June 2008 - Page 3 of 9 - Common Sense Evaluation

OPEC’s Oil Jihad

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Jun 272008

Oil jumped to a new record high near $142 a barrel on Friday unabated even after Saudi Arabia’s pledge to pump out more supplies. There is just no logic to it all.

We were too blind to see that radical Islam was at war with us before September 11th. Is the same thing happening now in the form of an Oil Jihad?

There just may be an element of truth in this fictional “open letter” circulating around the internet

The OPEC minister may look you in the eye and say,
“We are at war with you infidels and have been since the embargo in the 1970s. You are so arrogant you haven’t even recognized it.

You have more missiles, bombs, and technology; so we are fighting with the best weapon we have and extracting on a net basis about $700 billion/year out of your economy.

We will destroy you! Death to the infidels!

While I am here I would like to thank you for the following: Not developing your 250-300 million barrels per year supply of oil shale and tar sands.

We know if you did this, it would create thousands of jobs for U.S. citizens, expand your engineering capabilities, and keep the wealth in the U.S. instead of sending it to us to finance our war against you infidels.

Thanks for limiting defense dept. purchases of oil sands from your neighbors to the north. We love it when you confuse your allies.

Thanks for over regulating every segment of your economy and thus delaying, by decades, the development of alternate fuel technologies.

Thanks for limiting drilling off your coasts, in Alaska , and anywhere there is an insect, bird, fish, or plant that might be inconvenienced. Better that your people suffer. Glad to see our lobbying efforts have been so effective.

Corn based Ethanol. Praise Allah for this sham program! Perhaps you will destroy yourselves from the inside with these types of policies. This is a gift from Allah, praise his name! We never would have thought of this one! This is better than when you pay your farmers NOT TO GROW FOOD. Have them use more energy to create less energy, and simultaneously drive up food prices. Thank you U.S. Congress!

And finally, we appreciate you letting us fleece you without end. You will be glad to know we have been accumulating shares in your banks, real estate, and publicly held companies. We also finance a good portion of your debt and now manipulate your markets, currency, and economies for our benefit.

THANK YOU AMERICA !”

You stupid fools!

Praise Allah!!

Take Just One Minute: US Armed Forces… Thank You

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Jun 262008

This video is dedicated to those brave men and women who have given up and sacrificed their lives and time away from their families to serve and protect us. It really puts their service in perspective.

Alaska Governor to Harry Reid: Start drilling in ANWR

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Jun 252008

The stranglehold the Liberal Congress has on American prosperity is astounding. These corrupt bums must be voted out in November for this nation to survive.

A copy of the letter is at the bottom of this post for your reading enjoyment.

Alaska guv to Sen. Reid: Start drilling in ANWR!

In a letter to Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other key leaders, Alaska Republican Gov. Sarah Palin urges Congress to allow drilling for oil on the Outer Continental Shelf and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northern Alaska, an area she calls “the most promising unexplored petroleum province in North America.”

“What will it take for Congress to enact comprehensive energy policy?” Palin asks in the letter, dated yesterday. “In my opinion, the debate about energy policy is no longer theoretical and abstract. Our failure to enact an energy policy is having real consequences for every American in their daily lives and has begun to affect America’s place in the world.”

Palin, whose name appears on lists of potential vice-presidential candidates, concludes with a bold challenge: “I don’t think it’s overly dramatic to say that his nation’s future and the quality of life for every American are dependent on the decision you make or don’t make in the next few months.”

Last week, Reid called Sen. John McCain’s call for offshore drilling “nothing more than a cynical campaign ploy that will do nothing to lower energy prices and represents another big giveaway to oil companies already making billions in profits.”

Lumping Palin in that accusation would prove difficult, as the governor made headlines earlier in her term for taking on Alaska’s oil and gas commissioner, who was also the GOP state chairman, for ethics violations. More recently, she worked with bipartisan support to win an increased tax on oil companies’ profits.

Palin says in her letter she does not guarantee a price drop with drilling in ANWR but argues increasing domestic oil supply would “help reduce price volatility” and “send a strong message to oil speculators.”

“Yet, there is an even more important point,” Palin writes, contending America must take measures to decrease dependence on foreign oil, since “U.S. petrodollars are financing activities that are harmful to America and to our economic and military interests around the world.”

Environmentalists and Democrats in Congress long have argued against increased drilling in the U.S., favoring instead conservation and alternative fuels. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama’s website promises $150 billion in increased spending to develop new fuels and renewable energy sources.

Palin’s letter argues against looking only to those approaches, pointing out a need for domestic oil production to supply the economy’s many products made from petroleum, not just gasoline.

“The soaring prices of chemicals, plastics, fertilizer and other products – and the loss of jobs – graphically illustrate this point,” the letter states. “We must recognize that is will be many years, if ever, before we discover alternatives to the petroleum-based products that every American uses in our daily lives.”

Palin addresses the concerns of environmentalists about drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR.

Oil exploration and development “can be conducted in a safe manner,” she writes, pointing out the footprint of oil development facilities in ANWR would take up “less than 2,000 acres” of a refuge roughly the size of South Carolina.

Suprise, Suprise, Suprise! Obama Has Deep Ethanol Ties

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Jun 232008

Do you want CHANGE? Well don’t look to Obama for it. He is just a typical Liberal politician, who panders to special interests and now wants to buy the presidency of the USA.

My bologna has a middle name, it’s H-u-s-s-e-i-n.

Obama, from corn-wealthy Illinois, has deep ethanol ties

When VeraSun Energy inaugurated a new ethanol processing plant in Charles City, Iowa, last summer, some of that industry’s most prominent boosters showed up. Leaders of the National Corn Growers’ Association and the Renewable Fuels Association, for instance, came to help cut the ribbon — and so did Sen. Barack Obama.

Then running far behind Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in name recognition and in the polls, Obama was in the midst of a campaign swing through the state where he would eventually register his first caucus victory. And as befits a senator from Illinois, the country’s second-largest corn-producing state, he delivered a ringing endorsement of ethanol as an alternative fuel.

Obama is running as a reformer who is seeking to reduce the influence of special interests. But he also has advisers and prominent supporters with close ties to the industry.

His friend and surrogate, Tom Daschle, a former Senate majority leader from South Dakota, serves on the boards of three ethanol companies and works at a Washington law firm where, according to his online job description, “he spends a substantial amount of time providing strategic and policy advice to clients in renewable energy.”

Not long after arriving in the Senate, Obama briefly provoked a controversy when he twice flew at subsidized rates on corporate airplanes of the agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland, which is the nation’s largest ethanol producer and is based in his home state.

His Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain, advocates eliminating the multibillion- dollar annual government subsidies that domestic ethanol has long enjoyed. He also opposes the 54-cent-a-gallon tariff that the U.S. imposes on imports of ethanol made from sugarcane, which packs more of an energy punch than corn-based ethanol and is cheaper to produce.

Obama favors the subsidies, some of which end up in the hands of the same oil companies he says should be subjected to a windfall profits tax. He also supports the tariff, which some economists say may well be illegal under the World Trade Organization’s rules but which his advisers say is not.

Montoya: NASCAR Not As Boring AS F1 and Much Harder

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Jun 232008

Although F1 isn’t totally boring, it has been progressively going down hill for a while now. It’s getting to the point now where almost any attempt at over taking can be considered dangerous driving and that is part of why Juan Pablo Montoya left for NASCAR.

I would like to see much less of a gap between the top and the bottom teams, but as it stands technology and money are the driving force between the top and bottom, not driving skill. I still enjoy F1 despite this, but I can totally agree it’s been getting boring recently.

Montoya: NASCAR harder than ‘boring’ F1

Juan-Pablo Montoya has delivered a stinging rebuke to the sport that delivered him seven grand prix victories, 13 pole positions, twelve fastest laps and no fewer than 30 podium finishes, blasting Formula 1 as boring’ and claiming that as far as the Americans are concerned, Lewis Hamilton is Lewis Who?’

The famously outspoken Colombian competed in 94 starts in the top flight for BMW-Williams and McLaren-Mercedes from 2001 to 2006, before dramatically walking away mid-season just under two years ago to return to his roots across the Pond, where in 1999 he had sensationally clinched the Champ Car (then CART) laurels for Chip Ganassi Racing in his maiden campaign in the open-wheel series.

Montoya now races in the NASCAR Nextel Cup, and as such has become the only driver in history aside from the legendary Mario Andretti to have won races in F1, CART, the IndyCar Series, Grand-Am and NASCAR, with his sole triumph to-date in the latter coming in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California last year.

Indeed, the 32-year-old’s 2007 performances were impressive enough to earn him the coveted Rookie of the Year’ accolade, and reunited with Ganassi since his return Stateside he clearly does not regret making the move.

Formula 1 drivers are convinced that they’re so much better than anyone else, Montoya told The Times. When I was in F1, every week I was on the podium. It was cool, but is it satisfying? It wasn’t, because it was the most boring races.

The guy who started in front of you would drive away from you, and the guy who was behind you would drop away from you, unless you [had] f***ed up in qualifying and then you needed to have a different pit-stop strategy to beat them.

It’s boring. It’s a shame, because the technology these cars have and the amount of companies that are involved is unreal. I don’t know how big companies do it for such a long time without results.

Whilst he acknowledges results can sometimes be just as hard to come by in his current position, the big, brash appeal of the US’ premier stock car series is evidently very much to Montoya’s liking, with overtaking less of an art form and more of a past-time as up to 40 cars go wheel-to-wheel for three hours solid. What’s more, 17 of the nation’s top 20 best-attended sporting events are NASCAR races, and the sport is the second-most watched on American television.

It’s harder here, argued the Bogota native, currently sitting 19th in the championship chase out of some 67 fierce competitors. When you run 15th, sometimes you think it sucks, but look at the big picture 15th here is like sixth or seventh in F1, because there are twice as many cars.

The incredible thing is here I run 15th or 20th on average, and there are four or five weeks in the year where I have a chance of winning. In F1 if you run sixth or seventh, you run sixth or seventh the whole year.

It doesn’t matter if you’re running for the lead, or for 30th, you’re always racing somebody [in NASCAR]. That’s much better.

Montoya also pointed out that such is NASCAR’s incredible popularity in the States, F1 barely raises a flicker on the interest scale, and whilst he rates his McLaren successor Lewis Hamilton as a good kid’ and a nice guy’, he is blunt in pointing out that: Go ask anybody here who is Lewis Hamilton. Lewis who?

Chip Ganassi team-mate and former Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti who joined NASCAR from the IndyCar Series this season, but was almost immediately out of action with a broken ankle sustained in a 180mph collision at Talladega back at the end of April echoed Montoya’s sentiments.

It’s been a tough baptism, reflected the Scot. I thought it would be difficult, but I didn’t realise how difficult. The good thing is I feel I know a lot more now about what to do.

For anybody that loves cars, it’s entertainment that’s second-to-none. If you want exciting racing, to watch people driving cars that are very difficult to drive, this is the answer.

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