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You are here: Home / Politics / Politicans / Black Jimmy Carter / There is Nothing Fair in This World

There is Nothing Fair in This World

by @heymistermix.com|  April 1, 201010:59 am| 94 Comments

This post is in: Black Jimmy Carter

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Bob Corker says he was “left at the altar” on the financial reform bill three weeks ago.

But Lindsey Graham, who still thinks that Obama’s drilling plan doesn’t go far enough, thinks that it will bring “hundreds of millions of dollars for South Carolina”. He calls it a “move in the right direction.”

As a relentless O-bot/Rahm-bot, I’m sure that my allegiance to the Dear Leader is clouding my vision. Even so, it might still be true that Democrats believe they can get the votes on financial reform in the Senate without more compromises, so Corker left with nothing but tears and broken promises. And they might also know that the energy bill will be a push, so they need to a court drama queen like Graham with drilling and nukes, so he might at least vote for cloture.

I don’t think more drilling is good policy, or even a very clever strategy for compromise, and I doubt that Graham will stick. But politics is ugly when you don’t have a lot of cards to play, and Democrats don’t have many in the Senate.

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94Comments

  1. 1.

    ajr22

    April 1, 2010 at 11:04 am

    OT I would like to say congrats to Cory Booker. I have been following him since his show. Newark had it’s first homicide free month since 1966. This is a great accomplishment, and he has worked really hard. The guy is a shining example of what a public official should be. Look into the guy if you don’t know, he deserves a lot of respect.

  2. 2.

    BR

    April 1, 2010 at 11:05 am

    On the oil drilling proposal, it amazes me in reading teh progressive blogosphere that nobody mentions the recent admission by the Department of Energy on peak oil:

    http://www.energybulletin.net/node/52197

    That’s as serious as a thing that can happen to our economy.

    They of course commissioned the Hirsch report a few years ago, which concluded the same thing, but with a larger range of dates at which it might happen.

    If you’ve never read it, you should at least read the wikipedia entry:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirsch_report

    The whole thing is worthwhile too:

    http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/others/pdf/Oil_Peaking_NETL.pdf

  3. 3.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 1, 2010 at 11:08 am

    Wasn’t it Corker who announced that Republicans were gonna get screwed if they didn’t support fin-reg, then backed down after Grampy McCain declared the GOP in full on pout mode? I keep waiting for Dems to get a hell of a lot more aggressive and (prepare your fainting couch, Broderites) partisan on that. Wall St has already redirected the money hose. Pick a fucking fight, already.

    as for drilling, I don’t feel slapped, punched or stabbed as Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow tell me I should, but I’ve read a whole bunch of substantive and political rationales for this, and I still don’t like it.

  4. 4.

    ChicagoTOm

    April 1, 2010 at 11:08 am

    in the Senate without more compromises, so Corker left with nothing but tears and broken promises

    Except for the fact that Dodd gave in to Corkers demand to make CSPC part of the Fed rather than an independent entity that wouldn’t face pressure from a fed that doesn’t actually want to regulate anything or protect anyone (other than the big banks). The Fed already had the ability to do what the CSPC is supposed to do, but chose not to. The CSPC is going to be toothless and ineffectual (the house passed a much better bill but the Senate had to water it down again)

    That isn’t “nothing”. Dodd gave Corker what he wanted and he still wont get Corkers vote. I don’t think I would call that “nothing”

  5. 5.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    April 1, 2010 at 11:08 am

    After thinking about this some, I may agree somewhat with those who claimed yesterday that Obama is not all that anti drilling, though I see no evidence he is pro drilling. And over the past couple of years, Obama has sent out signals that he has a streak of federalism in his worldview, and may well be ok with drilling provided individual states have a veto to it. Which they do in his proposal.

    But I still think this is primarily a type of triangulation in an effort to provide some cover for Graham, and also some dem senators, like Landrieu from a state that believes drilling for oil is ordained by gawd. Who knows if it will work, but I believe there are some closet believers in the wingnut caucus that global warming is real and caused by man, and would like some cover to do something about it. Though likely not cap and trade, that I don’t much like either.

  6. 6.

    Zifnab

    April 1, 2010 at 11:10 am

    I don’t think more drilling is good policy, or even a very clever strategy for compromise, and I doubt that Graham will stick. But politics is ugly when you don’t have a lot of cards to play, and Democrats don’t have many in the Senate.

    You know, it’s not the courting of the votes that bothers me the most. And it’s not the mixing GOP shit in with the progressive peanut butter that really makes my stomach clench.

    What really pisses me off is when the Dems roll out these half-and-half plans that any sane Republican would embrace, watch the entire GOP drop trow and lay a fat deuce on the bargaining table, and then LEAVE THE SHIT IN THE BILL.

    If you’re going to come out of this in a squeaker on cloture or squeeze by with a 7 vote margin in the House, why not put serious, full-blooded progressive legislation on the table first. Lead in with the Single Payer of Financial Reform rather than opening with the Public Option and getting wittled down from there.

    The Republicans that seriously want to bargain will bargain. The Republicans that are going to obstruct will obstruct. Everyone is going to be called a Hilter-style Communist Double Super Secret Muslim by the end of the day anyway. Why not lead in with something to rally the base, rather than this off-shore drilling crap?

  7. 7.

    ajr22

    April 1, 2010 at 11:13 am

    I keep posting a nice comment about Cory Booker but the word press monster keeps eating it. If people don’t know about him I suggest checking out the show about him called Brick City. He has accomplished something great this month which I cant say due to wp.

  8. 8.

    Noonan

    April 1, 2010 at 11:19 am

    The drilling move by Obama is less about counting votes in the senate than it is forcing the Republicans further right and taking away a November talking point.

  9. 9.

    kth

    April 1, 2010 at 11:21 am

    The time to have rammed a massive, throbbing financial reform package down the throats of the banks and their employees in Congress was last spring, just after the stimulus passed, and a view of the financial abyss was still fresh in everyone’s mind. Better yet, to have structured it as part of the bailouts themselves. But now that we aren’t in the valley of death anymore, the political will isn’t anywhere to be found–anymore with the public than with the legislators. Not like there’s a banking equivalent of 40 million uninsured people.

  10. 10.

    Michael

    April 1, 2010 at 11:21 am

    Relax – Texas oilboys won’t drill the space that they’ve already got. There’s more profit for those deserving-to-die fuckers in continuing to siphon off the scarcity tax to their own ridiculous lifestyles and causes.

    What this does is take “Drill Baby Drill” off the table in terms of a meaningful bit of electoral kabuki. When you can make a retort of “Big Oil isn’t drilling for the resources in the area it already controls”, we wishy-washy moderates and independents take notice and vote accordingly.

    Obama is conservatively liberal, something I like very much about the man.

  11. 11.

    SGEW

    April 1, 2010 at 11:21 am

    @Zifnab:

    Why not lead in with something to rally the base, rather than this off-shore drilling crap?

    I think that the Obama administration has looked at the current legislative situation and realized that the “base” (whatever that is) can do relatively little to help their broad policy agenda at this time. Therefore, Obama seems to be much more focused on convincing discreet, individual Senators to consent to specific bill amendments or particular parliamentary procedures, rather than rallying personal support from people whose votes he won’t need until 2012.

  12. 12.

    tinat

    April 1, 2010 at 11:21 am

    The thing is some people I know involved in oil out here in the West say drilling will never happen on the east coast (it’s possible in the gulf though). It’s just too hard and too much of an investment. They’ll buy up leases and sit on them, use them as assets on paper, and never build a platform and actually drill along the east coast.
    If Obama knew this he is brilliant in his “strategary” ;)

  13. 13.

    Max

    April 1, 2010 at 11:24 am

    @Noonan: I think so too.

    Granted, I’ve pledged blind allegiance to the Obama borg, but I agree with Sully.

    More and more you realize… he’s got this.

  14. 14.

    ruemara

    April 1, 2010 at 11:26 am

    I didn’t comment on the earlier post on the “drilling”, but this is opening areas to exploration, not drilling. The actual potential to drill is literally quite a few legal filings, challenges and years away. Not to be an Obot, but this kind of hype drives me nuts. The idea that it’s a panacea to the Republicans may be correct, but it also may be a signal to OPEC and oil speculators that are driving up the prices, despite drops in use, that America is willing to try to tap its own resources.
    This decision isn’t one I like, but I’m not seeing much alternatives for transportation issues. If we don’t have the energy, our economy will crash, but there’s not much technology or system improvements to make alternative energy feasible. WTF are we supposed to do? I don’t see humanity giving up burning crap for energy for a long time, but I don’t think we have an additional 100 years to quit dicking around and innovate dammit.

    I also would like to point out that we can’t use reconciliation for every bill. We have to compromise until we get 60 liberals and several pink, glitter, unity ponies.

  15. 15.

    Little Dreamer

    April 1, 2010 at 11:26 am

    @Noonan:

    That’s my take on it too, as I said in that drilling thread yesterday.

  16. 16.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 1, 2010 at 11:28 am

    @SGEW:

    I think that the Obama administration has looked at the current legislative situation and realized that the “base” (whatever that is) can do relatively little to help their broad policy agenda at this time.

    Yup. Something very few netrootsy types seem to realize is that we are vastly outnumbered by the “moderates and independents” so dear to Uncle Broder’s heart. The kind of people who say they’re for a public option to pollster A, and two minutes later driven into a near panic by a push poll from pollster B. “Wait a minute. You mean raise MY taxes?!”

  17. 17.

    JGabriel

    April 1, 2010 at 11:34 am

    So I finally read Atlas Shrugged last night (what a page turner!), and I’m a changed man. Megan McArdle, Bill Kristol, Jonah Goldberg, BOB, Makewi, Paul L., Church Lady, 28 Percent, and John Cole circa 2002 — they’re all right!

    I’ve been wrong about everything all this time, and it’s all the commie media’s fault. From now on, I worship at the toenails of Ayn Rand’s dead feet.

    .

  18. 18.

    Arguingwithsignposts - ipod touchs

    April 1, 2010 at 11:35 am

    Did I miss the turn where all the repubs became such WATBs? Must be Obama’s huge package they’re still trying to spit out.

  19. 19.

    JGabriel

    April 1, 2010 at 11:36 am

    John Cole @ Top:

    I don’t think more drilling is good policy, or even a very clever strategy for compromise …

    That’s because you’re a liberal fashist with no natural appeshiation for the superior windsong of Sarah Palin!

    .

  20. 20.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 1, 2010 at 11:37 am

    @JGabriel: Heh

    I wish I had written this, from kung fu monkey that TBogg posted yesterday

    — There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.

  21. 21.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    April 1, 2010 at 11:38 am

    @JGabriel:

    I worship at the toenails of Ayn Rand’s dead feet.

    I admire this kind of depraved imagery, though it is pushing the envelope a tad.

  22. 22.

    arguingwithsignposts

    April 1, 2010 at 11:38 am

    @JGabriel: that’s mistermix, not JC. Perhaps the FPers’ names should be bolded for clarity’s sake.

  23. 23.

    matoko_chan

    April 1, 2010 at 11:39 am

    I don’t think more drilling is good policy, or even a very clever strategy for compromise,

    No, but it is good game move.
    It is a cooperative play advanced in an iterated game.
    In evo theory of cooperation and classic game theory compromise maximizes the payoff for both sides.
    In the last move, HCR, the repubs refused to compromise and got nothing….they bet the farm and lost.
    They can’t even realistically talk to repeal….entitlements never get repealed.
    Obama is offering them a part of the loaf on this play.
    Will they take it?

  24. 24.

    JGabriel

    April 1, 2010 at 11:44 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Sure, go ahead and mock me, you litralist fool! But do not mock Ayn Rand! You’re just like Toohey, her corrupt collevtivist architecture critic from The Fountainhead* , whose name, as Rand observed, sounds like spitting.

    She was a paradigm of sutle wit, as well as a genius philosofer.

    *I read that last night, too!

    .

  25. 25.

    geg6

    April 1, 2010 at 11:45 am

    OT, but me likey:

    http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/ohio_pastors_file_irs_complaints_over_c_street_hou.php?ref=fpa

  26. 26.

    JGabriel

    April 1, 2010 at 11:46 am

    arguingwithsignposts:

    that’s mistermix, not JC.

    We create our own reality, you commie libtards merely serve to record it and get it wrong!

    .

  27. 27.

    rootless-e

    April 1, 2010 at 11:46 am

    What I admire about the “progressive” response to this proposal is not just the steadfast commitment to superficial political “analysis” as if there was no massive ARRA financed investment in green energy or anything else at play, but the resilience of their theory that they can game out legislative tactics brilliantly and dumb ol’Obama is haplessly stumbling.

  28. 28.

    matoko_chan

    April 1, 2010 at 11:46 am

    And if Obama wanted to kill the GOP in Nov, he’d pivot directly to Obamanesty and leave climate for later.
    11D chess is not played with the goal of reducing your opponent to a crumbling slag of toxic waste…..the goal is advancing Obama’s strategies to improve quality of life for all American citizens.

  29. 29.

    Zifnab

    April 1, 2010 at 11:47 am

    @tinat:

    They’ll buy up leases and sit on them, use them as assets on paper, and never build a platform and actually drill along the east coast.

    Until oil is selling for $200 / barrel.

    Selling the oil rights today won’t affect oil prices a penny, it won’t create any significant new supplies, and it won’t significantly benefit the economy in the short run. That said, it will hand already powerful and godawful wealthy people another slice of turf to mangle at their leisure.

    Maybe they’ll just leave it fallow. Maybe they’ll completely shred it for a few extra bucks. I just don’t like handing over terrain like that.

  30. 30.

    Brick Oven Bill

    April 1, 2010 at 11:47 am

    Drilling is a debate with no merit, unless we are again referring to Graham as a queen, which we should not, as it is not like there is anything wrong with that. This is because there is a reported ten billion barrels of off-shore oil. Sounds like a lot but we burn 5 billion barrels each year. So that is only two (2) years of energy.

    In contrast, we have 2 (two) trillion (1,000,000,000,000) barrels of oil in shale, or four centuries (400) worth of domestic petroleum reserves, available at an extraction cost of around $30 (thirty dollars) a barrel. This is the basis for my conclusion that the powers that be are setting up a land-based currency. Unfortunately for them the shale is located in the vicinity of angry Republicans.

    For more enlightening political discourse, consider reading Nancy Pelosi’s Know Your Power, A Message to America’s Daughters. Copies are available here for one cent (one penny).

    [1]

  31. 31.

    JGabriel

    April 1, 2010 at 11:48 am

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck:

    I admire this kind of depraved imagery…

    I prefer to think of it as catholic, you heretical Isamofascist tool.

    .

  32. 32.

    Zifnab

    April 1, 2010 at 11:49 am

    @rootless-e: We’re still waiting to see what green energy proposals Obama puts forward. If he lays down $2 in green energy for every $1 he wants to sink into fossils, that’s at least moving in the right direction.

    But it’s just like the stimulus package. He spent $80 billion in AMT (read: rich people) tax cuts to bring 3 Senators on board. It got the bill passed, but that was a huge price tag.

  33. 33.

    chris

    April 1, 2010 at 11:50 am

    and to Mistermix I must say–This is as close as that tight ass Bob Corker is gonna get to Billy Idol…LOL

  34. 34.

    rootless-e

    April 1, 2010 at 11:50 am

    http://www.michaelprescott.net/hickman.htm

  35. 35.

    mistermix

    April 1, 2010 at 11:53 am

    @ChicagoTOm: I agree with you — that bill isn’t great either. My take is that Corker got some of what he wanted, and was trying to make it even worse and was rebuffed. So probably “nothing additional” would have been a better way to put it.

  36. 36.

    JGabriel

    April 1, 2010 at 11:53 am

    @Brick Oven Bill:

    In contrast, we have 2 (two) trillion (1,000,000,000,000) barrels of oil in shale, or four centuries (400) worth of domestic petroleum reserves, available at an extraction cost of around $30 (thirty dollars) a barrel.

    That’s far too high an extraction cost. We need to break the backs of the unions, and lower the minimun wage to $3.35/hour, like it was under Reagan, so we can get that extraction cost down to $5.00 per barrel and undercut OPEC prices.

    .

  37. 37.

    mistermix

    April 1, 2010 at 11:54 am

    @Brick Oven Bill: BoB, weren’t you having to go to work the other day?

    I guess your Social Security disability finally come through.

  38. 38.

    MTiffany

    April 1, 2010 at 11:55 am

    I don’t think more drilling is good policy, or even a very clever strategy for compromise…

    But it may be a good strategy to expose the Republicans for being completely bereft of ideas. If the amount of recoverable petroleum and natural gas that is discovered is negligible, at the very least Obama and the Democrats will be able to point out that “more drilling is not the answer,” and they will have cold hard facts on their side.

    And the Republican response will probably be, “more exploratory drilling elsewhere ’til we find something.” People might wise up to the fact that Republicans are basing national energy policy on the delusion that the Earth is a giant perpetual petroluem machine, and that their take on reality is not to be trusted.

  39. 39.

    QDC

    April 1, 2010 at 11:55 am

    My take on the drilling move is that it’s not about courting republicans, but about mitigating the lobbying impact of the oil industry. As I understand it, they would still have to issue permits, and it wouldn’t surprise me if the oil companies understood, at least implicitly, that the permits will be less forthcoming if there is a big lobbying effort against cap and trade.

    That would be consistent with the Obama M.O. in getting big pharma on board before the health bill. And it’s not a bad deal at the end of the day: If we get cap and trade, it won’t matter so much from a climate change perspective that there is more drilling, so long as less fuel is being burned. But opening up domestic wells would be a windfall to the oil companies who would then produce a larger slice of a smaller pie. It would be the Saudis that get screwed, as we reduce demand and increase domestic production.

    Maybe that’s too 11-dimensional chess, but it seems like a better explanation than “the administration is clueless” which seems hard to defend at this point.

  40. 40.

    PeakVT

    April 1, 2010 at 11:56 am

    It’s too early in the day for a depressing energy/climate change post. I’m going to pretend I didn’t read this, and walk down to the store for some milk.

  41. 41.

    jl

    April 1, 2010 at 12:01 pm

    I don’t understand the fuss about offshore drilling. Wasn’t this part of Obama’s platform?

    I think that this sort of criticism was warranted for Obama’s approach to health care reform, because what he did was not, at least in my mind, what he promised to do. But here I think he is just following a long announced policy.

  42. 42.

    rootless-e

    April 1, 2010 at 12:02 pm

    @Zifnab: I don’t know why you are waiting, since Obama has already spent billions on clean energy.

    http://www.awea.org/newsroom/releases/01-26-10_AWEA_Q4_and_Year-End_Report_Release.html

  43. 43.

    Brick Oven Bill

    April 1, 2010 at 12:03 pm

    There is this thing mistermix, it is called a ‘shift’.

    The shale process is not labor intensive and a large percentage of the cost has to do with the energy necessary to raise the temperature of the shale to the point of pyrolysis. Perhaps JGabriel, we could reduce the cost by designing some sort of cycle to divert the 1:12 energy in-energy out surplus to the heat source.

    And then, when the welfare state collapses, we can give people shovels and reduce the labor costs further by compensating them with potatoes and Nancy Pelosi books.

  44. 44.

    gwangung

    April 1, 2010 at 12:03 pm

    The thing is some people I know involved in oil out here in the West say drilling will never happen on the east coast (it’s possible in the gulf though). It’s just too hard and too much of an investment. They’ll buy up leases and sit on them, use them as assets on paper, and never build a platform and actually drill along the east coast.
    If Obama knew this he is brilliant in his “strategary” ;)

    If we know it, he does. It’s not particularly arcane knowledge.

  45. 45.

    Joe Buck

    April 1, 2010 at 12:03 pm

    If Democrats have few cards to play, they just make things worse by giving away cards for free.

    Had Obama agreed to more offshore oil exploration in exchange for Republicans agreeing to tough proposals to address global warming, I’d support that. But he gave it away, for nothing, and he will therefore get nothing.

  46. 46.

    gwangung

    April 1, 2010 at 12:05 pm

    But it’s just like the stimulus package. He spent $80 billion in AMT (read: rich people) tax cuts

    Alternative Minimum Tax? Weren’t people like hilzoy saying that this needed adjustment anyway because inflation was nipping at some middle class folks (particularly in high cost urban areas)?

  47. 47.

    Tom Hilton

    April 1, 2010 at 12:05 pm

    @Zifnab:

    What really pisses me off is when the Dems roll out these half-and-half plans that any sane Republican would embrace, watch the entire GOP drop trow and lay a fat deuce on the bargaining table, and then LEAVE THE SHIT IN THE BILL.

    Problem is, it stays in there (and goes in there in the first place) not to get Republican votes but to get Democrats. The bill with all the crap Blue Dogs like wins in a squeaker; the one without it doesn’t pass at all. That’s the landscape we’re dealing with.

  48. 48.

    JGabriel

    April 1, 2010 at 12:06 pm

    @MTiffany:

    My take on the drilling move is that it’s not about courting republicans …

    As a brand new Rand-y Republican, I agree. It’s not about courting Republicans, it’s about bowing down to our superior numbers and American philosofy. Obama is obviously moving to the right, after that commie health insurance bill, to recapture all the right wing Americans in the center.

    He will fail. Real Americans can see through his deceptive, agreeing-with-us, ways.

    .

  49. 49.

    GregB

    April 1, 2010 at 12:09 pm

    I still think that liposuction fat is an untapped resource.

    Let’s form an exploratory committee, this could be an electoral winner.

  50. 50.

    JGabriel

    April 1, 2010 at 12:09 pm

    Brick Oven Bill:

    And then, when the welfare state collapses, we can give people shovels and reduce the labor costs further by compensating them with potatoes and Nancy Pelosi books.

    (SWOON.)

    Now that I’ve converted to Objectivism, BOB is my new bishop.

    .

  51. 51.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    April 1, 2010 at 12:10 pm

    @Joe Buck: Repent, Repent Obama, the end is nigh!

  52. 52.

    jl

    April 1, 2010 at 12:10 pm

    @Joe Buck: That is a good point. Even if it has long been part of Obama’s platform, why seemingly give it away?

  53. 53.

    rootless-e

    April 1, 2010 at 12:14 pm

    @Joe Buck: So a group of people are kibbitzing besides the chess table as the champ wins game after game with strange, awkward looking, backass moves. But no matter how many games he wins, they keep yelling at him with advice from “Learn to play chess in 12 minutes” and being hurt and surprised that he ignores their advice.

  54. 54.

    Martin

    April 1, 2010 at 12:15 pm

    @Zifnab: Remember, the goal isn’t to get Republican legislators on board – it’s to get Republican and independent voters on board.

    Most Americans aren’t opposed to this. Hell, I don’t think most Democrats are even opposed to this.

  55. 55.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    April 1, 2010 at 12:16 pm

    @rootless-e: It’s like a neverending replay of Memento. Either that, or some of these concern trolls are getting paid to wank.

  56. 56.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 1, 2010 at 12:16 pm

    @GregB:

    I still think that liposuction fat is an untapped resource.

    Come and listen to a story ’bout a man named Jed
    Mountain Dew ‘n’ Hot Pockets kept his family fed
    Then Commie ObamaCare got’em all Lipo’d
    turnin’ morbid obesity into the new gold

  57. 57.

    JGabriel

    April 1, 2010 at 12:17 pm

    @Joe Buck:

    Had Obama agreed to more offshore oil exploration in exchange for Republicans agreeing to tough proposals to address global warming, I’d support that.

    Not I! Global warming is a myth, and all of you are sadly … wait for it … mythtaken!

    Heh, get it? Mythtaken? Cause it’s like a mistake, but it’s a myth too, and all you sociaIists think…

    (Pauses to take in disbelieving stares)

    You liberals just don’t know how to laugh at yourselves. Ayn Rand would get it.

    .

  58. 58.

    jron

    April 1, 2010 at 12:20 pm

    This is political optics in preparation for elections in the fall. He’s allowing for exploration, not drilling, if the states allow it. and some don’t.

    It pushes the gop to the right, amazingly easily, and makes them look even more like intransigent crybabies.

    gas prices are going up this summer, like it or not, and if the economy is recovering further they will be going up even more. this announcement does nothing more than undermine an empty talking point campaign that the republicans have been planning for months.

  59. 59.

    jl

    April 1, 2010 at 12:22 pm

    I nominate BOB to contribute the water needed for oil shale processing out in the west. He is very bullish on the prospects, working on ‘some sort of cycle’, and has energy ratios more optimistic than the industry.

    If BOB is right, billions are just stting there for the taking.

  60. 60.

    Sean

    April 1, 2010 at 12:25 pm

    That’s a great title for this post, by the way.

  61. 61.

    JGabriel

    April 1, 2010 at 12:30 pm

    @GregB:

    I still think that liposuction fat is an untapped resource

    John Galt would approve. But only if we can keep the lipo-oil and still charge for the surgery.

    .

  62. 62.

    Shalimar

    April 1, 2010 at 12:32 pm

    I don’t think more drilling is good policy

    I don’t either, but that could be because I don’t understand oil. What I know is that it is broken down into different components, many of which have extremely important uses which are hard to replace. And that we burn away part of the oil in our automobiles. If any of the oil that we burn away in our cars could be used to produce the really important stuff that is hard to replace, then it seems kind of stupid to drill for every last drop we can find and burn it away when we should be leaving a reserve for the really important stuff in future generations.

    That is really my major objection, not environmental concerns because we’re at the end of an age where those are going to be a problem no matter what we do because we use too much inefficient energy. Whether that objection makes any sense though is something I am not qualified to evaluate.

  63. 63.

    Brick Oven Bill

    April 1, 2010 at 12:34 pm

    A closed steam cycle requires zero [0] make-up water in theory jl. This is because God has provided for our use condensate return systems.

    In practice, minor losses will require less make-up water than your strawberry smoothie habit.

  64. 64.

    Zifnab

    April 1, 2010 at 12:37 pm

    @Brick Oven Bill: Listen to BoB. He’s never been wrong before.

  65. 65.

    Bob L

    April 1, 2010 at 12:37 pm

    @JGabriel:

    He will fail. Real Americans can see through his deceptive, agreeing-with-us, ways.

    Well said my objectivist brother.

    Statest looters like Obama only are allowing the Creators in the hard working, by their boot straps Oil Industry to drill so he can steal their profits with government sanctioned theft (i.e. taxes) This is just to pay HRC reform that gives lazy deadbeats with cancer medical care (Did Ayn Raynd have cancer? No, well neither do you!)

    As Brick House Bill has explained using REAL American know how, we Creators have figured out by heating up rocks we can make oil and have unlimited energy forever. Now if Congress would just repeal the 14th Amendment corporation’s human asset rights would be restored and the process would be cheep enough to be viable.

  66. 66.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    April 1, 2010 at 12:39 pm

    @Brick Oven Bill:

    Locomotive Breath

  67. 67.

    Brandon

    April 1, 2010 at 12:40 pm

    You know what is interesting? I think Republican tactics are actually making me more Republican. You see: At this point and especially after Boehner’s wild and hyperbolic rant, I could give two shits about this drilling thing because I don’t live in S. Carolina, Florida or the Gulf Coast and don’t care about the impact of this on the people that do because they are red states and keep voting for these irresponsible idiots. So bon chance morans. I hope Obama gives them everything they want, except slavery, as long as it doesn’t hurt the rest of us and a Federal grant is made available for all right thinking people that want to move out of that hell hole. They can have their Mad Max utopia down there for all I care, as long as they leave me out of it.

  68. 68.

    danimal

    April 1, 2010 at 12:41 pm

    I’m confused. The earth is only 10K years old, but oil deposits are found using assumptions of plate tectonics and decomposed dinosaur poo from a kajillion years ago. How do they find all the oil if this “science” stuff is all a big hoax?

    Is “science” (like geology) a scam, like they claim for global warming? I think we’re better off drilling oil exploration holes in random winger backyards.

  69. 69.

    gwangung

    April 1, 2010 at 12:44 pm

    @Zifnab: Remember, the goal isn’t to get Republican legislators on board – it’s to get Republican and independent voters on board. Most Americans aren’t opposed to this. Hell, I don’t think most Democrats are even opposed to this.

    Folks gotta remember this. Most of the things being “given away” weren’t authentic bargaining chips in the first place.

  70. 70.

    EthylEster

    April 1, 2010 at 12:44 pm

    they need to a court drama queen like Graham

    Congrats. You managed to work in a not-so-subtle reminder of Graham’s alleged gayness along with the obligatory typo.

  71. 71.

    NR

    April 1, 2010 at 12:45 pm

    Let’s see:

    -Republican health insurance reform bill
    -Backroom deal to kill the public option
    -Backroom deal to kill drug reimportation
    -Massive expansion of overseas war
    -Refusal to prosecute Bush administration lawbreakers
    -Adopting Bush policies on secrecy and enemy combatants
    -And now adopting Republican “Drill, baby, drill” energy policy

    I never expected Obama to be particularly progressive, but I sure as hell didn’t expect this, either.

  72. 72.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    April 1, 2010 at 12:47 pm

    @danimal: Silly smart person. Eve had the first pet Quackasoros.

  73. 73.

    eyepaddle

    April 1, 2010 at 12:49 pm

    @QDC:

    I like this take quite a bit. I would say that I doubt there is anything we can do on the production side of the question that will have the Saudis very worried about things. Maybe–maybe cut back on occasional speculative run-ups in price, but to be honest the Saudis have never favored those in any event. Some of the other OPEC players want the price as high as possible, always, but the Saudis has always been aware that if there wares become too expensive alternatives will be found.

    [Disclaimer: I used to be a wellsite geologist (mudlogging, and MWD work) but that was exclusively offshore gulf of Mexico, so take this with a grain of salt, I just don’t see any way that Atlantic production could come online fast enough to offset declines in other US fields–mainly Alaska, so at best this would slow the growth in imports.

    Conservation and alternatives are pretty much our only way to achieve independence.]

  74. 74.

    brantl

    April 1, 2010 at 12:50 pm

    The dems need to keep pushing in the Senate, and if the Republicans are going to block this shit, stay on the floor and make the Republicans block it, until the Repubs either quit on the Senate floor, or they get their asses kicked in November. They need to keep hammering away at these assholes until they have no place else to hide. Period.

  75. 75.

    Pangloss

    April 1, 2010 at 12:50 pm

    I think Obama’s move on offshore drilling and nuclear power is pretty clever. The time horizon on creating the first watt of power or the first drop of gasoline from these sources is likely to be 16-20 years. In the meantime, Republicans have a neutered rallying cry and ZERO ideas.

  76. 76.

    brantl

    April 1, 2010 at 12:55 pm

    And you can get copies of “Know Your Pin-Headedness” an autobiographical work by BoB, from him 3 for a penny.

  77. 77.

    jl

    April 1, 2010 at 12:55 pm

    @Brick Oven Bill: I dislike smoothies, and consider them to be a waste of resources comparable to that required for oil shale production.

  78. 78.

    Nellcote

    April 1, 2010 at 12:55 pm

    I’m very glad he left the west coast closed. And feeling very NIMBY about it.

  79. 79.

    gbear

    April 1, 2010 at 1:04 pm

    How do they find all the oil if this “science” stuff is all a big hoax?

    Because god made oil for us to have and use, dummy.

  80. 80.

    Chad N Freude

    April 1, 2010 at 1:06 pm

    @JGabriel: The Fountainhead is one of my favoritest bad movies of all time. IMDB credits Rand as the sole writer of the screenplay. The quotes (at IMDB) tend towards unintentional hilarity. But they don’t quote the best line in the film: Patricia Neal, an estimable actress who deserved much better than this, playing Dominique, yields to Gary Cooper with the line “Take me, Howard Roark!”

  81. 81.

    Chad N Freude

    April 1, 2010 at 1:11 pm

    @JGabriel: She was famous for her sense of humor.

  82. 82.

    Chad N Freude

    April 1, 2010 at 1:12 pm

    @GregB: I find the idea of exploring liposuction fat rather unappealing.

  83. 83.

    danimal

    April 1, 2010 at 1:13 pm

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck: Do you mean “quack-a-Soros?”

    I get it now, George Soros is making money off all the scientific confusion. It’s all a profit scheme.

    /beckian logic

  84. 84.

    Holly McLachlan

    April 1, 2010 at 1:18 pm

    @Shalimar
    If any of the oil that we burn away in our cars could be used to produce the really important stuff that is hard to replace, then it seems kind of stupid to drill for every last drop we can find and burn it away when we should be leaving a reserve for the really important stuff in future generations.
    Burning petroleum products for fuel is an inherently wasteful use of a finite, valuable resource. You’ve go it right. However, that is what we do.
    I’m strongly in favor of drilling off U.S. shores. It’s time we stopped accepting the rape of other peoples’ land on the other side of the world as “greener” — simply because the damage is out of our sight. We are the ones who are using the stuff to the point of shortage either directly, or whenever we purchase crap made in China.
    The southeast Atlantic coast does not have the known potential resources that the west coast or Arctic coast of Alaska have — except perhaps in regards to methane clathrates (nat gas). The key word in that sentence is “known”. Most of the exploration data from off the southeastern coast is over 30 years old. There was no exploration of ultra-deep resources; they didn’t have ultra-deep extraction technology back then and would not have explored for “unextractable” resources. Contemporary production potential is not particularly well understood a this time.
    By that I mean, BOB is lying. As usual. But, you might want to know the specific nature of his lies about this.

  85. 85.

    JGabriel

    April 1, 2010 at 1:45 pm

    @Chad N Freude: I remember well. Ayn had a robust, gleeful, joyful laugh, much like Margaret Hamilton in The Wizard of Oz.

    There was nothing Ayn loved more than a good laugh at the expense of others, especially the poor. She was almost saint-like in that way.

    .

  86. 86.

    cfaller96

    April 1, 2010 at 1:51 pm

    But politics is ugly when you don’t have a lot of cards to play, and Democrats don’t have many in the Senate.

    Because as we all know having an 18 seat majority means the Democrats are at a supreme disadvantage.

    Look, I understand what mistermix means. But we have to remember that this is very inside-baseball, and is thus unimportant to the voters. The American people see an 18 seat majority for the Dems, simultaneously see them virtually stalled/helpless on important issues, and rightly wonder if Dems are able to cross the f–king street without tripping on their dicks. Just WTF is it going to take for Dems to actually accomplish something here?+

    I remind mistermix and everyone else here that flatly and blithely accepting the premise that an 18 seat majority in the Senate is not enough to really do anything is plainly unacceptable and anger-inducing to voters. It is unreasonable and irrational to imply Dems need more power before they can enact their agenda and do something constructive (which is exactly what that premise implies). Please stop saying this.

    +(Yes, health care reform just passed so Dems actually did accomplish something…and looky looky the American people are suddenly not so pissed at Dems anymore. This is not a coincidence, and my point is proven- the American people will not tolerate failure by the Dems, given all the power they have. They are interested in results, not excuses.)

  87. 87.

    Brachiator

    April 1, 2010 at 2:06 pm

    I don’t think more drilling is good policy, or even a very clever strategy for compromise, and I doubt that Graham will stick. But politics is ugly when you don’t have a lot of cards to play, and Democrats don’t have many in the Senate.

    Actually, it’s good Bill Clinton style rope-a-dope. You undercut the Republicans by implementing their policy where appropriate. They look foolish when they whine that Obama is “stealing” their ideas and it underscores their obstructionism.

    The Democrats have lots of cards to play, hell, they really have the entire freaking deck. Their health care victory should have made this plain. There is no reason to slide back into their typical weak-kneed governing mode.

  88. 88.

    Martin

    April 1, 2010 at 2:09 pm

    Looks like George W. Obama has given away the farm with this oil drilling announcement:

    The heads of the Transportation Department and the Environmental Protection Agency signed final rules setting fuel efficiency standards for model years 2012-2016, with a goal of achieving by 2016 the equivalent of 35.5 miles per gallon combined for cars and trucks, an increase of nearly 10 mpg over current standards set by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

    The EPA set a tailpipe emissions standard of 250 grams (8.75 ounces) of carbon dioxide per mile for vehicles sold in 2016, equal to what would be emitted by vehicles meeting the mileage standard. The EPA issued its first rules ever on vehicle greenhouse gas emissions following a 2007 Supreme Court decision.

    Now we’ll never get any meaningful progress on climate change or energy policy. What a stupid fuck.

    LaHood and Jackson said the new requirements will save 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the life of the program. The new standards move up goals set in a 2007 energy law, which required the auto industry to meet a 35 mpg average by 2020.

  89. 89.

    Mnemosyne

    April 1, 2010 at 2:30 pm

    @Tom Hilton:

    Problem is, it stays in there (and goes in there in the first place) not to get Republican votes but to get Democrats. The bill with all the crap Blue Dogs like wins in a squeaker; the one without it doesn’t pass at all. That’s the landscape we’re dealing with.

    Ding ding ding. A lot of the “Republican” stuff that ends up in the bills is not put there for the benefit of the Republicans. It’s put there for the benefit of the Blue Dogs, whose votes we unfortunately need to overcome the filibusters in the Senate.

    If all we needed was a simple majority, you could put some of the more lefty stuff back in and let the Blue Dogs vote against it, but when you need every single one of them to vote for cloture with you, you have to throw them a bone.

  90. 90.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    April 1, 2010 at 2:32 pm

    @Martin:

    Dave McCurdy, a former congressman from Oklahoma who leads the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group representing 11 automakers, said the industry supports a single national standard for future vehicles, saying the program “makes sense for consumers, for government policymakers and for automakers.”

    What’s worse, Obama failed to anticipate the storm of rabid opposition from the auto industry that raising mileage standards always evokes. Maybe if he had chosen to do this at a time when the US govt. has effective ownership of a large chunk of the domestic auto industry (how? i dunno? maybe because a credit market crisis caused them to seek federal bailouts) it would have worked. So much fail, so little time. Oh well, better luck next adminstration.

  91. 91.

    MTiffany

    April 1, 2010 at 2:45 pm

    @danimal: Science is not a scam… it’s just a test of faith, and the ability to use one’s God-given brain to hold two mutually exclusive propositions to be true. Quite the feat of intellectual legerdamain…

  92. 92.

    BombIranForChrist

    April 1, 2010 at 3:18 pm

    I think one should be forgiven for believing that this is just more hippie punching from Obama. I can see trying to buy off Graham when the issue is on the front burner, but this random “oh btw, let’s drill off the eastern seaboard” from seemingly out of nowhere just smacks of hippie punching.

  93. 93.

    daryljfontaine

    April 1, 2010 at 4:13 pm

    @JGabriel:

    I still think that liposuction fat is an untapped resource

     
    John Galt Tyler Durden would approve. But only if we can keep the lipo-oil and still charge for the surgery.

    Fix’d.

    D

  94. 94.

    liberal

    April 1, 2010 at 8:58 pm

    @cfaller96:

    But we have to remember that this is very inside-baseball, and is thus unimportant to the voters.

    Well put.

    No one gives a shit about this stuff other than the Villagers.

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