And furthermore …
Even before finishing my last post I realized that there are quite a few more items that need to be said about the current campaign for the presidency. The idea that even one voter might make a choice based on bad information is anathema to everything our Founders intended for America.
Take (please!) this new ad from the McCain campaign:
"Life in the spotlight (the video shows crowds cheering Obama) must be grand, but for the rest of us times are tough."
Us? This from the guy who campaigns wearing $520 leather Ferragamo loafers, enjoys the use of his billion-heiress wife’s private plane to travel to campaign events, and owns at least half a dozen homes in pleasant locations?
The ad goes on: “Obama voted to raise taxes on people making just $42,000,” while the text-over says Obama: RAISE TAXES ON MIDDLE CLASS.
The narrator claims that Obama “promises to raise taxes on small business, seniors, your life savings, your family.” Talk about hot buttons! Then, next to a photo of a smiling Barack Obama, “Painful taxes! Hard choices for your budget!”
What a heartless cad!
The ad concludes, of course, with “I’m John McCain and I approve this message.”
Some in the TV commentariat speculated aloud last week that they don’t believe McCain is really this kind of guy, that he must not really know what his minions are putting out there because he surely would not be comfortable running such ads.
Next to the ad described above, I could almost forgive the simple slander of using a remark out of context, as I described last week. Here we have an out-and-out lie. No other way to characterize it.
Obama has said for months that his tax proposals include REDUCING taxes for every family with less than $250,000 income, and eliminating them altogether for low-income families and seniors under $50,000.
I used to fantasize that whenever an election was won with a proven lie the person who won that way should have to give up the office. Fat chance.
From lies to too-clever-by-half: In an exchange about McCain’s fixation with off-shore drilling, Obama observed that, hey, if every driver got the car tuned up and its tires inflated to specification the fuel savings would be immediate, contrasted with the years before new wells could influence gasoline prices — if indeed they did more than a penny or three a gallon.
McCain promptly began a campaign to mock this as “Obama’s energy plan,” and handed out cute little pressure gauges to reporters. (Ordinary folks could get one for only $25.00 on McCain’s web site.)
But here’s what BusinessWeek.com wrote on August 1, 2008:
AAA and NASCAR agree, by the way.
Further, according to BusinessWeek.com,
So it was reassuring to hear McCain endorse the idea a week or so later.
And none of these sources mentioned the fact that the savings realized by reducing driving speed to 55 mph is said to add about five miles per gallon, not an amount to be sneezed at with current prices where they are.
One thing for sure: McCain’s argument that if we only “Drill here! Drill now!” it will bring down the price of gasoline is, to say the least, misleading.
Ok, but let’s say it’s a reasonable argument that, assuming more oil will eventually be needed, whether or not it drives down prices, we should probably be starting now. Here’s a problem:
People who seem to know what they are talking about point out (a) that we are already operating our refineries at capacity, so to accommodate more oil we will need to build more refineries; and (b) that there are millions of acres of existing oil leases that have not been drilled upon.
According to the U.S. Minerals Management Service,
It does seem to me that it would make sense to start drilling on lands that are already available, start building more refineries, all while continuing the quest for alternative solutions (after all, we’ll have at least a decade on our hands).
I remember how the Bush tax cuts for the very, very wealthy got through a distraught Congress while we were still reeling from the attacks of 9/11 — the President took advantage of the willingness of the nation to follow him just about anywhere, and the tax cuts were passed within days.
Could it be that the oil companies (who love the idea of more leases in juicy offshore locations, who gave McCain over $1 million to show that love) are hoping our present panic will help get them those leases?
All I can offer is a cautionary to Americans to pay close attention, check out the facts. Else, once again, it’s “fool me twice” time.
Originally published August 10, 2008
Take (please!) this new ad from the McCain campaign:
"Life in the spotlight (the video shows crowds cheering Obama) must be grand, but for the rest of us times are tough."
Us? This from the guy who campaigns wearing $520 leather Ferragamo loafers, enjoys the use of his billion-heiress wife’s private plane to travel to campaign events, and owns at least half a dozen homes in pleasant locations?
The ad goes on: “Obama voted to raise taxes on people making just $42,000,” while the text-over says Obama: RAISE TAXES ON MIDDLE CLASS.
The narrator claims that Obama “promises to raise taxes on small business, seniors, your life savings, your family.” Talk about hot buttons! Then, next to a photo of a smiling Barack Obama, “Painful taxes! Hard choices for your budget!”
What a heartless cad!
The ad concludes, of course, with “I’m John McCain and I approve this message.”
Some in the TV commentariat speculated aloud last week that they don’t believe McCain is really this kind of guy, that he must not really know what his minions are putting out there because he surely would not be comfortable running such ads.
Next to the ad described above, I could almost forgive the simple slander of using a remark out of context, as I described last week. Here we have an out-and-out lie. No other way to characterize it.
Obama has said for months that his tax proposals include REDUCING taxes for every family with less than $250,000 income, and eliminating them altogether for low-income families and seniors under $50,000.
I used to fantasize that whenever an election was won with a proven lie the person who won that way should have to give up the office. Fat chance.
From lies to too-clever-by-half: In an exchange about McCain’s fixation with off-shore drilling, Obama observed that, hey, if every driver got the car tuned up and its tires inflated to specification the fuel savings would be immediate, contrasted with the years before new wells could influence gasoline prices — if indeed they did more than a penny or three a gallon.
McCain promptly began a campaign to mock this as “Obama’s energy plan,” and handed out cute little pressure gauges to reporters. (Ordinary folks could get one for only $25.00 on McCain’s web site.)
But here’s what BusinessWeek.com wrote on August 1, 2008:
According to www.fueleconomy.gov, the gas savings of having a properly tuned car is 16 cents a gallon, compared with a car that’s not properly tuned. The savings from properly inflated tires versus improperly inflated tires is up to 40-cents a gallon.
Statistics vary, but more than half of the vehicles on the road today are believed, from periodic spot checking, to be under-inflated.
AAA and NASCAR agree, by the way.
Further, according to BusinessWeek.com,
The U.S. government’s own Energy Information Administration says that removing restrictions on offshore drilling wouldn’t lead to any additional domestic oil production until 2017, and that even at its peak the extra production would have an ‘insignificant’ impact on oil prices.
So it was reassuring to hear McCain endorse the idea a week or so later.
And none of these sources mentioned the fact that the savings realized by reducing driving speed to 55 mph is said to add about five miles per gallon, not an amount to be sneezed at with current prices where they are.
One thing for sure: McCain’s argument that if we only “Drill here! Drill now!” it will bring down the price of gasoline is, to say the least, misleading.
Ok, but let’s say it’s a reasonable argument that, assuming more oil will eventually be needed, whether or not it drives down prices, we should probably be starting now. Here’s a problem:
People who seem to know what they are talking about point out (a) that we are already operating our refineries at capacity, so to accommodate more oil we will need to build more refineries; and (b) that there are millions of acres of existing oil leases that have not been drilled upon.
According to the U.S. Minerals Management Service,
Currently 79 percent of America’s technically recoverable offshore oil reserves are open for leasing, while just 21 percent are closed to drilling. [Minerals Management Service, 2006]
Currently 82 percent of America’s technically recoverable offshore natural gas reserves are open for leasing, while just 18 percent are closed to drilling. [Minerals Management Service, 2006]”
It does seem to me that it would make sense to start drilling on lands that are already available, start building more refineries, all while continuing the quest for alternative solutions (after all, we’ll have at least a decade on our hands).
I remember how the Bush tax cuts for the very, very wealthy got through a distraught Congress while we were still reeling from the attacks of 9/11 — the President took advantage of the willingness of the nation to follow him just about anywhere, and the tax cuts were passed within days.
Could it be that the oil companies (who love the idea of more leases in juicy offshore locations, who gave McCain over $1 million to show that love) are hoping our present panic will help get them those leases?
All I can offer is a cautionary to Americans to pay close attention, check out the facts. Else, once again, it’s “fool me twice” time.
Originally published August 10, 2008
Labels: 2008, energy, lies, McCain, middle class, Obama, oil, taxes
posted by The Voice | 5:35 PM
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