Bush: I lied about that oil imports thing.

1. Wow, I just assumed that they would only underfund it, not say that ‘he didn’t really mean it’. How elementary schoolish is that?

   “Oh, but I didn’t mean that the dog literally ate my homework. It was a euphamism”

   WTF. Worst. President. Ever.

   ps. Best one-liner (from Countdown tonight): At least he didn’t misspell OBG-YN in the SOTU.

2. What? Bush lie!? Now *there’s* a shocker!

3. Okay, how about some consistancy between the sideblog posts and the regular blog posts?

   Didn’t the L.A. times article report:

   But experts point out that the U.S. gets only a fraction — about 10% — of its oil imports from the Middle East. In fact, the majority now comes from Canada and Mexico — and Bush said nothing on Tuesday about them.

   So really our dependance on middle eastern oil isn’t real. It’s just a “perception.” At least if we’re going to believe the L.A. times article that was cited in the sideblog links.

   So cutting 75 percent of 10 percent.. doesn’t seem like such a big number now does it? Especially when stretched over the next 19 years ?? In fact it’s really more like a bullshit car dealer sales trick isn’t it??

   What does 75 percent of 10 percent really average out to anyway? My guess is not a whole fucking hell of a lot.

   What really needs to happen is a major divorce from oil based energy sources.. regardless of where it comes from.

   But that’s not really ever going to happen either because the oil companies have both parties in their back pockets. The carrot of change that gets dangled before the masses is just a myth.

   But of course the president wasn’t serious about any of his STOU promise’s.. it was all really just bullshit lip service to the ignorant masses who are just too stupid to know better.

   As for a real analysis of the STOU facts and myths I will point you all to the Factcheck.org article which has a better breakdown and analysis of the “Misstatement of the Union” than the L.A. times did.

   The link to that is as follows: http://www.factcheck.org/article376.html

   .

4. Strange. Such outrage over a promise that can’t possibly be broken for another 19 years… yet when our governor breaks a campaign promise (read: demonstrates that he lied) during his first week in office — no reaction at all. Very strange.

5. I think there’s some oil econ misunderstanding here. In order to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, we would have to completely eliminate our consumption of oil. Reducing our consumption by 75% would not reduce our dependence on foreign oil by 75%, because the Middle East is the low-cost producer of oil.

   Even if we consume ONLY domestically produced oil, our oil costs will still be dependent on Mid-East production, because oil is a global commodity. The price of a barrel of oil depends on the global supply and demand, not on where the oil (or energy source) is produced.

   It’s difficult to explain that in layman’s terms, because people just want to hear that we’re going to stop buying foreign oil. I wish the administration would stop making the fallacious populist arguments, though.

6. As much as I despise his horrible track record of poor leadership and dishonesty, I think we should try to connect with President Bush. He has a rare window of opportunity:

   1) Essentially three years left to his term, and he knows he can’t be re-elected.
   2) The public already disapproves of his administration.
   3) He has both houses of congress and the supreme court in his pocket.
   4) The rhetoric he used, while probably all lies, was essentially an accurate list of exactly what we should be focusing on as far as foreign policy (get off oil, get more from wind/solar/water, reduce consumption, and yes – even get some energy from nuclear power).

   It’s time for him to actually show that he can lead (we’ve been waiting for 5 years for this allegedly great leader to emerge). He has nothing to lose!

   Imagine if he were to push congres hard for legislation that taxed the hell out of gasoline and all fossil fuels, and used that money to subsidize ethanol, solar, wind, water power. It would piss people off in the short term, but be exactly what we really need in the long term.

   Imagine if he were to try to motivate his whack-o base by stressing the emergency of oil-shortages to get us all to really work to build an oil free infrastructure for public stransportation. We have only a few decades of oil left with which we must bootstrap ourselves out of our dependence on oil.

   No President who wants to be re-elected can try any of that – because taxing gas and re-committing to some nuclear power would be political suicide… but Bush can’t be re-elected, he’s already on his second term. No president who has to fight really hard to get votes in the house and senate on a law can do this, but Bush already has both houses lined up with him.

   President Bush is uniquely positioned to actually do something about energy policy, and he is the only one who could possibly tackle some of the really hard to do political suicide moves that need to be done! He has nothing to lose, and he could gain long term historical respect if he does it…

   So how to we reach out and shake him into action? How do we watchdog him if he starts, so that special interests and corporate greed don’t pervert some of this into more line the pockets of the wealty laws, yet keep momentum for actually getting an energy policy that is 30 years overdue?

7. Bush has never been about politics, Scott. Mr. Bush is about money.
   If his poll numbers go down, he’s less likely to get more tax breaks for the wealthy.
   Show Mr. Bush how the Exectutive Elite, the Boardrooms and Wall Street can sock away money by supporting Energy Efficiency, and you’ve got a shot.
   You’re right that Mr. Bush is in a unique position to effect change. Unfortunately, he would have to change himself to do that, and on that count he has proven uniquely incapable.

   Do I sound cynical? How, in the face of this particulary LIE, could anyone not be inspired to cynicism?

8. Yeah – you are right, it was a nice dream though… sigh.

   What a squandered opportunity…

9. Same thing with Kaine & taxes … upsetting on both accounts.

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