Well, we would have greater production if Halliburton and BP had not caused a hundred billion disaster in the Gulf.

Yea, and maybe if Obama wasn't the largest recipient of BP money in 20 years, the administration would not have waived the pressure testing of the BOP .... maybe if the Obama administration had done their job with inspections ....

Maybe, if we really relax the permitting rules, we can have ANOTHER BLOWOUT AND SPILL!!

And who suggested "relaxing" the existing permitting rules?

Maybe you are clueless, maybe you are just an imbecile, but again, the blowout was preventable if the Obama administration had just done what was already on the books - what was required of them.

Nice high school histrionics though.

Any responsible president would have slowed down the permitting process for some time after that fiasco.

No they wouldn't. Obama put together a panel of experts, had Salazar change their report and went against their recommendations which stated the opposite of what Obama did in shutting the Gulf down.

No other presidents defy federal judges, defy contempt orders, defy Congress, defy the will of the people ...

Sheez .... if Obama was concerned about the environment, why did he give billions of dollars to Brazil / Petrobas to drill at deeper at depths?

This is just another example of the unmittigated gaul of the idiots running on the Republican side. It's more idiocy than usual, and that's saying alot.

I guess that sentence answers the clueless / embecile question.

I hope the good folks of Louisiana are smart enough to not buy into this type of fear advertising. Any of these Superpacs ever going to tell the truth about anything? Rampant freedom of speech seems to have led to rampant freedom to lie.

Time to start check ID's before being allowed to vote.

We have to stop these poll workers from handing out ballots to DEAD people.

This time around it's Vermont.

@ Ideology. No super pac tells the truth that I have seen so far. I don't expect to be impressed with any of them. It must be a double edged sword for candidates, who may have a super pac pouring money into something that is supposed to be good for their campaign, then sparks a controversy or scandal not of their own doing. The Supreme Court really needs a higher court to call super pacs unconstitutional. Unfortunately, there is none.

So Obama is to blame for the decision to pull the drill mud??? I am no engineer, but it seems to me that there were a couple of decisions made just hours before the disaster that made the blowout imminent. And inspections would not have done a thing about that. That's a typical teabagger ploy: blame private industry's reckless actions on the government inspectors. And how many inspectors for the EPA or the Energy Department do you think Obama had appointed by the time of the explosion?? I'd say the overwhelming odds are that Bush appointees have the blood on their hands - if any inspector is to blame. Bob 1805084 - you undoubtedly have some connection to the oil industry if you don't think a pause in permitting was warranted in the immediate aftermath OF THE LARGEST AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER IN HISTORY. I don't care if they ever take another drop of oil out of the gulf - after that huge screwup. We could have another blowout next year - and you know it! Only an imbecile says, "Please burn me again - and hurry up about it."

There is no voter fraud by the voting public. It is committed by Republicans officials in trying to suppress voters. That is a fact.

Now Pennsylvania is looking at a voter ID law. They want to take Social Security and Medicare away. That is the one and only reason for this. There is no voter fraud!

Let me put another way.

Suppose an evil building owner pays off the electrical inspector on a project .... green tag with no inspection ... building catches fire due to electrical code violations and burns down.

Is there no culpability by the electrical inspector?

If the electrical inspector had done his job there would have been no fire.

So your solution is to shut down all building permits while you study the safety of building projects - when you know what caused the problem - where the system failed?

you undoubtedly have some connection to the oil industry

Nope ... I have a connection to reality and common sense that you obviously are lacking.

if you don't think a pause in permitting was warranted in the immediate aftermath OF THE LARGEST AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER IN HISTORY.

And Obama determined that the company with the worst safety record, the company that caused the spill should be responsible for stopping the leak and conducting the clean up?

News flash ... if we had a competent president, had a guy in charge that would would have accepted the help of foreign countries and their control fleets - not a drop of oil should have reached the beach - it wouldn't have been "the largest American environmental disaster in history."

But if that had happened, Obama wouldn't have had the reason to shut the Gulf down in an effort to promote his green agenda would he?

bob-1805084 ... and if you had a competent President Pearl Harbor would not have happened. People would not have been shot in New Orleans post Katrina, etc., I could go on for pages. Bob, you are kicking a fabricated dead horse ... no one believes this line except for people still living in 1969 like Michael.

Can someone explain how drilling will lower gas prices? According to the Dept of Interior, almost 2/3 of drilling permits that are currently issued are NOT being used. So the oil companies have plenty of space to drill, they should be drilling there before asking the gov't to open more land.

Bob,

Yea, and maybe if Obama wasn't the largest recipient of BP money in 20 years

During his time in the Senate and while running for president, Obama received a total of $77,051 from the oil giant and is the top recipient of BP PAC.

By the way, you can say that BP did not get their money's worth because since he became president, he rolled back tax breaks and giveaways for the oil and gas industry, spearheaded a G20 agreement to phase out fossil fuel subsidies, and made the largest investment in American history in clean energy incentives.

So thanks for pointing out that the President did not play favors to those who donated to his campaign.

Also, 40% of BP's contributions went to the Democrats while 60% went to the Republicans. I guess we know who this oil company favors.

Job1

There is no voter fraud by the voting public. It is committed by Republicans officials in trying to suppress voters. That is a fact.

Republican Secretary of State Charlie White convicted him of multiple voter fraud-related charges. This is not some ACORN worker making up names to make extra cash. This is a Secretary of State.

Some of the most powerful public officials in Clay County corrupted elections in recent years, buying and stealing votes in pursuit of power and money. The jury convicted all eight people on trial, including former Circuit Judge R. Cletus Maricle, 66, and former school Superintendent Douglas C. Adams, 58, on a charge that they engaged in organized criminal acts to rig elections.

Wanda White's was tol by Clerk Freddy Thompson to change votes after the voter left the booth. She was also ordered to change her registration from Republican to Democrat so she could become a Dem precinct official. That is 8 Republicans in high offices.

An excellent VP choice would be Independent Angus King from Maine, he is very knowledgeable about clean-energy technology, having created a company called Northeast Energy Management which developed electrical energy conservation projects for Maine. He's a former two term governor with a popularty rating of 60%.

Oh, but, he's a successful businessman who actually created a useful product, second thought, not a good choice for the Republican ticket, he might make Romney look bad :)

Oh! And Bob - Angus King was born in Virginia and graduated from University of Virginia School of Law.

If Bob McDonnell becomes the VP nominee, will he be giving out internal vaginal ultrasound probes like campaign buttons ?

Will they have the GOP symbol and the nominees names on them ?

Say, bob numbers, why don't you ask the GOPer candidates and their friends about the fact that our oil companies are exporting 113 million gallons of gasoline per day while our price at the pump increases? I'd really like to hear them spin that one.

Amy,

that is an impressive resume. My daughter is getting her master's degree at UVa, it is a great university. So you want Angus King to be Obama's VP? Would be an improvement over clueless Joe Biden, who put his foot in his mouth... yet again...at a swanky fundraiser attended solely by millionaires , Biden said they other Party doesnt understand the middle class...

Wasn't he one of the people who received federal loan guarentees from the stimulus for wind farms? I could be wrong but the name sounds the same. I am just asking not trying to start something.

I thought he was given 102 million and it didn't pan out.

That Jindal sure tore it up with his response to the State of the Union a few years ago. He'd make Mitt look exciting.

yes it has and if people would read up on that pipeline canda wants they would understand just how dangerous it can be. And it offers no USA long term jobs nor will it reduce gas prices. Want to reduce the price of gas, stop the speculators on wall st. The president does not controll global markets. The golbal market and speculators are in controll of the gas prices. With the help of the oil owners and share holders they run up the cost of crude oil and the global markets demand more, so high prices. Put the blame where it belongs, Wall Street speculators and the very rich oil owners.

Our dependence on foreign oil has gone down the past two years under President Obama.

Duh .... we have 14-20 million out of work, business holding back in Obama's worst recovery since the Great Depression.

The fact of the matter is that Obama has increased our dependence on foreign oil by wasting money on nonviable green dreams and by clamping down on domestic drilling .... heck he won't even allow a stupid pipe from Canada.

yes it has and if people would read up on that pipeline canda wants they would understand just how dangerous it can be.

Yea, pipes are really dangerous. They can ruin every house and building in America - yet every house and building in America has them .... it's called running water ..... sheez .... it's a stupid pipe.

Obama thinks we can grow gasoline from algae, but under Obama we can't build a stupid pipe?

Do you not have any idea how many thousands of miles of pipeline already cross the area?

And it offers no USA long term jobs nor will it reduce gas prices.

What an utterly ignorant statement.

Beyond the jobs to build, to maintain, the operating stations ... it provides infrastrucure for all other production such as Bakken, literally producing tens, if not hundreds of thousands of permanent jobs.

Obama blames Iran for the latest spike, yet the pipeline combined with Bakken and the amount of production Obama has cut would equal roughly 2 million barrels a day for the US - almost equal to what Iran's total production is (and we don't even buy their stuff.)

Want to reduce the price of gas, stop the speculators on wall st.

It is simply stunning how clueless and simple some people are.

bob-1805084: talk to the people outside of Kalamazoo MI about "stupid pipes" moving oil shale bitumen. They had a little leak two years ago that "should only take a month to clean up." No one can still be within 40 yards of the river.

What's stunning, bob, is that you repeat the lies as told to you and then say how clueless everyone else is. How long before Keystone would be finished? There are oil wells capped in the Gulf of Mexico waiting to be pumped. Why not start there?

P.S. The oil would still belong to Canada, not the U.S., and would be sold on the world market after a scenic trip south.

On a July morning in 2010 in rural Michigan, a 30-inch pipeline owned by Calgary-based Enbridge Energy Partners burst and disgorged an estimated 843,000 gallons of thick crude into a tributary of the Kalamazoo River. This was no ordinary crude -- it was the first ever major spill into water of diluted bitumen from the Alberta oil sands.

The cleanup challenges and health impacts around Kalamazoo were unlike anything the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had ever dealt with, and raise serious questions about the preparedness in British Columbia to respond to such a disaster on the B.C. coast -- or the Vancouver harbour.

Each year, increasing numbers of tankers filled with diluted bitumen leave Vancouver loaded from the existing Kinder Morgan pipeline from northern Alberta to a terminus in Burnaby.

Tankers exiting Vancouver harbor must transit through the shallow Second Narrows channel during "high slack water" -- a short tidal window of about 20 minutes that provides loaded tankers with less than two metres of under-keel clearance.

Citizens concerned about these shipments have been assured that extensive preparations have been made to respond to an accident, and that an array of skimmers and floating oil booms are on-hand to contain any spilled oil. But what if the "oil" in these tankers doesn't float?

Unlike conventional crude, diluted bitumen or "dilbit" is a mixture of unrefined tar that is often heavier than water and "diluent." This is usually a cocktail of volatile solvents like naphtha or natural gas condensate that allows the thick bitumen to be pumped through the pipeline.

A toxic cloud released

The local residents and EPA responders near Kalamazoo quickly learned that bitumen and diluent do not stay together once released into the environment.

Volatile portions of the diluent containing toxic fumes of benzene and toluene began off-gassing in the area, impacting the health of almost 60 per cent of the local population with symptoms such as nausea, dizziness, headaches, coughing and fatigue. Clean-up crews were issued respirators to protect them from toxic fumes.

Local residents interviewed by the Tyee reported that even weeks after the Kalamazoo spill, they could still smell the fumes up to 50 kilometres away. The local health department went to door-to-door in the days after the spill to assess acute symptoms. They also instituted a voluntary evacuation within about one mile of the river to limit people's exposure to benzene fumes -- a known carcinogen.

http://thetyee.ca/News/2012/03/05/Diluted-Bitumen/

Jody,

Point out a lie.

Or are you still not very good at this blog stuff.

Bob1805084: Are you looking in the mirror when you say 'stunningly clueless people'?

Bakken oil -

keystone pipeline -

Bob, your vague claims about petroleum production in the US seem inaccurate given oil production is up. The simple fact is that the US lacks the reserves to make a real difference in the world oil market and no amount of drilling is going to change that fact.

http://www.eia.gov/emeu/international/reserves.html

I support President Obama's reelection because he's the only politician running who understands the need for us to develop alternative energy solutions. If you look at the increase in killer tornadoes and the warmest winter on record we just had, you know we have to make a concerted effort to stop burning fossil fuels. Iran gets mad, and gas prices go up. Our addiction to oil isn't just a matter of national security, it is harming our environment, perhaps irreparably. Republicans are fine with letting Germany get ahead of us in developing new technologies - not me! We shouldn't lose this race to develop renewable energy - vote for President Obama to keep us on track.

"If you look at the increase in killer tornadoes and the warmest winter on record we just had, you know we have to make a concerted effort to stop burning fossil fuels"

There is ZERO evidence that the burning of fossil fuels causes tornadoes... that is blissful ignorance.

and thunder is caused when the Gods go bowling.

Do you really think that the candidates have no control over the messages the Super Pac ads are running ? All the Citizens United decision did was give the candidates deniability over the bad ads.

"All televisions should be equipped with a Lie Detector; a red flag pops up on the screen to alert viewers to the liar, liar, pants on fire ads"

Can this technology be utilized for the "Thank You, President Obama, for saving 11,000 lives a year" ad by the lying zealots of the Environmental Defense Fund, which runs continuously on this web page?

I know that dirp101 but it really has taken a majority of the campaign messaging away from the candidates and placed it in the hands of secret donors--that's my point.

"All televisions should be equipped with a Lie Detector; a red flag pops up on the screen to alert viewers to the liar, liar, pants on fire ads"

Flip Romney wouldn't do well with televisions equipped with Lie Detectors, because he lies more than anyone who has ever run for President.

I didn't discriminate on whose ads, now did I, Bob the invasive ultrasound Gov for VP? Where did my comment mention only republican ads? Oh, it didn't!

Along with the lie detectors, Jody, I'd like there to be a little weathervane that pops up every time Mitt Romney changes a position. For radio, it could be a rooster crowing to alert us to a new Mitt position.

What if the new women are like Bachmann?

Agree on that point about more women. I do think a more liberal posts would make it through the lie detector than conservative ones which are too often repeated from FOX. We aren't perfect but we do try to be factual.