOMED!

well, the righties say it’s because he hates the troops and it just proves conclusively that he’s more interested in talking to a buncha foreigners than our own brave troops.

i also heard that since the Congressional Delegation part of his trip was over, the DOD asked BO’s campaign not to meet with the troops.

This was today in Berlin. he was going to meet with some but didn’t.

Thanks. That makes sense. I saw something that the Prez. had told State Dept people in Germany not to attend the rally. D**Head.

we’re getting over a flea problem. the dog and the cat give
‘em to each other.

An Obama adviser, Air Force Maj. Gen. Scott Gration (Ret.), later elaborated on Obama’s decision to skip the event.

“We learned from the Pentagon last night that the visit would be viewed instead as a campaign event,” Gration said. “Sen. Obama did not want to have a trip to see our wounded warriors perveived as a campaign event when his visit was to show his appreciation for our troops and decided instead not to go.”

http://blogs.abcnews.com/polit…..bs-vi.html

So, when McCain goes, it’s what – peer review?

Read the Obama speech today and saw much of it reprised on teevee….

The guy is a great speaker- but he says nothing but platitudes. Sometimes I think I’m watching a smart version of Bush.

So who does that mean was the one who politicized it? Can’t show alittle pride for a travelling American? I am so sick of these people. McC has not been able to shut up about any of the Ob activities. McCain paraded himself all over Bagdad with Petra. as a guide. But that’s OK.

Surely you jest. ;)

Some of the Pundicks made the same observation – that McCain would have given the same speech.

I dunno. Going to Germany and saying “We need your troops” in Afghanistan I don’t think was a platitude.

That’s the thing. if he met them, they’d be sreaming “the Pentagon didn’t want him to but he did anyway. what? does he think he’s the commander in chief already?”

oh we can only IMAGINE how they’d have skewered him had he gone. I can “see” the headlines now, McCain shocked that Obama would USE wounded troops for a campaign photo op…blah blah blah.
They have sets of slopping points already drafted up for him for ANYTHING he may or may not do and have to wait and see what he does, then pull out the right release.
assholes.

One way to tell: Bush is a dick. Barack isn’t.

you’re not.
they don’t make those. impossible design problems.

exactly. my 145 went up about the same time as your 146.

hey, the funny part is Obi did this on McStain’s *suggestion*.
It was McStain’s whole idea to begin with!
LOL
now he can’t get a foothold on the whole trip and shut him down and the attempts to do so are getting more and more desperate with each passing day. The whole entire response from the McSTAIN campaign is so transparent bordering on sheer panic and it’s so very very obvious that it’s really laughable.
LOVE it seeing the worms squirm like this.
McSTAIN RUES the day he made that challenge, you can be sure.
LOL

i saw that beerfart.
Great minds and all!

Pre-cise-ly.

He’s probably forgotten he mentioned the trip.

he’s probably forgotten what he had for dinner!

The guy is a great speaker- but he says nothing but platitudes. Sometimes I think I’m watching a smart version of Bush.

I’ve had a long-standing problem with that too. The guy is something of a genius at conveying a sentiment without promising anything and/or claiming anything. He’s like smoke. There’s almost nothing to attack, but still he can strike and strike hard by conveying sentiment. Perhaps we are watching the Mohammad Ali of American politics.

Being non-specific abroad has similar benefits to being non-specific at home.
You can’t be attacked for what you don’t say, although McCain will attack him for sneezing (Breaking: Obama sickly!”).
Richard Wolf made the point after the speech that McCain would have delivered the same speech, although artlessly and to a much smaller throng.

C’mon, our policy of “Fuck it, Jeb. Call the Saudis and buy more, the Hummer’s bone dry.” has worked so well for so long I don’t see why the American public would ever get the idea that more drilling wouldn’t benefit them at all.

These Bastards