Bush Rapes U.S. Solar Companies
Its time to start dragging Bush Republicans out of their homes and urinating on their faces. If that is not possible, we should hold them down and rub human feces on their heads. Lets just get this shit over with. They hate America and are doing everything they can to obliterate our future. They are corrupt, vile, devious creatures who deserve nothing but scorn and hate. What got me so riled up - besides tons of caffeine? Bushs latest attempt to destroy solar energy. Its pretty fucking amazing, considering the current state we find ourselves in.
Ill get to the new solar bullshit in a minute, but first we should take a little trip into the past, back 10 years ago, when our government destroyed a U.S. owned wind power company. Ever heard of a company called Kenetech Windpower, formerly known as U.S. Windpower? No? Thats because it doesnt exist anymore. Once it was the nations largest wind power producer, then our government murdered it.
Stanley Charren, who saw a future in wind as a power source, created U.S. Windpower in 1974. It began producing first generation wind turbines in the 80s. The company began attracting the biggest and smartest minds of alternative energy from around the world. They were leaders of wind power technology across the globe, which meant a U.S. owned company was poised to make a difference in alternative energy. Basically, they were kicking ass and taking numbers.
American wind power designers constantly sought breakthroughs. They wanted to bypass the drudgery of incremental development and bat a home run. American's leapt from one size to the next with little transition.
But the company was obviously fighting an uphill battle against Reagan retardation. (Thats the actual technical term.) Ronnie did everything he could to make sure alternative energy did not harm sweet, sweet Republican oil profits. He slowly repealed tax breaks and entitlements for wind power but left the good old tax breaks for oil. Go figure.
By 1988, in fact, wind power sales plunged over 1,000 percent from their 1985 peak to a measly $67 million per year. As visions of wind power grandeur faded, many companies were forced out of business.
And yet, U.S. Windpower kept moving forward. The company renamed itself Kenetech and had long-term contracts with California that kept it crawling along. Then Kenetech had a break through: Model 33M-VS.
It used a variable-speed turbine that adjusted to the wind's speed, thus capturing more energy. Wear and tear was reduced, as was the costly maintenance required by traditional turbines. Furthermore, because the torque level was lower, the 33M-VS used less expensive parts and was about 25 percent less expensive to manufacture than the 56-100. The end result of Kenetech's efforts was that it had reduced the cost of generating a kilowatt-hour of electricity from $.075 to below $.05, suddenly making wind power cost-competitive with systems utilizing coal, natural gas, hydropower, or geothermal energy.
In 1991, Kenetechs California contracts ran out, but the company struggled along without the tax breaks given to big oil and even though oil prices were plummeting. The company began landing other large contracts with states like Maine and foreign countries, like Canada and Ukraine. Kenetech was also developing projects in Spain, Holland, the United Kingdom, Germany, Honduras, Costa Rica, New Zealand, India, China, Guatemala, and Egypt. A U.S. alternative energy company was poised to become a major global player. But our government wasnt big on the idea.
In 1995, (Yeah, thats Clintons time, dipshits. He was a Republican who called himself a Democrat) the EPA and the BLM suspended construction on a Kenetech wind-farm project in western Wyoming. Why? Turns out the EPA needed to complete an environmental impact statement. It was necessary because Clinton was a corporate whore who got on his knees and gobbled for every big company that came around. That was August 1995.
Turns out that if a struggling company is developing a large wind farm and you pull the rug out from under them, they fail. Kenetech declared bankruptcy in May 1996. In 1999 another company, Tacoma Power, completed the Wyoming Wind Project. The Foote Creeke Rim is one of the windiest places in the US.
Now, youre probably asking why this is such a big deal. An American company called Tacoma Power developed the wind farm in the end, so it ends will, right? Wrong. What happened was Reagan and Clinton combined to destroy an American company that was the leader in wind power technology. After the destruction of Kenetech, the torch was passed to European companies, like Vestas, who are now the leaders of wind power technology. Americans could be building the fucking things and leading the way, but we're not.
We still have GE, but that has not stopped European companies from pouring into the country and consolidating control of U.S. renewable energy space. We are now back in the pack. We should have been first. Reagan killed the tax cuts and Clinton landed the final blow.
In the 80s, the U.S. had over half of the installed wind capacity worldwide. The USA gradually lost its leadership when the cuts Ronald Reagan made to Jimmy Carters programs to develop renewable energy began to undo the initial progress.
But why stop at just wind power? We are America, after all. We can't lead the pack in anything. Not with the retards we call leaders. Yes, our wonderful president, George Bush, is attacking solar power with the exact same plan.
Faced with a surge in the number of proposed solar power plants, the federal government has placed a moratorium on new solar projects on public land until it studies their environmental impact, which is expected to take about two years.
How many American companies will die a miserable death because of this move? How will it affect Americas standing in this burgeoning solar market? How will if effect the amount we pay for energy?
According to the bureau, the applications, which cover more than one million acres, are for projects that have the potential to power more than 20 million homes.
Oh, and dont forget that Republicans are blocking Congress from renewing tax credits from solar companies, while blocking the elimination of tax breaks for oil companies.
The industry is already concerned over the fate of federal solar investment tax credits, which are set to expire at the end of the year unless Congress renews them. The moratorium, combined with an end to tax credits, would deal a double blow to an industry that, solar advocates say, has experienced significant growth without major environmental problems.
The Bureau of Land Management owns 650 million acres of land, much of that in the hot west. It is the most valuable land in terms of solar energy potential. Bush just destroyed the solar business in the U.S. This is another epic disaster from the Bush White House.
Here Come The Oiltards
There are a couple of reasons why gas prices are shooting through the roof. One, is obviously because oil companies get to make a shit load of money and they know our current government wont do anything about it. Another reason is because the oil companies want to drill in places they cant. They want access to coastal areas and parts of Alaska that are currently off limits. With skyrocketing oil prices, they believe Americans will support new Congressional laws to allow offshore drilling. Its really an awesome win-win for the douchebag oil companies.
Sure enough, a new Rasmussen poll came out this weekend claiming 67% support offshore drilling, 64% expect it will lower prices. If true, those people are obviously retarded. Anyone who believes allowing drilling off the coast of any state will decrease gas prices is a fucking moron. Im going to write that one more time, just in case I was too subtle; if you believe drilling off the coast of any state will lead to a drop in prices you are an incredible retard. Got it? Super, lets move on.
Of course, the Rasmussen poll was a complete pile of shit, because it was a push poll. Check out the second question asked.
In order to reduce the price of gas, should drilling be allowed in offshore oil wells off the coasts of California, Florida, and other states?
Um. Hey, Rasmussen, drilling wont reduce the price, so why are you asking the question like that? Someone slip a check into your dirty little hands?
Im a crazy environmentalist. Id rather you die than an acre of land destroyed. I think you are less important. Deal with it. But this isnt an environmental argument, its common sense.
First of all, offshore oil drilling only makes sense when prices are high. You know why? Turns out its expensive to drill in the fucking ocean.
If exploration were allowed, permits would have to be granted, and before that environmental concerns must be addressed. Drilling also would have to make economic sense: Offshore drilling is expensive, and the more remote the site, the more costly it is.
Remember the Texas oil boom of the seventies, when prices were sky high, and then they crashed and it wasnt profitable to drill for oil anymore? Yeah, same thing. Prices will go down because this is an oil bubble, just like the stock bubble and the housing bubble.
If our oil offshore were to have an effect on gas prices, there would need to be a shitload of it out there. There is not.
Recoverable reserves off U.S. coasts in now-banned areas probably contain only about 16 billion barrels.
The U.S. consumes about 20.6 million barrels a day, about 60 percent from foreign sources.
Weeehooooooo! Lets get that shit! We might save a whole 5 cents at the pump!
Those 16 billion barrels would give us 2.5 years worth of oil under todays usage. In 10 to 20 years, when we actually would begin using that oil, it would obviously be a lot less. Sound good? Yeah? Well, how about this?
The Energy Information Agency estimates that the total amount of oil in the offshore zone in question is about 16 billion barrels. If we assume that it would take about ten years from the day of authorization to get to peak production and that most of the oil is pumped out over 30 years, this would translate into a bit over 1 million barrels of oil a day.
That would be equal to about 1 percent of world production in a decade. If we assume a long-run demand elasticity of 0.3, this would imply a drop in world prices of approximately 3 percent. In todays prices, we would be looking at a drop in the price of a barrel of oil from around $135 to $131. If this were passed on one to one in gas prices, we might expect to see a drop in the price of a gallon of gas from around $4.00 to around $3.92 a gallon.
The Energy Industry Administration believes allowing drilling off the coast wont offset prices at the pump until 2030. How fucking awesome is that? Of course, Ive learned not to believe any government agency that exists under Bush, so its probably more like 2040. There are quite a few problems involved in getting oil right now.
Just having the oil doesnt mean you can get the oil. Turns out weve got a ship problem. A shortage of ships used for deep-water offshore drilling promises to impede any rapid turnaround in oil exploration and supply.
In recent years, this global shortage of drill-ships has created a critical bottleneck, frustrating energy company executives and constraining their ability to exploit known reserves or find new ones.
But the oil companies dont care about that because they dont want to open up the offshore areas for drilling now, they want it for the future. If they wanted to drill for oil now to alleviate our gas problem, they could drill in areas where they already have access. And they have plenty of land to drill in.
Oil companies and many lawmakers are pressing to open up more U.S. areas for drilling. But the industry is drilling on just a fraction of areas it already has access to.
Of the 90 million offshore acres the industry has leases to, mostly in the Gulf of Mexico, it is estimated that upwards of 70 million are not producing oil.
Nice. And it wont stop them from getting Americans riled up to drill offshore.
Oil companies "should finish what's on their plate before they go back in line," said Oppenheimer analyst Fadel Gheit.
With prices at $135 dollars a barrel, everyone is trying to pump as much as they can, he said. But fearing oil prices will eventually fall, the industry is leery about making too many investments in the fields it has - many of which are in deepwater areas that can be pricey to develop.
Instead, they're holding out, hoping the government will open areas closer to shore that would be cheaper to work on.
Right. See, the oil companies arent making enough profit to go after the oil where it would be more expensive to get, in the places they already have access to, they want it easy and close to home. And the right wing is attempting to use the current crisis created by Bush de-regulation to get their hands on the coasts.
Maybe if Exxon would actually pay damages owed from the Valdez spill, they might be allowed to lease new land. But 20 years after the spill, Exxon seems to finally have won their battle in the courts this week - destroying the lives of many, many people. Lesson learned. The oil companies can go fuck themselves. If they wanted to get at our coasts, they wouldn't have fought that lawsuit all the way to the Supreme Court.
Most importantly, opening up new areas for drilling is backward thinking. The time has come to move away from gas. Some countries are moving quickly to alleviate the energy problem.
The Japanese government will introduce tax credits and subsidies to encourage household use of solar energy starting next year. The details will be determined in August when the budget is created. The incentive will decrease the cost of a solar photovoltaic system by an estimated 50% within 3 to 5 years.
What a bunch of dicks. We didnt kill them all and then re-plant, just to have them turn their backs on our oil companies. Or course, here in the US, we are dragging our feet.
Unfazed by pressure from Democrats and the business community, Republicans for the second time in a week prevented the Senate from taking up a tax bill providing more than $50 billion in renewable energy credits and tax breaks for families and businesses.
Take your time, kids. While they are at it, the right wing is lying through their assholes. Check out Chris Wallace on Fox this weekend and be sure to stick around to the end for the name of the segments sponsor.
Wallace lied, plain and simple. Katrina did extensive damage to oil platforms and refineries. Here are some pretty pictures of the oil spills from space. The right wing is shameless. Either that or Chris Wallace is a lying douchbag. Wait! Maybe its both!
Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters unleashed 1 million gallons of oil from one of the massive storage tanks at Murphy Oil's nearby refinery. The spill spread over 1 square mile and stained 1,700 homes, making it one of the largest environmental spills to occur in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
And it was far from the only one.
A Houston Chronicle review of data from the National Response Center shows that the two storms caused at least 595 spills, incidents that released untold amounts of oil, natural gas and other chemicals into the air, onto land and into the water.
And they think we should open up areas off Florida to drilling? Really? I have a question: Do hurricanes ever not hit Florida?
Anyone who thinks that opening up these areas to drilling will lead to a big drop in prices is a simplistic monkey. It will make no difference. This plan is only for the oil companies and the play is being made now because Bush is leaving office, with a high chance of a Democrat taking over.
The only real beneficiaries will be the oil companies that are trying to lock up every last acre of public land before their friends in power Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney exit the political stage.
And if youre wondering how much oil is in ANWR its half of the estimated 16 billion barrels offshore, which makes ANWR even more ridiculous an argument to make. If we did allow companies to drill in all these locations, the total estimated saving is
.$2.25 per barrel. Thats 6 cents a gallon, or as it is known by non-retards, horseshit.
I completely get why the oil companies make this type of push. Its what companies do. And Republicans solely serve the interests of big business, so they are also acting as they should. But the everyday idiot on the street spouting this as a solution is a fucking tool. So, next time you hear some right wing moron tell you we need to open up our coastlines and environmentally sensitive areas of Alaska, tell them to go fuck themselves. And kindly explain that they are retarded.
The Positive Side of Higher Oil Prices
I know I am not alone as I get a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach every time I see the price of gas. I start to question if a trip out of town is going to be more than I can afford in a given month, or how long it will be before the question will be, "Do I get groceries or buy gas this week?"
But there is a bright side. This may be the chance we need to fix some of the major problems in America.
Obesity:
The percentages of obese adults and children in the U.S. is at a frightening level, and has been increasing over the last few years at an alarming rate. However, in certain circumstances, changing to walking or biking to work on a daily or nearly daily basis can significantly increase a person's overall health. A simple 30 minute moderate walk, five times a week, can help a person lose weight, improve their heart and lungs, and stop diabetes and heart disease before they start. Just by walking. No fancy clothes or gym memberships. And it's a good excuse to use that armband you bought for your iPod.
I realize this only works for some people. I live about one half mile from my place of business, but think of the other places you could walk instead of driving. Get a sturdy backpack and walk to the grocery store. Choose restaurants and movie theaters within walking distance.
And, this might just be a personal benefit, but I've found myself much better prepared for my day at work if I start with a nice half mile walk to work, and I'm not nearly so stressed at the end of the day after the same walk home. Which brings up my next point . . .
Stress:
The drive to and from work, traffic jams, and road rage simply can't be good for a person's general health. If you've ever been stuck in a two hour jam, you know what I am talking about: blood pressure goes up, tempers flare, hair gets pulled out . . . not good.
If you can't walk to work, perhaps you can telecommute. Working from home, if done properly, can result in reduced stress, more efficient workers, a better home life, and a reduction in employee turnover. Think about it. No commute, no dealing with office gossip, no listening to your cubicle neighbor trim his toenails while he listens to Rush Limbaugh (or some other idiot) on his radio, and the opportunity to wear comfortable clothes!
But there are rules to the game for telecommuting to work well enough to make it worthwhile, like keeping to specific work hours and maintaining a home-office that the kids know is off-limits in all cases except for emergencies, they are easily offset.
Again, this only works in certain areas. There really isn't any way to mine for coal, drive a truck, study diseases vs. medications, solve crimes, sell groceries, or many other jobs from a laptop. But, if those who can work from home do so, roads become less clogged, gas usage goes down, the air becomes cleaner, stress and disease go down, and people who spend their days gradually overfilling their office chair will be able to come back to life.
Coyotemike is not a doctor, but was known to play one as a child.
Enjoying Your Gas Rape?
Gas prices are now over $4 a gallon. Shocking, isnt it? Who would have thought having an oil man in the White House would lead to crazy high gas prices? Being a Californian, I never thought something like this would happen, especially after Enron and other energy companies completely raped my state state in 2001, while the president sat back and watched.
Later we learned energy companies had manipulated the market, starting with lobbying for deregulation in the late '90s and ending with using the new rules to anally fuck the entire state of California. Even though it was quite obvious what was happening at the time, the Bush administration did nothing, even as our state government (Democrats) begged for help.
Now the same is happening with oil. This isnt a supply and demand problem. Anyone who believes that is a fucking moron. We are paying high prices due to speculation. Over the past decade there has been
wait for it...yep, the development of unregulated international derivatives trading in oil futures. That has led the rich to create an oil bubble, so they can make up for all the money they lost during the real estate bubble burst. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer.
Sure, they tell us its all due to the dwindling world oil supply. Of course, most of the sources of that information are the same guys who will profit from just such a situation. Much like the manufactured Social Security crisis, this is all about a certain group of people who are trying to make more money. And now, they are.
"Millions of new households will suddenly have straws to start sucking at the world's rapidly shrinking oil reserves," wrote CIBC analyst Jeff Rubin.
Oh, scary.
"It's not going to be a one-year blip and go away like the Internet bubble," said Joseph Dancy, who manages the LSGI Venture Fund in Texas. "This is a matter of economics, and it's going to take a decade to work through."
I bet.
See, those two assholes are making shitloads of money driving up the price of oil. They are speculators. They desperately want us to believe that India and China suddenly began sucking up all our sweet oil. But thats just not true. Sure, oil use is going up, but it does not justify the insane rise in prices we have seen here in the US.
The first culprit is our dollar. What a giant, hideous turd our dollar has become. The Bush plan to fight our economic woes is to drive down the price of the dollar. Hes hoping that will stimulate exports and tourism, which will make everything A-okay. Hes obviously a fucking idiot. The devaluing of the dollar is part of the reason gas prices have been shooting up, which causes the price of everything, food, goods, to shoot up, was well.
On the supply side, were doing fine.
In the U.S. alone, stockpiles of oil climbed by 11.9 million barrels in the month preceding the Energy Information Agency's May 7 inventory report; they were up by nearly 33 million barrels since Jan. 1. At the same time, MasterCard's May 7 gasoline report showed that gas demand has fallen by 5.8%, while the government suggested that gasoline consumption might have fallen by slightly over 6%.
And yet, prices keep going up, up, up. Im not saying prices shouldnt be going up. They should. A bit. But doubling and tripling, and I get that 2001 California déjà vu feeling. This is rape, all over again.
Congress is going to start looking into this latest rise in prices this week, but I dont expect much to happen. Our presidential candidates, like Hillary Clinton, are running around blaming OPEC. That shipped sailed a long time ago. Control of oil prices is now in the hands of Wall Street. In 2006, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations issued a report on The Role of Market Speculation in rising oil and gas prices. What they found was a giant loophole in the regulation of oil derivatives trading.
"There's a few hedge fund managers out there who are masters at knowing how to exploit the peak [oil] theories and hot buttons of supply and demand, and by making bold predictions of shocking price advancements to come, they only add more fuel to the bullish fire in a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy." (The Role of Market Speculation in Rising Oil and Gas Prices, U.S. Senate, June 27, 2006).
And now those few hedge fund managers are taking advantage of that loophole while they can, while Bush is still in office and before Democrats gain a massive advantage in Congress. Were in the middle of a greedy binge and its not going to stop until next year because the only people who can do something about it dont care.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is mandated by law to ensure prices reflect supply and demand, rather than market manipulation or speculation. Right now, the CFTC is a no show, just like the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission sat on its ass during the California energy crisis. But you tend to not do anything about a crisis when it's all your fault. Thats how the Bush government works.
In January 2006 the CFTC changed the rules of oil futures speculation and I know youre not going to believe this, but the CFTC actually changed the rules so there is no oversight. Crazy, huh? The US government energy futures regulator made sure there would be no regulation. Who would have thought such a thing would happen under Bush? At this point, people within the US trading crude oil, gasoline and heating oil futures can avoid ALL oversight requirements by routing their trades through London instead of New York.
It may just be coincidence that the present CEO of NYMEX, James Newsome, who also sits on the Dubai Exchange, is a former chairman of the US CFTC.
Huh. Shocking. When CFTC changed the rules in January 2006, the price of oil was $60 a barrel. Now it is up to $134 a barrel. There is now no way to actually detect price manipulation because daily reports are no longer required. From the 2006 Senate report:
The CFTC's ability to detect and deter energy price manipulation is suffering from critical information gaps, because traders on OTC electronic exchanges and the London ICE Futures are currently exempt from CFTC reporting requirements. Large trader reporting is also essential to analyze the effect of speculation on energy prices.
Basically, youre getting Fed in the A, and there is nothing you can do about it. This is the point where I laugh at all the lower income idiots who voted to put an oil man in the White House and thought it would work out great. Fuck you. You deserve this.
Its gotten worse as of late because now the hedge funds, banks and other investors are jumping in. Now these speculators are driving up the cost of oil. The market does not see a difference between a barrel of oil being purchased by a speculator and a barrel being purchased by a refiner, or some other user of petroleum. Basically, around 50% of the price of oil is due to pure speculation. But no one really knows, because Bush deregulated the whole thing. We have very high supplies of oil and high oil prices. How awesome is that? Its like the diamond business - only we don't all NEED diamonds.
Tell It Like It Is, Dubya
Let's talk about keeping it real. Not about being honest, but being true, avoiding all trepidation and inhibition, and shrugging off charges of duplicity because, deep down, when push comes to shove, you really don't give a shit.
Take, for example, George W. Bush. In his State of the Union speech almost two years ago, he discussed important issues with clear optimism, positive that the nation's endeavors were headed towards a successful end. While his assertions were not exactly based on realistic expectations (as a majority of them have yet to come to fruition), that wasn't going to stop him from telling it like it is.
- On the war on terror and democracy in Iraq:
Democracies replace resentment with hope, respect the rights of their citizens and their neighbors, and join the fight against terror. Every step toward freedom in the world makes our country safer -- so we will act boldly in freedom's cause.
...
Our work in Iraq is difficult because our enemy is brutal. But that brutality has not stopped the dramatic progress of a new democracy. In less than three years, the nation has gone from dictatorship to liberation, to sovereignty, to a constitution, to national elections. At the same time, our coalition has been relentless in shutting off terrorist infiltration, clearing out insurgent strongholds, and turning over territory to Iraqi security forces. I am confident in our plan for victory; I am confident in the will of the Iraqi people; I am confident in the skill and spirit of our military. Fellow citizens, we are in this fight to win, and we are winning.
Well, not exactly winning. Not only do spy agencies agree that the offensive in Iraq is bolstering the terrorist threat to the United States, but the aforementioned installed government in Iraq has been facing dire hardships as well. - On the nation's economy:
Our economy is healthy and vigorous, and growing faster than other major industrialized nations.
. . .
Tonight I will set out a better path: an agenda for a nation that competes with confidence; an agenda that will raise standards of living and generate new jobs. Americans should not fear our economic future, because we intend to shape it.
Keeping America competitive begins with keeping our economy growing. And our economy grows when Americans have more of their own money to spend, save, and invest. In the last five years, the tax relief you passed has left $880 billion in the hands of American workers, investors, small businesses, and families -- and they have used it to help produce more than four years of uninterrupted economic growth. Yet the tax relief is set to expire in the next few years. If we do nothing, American families will face a massive tax increase they do not expect and will not welcome.
Because America needs more than a temporary expansion, we need more than temporary tax relief. I urge the Congress to act responsibly, and make the tax cuts permanent.
But now, less than two years later, fears of a possible recession have prompted Bush to consider a temporary tax relief.
From CNN:
President Bush on Friday proposed a temporary, broad-based tax relief package aimed at spurring the nation's slowing economy.
During remarks at the White House, Bush, flanked by economic advisers, said the nation's economy is at risk for a downturn and Congress must act to head off trouble.
Existing income tax cuts supported by the Bush administration are due to expire in 2010, and the president called on Congress to make them permanent.
"Unless Congress acts, the American people will face massive tax increases in less than three years," Bush said. "This tax increase would put jobs and economic growth at risk." - On immigration:
Keeping America competitive requires an immigration system that upholds our laws, reflects our values, and serves the interests of our economy. Our nation needs orderly and secure borders. To meet this goal, we must have stronger immigration enforcement and border protection. And we must have a rational, humane guest worker program that rejects amnesty, allows temporary jobs for people who seek them legally, and reduces smuggling and crime at the border.
And yet, since then, "arrests and deportations are down almost 30 percent since the Clinton years."
From CNN:
Immigration arrests under President Bush are "stagnant and unimpressive" despite massive increases in Border Patrol agents and other immigration enforcement measures imposed since 2000, a report found.
Bush promoted border enforcement successes this week while pushing Congress for a comprehensive immigration policy overhaul. But the centrist private group Third Way questioned his record in a study released Thursday. It found that arrests and deportations are down almost 30 percent since the Clinton years.
"The decline in immigration enforcement has been steady, dramatic and long-standing," said Jim Kessler, the group's vice president for policy and a co-author of the report. "This may not be the cause of our illegal immigration crisis, but it has certainly contributed to it."
At a news conference Thursday, Bush defended his record.
"There's going to be a doubling of the Border Patrol agents; there's going to be fencing and berms and different types of equipment to help the Border Patrol do its job in a better way," he said.
According to the study, however, it would take more than 100 years to deport all the illegal immigrants in the United States at the current rate of arrests, assuming the flow of migrants across the border completely stopped.
It's not that Bush was being entirely mendacious when he laid out his plan for and preview of the future of numerous United States policies, nor is it plausible that the administration actively employs psychics to confirm their favorable outcome. But it would at least be reasonable provide realistic expectations when outlining the future of important issues.
And, in regards to such an important position as the President of the United States of America, a little integrity wouldn't hurt either.
But Bush keeps it real.
Keeping America competitive requires affordable energy. And here we have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world. The best way to break this addiction is through technology. Since 2001, we have spent nearly $10 billion to develop cleaner, cheaper, and more reliable alternative energy sources -- and we are on the threshold of incredible advances.
Breakthroughs [...] and other new technologies will help us reach another great goal: to replace more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025. (Applause.) By applying the talent and technology of America, this country can dramatically improve our environment, move beyond a petroleum-based economy, and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past.
Really real.
From ABC News:
One hour after his plea for more Saudi oil was publicly rejected by the kingdom's oil minister, President Bush made a private visit to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to again ask him to open the spigots.
The White House revealed Bush's private meeting with the Saudi monarch to reporters aboard Air Force One as the president flew to Egypt on the next leg of his Mideast trip.
Earlier, Bush told ABC News' Terry Moran how he would lobby the king.
"I will say to him that, 'If it's possible, your majesty, consider what high prices are doing to one of your largest customers,'" Bush said. "In other words, the worst thing that can happen to an oil-producing nation is that the price of oil causes the economy to slow down, because that will inevitably lead to fewer purchases [of oil]."
Bush said he's worried about an economic slowdown in the United States and around the world because of those high oil prices.
"These are smart people. They know that the price of oil can affect our economy, and they know that if our economy weakens and there's less purchasing power, that it will affect their ability to sell barrels of oil," the president said.
Correction: make dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the future.
While it may appear that Bush is backtracking from earlier commitments to decrease dependence on foreign oil in an embarrassing fashion, we have to remember that it's not the promises nor the predictions that matter, but the reaction to the harsh reality of nonfulfillment. How else can Bush respond to the failure of his own policies (including the absence of his briefly touted Advanced Energy Initiative) than proceeding in the opposite direction of the initial measures?
Responding to the current issues quickly, shamefully, and unapologetically with little hindsight or regard for past commitments, Bush shows us what keeping it real is all about.
Russia Thinks It Owns Our Oil
The Arctic is full of oil. It is estimated that 25% of the worlds undiscovered oil is in the Arctic. It is our oil. It cannot be another countrys oil because it is in the Earth. Any oil that is in the Earth is Americas oil it has been given to us by God to put in our cars. It is written in the Bible somewhere, page 238, I think. The Arctics oil is finally becoming available and it is largely because of the United States.
We use quite a bit of the Earths resources and we produce a large amount of pollution. That is just how we roll. Because of the Greenhouse Effect, Arctic ice is melting, which is finally giving us access to oil. Since we are creating so much of the pollutants that cause the Greenhouse Effect and melts the ice, we should be allowed to take the oil. It just makes sense.
Evil Russia has other ideas. A couple of weeks ago, Russia claimed the Arctic by planting its national flag on the ocean floor below the North Pole. Russians loved it, comparing it to when we planted our flag on the moon. (Much fucking harder) Russia is clearly confused if they think planting a flag has any meaning in the year 2007.
But Russia wasnt happy with just planting a flag. The red menace also took rock samples in an attempt to prove that underwater Arctic mountains are a continuation of Russia. Clearly this nonsense must stop. Russia has actually reduced its CO2 levels since the 1990s, which means they havent done shit to make the ice melt. We are still the #1 producer of CO2. Russia is taking advantage of our hard work and trying to steal our oil.
The 1982 UN Law of Sea Convention gave nations a 200-nautical-mile economic zone from their coastlines. 150 countries have ratified the treaty, but the US has not. Suddenly, 25 years later, President Bush is urging the Senate to ratify the treaty. Hopefully they do soon, so we can get our sweet, black gold. Canada, Norway and Denmark also border the Arctic Circle, but they can be dismissed because they are either weird or really small.
But that hasnt stopped Canada from getting uppity. Our northern neighbors are planning on building two new military facilities in the Arctic as well as spending $7 billion on new Arctic patrol vessels. They are also talking some serious smack.
"You can't go around the world these days dropping flags somewhere. This isn't the 14th or 15th Century. They're fooling themselves." Foreign Affairs Minister Peter Mackay said, adding that there was "no question" that the waters belonged to Canada.
No question? This fight is between the US and Russia, stay the fuck out of it. Go club some seals or play some hockey, you freaks.
Michael Bays Greatest Commercial Ever Opens
American automotive giant General Motors hopes you will see commercial director Michael Bay's Transformers and fall so madly in love with the Autobots that youll buy one of the models they paid millions to place in the movie.
"Product placement has never been so blatant, and the potential for a global platform to build brand awareness could not have come at a better time for GM," said David Koehler, a clinical marketing professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
This is the sad, sad state that the former iconic brand finds itself in after nearly one hundred years in the business. Whats got GM so down? Earlier this year, Toyota surpassed them in the total number of new car sales worldwide. A company that perhaps not-so-coincidentally has sold more than one million hybrid vehicles to date.
Rather than attempt to compete with the shit that Toyota is bringing GM has done the only sensible thing a good old American company would do in its position: bet on robots that uppercut each other.
You're not going to see the other actors," said Dino Bernacchi, GM's associate director of branded entertainment. "These cars are the stars, literally, in the movie."
Actually, who can disagree with Dino given the movies lackluster carbon-based cast? You could probably replace cars in the quote above with fireballs, debris screaming or slow motion without affecting the veracity of the statement.
GMC has a Camaro, a Pontiac Solstice, a pick up truck called a Top Kick (hey - at least its not named after a tree) and one of the heroes in the picture is "Ratchet", the robot field medic from outer space. He cherishes all life - at least while in robot form. Not so much when he transforms into a GMC Hummer.
Climb up behind the wheel of a hummer and it's you that will be transformed into a giant fucking dildo.
Nowhere on the Hummer website will you find a quote about miles per gallon. Actually, you wont even find it on the sticker in the showroom. Federal law states that vehicles as heavy as the H2 need not publish the miles per gallon they can muster. Generous estimates give the H2 Hummer 13 miles on the highway and 10 in the city.
To be fair Ratchet the Robot turns into an H2 model Hummer. Its the compact one. I assume Autobots dont need to fill up they eat dilithium crystals or something. You however, will need something a little more down to earth to get around in a Hummer. Im am all for buying, and even driving Hummers. This is America. We do whatever we want as a country and you should too. I just think Hummers should be self-service vehicles. And owners should be made not just to pump the gas themselves but they should be forced to actually go get the necessary oil with other would-be Hummerers. After completing basic training its off to some far-off place with black gold under its surface. Then, you will need to refine it into gasoline. Finally, youre ready to drive your Hummer
with whatever you can return to our land with in a single tanker while fending off angry locals - Max Rockatansky-style.
Of the Transformers/GMC relationship Forbes points out:
Those who shell out to see "Transformers" probably aren't all that concerned about free-falling market shares or upcoming union negotiations. They want action, and that's what they're going to get from these GM vehicles.
Fuck yeah! I'll wait for a Gobots movie if I wanted to see a robot named Barabra win a slap fight and then transform into a Vespa. America is going to celebrate the 4th of July like God intended: with powerful, gas chugging GMC vehicles that turn into robots and then kick each other through buildings.
Who cares how many miles per gallon that Hummer will get? (almost none)
Tell us how many punches it will deliver. (+ 4 Vorpal Emissions versus Mother Nature)
Transformers opens every day this week for some reason. I already have my ticket and have begun drinking in preparation. I fully expect to enjoy the wonderful stupidity of it all. If youve already seen the excellent Ratatouille, then by all means - go get suckered into seeing Transformers. Just dont get suckered into buying what the movie is really trying to sell you.
Gerry_D looks forward to the day when a gallon of gas costs more than 5 bucks. It will be a step in the right direction.
Irans Summer Driving Season Starts With A Bang Literally
Lets say that youre the President of a country that has, to put it mildly, a rather mixed public image around the world. When you campaigned for the job, you stressed economic prosperity and traditional religious values. After winning an election that many claim was rigged, you find that the job really isnt as easy as you thought.
First off, you have a nasty habit of saying really stupid things that offend a whole lot of people around the world. People even call you a warmonger based on your foreign policy. Plus, your economys not doing so hot, and the disparity between the rich and the poor keeps increasing. Even though your country has some oil stored up and your government spends a shit-ton of money subsidizing gasoline production, you have to import a lot of gasoline to keep up with demand because damn do your citizens love their cars (and public transportation just aint what it could be.) Youre worried that this disparity might lead to budget woes and even another gas crisis.
So, what do you do?
Well, if youre President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, you come up with the brilliant idea of introducing gasoline rationing that limits Iranian citizens to buying 3.5 liters of gasoline a day for their privately-owned vehicles. You decide to go ahead with this program before hundreds of thousands of Iranians have received the ration cards they now need to purchase gasoline. Oh, and you give everyone, including the police, gas station owners, and the car-owning public, only two hours notice before implementing the new restrictions.
I mean, what could possibly go wrong?
Shortly after the rationing was announced, Iranians took to the streets in Tehran to protest. These protests, the first major ones since Ahmadinejad took office, turned violent as gas stations were vandalized and set on fire. Police attempting to quell the protests wound up being pelted with rocks by crowds chanting, Guns, fireworks, tanks, Ahmadinejad should be killed.
Yeah, I dont get the fireworks part either. Maybe it sounds cooler in Farsi.
Irans government decided that the best response to these protests was to tell everyone to shut the fuck up, ordering the press not to publish negative stories about the gasoline rationing plan and turning off Tehrans mobile phone text messaging network to try and prevent angry motorists from organizing more protests.
Some of you might be saying, Wait, Iran? They have to ration gasoline in fucking Iran? Dont they have so much oil they might as well make smoothies out of it?
While Iran does have massive oil reserves, due to under-investment Iran lacks the ability to refine enough of that oil into gasoline to meet demand. So while Iran exports more than half of the oil it produces, they have to actually import about 40% of the gasoline they consume.
Making matters worse is that Iran has been heavily subsidizing the price of gasoline, which up until now was selling inside Iran for around 1/5th the price that it sells for in other countries in the region. This has led to both overconsumption and a lucrative black market as people can make a tidy profit smuggling cheap gasoline out of Iran.
Ahmadinejad and the Iranian Parliament claim this new rationing program will help prepare Iran to deal with possible future sanctions on gasoline imports that the UN or the US might impose to try and stop Iran from developing nuclear energy (or nuclear weapons, depending on who you listen to). However, Ahmadinejad has already been losing popularity amongst the same working-class Iranians who (theoretically) voted him into office, as his economic policies have failed to curb inflation and unemployment, or to bring about the equitable distribution of oil wealth he promised during his campaign. Many of Ahmadinejads supporters are already blaming his hard-line foreign policy stances with increasing U.S. sanctions and making the economy worse, and gasoline rationing is a true fuck you to those same supporters. Maybe John McCain wont get to bomb Iran after all.
At least Im happy that I dont have to live with a President that breaks campaign promises and fucks things up by making poorly thought out decisions. I cant imagine what thats like.
They Like to Ride Their Bicycles. They Like to Ride Their Bikes.
What says "NO TO OIL" quite like naked exhibitionism on wheels?
This weekend, in various European and Canadian cities, thousands of participants took part in what was the fourth annual world naked bike ride.
CNN reports:
Hundreds of naked cyclists, some sporting strategically-placed body paint, toured the streets of London and other cities around the world Saturday to protest oil dependency and the car culture.
Traffic came to a standstill and onlookers gaped or took photographs as the bare cyclists streamed past London's landmarks, blowing whistles and waving flags saying "Rights for Bikes".
Spouting a pearl necklace of wisdom, Bogdan Potrowski, a 36-year-old Polish electrician, wearing just a baseball cap remarked, We shouldnt be so dependent on oil. Realizing the disconnect between his statement and attire, he also added, We also want to show everyone how defenseless we are on the roads.
While organizers of the ride in London noted that 850 individuals took part last year, they expected an even larger turnout this year, due to the fair weather.
I just want to share that this story was incredibly illuminating to me. Having seen a man near my junior high school standing naked, watching us play softball, I never quite understood what he was doing there. I now understand he was just protesting our reliance on Middle Eastern oil. Sorry naked protest man, Ill never call the cops on one of you naked freedom fighters again.
How Iran Will Fuck Us
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that if the US does attack Iran, Iran would respond by attacking US interests around the world. By interests he most probably means oil. A lot of oil is in the Middle East and it flows through the Iranian-controlled Straits of Hormuz, out the Persian Gulf and into the Arabian Sea.
Iran has these things called missiles. Iran often tests missiles and did so again on Thursday over the Oman Sea and the northern Indian Ocean. According to the Revolutionary Guard, the missile had a range of 217 miles, a 1,102-pound warhead and is capable of destroying warships. Oh, and also, oil tankers.
Iran could shut down the Straits of Hormuz, which would be bad because 20 percent of Middle Eastern oil is shipped through that waterway. Japan gets 14 percent of its oil from Iran. Iran is the fourth largest supplier of oil to South Korea. China is a large buyer of Irans sweet liquid. The largest percentage of Iranian oil goes to Asia, then Europe. Italy, Turkey, and France purchase large amounts of Iranian oil.
"When Bush announced that he would fill our Strategic Petroleum Reserve last spring and also expand it, crude prices went up by $1.50 in just 20 minutes because of speculation that the U.S. might attack Iran. If the US attacks and oil prices rise, Bush would likely release oil from the SPR to soften the blow to the oil markets," Matt Piotrowski, an oil market analyst.
The Bush Administration has denied it is planning to attack Iran. Although the President keeps blaming Iran for Iraq's problems, so that can't be good. Oh, and an additional aircraft carrier is headed to the Persian Gulf to
hang out, maybe talk to the other aircraft carrier, see the sights.
Democrats Target GOP Supporters
With Democrats ready to try and get something accomplished in Congress, they're making their new agenda clear, and part of it is going to include sticking it to two major Republican donor organizations; oil and pharmaceutical companies. Payback is a bitch.
In their first 100 legislative hours, Democrats aim to negotiate lower drug prices for seniors, roll back subsidies for oil and gas companies, and reduce the cost of student loans. They're also quickly gearing up to investigate allegations of corruption in war contracting.
"Parties reward their constituency groups, and they go after the other party's constituency groups. Parties are never stronger than in the first few days, so they do it early," says Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
Moreover, it's popular. "You can't find people supporting big drug and oil companies, except the people who work in them," Professor Sabato says. For example, some 85 percent of Americans say the government should negotiate prescription-drug prices for the Medicare program, according to a recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
It's hard to find people who outright support big oil or big pharma, and in the interest of full disclosure, I'm not one either, as the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America rejected a beautifully written and scientifically brilliant grant proposal I submitted to them last year. That being said, criticism of both groups tends to lean towards oversimplification of the mass-protest-sign-slogan variety (think "Oil is bad" or "Pharma is bad" along with some cheesy, moderately relevant, probably alliterative rhyming scheme incorporated) rather than well considered theses as to how the two groups could be better. Certainly the cashing in on Katrina-related price hikes by oil companies was despicable, and the continuing subsidies to these companies seem to amount to little more well orchestrated, legal kickbacks. That being said, the economy is highly dependant (at least currently) on the availability of cheap oil, so to completely demonize the supplier of a necessary commodity seems a bit simplistic. Getting rid of their government handouts seems like a good place to try and fix the situation, however.
Big pharma is another supplier of a necessary commidity, and it seems unlikely that someone suffering from an otherwise untreatable malady will continue protesting that pharmaceutical companies are "evil, evil buckets of bile." However, again, they've done some highly questionable things over the past few years, including price gouging on various medications, pushing unpopular (though successful) legislation preventing the government from negotiating the costs of drugs bought in bulk for medicare patients, and ramming protectionist bans on cheaper, identical foreign drugs down the throats of Americans who would rather pay less for the same thing. So there's plenty of room for legitimate criticism.
The two largest hurdles I see in the Democrats making these changes effective are first, as I've already discussed, avoiding making knee-jerk decisions that cripple two industries that still provide important products and make up key elements of the economy while letting them know that the party is definitely over. It's a fine line to walk and one that will be made difficult by the slim majority held by the Democrats in the senate. The second is the allure of the vast amounts of money both of these industries funnel to elected representatives via their extensive lobbying groups. There's nothing fundamentally Republican about either big oil or big pharma, they were just the majority party and so that's where the majority of the money went. With the Democrats in control lobbyists for both groups are going to be scrambling to get Democrats on board with their program, and even the most idealistic progressive can't possibly believe that all Democrats will be immune to them.
Peak Oil? Maybe not.
The Peak Oil theory (also called "Hubbert's Peak Theory"
holds that the world will soon run out of oil, and subsequently face a global catastrophe of nearly unimaginable proportions.
But will it?
These guys think so (and they'll sell you a $189.00 solar oven to prove how *cough* earnest they are.) But a recent report from a group called CERA begs to differ. According to their executive summary page, it's not that oil won't run out eventually, it's just that it won't happen at the rapturetastic rate so beloved of wingnutty apocolypseophiles of every political stripe.
The new report describes CERAs liquids supply outlook as not a view of endless abundance. However, based on a range of potential scenarios and field-by-field analysis, CERA finds that not only will world oil production not peak before 2030, but that the idea of a peak is itself a dramatic but highly questionable image.
There's an interesting comparison to be made between peak oil and 1970's paranoid predictions of a Malthusian population explosion catastrophe. Those predictions (according to some thinkers) are precisely backwards, and the real problem will be underpopulation. Of course, even those models fail to take into account the possibility of medically increased lifespans.
Bottom line? It's hard to tell the future, peakoilophiles.
Apparently, it's also expensive, because if you actually want to read CERA's report, you'll have to fork over a cool $1000 smackers, US.
It's all an Illuminati conspiracy. I'm going to go hide under my bed just in case any of these nutjobs is right.
Hat tip Ray Kurzweil's site
Bush Protests Himself, Claims Iraq War Is About Oil
George Bush finally came around about his reasoning for being in Iraq. During the lead up to the invasion the administration told us we needed to get rid of Saddam Hussein because of mythical WMDs. Since then, we have heard many reasons, none plausible. Oil was certainly never the reason.
"There are certain things like that, myths, that are floating around," Rumsfeld said in November 2002. "It has nothing to do with oil, literally nothing to do with oil."
But now its election time and what scares people better than $400 a barrel oil? Bush has been on the election trail campaigning for ill-fated Republicans and telling Americans that oil is a reason to stay in Iraq. Hello desperation.
Bush is now claiming that if we pull the troops out our sweet, precious cars will be fucked because we would hand all that wonderful oil over to insurgents. And they would use the oil as a WEAPON!
"You can imagine a world in which these extremists and radicals got control of energy resources. And then you can imagine them saying, 'We're going to pull a bunch of oil off the market to run your price of oil up unless you do the following. And the following would be along the lines of, well, 'Retreat and let us continue to expand our dark vision.' "
First of all, nobody with a dark vision says, I want to expand my dark vision. They actually dont think it is a dark vision; they believe it is a delightful vision. Please George, tell us more.
Bush said extremists controlling Iraq "would use energy as economic blackmail" and try to pressure the United States to abandon its alliance with Israel. He suggested that such radicals would be "able to pull millions of barrels of oil off the market, driving the price up to $300 or $400 a barrel."
Oh, God! Not $400 a barrel. I would rather fucking die. Thank the sweet Lord that the Republicans are in charge because they keep oil prices so low with their invading and threatening of all the countries that have oil. Sadly for Bush he is full of shit. If Iraq fell into the hands of radicals it would have little to no effect on oil prices. How do we know this? Because in 2003 a country named the United States invaded Iraq and oil production stopped for months. The price of oil never went above $80.
But experts do agree that Iran could "play mischief" because it already controls much of Iraqi oil in the southern part of the country. So we have that going for us.
Suck My Gulf, Saudi Arabia
Buy another Hummer, this party is not slowing down anytime soon. We have been given more proof that America is the greatest country on Earth with the discovery of a massive oil field in the Gulf of Mexico. The field, named Jack, could hold up to 15 billion barrels of sweet, sweet oil. It was given to us by God to use in our cars.
Jack is located 270 miles southwest of New Orleans and 5 miles deep. The field will eventually provide 11 percent of all oil produced in the US between 2012 and 2104 and could crank up US reserves by 50 percent. Sweet Jack was discovered by Chevron, who deserve this years Nobel Prize for oil.
Energy expert Amy Jaffe from Rice University's Baker Institute rubbed it in the face of our Middle Eastern pals.
"You talk about 15 billion-barrel fields in Iraq and Saudi Arabia," Jaffe said. "You don't expect to talk about them in the United States anymore."
More like, "you didnt." Step back, theres a new oil king in town, you sandholes.
Israel Launches Sea Crab Holocaust
Move over Exxon Valdez, there is a new oil spill on the block. Israeli air raids on a Lebanese power plant may have caused an oil spill bigger than the Alaskan disaster in 1989. The Valdez spill was caused by a drunk tanker captain, while the Mediteranean spill was caused by an Israeli military drunk on bombing.
The UN Environment Program released a statement Tuesday.
"In the worst-case scenario and if all the oil contained in the bombed power plant at Jiyyeh leaked into the Mediterranean Sea, the Lebanese oil spill could well rival the Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989.
"While I fully understand the complexity and political implications, many are appalled ... there has been no on-the-ground assessment to support the Lebanese government, no moves possible towards a clean-up and indeed few practical measures to contain the further spread of the slick"
12,000 tons of leaking oil has already polluted more than 87 miles of the Lebanese coast and is spreading north into Syrian waters. The oil is apparently worse than a normal spill because it was power plant fuel. It is described as a toxic cocktail.
"Massive Corruption" in Iraqi Oil Biz
Remember the neoconservative promises about the war in Iraq? Thriving democracy spreading throughout the region, swift justice to the war criminals, roses at the feet of our soldiers tossed by Iraqis grateful for their liberation, and of course, plentiful and cheap oil that would pay for the war on its own. Anyone foolish enough to take politicians' claims at face value when they were trying to sell a war on dubious footing deserves to pay the arm and a leg (by comparison, still cheap by EU standards) they're now suffering at the gas pumps, but what about the rest of us who were reluctantly dragged along for the ride? Will the promise of US earnings from Iraqi oil save us all in the long term? It's not looking good right now, according to a GAO report on the subject, the Iraqi oil industry is run by a "bloated bureaucracy" full of "ghost employees."
U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker told Congress last week that "massive corruption" and "a lot of theft going on" in Iraq's government-controlled oil industry is hampering the country's ability to govern itself.
"It took me about, you know, a second and a half to realize that, obviously, there was massive corruption going on, because the numbers just didn't add up," Walker said, referring to a trip he took to Iraq this year in which he was shown figures on oil production and revenue.
He said about 10 percent of Iraq's refined fuels and 30 percent of its imported fuels are being stolen, in part because the subsidized Iraqi price of gasoline, about 44 cents a gallon, is less than half the regional price of 90 cents a gallon. "That provides a tremendous incentive to be able to steal these fuels and be able to sell them for whatever purposes, corruption or otherwise," Walker said.
Walker noted that oil production, which was to provide prime support to the new government, is below prewar production and distribution levels, complicated by the insurgency and difficulties in maintaining the aging oil infrastructure.
Another GAO official, Joseph Christoff, director of international affairs and trade, pointed out that the Iraqi budget is paying for "what some could contend to be a bloated bureaucracy, primarily because oftentimes you don't know who is working in the different ministries -- there are ghost employees."
The amount of graft going on in the industry isn't really all that surprising. The best way to curb that sort of thing is with government oversight keeping tabs on what people are up to, and a strong and effective judicial system functioning as a deterrent to any would-be thieves and embezzlers. The justice system in Iraq is currently a mess, and the government is just now starting to get their shit together by finally forming at least a semi-functional government. Purple thumbs don't make the trains run on time, it takes an established bureaucracy of effective civil servants to allow a government to function properly, and Iraq just isn't there yet. If they can avoid a civil war they might get there, but based on the current situation in both the government and the oil industry, I'd say having the war pay for itself with oil earnings is probably quite a ways off.
Hand Shake Or Hand Job
Even before the most recent jump at the pump, the doubling of the cost of a barrel of oil led the alleged free-market conservative President to create a big-government program designed to ease citizen frustration. He even used part of this year's State of the Union address to ensure maximum reach:
America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world. The best way to break this addiction is through technology.
[...]
So tonight, I announce the Advanced Energy Initiative -- a 22-percent increase in clean-energy research -- at the Department of Energy, to push for breakthroughs in two vital areas. To change how we power our homes and offices, we will invest more in zero-emission coal-fired plants, revolutionary solar and wind technologies, and clean, safe nuclear energy.
[...]
Breakthroughs on this and other new technologies will help us reach another great goal: to replace more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025. By applying the talent and technology of America, this country can dramatically improve our environment, move beyond a petroleum-based economy, and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past.
The MBA/CEO President either didn't understand or didn't think it politically beneficial to acknowledge the reality of the global oil market, an omission that surprisingly became an issue the very next day. The combination of the over-hyped claim of energy independence and the stunned, disapproving reaction from our Saudi dealers forced a near-immediate walkback:
"This was purely an example," Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said.
He said the broad goal was to displace foreign oil imports, from anywhere, with domestic alternatives. He acknowledged that oil is a freely traded commodity bought and sold globally by private firms. Consequently, it would be very difficult to reduce imports from any single region, especially the most oil-rich region on Earth.
Asked why the president used the words "the Middle East" when he didn't really mean them, one administration official said Bush wanted to dramatize the issue in a way that "every American sitting out there listening to the speech understands."
While most Americans are still complaining about the assorted limbs they exchange at Exxon every week, (every day for those overcompensating with Hummers) the Saudis aren't worried:
"When that statement came out we got in touch with the White House," [said] Saudi Ambassador Prince Turki Al-Faisal.
[...]
Bush later sent a letter to Saudi King Abdullah pledging to honor a 2005 agreement the two reached at Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, Al-Faisal said. His remarks provided new details on how the White House smoothed relations with the Saudis after Bush's speech.
[...]
"I can tell you that the President ... sent a letter to King Abdullah affirming his commitment to the agreement that they had reached in the April 2005 meeting in Crawford," he said.
In that Crawford meeting, Abdullah, then the Saudi Crown Prince, walked arm-in-arm with Bush and both pledged to cooperate on future energy issues.
Is it surprising that the President is choosing to keep his word to King Abdullah while breaking his SOTU pledge with his constituents? The American public didn't get a handshake; Abdullah got to hold hands and go for a stroll...
