Not surprised at all.

By the way, isn’t it amazing that I have to go to an overseas paper to find out that two American oil companies, Koch and Exxon-Mobil, are huge financiers of climate-change denialist nonsense?

To extract oil or natural gas, it has to be there in the first place.

So you have to look for it, which requires a lot of very expensive “science,” especially on the outer continental shelf.

Then you have to determine if the deposit you think you found is even economically extractable.

Then you have to apply for, and receive, a permit, which for oil extraction is an extremely difficult enterprise regardless of the site. Many sites cannot be permitted even if they are economically viable.

For oil, in previously unexplored outer shelf areas, which is the sole subject here, the timeline for any possible extraction, obtaining permits, construction of rigs etc. is on the order of 10-20 years or more. So we’re looking at 2020 to 2030 before a single bit of ocean bottom is disturbed.

And by that time the effects of global warming will be so manifestly obvious it is very doubtful the permits will ever be issued. And of course, during this intervening period, the Dept. of Interior can, at any time it wishes, put the moratorium back in place because these outer shelf areas are owned by us.

Obama could propose cutting taxes to zero, deporting everyone who can’t speak English, renaming the country “Jesusland”…doesn’t matter.

A preview of Obama’s agenda, no doubt.

Why, lookie here, it’s deja vu all over again.

It’s the ratchet theory in overdrive.

Shorter Boehner: “Whine! Whine! Obama’s only giving us three-quarters of what we want!”

Go spray on a new coat of paint, asshole.

But, but, …

Managing the risks from increases in global greenhouse gas emissions is an important concern for ExxonMobil, industry and governments around the world.

In reply to PW@2.

Obama could propose cutting taxes to zero, deporting everyone who can’t speak English, renaming the country “Jesusland”…doesn’t matter. The GOP answer will always be the same.

And the fucking idiot Democrats will NEVER figure that out.

Yeah, “managing the risks” to ExxonMobil’s bottom line.

All that the orange Boner wants is for the Ds to meet the Rs halfway from Obama’s latest position. The strategy has served them pretty well to date.

(Yeah, I know that being rude is wrong but how he manages to pronounce his name as bayner escapes me.)

Yes, I noticed that the proposal is to open up drilling off the republican south, and the republican Alaska.

After the initial surprise, I now believe this is a very clever politics. Puts the republicans firmly on the defensive.

lmao, too true

It’s amazing to recall that–not very long ago–people were wont to talk about what “brilliant strategists” Republicans are. Of course, this was before their mojo exploded.

If they had any brains, the Pubs would start loudly thanking Barack Obama for being such a terrific Republican and all-American conservative. They should feign surprise (“We’re shocked–shocked!–to see Obama is one of us”) and thank him for helping them get Heritage Foundation ideas the law of the land and so on. They could use their own unpopularity to bring down Obama’s popularity, which would be truly brilliant.

Surprised? Democrats are suddenly in favor of offshore oil drilling.

Yes, that’s a complete Koch up.

In an odd sort of way this seems as if Obama is just giving the Repubtards more rope to hang themselves. If after their stunning loss this is how the R-Tards think they’re going to re-brand themselves as something more than the party of “HELL NO”, they are mistaken. If they want to polish that turd that they call their party platform they’re going to have to buff it till it smokes.

On the general question. Why in the world would the Rs not continually ask for more? The only way to get lobbyist cash and conservative donations is by asking for more. If they stop doing that then they money dries up.

By moving the line in the sand farther and farther to the right everyone with their hand out gets a share of the proceeds for a job well done. This is how a corporate run government, that relies upon the impression of allowing for voters to choose, functions.

Toxic oil shill spill in aisle #3

That’s definitely the strategy, and it does seem sound politically, but, erm, the policy still sucks.

Obama should switch parties.

Boehner is crying because he knows he’s been outfoxed again. Obama is well aware that planting oil rigs off Florida and Cape Hatteras and Myrtle Beach is na ga happa, due to Republican opposition. He’s forcing the Repubs. to be NIMBYs and to be against oil and gas exploration if it’s in the waters near their district. And let’s remember this is all about the outer continental shelf, many many miles from shore.

Wouldn’t matter. They’re the same. Let’s see if he has guts enough to talk about drilling off California.

After the initial surprise, I now believe this is a very clever politics. Puts the republicans firmly on the defensive.

at a time when we could surely use some leadership, maybe?

Obama should announce he’s switched parties.

Obama (The Big Obastacle)isn’t this stupid. This is triangulation. Now he can go back on Fox news and talk about how he’s saying no to the “left” because he didn’t want to be “too disruptive to the system.” Then, since the right says no to everything he proposes, he can claim he’s smack in the “center.” A great place for cowards….

My guess is that it is only politically sound if you can control all of the dissent from the ranks, that you believe that conservative voters would change their voting habits and that moves to the right do not in fact actually lead to Rs making “liberal” noises because actual policy differences become minimized.

If there are few actual differences between the two then voting results depend upon a coin toss.

Oh BT I am so cognitively agitated that the Oil companies win again. But I should say thanks once again for your great posts.

Good points.

Though I do not think they have any delusions about taking conservative votes. They just want to take another issue away from the GOP.

Suppose you are the plaintiff in a civil suit. Before the case even proceeds to trial, your lawyer gives the defendant your house and your car. You instantly grasp your lawyer’s brilliant move, knowing he’s playing “11 dimensional chess”, and laugh at how he’s making your opponent look ridiculous.

Wake up.

You’re quite welcome, Frank33.

Don’t think so.

And drilling on the outer shelf isn’t going to be easy. They’re going to lose platforms.

Why identify the obligatory mindless Republican opposition to any suggestion? The real issue here is that, right on the heels of the corporate insurance giveaway law, Obama is given the finger to the environmental movement. The real question at hand is the question of just how far Obama is planning on going in terms of his dedicated tendency to walk all over the liberal/left/progressive voters and to drive for really bad laws to be made.

LOL … Excellent !

“Why aren’t you blogging about what I think is important!?!? Wah!”

I think Doug’s right about this. For once let’s give Obama credit– he’s outfoxed the Pukes. They aren’t going to drill, and Obama pulled the rug out from under one of their phony talking points. And yes, that’s why the Orange Man is mad.

Fuck the Democrats, every last one of them.
Except Barbara Lee, a voice in the wilderness.

Obama could propose cutting taxes to zero, deporting everyone who can’t speak English, renaming the country “Jesusland”…doesn’t matter.

And apparently Orahma is the only one stupid enough to think otherwise.

Rename the country Jesusland? Now you’re talkin’…

Another great post, BT.

Indeed the Republicans will always be the same. Which makes Obama’s continued fucking idiocy all the more infuriating.

First we have the “Decider.” Now we have the “Triangulator.”

I have a friend who is a rig boss in the Gulf off LA. He reports they are now 150 miles out on what he calls a full floater. Very hightech drill rig that knows were it is to the ft. Pretty tough also from what he says. I have a tendancy to listen to him because he has been drilling for 35 years.

Well, if you want to respond to the prospect of a Democratic president who made lots of promises on environmental progress to get elected making his first environmental policy statement on opening up a huge amount of coastline to oil drilling by complaining about mindless Republican bullshit, that’s fine. But it strikes me as rather besides the point.

Likewise, given that the Republicans so far have:

1) Attempted to block a huge number of Obama appointees on dubious grounds in the Senate,

2) Threatened to filibuster effectively any meaningful legislation whatsoever to date,

3) Not voted with Obama on essentially any major legislation in Congress,

4) Made public statements that their strategy is to oppose any effort emerging from Obama, explicitly,

It would seem also that the mindless Republican opposition to what Obama suggested today is neither surprising nor a sign of anything new or changed with the Republicans since last week or last month or last year …

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) dismissed the president’s plan as not going far enough in opening up U.S. waters for exploration.

The Boner is such a (bronzed) dick.

Did you notice that they are not going to be drilling off Martha’s Vineyard? This was the play all long.

I’m not promoting it, just posting below FYI an excerpt from an email Steve Benen got from a Hill staffer and reprinted with permission. Possibly another view of Obama’s intent when it seems he’s given away his negotiating ability up front, as DDay speculated earlier this morning.

Finally, by announcing the drilling policy without seeking to extract concessions, the Administration makes clear that it is their policy and they are the centrist/flexible/pragmatic ones — making it harder for Republicans to argue that they accomplished this or that they forced Obama to do it. [...]

[O]f course, if there was any reason to believe that Republicans would engage in normal negotiation/compromise, then I see why holding this back and trading it for support of a broader package would make sense. But does anyone really think there are Republicans to negotiate with on this stuff? And if Republicans do come to the table, Obama still has plenty of room to give, including by simply agreeing to sign a law that makes proposals like this a matter of statute, not executive discretion.

Read the whole thing.

If one gets the NRDC emails that have gone from fighting Bush to trying to protect wild animals from being killed to dealing with the current administration using non-confrontation, the success of the strategy was clear from the first day. Obama, like Bush before him, sees the environment as a giant profit playground. The only difference is that Bush pretended to be an outdoorsman and Obama never will. It was outdoorsmen like Teddy Roosevelt that gave us the national parks – against the wishes of the dandies of the time.

This is linked to at the bottom of the post.

Actually, the real issue IS the mindless Republican opposition to anything blue, but it is what follows from that observation that is far more interesting — that the two-party system exists today only to set people working against each other instead of the real problems. Don’t look to a party Democrat to post about that, though.

Bayner is the correct pronunciation for a German name

I tend to agree with you, although I don’t mind highlighting the Republican Kabuki show of whining and obstruction.

IMO, BHO is just the new face of our corporate overlord. BHO doesn’t have the slightest intention of making good on any campaign promises, nor does he give a fack about the voters, piffle that we are. It’s clear that BHO works for Big Daddy Warbuck$$$ Inc, and he’s gonna do what they command. So we might as well get used to that.

Then: the question is how to respond. I’m not sure about that; I think it’s the question we’ve been wrestling with here at FDL for some time. I’m open to any good suggestions, but we up against a lot of money and a lot of power. Just saying…

The Rs played variations on this game all through the Clinton years to the point that many of them still strongly hate Clinton for vaguely undefined reasons. The fact that what passes for political discussion has been radicalized comes from the same thing that dogged Clinton. The more that the Ds concede to Republican talking points and values the more that Rs scent blood in the water and the more these sharks will seek to eviscerate their prey. The Ds, by conceding on nearly every issue including health insurance reform designed originally by the Heritage Foundation and later put into effect by Romney, have emboldened the Rs.

In team sports showing weakness is the surest path to defeat.

OOPS, sorry. I didn’t notice the h/t, and perhaps others wouldn’t, either.

I think the simplest explanation is not about GOP/Dem politics, it’s about corporate money, just as it was for the health insurance reform kabuki. Of course they know they will get zero GOP support for enacting GOP policies. But they also must know they will lose most of their Dem support as well. It’s becoming more and more clear the Obama WH acts as though it can maintain power without voter support, replacing votes with corporate cash. Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of corporate cash. And sadly, they appear to be correct. Sucks to be us.

The American Politburo

So the Boner is a Kraut. Where was he born and where is the birth certificate.

Thanks for letting me know. I’ll have to settle for other reasons to be disappointed with him I suppose.

Good point, although I no longer believe that we have a “two party” system…. just two branches/faces of the one party, which can be called corporations R us or corporations uber alles.

But yes, at least part of the Kabuki show is pitting one branch against the other. It’s useful to be aware of how that works. It’s less useful to allow yourself to be sucked into Kabuki show and be manipulated by it personally. An observation.

I don’t think that “Republicans suddenly oppose offshore drilling” is really an accurate description of what Boehner said. Boehner doesn’t oppose “Drill Baby Drill!”, he wants more of it, as in for drilling to be open everywhere along the both coasts. How is that the same as opposing offshore drilling?

More pertinent for me is “Suprise! Lots of Democrats are Suddenly FOR offshore drilling.”

Another day, another obamanation…

Of course they oppose it. And hapless Obama thinks that opposition will win him votes? It won’t. The conservative leaning voters don’t trust Obama. Period. End of story. So here goes Obama again, slapping his base in the face to win over the mythic middle. Not gonna happen.

Cincinnati, Ohio. Home of lots of German folks. I lived there for 3 years. Beautiful city, beautiful area, politics VERY conservative.

Let’s put it this way: on the environment, so far, what do we have from Obama?

1) A tendency to de-list species from the endangered list prematurely, or to not list them when they clearly are endangered, when protecting these species is (surprise!) disadvantageous to business interests.

2) A refusal to stop mountaintop removal in coal mining.

3) No change on protecting fish species that are facing massive depletion.

4) Opening up the coastline to oil drilling.

Obama got elected with the backing of a lot environmental organizations and voters. So far, he’s simply walked all over environmentalists.

And, yes, George Bush at least created a huge marine preserve, three areas. Obama so far has done Jack Shit.

As David’s post makes clear, this isn’t about drilling for oil, its about…uh, something else. What that might be, though, is anybody’s guess.

http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/03/31/administration-backtracks-on-drilling-strategy-baffling/

I have a cousin who’s a ‘subsea engineer’, His father was also an engineer working in offshore drilling.
Some of the stories I heard about hurricanes, where they didn’t find any trace afterward, not even wreckage – there must be a lot of corroded steel on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

Getting people to recognize that ‘drill baby drill’ isn’t going to produce the results they dream of, at any time soon enough that it will help them?

Pretty simple.

1) Obama plan to drill for oil offshore.
2) Boehner shits on it.

I agree! So much of the two party squabbling is really just a distraction or a circus.

Well, from the perspective of the corporation/uber wealthy: what does it matter who is the POTUS? If BHO loses in the next election, as Dick Cheney would say: SO??????

The obscenely wealthy and the corporations really don’t care about trifling politicians with their silly, juvenile so-called political affiliations. It’s meaningless junk at that level. Just so long as the political lap dogs remain lap dogs… whatever.

BHO is getting paid off very nicely for the role that he is playing in the giant Kabuki show, and he’ll be well taken care of whenever he is no longer in office. So: who cares? Whatever.

To be redundant, I’ve stated on several posts today: clearly it would have made NO difference if Palin-McCain had won. Can anyone really explain or clarify for me what the difference is between Palin and Obama? I sure cannot tell. The only difference that I see is that, at the end of the day, Sarah was, in actuality, MORE HONEST and more transparent during the campaign about who she is, what she *wanted* to do and so on.

Sickening… but factual.

Agree. I think that is the primary reason they don’t stick ‘em to the bottom anymore. The floaters are supposed to ride out storms intact. Don’t know if it will work out that way in practice though.

Also your “20 to 30 years” sounds about right if they hurry.

The way to respond probably involves re-examining your own participation in the system.

The basic issue is that elite interests that drive the government’s policies benefit greatly from the good consequences of the policies, but do not have to be accountable for or impacted by the bad consequences. Without elite interests being impacted heavily by downsides of the policies they drive, there probably isn’t much hope for reform -

Also predictable…if we agree with with the Goopers on drilling, because drilling IS a lousy idea, the Obamabots over at dkos will go into Drama Queen mode about it lol. Not that I’ve checked, I can’t deal with that site anymore. But their reflexive obamaluv only runs from High Dudgeon to Even Higher Dudgeon; meaningful conversation is impossible with people like that.

So we have our bread, extended unemployment benefits, and the two circuses of the tube of boobs and the political posers. Somehow it seems that the populous should be more satisfied.

Emptywheel has a fresh breaking news cross-post available: Breaking: Judge Walker Grants Summary Judgement Finding Gov’t Liable Under FISA

With respect, I disagree with you. I don’t believe that Obama is in the least bit “hapless,” and I don’t believe that he’s doing this, or anything else, in some kind of effort to be bipartisan (not words that you used in your post) or to curry favor with Republicans.

My opinion, but I don’t see BHO as hapless at all. BHO is doing what he’s PLANNED to do all along. He represents the will of the corporations, not the trifling, piffling voters.

Republicans are now against – so Obama’s going to drop the idea, right? The oil companies are sitting on thousands of leases on public lands that they haven’t even touched. We’re going to give them more freebies trying to chase nonexistant republican votes?

Wake up, Obama – please.

American citizens seem to think that oil will always be there but it won’t. It won’t go away any time soon but shouldn’t we be planning for the future of the world. Why are we so afraid of technology that would take us away from the dependence on oil? Makes no sense.

you know, i don’t care who stops it, or whether they’re being hypocrites or not.

offshore oil drilling should be a non-starter. also:

So let me just repeat. John McCain’s proposal, George Bush’s proposal, to drill offshore here in Florida and other places around the country would not provide families with any relief this year, next year, five years from now.

Now believe me, if I thought there was any evidence at all that drilling could save people money to fill up their gas tanks by this summer or next year or even the next few years, I would consider it. But it won’t. And John McCain knows that. The fact is that Senator McCain’s decision to team up with George Bush on offshore drilling violates the bipartisan concensus that we’ve had for decades that has protected Florida’s pristine coastline from drilling. And just like Senator McCain’s gas tax holiday gimmick, this is a proposal that would only worsen our addiction to oil and put off needed investments in clean, renewable energy.

It’s not the kind of change that the American people are looking for. They’re looking for leadership that moves this country forward and actually offers real solutions to the serious challenges that we face. – candidate Barack Lying AssHat Obama

(via gridlock, a commenter at Americablog)

Believe me: I am doing that very seriously. And step one was registering as an Independent. I was DONE with being a putative “Democrat” quite a few months ago.

Then contemplating next steps from there and how to vote in upcoming elections. I agree.

Of course McCain’s little dance in Georgia might have lead to a more exciting outcome with respect to Russia and the Caspian sea.

I don’t think we’re quite in Kang vs. Kodos territory (yet), but it does look more and more like our choices are:

1) Corporate-controlled Pol who pays lip service to base on defining issues then does whatever is in the best interests of corporate overlords

or

2) Corporate-controlled Pol who pays lip service to base on defining issues then does whatever is in the best interests of corporate overlords and is also over-the-moon batshit insane.

Which is why I keep voting for 1. They know I got nowhere else to go… I got nowhere else to go.

Translation: Don’t drill off the coast of red states, drill off the coast of blue states.

There are more than a dozen Republican and a couple of Blue Dog Congresscritters whose districts will be affected.

NIMBY is very much alive and well in the GOP.

With respect, BHO is fully wide awake and aware. He is doing what he has PLANNED all along. Sorry that it’s painful to see that. He’s not a “Democrat”… whatever that means anymore.

Meet the new boss: BHO is the face of the corporation that runs the USA as a wholly owned subsidiary of the war machine. It’s all about making money for the obscenely wealthy. The end.

Perhaps. Well, all that oil over there: booyah!

I hear you. Guess I’ve gone all the way. I am no longer a Democrat. That doesn’t mean I will never ever vote Democratic again. It just means that I will consider my options even more than before.

Frankly: do you really think there’s a difference between Obama and Palin? Seriously??? I don’t. My opinion, but there you have it.

Maybe. I don’t think his principles(whatever they may be) are to protect the environment and he is pushing this policy to be bipartisan anyway. But I do think he is always focused on 2012 and trying to win over right leaning voters. In this case, I do think he’s trying to prove yet again he’ll take on his base. He’s no hippy. And the reward from right leaning voters will be nada. They already have an opinion of Obama. It won’t change. The best he can hope for is they lose their motivation. But silly policies like this won’t do that. Only an improved economy will do that. So I think it is rather hapless to keep employing a failed strategy to win over voters who won’t support you at the risk of alienating your base.

But yeah, I agree with you basically. I just think he thinks there is a political strategy here that works, when thus far, it hasn’t produced any results.

Equally so predictable is how Obama apologists will try to shift all the blame and focus to those evil, obstinate Republicans now that Obama has once again screwed over the progressive base.

Well one difference is there weren’t quite so many shots of Obama’s audience taken from between his legs.

Too, I remain a registered Democrat so I can vote in the upcoming Bennet/Romanoff primary. Also.

“Did you notice that they are not going to be drilling off Martha’s Vineyard? This was the play all long.”

Yes, I did notice that, which proves my point that lifting the exploration moratorium in these areas is a very savvy political play with no environmental downside. Obama is not going to allow exploration in John Kerry’s state. Why? Because Kerry is an ally. This is all about taking this issue away from Repubs. and letting them continue to be the Party of No. This also takes ANWR from the Repubs. in case they want to revive that old corpse.

And no, Obama isn’t as good on certain environmental issues as I would like. That’s why people like me sue them.

Well neither of us can get inside Obama’s head to really “hear” what he’s thinking. I don’t agree that this is a political strategy to try to woo the rightwing voters, but that’s my take. In either case, we end up pretty much with same “end,” no matter what the “means” are.

It’s b.s. I never saw BHO as a super leftist, but he spoke fairly specifically against drilling during the campaign and stated that it wouldn’t make a darn bit of difference to gas prices, etc. And now look: this is patent b.s., a potential environmental pos problem; we’re already paying more at the gas pump while the ever-richer oil barons hold barrels of oil “hostage” on their container ships in order to falsely drive up the prices.

It’s a kabuki show. I don’t believe a word that comes out of BHO’s mouth anymore. I have taken to turning off my radio when he’s broadcast in much the same way that I did with W. I just don’t accept this as some kind of “strategy” to win votes. He’s just not that stupid.

Ok. I’ll give you that! Also.

I hope you’re correct, but after watching all 27 acts of Public Option Kabuki Theatre, I’m not all that willing to give this Administration the benefit of the doubt. There’s always a tricky political explanation that requires a few extra assumptions than does the simple corporate explanation.

Obama/Palin 2012. Come on guys. It’s obvious. Of course the Repugs must say ‘niet’. They’ve got to refuse all the way to get the tundra tart on the Bambi ticket, next election.

Well yeah: ding ding ding (not meaning to sound nasty or whatever)… that’s the whole point of the putative Republican obstructionist Kabuki show…. to deflect attention from what’s really going on and to pit voters against one another, while the corporations continue to run the show and rob us blind.

Well, Sarah will say: nyet, unless the ticket reads: Palin-Obama 2012! Do not ever for a moment believe that Bible Spice will settle for second best again…

Still a distortion. Your headline says Republicans oppose offshore drilling. They don’t. What they want is even more of it than Obama is offering. And if you check John McCain on Twitter, what you see is this:

Drill baby drill! Good move – where are Reid and Pelosi on this?

Does that look like “opposes offshore drilling” to you?

This is a move that has all upside and no downside. Allowing “exploration” does not mean allowing extraction. They can still deny any and all extraction permits, which won’t be even submitted for another 10-15 years, and only if any extractable deposits are found. I work for a living doing legal advocacy for marine fish. The damage due to commercial fishing and estuarine pollution on fish stocks is about 10,000 times worse than even a bad blow-out at an offshore rig on the outer continental shelf. Plus, the logic here is that in 15 years the technology for extracting oil from the seabed will have retrogressed, not improved. This is utter fallacy.

Who said anything about McCain?

This trend of Republicans saying everything is going against the will of the American people is rather disturbing; especially since we’re a center-left country.

The oil and gas industries just like to look? WTF?

Please educate yourself wrt who is running this country. Start by asking why we’re in Iraq.

I wonder which multinational company will benefit from access to that American oil. I’m still looking for the American oil company so I can buy American gas. All I can find is Shell, Exxon-Mobil, BP…

Thanx to all of us progressives for not insisting that the Clintons reinstate the alternative energy source programs started by Carter and cancelled by Reagan. Under the Clintons US dependence on foreign fossil fuels increased more than at any other time in the history of the US. Are progressives now to judge Obama’s energy policy on what is a blatantly political move here. THERE IS A REPORT DUE IN TWO YEARS. Chances are there will never be any drilling as contemplated in this proposal. See the glass half full with Stephen Chu and the development of electric batteries now promoted by Obama and never even addressed by the Clintons.

Saith the NYT: “There could be as much as a three-year supply of recoverable oil and more than two years’ worth of natural gas, at current rates of consumption. But those estimates are based on seismic data that is, in some cases, more than 30 years old.”

In order to extract oil and gas you have to see if it is even there, and in quantities and locations where it can be permitted, and economically extracted. It’s questionable how much, if any, extractable amounts of oil and gas are in these outer continental shelf areas. (P.S. this is not about exploring near the coast).

The first phase of exploration requires seeing if there any geological strata which could even potentially contain oil or gas, such as salt domes. Then you have to see if there is actually anything there. And then how much might be there. And then whether there’s enough to make it even worth the bother, which for an offshore rig in 1,000 feet of water, is an enormous expense. And then you still have to get all the permits before you can extract a single drop of the stuff.

So yes, oil and gas companies “just like to look” in the sense that they have to; and because the geological formations which store oil and gas in extractable quantities are very rare and not easy to discern.

Not a surprise, kinda of strange though, aren’t these the same people that said “Drill, Baby, Drill”?

Well this again is a attempt at repudiation of Obama completely without any quivering.

That’s OUR fault? How about you blame yourself. I didn’t kill the EV1 in California. GM did, but it was also GM fault for creating a car with largely no demand.

Thanks for the laugh!

It’s opposite land now. Pretty soon the R’s will be the progressive ones, just to spite Obama, and then I will be able to vote for them. Or not.

Naomi Wolf: Tea Parties Help Fight Fascism

“In her bestselling End of America, Naomi Wolf outlines the 10 warning signs that America is headed toward a fascist takeover.”

“The book was lauded by liberals under Bush: the Independent Publishers gave it the Freedom Fighter Award; the Nation named it the best political book of 2007. Now, under President Obama, Wolf’s book is providing ammunition for the Tea Partiers, Patriots, Ron Paul supporters and Oath Keepers, who also warn of impending tyrannical government. Even when the book first came out pre-Obama, Alex Jones, Michael Savage and Fox News invited her on their shows, and agreed with her.”

“When Glenn Beck warns of these things we laugh. When Wolf draws those same connections, we listen. How can both sides be speaking the same language, yet see things so differently? Or are we just not listening to each other? I telephoned Wolf to ask her what it means when your book ends up bolstering policies you oppose.”

Justine Sharrock: First off, is your book still relevant under Obama?

Naomi Wolf: Unfortunately it is more relevant. Bush legalized torture, but Obama is legalizing impunity. He promised to roll stuff back, but he is institutionalizing these things forever. It is terrifying and the left doesn’t seem to recognize it.

http://www.truthout.org/naomi-wolf-tea-parties-help-fight-fascism58127

To spread freedom?

[/W.]

Those wimpy shills at the Sierra Club are disappointed. I said they were firmly in the Pen.

The Sierra Club has now weighed in (also via email):
“We’re very disappointed to see important areas like the Arctic coast and the Mid and South Atlantic stay open to oil drilling.

It is a peculiarity of the development of American fascism that at the present stage it comes forward principally in the guise of an opposition to fascism, which it accuses of being an “un-American” trend imported from abroad.

Georgi Dimitrov, Seventh World Congress of the Communist International, 1935

I beg to differ. The Democratic establishment assuredly *has* figured it out, that’s why Obama is proposing Republican program after Republican program.

He can do that, pocket the resulting corporate largesse, and will still have the eevul Republicans to rail about and thus rally his lesser-of-two-evils supporters.

The two parties have a positional battle, it’s not really a policy battle at all.

You know, it would be nice to see Obama advocating for things that might be seen as liberal rather than stealing yet another issue from Republicans.

As the triangulation continues, the window moves further and further right.

If actual extraction is such a low probability event, then it doesn’t make economic sense for oil companies to explore for it. Zero probability of extraction means no exploration (regardless of the cost of extraction). Yet that’s not the case, we *do* have pressure for exploration. So either the oilcos think there is a non-zero probability or they don’t analyze the economics of extraction.

I’m not surprised. I like President Obama. I voted President Obama. But THE DRILLING OFFSHORE LIFT he is proposing is a f***king GIMMICK!!! It’s another attempt to placate wavering conservative Democrats and republicans to sign onto his domestic and foreign agenda at the expense of the American people.

“Surprise! Republicans Suddenly Oppose Offshore Oil Drilling”

A headline that only a democrat hack could concoct, unless of course he’s not at all surprised that: Democrats do 180° – Love Them Some Offshore Drilling.

*clapping so hard my hands are aching* Just a great interview. I have always liked NK, now I freaking adore her. This should be read and given careful consideration by every person who self identifies as a progressive. Yay!

It’s NW, but who cares as long as someone’s throwing cold water on the passed out populace.

Oops, dammit. Mixed up th’Naomies.

of course we are all shocked! hcr is barely a week old and barack once again is reaching out to the gop with what they campaigned on for goodness sake; and they will still say no. what part of no does barack not understand; or is this some grand scheme to make the gop put their vote where their mouth has been?

Correction: Democrats are in favor of drilling off of Republican states.