Blackberry picking season has come and gone. She was beautiful while she visited with us and remains forever glorious in our memories.
News where Obama is correct:
(AP) Lansing, MI
"Breaking our oil addiction is one of the greatest challenges our generation will ever face. It will take nothing less than a complete transformation of our economy," he said. "This transformation will be costly, and given the fiscal disaster we will inherit from the last administration, it will likely require us to defer some other priorities."
News where Obama is (at least partially) wrong:
(AP) Lansing, MI
...Obama also reiterated his statement Friday that he could support limited new offshore drilling if it were needed to enact a compromise energy policy to foster fuel-efficient autos and alternative energy sources...
"Like all compromises, this one has its drawbacks. It includes a limited amount of new offshore drilling, and while I still don't believe that's a particularly meaningful short-term or long-term solution, I am willing to consider it if it's necessary to actually pass a comprehensive plan," Obama said. "I am not interested in making the perfect the enemy of the good particularly since there is so much good in this compromise that would actually reduce our dependence on foreign oil."
It is sad that the so-called "liberal" media is not reporting more strongly the fallacy in the McCain plan to "solve" our energy problems by doing more of the same - drilling for oil offshore. As has been noted by the Dept of Energy, drilling for oil will at best produce some oil in a decade or so, resulting in a savings of a few pennies a gallon. It is NO solution. We must reduce our consumption.
And that need not be a doom and gloom message, by the way. I like the way Obama is framing it: This is OUR race to the moon. Our Victory Garden. Our chance to come together as a nation for a positive change.
It is a shame that Obama feels a need to kowtow and compromise with the Republicans and Oiligarchy on this point, but at least he is saying some of the right things.
(MSNBC)
President Bush committed an impeachable offense by ordering the CIA to to manufacture a false pretense for the Iraq war in the form of a backdated, handwritten document linking Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, an explosive new book claims.
Impeach him already. What does it take to get people outraged? What does it take to get our Democrat majority to act?
(And I understand the arguments against impeachment at this point. Regardless, this man and his team need to be held accountable)
UPDATE:
More news from Obama in response to the lame McCain tire pressure "joke..."
“It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant,” Obama told a packed gym. “They think it’s funny that they're making fun of something that is actually true. They need to do their homework.”
“Instead of running ads about Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, they should go talk to some energy experts and actually make a difference,” Obama added.
======
A perfect response to a ridiculous set of ads.
10 comments:
Well, I guess I'll say it before someone else does...
Dan wrote, "Blackberry picking season has come and gone. She was beautiful while she visited with us and remains forever glorious in our memories."
While I agree that blackberries are wonderful, I think we all know where Dan is going with this. That's right, more of his blackberry worshipping pantheism. Notice how he completely ignores the effects of sin in the world by not even mentioning the fact that blackberries were obviously given thorns after the fall.
Oh, and he also failed to mention that Christ died for our sins in this post, so clearly he doesn't believe it.
;)
ha... my first good laugh of the day. Thanks, Alan.
:) No problem.
My first good laugh of the day: that Bush directed the CIA to write fictitious Guardian stories...
And Obama's assertion that we can "Inflate our way out of this crisis"
If we can't drill our way out it, we damned sure can't inflate our way out of it.
Ignorant? Not me. Not anyone on my side of the aisle. Proper inflation of tires DOES improve gas mileage. 2-3% of our annual oil imports? Nope.
McCain's running for Bush's 3rd term? LOL! Obama's running for Carter's SECOND term!
But consider this... By moving to electric cars will we only transfer the financial drain on American pocketbooks? Instead of paying more for gas, will we end up paying more for electricity? What do electric plants run on? Oil? Coal? There aren't enough nuclear plants in America to accommodate the drain on the national grid that even 75% total of cars on the road requiring electricity will need. At which point we WILL have to take Carter's advice to turn our thermostats up in summer.... wear sweaters in winter. Now we have Obama "exercising" the ghost of the Carter energy policy. This is too rich!
As to blackberries... maybe when everything's made right again, we can enjoy our blackberries without all the thorns!
Carter was right. America was wrong to not heed his prophetic words on energy policies.
Now is our chance to try it again. Let us live within our means. Let us conserve. Live prudently.
This should be a conservative's dream come true.
I love, love, love the fact that "conservatives" are so obviously bashing conservation efforts.
"Crank the AC up, kids! I'm not happy until it's 30 in here! And would someone go out back and make sure the tire fire is still burning? While you're at it, those birds outside look warm, open up the doors and windows so we can cool things off!"
Will proper tire inflation save us? Of course not and no one is saying that's the case. But according to "conservatives" we should do everything possible to decrease our dependence on foreign oil, except things that, you know, might actually help do that, even a little bit. One would think they'd be in favor of any conservation measure (oh, particularly one that also saves lives, since improperly inflated tires are dangerous.)
Hmm.... I wonder what the experts had to say about this ... way back before it became an election issue ...
http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2007/11/08/070109.html
Oh gee ... looks like they agree with Obama. Up to 10% increase in fuel economy with properly inflated tires. What a surprise.
I'm loving this election...with every new pronouncement the so-called "conservatives" are just looking like a bunch of cranks (um....more than usual, I guess I should say.) Now I'm sure all this talk of tire pressure has confused poor McCain and his "conservative" cohorts. After all, I think they're still getting used to that newfangled invention: the wheel.
BTW, I know math is hard, but approximately 19.15 gallons of a 42 gallon barrel of oil is refined into gasoline, according to those left-wing nutjobs, the US Government Energy Information Administration. A fairly easy calculation known as a "percent" shows that's about 45.5% per barrel becomes gasoline. Now saving 10% of that (using the figure from Goodyear, another well known liberal wacko group) is around 4-5%. Now clearly gasoline is used for other things, but even so, 2-3% of annual oil imports completely crazy as elashley contends?
Only if you're relying on the usual Republican "fuzzy math", I suppose. But according to, you know, actual numbers and calculations, those numbers seem in the ballpark.
Sorry Alan, but a barrel of crude oil actually is refined into more than 42 gallons of gasoline.. The 45.5% you site is the percentage of total oil purchased that is refined into gasoline. In other words 54.5% of all oil purchased is used to produce heating oil, diesel, kerosene, etc.
There is an obvious glaring error in your assumptions about gas savings from properly inflating your tires. In order for this country to save as much gas as suggested, it would have to be assumed that all car owners are driving around with grossly under inflated tires, an utterly ridiculous assumption.
In other words it’s a typical lefty, substanceless, feel-good, but meaningless argument.
Like Victory Gardens? I suppose Roosevelt was just a mindless buffoon for challenging the US to grow their own food in a time of critically limited supplies.
There's no way THAT could have helped unless MANY people cooperated just because it was the right thing to do and we know THAT would never work.
Except that it did.
Never underestimate good solid reasonable conservative answers. Not everything needs a big gov't answer.
"Sorry Alan, but a barrel of crude oil actually is refined into more than 42 gallons of gasoline."
Nope. A barrel of crude oil is 42 gallons of oil. It would be hard to get more than 42 gallons of gasoline out of 42 gallons of oil. Let me introduce you to the law of conservation of matter. If you think you can find a way to make more than 42 gallons of gas out of 42 gallons of oil, I think you've got a trip to Stockholm. LOL
"The 45.5% you site is the percentage of total oil purchased that is refined into gasoline."
Right...that's what I said.
"There is an obvious glaring error in your assumptions about gas savings from properly inflating your tires."
Glaring error? No, I fully admitted these were back-of-the envelope calculations, and was simply pointing out that the 2-3% figure cited by Obama was not crazy, as was being suggested by some so-called "conservatives."
See, my goal in providing those numbers was primarily to explain that it's good to have something other than random guesses and baseless notions as a reason to either count or discount an idea. An example of such a baseless assumption is this statement of yours, "it would have to be assumed that all car owners are driving around with grossly under inflated tires, an utterly ridiculous assumption."
All drivers? Well yes, that would be silly. But just how many drivers do indeed drive with underinflated tires? You seem to imply that since it isn't *all* drivers, it must be *few* drivers. But actual numbers would be far more convincing. A whole 15 seconds spent on Google would have showed you that, in fact, there are many drivers with underinflated tires. Turns out, "During the February 2001 survey, NASS-CDS crash investigators measured tire pressure on each vehicle coming into the gas station and compared the measured pressures to the vehicle's placard pressure. They found that about 36 percent of passenger cars and about 40 percent of light trucks had at least one tire that was at least 20 percent below the placard pressure. (18) About 26 percent of passenger cars and 29 percent of light trucks had at least one tire that was at least 25 percent below the placard pressure. The agency notes those levels of under-inflation because they are the threshold levels for the low-tire pressure warning telltale illumination under the two alternatives the agency proposed in the NPRM for TPMSs. (66 FR 38982, July 26, 2001)."
So it's actually a pretty large number of cars & light trucks. Now we could discount these "lefty" suggestions altogether, as you seem to wish, or we could recognize that every expert recommends proper inflation for both safety and gas savings. The numbers, do indeed show that we could save a significant amount of oil by paying more attention to even little things like tire pressure.
The issue for me is, do we ignore such advice because it is actually "substanceless, feel-good, but meaningless"? Well, no, the numbers and the experts say that it isn't. Or do we ignore this simply because it's "lefty"? I submit you're not interested in the facts, but only condemning the notion because Obama said it. I, on the other hand, prefer to base my opinions on actual facts and evidence.
Again, no one is saying that we'll save the world with properly inflated tires, but in order to dismiss a statement, it can help to have actual facts instead of "substanceless, meaningless" opinions like yours.
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