Don't let this man anywhere near the economy

McCain, though, is auditioning not for the post of President,

but for the post of next Glorious Imperial Leader (after Bush).

Glorious Imperial Leaders do not trifle with such minutia as pumping gas, or dirtying their fingertips on computer keyboards!  Hey, you don't know who else might have touched that keyboard last.  Or what they were doing when they touched it!

I wonder if McCain is practicing his Elizabethan little people wave.

That's so much more important, really, for Glorious Imperial Leaders.

---

by: Firefly @ Sat Jun 28, 2008 at 21:58:04 PM CDT

Oh, and Glorious Imperial Leaders do NOT pay taxes.

Perish the very thought!

---

by: Firefly @ Sat Jun 28, 2008 at 21:59:22 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Adding Fuel to the Fire...

Huffington Post is reporting (with Newsweek as their source) that the McCains have defaulted on a property in California. Check it out.

I make next to nothing working for the public schools, but I still pay my taxes on time. What's his excuse? Only the little people pay taxes?  

"I like your Christ, but do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ." ~Gandhi
"Upon the integrity, wisdom, and independence of the judiciary depend the sacred rights of free men and women."  

---

by: keithan81 @ Sat Jun 28, 2008 at 22:02:01 PM CDT

Whoops

It looks as if I missed out on Pam's earlier post. One too many Vodka on the rocks!!!

"I like your Christ, but do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ." ~Gandhi
"Upon the integrity, wisdom, and independence of the judiciary depend the sacred rights of free men and women."  

---

by: keithan81 @ Sat Jun 28, 2008 at 22:15:45 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Give me one reason why

anyone would want to vote for this crook??

---

by: juicyjuice @ Sat Jun 28, 2008 at 22:25:39 PM CDT

because they're really gonna miss

their georgie.

Lurleen on Twitter

---

by: Lurleen @ Sun Jun 29, 2008 at 10:44:36 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

I should have asked for

a good reason!

---

by: juicyjuice @ Sun Jun 29, 2008 at 15:24:47 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

McSame can't run on the economy,

  McSame has to play it the same way Bush is.  You know it is only the beginning of July and the stimulous checks haven't been given a chance to work.  

 If McSame tells the truth about the economy it will make the Republicans look like the Idiots they are.  And it will work to the Democrats favor.  

 Tax cuts don't work while there are billions of dollars being spent on a war.  And with the way this war and its funding have been wasted by no accountability, what is one to expect.

 Couple that with the oil companies making billions in profit and at the same time receiving huge tax breaks and none of that money is being invested back into the US economy.

 Add to the fact that the houseing and realstate markets are in the crapper, people losing their homes, and who does Bush help, the banks that issued the subprime rates and people being suckered by the adjustable mortgage rates that were sold and during that transaction the rate caps removed.

 It will get interesting as the unemploment rate for the first quarter of this year rose by .5% to 5.5%.  And that doesn't include people working two jobs to make ends meet.

 Just wait until the report to come out in July to show unemployment percentage and than the profits made by the oil companies.

 And than let McSame run on the economy, or away from it.

If I make sense? it was quite by accident.

---

by: HappyCat @ Sat Jun 28, 2008 at 22:28:19 PM CDT

Maybe he misunderstood and heard

When was the last time you bumped a whore's ass, and how much did it cost?

---

by: juicyjuice @ Sat Jun 28, 2008 at 22:49:02 PM CDT

To be fair to McCain (whom I do not support)...

...we should probably look at his "I don't see how it matters" quote in its context:

When was the last time you pumped your own gas and how much did it cost?

Oh, I don't remember. Now there's Secret Service protection. But I've done it for many, many years. I don't recall and frankly, I don't see how it matters.

I've had hundreds and hundreds of town hall meetings, many as short a time ago as yesterday. I communicate with the people and they communicate with me very effectively.

http://totalbuzz.freedombloggi...

If you want allies, you have to be an ally.

---

by: dale @ Sun Jun 29, 2008 at 00:38:48 AM CDT

In context, it's actually worse

He's claiming that he's close to "the people" whether he pumps his own gas or not, remembers what it costs or not.  That things like that don't matter because communication is so good between himself and regular people.  Well, bullshit.  He comes from privilege and he married into wealth. He is more elite than Obama ever could be, or the Clintons, too for that matter.  But the press and the GOP will continue to conspire in casting the Democrats as elitists.  Those with a love of history (and fine writing and analysis) should read Nixonland and see where this craziness first arose: in the 1960s.

And do check out Thomas Friedman in the NYT on McCain, Obama and their VP choices--he's predicting economic expertise will be the key, not military background or foreign polciy smarts:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06...  

"In order to maintain an untenable position, you have to be actively ignorant."  The Colbert Report

---

by: Lev Raphael @ Sun Jun 29, 2008 at 06:03:23 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

I have to agree

"In context, it's actually worse"

I agree. I think it exemplifies how much of a pure political sham his 'gas tax holiday' idea is.

Kat

>^..^<

---

by: KatRose @ Sun Jun 29, 2008 at 08:55:44 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Friedman is probably right

As the price of oil continues to climb ($200/barrel is a real possibility) our economy is going to suffer major pains.
By November, it would be the major issue.  

If you want allies, you have to be an ally.

---

by: dale @ Sun Jun 29, 2008 at 10:08:55 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

They've defaulted on their taxes too

Aw hell, forget his ignorance in matters like gas prices and how to use a computer. John McCain can't even keep his own financial house in order! He hasn't paid taxes in 4 years on his California beachfront condo, and will be in default July 1.

This is the guy who's gonna enforce fiscal discipline in the government? Hilarious.

---

by: Southern Beale @ Sun Jun 29, 2008 at 06:21:13 AM CDT

Pumping gas is the least of our worries...

A growing number of credible analysts think that the world is going to reach peak oil production and start a slow decline during the next Presidential cycle and nearly everyone thinks oil production will peak in the next 25 years (and drilling in ANWAR and offshore won't change this one bit.) Once total worldwide production starts to decline (if it hasn't already) oil prices are going to skyrocket.

What I find astonishing is that no one is talking about the effect of escalating oil prices on the agricultural sector. It takes 10 calories of oil to produce 1 calorie of food. 20% of our oil consumption goes to food. Oil is used through the whole process: seeds, fertilizer, planting, cultivating, processing and transporting of food to market.

What no one is talking about is that in many cases there are no alternatives to many of these processes. You can't run large scale, heavy duty farm equipment, food processing centres and truck transport on fuel cell batteries, hydrogen, solar or wind. They don't have the scalability, efficiency or flexibility of oil. Once oil is taken out of the picture, total food yields are going to drop and there may be shortages.

Both candidates need to talking about this now, because it will be THE issue of the 2010s. While I would like to have faith that human ingenuity and technology may find a solution, there is nothing even remotely on the horizon that will take the place of oil in many sectors of our economy.

 

"Many people say I embarrass them with my humility" - Abp Peter Akinola

---

by: toujoursdan @ Sun Jun 29, 2008 at 08:19:16 AM CDT

"The Long Emergency"

In fact, everyone should watch this clip from CBC News. I don't think most westerners are even aware of how oil lubricates our way of life and how radically its going to change after oil is gone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...


"Many people say I embarrass them with my humility" - Abp Peter Akinola

---

by: toujoursdan @ Sun Jun 29, 2008 at 08:35:27 AM CDT

A relevant quote from decades ago, that I keep under the glass on my desk at work.

"It would indeed be a tragedy if the history of the human race proved to be nothing more than the story of an ape playing with a box of matches on a petrol dump."
David Ormsby-Gore, Lord Harlech

I put this quote from David's days as Ambassador and QC(Queen's Counsel) under my desk in 2003 when the US went into Iraq.

I tell you Chica that no greater abomination exists than women denying their spirit of sisterhood and instead becoming the oppressor. -Rebeca, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

---

by: MauraHennessey @ Sun Jun 29, 2008 at 11:02:31 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

As I said on Pandagon

Ah, the ignorance of the rich... take this act on the road up here in New England in October/November, Johnny McSame, and get your ass handed back to you on your own silver platter.

Heating oil has gone from $2.77 a gallon to $4.80- in one year.

Because of the high oil prices (remember, this was at the old $2.77 figure!!) of LAST season, one third of ALL Mainers had trouble paying their bills and found themselves in danger of having their electric shut off this spring.

Maine has a protective law where the electric companies cannot discontinue service due to nonpayment from November to April. The local news reported the threatened figures for Central Maine Power and Bangor Hydroelectric, but never the actual shut-offs.

This, before diesel hit $4. And when gas was still $3.30. Now, 4 months later, diesel is almost $5 a gallon and gas is over $4.

Food costs? FSM, don't get me started. The local news held a huge food drive, not in fall woth their annual "Coats for Kids" donations that they do when the weather gets cold, but in MAY. Wonder why?

Wrap your head around this: to feed the kids no longer getting free or reduced meals at school because school ended in June. Alot of kids get 2 meals a day at school, because their families cannot feed them more than once a day.

And now the flooding in the Mid-west, that will cause horrendous increases across the board for foods.

Folks are gonna DIE UP HERE next year! And by no means is my home state alone...

"It goes on one at a time, it starts when you care to act, it starts when you do it again after they said no, it starts when you say We and know who you mean, and each day you mean one more."

---

by: Louise @ Sun Jun 29, 2008 at 08:49:24 AM CDT

Few seem to understand the seriousness of

the United States' economic anf financial situation.

The Federal Reserve currency is naught but a house of cards, with a sustained value that is illusory and only recognized even at devalued levels because of a mutual consent from other international banking groups.

The currency could collapse instanly in the middle of the night should China dump its' US Treasury notes on the Singapore exchange before the Bush Administration awakens their collective oil intoxicated slumber.

The debt and money cuurrently in circulation used to pay foreign exchange and creditors exceeds the value of the assets of the nation and exceeds substantially the ability of the US to raise income.

In one hour of trading in Singapore the US currency could be reduced to that of Weimar Germany, with the west unable to stop the collapse and in fact dragging Europe into the Raganok with America.

The US needs desparately to end the foreign adventure to save itself. It in fact will have to go onto a financial starvation diet to survive.

I tell you Chica that no greater abomination exists than women denying their spirit of sisterhood and instead becoming the oppressor. -Rebeca, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

---

by: MauraHennessey @ Sun Jun 29, 2008 at 10:21:56 AM CDT

You are right.

Read this:

http://www.intelligencer.ca/Ar...

Frankly, all financial institutions are in deep trouble, and the reason is the American dollar. The situation is so dire that it's not going to make a hoot of difference who becomes the next president of the United States: it's beyond the power of the rulers of the American political and economic system to curtail severe damage to its entire economic enterprise. Neither Obama nor McCain can do anything to stem the disaster that will be fully employed by the end of this year.

Part of the cause is that the USA happens to be the most indebted nation on the planet and its people the least prepared to cope with peak oil and peak food.

"Many people say I embarrass them with my humility" - Abp Peter Akinola

---

by: toujoursdan @ Sun Jun 29, 2008 at 12:07:28 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Welcome...

Welcome to the Weimar Republic: The Next Generation ( http://www.pamshouseblend.com/... )

Kat

>^..^<

---

by: KatRose @ Sun Jun 29, 2008 at 13:05:25 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

The government has known this was coming for years...

What's frustrating is that there is a report to the Department of Energy published in 2005 that warned about the consequences of peak oil.

http://www.netl.doe.gov/public...

It said:

3. Many credible analysts have recently become much more pessimistic about the possibility of finding the huge new reserves needed to meet growing world demand.

4. Even the most optimistic forecasts suggest that world oil peaking will occur in less than 25 years.

5. The peaking of world oil production could create enormous economic disruption, as only glimpsed during the 1973 oil embargo and the 1979 Iranian oil cut-off.

It also said:

6. Mitigation will require a minimum of a decade of intense, expensive effort, because the scale of liquid fuels mitigation is inherently extremely large.

This is in 2005, it's 2008 now and no one has talked about this. It's not part of the American consciousness. We are 3 years into that decade where we are supposed to be expending intense effort.

I don't like McCain, but the problem with all our politicians and media that they promote a "feel good" culture built on denial. When is the last time any politician said: "Folks. Things aren't going to get better. We are going to have to tighten our belts and downsize. I will lead you through it." God forbid someone tells us to be less entitled and less indulgent.

"Many people say I embarrass them with my humility" - Abp Peter Akinola

---

by: toujoursdan @ Sun Jun 29, 2008 at 16:05:16 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I agree

 

Few seem to understand the seriousness of  
the United States' economic and financial situation.

Most especially, McCain!

---

by: juicyjuice @ Sun Jun 29, 2008 at 13:51:42 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

just posted at youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

It's a google earth tour of McCain's homeS.


You may not be gay, but you may be next.

---

by: LeslieK @ Sun Jun 29, 2008 at 14:56:38 PM CDT

One thing that I have ever understood about this

is that the United States is the Saudi Arabia of coal, and yet there was no effort after the 1950's of extracting oil from coal, or pursuing coal slurry diesel technologies.

I rember discussions in the UK back in the 90's about the possibility of the US breaking the Arabian stranglehold(which was nothing compared to now) by advancement of coal technologies and what that would mean to the then fairly new North Sea fields.

I tell you Chica that no greater abomination exists than women denying their spirit of sisterhood and instead becoming the oppressor. -Rebeca, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

---

by: MauraHennessey @ Sun Jun 29, 2008 at 16:34:27 PM CDT

Coal to oil

I think it's because it was economically unprofitable until recently. It just was much cheaper to take oil out of the ground. It was done in Nazi Germany and Apartheid-era South Africa because the embargoes made it worth it for them, but never done in a normal economy.

Also, the EROEI (Energy Returned on Energy Invested) ratio is very very low. If it takes one barrel of oil energy to produce one barrel of oil-from-coal, it results in zero net energy to power the economy. And I think it's close to that. But if you absolutely must have oil it may be worth doing even if your EROEI is zero or even negative.

(BTW, our EROEI in 1940 was 100:1. Today because we are drilling in more extreme, marginal and remote places, it has dropped to 3:1. The Canadian Oil Sands conversion is only 1.1:1. So over time the net energy we get from oil is dropping so we need more of it to make up the difference.)

I hope we don't go do the coal-to-oil route because it would put both the conversion process and the added oil will add a tremendous amount of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. But I have a sad feeling that all environmental regulations and awareness will go out the window as people get desperate to keep the lights on.

"Many people say I embarrass them with my humility" - Abp Peter Akinola

---

by: toujoursdan @ Sun Jun 29, 2008 at 20:55:27 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

edit

I hope we don't go do the coal-to-oil route because it would put both the conversion process and the added oil will add a tremendous amount of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

should be...

I hope we don't go do the coal-to-oil route because both the conversion process and the added oil will add a tremendous amount of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

Anyway, occasionally we hear about all the oil shale in Colorado and about the Bakken oil field in ND having enough oil to make the US independent of world sources for 100 years. The problem with both is that with current technology the EROEI is something like 1:20 which would make it a net energy drain on the economy. And it would result in a $200 barrel of oil, which is unprofitable today (but may not be in a few years.) Plus you would be strip mining to get the shale, using huge quantities of water which somehow you would have to get there and it would pretty much trash the place.

"Many people say I embarrass them with my humility" - Abp Peter Akinola

---

by: toujoursdan @ Sun Jun 29, 2008 at 21:14:09 PM CDT

[ Parent ]