Showing posts with label Keystone Pipeline. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Keystone Pipeline. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 01, 2014

Obamaville - July 1, 2014 -- Déjà Vu all over again

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So today we look at the headlines then ask ourselves how things have changed during the 6 1/2 years of the Obama presidency.



 Headline - President continues to send more troops to Iraq to fight terrorist invasion!


Headline - Obamacare limited by Supreme Court ruling!



 Headline - Mideast Peace Talks go up in flames as Israel attacks Hamas!



Headline - ISIS terrorists capture huge parts of Syria and Iraq and move toward Lebanon and Jordan!


Headline - Russia defies UN and USA and moves more troops to Ukraine border!


Headline - Russia bans American astronauts from flights to International Space station!



Headline - Tens of Thousands of Illegal immigrants overwhelm American borders!


Headline - GMC teeters on brink of bankruptcy again with 30 million cars recalled!


Headline - US Federal Deficit blows past $17.5 trillion - has now tripled under Obama!


Headline - Obama has now completed over 176 rounds of golf during his 78 months as president!


Headline - America's hope for Energy Independence - the Keystone Pipeline - still not approved by Obama!


Headline - American military veterans face death at home as well as in wars with neglect and corruption permeating the Obama Veterans Administration  health program!



Headline - Health care costs and health insurance costs prepare for massive increases to pay for new Obamacare program!


Headline - Democrats and Obama continue to blame Republicans and Bush for everything that has gone wrong since Obama was elected and Democrats took control of the presidency, house and senate 6 1/2 long years ago!

Whew!  Has anything really changed?



Thank God the USA plays in the World Cup today or it would be a most depressing Fourth of July weekend.

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Monday, April 21, 2014

Obama puts Democrats at risk with another Keystone Pipeline delay

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Say no to jobs, energy independence, new tax revenues and lower gasoline

Evidence seems to be building that President Obama is drifting farther and farther away from reality with his sometimes bizarre policy actions.  This time more Democrats up for re-election are going to find it tougher thanks to another weird action by the president.


As we should all know by now, Obama has been opposed to the Keystone natural gas pipeline ever since Sarah Palin challenged him to "drill baby drill" in the 2008 campaign.  His campaign did a reasonable job of trashing Palin as he got about 6% more than McKain-Palin.

However, no sooner had he become president than pressure started building for the Keystone pipeline to be built in order to break the oil cartel stranglehold on the American energy market.


In spite of non-stop opposition to the energy independence movement by the Obama administration, Sarah Palin's call to action was heard and the states started authorizing oil production using the fracking technique.  The success was amazing and showed that a concerted energy production policy between the US and Canada could bring millions of more American produced oil to the market from the Canadian shale oil deposits.


To the embarrassment and insult of the Canadians Obama continued to see the world through rose covered glasses, or was it fog covered, by delaying Keystone at every turn.  All the while the rest of America including Obama's own base like unions, Harry Reid, Bill Clinton and even the Oracle of Omaha Warren Buffett, a crucial Obama supporter, supported building the pipeline in the interests of American energy independence.


When a bi-partisan Senate vote supported it in the middle of the bitter partisanship that has paralyzed congress since Obama took office and then his own State Department review found no objections Obama was left standing alone in opposition.  True to his strategic principles Obama again ordered a delay until after the mid-term elections in November.


The Democrats were shocked, the ones running for re-election were sabotaged, the ones financing elections were appalled and the American consumer, and voter, will be outraged as gasoline prices continue to rise because we are not energy independent and because Obama has continued to ignore Sarah Palin and her cry to "drill baby drill".


Since taking office Obama has confirmed early predictions that his lack of experience in public office would haunt him and his refusal to recruit seasoned staff with government experience, opting instead for political cronies, would cripple his effectiveness.  Add to that his superior attitude and cerebral facade and he was destined for trouble.

It became obvious when he could not get a budget passed, did not adopt all the social reforms he promised the first two years when the Democrats controlled the House, the Senate and the presidency, a tragic strategic blunder and did not have a clue on how to communicate with congress.


Such shortcomings have been reinforced with his "line in the sand" empty threats to Iran, Syria and now Russia, Obama foreign policy actions that have baffled our allies around the world and cemented the perception that not only is America weak under Obama, but we don't even have the will to back up his somewhat meager threats to other countries.


The paper tiger, the boy that cried wolf, call it what you like but the one thing Obama has been consistent at is a policy as solid as quicksand with a foundation of genuine made in the USA jello.


The failure of Obama to see the light on the Keystone pipeline is just another notch in the belt solidifying his reputation, merited or not, of embracing inertia to avoid the danger of making a mistake.  In the old west that might be called gutless, today clueless and tomorrow hopeless in terms of the impact on our future.

By the way, have you noticed how the news media has stopped talking about the terrible Republicans, the liberal news media?  Could it be reality is catching up with them?

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Thursday, February 27, 2014

North America for Americans - Hear the People's Cry for Help!

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The United States, Mexico and Canada
500 Years of Shared History

Over six years ago I wrote an article calling for a North American for Americans that outlined a program to unify the United States, Canada and Mexico through a comprehensive treaty to share and protect each other in the areas of energy independence, human rights, economic collaboration, agriculture production and safety and justice for our citizens.

With the Keystone Pipeline pressing the agenda along with the need to address drug trafficking and Immigration reform, both the Obama Administration and the two political parties once again are talking about the subject and once again are failing to take stock of the wonderful opportunity we have to correct many wrongs and recognize the many good things a real North American partnership would bring.

Toward that end the following is the article I wrote first in mid-2008 calling for a North America for Americans program.  I then updated the article in 2010, 2012 and 2013 waiting for the US government to wake up and act.  We are closer today than ever and all citizens of these three great nations should demand their politicians embrace such a program that serves the greater good of the people.

Since our discovery 520 years ago the three North neighbors have grown up and evolved in ways that will forever keep us tied together culturally, economically, politically and from a national security standpoint.

We have thousands of miles of common borders and millions of people have moved back and forth between these three nations. In spite of our differences, there is much that binds us together. Yet these closest and most consistent of allies have never embraced a policy that can serve the benefit of all three neighbors.

Our problems are common from economic stability to natural resource management, from national security to energy independence. If we shared resources there are numerous ways the three could benefit from the relationship.


Even our national priorities are similar. We all seek energy independence, security for our citizens, quality health care, better education, improved human rights, freedom to achieve success without financial or cultural discrimination, and the ability to pursue an American Dream.

We complement each other in ways we seldom appreciate. Canada has excess oil and we have excess natural gas. Mexico has oil but needs better health care, education and economic development. All three have abundant natural resources and the ability to share those resources and make all of us independent in a variety of ways.

Our problems are often ignored by politicians but obvious to compassionate citizens. Since I wrote the article nearly 45,000 innocent Mexican citizens have been brutally murdered in drug wars along the border with the USA. They were caught in the crossfire of criminal elements intent on controlling the huge illegal drug trade in the United States.


For some odd reason the number of Mexican deaths seems to have been ignored by the American media and politicians. So let us put it in perspective. Our total military deaths in Iraq, 1,887, and Afghanistan, 4,484, is 6,341 over the past decade. In less than half that time SEVEN TIMES as many Mexicans, 45,000, have been killed in a war for control of our southern border. Included are men, women and children, not soldiers.

We should be ashamed of such a travesty taking place under our very noses. Of course there is corruption in Mexico, just like on Wall Street and in Washington, DC. America is founded on the principle that crime does not pay and criminals should be hunted down and locked up. Why do we turn a deaf ear to the American crime that has settled just across the border to avoid the reach of our laws?

Immigration, or illegal immigration is another common problem between neighbors. If we helped Mexico develop an economic development program that provided fair wages and benefits to Mexican workers, there would be no need for them to cross the border illegally to seek a better life in America.


Much of the economic pressure on America comes from foreign dependence on oil and the price manipulation of crude oil and gas in world commodity markets. While we have reduced oil dependence to about 50%, largely because of the reduced use of gasoline in America due to the recession and economic instability, we still import 50% too much.

If congress and the president had the guts we could be energy independent already as the combined oil and natural gas resources of the US, Canada and Mexico are more than sufficient to meet all our energy needs for now and the future.

Obama blocked off shore drilling, has not supported natural gas development, and rejected the Keystone pipeline from Canada, three ill-advised moves that have undermined the hopes for US energy independence. It is time to get real. Our economy and our high standard of living, the envy of most nations, depends on abundant energy at reasonable prices. We have neither.


Our first economic concern should be energy independence from foreign control and manipulation. There must be an American strategy that includes our neighbors to the north and south, Canada and Mexico. Between the three (USA, Canada and Mexico) we have more than enough reserves of oil, natural gas and alternative energy capacity to meet our needs forever.

Between the three we have the technical skills, exploration capacity, financial resources and the spirit of freedom needed to create our own cartel to meet our future needs, to control inflation which is now driven by oil prices, to offset problems in one area (hurricanes) with increased production in another area (Canadian shale reserves), and to finally gain independence from foreign manipulation.

There should be no more Dubai's financed with the blood money from American consumers. In the future the horrendous transfer of wealth from the Americas to Arab and other nations including hostile energy producing nations, must stop, keep the massive wealth in America.


If the United States, Mexico and Canada decided our shared interests were far more important than our differences, that our heritages are bound together through generations, that our borders touch and that if the citizens of all three countries had good homes, good health and good jobs, there would be no need for illegal immigration, then we could all live in peace and harmony.

Well the money we wasted buying inflated oil could have accomplished just that and isn't it about time we used that money to do some good for the Americas? Stop pointing fingers and building walls and work together. Mexico and Canada have incredible oil and natural gas reserves like the United States. We all have a need and desire to help each other grow. And we sure don't need the rest of the world to interfere.

Years ago when we passed NAFTA our biggest mistake was not that it went too far, it didn't go far enough. Oh we moved jobs to Mexico and US manufacturers saved money, but at what cost? We didn't protect the workers down there like we protect them here. We didn't make sure the people of Mexico got a better standard of living, decent homes, food and housing and a better education for their children.


Maybe it is time we stepped back and did it right. Maybe we need an agreement based on a shared interest in creating energy independence for all three nations. One that assures that excess profits are invested in the people, in their standard of living and quality of life. Maybe we should stop glamorizing the excesses like the development of Dubai and start focusing on the real world which is the people living in our three countries in substandard conditions with inferior education and jobs in the wrong place.

Do our politicians acknowledge that gasoline prices have doubled since Obama was elected? Because of that our recession has been exasperated. How about the fact the American public knows what to do and have reduced the use of gas dramatically so they can afford to survive. We have seen the greatest decline in gas usage in history?

Do our politicians know while they spit out ideas like machine gun bullets and fail to take any action on anything, the people have said enough is enough and stopped driving so much, turned down the thermostats, got rid of the gas guzzlers, and reduced the amount of travel and entertainment?


Something is terribly wrong with the system. All the nuclear reactors in the world and all the alternative energy in the world will not overcome corruption in the marketplace, unfair business actions, malicious price manipulation of the futures market, and the evil intentions of oil speculators. Still the price of gasoline continues to rise.

Nuclear reactors, contrary to the vast experience of McCain, are still dangerous. Three Mile Island and Chernobyl were not jokes nor movies, they were real. I was at TMI for the multi-billion dollar clean up of that "harmless" accident. If $5-7 billion is harmless what is the world coming to? As for Chernobyl, I met the kids that were victims of radiation poisoning, the kids that must remain in the hot zone for life because they can contaminate other people. Of course a full life for many of them was about 10-12 years.

Of the radiation that was released by Chernobyl, over 70% fell onto the population of Belarus resulting in 800,000 children in Belarus and 380,000 in the Ukraine being at a high risk of contracting cancer or leukemiaIt will be another 24,000 years before the land is safe and the children no longer suffer.


Since the disaster there has also been an increase of 800% in the incidence of cancers in children living near to the reactor plus there has been a dramatic increase in the rate of babies born with substantial physical disabilities. Babies born limbless, deformed and with severe brain damage.

Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline and other groups in Britain help deprived children living in heavily contaminated areas affected by the Chernobyl disaster (primarily Belarus and Ukraine) by bringing them to the UK for a month-long respite holiday where they benefit from, among other things, clean air, good nutrition, physical safety and an environment free of radioactive contamination. I met the kids in Scotland. Is was estimated the month long holiday extended the lives of the children up to a year.

There is an accident in the Ukraine, in Eastern Europe, and sheep die a thousand miles away in Scotland. Land from nuclear testing over the years is a dead zone for hundreds of years. Nuclear waste at our nuclear plants sit stored at the plants, vulnerable to terrorist attack, because congress cannot get a nuclear disposal facility built. When a nuclear plant wears out, and they do just like everything else, the plant must be decommissioned and that cost is now more than the cost of building the plant in the first place. Nuclear has a role but must be used with great caution.


On the other hand, there are known reserves of oil and gas in North America sufficient to meet the our needs for 300 more years. We are not running out of oil tomorrow. The price manipulation of oil has nothing to do with the supply and demand, the normal supply and demand. Off shore drilling, even the very limited Alaskan drilling, can only help us be more independent. But we need refinery capacity to make the various types of gas and oil we need if we get the crude locally.

Together the three nations should develop and implement a long term North American Energy Independence plan that makes all known and unknown reserves available to the producers including the Gulf, Atlantic and Pacific deep water reserves, the limited areas in Alaska that should be developed, and the many other known reserves in the countries.

As new territory is made available for drilling refining capacity must be expanded in the Americas to produce the products we need. There must be substantial incentives for alternative energy efforts but we must not be so foolish as to think alternative energy can meet much of our current and future energy needs.


Significant savings can be generated by energy conservation programs. For example, energy savings of 50% or more can be made in our older housing stock. Multiply that by a few hundred thousand homes and a real dent in energy demand can be realized.

A meaningful partnership is needed between the three bordering nations, the energy companies in those nations, the conservation and alternative fuel companies in those nations, and the building code enforcement authorities in those nations. Such a partnership will protect and create jobs, stop foreign trade deficits, stop the transfer of wealth to Arab nations, and stop the out of control oil and gas prices.

Beyond that an economic partnership can raise the living standard in Mexico, end illegal immigration to the USA, ensure long term economic development in Canada, and provide the citizens of all three countries with better education, food, housing and security. Such a partnership can also end the senseless killing of tens of thousands of innocent Mexicans caught in the crossfire of America's drug war.

Isn't it worth the effort to make this happen? Won't this prove to the world that America is not only our brother's keeper but partner as well. Don't you think our closest neighbors and long term partners who helped build America should share in the goodness and glory of America? Together we have a chance to change history.
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Monday, March 26, 2012

Obamaville March 26 - The Preacher Man and President

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Santorum borrows "Obamaville" for campaign video while raging against Romney

Today Preacher Man Rick Santorum released a new video about Obama called, "Obamaville" perhaps borrowing the name used by the Coltons Point Times regular political column for over two years.


Over the weekend the Preacher Man, who is starting to rage like John the Baptist on Prozac, took another step toward political oblivion when he said Romney was the worst possible Republican to run against Obama.  Now what kind of party loyalty does that indicate?  Once upon a time the party candidates pledged to support whoever won the nomination.

It seems in the modern world of politics, at least as far as the Preacher Man (Santorum) and the Professor (Gingrich) are concerned, the new model of candidate decorum is if I lose I'm taking you down with me.  Of course these loose cannons are being encouraged by Obama's gang from Chicago but neither see themselves as being used by Obama as they are above truth and reproach.


Obama Caught Promising Russia if they get him elected he will have more flexibility to cut deals

Then there is our President Obama who is over in South Korea and was caught on tape talking to outgoing Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and telling him to remind newly elected Russian President Vladimir Putin that this is an election year and if they help him get reelected he will have much more flexibility after the election to work out a deal involving Syria, Iran and North Korea.


Of course foreign involvement in the American presidential election is illegal but such barriers never seem to bother the Obama gang.  Here at the CPT will pointed out weeks ago that Putin was the key to negotiating peace in Syria, Iran and North Korea and now was the time to encourage the Russian leader.  At least the Obama people seem to be reading the CPT but his effort to get help behind the scenes from the Russians toward getting reelected seems to go way beyond legitimate foreign policy to manipulating the American political system.


Fancy that, a politician manipulating the political system.  Obama has proven quite adept at that so one should not be surprised.  I also doubt Putin would be the least bit fooled into helping Obama get reelected.



Obama campaigns for Keystone Pipeline - maybe?

In yet another public relations attempt to deceive the public Obama was out campaigning last week and said he would speed up approval of the lower part of the Keystone Pipeline, the same pipeline he rejected a few weeks ago.  Of course Obama has no chance of getting reelected if he continues to  oppose the pipeline as gas prices have now reached $3.90 a gallon and it is not even close to the summer driving season.

When Obama took office gas was $1.84 a gallon meaning it has more than doubled during his watch.  On the more important diesel cost, which fuels all the over the road trucks and most of the buses in America, the cost was $2.27 when Obama was elected and now is $4.21, an increase of $1.85.


Of course the White House mouthpieces say no one can do anything about gas prices overnight so we can't blame Obama yet Obama blamed President Bush for the price increases when Bush was president and Obama a candidate.  Guess that is fair play to the Chicago gang.

More important, no one expected Obama to do anything overnight.  What we did expect is that with total control of the House and Senate when he first got elected, why didn't he do something during the three years he has already been president when Congress could not have stopped him?




Now he can't do anything until after the election because he made too many promises to the environmental activists who helped get him elected four years ago.  Watch for him to sell out the green movement if he gets reelected as political expediency has always been a more forceful policy tool than public good for this administration.

The energy independence movement and Keystone Pipeline are  positions advocated by the CPT since before Obama was elected the first time.  We viewed them as crucial in order to start the long process of actually doing something positive to reduce our foreign dependence on oil and our slavery to the energy futures market.

President Obama must decide whether he will cross the bridge toward responsible energy management or continue double crossing the bridge as he now seems to advocate.  We will see if he adopts the CPT positions of energy independence and lower gas prices or decides, once reelected, that he is free to finish killing off the oil industry and make the big green fat cats the new power brokers and privileged class.



That is the true result of his redistribution of wealth philosophy.  Take from the old rich to make his buddies the new rich.
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