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President Obama delivered what was billed as an energy speech on Thursday in Maryland, though his remarks took campaign overtones when Obama mocked his Republican challengers as members of the "Flat Earth Society."
While he didn’t mention any of the GOP presidential hopefuls by name, the president derided the Republican field as being stuck in the past.
"Lately, we’ve heard a lot of professional politicians, a lot of the folks who are, you know, running for a certain office. Who shall go unnamed," Obama said. "They've been talking down new sources of energy. They dismiss wind power. They dismiss solar power. They make jokes about biofuels. They were against raising fuel standards. I guess they like gas guzzlers."
"We’re trying to move towards the future," the president continued, "they want to be stuck in the past."
A number of the Republican candidates have hammered Obama on the issue of soaring gas prices, particularly former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has promised energy prices that would lower the price of gas to $2.50 per gallon.
Obama also took it a step further, comparing the Republican candidates to the naysayers who thought explorer Christopher Columbus would fall off the edge of the Earth when he set sail for the New World.
“If some of these folks were around when Columbus set sail...They must have been founding members of the Flat Earth Society. They would not have believed that the Earth was round,” the president joked to a laughing crowd. (For the uninitiated, the Flat Earth Society dates back to the 1800s and consists of people who believe the Earth is not round.)
The president also insisted that he is not against drilling within the U.S. for more oil.
“Over the last three years my administration has opened millions of acres of land in 23 different states for oil and gas exploration. Offshore, offshore, I’ve directed my administration to open up more than 75 percent of our potential resources. That includes an area in the Gulf of Mexico we opened up a few months ago that could produce more than 400 million barrels of oil," he said. "So do not tell me that we're not drilling. We're drilling all over this country."
And while trying to sympathize with people who are struggling with rising gas prices, Obama claimed that this was one of the reasons he fought so hard in the last few months for the payroll tax cut extension.
“We passed a payroll tax [cut] at the beginning of this year to make sure that everybody has an extra $40 in their paycheck on average, in part, because we anticipated that gas prices might be going up like they did last year, given tight world oil supplies.”
But he acknowledged that $40 dollars isn’t necessarily enough, “That doesn't make it easier for a lot of families out there that are just struggling to get by. This is tough.”
Leave a Comment:
That's an understatement... lol
Why wasn't it only 5000 years ago, man walked amongst the dinosaurs?
Is it any wonder the GNOP is so anti-education?
An informed electorate is not a winning strategy for those on the right!
I would posit that some of the posters here hatched from dinosaur eggs.
GOP: The hell with tomorrow.....let's look to yesterday for the future.
Fossil fuels cannot be the future of America! In order to grow our economy and for our national security future, we must pursue an All of The Above strategy to our energy needs.
Other countries like Germany are fully invested in alternative energy and completely weaned from fossil fuels. Though tiny, they are now in a position to export that energy. Of course, WE ARE HUGE. But because of that, WE HAVE MASSIVE POTENTIAL in solar, biofuel, wind and advanced battery Tech. We could lead the world if we decided to do it.
Just drilling does not add up to the future or the present. We must stop our involvement with unstable parts of the world to get our energy.
America has got it ALL. Now legislate and get on with it.
An informed electorate is not a winning strategy for those on the right!
___________________________________________
And an fact-oblivious, idol-worshiping, electorate is what the FR lefty liberals are counting on for Barry on November 6, 2012.
All the more support for my belief that America's best days are seen only in the rear view mirror. One thing I have learned over the years is that idolatry leads a society to it's doom. I think I will look into raising my non-US, international, mutual funds up another 5% based on Nasty DumbFux post.
Thanks Nasty.
Leave it to the idiot from Albany!
It was only a matter of time before an authentic knuckle-dragging mouth breather showed up! lol
" I think I will look into raising my non-US, international, mutual funds up another 5% based on Nasty DumbFux post."
how patriotic of you Joe
Leave it to the idiot from Albany!
________________________________________
Nasty DumbFux: Is it true that Fox's Married With Children was based on your actual family life??
C'mon, a comedy with a lower middle class set of losers, with a nasty Redhead matriarch like Peg Bundy, set in a Chicago suburb like Roselle Il, with a woman's shoe salesman husband, and a slut daughter, and a pervert son.
That can't be just a coincidence.
:~) LOL!!!
how patriotic of you Joe
____________________________________
What part of "the global economy" do you not understand???
The hell with tomorrow.....let's look to yesterday for the future
Haha......GOP wear their thoughtful face backward. It is called "frown at the future"
if obama read the Bible he would know that the earth is round.
The passage saying the earth is round is Isaiah 40:22:
This passage may reasonably be interpreted as referring to a flat circular earth with the heavens forming a dome above it. Such an interpretation is consistent with other passages of the Bible which refer to a solid firmament (Gen. 1:6-20, 7:11; Ezekiel 1:22-26; Job 9:8, 22:14, etc.). It is also consistent with the cosmology common in neighboring cultures.
Isaiah 11:12 refers to the "four quarters of the earth", but we do not take that as indicative of the earth's shape.
I tell you what Joe if a republican gets elected as president I will move all my holdings, because the last time we had a republican president my 401K was turned into a 201K! I lost $480,000 in ten months under Bush, and gained it all back and more inside of the first 18 months of Obama's presidency, and it has gotten steadily better. You can deny it all you want, and complain about how we don't yet have full employment, but anybody that does not realize that the economy was rescued from disaster is just not paying attention, or they are in a right to work for less and less and less state and never had a pension plan or any savings to begin with.
Green Technology is an economic disaster
Goodnight Sunshine
Germany is cutting solar-power subsidies because they are expensive and
inefficient
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/project_syndicate/2012/02/why_germany_is_phasing_out_its_solar_power_subsidies_.html
Spain's Green Disaster a Lesson for America
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/finance/2011/November/Spains-Green-Disaster-a-Lesson-for-America/
the Secret to Canada’s financial
success.
Business Tax
Relief Is Crucial to Canada’s Economic Success
As a national, nonpartisan organization, the Canadian Chamber of
Commerce works with governments of all political stripes to foster sound
economic and social policies that aim to improve Canada’s international
competitiveness and Canadians’ standard of living.
To preserve our economic future, the Canadian Chamber believes it is
important to return to budget balance over the medium term. Left unchecked,
deficits drive up interest rates and drain national savings. They reduce our
flexi-bility to respond to unexpected circumstances and our capacity to meet
the challenges of an aging population.
The actions we take to eliminate deficits can strengthen the economy or
weaken it. We have to get it right.
The Canadian
Chamber believes the federal go-vernment should rein in spending and improve
the effectiveness and efficiency of government programs to ensure Canadians
receive value for their money. The Canadian Chamber recognizes that
across-the-board slashing of government programs without underlying structural
reforms will generate little in the way of sustained savings. “The federal
Program Review of the mid-1990s resulted in significant short-term savings, but
once these savings were secured and surpluses emerged, the machinery was
abandoned. Close scrutiny of spending must be an ongoing process.”
Increasing taxes on Canadian families and busi-nesses
is the wrong way to eliminate deficits. In a highly integrated global economy,
the tax base is constantly on the move. Skilled workers, businesses, jobs and
capital move easily across national borders, seeking the best economic
opportunities. They are drawn to low-cost, low-tax environments.
The Canadian Chamber finds it particularly troubling that some
politicians are proposing both higher business taxes (by scrapping and even
reversing legislated cuts in the federal general corporate income tax rate) and
more program spending. Tax and spend policies are not the basis for sustainable
economic growth and will do nothing to reduce the deficit. In fact the opposite
is the case—low business taxes promote better economic performance and lead to
more tax revenue of all types in the long-run, not less.
In the last decade, Canada has made steady progress in improving its
business tax competi-tiveness, and it has not gone unnoticed. In January, both
the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Times lauded Canada’s
business appeal. “Canada’s international reputation as a destination for
capital and investment is better than it has been for a generation,” said C.D.
Howe Institute’s Vice President of Research Finn Poschmann.2
Canada Has
Witnessed a Remarkable Transformation in the Business Tax Landscape
Over the last decade, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce has led the call
for a more competitive business tax system, and both the Liberals and
Conservatives in power have delivered. At the federal level, the corporate
surtax for all corpora-tions and the capital tax have been eliminated; the
small business tax rate has been reduced to 11 per cent and the income eligible
for the lower rate raised to $500,000; and, capital cost allowance rates for a
number of assets have been aligned to better reflect their useful life.
Liberal Prime
Minister Jean Chrétien gradually reduced the federal general tax rate on
corporate income earned by large firms from 28 per cent in 2000 to 21 per cent
in 2004. Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s conservative government further
reduced the rate from 21 per cent in 2007 to 16.5 per cent in 2011 with
a further 1.5 percentage point reduction legislated for 2012.
Several
provincial and territorial governments of various political stripes have also
moved to lighten the tax burden on the business sector. The combined
federal-provincial/territorial cor-porate income tax rate has been reduced from
42.6 per cent in 2000 to 27.8 per cent percent in 2011, and further legislated
reductions will bring the combined rate to 25.7 per cent in 2013, one of the
lowest in the Group of Seven (G7) and about equal to the average of member
countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
in 2010.3
While the general corporate income tax rate influences where businesses
locate, the marginal effective tax rate (METR) on capital—which in-cludes the
general corporate income tax rate, capital taxes, sales taxes on capital inputs
as well as deductions or credits associated with purchasing capital
goods—influences capital investment decisions. Further planned tax relief will
reduce the METR in Canada to 18.4 per cent by 2013 (a substantial reduction
from the 36.2 per cent rate that prevailed in 2006) putting Canada at the OECD
average.4
The tax
reductions “were gradual, but deliberate. And the changes took place regardless
of the fact that political parties on both the left and
the right have governed the country over the past two decades.
Fundamentally, political rhetoric and dogma gave way to pragmatism and
statesmanship, with long-term public policy taking precedent (generally) over
short-term political gain.”5
Canadian
Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Perrin Beatty recently told members that,
“All Canadians lose when the political parties squabble over this issue. Our
job is to help secure sustainable economic growth. We have a weak recovery
underway, and we need the help the business tax strategy provides. The issue is
too serious to be left to political game players.”6
I wonder if there are any flat-earth folks that were insulted by this analogy?
I couldn't tell you since I've never watched the show.
You being the certified idiot you are, seem to be a big fan of it though...
Why am I not suprised? lol
Obama knows the Earth is round.
He's a smart man.
Are you advocating that we ignore astronomy and read the bible instead? I don't think we landed on the moon by doing it that way.
Looks like the Puss in Albany is at it again...He wants the Pres to get tough on Iran yet wants $2.50 gas. Seems to believe we can have both...Must suffer from Cranial Rectal Insertion Disease!
Do tell Joe...How can we have $2.50 gas in the next 6 months?
Honest Jo, if this was all common knowledge, why did the Catholic church punish Galileo for stating that the earth was not the center of the universe, and that the earth actually circled the sun. Honestly the bible is not a technical reference book honest jo, and the religious community has never been supportive of any science that refutes any of their notions.
honest jo, we have other not so secret secrets ... we sell a whole pile of oil to you and China ... we have a GST tax of around 8% on just about everything on top of federal income tax ... we have Universal Healthcare that costs us 50% less per person ... we as a peace loving folk are far less concerned about enemies as we do not manufacture them which leads to a lower percentage of GDP spent on armed forces.
I tell you what Joe if a republican gets elected as president I will move all my holdings, because the last time we had a republican president my 401K was turned into a 201K!
Yadda, yadda, yadda.......
______________________________________________
Grump: The most important lesson in investing is that NOTHING is guaranteed, and EVERYTHING is always changing. The moron who thinks that their vote for a D or R will put their portfolio on the route for success is just that, a moron. A successful investor can make money regardless of who the tenant is in the WH and who controls Congress. I rode the 2008 stock market down by buying what I considered very discounted stock prices, for the long term. I'm a very happy investor right now who doesn't care one bit who wins the WH in 2012, as long as the R's have 41 votes in the Senate.
I couldn't tell you since I've never watched the show
____________________________
I guess having lived it 24/7/365, seeing it becoming Fox's biggest hit and the longest running sitcom in history is not something you want your FR minions to know about.
I'm a very happy investor right now who doesn't care one bit who wins the WH in 2012, as long as the R's have 41 votes in the Senate.
Joe in Albany ... so be happy from now on in your posts, and cut the I'm eating salmon crap.
OK Joe when a republican presides over the biggest decline in personal wealth since the Oct 1929 crash it is just yadda, yadda, yadda, but when world oil prices spike it is directly Obama's fault. Every once in while I try to take you seriously Joe, but you must understand why it is not often.
Are we supposed to be impressed that the idiot in Albany eats salmon & gets off watching mindless sitcoms?
If so, it's just not working for me... lol
Can I please be a FR minion? I like the sound of that.....
Feisty, I think I am getting the picture ... Albany Joe ... pc on an empty case of beer ... empty cans of salmon ... lottery ticket stubs ... divorce papers ... vote for Reagan sign still in the yard ...
I think people that use the word minion, or variations such as minions, and evil minions, just read to many comic books. Why not just call people the FR Super Heroes!, or FR Power Rangers!
Germany is one of the largest consumers of energy in the world. In 2009, it consumed energy from the following sources:[19]
Completely weaned? They just cut their subsidies for solar, pissing off the Chinese, and are scared @!$%#less that the Russians cut off the gas.
Where do you can up with these fantasies?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/02/germany-cuts-solar-power-subsidies
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-07/russian-gas-beckons-for-germany-as-merkel-turns-from-nuclear.html
I don't mind beng called a minion. Do we get cool matching t-shirts like in the old Batman show?
Ideo,
Don't forget the empty bottle(s) of "Jack" & the Cheeto wrappers covering his air mattress! ;o)
I'm PROUD to be a minion...along with a lefty liberal! ☺
Hopefully an empty bottle of Jack does not disqualify one from being a minion....
I am a proud supporter of Lynchburg, Tennessee!
Albany Joe,
Sitcoms are for the brainless. The people who watch them are too stupid to know when to laugh, so they throw in a laugh track. If you step back from it and observe the audience, you will see them laughing at things that really aren't funny. But they laugh because the actors' timing, combined with the laugh track, say: Okay, time to laugh now.
You give yourself away at every turn. Your HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! comes from sitcoms.
Alan, NJ
The share of electrical generation by renewable sources in Germany is now over 20%. Your figures are misleading. You also fail to report that Germany cut subsidies for solar panels because the demand for them was too high. Gee, other than the subsidy, I wonder why people wanted them?
Actually the reason for the cut in subsidies was in the Guardian article I cited. Either way the Germans had better hope that they don't get another winter like this one once they turn off those nuclear power stations.
http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,15725079,00.html
Alan J, Germany only makes mistakes when it goes to war ... you need not worry Alan. Question for you ... why does America shun the successes of other countries and gloat about their failures, but use neither as a learning tool; just a tool to maintain the status quo concept of we are number one?
Let's be honest, the "green technology" crap has Solyndra as its poster child ! As far as wind energy goes, Obama's frequent speeches do produce a lot of HOT AIR ! LOL !! If we could capture all that useless and wasteful energy, then maybe the "Progressives" would actually be on to something for the first time in their life.
Obama can spin it all he wants. He used the Gulf Oil Spill as an excuse to halt production after federal workers failed to do their inspections properly. He can brag about opening up new regions for exploration, but if the DOE is sitting on permits, then his rhetoric means nothing. Then there is the holdup of the Keystone Pipeline after it had previously passed the approval process.
Obama's actions and his inactions all speak much louder than his hot air !!!!!!!!!!!!!
jim-1455434
I guess the DOD does not agree with you either
In February 2010, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced that the U.S. military was about to begin large-scale production oil from algal ponds into jet fuel. After extraction at a cost of $2 per gallon, the oil will be refined at less than $3 a gallon. A larger-scale refining operation, producing 50 million gallons a year, is expected to go into production in 2013, with the possibility of lower per gallon costs so that algae-based fuel would be competitive with fossil fuels. The projects, run by the companies SAIC and General Atomics, are expected to produce 1,000 gallons of oil per acre per year from algal ponds.
It's not easy being green. ;-)
Obama/Biden 2012
Jim, your dinosaur thinking doesn't add up. Your not being honest.
The US, if it drilled every hole we have access to could produce at most 2% of the world's oil. We consume 20%. Tell us Jim...how are going to fill that gap?
That's the GOP plan?. 4 more years of filibusters and obstruction? Nice. You guys are going to lose even bigger than I 1st thought.
Contrast this with Obama's positive outlook for the future. America doesn't want to hear your pessimism and cant-do attitudes anymore. I want to go forward instead of back. The economy is in recovery, and we are about how we accelerate it even more. We are about building things and all Republicans and TeaBags want to do is deny, destroy, sabotage and destruct.
I want to thank the GOP for making my choice easy. I won't be voting for the troll party of Debbie Downer where our best days are 'in the rear view mirror' as Joe in Albany says.
The GOP just wants a return to the good old days of the '50s, you know, with Jim Crow Laws, The House Unamerican Activities hearings (McCarthyism)...need I go on?
No, the 1850’s before the Civil War, before communication took seconds instead of days/weeks, before facts were at your fingertips, before everything you say and do is captured forever in the digital media.
or the 1650's, when women were chattel and people were burned at the stake because they accused them of witchcraft. Like ol' frothy wants it.
That is the very essence of the difference between progressives and conservatives.
Progressives are on the side of the inevitable.
The difference between Progressives and Conservatives are 2 fold.
1.) Progressives are followers of Thomas Hobbes a philosopher that believed and taught that people are fundamentally evil or flawed and that the only way to make society work was for a strong elite to make decisions for the masses and dictate to them. Not the dersion Progressives heap on all who disagree with them.
Conservatives are by and large followers of John Locke, also a philosopher and contemporary of Hobbes. Locke put forth that people were basically good and if left to make their own decisions would do alright for themselves and their neighbors. The premise being that the better instincts of the citizens would over time make a better society. He correlated that to the idea of freedom of choice or agency and personal responsibility.
The founders of the nation and the framers of the Constitution were by and large followers of Locke--with exceptions.
The second is as follows:
2.) Conservatives do not make changes unless they are necessary. They are risk averse.
Progressives make change because they can with out thinking through the consequences of their actions. They don't take responsibility for the consequences.--they blame others for not embracing their wonderful idea.
Obama care--4 million new folks without health insurance. More than doubling the cost of Obamacare from estimates.
TheAnimalFarm:
Hogwash.
I would posit that overall the character of people is neutral, when averaged out for society as a whole. That would explain why both schools of thought have points in which people agree or disagree but no one has been conclusively proven wrong. Surely time would have exposed which is the more realistic, but it has not. So I say we are neither. And both.
I am a liberal/progressive and I do not follow this Thomas Hobbes fellow.
I follow my heart and my head. I try to make sure my head is full of facts and my heart is full of love and compassion. If you look around there are enough things in the world to satisfy both endeavors.
I also try to balance things out and give them both a say in my decisions, which is difficult sometimes but worth the effort - at least to me.
Animal Farm:
Don't know where you get your ideas, but they are pretty funny. Did you note in the latest primaries how strong the religious right is in the base of the conservative party? Know what the central tenant of that religion is? That MAN IS FUNDAMENTALLY EVIL, which is why they need salvation through the 'blood' of their idol.
As for your second premise, sure does seem like everybody, from whatever political ideology, wants change when things aren't going their way.
But hey, you mentioned two philosophers, which might impress 'progressives'. Conservatives, however, would take that to mean you're an elitist snob.
Too True KayBeetoys
Still the progressives ignore reality. interesting on how they bury their heads up their azz. Hobbes and locke, so far none of the minions want to reflect on them.
Thought I did reflect on them, american, did you miss that? It was only a couple posts up. Let me put it another way:
Today, the religious right dominates the conservative base. What do they believe? They believe that man is fundamentally evil, and that the only way our society will work is for the religious elite - priests and preachers who take their cue from God himself - to make decisions for the masses, for our own good. They also believe that their only concern is to follow God, and if they do, then the results of their actions are attributable to 'God's Will'. This absolves them of any personal responsibility for the consequences of what they do.
While I would disagree with the simplistic characterization of the philosophies of both Hobbes and Locke, this is not the time or place to bring them up. I simply note the irony that the attributes Animal Farm wants to pin on 'progressives' are precisely those followed and publicly declared over and over again by todays top CONSERVATIVE political leaders.
Chirp chirp chirp. Sorry to throw too much reality around, just when you wanted to appear intellectual...
While the GOP candidates have been attacking the president and each other (even themselves, at times), they didn't let facts get in the way. Well, watch out boys cuz my boyfriend's back in town!
Hussein acts like a 3rd grader with his name-calling! How cute. What a great leader.
And further proof of the dismissive crowd.
Anybody can lead you to where you want to go, it takes a real leader to lead you to where you need to go.
Let's start with YOU.
lib50, where did I name-call??
Hmmmmmmmmmmm...I wonder why you referred to Pres Obama by his middle name. In his Flat Earth Society comment, he was referring to those who believe:
1:our planet was created 6000 years ago by God
2:we have no effect on global climate change
3:renewable energy is a waste
4:science is flawed and the bible is absolute
5:evolution is false
Sounds like he pretty much nailed it. And all you can come up with is that he has a foreign middle name. How childish.
Calling someone by their given name, or even part of it, can only be considered "name calling" in the mind of libbies. At his inauguration, Barack HUSSEIN Obama took the oath of allegiance using his full given name.
Prior to that, it seemed to be a "no no" with the media. Obama himself seemed to refrain from using his full name.
Republicans disparage climate change science, while officials in coastal towns like mine are scrambling to put plans in place in the event of rising sea levels.
http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2012/03/15/239565.htm
The GOP won't do anything about global warming until it actually hurts the people in elected offices. Then rather than doing about it, they'll simply blame the democrats for the problem.
The GOP treat the subject of global warming the same way they treated our financial state regarding the economy. They will do anything but the right thing. They are not only risk adverse but are extremely shortsighted. The day is coming when climate change will no longer be reversible and then it will the fault of the Democrats. But all the super rich folks will be enriched through their fighting regulations to help the environment. For folks so worried about what legacy they will leave to their descendents in the way of Federal Debt, this subject of climate change should be of the utmost urgency. We may not have a world worth having if we dont stop our dependency on fossil fuels by inventing and producing viable clean energy sources. That is a legacy I want to leave, as I have raised a child to be a responsible hardworking citizen and my grandchildren are on course to do the same.
An extra $40 doesn't even fill up my gas tank. And doesn't even begin to cover the rise in groceries.
would you rather have an extra nothing?
So give it back ... then how are you doing?
Do those on the right know how to do anything but piss and moan? Take some of you own advice - go get a job, or if need be, a second job. That is your pat answer to liberals.
Pike Lake........................
unbelievable! So I guess you'd be one of the people who would complain that the golden egg laid by the goose smelled like s**t?
Why not be thankful that something given back is better than receiving nothing at all?
It is never enough with those kind of people...
If you gave them $100 they would demand $200...
When your version of grocery shopping is sitting in your SUV, idling in line at the Burger King drive-thru, I can only imagine that $40 doesn't go very far.
It is never enough with those kind of people...
Isn't that the truth Feisty?!
Always looking for a government handout...and then it's never enough.
Go complain to Romney. He'll surely help you, Pike.
RedDevPS,
You get better with every post!
You're on fire today!
I would rather Hussein did NOT steal the $40 from our Social Security.
I would rather republicans tried to FIX SS instead of trying to privatize it.
This is not an act of theft, but your claim smells of libel.
lib50, it's hard to fix SS when Hussein keeps robbing from it. RedDev, do you not know where the money is coming from?
OMG - are you really asking a serious question? Now sit down, and really think about. If the government is NOT taking that $40 from your paycheck, the money comes from ??????????????????
Pike,
Actually it was Congress including the Republican controlled House that passed the extension to the payroll tax reduction that allows you to keep more of your money.
So if it is your money and you get to keep it thus no one robbed anyone!!
The sad part that you Liberals don't understand, that $40 is the Tax payers money. So in your thinking, you think by bribing the tax payer by giving them back their money is a good thing. Ok, cool $40 ohhh ahhh, keep it, because he will take it back in other ways. Let's see, gas prices go up, is it Obama's fault? I say no, but it sure was funny that Obama thought it was in 2008, but now he's in charge, not is fault. But with the gas prices going up the tax money to the government gets higher.
At least 49.5% of you don't have to worry about the $40, they don't pay, so there's no issues. Hey Red how much did you pay into the government slush fund? Be honest.
Hey Jack, who's smarter you or David Walker?
Poor lefties. No clue on how to make a point.
Yep dennis that payroll tax refund sure is precious to us all. Just another $40/wk in treasury IOU's for medicare and SS. At least my mom still gets her monthly allotment. I can hardlyt wait to see what spin obama will put on ....
raising the debt ceiling.
Automatic cuts to entitlements and military spending.
His (bush) tax cuts expiration come 2013.
SS and medicare reform for sustainability.
Expiration of extended UE and payroll tax cuts.
Yes sir, obama likes the flat earth analogy, that way he won't miss the can as he is kicking it down the road.
My goodness, only the Progressives are intelligent!
Republicans seems to be the brunt of all that is wrong in the world!
The Barry blames others for his troubles - why re-elect him if he professes no ability to do the job?
Spin away the reasons why we should have a Barry for four more years.
Whinemaker, spin away why we should elect one of the GOP freakshow?
Alright, we've got one beginning to see the light!
Dig a little winemaker and you will find even more of the problems Republicans have created.
Start around 1980 and work forward.
I remember when Jimmy Carter turned the thermostats down in the White House and told his staff to wear a sweater. He put solar panels on the White House. Carter gave a speech urging Americans to get off oil and what did we do?
We fired Carter, elected Reagan, and dropped the ball on developing alternative energy technology. Bush I and II plus Cheney were thick as thieves with oil companies, and also neglected the issue.
Obama's commitment to new technology is one of the reasons I support him. Even our Tea Party governor derides alternative energy, and Maine has the potential to lead the country in tidal turbine energy! Thank goodness this industry in Maine is getting federal support.
Now you're catching on.
The problem with obama and company is not that they don't want to look down the road, but that they can't see what is required and act on it.
Once again Oblozo show his true partisan hack colors.
Oh my .. and we have never once seen Newt/Santorum/Romney speak in non-partisan political tongues.
The only thing 'flat' is Barry's head.
The only flat I see is your 'joke'.
His joke is about as funny as the "jokes" of Bill Maher. If Maher was a conservative making the kind of outlandish remarks he frequently does, you libbies would wet yourselves in anger, demand that his sponsors drop him and March on Washington ! LOL !!
Because he is a "fellow libtard" .... hey, it's okay ! Your hypocrisy is quite noticeable.
Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and Andrew Breitbart were responsible for the death of civility in our political system. They ratcheted up the ugliness until the left was forced to produce a Bill Maher, who is still funnier, smarter and more constructive than that trio of rightwing pot-stirrers.
"They ratcheted up the ugliness until the left was forced to produce a Bill Maher,"
Wow, Amy, you truly believe that? Of course you do, that sad part is that you are just as bad as the right wingers.
The President said: “We passed a payroll tax [cut] at the beginning of this year to make sure that everybody has an extra $40 in their paycheck on average, in part, because we anticipated that gas prices might be going up like they did last year, given tight world oil supplies.”
Trouble is: Many people get paid every two weeks, but the high price of gas is costing us $50 PER WEEK ..PER CAR over what it was when he came in. His administration is raking in much more per gallon than the oil companies. ..
If it's not helping you, how about donating it to someone it can help? Didn't think so.
And yet …
Production is up (9 year high) and demand is down (15 year low) so both should result in a price drop. The real problems come from the Middle East, refinery production (shut downs) and speculators.
Obama often says, “Under my administration, America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years.” That’s true: It’s also true that under Obama’s administration, Snooki from “Jersey Shore” got pregnant and Charlie Sheen lost his job. And he can take about as much credit for those developments too. --- Boston Herald Editorial
http://bostonherald.com/news/opinion/op_ed/view/20220315obama_energy_policy_a_real_loser
NOW THAT"S FUNNY!
Maybe try for a more fuel efficient car...or hey - how about public transportation? (of course the GNOP is against that 'cuz it hurts the bottom line of the "poor" oil companies).....maybe ride a bike to work even.
Paul
Don't embarass all New Yorkers like myself. Not everybody in the US has public transport like we do even if the price continues to go up for less service. Never saw people in Iowa riding a train to work and don't tell me we should be building them all railroads and subways. We as a country don't have enough money to buy the proverbial pot to pee in.
Falmouth, Me, the wealthiest town in our state, has a public bus which the Republicans here fought against, with their usual lack of foresiight. Republicans would rather send the sons and daughters of the middle class to fight oil wars in the middle east, then sit on a public bus to go to work, or even car pool (shudders!)
This from a man with an addiction to gambling with others' money......and losing it. But then, progressives never minded stealing from others when it was in their best interest.
And conservatives just like stealing from others period.......
So we agree that both sides like spending money. The thing is the right (aka tea party) wants to change that, while the lefty posters here thinks spending OPM is still the right thing to do.
The President needs to tread carefully around the subject of gas prices. The simple truth is that when prices are high, people are unhappy and so are unlikely to listen to rational explanations. But they will reject outright the attempt to ridicule 'foes' who think they know how to lower the price of oil.
Between the person who believes we will be able to replace cars that run on fossil fuels with cars that run on algae and windmills within the next 5 years, and the person who's just not buying it, which one do you really think is more likely to be a member of the flat earth society? Refusing to allow drilling for fossil fuels isn't going to make the need for them go away, and we are a good 20 years from any hope of replacing fossil fuels with some other cheap, available alternative.
If you stuck a member of the flat-earth society in a Leaf and drove them by a newly built solar plant and windmill farm, they would still claim moving to alternative oil sources is impossible.
Green Technology is an economic disaster
Goodnight Sunshine
Germany is cutting solar-power subsidies because they are expensive and
inefficient
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/project_syndicate/2012/02/why_germany_is_phasing_out_its_solar_power_subsidies_.html
Spain's Green Disaster a Lesson for America
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/finance/2011/November/Spains-Green-Disaster-a-Lesson-for-America/
Spain's Green Disaster a Lesson for America
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/finance/2011/November/Spains-Green-Disaster-a-Lesson-for-America/
BARCELONA, Spain -- It was just last year that President Obama was touring
Solyndra headquarters and telling us green technology was the future:
"The future is here. We are poised to transform the ways we power our
homes and our cars and our businesses," Obama said.
The president said America had better get on board or else fall behind the rest
of the world in the growth of renewable or "green" technology.
Spain's Colossal Failure
One the nations he held up as an example for America's green technology
effort was Spain.
However, President Obama may like Spain's green technology program, but the Spanish -- not so much. One study has declared it a colossal failure.
The Spanish recently threw out their socialist government over their
terrible economy and a 22 percent unemployment rate.
Green technology was supposed to be Spain's path to more jobs and a cleaner
more prosperous future. It wasn't.
"Politicians told us some years ago that they found a new way of
investing or doing public investing in a new sector, in the renewable energies,
that would create a sort of new economy with new jobs, green jobs, so called
green jobs," Dr. Gabriel Calzada Álvarez, with King Juan Carlos University
in Madrid, said.
But what the Spanish got was a big helping of a Solyndra style business
debacle: a lot of taxpayer money down the drain and jobs that cost a fortune to
create.
A Job Killer
Calzada, an economist, studied Spain's green technology program and found that each
green job created in Spain cost Spanish taxpayers $770,000. Each Wind Industry
job cost $1.3 million to create.
"President Zapatero, for example, when he came in to power, said he
knew, 'he knew' that solar energy was the future," Calzada said. "He
'knew' this, so he put all the public money and investment into this
model."
But Calzada's study found that for every four jobs created by Spain's
expensive green technology program, nine jobs were lost.
Electricity generated was so expensive that each "green" megawatt
installed in the power grid destroyed five jobs elsewhere in the economy by
raising business costs.
Unsafe Conditions
Marta Sabina lives on the outskirts of Barcelona in one of Spain's new
green technology apartment buildings.
It has been a nightmare for this mother of three young children. Her toilet
uses recycled water with chemicals in it.
She said it's unsafe for her children and often looks no different from
toilet water that hasn't been flushed.
"A lot of times I am coming to the bathroom and I am pushing all the
time because the water is dirty and I don't know if it's the kids because they
have not pushed or if because it's the water," Sabina said.
"Sometimes it smells very bad and it's very dirty and it's not for
kids."
Sabina has also had to heat her family's hot water on the stove because the
building's solar water heater didn't work for three years.
Breaking the Bank
Spain's green technology dream was costing the nation more than $15 billion
a year before the government had to slash it because it had failed and Spain
was going broke.
The Obama Administration's 2007 stimulus package included $80 billion for
green jobs.
"Green energy is not ready for prime time," Seton Motley,
president of Less
Government, said. "It's not ready for private sector
production."
"Everything that requires government money means there's no market for
it," he explained. "Because if there was a market for it, there'd be
plenty of private capital to invest in it and people saying, 'Let's go
forward.' "
The market didn't like General Motors, which faced bankruptcy. Then
Washington came to the rescue. Uncle Sam bought 500-million shares of General
Motors, which have since lost $15 billion in value.
"I can't think of, off the top of my head, a bigger loser than GM, as
far as most money in one place that's going down the tubes," Motley said.
Environmental Dream Buster
The Spanish could have taught the Americans a thing or two about government
money down the tubes.
Spain spent billions on an environmental dream that helped make their
economy worse and added to the nation's already crushing government debt.
And now Spain's future is looking more like what Greece is facing.
Germany is cutting solar-power subsidies because they are expensive and
inefficient
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/project_syndicate/2012/02/why_germany_is_phasing_out_its_solar_power_subsidies_.html
Goodnight
Sunshine-READ IT ALL!!!
Germany is cutting
solar-power subsidies
because they are expensive and inefficient.
By Bjørn Lomborg|Posted
Saturday, Feb. 18, 2012, at 7:30 AM ET
Windows covered in
solar panels in Munich, Germany
Christof
Stache/AFP/Getty Images.
Germany once prided
itself on being the “photovoltaic
world champion”, doling out generous subsidies—totaling more than $130 billion,
according to research from Germany’s Ruhr University—to citizens to invest in
solar energy. But now the German government is vowing to cut the subsidies
sooner than planned and to phase out support over the next five years. What
went wrong?
Subsidizing green
technology is affordable only if it is
done in tiny, tokenistic amounts. Using the government’s generous subsidies,
Germans installed 7.5 gigawatts of photovoltaic capacity last year, more than
double what the government had deemed “acceptable.” It is estimated that this
increase alone will lead to a $260 hike in the average consumer’s annual power
bill.
According to Der
Spiegel, even members of
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s staff are now describing the policy as a massive
money pit. Philipp Rösler, Germany’s minister of economics and technology, has
called the spiraling solar subsidies a “threat to the economy.”
Germany’s enthusiasm
for solar power is understandable.
We could satisfy all of the world’s energy needs for an entire year if we could
capture just one hour of the sun’s energy. Even with the inefficiency of
current PV technology, we could meet the entire globe’s energy demand with
solar panels by covering 250,000 square kilometers (155,342 square miles),
about 2.6 percent of the Sahara Desert.
Unfortunately,
Germany—like most of the world—is not as
sunny as the Sahara. And, while sunlight is free, panels and installation are
not. Solar power is at least four times more costly than energy produced by
fossil fuels. It also has the distinct disadvantage of not working at night,
when much electricity is consumed.
In the words of the
German Association of Physicists,
“solar energy cannot replace any additional power plants.” On short, overcast
winter days, Germany’s 1.1 million solar-power systems can generate no
electricity at all. The country is then forced to import considerable amounts
of electricity from nuclear power plants in France and the Czech Republic.
Indeed, despite the
massive investment, solar power
accounts for only about 0.3 percent of Germany’s total energy. This is one of
the key reasons why Germans now pay the second-highest price for electricity in
the developed world (exceeded only by Denmark, which aims to be the “world
wind-energy champion”). Germans pay three times more than their American
counterparts.
Moreover, this
sizeable investment does remarkably little
to counter global warming. Even with unrealistically generous assumptions, the
unimpressive net effect is that solar power reduces Germany’s CO2
emissions
by roughly 8 million metric tons—or about 1 percent – for the next 20 years. To
put it another way: By the end of the
century, Germany’s $130 billion solar
panel subsidies will have postponed temperature increases by 23 hours.
Using solar, Germany
is paying about $1,000 per ton of CO2 reduced.
The current CO2 price in Europe is $8. Germany could have cut 131
times
as much CO2 for the same price. Instead, the Germans are wasting
more than 99 cents of every
euro that they plow into solar panels.
It gets
worse: Because Germany is part of the European
Union Emissions Trading System, the actual effect of extra solar panels in
Germany leads to no CO2 reductions, because total emissions
are already capped.
Instead, the Germans simply allow other parts of the EU to emit more CO2.
Germany’s
solar panels have only made it cheaper for Portugal or Greece to use coal.
Defenders of Germany’s
solar subsidies also claim that
they have helped to create “green jobs.” But
each job created by green-energy
policies costs an average of $175,000—considerably
more than job creation
elsewhere in the economy, such as infrastructure or health care. And many
“green jobs” are being exported to China, meaning that Europeans subsidize
Chinese jobs, with no CO2 reductions.
Germany’s
experiment with subsidizing inefficient solar
technology has failed. What
governments should do instead is to focus first on
increasing research and development to make green-energy technology cheaper and
more competitive. Production should be ramped up later.
In the meantime,
Germans have paid about $130 billion for
a climate-change policy that has no impact on global warming. They have
subsidized Chinese jobs and other European countries’ reliance on dirty energy
sources. And they have needlessly burdened their economy. As even many German
officials would probably attest, governments elsewhere cannot afford to repeat
the same mistake.
This
article comes from Project Syndicate
Germany is also swearing off of nuclear power - what are they going to use? How do the numbers change when nuclear power is removed from the discussion?
Germany is reducing german manufactured solar panels because of chinese solar being less expensive and equal quality.They are still going full ahead with use of solar
And if we'd done what was suggested back in the 1970's I wonder where we'd be now? Since those gas lines I have been disappointed (to say the least) at the power big oil has in keeping this country addicted to oil so they can rape the nation for profits. So when exactly IS a good time to start getting serious about alternatives and conservation? After it's too late? I'm getting sick of this backward looking bull@!$%#. This country (especially republicans, but dems too, to an extent) has been allowing big dirty oil to call the shots for over one hundred years. When will we take our country back from them?
My point is that we're all to blame really (but especially Congress and oil companies) for higher oil prices because we've had 40 years to develop alternative means of supplying our energy needs and we have largely failed to cut our dependence on foreign oil.
I just said the same thing in a previous post. I was ready for alternatives and serious conservation back in the 70's, and instead this country doubled down on our addiction to oil. Now republicans want to do it again (drill, baby, drill). It's insane.
"we've had 40 years to develop alternative means"
And 40 years of wasting billions of taxpayer dollars shows...THEY DONT WORK!
We need oil and natural gas !
The guy is from the flat forehead society - an absolute stuttering idiot.
why would we want to continue using 100 year old technology rather then the newer cleaner types. Even if the cost is higher what are the hidden costs with oil- defense and health?
Watch it now before it gets pulled from the internet!
IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE THAT OBAMA IS A MUSLIM JUST ASK HIM OR BETTER
YET JUST WATCH AND HE WILL TELL YOU!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=tCAffMSWSzY#t=28<http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=tCAffMSWSzY#t=28
DIShonest jo: What's with the edited tapes? I thought Breitbart was dead.
Call Obama a Muslim if your delusions make you happy.
You'd better be careful though. You're likely to end up in the camp of the next David Koresh or Jim Jones if you keep drinking that GOP koolaid.
honest joe,
Ok, I hear all the time that some believe he is Muslin andothers say, in a defensive manor, that he is Christian.
What I want to know is – why does it matter – our country was founded on freedom of religion, right?
BTW - You have become a spammer – posting the same thing over and over. This is a violation of the “user agreement” you agreed to when you joined Newsvine and is grounds for having your account terminate and yourself banned as a user.
Normally, when someone converts to a different religion that religion is accepting and joyous that a new convert has joined them - unless your a black democrat and a former Muslim.
Your racism is showing. So is your religious intolerance.
You are indeed "blearyeyed", aren't you?
Lying political hack. Oh, and probable racist.
Oh...and eat your peas!
Obama's hubris and arrogance is coming through. His ego makes him have to disparage his opponents as ignorant.
This will not wear well on the campaign trail.
"So do not tell me that we're not drilling. We're drilling all over this country."
Thanks to previous Bush era approvals. Your zealot EPA and other agencies have rejected and delayed more essential drilling . Obama zealotry has led to higher gas prices..
But the republican playbook will?
Oh really? How many? You must be busy probing vaginas and listening to batsh!t crazy Bachmann's claim of just one approved permit.
Of course, we know you never back up your flap with a valid response, so I'll help you out. Since 2011, over 400 drilling permits have been approved. Hardly a paltry number. Now who's hubris and arrogance is showing through?
http://www.bsee.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Permits/Status-of-Gulf-of-Mexico-Well-Permits.aspx
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/mar/29/michele-bachmann/michele-bachmann-claims-there-has-been-just-one-ne/
Any sane person would have supported some extensive evaluation on new drilling permits in the Gulf of Mexico after the BP disaster. Just like any sane person would listen to the states and not rushed approval on on the Keystone Pipeline.
And I read a couple of weeks ago where Hillary helped broker an agreement with Mexico that would open up new regions of the gulf for drilling by agreeing in advance on how to share.
As any parent understands, it's easy to say "yes" - yes to keystone, yes to drilling in ANWR, yes to drilling on federal lands. Environmentalists wold be upset but they would still support Obama. The difficult thing to do is to say "No" or "Not Yet" because oil companies have not proven they can drill in these sensitive areas without screwing things up. Sometimes it is hard to make the right choice.
The "scewing up" was federal employees who failed to do their inspection jobs properly !
Are you the guy who apologized to BP after the spill? Poor BP, just because they CUT CORNERS to raise their risk (and their profit) mean old Americans want them to pay for the mess they made but people like you probably want our tax dollars to bail them out while you kiss their ass.
Why are so many conservatives so eager to blame the government for personal failure or the failure of corporations. It's as though they have never heard of the term "personal responsibility". It is always the fault of someone else.
That is not the only thing that is flat about the GOP/RNC Mr. President. The IQ Scores of the GOP/RNC are very flat! The intellectual abilities of the GOP/RNC are very flat! The Cognitive Abilities of the GOP/RNC are even flatter, and the TeaBegger Cultural Views are as "Mentally" flat. The GOP/RNC have huge Mental Disorders that are very flat in their lack of ability to improve. These are the facts America!
The arrogance of your remarks is truly breathtaking ..... like breathing in after someone has cut loose with a "green gasser" fart in an elevator. You have no ideas of their IQ's so you appear to be lying.
You libbies pat yourselves on the back, announce your self-proclaimed intellectual superiority for all the world to see ..... and then make unfounded, broad-based attacks on a whole class of people of which you know nothing.
Your opinion is no more intellectual than anyone else. Perhaps, you are suffering from delusions of adequacy and must over-compensate by letting everyone know how superior you think you are !!!
Gotta love the President.. He came to MY school PGCC and spoke the truth...
This President is a fool. The only thing worse is his followers. Stupid is as stupid does.
What a joke