Haven't seen coverage on here about McCain's comment that we would never again have to send our troops into war for oil.
Posted by CG at May 6, 2008 04:15 AMCG,
I agree we likely won't have to fight for oil again; we're already at the wellhead.
With President McCain, our sons and daughters will be there for 100 years anyway to protect our "vital" national interests (e.g. the Bush petro corp. (soon to be registered in Paraguay?), Halliburton, ADM, etc.).
There will be no attempt at meaningful conservation or governmental investment in alternative energy sources. We will continue to take an adversarial stance with China on a political level. China will incresingly rely on their vast coal rreserves for power; further hastening global warming.
The VA will expand into every neighborhood with its PTSD outreach programs (faith-based, not evidenced-based treatment).
Our infrastructure will further decay due to the cost of Iraq/SE Asia debt. We will all be banking at the corner 'Peoples Bank of China' branch and Iraq will be a superpower.
How's that for coverage?
Posted by tfitznc at May 6, 2008 05:14 AMI have to say, I would never have guessed Hillary Clinton would resort to such a clearly political ploy as this gas tax holiday. She's trumpeting it day and night now, revealing for all to see, the desperate nature of her candidacy, indeed her politics as a whole. I expected so much more of her. A year ago she looked like a shoo-in (and she no doubt felt that to be the case) and I was happily looking forward to voting for her. But today, co-opting a ridiculous election year ploy thrown out by the person, McOld, who is representing the Party of Failure, she's revealed to be just another "anything to get elected" politician. It is Obama, who has shown the principle to reject this "tax holiday" for the Same Old Politics it is. Today the vote will be not on which candidate is the best nominee, but, apparently, whether you can buy enough poor white man votes with $30 to win an election. This ain't progress, folks, it's more of the same political shit we've had eight years of.
Posted by T2 at May 6, 2008 06:08 AMOkay, can I get a second about getting rid of the crappy CNA & SEIU ads? Otherwise I turn on my ad blocker on the TLC site again.
Posted by idiosynchronic at May 6, 2008 06:24 AMT2,
Would you like a hanky?
Posted by snark at May 6, 2008 06:25 AM...I would never have guessed Hillary Clinton would resort to such a clearly political ploy as this gas tax holiday. She's trumpeting it day and night now, revealing for all to see, the desperate nature of her candidacy, indeed her politics as a whole.
T2, You think that's a pander... last night she mentioned breaking up OPEC.
Let's hope all voters in NC and IN have good weather and short lines to stand in.
Posted by Seven of Six at May 6, 2008 06:34 AMis that all you've got today, snark?
Posted by T2 at May 6, 2008 06:42 AMOkay, can I get a second about getting rid of the crappy CNA & SEIU ads? Otherwise I turn on my ad blocker on the TLC site again.
At least get em away from the middle of the screen. They do beat the devil out of the offers for free computers.
Haven't seen coverage on here about McCain's comment that we would never again have to send our troops into war for oil.
Hey, this is the Obama-Is-A-Bad-Man blog. You want analysis get your butt to DKOS, C&L, HuffPo, McClatchey, BBC. You know, all those Obama oriented sites. Now, if want to know how Obama doesn't stand a chance, how he cheats, how others cheat for him, Rev. Wright, how to suspend the rules of mathematics or laws of physics, if he should offer to nuke Iran or adopt any other number of conservative policies just as Hillary is doing, this is the hot spot in town.
From Bill over at DKOS:
Iowa was The Biggun.
Then New Hampshire was The Biggun.
Michigan was supposed to be The Biggun but state party officials interfered and made it a wee'un.
Then Nevada and South Carolina were The Bigguns.
Florida played Michigan's game and ended up another wee'un.
Then...Super Tuesday, baby! Now that was The Biggun.
The Potomac Primary? The real Biggun!
Then Texas and Ohio were The Biggest Bigguns of all.
Until Pennsylvania came along. It wasn't just The Biggun, it was THE BIGGUN.
Now Indiana and North Carolina are The BIGGEST BIGGUNS IN ALL BIGGUNLAND.
Posted by phidipides at May 6, 2008 06:51 AMis that all you've got today, snark?
It didn't merit much more.
Posted by snark at May 6, 2008 07:16 AMBut today, co-opting a ridiculous election year ploy thrown out by the person, McOld, who is representing the Party of Failure, she's revealed to be just another "anything to get elected" politician.
The problem T2, is both of these candidates seem to have this idea that a right of centre mini-neo-con stance is required to win the election.
The "are you better off than 8 years ago" theme would win this hands-down....yet we are fed a steady diet of watered down repuglican drivel as a policy of change.
Pointing this out will bring about drizzly ad-hominen remarks which tend to round off the edges of progressive thought.
I agree with you that America is on the path of four years of the same crap....war, war, war....no savings..more WalMart..decaying infrastructure and most dire: world-wide distaste and scorn for its policies.
Hard to believe: 300 million people and no leaders!!
Posted by Goyo at May 6, 2008 08:54 AM
snark, what I mean is doesn't some highly intelligent person such as yourself have anything interesting or constructive to add today? Guess not.
goyo-"The problem T2, is both of these candidates seem to have this idea that a right of centre mini-neo-con stance is required to win the election." you've lost me....how does that have the slightest thing to do with Hillary's "I'll give you money to vote for me" gas tax ploy. I didn't write about neo-cons...but the "Obliterate Iran" comment by Clinton certainly must have had the real Neo-Cons jumping for joy.
While an Illinois state senator, Obama supported a state tax holiday very much like Clinton's proposal, but without the saving mechanism of a windfall profits tax.CBS News says Obama voted for the temporary lifting of the tax three times in the state Senate. The tax holiday was finally approved during a special session in June of 2000, when Illinois motorists were furious that gas prices had just topped $2 a gallon in Chicago. The moratorium lifted the state's 5 percent sales tax on gasoline through the end of 2000.
Obama told constituents that gasoline prices would drop: "Gas retailers must post on each pump a statement that indicates that the state tax has been suspended and that this temporary elimination of the tax should be reflected in the price per gallon of gas."
During one state Senate floor debate, Obama joked that he wanted signs on gas pumps in his district to say, "Senator Obama reduced your gasoline prices."
From Salon, one of eriposte's links. Pandering? I guess Obama would know what it looks like, huh?
Posted by iamcoyote at May 6, 2008 09:23 AMyou've lost me....how does that have the slightest thing to do with Hillary's "I'll give you money to vote for me" gas tax ploy. I didn't write about neo-cons...
Sorry T2 if I term repugs as neo-cons...this gas tax holiday comes out of the RNC as the faint hope: John McCain understands the economic interests of the average American. It seemed to me that you were referring to this overview of "Hill" jumping on the McCain bandwagon for votes.
Was that off base??
My point is simple, the November election would be a laydown if Homer Simpson were the candidate yet the Dem candidates seem to have this need to court rightwing nonsense to buy a few votes....make sense??
Posted by Goyo at May 6, 2008 09:30 AMcoyote, to give Obama credit on this one, he says it didn't work in Illinois and he learned from it.
Posted by CG at May 6, 2008 10:54 AMI guess Obama would know what it looks like, huh?
He said he made a mistake with those votes on national television... twice, that I know of. Said the profits ended up going to the Oil companies and gas station owners.
Over 200 economists have signed a statement saying that 'gas tax holiday' is not the answer.
Now, running for president, Obama says the tax reduction was a complete failure, and that "the oil companies, the retailers" ended up benefiting most because they raised prices by the entire amount of the tax cut.Posted by iamcoyote at May 6, 2008 11:18 AM"I voted for it, and then six months later we took a look, and consumers had not benefited at all," Obama said. Having learned this hard economics lesson from his Illinois "mistake," Obama now argues that a federal tax holiday also will fail for the same reason -- the oil companies will take it all.
But Obama is wrong. He did not learn this lesson. In fact, the only scientific study done on the pass-through of the tax holiday savings to Illinois consumers (and those in Indiana, as well, whose citizens enjoyed a similar holiday) found that it actually worked to a large extent.
Finally, Obama says the gas tax holiday would cost thousands of construction jobs and lead to crumbling roadways and bridges. But if Clinton replaces the lost revenue with a windfall profit tax on oil companies, as she insists is necessary, then there would be no harm to our infrastructure repair work...How to enforce this? Make it against the law for oil companies to pass the price of the windfall profits tax on to consumers, and then audit the oil companies' books. It is not a difficult accounting exercise to tax excess profits above a certain gross percentage per barrel of oil, or gallon of gas. Every major oil company has sophisticated profit segmentation reports that go to the very senior management of the company. These reports identify revenues, costs and profit at each level of the vertically integrated operation, broken down on a per barrel basis by product type, marketing region, you name it.
The oil companies also will have a powerful inducement to avoid being caught -- and in this kind of toxic political environment, they may actually swallow the tax.
There is that if word attached to Clinton again.
Really, it's not a bad plan if all goes according to plan.
My concern is by the time all these laws get passed and impemented gas will be up to 5- 6 bucks a gallon. Oil companies then can sit back and rest on their laurels for years. And if it goes up to SCOTUS, forget about it.
It would be a dream come true if someone went after the Big Oil. No other group deserves what they have coming to them more. What a bunch of slimey fucks.
It's still a pander. Politics as usual.
Posted by Seven of Six at May 6, 2008 11:57 AMIt's still a pander. Politics as usual.
Yes, for both of them. Obama's just as likely to do it as any other politician. And he did it first.
Posted by iamcoyote at May 6, 2008 12:05 PMThere is that if word attached to Clinton again.
Yup.
If you disregard the rest of what she says in favor of focusing on one part that serves as low hanging fruit for those seeking yet another reason to dislike her you have a valid case.
If people had just a modicum of intellectual honesty regarding the fact that this is not, nor has it been presented as, her idea of a comprehensive energy policy then the discussion might be worth engaging in.
Posted by snark at May 6, 2008 12:17 PM
If people had just a modicum of intellectual honesty regarding the fact that this is not, nor has it been presented as, her idea of a comprehensive energy policy then the discussion might be worth engaging in.
Not sure I follow you here snark?
You're right, it's not a "comprehensive energy policy".
It's her proposal to ease the financial burden Americans are facing at the pump.
Which some, like me, find more like a pander. Not an honest answer to the problem.
Which some, like me, find more like a pander. Not an honest answer to the problem.
The benefit to the driving public is debatable and at best symbolic. Call it a pander if you will. The point of my criticism is that this is not her entire energy proposal but people are treating it as if it is. The most dishonest thing being the label "McCain-Clinton gas tax holiday". It's dishonest and, frankly, politics as usual from the self-professed anti-politics as usual camp. Clinton's policy proposals are not the same as McCain's.
Is this going to fix our energy problems? No. But who is gonna fix those in half a year between now and when Bush, the guy with the veto, is out of office? No one. But, it got the issue back in play, it sets the framework for discussing windfall taxes on big oil and if it makes people feel better it certainly doesn't hurt the economy to ease people's concerns over the summer so they don't curtail their plans and slow the economy even more.
But, it got the issue back in play, it sets the framework for discussing windfall taxes on big oil...
I think this is where her mistake was. She didn't talk about 'windfall taxes' at the beginning or if she did, it wasn't in the media.
Yes, I'm glad she clarified.
Anybody ready for this primary to be over?
To be honest snark, I wish she would have trounced him on Super Tues. That way, she could have picked him as V/P before all this animosity.
Posted by Seven of Six at May 6, 2008 02:02 PMI think this is where her mistake was. She didn't talk about 'windfall taxes' at the beginning or if she did, it wasn't in the media.
Yes, I'm glad she clarified.
That's how she got on the subject in the first place. She responded to McCain by saying you can't just eliminate the gax tax because the revenue will just need to be replaced somewhere else. So she proposed the windfall tax with safeguards to keep big oil from simply passing the expense on to drivers. It was all linked from the beginning.
Posted by snark at May 6, 2008 02:10 PMI guess the media decided to "obliterate" it.
Posted by Seven of Six at May 6, 2008 02:19 PM