The Crude Truth
July 17, 2008
Most politicians, and all liberal politicians, are a disgrace to the concepts of good governance. James Madison warned us about this in Federalist No. 10 when he cautioned that, “Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.”
Today, in lieu of “enlightened statesmen”, American governance is dominated by Mini-Me Machiavellis adept at obtaining and retaining power for the sole purpose of...obtaining and retaining power.
Good governance, or shepherding the will and best interests of the citizenry, has nothing to do with it.
Immediately after John McCain admitted the previous error of his ways and voiced support for offshore drilling, the visionary Barack Obama responded that there was, “no way that allowing offshore drilling would lower gas prices right now. At best you are looking at five years or more down the road.” Would he tell children not to pursue higher education because “at best a degree is years down the road”?
In fact, when McCain added that, “the fact that we are exploiting those reserves would have psychological impact” on the oil markets, Rocket-Science-Boy Obama again ridiculed that, “Psychological impact...In case you were wondering, that's Washington-speak for, It polls well.”
My, My Barack...how we mock what we don’t understand...or what we pretend not to understand.
Immediately after President Bush lifted an executive ban on offshore oil drilling this week, Rocket-Science-Girl Nancy Pelosi countered that, “The Bush plan is a hoax. It will neither reduce gas prices nor increase energy independence.”
And, putting down Pelosi’s bathroom tissue long enough to utter a few nonsensical words, Democrat Rep. Rahm Emanuel chimed in that, “I've been in Washington long enough to know a political stunt when I see one... the American people won't be fooled.”
Pelosi immediately stuffed the bathroom tissue back into stuntman Emanuel’s mouth because she was afraid that the citizenry would realize that the “political stunt” is, in fact, The Democrats’ version of Congressional leadership.
Yes, these same Democrats who promised the country in 2006 that the certain path to reducing the cost of gasoline was to elect a Democrat majority to both the Senate and the House are making more promises they won’t keep.
The Democrats got their majority in 2006 when the average price of gasoline was $2.16 per gallon.
Oh, that’s right...now that the Democrats haven’t delivered on their first promise to reduce oil prices in exchange for control of the Congress, now they are trying to make a second pact with the Devil...”Give us total control of the US government and then we will reduce oil prices.”
But how?
Let’s see....
According to the Democrats, the simple economic laws of supply and demand have nothing to do with high oil prices.
According to the Democrats, increasing supply will do nothing to reduce oil prices.
According to the Democrats, replacing petroleum-based generation of electricity with nuclear generation will do nothing to reduce the cost of oil.
In fact, when John McCain proposed building 45 new nuclear reactors by 2030 the Messianic Obama countered that “It doesn't make sense for America” because, we lacked “a plan to store the waste some place other than right here at Yucca Mountain.”
Obama failed to note that the lack of “a plan” for the storage of nuclear waste is almost totally to blame on his Democrat buddy Harry Reid who has been, and continues to, obstruct the perfectly feasible operation of the Yucca Mountain storage facility and trade US energy security for his sole political gain.
In fact, Reid is quoted as saying, “Yucca Mountain is dead. It'll never happen,” just before the Congress voted another $390 million to study the Yucca Mountain “plan”.
Ah ha...that’s it. The Democrats have “a plan” to reduce oil prices.
It starts with Obama’s “plan” to tax oil company “windfall profits” and use that money to subsidize fuel costs for “families”. That way, Obama figures he will take any market-based logic out of the equation and continue to prop-up demand by redistributing wealth. Guess he missed the Economics 101 courses at both Columbia and Harvard.
The second front in the Democrats’ plan to reduce fuel costs is to slay the “speculators”. So, two nights ago Reid submitted a bill targeting “excessive” oil futures market speculation. He has no plans to submit a similar bill targeting “excessive” taxation of the citizenry or “excessive” mortgage breaks for his fellow senators.
The third tier of the Democrats’ plan is the Pelosi proposal to “free our oil by releasing a small portion of the more than 700 million barrels of oil we have.” Pelosi et al are talking about releasing 10% or 70 million barrels of our strategic stockpile into the US market which presently consumes over 20 million barrels per day.
So, let’s get this straight. Drilling for more domestic production will not affect oil prices but releasing a 3.5 day supply of oil, according to Pelosi, would lower the price of fuel “now, within 10 days, not within 10 years”. And maybe it would for the next 3.5 days.
Heaven help these idiots.
Somewhere around #4 on the Democrats’ hit parade are the same old calls for conservation and the development of “alternative” sources of energy. In their warped logic, the liberals want you to believe that supply has nothing to do with the cost of oil but using less oil will bring the price down.
And...that drilling for more oil will have no substantive effect on the price of oil for at least five years but developing unknown “alternative” sources of energy will be an immediate magic pill.
When it comes to “alternative” sources of energy Obama was quick to castigate McCain for voting “against wind power” but absent on the fact that one of the Senate’s greatest opponents to wind power generation is Teddy “But don't you realize — that's where I sail!” Kennedy.
As it was reported in CapeCodToday, “The source of unhappiness is Kennedy's efforts to kill an offshore wind farm on Nantucket Sound. Cape Wind was to be the first such project in the United States and a source of pride to environmentally-minded New Englanders.”
In fact, Kennedy co-opted the support of his RINO buddy Republican John Warner who “added a last-minute rider to an urgent Iraq war-funding bill that forbade the Army Corps of Engineers to spend money permitting offshore wind projects.”
Warner also has “wealthy relatives (who) own choice waterfront property on Cape Cod.
However, Warner is getting behind a return to the 55 mile per hour speed limit now that he no longer has to rush home with a box of donuts for Elizabeth Taylor.
All of these Democrat proposals have about as most substance as a drunk leaning on a light pole.
They are not good governance. They are political manipulations for the sake of obtaining and retaining power.
Even that failing liberal rag, the New York Times, recently let slip that, “Ms. Pelosi said that if Democrats relented on drilling, ‘then we might as well pack it up and go home’.”
As the Times reported, when it comes to energy “Democrats say they also have to consider the presidential campaign of Senator Barack Obama and make sure their initiatives mesh with his “.
Does this sound like good governance to you?
It sounds more like a pack of Mini-Me’s trying to retain their taxpayer funded luxury car leases and travel perks than an effort at governing a country for the benefit of its citizenry. I’ll have to ask Pelosi about this the next time she invites me to ride along in the “government version of the Boeing 757 “that she demanded as a “Speaker’s perk”.
Recently, Pelosi commented that “We have to get to a place where one day my grandchildren will say, 'Do you believe our grandparents had to go with their car and fill up?' It will be like going with a barrel on our head to a well to get water.”
What the hell is she taking about?
We solved the “going to the well” problem with indoor plumbing. What she is proposing for energy will, at best, have us trading in our cars for bicycles...while she continues to ride around in a taxpayer-funded SUV.
Progress is moving forwards...not returning to the days of the plague.
Is it any wonder that over 75% of the American public disapproves of the job that the Democrat Congress is doing?
Coincidently, or not, on Monday President Bush lifted the Executive ban on offshore drilling and oil prices have fallen for three consecutive days.
Coincidently, or not, the market price of gasoline has softened demand for the product and increased its inventory and prices have fallen for three consecutive days.
As of today, oil prices have fallen by 12% in less than a week.
Despite the naïve fantasy of Barack Obama to the contrary, the oil market does factor future expectations into its pricing. But Obama et al would have to be leaders to realize this.
Despite the nay saying of the political manipulators, a real leader would push America’s energy policy into the demands of the 21st century.
A real leader would serve OPEC a lunch of: domestic offshore oil drilling; massive nuclear electrical generation development; oil shale conversion in the west; the use of clean coal technologies and yes...even wind generation in Teddy’s back yard.
Do that and watch what happens to the oil speculators and world energy prices.
But doing that requires well-intentioned governance, not a bunch of Mini-Me Machiavellis.
And that’s the crude truth.
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