COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

No Leadership from Obama, Big Surprise

The Obama budget is laughable and a true disgrace as a serious document. I am not going to waste time parsing the numbers. It is financially ruinous. It is abdication of leadership and is nothing more than a shabby blueprint to get Obama re-elected at the cost of whatever it takes. Obama belongs running a car wash where at least he would have a real job and do far less damage.

46 comments:

  1. Not a bad piece of strategy,however.
    ...with his press and some here in his pocket, all he has to do is label every fiscally responsible act to be hateful, heartless, racist, and homophobic.
    Not to mention contributing to Global Warming.

    United States goes bankrupt...

    Obama Wins!

    again

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  2. Here's a hot chili pepper to stick up the Rufass:

    86. ADE
    Fletcher C and other Greens who believe in ‘alternative energy’.

    You are mad if you don’t think that the energy supply industry hasn’t got the alternatives covered. The reason they won’t go for ‘wind, ground solar or tokamak fusion’ right now is because there are cheaper alternatives, like ME oil. The Arabs haven’t got us over a barrel, to coin a phrase. Not even close. With the expected increase in food prices, and the riots in the Arab world, the US poker hand is now incredibly strong.

    Before we get to the alternatives, we have to exhaust the current cheapest. Now that means continue to use ME oil. We (the US) have the fire power to see our investment in ME oil is fully amortised (and it will take fire-power). It will be rough in spots, but worth the ride.

    ADE

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  3. 89. RWE
    ADE #86:

    You misread Fletcher.

    He was saying that “wind, ground solar or tokamak fusion” won’t work because they won’t work, not because there is an evil conspiracy to keep them down.

    I have a friend who lives in the mountains of Vermont. He is so far back in th woods that he has no power or phone lines going to the place. He uses solar power to run his place, with a propane powered generator backup and a gasoline powered backup to the propane.

    But he is not stupid enough to try to live there in the winter. He comes down to his Florida place then.

    Here in Florida they have a really stupid TV commercial that touts solar power for when commercial line power goes down. Now when is that going to be useful? During a hurricane or thunderstorm it is really C L O U D Y. And even if you have an extended 10 day outage like we did in 2004 it is still useless, because there is no storage capacity and at night it will get D A R K.

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  4. Well, doug, if one does not hold the lives of the troops in the US military dear, than ME oil may be considered cheap.

    But if the lives of those men and women have real value, than the cost of ME oil will be high, indeed.

    To describe their deaths as a "rough spot" in the pursuit of cheap energy, fraudulent, at best.

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  5. As to the proposed budget, more of the same.

    Now the ball is in the Republicans court, in the House. Where all spending legislation originates.

    We will see what we will see.

    I predict ...

    Stay the Course!

    That will win the day, when all is said and done.

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  6. That ADE holds the lives of US fighting men and women so cheaply, well, that says a lot, does it not.

    He'd rather pay, with the blood of others, than carry the true costs of his wasteful lifestyle, himself.

    He'd rather the US be an armed thief than an investor in our own country's future.

    Giving salaad's premise of how the "West" operates real legs.

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  7. Well, once again, oil is conflated with electricity, when there are no oil fired electrical generating plants in the US.

    Another misrepresentation of reality, that conflation.

    All energy is not fungible.

    There are liquid fuels that are required to maintain the 300 million vehicle fleet in the US.

    Then there is electricity, which will not power 1% of that fleet.

    To disparage alternatives to oil, with claims against alternative electrical generating capacity, a fraudulent construct.

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  8. While, it seems, the democracy movement has landed in Tehran, Iran.

    Tens of thousands of protesters in the streets there, it is reported in Time...

    The race is on.

    Bi-partisan US foreign policy is moving forward, the Islamic Arc is destabilizing. Little more US blood needs be shed.

    Success is at hand.

    Justice may yet be served, when the riots migrate to Saudi Arabia.

    Let's hope for the demise of the Saudi regime, sooner rather than later.

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  9. Didn't most of you here, maybe all, howl in protest when I suggested that the 'bond vigilantes' could very well turn on the US when the EU stuff runs its course?

    what say y'all now?

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  10. If the Shiite radicals in Iran and the Wahhabi in Arabia are both toppled, by 2012, what a great day it'd be, for the United States.

    Comes a horseman.

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  11. Not I. I am amazed when people buy our bonds and by the way Ash, a Baptist minister is not going to hack off someone's head for being an apostate.

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  12. true that about a Baptist minister but some may try to put heavy restrictions on how you live - alcohol for example, sexual choice ect. Righteous little pricks they can be.

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  13. Hawaii has almost 100 percent Oil-Fired Electricity.

    Moro Bay CA converted from oil fired to Natural Gas many decades ago.

    Energy is fungible in some cases.

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  14. Nowhere is the promise of organizing more apparent than in the traditional black churches.

    Barrack Obama

    Possessing tremendous financial resources, membership and most importantly values and biblical traditions that call for empowerment and liberation, the black church is clearly a slumbering giant in the political and economic landscape of cities like Chicago.

    A fierce independence among black pastors and a preference for more traditional approaches to social involvement (supporting candidates for office, providing shelters for the homeless) have prevented the black church from bringing its full weight to bear on the political, social and economic arenas of the city.

    Over the past few years, however, more and more young and forward-thinking pastors have begun to look at community organizations such as the Developing Communities Project in the far south side and GREAT in the Grand Boulevard area as a powerful tool for living the social gospel, one which can educate and empower entire congregations and not just serve as a platform for a few prophetic leaders.

    Should a mere 50 prominent black churches, out of the thousands that exist in cities like Chicago, decide to collaborate with a trained organizing staff, enormous positive changes could be wrought in the education, housing, employment and spirit of inner-city black communities, changes that would send powerful ripples throughout the city.

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  15. Obama Teaches the Alinsky principles of "Power Analysis" and "Relationships built on self-interest" as seen written upon this blackboard; Alinsky keywords.

    Obama Teaches the Alinsky principles of "Power Analysis" and "Relationships built on self-interest" as seen written upon this blackboard; Alinsky keywords.


    At the heart of the Alinsky method is the concept of "agitation"--making someone angry enough about the rotten state of his life that he agrees to take action to change it; or, as Alinsky himself described the job, to "rub raw the sores of discontent."

    It's not surprising that Obama made his "bitter" comment in San Francisco . He just forgot to embitter Pennsylvanians first by pinpointing the "Correct" source of pain in their lives, tearing down their egos just enough before dangling a carrot of hope that they could make things better.

    For this is the Alinsky way.

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  16. Victimology Rules!

    Power to the People!

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  17. "Now the ball is in the Republicans court, in the House. Where all spending legislation originates.
    "

    When a Republican occupies the Whitehouse,
    RUFUS AND THE RAT
    hold the President responsible.

    When a Democrat is President, it is the Republicans in the House!

    Go Figure!

    (it ain't too hard: most of us saw through this sophmoric "logic" decades ago)

    Jeeze...

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  18. "Reagan signed all those budgets, Doug"

    Rufass, economic geniass.

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  19. Moro Bay was oil fired steam, an easy switch to Natural Gas.

    Hawaii largely relies on oil fired regenerative turbines.

    ...don't know how easy those would be to switch, but natural gas is not readily available here anyhoo.

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  20. Reagan proposed balanced budgets.

    Obama presents SHIT.

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  21. Pelosi and Obama have inflicted more harm in six years than all their GOP predecessors combined.

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  22. Ash, Baptists see the World as flawed and seek to do the right thing to fix it. They may be righteous but they are not destructive. They hate the sin and love the sinner.

    Jews are like Presbyterians in that they believe doing well and living well is its own reward with the Presyterians taking it further in that doing well is an indication of having God's approval and their being amongst the elect. Jews are chosen and Presbyterians elected.

    If Jews and Christians are happy with me, I am happy. If they are not, they will passively tolerate me and neither will hack off my head.

    The same cannot be said about the crazies amongst the Muslims.

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  23. Righteous:
    characterized by uprightness or
    morality: a righteous observance of the law.
    2. morally right or justifiable: righteous indignation.
    3. acting in an upright, moral way; virtuous: a righteous and godly person.
    4. Slang . absolutely genuine or wonderful: some righteous playing by a jazz great.

    Self-righteous:
    confident of one's own righteousness, especially when smugly moralistic and intolerant of the opinions and behavior of others.

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  24. righteous = good

    self-righteous = bad

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  25. Some of those Orthodox Jews can be pretty violent but, yeah, the radicals amongst the Muslims are nasty. Not all Muslims, by a long shot, are radicals though, nor are all the Jews.

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  26. Them radical muzzies would consider themselves righteous as opposed to self-righteous Gag - it is based on the Koran dontcha know?

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  27. He ain't runnin' no car wash of mine. Of course, the stinking republicans ain't either.

    I'm actually getting scared. Somebody is going to have to grab hold, and growl, or we're well, and truly screwed.

    Maybe we're going to have to go all "Egypt" on them.

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  28. Exxon Mobil books highest reserve add in 11 years

    (9:19 AM ET) NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM 83.28, -1.63, -1.92%) said Tuesday it added 3.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent to its proved reserves in 2010. The new reserves came in at 209% above the oil major's 2010 production. Excluding the impact of asset sales, Exxon replaced 211% of production in 2010. Exxon said it has now replaced more than 100% of its annual production for 17 consecutive years. Broken out, Exxon Mobil replaced 102% of its production and gas additions totaled 328% of production. Exxon's total reserves at the end of 2010 stood at 24.8 billion oil equivalent barrels -- 47% liquids and 53% gas. "The 2010 proved developed reserves...was the highest since the Exxon and Mobil merger," the company said. Exxon and Mobil closed their merger in 1999.
    --------------

    the result is XOM's stock takes a dive. Go figure!

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  29. Doug, did you forget your meds this morning?

    We used to use about 6 million barrels of oil/day in the U.S. for electrical generation. The "oil shocks" of the seventies got us off of that kick.

    When the Arabs started "embargoing" us we switched to natural gas, and then, largely, to coal. We were, also, moving pretty strongly toward Nuclear until "Chernobyl," and "Three Mile Island."

    And, since your genii at the BC like to spout off, but don't seem to like doing research, it might interest you to know that we get 40% of our coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming, and virtually All of those mines will be depleted in 20 yrs.

    You, also, forgot to mention that Havaii has the highest electricity rates in the U.S.

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  30. The key phrase there, Deuce, was "Oil Equivalent.

    They bought a lot of expensive to produce "shale gas" reserves from, ITIW, XTO.

    Chesapeake, XTO, and others created a "localized" glut of nat gas by drilling a zillion "fracking" wells before they realized they were going broke. When Exxon bought $40 Billion worth of the debacle the market wasn't overly impressed.

    The Market wants to see OIL on the Reserves sheet, not cheap, hard to produce shale gas.

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  31. Also, Doug's friends don't ezzackly unnerstand "Reserves."

    There is an enormous difference between a large "Onshore" field like E. Texas, Ghawar, Burgan, etc, and Ultra Deep-water, Pre-salt stuff like, say, Brazil has found.

    You can ramp the "flow rate" (THAT is the money in the bank) up rapidly in the big onshore fields. It is slow, slow going, and expensive getting oil out of those complex, ultra deep-water formations. And, the individual wells deplete in a hurry.

    You have a million, or so, "stripper" wells in the U.S. happily pumping two/three barrels, or less, a day.

    When those Deep Water plays get down to less than a few thousand barrels/day it's not worth the expense of running the rig, and they're capped.

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  32. A big old onshore field like E. Texas, or Ghawar they may end up getting (slowly, over a hundred years, 60%, or 70% of the Original Oil in Place (OOIP.)

    Deep Water they may get 30%, or less.

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  33. Back to the post: As I said, I'm actually getting scared.

    They're depending on the tried and true strategy of waiting for the economy to "rebound," creating a surge in tax revenues to fill up the Deficit.

    There's a Real, Honest to Goodness Chance that That won't happen this time.

    If it don't, buckaroos, we're in deep, deep shit.

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  34. The Genii on wall street got themselves bought out by the Germans.

    You know, Doug, The Germans. They're from Germany.

    That's the place that's leading the world in Solar, and Wind, and has Medical Care for ALL their citizens.

    They, also, don't allow their corporations to get away with paying less than 3% Income Taxes.

    BTW, as for Exxon, I started watching in 2009, and as far as I can see they haven't paid any income taxes in the U.S. for years.

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  35. I don't think they are so much waiting for a surge in revenue as paralyzed by the political ramifications of actually doing anything about the sacred cows - SS, Medicare, Medicade

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  36. This Cute li'l Graph will explain the Reserves/Production Dilemma much better than a thousand Rufii pounding on keyboards ever could.

    The li'l gal (Tinkerbell) is Doug's friends at the bc.

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  37. I agree with you, Ash. They're frozen in place waiting for Tinkerbell to show up.


    Tinkerbell has a date; she might not make it.

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  38. The Pubs always want to cut spending. The Dems always want to raise taxes. They always compromise.

    The pubs agree not to cut spending, and the dems agree not to raise taxes.

    What could go wrong?

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  39. Everywhere I looked on that budget I saw bullshit.

    With everone of those agencies, you could walk the corridors of every floor and close the odd niumbered offices and no one would notice.

    95% of all the veterans in this country don't need anything from the VA. Those that were in combat and got hurt need a Blue Cross/ Blue Shield card paid for by the VA. Close all the VA hospitals. They are not needed.

    All infrascture projects should be paid fot with revenue bonds on user fees. If the fees don't cover it, don't build it.

    You only need one military academy, not four. Non-combat military personnel should work 30 years not 20 for retirement.

    The White House and the budget for Congress should be cut 50%.

    etc, etc, etc

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  40. Sorry about the erros, my fingers are too big for this stupid droid motorola.

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  41. "While Republicans would cut more deeply in certain areas (and less in others), neither they nor the President appear ready to take on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, which together will drive the federal debt about $9-trillion (U.S.) higher over the next decade.

    Instead, the partisan argument over what to cut involves a fraction of total spending – the 12 per cent of overall annual expenditures of $3.7-trillion that make up discretionary items, and a sliver of the defence budget. But unless Congress acts soon, spending on the Big Three entitlement programs will soon squeeze out everything else, anyway.

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/konrad-yakabuski/obama-republicans-circle-the-wagons-against-economic-reality/article1907274/page2/

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  42. President Obama flubs "lowest shit" when he meant to say "lowest share."

    OBAMA: ".. bring annual domestic spending to its lowest shit -- lowest share to the economy since Dwight Eisenhower."


    Teleprompted to the end.

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