Aug 04 2007
Forget al-Qaeda And Iraq, Let’s Attack Pakistan And Saudi Arabia!
Between Tancredo’s calls to nuke Muslim in prayer at Mecca and Obama’s calls to invade our ally Pakistan it seems clear the war in Iraq has sent the DC crowd over the edge. They are all going mental. I just cannot help but think how embarrassed Americans must be with these two idiotic parties and their idiotic ideas. Instead of winning in Iraq they want to broaden the war by attacking our allies in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. What next – invade France? Think of all the hoots and hollerings across the world when they read op-eds like this one:
Within the past several weeks, presidential aspirant Barack Obama has announced that he would meet with America’s enemies and attack America’s friends. Those interested in a dramatic departure from Bush/Cheney need look no further.
I do not think the American people had this in mind when they demanded a change in course on the war on terror. And the insanity now seems to be spreading as Newt Gingrich claims there is no war on terrror:
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Thursday the Bush administration is waging a “phony war” on terrorism, warning that the country is losing ground against the kind of Islamic radicals who attacked the country on Sept. 11, 2001.
A more effective approach, said Gingrich, would begin with a national energy strategy aimed at weaning the country from its reliance on imported oil and some of the regimes that petro-dollars support.
Yeah, Osama and his terrorists buddies will put down their arms because the Congress passes some energy legislation. Folks, stop trying to avoid the brutal truth. We are at war and we need to beat these people so they understand that while we are tolerant to a point, killing 3,000 innocent people will invoke a very heavy price. And that price will not be from the gavel of a judge but from the business end of our incredibly military arsenal. Don’t pretend those who saw off the heads of women and children in front of their families and neighbors will bow to anything less than annihilation.
If I remember correctly when Newt was Speaker of the House he failed to get ANWR open to drilling. It is just like the immigration debate, Newt and people like him ignored the situation for years, did nothing about it when they had the chance and now they run their mouths.
I agree that the US needs more energy independence, but when Bush said he wanted more drilling, more refineries, more nuclear plants the conservatives in the House did not give him anywhere near the support needed to get that job done and the Democrats actually went out of their way to oppose him. Their idea of energy independence is a gas tax or a tax on oil companies. As if taxes would help anyone but the government.
So while I agree that shutting down the flow of money to the ME would help put the squeeze on the terrorists, it does not deal with the underlying problem. After all when the first attack on the WTC took place and when the African embassies were hit and the USS Cole was attacked, there was a surplus of oil and prices were low. So people like Newt were not overly concerned about energy independence.
Great post Terrye.
We could magically come up with cars that get 150 miles per gallon and cut our energy use by major percentages and it just would not matter.
Other countries and areas are upping their usage faster than we could ever drop ours.
Read world petroleum statistics some time and this would be very clear.
We could allow unrestricted drilling and it still would not help without extra refinery capacity. Sure some would say we could replace foreign oil one for one for each barrel we pump, but unless we can get ahead of the curve of our own use growth here its only a band aid on the wound.
Our own producers are building refineries offshore to counter the difference.
A new refinery here would take years to even make real.
There is a major scale refinery being built right now in India to process mideast oil and ship the finished products here. And it will be only 18 months from idea to done and pumping out products.
Saudi Arabia is starting on a couple of refineries to.
People are realizing it is stupid to send ten or twelve tankers across the ocean with crude oil that results in one tanker worth of gas or other products.
That ratio may be wrong, but the general concept holds.
In case you may have not heard 14% of the gas in this country is now refined offshore even with the refinery expansion of capacity of existing refineries.
And the number is growing.
I find most people have no concept of how energy is produced or distributed. It’s a big black hole in their knowledge base.
For example I have a major big beyond big power plant about 50 miles north of me here in Florida that produces bundles of electricity and not a drop of it is used in Florida.
It feeds into the distribution grid and is totally dedicated to feeding one city….Atlanta , Ga.
We have a national power grid and some have all sorts of ideas of the goberment getting into the fray.
BS let the free market step in to up the capacity and carry the load just like we have for profit backbone providers for the internet.
Keep the goberments hands out of the till.
AJ I just read this at FREEREPUBLIC, thought you would be interested.
Dairies Dump Milk on Radiation Threat
Posted by BenLurkin
On News/Activism 08/04/2007 6:23:55 PM PDT
AP via Yahoo ^ | Saturday August 4, 9:01 pm ET
FALLON, Nev. (AP) — Two dairy farms have dumped milk after the discovery of a naturally occurring radioactive isotope in 25 nearby drinking water wells. Officials from Sorensen’s Dairy and Oasis Dairy said they will stop selling milk until it is tested for the isotope, polonium-210, by the Food and Drug Administration. Officials said there’s no known health risk at this time. A study released Friday by the U.S. Geological Survey found the radioactive isotope in 24 private wells and one public well around Fallon, about 60 miles east of Reno. Polonium-210 is known to cause cancer in humans.
Kathie
What I find interesting in that post is at least they didn’t do the brain dead thing because of radioactive half lives try to tie it back to the nuclear weapons test grounds nearby from many years ago.
But then I have issues with the story because PO-210 is not something usually found in the wild.
It’s not one of those “naturally occurring isotopes”.
Gotta research this story more for further clues to what the real deal is because as it stands there is more to this than just what they said.
Even if a cow ingested PO-210 if would go out the other end not the udder end.
Somebody make sense here.
Evidence of democracy creeping into Arab culture.
http://www.asharqalawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=2&id=9793
I was dairy farmer and before you can ship your milk they test it, if there is something that should not be…they will not buy it and you have to dump it.
Not far from me a gasification plant is being built. This is Indiana and there is a lot of coal, so the powers that be decided to turn coal into gas. It will be 5 more years before this plant is ready, the whole process takes 8 years. Up around Cloverdale a bio diesel market is coming on line. That will be in business next year I believe, but it has been under construction for over three years.
When I went home to Oklahoma my brother was telling me the oil companies down there are uncapping wells and going after all the oil they can get. And I know someone who works for a big equipment shipment outfit and they have been moving large equipment to the Dakotas to go after that oil in the shale out there.
So stuff is happening, and like Merlin says, none of it is quick. As for refineries from what I hear it is easier and quicker and more cost efficient to expand the ones that are there than it is to build new ones here.
I was not aware that a huge refinery is being built in India. That is a good thing. I think.
BTW Merlin, I left you a post in another thread but I wanted to make sure you saw it. You said you were sorry if you offended me when you made some remark, you did not and no apology is necessary. Really.
And you also mentioned you had lost your wife, that is awful. I have lost someone I loved very much too and I know there is nothing other people can say to make it all right, but I am sorry for you loss.
Terrye
My apology was due anyhow but was prompted by your one comment on resenting my comments on a subject.
Thank you for your condolences and you also have mine back.
BTW
do you want to play beach volleyball freestyle.
Moving furniture, ducking under my desk after donning Nomex suit for the flamethrower resistance.
Terrye
Please go back to that post and read my comment 3 before your last one where I responded to Ivehadit.
It says a lot but somehow got lost till AJ recovered it today.
No, and you do not want me playing volley ball free style either.