USA Today Picks Up The Mantle That Obama’s Not At Fault For Gas Prices

By William Teach March 3, 2012 – 9:43 am

Ah, how times change

Anyhow

What can U.S. do to halt rising gas prices? Not much

Rising gas prices are always a bad thing for an incumbent president, especially one heading into a tough re-election battle.

But President Obama admitted in a speech in Miami recently that there’s not all that much he can do to blunt the impact of prices, which some analysts think could be heading toward $5 per gallon nationwide this summer.

“The amount of oil that we drill at home doesn’t set the price of gas by itself,” Obama said. “The oil market is global. Oil is bought and sold in a world market. And just like last year, the single biggest thing that’s causing the price of oil to spike right now is instability in the Middle East— this time, around Iran. When uncertainty increases, speculative trading on Wall Street increases, and that drives prices up even more.”

See, when Obama’s President, it’s always Someone/thing Else’s Fault. And, let’s be honest, Obama can only have so much of an effect, there are market forces that happen that are out of his control. That wasn’t the case when Bush was POTUS.

There are two tactics readily available to presidents to blunt the impact of rising gas prices: release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and try to limit the ability of oil “speculators” to drive up the price of oil in futures markets.

The problem for Obama is his administration has already done both of those things.

In June, the Obama team released 30 million barrels from the reserve, citing ongoing unrest in Libya as a factor that was then driving up gas prices. At the time, gas was averaging $3.61 for a gallon of regular gasoline nationwide, according to AAA. Today, the price is $3.74.

Just two? How about increasing supply here at home? While prices may be “global,” there are also local pricing, and, if domestic production increased significantly, the prices at home would drop. That’s why prices are low in major producer countries. Build new refineries, which, as a by product, would be much more environmentally responsible than the ones we rely on now that were built 40+ years ago. And more efficient.

What’s more, excessive oil speculation can be a tricky thing to prove. The last time oil speculation was blamed for driving up gas prices, in 2008, a federal inter-agency task force was unable to find evidence that the speculators were to blame at all.

Oops.

One of the measures of a leader is how they respond to Things Going Wrong. Obama’s idea is to talk about algae and lowering energy prices sometime a few decades down the road.

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Bummer: GM To Halt Production Of Chevy Firestarter “Temporarily”

By William Teach March 3, 2012 – 9:09 am

Actually, it is kind of a bummer, because 1300 are being laid off, and I’d be surprised if they were all rehired once they restart the lines

(The Hill) General Motors has temporarily suspended production of its Volt electric car, the company announced Friday.

GM, which is based in Detroit, announced to employees at one of its facilities that it was halting production of the beleaguered electric car for five weeks and temporarily laying off 1,300 employees.

A GM spokesman told The Hill on Friday that production of the Volt would resume April 23.

“We needed to maintain proper inventory and make sure that we continued to meet market demand,” GM spokesman Chris Lee said in a telephone interview.

Lee noted that sales of the Volt were higher in February than they were in January, and added that California recently decided to allow the electric car to qualify for High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes in the state.

“We see positive trends, but we needed to make this market adjustment,” he said.

Throughout all the Corporate Speak, what is being said is that they’re selling so few Edsels, er, Volts, that the market is saturated with ones simply sitting around on either a dealer lot or Chevy’s production lot, and, rather than reduce the price and take a serious monetary hit, the production line will be suspended, because the “market demand” is somewhere between Jack Sh*t and None, and JS has almost left the room.

Just about the only thing keeping JS in the room is government and GM purchasing the souped up golf carts, all at taxpayer expense. Oh, and a few of those “Evil Rich” people.

Regardless of puny sales of the Fuego, er, Volt, the production line will restart: GM, Democrats, and Obama cannot afford to have the production halted for longer then 5 weeks in a presidential election year. So, they’ll restart the line, albeit much reduced, and my money is on half the employees being rehired. Hopefully, GM will rehire the rest to work on their lines that sell.

They were looking to sell 45,000 this year………….sorry, laugh break, that’s ridiculous, they’ve sold 1,626 so far this year. So, they play the blame game

“GM blamed the lack of sales in January on “exaggerated” media reports and the federal government’s investigation into Volt batteries catching fire, which officially began in November and ended Jan. 21,” the Ann Arbor (Mich.) News reported.

So, without the media reports, they might have sold 1,700 so far this year? Mini more than doubled sales of the Volt in February alone, and they intentionally keep production low as a niche car. I wonder if the media is at fault (and, hey, you know I love to go after the media, mostly for being biased) for the car barely being able to get to work before it needs a recharge? For people who commute or travel, they would have to rely on the gas engine quite a bit: spending $40,000 on a base model would be absurd, when they could purchase a Civic, Malibu, or Impala (the last two are popular for “fleet” purchase).

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.

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NASA Thinks You’re Stupid: Global Warming Could Cause More Snow

By William Teach March 2, 2012 – 6:11 pm

They just can’t help themselves

(The State Column) A newly released study finds that less snow in the Arctic could result in more snow in the U.S.

According to a study released Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. could face colder and more snowy winters as northern trade winds shift south.

“The recent decline of Arctic sea ice has played a critical role in recent cold and snowy winters,” writes the study’s lead authors, Jiping Liu and Judith Curry of Georgia Tech. “Pronounced loss of ice may alter atmospheric circulation patterns.”

And how’d they come to this conclusion?

The model projections paint a portrait of increasing ecological change and stress in Earth’s biosphere…..

Again with the computer models. Which have failed spectacularly in predicting the future so far. But, the Warmists could care less: their object is control and money, so, they tell us a scary story about how warming creates more cold and snow.

Read: NASA Thinks You’re Stupid: Global Warming Could Cause More Snow »

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Obama: “Hey, I’m Just Like Ghandi And Mandela”

By William Teach March 2, 2012 – 1:47 pm

Except they weren’t incompetent and trying to destroy America

(Washington Free Press) President Obama spoke Thursday night at a campaign fundraiser at ABC Kitchen in New York City. It was the first of four fundraisers the president attended Thursday.

OBAMA: Around the world, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela–what they did was hard. It takes time. It takes more than a single term….

Chump.

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If All You See…

By William Teach March 2, 2012 – 1:00 pm

…is a field that should be full of wind turbines, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Stixblog.

Read: If All You See… »

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Kids In Jerusalem Will Know What Snow Looks Like

By William Teach March 2, 2012 – 10:11 am

Obviously, this is caused by someone charging their iPhone, and the resulting warmth. Won’t  someone think of the children?

Heavy snow fell in the Jerusalem area on Friday, and for the first time in four years, parts of Jerusalem were white with snow.

Snow fell in Ramot, Givat Ze’ev and Har Gilo, and three centimeters of snow fall were reported.

Poor kids. Some even saw school cancelled, all because you were selfish and bought bottle water.

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Obama: “Lower Gas Prices? Who Cares? I Don’t”

By William Teach March 2, 2012 – 7:47 am

At least Jimmy Carter attempted to sorta say he cared about high gas prices. Obama can’t even work up a bit of empathy

(NY Times) With his re-election fate increasingly tied to the price Americans are paying at the gas pump, President Obama asked Congress on Thursday to end $4 billion in subsidies for oil and gas companies and vowed to tackle the country’s long-term energy issues while shunning “phony election-year promises about lower gas prices.”

In other words, you’re on your own, chumps. King Obama has spoken, and has no intention of doing a damned thing that would attempt to decrease, or even stop, the ever higher prices we, His subjects, pay at the pump.

That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if he changed his tune sometime around mid-September, when he sees the pain at the pump moving people over into the Romney or Santorum camp (whichever gets the GOP nod) and his re-coronation prospects decreasing. But, as we’ve seen from Obama, what he will offer will be empty promises.

Mr. Obama, in a (taxpayer funded) appearance at Nashua Community College here, took a page out of his jobs strategy of last year, calling on Americans to contact their Congressional representatives and demand a vote on the oil subsidies in the next few weeks.

“You can either stand up for the oil companies, or you can stand up for the American people,” Mr. Obama said. “You can keep subsidizing a fossil fuel that’s been getting taxpayer dollars for a century, or you can place your bets on a clean-energy future.”

How about the massive funding for failing “green” energy companies wasted by the government? Could have saved $4 billion there. The taxpayer subsidized ethanol industry, which even the NY Times thinks is a bad idea? It’s about $6-7 billion a year. And, remember, Obama wants the subsidies for purchasing a Chevy Volt to go up to $10k per purchase, which helps out those in the $170k a year and higher earnings bracket.

The president criticized Republicans who have called for the country to increase its own oil production, declaring that “anyone who tells you we can drill our way out of this problem doesn’t know what they’re talking about.” With the United States consuming more than 20 percent of the world’s oil while having only 2 percent of the world’s oil reserves, Mr. Obama said “we can’t rely on fossil fuels from the last century.”

I’ve always taken the position that (NMP) Obama was simply clueless and hyper-partisan. Now I simply think he’s an idiot, about 5 steps beyond clueless. If the demand is up, and the supply is low, causing prices to rise, then you….increase the supply! That’s 1st grade economics. In countries that have large supplies over their own oil, prices at the pump are low. They pay about .98 cents American in Bahrain. Many countries are moving away from subsidizing the “green” energy industry, ones like Germany, who realize they are dumping enormous amounts of money into a sector that is providing little to no return on the investment, and is providing little usable energy.

One day the alternative energy sector will be viable enough from cost and production standpoints to do away with most use of fossil fuels/energy sources. Could be in 10 years, could be in a hundred or more. Personally, I’m hoping for sooner rather than later. But, we cannot ignore our energy needs now. But, why should Obama care? The taxpayer provides it all to Obama for free. He’s not pulling out his wallet and paying.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.

Read: Obama: “Lower Gas Prices? Who Cares? I Don’t” »

Posted in Barry Obama, Elections, Energy | 4 Comments | Trackback URL

Sebelius Says Reducing Population Will Pay For Cost Of Contraception

By William Teach March 2, 2012 – 6:54 am

I’m not sure about you, but I find it interesting that so many Democrat/liberal policies seem revolve around population reduction, particularly in the Black community

(CNS News) Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told a House panel Thursday that a reduction in the number of human beings born in the United States will compensate employers and insurers for the cost of complying with  the new HHS mandate that will require all health-care plans to cover sterilizations and all FDA-approved contraceptives, including those that cause abortions.

“The reduction in the number of pregnancies compensates for the cost of contraception,” Sebelius said. She went on to say the estimated cost is “down not up.”

She’s obviously kinda correct, but, it is a strange argument to make. The cost of contraception is miniscule (unless one is a law student at Georgetown, then it seems to be really expensive from having tons of sex daily). But, then, Sebelius’ boss thinks that children are a punishment, and his science czar is in favor of forced abortions and mass sterilizations. This goes hand in hand with such notions as Planned Parenthood, whose founder was a racist who believed in reducing the population of defectives and Blacks, and the eugenics craze propagated by liberals in the 20th Century which led to government mandated sterilizations, primarily of Blacks, often forced on them.

What, exactly, is the end game of the contraception mandate debate? Is this simply pandering to women, so they don’t have to pay any minor cost for their own birth control? Or, something deeper?

Sebelius, however, insisted that the mandate “upholds religious liberty.”

“The rule which we intend to promulgate in the near future around implementation will require insurance companies, not a religious employer, but the insurance company to provide coverage for contraceptives,” Sebelius told the subcommittee.

I’m not sure she understands what religious liberty is. Well, she does probably think it is something that comes from Big Government.

Despite the controversy over whether the mandate is constitutional, Sebelius told Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) during the hearing that the administration never sought a legal opinion about the regulation from the Department of Justice.

That part makes me wonder if Sebelius and HHS simply thought they were passing a simple rule, as Obamacare gave her the massive right to make whatever rules she wanted, and there was no intention to annoy Catholics and create a kerfuffle that moved the political discourse away from Obama’s massive failure on the economy as many have suggested. Instead, we are left with the option that she’s a complete moron, who never once considered “hey, does this violate that whole 1st Amendment religious thingy clause?”

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.

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Children May Not Know What An Iron Man Competition Looks Like

By William Teach March 1, 2012 – 7:35 pm

Won’t someone please think of the kids? And sponsors?

There are concerns that a weather system predicted to hit Taupo early tomorrow morning could force the swim leg of Ironman New Zealand to be cancelled.

Forecasters expect gale force winds, rain and cold temperatures to coincide with the start of the race, and Kiwi Ironman legend Cameron Brown is unsure whether the swim leg will go ahead.

Isn’t it like late summer in New Zealand?

Read: Children May Not Know What An Iron Man Competition Looks Like »

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Warmists Link Climate Change (Hoax) And Contraception For Blacks

By William Teach March 1, 2012 – 3:01 pm

If a conservative dared write anything like this, we’d be branded racists. But, it’s OK when lefties discuss it

Africa: Time to Tackle ‘Last Taboo’ of Contraception and Climate -Experts

Finding a way to put the environmental impact of population and women’s reproductive health more prominently on the climate change agenda is increasingly urgent, experts said in Washington this week.

“This connection … needs to be in a place where we can talk thoughtfully about the fact that yes, more people on this planet -and we’ve just crossed 7 billion -does actually put pressure on the planet. And no, it is not just black women or brown women or Chinese women who create that problem,” she told a session on women’s health and climate adaptation strategies.

“In fact, the issues around consumption in the more developed part of the world are profoundly significant. And when you know that every American baby born consumes 40 times as much as every Indian baby born, clearly there is a need to be able to tie those issues together,” she added.

Tie them together, eh? In other words, the Warmists want to keep their own big lifestyles while they reduce/limit the number of Africans. Blacks. Brought to by lefties who also brought Jim Crow laws, the KKK, opposition to the civil rights laws, the Holocaust, and sterilization programs, among others.

Read: Warmists Link Climate Change (Hoax) And Contraception For Blacks »

Posted in Climahypocrites, Global Warming, Liberal World, Unhinged Tools | 4 Comments | Trackback URL
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