No energy in Obama energy speech
Barack Obama made a dull speech on Tuesday evening. And he made a frightened speech — an overly careful assembly of energy cliches likely to be remembered by no one. All this in the face of the greatest ecological catastrophe in American history, the seemingly unending oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.
This was a man playing catch-up, aware that the public is apparently even less enamored of him on this issue than they were of George W. Bush on Katrina. It was time for Obama to show he cared. He didn’t do much of a job of that even. Obama is no Clinton. The current president doesn’t do empathy well. He seems like a man who has to be reminded to be empathic, even though in situations like the Gulf it is the most obvious presidential, really human, behavior. Yet it took him weeks to make this flaccid speech.
But let me be clear. There are many things for which I blame Barack Obama. I could make a long list from hugely destructive government over-spending to a foreign policy that Orwell might call “objectively pro-fascist.” But the oil disaster in the Gulf is not one of them. Barack Obama is no more responsible for the unending leak than Bush was for Katrina.
So he is not to blame for this and he really isn’t to blame that its solution has dragged on and on. He wasn’t elected as scientist-in-chief. He knows nothing about petroleum engineering, just as he knows nothing about global warming. We haven’t had a president with the skills of that type since Herbert Hoover — a mining engineer. In fact, Hoover was the only president we ever had with significant background and expertise to actually take a hands-on approach to a catastrophe of this nature.
But Obama is responsible for what we learn from the mega-leak and how we correct the problem for the future. Toward that end, there is one word to characterize his performance thus far: blah. This is not the kind of man you would like with you in a foxhole, for whatever purpose and in whatever war. And he is not a man of any great original mind or creativity. He doesn’t even play one on TV… anymore. That’s over.
When I said his speech was frightened, I meant that the cliches he assembled, or his speech writers assembled, were defensive in nature. He didn’t propose anything specific. He took no risks. The rumored carbon tax was not in evidence, as if he and his advisers knew it would be a non-starter in today’s economic climate.
Also not in evidence was the most serious solution to the problem — nuclear energy. We had the usual palaver about solar and wind, but no reference to the energy source employed so successfully by the French and the Japanese, the one source that could change the situation with some rapidity. Obama probably didn’t want to mention it because his left would be offended. Again, frightened.
Still, he managed to recite that litany of “clean” energy sources, following the by now nauseatingly familiar Rahm Emanuel dictum about never missing a good crisis. No mention, of course, of the studies that indicate wind energy causes more environmental damage than it cures. Or that solar would require we cover half the world with panels in order to generate sufficient electricity to power society. This isn’t about science. It’s about pose.
No mention either of what every one of us, if we are being honest, knows: No oil. No modern life.
On Tuesday evening, Obama didn’t walk the walk. He didn’t even talk the talk.
The man is an empty suit, an incompetent, and a monumental failure. Things only get worse from here. Time for the masses to wake up to the con—they have been had. It is sad that so many are completely unaware.
The good ship Obama appears to have sprung a leak. Do I smell oil in the water or is that blood? Has my President jumped the shark? If he can’t give a blockbuster of a speech, what good is he?
Or should Rachel run for the tried and trusted metaphor? Is this ObamaMan’s version of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic? An iceberg made of oil? No wonder Roger so adroitly pointed out this speech lacked energy. Who walks fast to the gallows? The speech writer wrote this one with a dry mouth. “Gosh, it’s hot in here. (10 second dramatic pause) No sweat, I’ll just turn up the air conditioner. Oh, I’ve got it. I’ll use the old, “can we afford bla bla bla…we can’t afford not to. Yes, that will play in Peoria.”
Maybe Obama should have talked about the Dutch offer to suck the oil out of the water on leak day plus 2. No. Definitely not. Stepping on a land mine would be bad timing. Although dry land does sound somewhat appealing.
Or was this disaster the natural segue into the selling of Cap and Trade? Now I know what Jimmy Carter’s White House felt like.
And when in the speech Obama spoke of gathering all those eggheads in the room, I wonder what ideas they come up with? How not to end up with egg on your face? Inquiring minds want to know. Am I the only one wondering why Obama’s explanations and ideas sound so slippery? I bet Slick Willie could have talked his way out of this. Of course, Roger already covered the empathy gap in O’s personality. It now makes sense that I hear Obama’s enrolling in the Meryl Streep school of acting. Kind of a last ditch effort kind of thing. The first class is entitled, “Connecting with the audience.”
Okay, back to reality.
I almost never disagree with Roger because he’s so talented and so smart, but maybe tonight’s the night. Maybe Obama is to blame. I mean, Roger, if he can’t walk the walk or talk the talk, then like (as) I said, what good is he? Especially when ObamaFaults seem to be pouring out from every pore of his slim body like water from a duck’s back.
SECRET SERVICE AGENT:
9PM, THE WHITE HOUSE
President Obama, you have a call from Donald Trump.
OBAMA
“I’ll take it upstairs.”
RACHEL:
Anyhoots, here’s my pre-Obama speech article. When I wrote it, I was hoping for a Laker win and an Obama loss. I wasn’t disappointed.
HEADLINE:
Donald Trump, your country needs you. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday soon.
THE WORDS:
With that unkempt, matted forest of blond hair. With that weak armed, though adequately timed, full bodied golf swing. With all the Chanticleerian pride, the accoutrements of wealth and success, and the kind of power only money can buy.
Donald John Trump, America is calling.
Like an old west town that needs a hard-bitten, never kowtowing gunfighter to rid it of rubbish in the form of Black Bart and his gang of bank robbers, horse thieves, bushwackers and bullies, America needs your unique services. That you may ask a high price for them is possible, but this nation cannot afford to do nothing. Bottom line, the price of business as usual in this White House is definitely too high.
Mr. Trump, from your home on 5th Avenue we need you to take a limo to Kennedy, arrive in Washington DC on a day of your choosing, call the President about a most important matter, and agree upon a time for this special meeting between yourself and President Obama. You’ll undoubtedly be ushered into his office, and then, after the usual small talk, we suggest that you say something like this.
TRUMP
“President Obama, it’s never easy to do this, but the doing has to be done. You know how much I like your personally, but facts are facts, and a national need requires me to lay them on the table. Sir, the American people can demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law if need be that you have run the most ethically, morally and legally corrupt administration in the history of this great Republic. You have broken your oath of office virtually every day since the day you assumed it. You have shirked your responsibilities with the gusto of a rich ne’er-do-well, and put us in a most precarious position, economically, politically, environmentally and militarily.
For example, by putting missile defense on the back burner, and not guarding our secrets adequately, you have left us open to a vast array of cataclysmic attacks from a host of sources. New York, my home, is especially vulnerable and likely to suffer some egregious event in the near future. Your choice of Janet Napolitano as Secretary of Homeland Security was the equivalent of naming Lady Antebellum manager of the New York Yankees. Your ridiculous decision to give 9/11 terrorist savages the rights of U.S. citizens, including a civilian trial, is unconscionable, except in the America-hating eyes of people like Bill Maher, Kathy Griffin, Bill Ayers, David Letterman and Jon Stewart who verbally spit on the American flag every sorry day of their sorry lives, and insult the entire nation. Your wasteful spending and redistribution of wealth schemes personally make me sick. Your habit of taking orders and money from labor unions is uncouth, unethical, unconstitutional and corrupt almost beyond imagining. In the name of reform, you’ve maimed and deconstructed the best medical care system in the world and replaced it with a plan only a Washington bureaucrat could love. You’re killing capitalism, the engine of democracy. One of the biggest stains on your Presidency has to be your disgraceful handling of this nation’s biggest environmental disaster. Incomprehensibly, you refused to address the problem with every power at your disposal (possibly because the unions opposed it). You turned down indispensable help that would have had the spill under control three weeks from the date it happened.
“Needless to say, I could go on, Mister President, but I’m sure you get the point. You’re a Marxist with a lot of sadist mixed in as you drive this nation down the road to ruin. You’re a valueless entity in a country that values its freedom like a mother her newborn. It was a bad fit from the start, and doomed to failure. So maybe the fault was just as much ours as yours.
“If you have anything to say in your defense, I invite you to say it now.”
OBAMA:
“Donald, let me make this clear. Sure, there are those who question my actions and motives, but when there is a job that needs to be done right there will always be naysayers. The “no we can’t” crowd of disbelievers. I took over from a President who did a ruinous job, who got us into two wars we can’t begin to pay for, jeopardizing the chance for our children to have their American Dream. Of course, I hear criticisms, but in good conscience I can’t go along with those who want the oil companies to exercise even more domination and control over hard working Americans than they do now. Furthermore, in good conscience, I can’t bring myself to say to the American people ‘you have to stand aside and let the insurance companies set rules on pre-existing conditions’ preventing folks from getting the care they need. What must it be like to tell your child that treatment for you is out there, but the insurance company says you’re not eligible to receive it, especially while others receive so much.
“As you know, Donald, there are people on Wall Street giving themselves million dollar bonuses so they can build bigger mansions and spend their weekends sailing in boats that the average American will never set foot on. And, you mentioned labor unions. Well, let me set that record straight as an arrow, too. Castigating labor unions is a red herring that simply doesn’t wash. Sure, they vote Democratic. But unions do help hard working people put food on their family’s tables and put kids through college. What’s wrong with that? They do their share of the working and paying and living and dying. Just because a person is a member of a labor union doesn’t mean they can’t dream of a better life for their children, too.
“Which is the true genius of America, a faith in the simple dreams of its people, the insistence on small miracles. That we can tuck in our children at night and know they are fed and clothed and safe from harm. That we can say what we think, write what we think, without hearing a sudden knock on the door. That we can have an idea and start our own business without paying a bribe or hiring somebody’s son. That we can participate in the political process without fear of retribution, and that our votes will be counted–or at least, most of the time.
“If a part of the whining, complaining arm of the Republican Party is calling me to reaffirm my values and commitments, I am ready to do just that 24/7, every day of my life. I’m not afraid to hold myself against a hard reality and see how I am measuring up to the legacy of our forbears, and the promise of future generations. And fellow Americans–Democrats, Republicans, Independents–I say to you as I stand before Donald, I also bleed red, white and blue. The day after Pearl Harbor Michelle’s father signed up for duty, joined Patton’s army and marched across Europe. Back home, my grandmother raised their baby and went to work on a bomber assembly line. After the war, my Uncle studied on the GI Bill, bought a house through FHA, and moved west in search of opportunity.
“And let’s not forget that the Bush years saw factories close and American hopes dim. While campaigning, I’ve made a point of talking to folks of all political persuasions. Those for me and those against me. in Galesburg, Illinois, I met people who are losing their union jobs at the Maytag plant that’s moving to Mexico, and now are having to compete with their own children for jobs that pay seven bucks an hour. But I have more to do in this job of Presidency. More to do for the father I met who was losing his job and choking back tears, wondering how he would pay $4,500 a month for the drugs his son needs without the health benefits he counted on. More to do for the young woman in East St. Louis, and thousands more like her, who has the grades, has the drive, has the will, but doesn’t have the money to go to college. Don’t get me wrong. The people I meet in small towns and big cities, in diners and office parks, they don’t expect government to solve all their problems. They know they have to work hard to get ahead and they want to.
“Go into the collar counties around Chicago, and people will tell you they don’t want their tax money wasted by a welfare agency or the Pentagon. I freely admit the Stimulus money didn’t do its job, that much of it went to political friends and allies. Same thing for my Jobs Bill. It created more jobs for bureaucrats, and that’s about it. What we now need is Cap and Trade legislation. Although it will make energy costs skyrocket, I’m certain that Cap and Trade is the answer to all our energy problems that have acted like shackles attached to the ankles of slaves. Of course, government isn’t the answer all the time. No, people don’t expect government to solve all their problems. But they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a change in priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all.”
TRUMP:
“Mr. President, you’re full of more BS than the world’s biggest manure pile. Maybe you’ve tried. Maybe you’ve tried your best. But I believe most of all, you’re tried to spread the virus of Chicago style corruption to Washington DC. Americans recognize this, and want your grand plans to transform America no more. The Axis Powers wanted to transform America, too. Without success. I think, Barack, you have trouble distinguishing right from wrong. Which is a horrible weakness that’s led to your administration being such a huge failure, one we can’t afford to let continue. President Barack Obama, your guiding hand has sent us into a terrible tailspin. In the oval office, Mr. President, you’re a square peg in a round hole. Be it incompetence or intentional wrongdoing, we can’t afford any more of it.
For the good of the American people, President Obama, you’re fired.”
This line could become part of a poem.
Obozo’s Speech Translated for mere mortals…
I have the solution, I have always had the solution.
Now if you would just realize that the problem before you fits it, we can move on!
Obama’s Lackluster Speech
Even as PublicPolicyPolling.com released a poll showing “a majority of voters [in Louisiana] think George W. Bush did a better job with Katrina than Obama’s done dealing with the spill. 50% of voters in the state, even including 31% of Democrats, give Bush higher marks on that question compared to 35% who pick Obama,” the president sashayed over to the Oval Office to deliver his first-ever speech from that location.
It didn’t go over very well, according to the dynamic trio of MSNBC’s loquacious but empty talking heads, Chris Matthews, Keith Olberman, and Harold Fineman.
When liberals on a liberal cable network lambaste a liberal president, you have to know the goose is cooked and that something, more likely a great deal of somethings, is amok.
Matthews, who will go down in the annals of presidential campaign history as the only presumably heterosexual male reporter who twice felt a thrill run up his leg in the presence of Barack Hussein Obama, was the most surprising. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1736)
Berlet98,
I watched the MSNBC trio on rerun after I heard they had strongly criticised Obama’s speech. I never agree with these commentators, but I have to admit they all captured the lameness of the President’s effort.
Roger hits the proverbial nail on the head with the characterization that the speech was defensive. Boy, was it ever. It also lacked substance and detail. It did, however include a big lie.
The President spoke about the necessity of adopting green tech and one of his reasons was we are running out of domestic petroleum. This was a comploete fabrication, disproven by his own Dept of the Interior which estimates the US has known petrolrum reserves of 120 bl barrels on the continental shelf and the largest shale oil reserves on the planet.
When Obama talks you have to verify the truth of what he says. Anyone paying attention has known this since the campaign.
I can’t imagine many independents are turning their opinions back in favor of this shallow,feckless President.
Elections have consequences. Only 2 1/2 more years, folks.
“When Obama talks you have to verify the truth of what he says. Anyone paying attention has known this since the campaign.”
As someone else might say, you betcha. I would be more inclined to watch his speeches and press conferences if the fact checkers were right behind him. That would be “must watch TV”.
83% blame BP for the Spill…that is what will save President Obama’s Bacon. This speech certainly didn’t help any.
Crisis management is pretty basic, in this case there should have been Govt investigators with their own Robotics and live feeds and ascertain flow rates and bring in experts to asses and control the situation…this should have occurred in the first 3 days.
There are people in the world that have decades experience with underwater robotics that offered their knowledge and assistance and were turned away, this is inexcusable.
Knowing how DC operates, President Obama’s handlers didn’t want him anywhere near the spill, to eliminate guilt by association, the scientific advisors battled the political / PR advisors, until it is too late. It is the same in every administration.
The risk of drilling in the gulf was widely known and discussed for decades, unfortunately the 2005 Energy Bill removed many safety regulations and gave energy companies too much leeway to cut procedures and protocols that maintain safety.
The MMS was in bed ( literally from reports now slowly filtering out ) with energy companies the last decade, we can watch the results on the evening news.
It is not surprising however that the people clamoring to reduce govt oversight and allow corporations to operate without supervision, are now the same people whining that Govt should have taken a larger role…cannot have it both ways.
Either allow and give govt the tools to supervise and regulate drilling, or keep quiet when your wish is granted and the result is the disaster we are witnessing.
If the critics of Obama were running energy policy, especially one named Sarah, we wouldn’t need deep water drilling as we would be making use of terrestrial sources. The lefties have been denying reality long enough to produce this result. They can’t even decide to build sand berms to protect the marshes.
While the 2005 bill did remove a few unneccessary regulations, the Obama admin went even further by ignoring the regulations that were still on the books.
Alex,
I think your typo inadvertently hit the nail on the head. Obama did “bring in experts to asses”. Unfortunately, constitutional law professors generally don’t have the expertise to differentiate between experts and holes in the ground……
It’s all very well to blame BP (and trust me, I have no reason to defend oil companies), but maybe they wouldn’t have been drilling in deep water if they were allowed to sink new wells in shallow water (which are a heckuva lot easier to handle in case of accident). Research has already shown that drilling platforms make terrific artificial reefs for shallow water life, but oh no, icky oil might wash up on the beaches. Well, it sure is now, only it’s coming from a mile down, almost beyond the reach of technology to cap the blowout.
That is entirely the fault of enviromentalist-driven government, which also won’t allow the exploitation of oil onshore.
Glug-glug-glug-glug-glug-glug…
When will we get a President who knows how to call a plumber, instead of criticizing the faucet? The well is gushing, dude, and it’s not stopping…
He did, but Joe the Plumber isn’t taking his calls anymore.
Watching the clip of the follow up on Countdown with Olberman and Chris Matthews waking up from the KoolAid tonight has made my day,week and year!
It is a must see:
http://www.breitbart.tv/obama-losing-msnbc-matthews-losing-thrill-up-leg/
There were a lot a president could do and he didn’t. 1. suspend all environmental rules to drill the relief wells: his EPA head wanted BP to comply with Nitric oxide(?) emission level when drilling the damned wells. Bush suspended all rules to secure the rigs and plug the leaks. All leaks were plugged within weeks. Ergo the MSM never noticed there was an oil leak “disaster”. 2. That (?) Act not allowing foreign ships … Bunk. Bush suspended that after Katrina hit.
Katrina was never Bush’s fault. It was the faults of local politicians whose Party happened to own the MSM. Remember 40,000 dead, rapes of little girls, murders and mayhems in Super Dome? They never happened. I’m still raged at how disgustingly racist the MSM reports were. They were implying: what do you expect when black males were let loose? And how passive and useless other blacks were: no one stopped the rapes which were supposed to be done in full views of other Super Dome refugees.
Face it: we are screwed that TOTUS’s mouthpiece is “in-charge”.
Because nothing bad could ever happen from a massive increase in the amount of enriched uranium America uses.
So the French who get 80% of their electricity from nuclear fission are wrong and are using the incorrect technology.
If you think there will be bad consequences, why don’t you list them so that the rest of us can point out where you are wrong.
Actually, the better way to go is Pu239 with a U238 jacket. It’s called a breeder reactor. It cuts costs significantly because the neutrons that would normally escape, instead get captured by the U238, which converts it into Pu239. Free fuel.
Perdo-
Do you have the slightest conception of the difference between the low-enriched uranium used as reactor fuel, and the 90% enrichment required for weapons?
He3 fission is the power source of the future.
He3 is found in large quantities on the moon.
Fusion power is 20 years in the future, and has been for 60 years.
“Low-enriched uranium” can be quite an effective weapon and one that is usable by terrorist groups with only primitive capabilities.
By that standard, anything that is dangerous or unpleasant can be used as a weapon by terrorists.
Should we ban everything then, just to keep the paranoid from over reacting?
“Should we ban everything then, just to keep the paranoid from over reacting?”
Are you saying it’s The Left! that’s is paranoid about the threat of Islamofascism?
That’s certainly a unique assessment.
I see reading comprehension isn’t your strong suit.
I said you are being paranoid about the danger of low enrich uranium.
You are also being paranoid about the risk of it being stolen.
In short, your just out and out paranoid.
Both the ‘Koran’, written by that famous slave trader and womanizer Mohammed, and ‘Rules for Radicals’, by Ailinsky, exhort adherents to guile. Obama, who is likely more acquainted with those books than he is with the ‘Book of Psalms’, engaged in guile last night from the Oval Office. Basically, what he said was that the solution to all our problems is to raise taxes and grow government; what he always says.
You forgot pedophile
“Barack Obama is no more responsible for the unending leak than Bush was for Katrina.”
That is only half accurate. Barack Obama is responsible for not approving a waver to the Jones Act. He also prevented states like Louisiana from erecting barriers that could have kept the oil from damaging the shorelines. We are also finding out that apparently Obama deemphasized drilling safety and instead placed a higher priority on his “green” agenda.
The odds are that Obama will resign before January. He is president primarily because of white guilt—coupled with the con job played on the American people by the Ivy League universities. They are nothing less than scam operations when it comes to their softer disciplines. Obama obtained a mediocre politically correct education. He is not even close to being ready to lead the nation. Harvard should pay an awful price for the unearned credentials it awarded this man. Its liberal arts graduates should be treated like a bunch of idiots until proven otherwise.
Your prophecies of his Fall are looking better these days.
But you don’t take into account the back room gang pulling the strings of the American Lenin Look-alike.
Before the Fall the back room gang, if there is one, will in all likelihood start a long-hot-summer of discontent in a ramp-up to catastrophic denouement in which they win.
The dumbed down American public will plan no role.
I am praying that you are right. I hope that he will realize that the job is no fun, that golf is better (questionable), and that what Mr. Alinsky, Mr. Wright and Mr. Muhammad said he had to be – well, he just doesn’t want to be.
This was a meaningful speech because Obama admitted in deed if not word that government cannot solve every problem, even when a Democrat demigod occupies the Oval Office. Is this the moment when he understands the era of big government might just be over? 512 days late, but better than nothing.
A good, analytical post.
Hey, DT, can anyone explain how these “barrier islands” would have worked? The water has to go somewhere, since they are not levees. The water and oil eventually come over or go around the barrier islands/berms and then you have water and oil behind them, right? There is so much oil out there now with more coming that the criticism has been reduced to accusing Obama of not using one or two teaspoons soon enough to start working on the 1000 gallon oil tank which was rupturing.
None of this in anyway helps Obama EXCEPT for the fact that it is another crisis where huge government spending will eventually be required, who knows, maybe even a (gulp) BP bailout.
Acvtually it’s pretty easy to understand, when the water washes up on the barrier islands, it leaves most of the oil behind.
Are you under the impression that people are begging for permission to spend millions of dollars of their own money on a solution they know won’t work?
Just because you don’t know something, is not evidence that the solution is bad. Just more evidence of your ignorance.
Dwight, they’ve been drilling for oil in the Gulf for 60 years. Berms and booms are how they’ve always contained spills. Are you suggesting the people who’ve always lived there don’t know how cleanups are done?
Have they ever “contained” a leak (this is a hell of a lot more than a spill) he size of this one? The sad part is that there is so much oil that it is going to eventually come over all berms. I can understand the feeling that you have to do something, but it reminds me of people frantically sandbagging, even when they know the river is going to rise another ten feet. They sandbag, because there is nothing else to do, but then the river just blasts over it.
Of course Obama will look bad any way you spin it; later on, any money spent for the sandbags that get washed away will be perceived as wasted. A leader with better judgment would have waited for the key x stage, or is it the y stage, or the z stage to expend the billions. In the meantime, he will already have been blamed for not putting in enough sandbags sooner.
Maybe your point is that we have to try everything immediately. After Japan bombed us we should have IMMEDIATELY produced twenty carriers, 20 million crack troops, AND the bomb. Unless we get this sucker plugged or channeled into collection devices soon, the spill will be so big that it will be WWII. It will, of course, be FDR’s fault because he WANTED it to happen. Time to start building skimmers and getting the military involved more. How that blends with paid workers, is of course another area for which Obama will be skewered.
But he is a leader and he will have to lead; I hope that he can rise to the occasion. Most of you seem to hope that he will fail, and thereby cleanse the nation of his oily presence. You criticize the Alinsky approach, and the using the crisis approach, but are pretty much the same yourselves.
There have been bigger oil spills. One in the Gulf near Mexico about 10 years ago.
As to the oil coming over the berm. That would only happen if the water came over the berm. And unless the oil is raising the level of the Gulf, that isn’t going to happen. Regardless, the oil is being cleaned off the berms on a regular basis. That’s why they are there.
Please try to learn something for once.
I hope that I am always ready to learn.
Up here in the ocean, we have things called tides which regularly fill and drain the upper part of our estuaries. Are these berms going to be stopping the tides?
Granted that a berm does not have to be 100% effective to make it worthwhile, but it has to be in relatively shallow water, and cleaned almost immediately every time oil is deposited on it; right?
Do why know why the Army Corps of Engineers said no to the berms?
Do you believe that the people who design and build the berms forgot to take the tides into considertion?
OK, it’s now clear to me that you don’t understand the berms either. You are just saying they must work because sometimes they use them.
Actually, I do understand berms, I’m just pointing out to you how utterly idiotic the complaints you are making are.
You claim that you are willing to learn, yet amazingly enough, you never do.
A Bush televised speech was fun to watch: with his wry smile, one realised that he was well aware of the fact that he didn’t have a clue what he was talking about.
An Obama speech is frightening: the blank stare and monotonous drone – it gives one the idea that he himself isn’t aware of the fact that he’s clueless.
it gives one the idea that he himself isn’t aware of the fact that he’s clueless.
You mean unknown unknows!
This is a man whose agenda, already well known and heavily proselytized by a vast array of Marxist faithful pastors within and without government, is being meticulously executed without passion or prejudice (except against ‘whitey’ and free markets).
Fundamentally speaking Americans are staring the final acts of freedom and liberty we acted out on our national stage right in the eye. Interestingly, few (fewer than I would have expected) either see it or care if they do see it.
And while America may well have been an “idea”, it took people to believe in it to make it work. Americans have allowed themselves to be fooled into relinquishing their ‘idea’ of liberty and freedom. Sort of gives weight to the argument that the (self proclaimed) “intellectual elites” propagate of ‘common’ Americans being too stupid for self government.
Today, generally speaking, the only ideas we have are supplied by government. Because government won’t allow any free lancers. Must be the ‘free’ part of it that makes them cringe.
Instead of the speech, I watched the ‘gusher camera’. Just as goopy and fluid as President ‘Noisome Pestilence’, but far more eloquent.
Once more, we see that The Self-Exalted One has never had an original thought in his life, and in fact may be incapable of synthesis (creative thinking). His speech was nothing but a reiteration of “progressive talking points”, with no noticeable reference to reality, which we have heard repeatedly for the last four decades.
He blamed BP, the American people, and ultimately Western Civilization itself for an accident that was in fact the inevitable outcome of “environmental” policies created by his own party’s radical wing, at the behest of the even more radical environmental movement.
News flash, Mr. President; when you attempt to use technologies developed for drilling in less than 300 meters of water to drill in depths exceeding 1500 meters, Bad Things Happen. Even when everything works perfectly, something may go wrong; Murphy’s Law will not be denied. The fact that your cronies on the left demanded this sort of drilling at the start means you, and your dogmas, bear as much responsibility as BP, maybe more.
His “solutions”? Demand higher taxes on energy, demand we change to energy sources which science (the real kind) have already proven aren’t adequate, and call anyone who disagrees stupid, reactionary, etc. In short, the “energy policy” his party has pursued since the 1970s.
If I had heard even one mention of nuclear, hydroelectric, or tidal power I might be more charitable. As it is, I am forced to conclude that the President is as ignorant of things like the Laws of Thermodynamics as he is of the Constitution he routinely ignores.
The difference, of course, is that violating the laws of physics is not the same thing as violating the laws of the land. Mainly because violating the laws of physics is physically impossible.
All this speech proves is that Obama combines the arrogance and rigidity of Carter with the egotism and lack of understanding of Nixon. It’s rare, not to say worrisome, to see such a “perfect storm” of incompetence in one place.
Especially when that place is the Oval Office.
clear ether
eon
All he has ever done is roleplay. Until 2 years ago he was so far off Broadway that most of the lights weren’t even on. Too bad nobody in contact with reality ever bothered to tell him that he wouldn’t come across too well in a play based on reality with an audience including nonworshippers.
Mr. Simon:
The Alleged Hawaiian also told us a bald-faced lie.
He asserted that:
“…And that’s part of the reason oil companies are drilling a mile beneath the surface of the ocean – because we’re running out of places to drill on land and in shallow water.”
What he omitted is that we are only running out of shallow water drilling sites because he and his Party have succesfully limited offshore drilling to the coasts of Texas and Louisiana.
Omaha is not a leader; he’s a guy who can make Marx sound like a centrist. Oh, and he’s a glib liar, too–one of the greatest. But he is not a leader.
Can you imagine what effect this is having on our enemies? What would Omaha do if the US were attacked? Escape to the golf course, presumably. His ineptitude is encouraging every single enemy we have to attack us without compunction–both at home and abroad. Why would they think twice? Truly. Why would they hesitate? This reveals his utter worthlessness.
I agree, he’s glib and he’s a liar, but, the lies he’s telling are the consensus lies of the White House “Faculty Lounge,” and, his backers since he entered politics in Chicago, lo those few years ago.
He’s a mannequin (a Strawman) they shove out in front of the Cameras, for real people to shoot at, while they feed lines to his speech writers.
The BIg Lie about Big Oil.
Nuclear energy, windmills, solar mirrors – all these will reduce the USA’s dependency on oil.
Are you sure?
The above are used to generate electricity.
1% if the USA’s oil use – yes one percent – is for generating electricity.
How then will “renewables” solve the oil problem: and is there really a problem?
Most of the oil is used for transportation.
What viable alternatives exist to replace this?
Horses I suppose, but then think of the environmental impact of all that manure spilling from the rears of millions of horse needed, the length and breadth of the USA.
Bring back the good old days of oil! people shall cry.
We can use hybrids and electric cars for transportation, allowing electricity to displace oil, but only if we have enough electricity.
And only if we don’t have to go very far.
Only if we don’t have to go very far?!
Do you always drive more than 50, 100 or 200 miles a day? How about 300? Look at the Telsa Roadster that uses crippled small cell lithium batteries, due to the fact that big oil owns the patent on large capacity lithium ion batteries. How far does it go even still? And on laptop batteries no less.
For those that do drive more than 300 miles a day maybe you need to move closer to work. Some people need 6 bedroom homes as they have extended families, should we try and build all houses with 6 bedrooms just to cater to the extreme cases?
Electric cars don’t fit the needs of everyone Mark, but your attitude towards them is why the technology is never developed. Just imagine if over the past 100 years we had been actually working on electric car technology rather than suppressing it. The ICE (internal combustion engine) has come pretty far in that time. (well everything has improved on it except for gas mileage…hmmm wonder why?)
Electric cars and their proponents don’t claim that they are for everyone. They simply claim to fit the needs of some people, and hopefully when more people actually have an open mind about them we can move forward with something that will not support big oil, and will not pollute the earth nearly as much as oil. That technology will grow and improve and instead of just fitting the needs of some people they will fit the needs of MOST people.
Electric is scary to the fat cats. Oh no! What if the people start making their own electricity…drive for free…build green homes, and power their homes for free too…how will we continue to tax them and take all their money.
MarkTheGreat, I can tell by your handle that you are pretty self absorbed, much like the rest of the American people. When oh when will everyone wake up?
Mark have you ever witnessed a gas crisis? What if they stopped the flow of oil to our country, or oil ran out…would you still have the same attitude about electrics or would you be happy to have that range? Did i mention that electric cars cost very little per mile to operate after the expense of buying them? The price will come down after people actually embrace them and they are manufactured in quantity. Maintenance cost? What maintenance (other than battery)? We just need to get the battery price down, find the battery technology that can be recycled most effectively and has the most range.
Even if you only drive those distances once a month (and many people do) that would mean you either have to buy two cars, or rent one every month. Renting a car to go on vacation adds a lot to the cost of the vacation as well.
Out here in the real world, a car has to handle all contingencies.
As to the claim that if we had only invested in tech development, IC cars could compete. Are you utterly delusional?
Do you really believe that there hasn’t been billions of dollars devoted to battery and electric motor technology over the last 100 years? Do you honestly believe that EV’s are the only things that use either, and the only thing that would benefit from improvements in either?
My only attitude towards EV’s is incredulity at the naivete and ignorance of those who believe that EV’s will be usefull for anything other than a tiny, tiny niche of the population.
BTW, if 10% of the population started doing most of their driving with EV’s, we would have to double the electric generation capacity of this country and completely rebuild the distribution system as well.
Go ahead, continue to dream your pie in the sky dreams. And I will continue to laugh at you.
A point that I forgot yesterday. The output values quoted above are only good when the sun is directly overhead and perpendicular to the solar cell. When the sun is not directly overhead two things happen. The light has to pass through an increased amount of atmosphere, so more of it gets absorbed before it can hit the cell, and the light hits the sell at an angle, so that it is less intense, meaning less light energy to be absorbed as well.
Mark, can you tell us what you think the answer is? Is oil the way of the future from here to eternity or do you want to talk about what you think is a better alternative? It must be easy to just trash everyone’s ideas without posting any real solution. Why don’t you open yourself up and bestow upon us some of your great knowledge and wisdom.
If electricity is the dumbest idea you have ever heard fine, I don’t care, that is the only path I see working for me in the near future…but seriously if you had to get around and live a life free of as much pollution possible how would you do it? Would electric cars not come to mind if you had to build or buy something TOMORROW that was nearly pollution free and could get you from A to B?
You seem to be a knowledgeable person, share your ideas rather than talking down to everyone else!
I am just a kid with an open mind and an interest in better ideas.
Roger, when your entire platform consists of Blame & Bromides, is it any wonder that you come off a bit flat on the 736,470 issue that you employ the “it’s “X” fault, they are bad people…and have all the attributes of the detested “conservative” (racist, homophobic, greedy, warmongering, anti-green, bitter clingers, religious flat earth believers…blah, blah, blah)
The Arc of History is not long enough to outlast tedium and fraud and in the hands of leftists doesn’t bend toward any new notes in their one note symphony.
So, we watch the latest Blame and Bromide wooden performance with a stifled yawn, as the Drone of Arc tries to scare the faithful with yet another tale of the bogeyman “Them”, who are ruining the planet, the economy, and the peace/love/harmony that would exist, if only “they” didn’t.
It very well could be that this one act play is losing all with at least two firing synapses…the blind faithful excepted. Nobody is buying the bromides, even if they are still fooled by “the blame” some of the time.
The Emperor has no close.
One thing Obamas performance from the Oval Office demonstrated beyond a shadow of doubt is how ill suited he is to be there.
Obama is not responsible directly for the leak, though he is responsible for the agency who’s lax oversight may have led to the leak.
Beyond that, Obama is responsible for helping to coordinate the response to the leak.
He is responsible for making sure that all federal agencies work together and that regulations that hamper that effort are suspended for the duration.
Ok, that’s a fair response. With Katrina, we all knew going in that the response was all going to be state or Federal. In this case, we have BP and its responsibilities, which help financially, for sure, but complicate things, certainly in relation to the STOPPING of the gusher. The clean-up should be more straight forward, except I assume that there is at the moment an issue of BP saying that since they will pay the bills, they will make hiring decisions regarding the clean-up. And yes, this stuff definitely has to get sorted out, but it is becoming clearer and clearer that this is a long haul disaster clean-up.
There are so many chances to look bad here. Let’s say that you expend 20 million right now cleaning up shoreline x, but since the oil is still out there, you have to clean it up again, and again, and again. So when it the right time to clean up the beach? There will be a thousand time where critics in retrospect can (and will) point to waste, miscalculation, blah, blah. The damned spill is so big and still growing, that the clean-up will have to go on and on and on and on and on.
People will be sick of Obama, sick of oil, sick of being sick before long, but the fact that the proximate cause is big oil will modify any strong shift to the right. One hopes that it leads to a rational discussion about better places to drill. If Nixon could go to China, then Obama could drill in ANWR and/or promote nuclear. Given his base, he may or may not be able to make that pivot.
Do we want to make it possible for him to shift centerward a la Clinton, or just concentrate on destroying him? I know; it is the job of PJM to try to destroy him and let the chips fall where they may.
I guess that we all have our jobs to do.
The thrill up our leg has turned into a tickle trickle-
HopeyChangey teleprompter being read by an empty suit, falling on deaf, lefty ears.
Priceless!
I’m so sorry I missed those pundits and their comments. When Obambi came on, I switched to watching weather radar since it is substantive.
Why do politicians continue to conflate production of electricity with transportation fuels? Oil has not been a significant source of electricity production since the 1970s. Even if by some miracle we could transform domestic electricity production overnight, it would not reduce demand for liquid transportation fuels one bit. And why do we need a national energy policy? How have all those other national policies worked out for us?
Housing policy?
Education policy?
Farm policy?
We need fewer national policies.
The Obama presidency is a disaster in slow motion. His domestic policies have succeeded in pushing the nation towards bankruptcy while essentially ignoring the stubborn unemployment problem. His foreign policy is an unmitigated failure. He antagonizes our friends, and emboldens are enemies who laugh at this posturing, impotent child man. Why should we be surprised? There has never been such an untried, unproven, inexperienced resident in the White House. Aside from monumental hubris, what does The One bring to the table? His approach to the oil spill is nothing if not that of a tort lawyer: ‘BP will pay!!’. Pathetic.
Hey Yo. Obama. Where’s the U.S. Navy? The Navy could have helped. And the Coast Guard. Where were they in your speech? Aren’t you Commander in Chief? What gives? Is this more intentional help to our enemies, who are more encouraged every day to go on the warpath? Everyone knows Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain were war-mongers by default. The guy who railed agin ‘em, who led the UK to victory, and the Greatest Human of the 20th Century, you sent his bust back as an insult to our cousins across the Water. It’s got to be intentional. It’s got to be intentional. No one is this stupid.
Obama is responsible for the fact that 57 days into this debacle he has not even begun to marshal the resources necessary to contain the damage from the oil gusher.
This is a problem that cannot be solved by reading from a teleprompter. It requires executive ability. Obama is not merely incompetent, he’s grossly incompetent.
After 18 months it looks like Obama is running on fumes. It must be exhausting to keep up this charade that he’s intelligent and knows what he is doing. Wouldn’t it make you tired all the time? These endless rounds of golf must how he is keeping his disintegrating personality from shattering altogether, and who knows how much longer that will work. Meanwhile the interest in his mysterious background won’t go away. There are documents about his Kenyan birth circulating on the internet that look awfully authentic, at least enough to warrant a Congressional investigation when the House is run by Republicans after November. The oddly named mainstream media won’t touch it with a ten-foot pole, of course. It has too much invested in the mighty Oz. Maybe the Justice Department lawyers who aren’t investigating the Black Panther voter intimidation case can be spared.
Obama’s a menace to America promoting policies that dissolve our global standing.
Tell the President, rhetoric has no effect on the black stuff still gushing in the gulf.
“This government is not about governing. It is about creating an impression. That worked on the campaign trail in 2008, but it is a disaster in the White House, where rhetoric is no substitute for reality.”
“…creating political impressions and images is not the same thing as governing. Yet Obama in the White House keeps on saying and doing things to impress people, instead of governing.”
“…domestic bungling by Barack Obama sends a dangerous signal to countries hostile to us, in addition to the signal sent by his displays of amateurism on the world stage…it is painfully clear that Obama is not going to do anything that has any realistic chance of stopping Iran from going nuclear.”
Obama’s Snake-Oil Spill
Question… what would it really be like if our country was run by a gaggle of community college sociology professors?
Answer…TaDAAAAAAAAA!!!!!
According to DT, it’s worse than that. They are Ivy League professors!
Amen. Guilty as charged. One must understand the moral compromises normally required to become an Ivy League soft science professor. These people are usually idiots. The situation worsened considerably during the radical 1960s. Post modernist ideologues began to dominate the curriculum.
Being a leader means taking responsibility and making tough decisions. One solution would be to do what the Russians did to stop a couple gas leaks–drill adjacent to the well and set off a nuclear explosion underground. I am puzzled by the suggestion that Obama is only responsible for what learn from the leak and how to correct the problem in the future. That seems to be what his speech was about and everyone agrees that was a lame speech.
Steve:
Bobby Jindal couldn’t dredge up seabed mud and pile it into barrier islands to protect the marshes for the sake of an environmental impact study/statement/voodoo ceremony, but you think they;re going to set off a subsurface nuke 50 miles off the Louisiana coast…?
It should be against the law to get THAT stoned, y’know?
Look, the floor of the GoM is littered with pipelines and manifolds, as well as the foundations for myriad OTHER rigs.
None of this has ever been tested for seismic shocks, (mainly because no-one has ever cranked the speakers up to “11″ and suggested nuking the GoM’s underlying substratum).
So, we MIGHT stop the Macondo Well blowout…and open up blowouts from every other platform and pipeline within a 50 mile radius.
Smooth move, Ex-Lax!
If a nuke is to be used, it will be as much as 1000 ft below the seafloor. You also don’t need a big nuke, 10 to 20 kT would be enough. At that size, at that depth, there wouldn’t be much more than a ripple when the shockwave reached the surface. There are a lot of pipes and such on the floor of the Gulf, but most of them are miles away from the leak.
The idea is not as far fetched as you seem to think.
Many of the bombs tested in the Nevada test range weren’t much further than 50 miles from Las Vegas, and those bombs were several order of magnitude larger than the one being talked about here.
Roger, I would have agree with you a week ago in believing that Obama can’t be held responsible for the spill in the Gulf…but then I read the article below…and now I know that Obama is responsible for both the spill and the disastrous aftermath and incompetence since.
Bush, no matter his other incompetencies at times, had no control over the cause of Katrina.
In any event, I always benefit from reading your blog, Roger, and appreciate your efforts to get to the truth, whatever the issue.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/111965?RS_show_page=0#
Teleprompter-Barbie was in his usual form last night. mmm mmm mmm
This is only a guess. Did he wait 57 days to make a speech because there are 57 (Islamic) states? Did OPEC and Saudi Arabia tell him, ‘Okay, things are looking good now, Hussein, go tell Americans you’re working on it…’ ?
While you’re at it, tell the President & his underlings that threatening lawsuits, pontificating on holding BP’s feet to the fire, acting all high and mighty, making BP put X number of billions in escrow, threatening to disrupt the company’s dividend distributions etc. only serve to divert the oil company’s attention from stopping the black stuff gushing in the gulf.
Tell the President that using this continuing disaster as a political cudgel to promote his cap and trade agenda is disgusting.
And tell Lieberman and Kerry to STFU.
Thank you.
I believe that there was some hanky panky with the moratorium bill.
Deepwater-Gate: Administration Modifies Peer-Reviewed Report After it was Reviewed by Scientists
Democrats exulted in Bush’s problems with Katrina and were more than rabidly willing to pin all the blame and responsiblity on him. Did they really think this scenario could never play out with one of theirs in charge? Well, maybe not soo soon. While it’s sad that politics has turned into the wish for the other to fail, in an epic manner, if in power, there you go. How does this ever end? In a democracy, your opponents will eventually form the government. Even in Mexico and Canada. In fact, the (eventual) rotation of power is the best thing about a Democracy, isn’t it?
John @ #22
“Horses I suppose, but then think of the environmental impact of all that manure spilling from the rears of millions of horse needed, the length and breadth of the USA.”
It would not significantly increase the quantity that presently emanates from Wash. D.C. and the MSM.
Churchillian! Well, no. Not even close but no cigar.
The president is revealing himself as a poseur,promoted beyond his competence level by affirmative action,and elected by improvident hysterics who expected him to pay the mortage on houses they knew they could not afford.A mediocre,indecisive Marxoid dweeb,he is to the presidency what Al Sharpton is to is to the Christian ministry: a FRAUD!
Why on earth do you think this is incompetence? Obama’s obstruction of all meaningful responses has been deliberate – he wants this disaster to be as bad as it can possibly be. He wants this incident to kill offshore drilling as surely as Chernobyl killed nuclear power.
Deliberate. That’s it!!
And the equally disastrous Washington money spill is deliberate too.
No person with an ounce of common sense believes that a simultaneous debt crisis for the federal government, the states and the economy can be cured by exploding the debt–but it can help take America down, just as banning drilling can help further weaken our country.
I see a parallel between this oil debacle and the economy. In both cases, Obama is allowing [forcing?] the situation to worsen to the point at which the only option is government intervention and control. For the oil leak, Obama wants more control such as Cap and Tax and in the economy he wants the situation to worsen to the point at which the people will have to depend on the government. Since Obama is no intellectual light I wonder just who’s program he is pimping?
Disconnect? You are way too charitable. Let me count the incoherence. Not enough money budgeted for going to the moon, so let’s cancel the program and dither around in low earth orbit–kiss all that new technology good by. He’s not your New Frontier democrat of old. Normally he’s suspicious of private enterprise, but let’s let under capitalized private startups do the low earth orbit space jig–as he de facto nationalizes the banks, the auto industry, and energy. We have a fiscal crisis of the state, basically brought on by excessive financial leverage, but we have to socialize health care, adding to the debt, to solve that excess leverage problem where we socialized the risk taking–too big to fail. He claims to want to win the war–that he refuses to call a war with an actual enemy–and meanwhile sets campaign deadlines and undermines the local allies fighting the war. Apparently the gulf gusher can only be stopped and mitigated with cap and trade–cap and tax! Of course, the demanded twenty billion dollar escrow fund from BP will turn out to be a political slush fund for paying off ACORN staff to clean the beaches. So, we’ve lost the moon, turn coat Turkey is still in NATO, losing Afghanistan, and it looks like Israel is next, but at least we have state paid enemas for life–apparently the high colonic is popular in Hollywood.
I think the ‘I am not a scientist’ line is just a red herring and misdirection.
He is directly responsible for coordinating and directing the agencies involved in the clean up and protection of our shores while the experts seek to stop the oil flow.
Instead, he has permitted in-fighting, turf wars and bureaucratic red tape to rule the day among the US agencies and local political jurisdictions.
He’s also turned down expert foreign aid for bureaucratic reasons, as well.
He done a very competent job of making things worse.
I’d like to see the reporting as to how many rigs are drilling at the same depth as the one which resulted in all this oil making it to Florida, and beyond.
For we hear about the plane crashes, but never the flights which take off and land safely.
#11 David Thomson said exactly what I wished to say.
Obama, Salazar were too enamored with the CONCEPT of alternative energy rather than dealing in reality, present..
For Obama to pass the buck (AGAIN!!! Though to Bush AND BP..) instead of showing some humility.. only espouses his disconnect from those paying the price.
Jindal and his cabinet have feverishly tried to get the Army Corps of Engineers (see: Government) more involved/ active in this debacle.
On another frightening note, imagine what health insurance/ care will be like in 3 1/2 years under Govrnment’s thumb.. we ain’t seen nothing yet.
It occurred to me that maybe just maybe the 20B into an escrow account, while it may not be a good deal for the good old general public, may be a good deal for BP.
Dear BP
Our current situation is dire. We are close to losing our shrimping company. This spill has cost us (fill in the blank) Your desire to help in our situation is admirable. How do we go about arranging for recompense?
Signed
Bubba Gump Shrimp Company
Dear Bubba
We have complied with the president’s request in placing monies in an escrow account for just your situation. Be kind enough to forward your request to the U.S. Government.
Yours Truly
Mr CEO
I think it’s time to start a petition movement to remove “President” O’Bumble from the White House. I know it’s never been done before, but there’s always a first time for everything. Maybe if we get enough signatures, we can get the attention of Congress, especially in an election year. Unfortunately, that will only promote the biggest fool who ever served in Congress to President (President Joe Biden, anyone?), and if he’s removed, we get “President Nancy Pelosi” – unless enough Democrap congresscritters get tossed out we get someone else as Speaker of the House. We don’t have a lot of good choices. Failing to act, however, may lead to even worse scenarios playing out.
Pelosi would only become president if Barry and Biden were to be removed at the same time. Once Barry is removed and Biden becomes president, Biden gets to pick a new VP. Who would then become president if Biden were to be removed.
Of course the idea that this congress would ever remove either Barry or Biden is absurd.
If Americans cared anything about energy independence they would have found and then voted for candidates capable of bringing energy independence.
I think it is very nice for PJ to self righteously portray themselves as “concerned citizens” on energy independence!
Where do I find consistent continuous (any) demands for energy independence in your various writings on this blog; beside my post which invariably explain exact methods towards cellulose ethanol energy independence?
Where can you (RLS) point to the many articles written on this blog detailing the technology and the methods to wean us from “crude”?
I believe the president could have easily lifted his approval rating above 50% if had simply addressed the only issue that really concerns Americans:
The cost and availability of shrimp cocktails!
You think I am being flip…I am calling it like I see it, which invariably has been perceived as off the wall but ultimately comes in right on the money.
So I am sure we will now begin seeing the missing energy independent articles that detail the path…And I am equally sure that even your readers will ignore (raise canards/invalid objections) them and that far more Comments, Threads, Trackbacks will come on that article on “shrimp cocktails” cost/availability!
How many times does PJM have to print articles arguing for drill here/drill now, nuclear power, etc, to satisfy you?
Markthefake: Oil industry canard rep! Hi!
When you are interested in real solutions, let us know.
If all you want to do is continue sounding stupid, just keep on as you have been.
I’m still waiting for you to posit a valid reason for getting off of oil. It can’t be the reason you keep claiming, because as I have shown again, you reject any solution that doesn’t involve the elimination of oil.
Mr. Simon, you misunderstand. It’s not that Obama “…knows nothing about petroleum engineering, just as he knows nothing about global warming.” The issue here is that he thinks his progressive metanarratives, coupled with his ostensibly vastly superior intelligence, gives him the right to not only pontificate in vague generalities, but more importantly to act as philosopher-king and dictate to everyone about everything.
In this regard, he is most certainly to blame.
HAIL OBAMA (PEACE BE UPON HIM) !!!
Good article, Roger. I can’t remember a more lame presidential address.
And I can’t help but think that Hillary watched this address like a
hungry lioness watches an antelope limping across the Serengeti.
If Hillary is thinking about another run, she needs to get out of this adminstration post haste. This sinking ship is going to drag everyone associated down with it.
Let her go down with the ship, and take her hubby with her.
Unfortunately, most people can’t even tell you what the definition of “energy” is, and certainly most green environmental whacks couldn’t tell you either what the carbon dioxide molecule looks like or how much energy in appropriate units (I don’t care, pick one) is stored in petroleum.
The leak is an absolute disaster, but it’s almost besides the point because of so very few people who can do anything about it. It’s the millions of gallons of oil gushing into the ocean and into the environment that thousands of people CAN do something about, yet Obama WON’T. At this point, not one American except the most despicable politicians (a.k.a. rabid liberals) cares WHO cleans up the mess, just someone DO IT. In other words, who cares if liberals soil themselves by rubbing shoulders with conservatives or the regular folk by engaging in local, state, and federal crews to try anything and everything to clean up the oil ASAP. By employing ALL methods and learning which is the best and most efficient is the only way to learn in the now and file away for future discussions. Stop the “studying” crap or “commission” B.S. and just roll up one’s sleeves and get to work. If Obama had deigned to team up with (gasp!) Jindel and other Republican local and state governments, his approval ratings would have gone through the roof! If he had set aside the Jones act and told the unions to stick it and get help from Norway and other countries and companies, the world would size him up as a practical man and become more respectful of him. But NO. He just HAD to be a jerk. Couldn’t help himself.
Roger:
Who was it in Hollywood who said that once you mastered faking sincerity, you had it made?
Our President is still trying to fake it.
Good to see groupies Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews finally change their panties and accuse their idol of inaction and incompetence in the oil spill crisis. It’s a start, but, like so many far less infatuated critics of Obama who’ve been saying the same for a while already, alas, in this case, they’re flat-out wrong.
Obama’s been very busy doing something by doing nothing, and his so-called dithering has accomplished a great deal. The spill’s doing us great harm, he knows that, and so the more the oil spills, the merrier. As far as he’s concerned, let it flow, let it flow, let it flow . . .
Sure, there’s a fuss about playing golf, going on vacation, or sitting on his ass while the oil keeps gushing. So what? Let ‘em squawk! Obama, he looks at the big picture. Economic and ecological disasters, one after another, all coming down on America — what could be bad?
Obama can not give a good speech. He can give a good reading but writing and giving speeches are skills he does not have. The puppet reads the lines. The puppet master writes the lines.
This [Obama] was a man playing catch-up, aware that the public is apparently even less enamored of him on this issue than they were of George W. Bush on Katrina.
There’s a huge difference. This week, the MSM is ending a two-year string of unbroken Obama support, and testing the concept of criticism of Obama for nearly the first time. Whereas with Bush, the MSM had been in bitter-criticism mode for two years already, and then seized Katrina as the opportunity to crank the anti-Bush chorus up to holocaust level.
By comparison, the media is still Hope and Change mode, mostly concerned that his leftist agenda may be stalled by the untimely intrusion of real-world oil production concerns. Reporting has put his disastrous foreign policy on hold during the interim, showing how easily national concerns are ditched by the MSM in favor of celebrity soap operas.
I’ll be amazed if Obama has the psychological hide to withstand all the contumely that will be coming his way.
Roger,
I imagine you are talking in a hyperbolic fashion, but solar cells would not have to cover 1/2 the world to generate enough energy for our current uses. Its more like 1/10 of 1%. Of course, 1/10 of 1% has the area of 7 million square miles, so it might “feel” like 1/2 of the earth.
Also, building the factories to build that many cells is still about 20 years off.
Also, as someone else says, we then need a way to get around, and batteries still aren’t good enough. So the short term answer would be that the solar displaces coal and natural gas in energy production and those fuels are then converted to fuels for transportation.
You are right, though, that his speech was pretty bad. I wonder if he even knows what I described above?
You are assuming that 100% of the ground could be covered by cells. Not true. First off, there are the access roads and paths needed so that workers can service and clean the cells. Then you are assuming that there are no clouds and no night. You are also assuming that 100% of the cells are working at 100% efficiency. They only manage this on the first day after installation. After that, they start losing efficiency because their surfaces are dirty. The cells themselves degrade over time with the fastest degradation coming in the first few years.
Solar cells are useless for power generation until some method is invented that can economically store the energy. They have been looking for that magical method for decades, and are no closer to finding it now, than when they started.
True that he wasn’t elected scientist-in-chief, Roger, but he *was* elected Chief Executive. And the ability to manage complex arrays of activities and people is a *skill*, a very difficult one, learned mostly through experience but partly through book learning. Obama has neither the experience nor the book learning in this field, and for him to apply for this job is as arrogant as if he’d applied to be a 737 captain without ever having even taken a Cessna 152 around the pattern. The fact that he was elected demonstrates that the large and influential class of “word people”…writers, media types, entertainers, lawyers, many types of professors..fails to understand that there *is* such a thing as executive skill.
James..”I wonder if he even knows what I described above?” I wonder if he even knows that oil isn’t used to any significant extent to generate electricity in the U.S. The man is that clueless.
Dear Dr. Bones,
As we have before now, sir, let us solemnly pretend that Neocomrade R. L. Simon, Freelord and Kiddiemaster Padjaama in the peerage of Foxcuckooland, harbors not a factious thought in that twilight zone between his freelordship’s ears. All literature, all the time — let that ‘R’ us!
From this high-and-dry standpoint, what we have here can basically be taken as an adverse notice of a competitor’s neoperformance, raisin’ above all a question of how the pajamatarian kiddiemaster would produce and direct and star in his own yalodramatic (one must presume) version of “Screwed by Crude,” so to call the basic plot. With a lesser light of dingalingism, this task would be fairly simple, I think, and indeed, rather too simple to be very interesting to a critical grown-up. Put a Kiddiejunker G. L. Beck — who has, as it happens, taken to apin’ Freelord Padjaama and others of his Betters in the potboiler concoction department — in charge of the whole sub-Shakespearean rag, and I betcha we’d only get “What would Reagan do?” WRIT LARGE. That would be a fun shtyk for us to beat the kiddie side of the KSM with [1], but at the moment a decent pretence of solemnity requires that we pick on the movement kiddies’ self-servility instead.
Kiddiemaster Padjaama is several cuts above that, needless to say. His freelordship acknowledges the basic dramatic mise en scène:
Not having yet perused any of the Simonæac potboilers, my notions of what yalodrama is remain a little fuzzy around the edges. I am reassured by the passage quoted, though, that the YD neoproduct cannot be utterly different from more traditional stage fare. Even is the above be taken to indicate that Herbert XXXIII would make an appearance, should his freelordship honor us with an actual recountin’ of “Screwed by Crude” scenario the YD neoformat. [2]
Unfortunately, Kiddiemaster Padjaama withdraws so far from the bosky groves of Homelandic Lit. into mere politics and factionalism that I cannot follow his freelordship without breaking the pledge given above. Unless, that is, Nuke-You-Larry Power can appear as a character in yalodrama in an allegorical way that mainstream Homel. Lit. gave up sometime aaround the year of religionism 0960/1550/5330.
As ordinary melodrama, as a Foxcuckoolandic neoentertainment, NYLP is simply out of the question. Even a literary neocomradess as amazingly crumby as the late Miss Rand of Petrograd was could only at worst allow John, Firstlord and Kiddiemaster Galt, to think of the nuke-you-larry neosolution to all known human problems, up to an’ includin’ the Heartbereak of Psoriasis, when all around his firstlordship are losin’ their heads and wringin’ their paws in vain. Larry and his unbuddy would not turn up as cardboard cut-outs themselves.
There is somethin’ to be said for the way the kiddiemaster spins in the path of his Party Paymasters here, but since that element has no connection with literature even at the level of vulgar agitproppin’, I shall (maybe) discuss that element under separate cover.
And I wish you, sir,
Happy days through affordable healthcare.
___
[1] Naturally one imagines Ronald XXXIX carried down by loyal retainers of Party an’ AEIdeology to the shores of the Gulf in a sedan chair, agèd but not enfeebled, where he gives his adversary and that of his holy Homeland™ a severe talkin’-to. After the manner of Firstlord Reagan with M. Brezhev, you see, or that of Cnut I with the Norwegian Sea: “Ms. Nature, suck up this oil! An’ suck it ALL up right NOW!”
After that, I suppose Kiddiejunker G. L. Beck would proceed more along the lines of the recent precedent. Remember Max Beerbohm and Savonarola Brown, Dr. Bones? Was ever a happier endin’ (sorta) than
“POPE: In deference to this our double sorrow,
Sun shall not shine to-day nor shine tomorrow!”
“Sun drops quickly back behind the eastern horizon, leaving a Great Darkness on which the Curtain slowly falls.” ?
(( I never noticed before just now, sir, that St. Max condescends to use Capital Letters to make his spoofees look even sillier than Natura sive Juppiter made them. Or even for no apparent reason at all, as with ‘Curtain’ here. But if you can think of a reason, please let me know. ))
[2] Like Max’s mysterious Curtain, his freelordship’s makin’ President Hoover (or possibly his ghost?) a persona ïalodramatis is not a point I can instantly see the point of. However, to wonder what would have happened if Natura sive Juppiter had picked, say, 1931 to embarrass Party an’ AEIdeology with “Screwed by Crude” rather than 2010 is quite a sensible thought, even if the thought has to be treated in mere expository prose.
On the other hand, your ordinary melodramatist — I say nothing of the blessèd and mysterious YD neoproduct — would probably want a rather severely fictionalized “Herbert Hoover.” One who had, for example, spent the years from 1921 through 1929 not as Secretary of Commerce in two different régimes of the Party of Big Management, but rather had been chairman and CEO and CMO (chief minin’ officer) and chief everythi’ else of (say) the “Beautiful Prophets Rockoil Trust” — i.e., the very secret-sector business corporation most immediately let down by Natura sive Juppiter.
Crudely, fancy poor Herbie havin’ to clean up “his own mess”!
But hush! there is no reason you and I should be boiling Kiddiemaster Padjaama’s pots for him. And obviously his freelordship’s neofactional committments are such as guarantee that whatever he made of “Screwed by Crude” yalodramatically, it would not be anythin’ like that.
I betcha his freelordship just stuck in his jackdaw scrap of knowledge about Hoover’s pre-Republicaniac career to remind the kiddies that their kiddiemaster knows more such scraps than they do. Y*L* being after all good for a little something, maybe . . .
But Father Zeus knows best.
I finally figured out that what the Left and the media have mistaken for Obama’s Presidential “demeanor” is really the glossy-eyed lack of passion and conviction of the indoctrinated. He is the sum of the old dusty book of Liberal maxims.
We will toss him in 2012, but in the meantime can he at least have the decency of naming a President-czar? We seem to need some real leadership on this one.
Loving obama’s passion but I’m doubtful this initiative will help the economy at all during this next year. I know i’m pessimistic, but I think there is a lot more bad to come before we see the economy recover.