Best ad of the campaign, ladies and gents.
“Every time you fill your tank, the oil companies fill their pockets. Now Big Oil’s filling John McCain’s campaign with 2 million dollars in contributions. Because instead of taxing their windfall profits to help drivers, McCain wants to give them another 4 billion in tax breaks. After one president in the pocket of big oil, we can’t afford another.”
Brilliant. This spot not only holds Bush’s energy policies directly responsible for record gas prices, it ties McSame to those policies. And the proposal to give each taxpayer $1,000 right out of the pockets of Big Oil is a stroke of genius, forcing McSame to take ExxonMobil’s side (which he’s already doing) over Joe Taxpayer’s.
Democrats have not sufficiently hammered Bush/Cheney on gas prices. President Harken and Vice President Halliburton let Big Oil write our energy policies — no one should be surprised about the fix we’re in. Add that collusion to their brilliant foreign policy of antagonizing oil-rich countries like Venezuela and Russia, coddling the Saudis and launching disastrous wars in the Middle East, and it’s difficult to imagine who could’ve done better for Texaco and Shell.
I hope the Obama camp keeps this up. Take the fight right to them. Put them on defense.
Obama’s speech on energy policy, which he delivered in Michigan today, is here. More sticking it to McSame and Bush. Beautiful.
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I hope Obama keeps it up too. Tough and true ads are what we need. After McCain’s stupid ads of last week, this looks mighty nice.
When we talk about the issues we win. The GOP wins when we talk about gossip.
McCain on teevee now saying anybody who attacks Big Oil drillin’ just doesn’t get it, doesn’t have the experience..yadda, yadda…looks like he’s givin’ ol’ T-Bone [Pickens] the Hilton treatment.
You’re damn right we do.
McCain now challenging Dems and Obama to come back to work….
Mr. AWOL from the Senate is challenging the Dems to come back to work.
Yeah, right.
McCain speaking from Pennsylvania…on his way to
SodomSturgis….wants the Dems to “come back” to vote on drillin’.We need Dems in Congress and on TV who are aware of the issues as opposed to their lame talking points and who are going to stand up to the GOP.
McCain is talking the race card and he’s blaming Obama we need to shut him down.
We need to trap McCain like this ad does and force him to defend oil companies.
Thanks BT.
digg
The thing is, McSame keeps going around talking about “oil executives” and how we should do what they say. Somehow I think he’s going to drop that now.
What is with this “come” stuff
No Paris, no Britney, no Moses — just the issues Americans care most about. We win on all of them.
More of this please.
the thing is, Pickens has moved on to wind power and fueling cars and trucks with natural gas. he’s already at the front of that parade. oil is so twentieth century …..
and solar power looks to be about to actually make a breakthrough thanks to Professor Nocera at MIT ……
(just announced last thursday)
Bush tells House GOP “No” . . . From The Hill:
Of course, now the GOP House members (and John McCain) can run on their independence from Dubya. It’s all good news for the GOP . . .
If they come back, how will Bush make all of his recess appointments?
That may be partly wishful thinking. There is a bunch of folks out there who only receive officially sanctioned repub crap.
Sturgis I got stopped for speeding just going through the state when the Sturgis biker rally was happening I never got 2 cops called in for backup on me before with a drug sniffing dog.
Is that normal in that state Cops don’t even do that at Dead shows.
Drugs like speed though might explain McCain’s numerous gaffes what happened to John after the GOP primaries?
I’m sure I would have noticed if he was this unconnected to reality then. Sudden drug use to stay awake and keep up might explain his mistakes and anger.
Now, if we can just keep the oil industry’s hands off the patents and technology.
He will drop it if he has a brain, but given his confusion on the campaign trail I’m not so sure he will.
Link about solar power please.
Yeah, maybe. It’s so odd. It’s like they don’t know that most people really hate oil companies.
Further proof of the value of a “Manhattan Project” for more sustainable energy production, which Obama has proposed. We’d be having “breakthroughs” left and right. McSame and most Repubes disagree of course.
I think it was just because of the biker rally. It’s like spring break, only with ugly people, and a lot of motorcycles that look and handle like shit.
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/…..-0731.html
Saw a program over the weekend about vintage car auctions, including one car, electric, that charged overnight, went 40 mph, from early 1900s.
Big Oil’s been killin’ progress for over a century.
It really depends on who he is talking to and where. Put him in Houston and he is all kissy face w/ them
The Repug group who worked on the Recall McCain campaign here have been counting the number of days that McCain has NOT worked for Arizonians….. with friends like this….. McCain will loose AZ …. baaawaahaaa
But the GOPers in Congress want to force Congress to stay open because they want to drill offshore. I think the GOP thinks they have found a wedge issue with traction provided of course that anyone other than the 30%ers believe drilling will lower gas prices now and not years from now by more than a few dimes.
Oil Drilling will motivate the 30%ers who to be honest don’t seem excited by McCain but I doubt it will change any of our minds.
The Republics will be on board just as soon as they own the technologies.
Last 4 years I was in the Navy I worked Nuclear Weapons. My first boss had been part of the Manhattan Project. Quite the collaborative effort.
Fuel Cell cars that run on water and not gas just became possible.
OT: all hail the milque-toast VP choice?:
Obama is absolutely right to hang obscenely-high gasoline prices around the necks of Bush, Cheney and McCain. I would add the name of Phil Gramm to his list, since he was one of the prime movers of financial deregulation, which has allowed speculators on the unregulated electronic oil futures markets to double the price of oil in the last year.
We’re being ENRONed again: this time by oil futures contracts speculators who are unnecessarily and very profitably driving up the price of crude oil and hence retail gasoline prices. Curious as to why you are suddenly paying over four dollars a gallon for gasoline? No, it’s not due to “supply-and-demand,” no, it’s not due to “OPEC,” nor is it due to “peak oil.” It’s due to totally unregulated electronic oil futures trading in world markets. Check out the very lucid article that explains the unseen financial machinations in oil futures markets written by F. W. Engdahl on May 2, 2008, entitled, “Perhaps 60% of Today’s Oil Price is Pure Speculation.” It may be viewed at .
http://www.financialsense.com/…../0502.html
In a nutshell, he suggests that the Bush Administration dropped the ball in January 2006, when they allowed totally unregulated electronic trading of oil futures contracts in New York. Previously these electronic trades had been made at the London Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) Futures Market. With that decision by the Bush Administration, all of the world’s oil prices were then opened to upward pressure from speculative futures contracts. In essence, oil futures contracts made by speculators, banks, hedge funds and pension funds all competed with real demand on the spot markets and had the effect of driving up both wholesale oil prices and retail gasoline prices. Speculators have made billions of dollars on their trading of oil futures contracts. All of their profits come right out of our pockets.
Even with a stable oil supply, there is a slow worldwide increase in demand for oil, which creates a long-term upward pressure on oil prices. However, with the relentless saber-rattling and war-mongering by Bush and Cheney in the last several years, and the more recent war talks by McCain and the Israelis, the oil futures markets are rife with speculation and paranoia. This war talk keeps ratcheting up the prices on the oil futures contracts and hence the wholesale spot market prices. It is an endless spiral of greed and paranoia.
As long as there is no tough and effective oversight of the electronic oil futures markets by the Bush Administration, the oil prices will climb endlessly. These oil prices will be quickly followed by hikes in the retail gasoline prices at the pump. The 60% speculation share of the $4.25/gallon gasoline price, is about $2.55/gallon, which is what we consumers are paying to these oil speculators as a “service fee.” Not a bad “fee,” since the speculators produce no usable goods or services…Just a few large greedy oil futures traders helping themselves to your gas money.
Without this added-on oil futures “service fee,” you would be paying about $1.75/gallon for gasoline. Write, call or smoke-signal your Representatives and Senators today and suggest that they read the June 2006 report by The U. S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations entitled, “The Role of Market Speculation in Rising Oil and Gas Prices.” Then demand that they investigate and then force the Bush Administration to firmly regulate the computerized oil futures contracts trading in New York, London and Dubai.
This electronic oil price futures scandal is costing US drivers about $969,000,000.00 per day! That number is based on 60% speculation fee of a gasoline price of $4.25/gallon and on US 2004 consumption of 380,000,000 gallons/day. Tell you Senators and Congresspersons to simply shut down this unregulated electronic oil futures contract trading market. Then the price of gasoline will slowly drop to about $1.75/gallon…The only way that oil price futures contracts make money is if the price of oil goes up in the future, say, 30, 60 or 90 days later. This futures market serves no social need. It is just for corporate greed. The corporate speculators are probably also gaming/ENRONing the wheat and corn futures markets the same way.
How many votes has McCain missed? How many votes compared to Obama? Then we compare that to the number of voters in contested primaries and how much cash each candidate has raised.
Also wasn’t there a McCain rally in AZ and a Michelle Obama rally recently, Michelle had lots more people I remember but did we ever find out just how many people showed at McCain’s rally.
The repubs have already deposited their checks and blocked passage.
The next ad is in the speech:
John McCain says that our energy crisis is caused by 30 years of neglect in Washington.
Senator McCain has been in Washington for twenty-six of those years
In all that time, he voted against increased fuel efficiency standards.
He voted against and opposed legislation that included tax credits for more efficient cars.
He voted against renewable sources of energy.
Against clean biofuels.
Against solar power.
Against wind power.
George Bush and John McCain gave us an energy policy dictated by oil company lobbyists. The same lobbyists who support his campaign. Is it any wonder we are where we are now?
John McCain. Part of the problem, not part of the solution.
1,724 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen Blue Texan and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:
As this campaign begins to materialize beyond feints and probes and tactical trial balloons, we begin to see that this election is gunna be hammered out on energy policy, gas prices, climate change, alternative energy and the war in Iraq. Today’s speech in East Lansing and the “kick in the balls” campaign ad on oil make it clear that there is only one choice for Vice President that makes any sense and will guarantee the election in November: AL GORE.
Any other weak VP or corporatist shill (read Hillary Clinton) will endanger Obama’s life if he is to take the fight right to the corporate oligarchy now housed in the White House…and the only way Obama wins is to take the fight right at ‘em. Al Gore immediately cinches up the waistline of the Democratic Party and, unlike LBJ with JFK, does not encourage the oligarchy to take out the President to get their guy onto the throne.
I am holdin’ out hope against hope that Obama’s big surprise is gunna be Al Gore…I think that if Obama succeeds in makin’ energy and Iraq the centerpiece of the election dialogue in the next few weeks that the choice of Gore will become a slam dunk.
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, THIS ELECTION IS OURS TO LOOSE!!
Obama should put a calendar on his website indicating the last time McCain showed up for a vote
Kudos!
Next, next Obama should ask John McCain if McCain will join Obama in demanding that Dick Cheney reveal what companies and what interests were represented in the secret U.S. Energy Policy meeting Cheney held when he was first appointed to the vice-presidency ?
A direct Yes or No, Mr. McCain.
Do the American people have the right to know, Mr. McCain, who was and who wasn’t present when the Energy Policy of the next 8 years was being divided up ?
If we put Indiana into play this is over Indiana is one of the big ten electoral states win the majority of them and you win. Indiana was solid red but can McCain afford tv ad buys for a big expensive tv market like that?
If voters see Indiana has gone blue on election day will GOP voters in Western states even bother to vote? Cascade effect!
it may make perfect strategic sense, but I can’t get excited about Bayh. I prefer Norske’s choice.
Good point Obama does have a lot more to worry about than oligarchs he has racists and neocons who might be gunning for him but if Gore were VP or Dennis then only the racists would be a problem.
Indiana is already in play, methinks. And whether it is, or is not, putting Evan Bayh on the ticket isn’t going to change many votes here. Bayh ’spearheaded’ Hillary’s primary campaign here, where she won by just a few thousand votes.
Bayh brings nothing. Obama won Marion County (Indianapolis) with 67% of the vote.
If Bill Clinton is serious about wanting to help Obama, he could, and should, re-trace his steps through southern Indiana, which went HRC big time. IMO, it’s Bill Clinton, not Evan Duh-Bayh, which could bring this state in for the D’s.
I do too. I also want a pony.
Neither, however, is terribly likely.
Bayh
Byah
Blah
Keep hammering McCain on that question. It puts the energy spotlight on McCain. It links McCain to Bush/Cheney, and reveals him to be the 3rd Bush Term.
If McCain does ask for the paricipant list to be revealed, Obama then says, in a Democratic Administration, there will be no secret participants when public policy is being created, and why didn’t McCain ask for the names to be revealed in the last 7+ years? Forgot, John ??
Nice.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
I like that idea. Of course if McCain was a Democrat then Fox News would begin every broadcast with day 100 of no votes McCain not voting. Just why was he elected to the Senate…to represent his state by voting?
Maybe he should give his paycheck back to his home state voters.
Buh-Bayh
you’re more likely to get the pony.
I think Bill campaigning for Obama could turn a lot of states.
As long as there is someone there from Obamas campaign with a stage hook.
Just in case he gets off message
just to be fair – that report (pdf) is also called the is posted on levin’s website. and here is the link the press release:
that was more than 2 years ago. and during all that time – what has senator levin, the senator from Michigan (the state with an economy dependent on the sale of gas guzzling suvs) done? effectively nothing as far as i can tell.
like most of our problems, this one does not seem to be solely the responsibility of the Rs.
That’s an awesome idea.
As long as there is someone there from Obamas campaign with a stage hook.
Just in case he gets off message
We’re talkin’ about southern Indiana here.
Who’s gonna notice?
The VP speculation game that happens every four years is always incredible inaccurate. Campaigns and BigMedia purposely float names out there to test and stoke interest/ratings. Remember 2004?
http://narcosphere.narconews.c…..side-track
We all know Howard Dean is the only choice, and definitely the best life insurance policy.
Citizen ThingsComeUndone:
Indiana is “in play” right now and given Bayh’s performance in leadin’ Mrs. Clinton’s campaign there…I’m not sure that Ev Bayh doesn’t do more damage to Obama in Indiana and around the country than jest about anyone else.
The MSM
Of course it is. It’s “The Shadow” after all…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QbNbuhWkrw
p.s. excellent op-ed link. thank you. in return, may i suggest item #365 on hugh’s list.
And Toni Gonzalez for McSames running mate – CRS rules
McCain on teevee now saying anybody who attacks Big Oil drillin’ just doesn’t get it, doesn’t have the experience…
…doesn’t have Hess Corporation cashola either !
wasn’t included in last week’s reportage on the contribution gusher Gramps hit with his flip flop on drillin’
$28K each from Office Manager and her spouse – just for starters – whooo boy
We all know Howard Dean is the only choice, and definitely the best life insurance policy.
he put the yeeee-argghh! in ARG
$28K each from Office Manager and her spouse -
doin’ my best Bill Cosby impersonation – “Riiiiight!”
Shoot, almost every Office Manager I know has soooo much cash just lyin’ around that they don’t know what to do with it.
“Riiiiight!”
oh, I’m regularly in the habit of donating about half my salary to political campaign. not y’all?
Hugh’s List really is a site to behold. Always amazed by that.
I’m glad Obama’s going in this direction with the ad. Hope the campaign gets more aggressive on this front. Even with the BigMedia spin in place, it still boggles my mind that so much of the general public can’t put 2 and 2 together. Liberals were warning of this for years and especially during the 2000 Selection, where we constantly said Shrub would be a shill for BigOil and BigMoney in general. Sho nuff, here we are with an economy in shambles and BigOil breaking their own profit records quarter after quarter. Then they act they’re powerless to do anything about the prices. Why John Q. NASCAR can’t realize what’s happening is maddening.
Once again, Liberals were correct. It’s time for the petulant children to get out of the way, and let us grown-ups take over.
http://blueamerica.firedoglake.com/
OT – McLame speaking at the Sturgis biker rally tonight. Wonder if he’ll speak from a chicken-wire-enclosed stage. I’m hoping he gets booed off the stage by the rowdy crowd wantin’ to get on with the bikini-contests, and other much more important semi-clothed events.
you should go over to ObamaWorld and write a short post suggesting just that.
Foothillsmike - same with your calendar idea – fabulous!
you both may wait awhile for your royalty checks, I still am *g*, but someone from the Campaign is monitoring the site
Thanks for the link. It’s Way Cool, Kewl, Cuil.
you can expect a clumsy dogwhistle or two
OT, again (sorry) – this just up at salon.com:
just half? and you call yourself a DFH? *g*
You mean The Nation? Air America Radio? Firedoglake?
These kinds of outlets are much more in line with the American “mainstream.” This MSM thing is a false construct IMO. What’s commonly referred to as the “mainstream media” is way out of touch with the actual mainstream of society.
That’s why I call them Conglomerate Media. They have multi-national Conglomerate resources which allows them to set agendas. Ratings have nothing to do with it.
I kow, I know…total lack of commitment. :~)
First Monday post is upstairs with a special guest.
If Indiana is in play then the MSM really will get the blame for McCain’s defeat because the way they are reporting things the “Official Meme ” seems to be that McCain still has a chance.
Ohio and Florida are in play if Indiana is too well we got New York Michigan, California, Pennsylvania and Illinois the race is over then.
The only way McCain wins is with Diebold or a military coup.
I noticed that YouTube user account has posted many episodes. Rock on.
Lived in SD through many a rally. While there are many like you describe there are also many professionals on vacation. Some pull their garaged bikes behind their $300K motorhomes others like Jay Leno have their bikes flown in
oh, i did not mean to impugn liberals (or anyone else) who did what they could to prevent, stop or even warn us of the problem. i just don’t think that includes most of our elected representatives – sadly, including the Ds. for example, the enron loophole that phil gramm is probably most responsible for was signed into law by president clinton (under who’s administration the glass-steagall act was dismantled). that’s why i pointed out levin’s lack of effective action.
i say all this not to discourage, but because i think our Ds need some pressure to do the right thing and i consider energy policy (as i’m sure everyone else here does as well) as too important to be used solely as an election issue.
they are referred to as Checkbook Choppers in this house
and if the Obama Campaign is on the ball – they will figure out a way to leak McCain’s treatment of POW/MIA families to that crowd
Great ad. I hope they are running it wall-to-wall.
Oh yes, I didn’t think you were rippin on Liberals. Was just adding to that train of thought.
Pressuring and removing fake Dems is one of the most important things we can do, as you say. Don’t mean to open a can of worms here, but that’s perhaps the main reason I eventually started backing Obama, since he’s developed a grassroots movement of the likes has never been seen before. Unbelievable amounts of people are getting involved with their government. His plan for opening up the inner workings of government by using the latest technologies is great. And the fact that he’s let a group that’s critical of him flourish on his own campaign web site makes me think he’s serious about this.
With his background as an organizer, he knows that he’s checking and balancing himself with the American people. This positive is enough to overcome some of the negatives I have with him. Besides, since we’re still a small percentage of the electorate overall, we can have much more impact on Congressional races through Blue America, and that’s where I spend almost 100% of my political time and energy.
I was hoping to discuss oil today because I’ve been doing some research on the DoE web site.
Using the Bush Gov’t numbers: U.S. petroleum consumption is 20.68 million barrels/day. Total U.S. crude oil reserves are 21 billion barrels. If we could extract all of that oil right now that is 1019 days or 2.8 years worth of oil at today’s consumption rate. it is less if demand continues to increase.
70% of that petroleum usage is for transportation. If we stopped putting gas in our cars today that is still only 9.3 years worth of oil in U.S. reserves. There is just no way to drill out of this, the math does not lie.
This is unsustainable without increasingly high levels of foreign oil importing and all of the geopolitical problems that come with it. However, what we don’t need is political tricks from Obama. I’m all for a windfall profit tax on oil companies but offering to give each tax payer $1000 is a cheap political stunt that will give those of us a feeling of exacting revenge on the oil companies but it will do nothing to address the real problem.
I would rather see the windfall tax spent on a man-on-the-moon type effort to reduce U.S. oil comsumption by 50% in 10 years through developing alternative energy sources. I’ll glaly donate my $1000 for that.
You have a “BINGO” there Brother!
good luck! – and if you are ever successful in providing a “check and balance” to obama, i will reconsider my lack of support for him. hope you are right.
even worse than that…
because it takes energy to extract energy. to know what the actual reserves of energy (not barrels of oil) are, one must know the energy balance.
et, hours after the report was released, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said the Bush administration would continue to oppose mandatory reductions in greenhouse gases in the form of CO2 caps. Mandatory caps could financially ruin some of the energy companies responsible for polluting the air, he said.
“There is a concern within this administration, which I support, that the imposition of a carbon cap in this country would – may – lead to the transfer of jobs and industry abroad (to nations) that do not have such a carbon cap,” Bodman said. “You would then have the US economy damaged, on the one hand, and the same emissions … potentially even worse emissions”
Bodman is a Bush appointee who for a dozen years ran a Texas-based chemical company that spent years on the top five lists of the country’s worst polluters.
It’s not just a few clouds of smoke emanating from an oil refinery or a power plant that got Bodman’s old company, Boston-based Cabot Corporation, those accolades. It was the 54,000 tons of toxic emissions that his company’s refineries released into the air in the Lone Star state in 1997 alone that made Cabot the fourth-largest source of toxic emissions in Texas. Cabot is the world’s largest producer of industrial carbon black, a byproduct of the oil refinery process.
http://www.pubrecord.org/natio…..?task=view
That’s something that I believe John Kerry could have made people understand. It was straight to the point and it is easy to prove, and see how the oil scandal works. More for those that don’t have time for their futures! This is enough and more to make even the departed think.
Where does Obama get the “$4 billion in tax breaks” for the oil industry? Is he basing that on McCain’s call for a federal gas tax holiday?
Note that oil refining is one of the largest users of energy – around 20-25% of all industrial energy usage. Taking this into account dramatically lowers the time horizon for the total USA oil reserve calculations.
“According to the NAICS, the petroleum refineries consumed 3.1 quadrillion Btu in 2002, almost 20% of the fuel energy consumed by the U.S.. “